What I'm Working On

 Its baseball season for our kids, and all of them are in baseball this year. They will be practicing and having there games on the other side of where we live which is about 15-20 min away. That means about 2 practices for each kid a week plus 1-2 games a week. I do enjoy watching them play and its great for them so I'm glad, this just means I'll be very busy.

Yesterday I worked in the studio for most of the day. I'm working on his chair.

primed and ready to paint

I picked out the fabric last Friday and finally figure out a color for the chair using my BM fan-deck.

I bought this outdoor/indoor fabric at my local discount fabric shop for $5.99 a yard. Its called "Peony Canary" by Dwell Studio. 


I'm also working on this little side table

 And here is the newest piece added to my collection

another telephone table! This one I get to replace the icky fabric with some fun fabric! I'm also thinking of a fun bold color.


I spent about 4 hours of my time stripping paint of these nightstands

The orange stripper I used worked wonders on removing the 8 layers of paint on these. The drawers need some repairing and I need to fill some areas with wood filler.

I wont be able to work much today as I have to go to the post office, bank, the grocery stores and the two middle boys have practice tonight. A fun day for me.

I'm sorry that I'm slacking on e-mailing back on all the lovely comments sent to me. I appreciate all of them and try my hardest to write back to each one.

Meet Sir Herringbone {updates}

Herringbone nightstand in Bonsai green by Martha Stewart and Nimbus Cloud

inside color is a oops paint in a darker gray in satin. 

before

Beat up but all wood and perfectly straight shape lines. When I saw this I knew it would be perfect for making the herringbone design. I've been wanting to do this for a while now but I didn't have that perfect piece.

I made the herringbone detail with a comb tool by Martha Stewart ( you can buy it at home depot its very inexpensive ), lots of painters tape and I made my own glaze using the nimbus cloud and Ralph Lauren glaze.

 via - I used the comb at the top left using the side with all the same size teeth.

Its very easy to do and I wish I took pictures to show how but I seem to forget my camera a lot when I'm working. Here is a link to Martha Stewart herringbone chair, they have a great how to video.

up close of the top.

 I've been saving these bronze bin pulls and though it would go well with the colors and shape of the nightstand .

The green turned out so dark that I wanted to lighten is up buy painting the herringbone on the sides as well. My first plan was to only do the herringbone on the drawer front but I so glad I did the top and sides.

I'm very proud of this little nightstand makeover.Painting herringbone lines can be somewhat frustrating but as long as you do it quickly and you can apply the glaze back over you mistake and try again.

This guy will be for sale at the Sowa Open Market in Boston. I need to get a bunch of stuff together since it starts in May.  I will list all the dates when in gets closer.

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And Now I Have Three

 I did a quick makeover on this stool the other day while I was waiting for the all pieces I was working on to dry.

I coated it with the same paint color as the other stools and sanded it to show of all the nooks and crannies.

this is what it looked like before

I didn't do anything to the top, I loved all the wood grains. I just coated it with wax.

I never believe in everything needing to match.....and someday I would love vintage metal stools so these are good for now.

I'm still thinking of repainting the island, the light sage just isn't doing it for me. What color should I paint it? I have a lot of blues and creamy white in the kitchen.
I was thinking of a gray.

Link Parties I Attend

Old Dresser to Shabby Chic

I'm been slacking on posting, I've been painting a few things and completing some orders all while making sure the laundry gets done and the dishes are always clean.

Its not fun to get behind on those daily chores.

If you dont know by now I have a Shabby Apple dress giveaway going on now until Monday, you can check that out here.

Anyway I'm finally going to share this dresser makeover I completed a week before Christmas for my guy, although it might be more feminine....but it hold his clothes and our movies and I'm in the room more then him.

now

before

This lovely old dresser was in pretty good shape, its old and has wood casters and I would have kept the original hardware on it but one was missing.

I refinished the top, It was chipping and scratched up.

this picture is with the Citristrip applied to the top

and after 

I stained it with Minwax Dark Walnut and applied several coats of rubbing polyurethane

I also used the Citristrip on the drawer fronts as the top coat was also chipping away and sometimes its easier then sanding. 

its very difficult to get great photos in our room, I knew I should of taken photos before moving it in.

I painted a coat of a blue paint on the drawer fronts, then two coats of a creamy white over that and painted the sides the same white. 

I let it dry and cure a few days then I took my awesome electric sander and distressed the drawer fronts heavily. I sanded the sides a little less and the legs with my sand paper.

I just love the shape of the legs and of course the wood casters.

The knobs are from Hobby Lobby, my sister Liz picked them up for me, she was passing by and sent me photos of the glass knobs they had and I picked these ones. I believe they were about $3.50 a piece. 

 here is "vintage look" photo

 Now I just need to paint the walls in our room, get cable covers to hide the tv cables and something to hold the dvd player.

and make a new slipcover for our headboard. 

Thanks for reading! 

I'll be sharing this makeover at some link parties, find them all here

Stenciled Tray Tables

I stenciled two tray tables that I received from my late grandmothers. They were from Bombay and stained dark. I only painted two because I'm planning on doing something with the others.

before

via

This is the Martha Stewart stencil I used, the top left corner.

I also use stencil spray.

I left a strip of wood and stained that in Minwax Driftwood. I used the gray and white from my server and the base is a dark blue from a opps paint from Valspar.

I finished these before Christmas but never had tome to share. They took me a good few weeks to finish up.

I sealed it with wax. 

One is in the living room

 

Picture quality in our room is bad because there wasn't enough sunlight today, but the other table is my temporarily nightstand. 

{excuse my mess, my room is in the process of a major makeover }

Tomorrow I'm finally going to share my closet makeover.

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