Library Chic!

Remember my sister who has scored all the fabulous finds lately!  Well her card catalog is complete and I wanted to share it with you! 

Remember her before:

And here is her gorgeous AFTER!

She is thinking about using it as a bar and potentially putting some short legs on the bottom.  The only thing I see missing from the above photo is maybe a bottle of skinny girl margarita!

And how smart was my sister.  She recently moved to Richmond and conveniently left her card catalog at my parents...and what do you know...my mom cleaned the hardware, primed, painted, and polyed THE WHOLE THING FOR HER!!! She is soooooo the youngest child! I don't see anyone doing that for the poor middle children ;)

I'll update you with a pic once it's in her apartment, making friends with her barrister bookcase and campaign dresser.  

Linking up with these lovely ladies!

www.primitiveandproper.blogspot.com

Rub 'n Buff- A potential new best friend (make room Old English!)

I picked up these two little duck bookends at Goodwill the other day...

and while they are kinda cute as is, I feel like they need just a little somethin' somethin' to make them great!  After reading a friend's blog I knew just what I wanted to do with them.  Remember my friend Andrea from Oak Ridge Revival?  Well if you read awesome blogs then you've probably already seen this redo...but...she completely transformed a shiny outdated lamp into aged perfection! 
She used this product.   I'm pretty sure you can get it at Michael's and probably use a 40% off coupon but I found this one on Amazon.  It comes in a plethora of colors and Andrea used this one.

Amazon $2.76

Here is her before...eeek, too shiny!  When you can see your reflection you know you have a problem!

Ahhhh, much better!  Looks like an antique, doesn't it!

Thanks for such a great makeover Andrea!  I'm off to Michael's!  Actually that's not true...I'm waiting for my husband to get home to watch the kids...then I'm off to Michael's!  Hmmm,what color too pick!?!  We shall see!

Has anyone else used Rub 'n buff before?

A little housekeeping...

I've finished a few projects up lately despite the oppressive heat that I wanted to share with you!  Paint does funky things in the kind of heat we get here in RVA in the summer so my projects have slowed down a bit but I wanted to share a few little ditties.

Class and Trash bench....

turned shabby chic goodness!

Remember my friend Jennifer's laundry room bookcase she had me to paint, knotty pine popping through and all...

Love the gray! 

Unfortunate Goodwill bamboo-ish frame...

turned snazzy memo board (if someone had told me I would be painting things gold 2 years ago I would have called them crazy...but gold is the new black...I think?!?!  If not, someone please chime in!

I've added some of these to my booth at Through the Garden Gate.  Not my friends bookcase, that would just be mean!  I already sold one of the benches (oh happy day!) but I have one more there.

So that's that!  What have you all been up to lately? 

Barrister Bookcase

My mom has totally caught the thrifting bug!  And she hit it big last week!!!  How fab is this barrister bookcase she snagged?!?!

She found it at Goodwill (natch!) and cost her a measly $27!!!  The glass was covered with what she thinks was leather-ish wallpaper (not sure if that even exists but we are going with it!).  She used Zinsser wallpaper remover and it worked like a charm!  Did I mention I <3 Zinsser!  Their primer is the bomb and this was pretty fantastic too!

 

And if my sister who just moved to Richmond didn't have enough amazing and unique furniture (card catalog, campaign dresser, etc etc etc) my mom is handing this puppy over to her to add to her new apartment.  Something only a mother could do.  You'd have to rip this out of my death grip, with me kicking and screaming, in order to get it from me. 

So now the question is...what to do next!!!  My sister is thinking white with a pop of coral inside since those are the colors in the room where she'll be using it.  There's not too many of these redo's floating around the blogosphere or I would have added some inspiration photos.

I'll keep you updated!  Hope everyone had a fantastic weekend.  Anyone pick up anything fun?

What are you swooning over this summer?

The lovely ladies over at Swoon Style Home were sweet enough to invite me over to their Mid Summer Swoon Series!  Please stop over and see what I'm swooning over this summer!  But before you go...leave a note and let us know what you are swooning over this miserably hot, humid, and ridiculously sweaty season!

Buffet Re-do Reveal

I FINALLY finished my Goodwill buffet makeover.  Remember I was trying to emulate the amazing Tobi Fairley's gorgeous pieces?  Well, with a lot of blood, sweat, and tears...actually mostly just sweat...I got 'er done!

Remember the Before:

I really wish I could have staged it in a room with some cute lamps and a picture above but this thing is a BEAST!  If only I had two husbands!  A girl can dream ;)   So...I went classy and took a picture in the nasty garage!  Just imagine it in a cute room all fancied up!

What I did:
Sanded and filled in any missing wood with Elmers wood filler.

Paint:

Paint:  Behr color: Espresso Beans, Finish: eggshell
White:  Spray painted the drawers and doors in Rustoleum white in semi-gloss finish
Used oil based poly for the brown sections and water based poly for the white sections.

Hope you like!

Sharing with these lovely ladies!
http://www.missmustardseed.blogspot.com/

Master Makeover

My very sweet friend Hollis invited me over the other day to give some ideas on her master bedroom.  First of all her house is absolutely adorable (and so is her family...gorgeous!) and her before will look like most peoples after but she insisted she wanted a change so I put together some ideas.  It's kind of a lot and don't intend for her to do all of them.  I just kind of got carried away! 

I spy my campaign dresser in there!  She was sweet enough to buy it! 

So Hollis wanted to keep things light and add some pops of coral into the room.  I found this Sarah Richardson (Sarah's House) room that seemed like just the ticket!

Inspiration

source

And here are some ideas on how Hollis can Sarah Richardson"ize" her master!

Reminder of her before:





Idea 1: 
Hollis wanted to lighten things up so I thought this might help.  Purchase two $35 Ikea Rast Chest of Drawers and redo like this FABULOUSNESS!

http://www.curbly.com/

Idea 2: 
Remove bed skirt and do simple white. Remove swirly black pillow and replace with white or coral.

Idea 3:
Find coral throw.  I've looked everywhere for a link!  Anyone know where to find an affordable one!?!?

Idea 4:
Recover the ottomans at the bottom of the bed and maybe spray paint the legs white/cream to lighten things up.
Fabric Ideas:

Quilthome.com $9.50/yard


http://www.spoonflower.com/fabric/163111

Beyond the Sea: Ikat Coral fabric by threeyellowplums for sale on... (clipped to polyvore.com)


http://www.spoonflower.com/fabric/302118
or any number of fabrics I found on this website Spoonflower.  They are not the cheapest but with small projects like this it you really wouldn't need a lot of fabric.  And you can shop by color which makes it very easy to find what you're looking for.

Idea 5:
Artwork to hang on wall between the windows in large white matted frames either 2 or 3 to fill the space depending on size of frames.  Kind of like I did here in my dining room!

The Pink Pagoda

The Pink Pagoda

(this one should be coral, pic looks pink but says coral!?)

Idea Number 6:
Gallery Wall on left side of room.  She also has some antlers I totally think she should spray paint one or two white and add to the gallery wall!  I also think keeping the frames all white with white mattes would look crisp and not too invasive (if that makes sense!)  Love the black and white photos too!

Ikea road trip anyone!?!  They have super cheap frames and best of all....CHILDCARE!!!  Who's with me!







http://www.kerrisdaledesign.com/before-and-after/house-home-featured-condo-the-before/

http://theletteredcottage.net/
A very similar look in a bedroom but with mixed frames.

Idea 7:
Swap out the fan for something like this!

World Market $69.99
(they always have coupons though so I think you could get for less!)


All of these ideas are just some things to think about!  Doing all of them would not be thrifty at all!
Do one, do all, do none! 

Thanks for having me Hollis!!! Hope this is of some help and inspiration! 

What do you all think! Chime in with your ideas!  We would love to hear them!