Bamboo Dresser Reveal!

So I never really got to the bottom of the photo problem.  I'm still not in love with how these pictures came out but I'm tired of trying for perfect!  I'm thinking it might have something to do with the gloss finish and reflections and shadows making it look blurry and BLAH-ZAY!  But......

Remember my before (the one on the right):

Love of Jesus Thrift: $55

And here is the after photo I wish was a little crisper!!

Pardon the un-staged dresser top!  Just threw my jewelry mess holder and some books up there!  Not sure what I'm going to put there yet!  And the cable box...UGH!  Not cute...but keepin' it real people!

I used this spray paint that I got from Home Depot:

Color: Night Tide

I LOVE this spray paint!  The finish looks very professional.  I've  never used this version of Rustoleum.  Usually get their 2X cover which I also love but this one is glorious!!!  Goes on easily and leaves a lovely finish.  And I take zero credit for this find.  Remember I copycatted Kates gorgeous nightstand over at Centsational Girl.  She gives an amazing tutorial over there so check it out!

I am THE WORST at spray painting table tops though so I had the guys at Home Depot color match the spray paint so I could roll the sides and the top of the dresser and spray the drawers and dresser "shell."  I am happy with the match.  It's not the exact finish but its close enough and I avoided that weird spray paint look you get on large surfaces.

I also used this for the handles:

In the color: Gold Leaf

Purchased at Michaels

And of course I primed with my fav Zinsser OIL BASED primer (both spray and roll to keep things movin!)

Our TV hangs above the dresser, which I'm not a huge fan of.  I'm hoping to do something like this to make it blend in a little more! 

Brooklyn Limestone

Mrs. Limestone gives a fabulous tutorial on her blog!

That's all for now!  Hope everyone is having a great week!

Linking up with these Lovelies!

http://akadesign.ca/?p=6063

http://www.somewhatsimple.com/

http://www.houseofhepworths.com/

http://www.beneathmyheart.net/

http://thefrugalgirls.com/

http://www.fingerprintsonthefridge.com/

http://missmustardseed.com/

http://www.stuff-and-nonsense.net/

http://www.serenitynowblog.com/2011/12/weekend-bloggy-reading-link-up.html

Technical Difficulities

I'm dying to share my dresser makeover with  you all but am having major technical difficulties.  I can't get a good picture to save my life!!!  I even fiddled on http://www.picnik.com/ for a while today...45 minutes of my life I'll never get back  Could have been catching up on what Kim and Kourtney are up to in New York in that time!!!!

I don't know if its the cloudy day we had today or the ridiculously bright lights in the hideous ceiling fan we have.  Anyway, this is the best I could get so that's all for now.  I will try to get a decent one tomorrow.  If you saw the rest that I took today, you would swear my 2 year old was manning the camera.  Pitiful! 

Sponsor Shout Out- Scentsy

A little behind on my usual Friday Sponsor Shout Out with the holiday craziness and all.  I just ordered a couple plug in warmers for teacher gifts from Whitney at Scentsy.  I got these adorable zebra ones

$20.00

and the one I have called Wonky.

$20.00

They make so much more than these plug in's though...love these warmers too

$25.00

$30.00

And this is a picture of how the fragrance comes.  They come in a brick or bar that you break off and place in/on your warmer.



 Such fun!  Hope you think about these when giving gifts this year!  It really is that perfect go to $20ish dollar gift.  Or grab one for yourself and fill your house with the scents of the season!!! 

Contact Whitney here with any questions.  Shop her Scentsy site right here!

Oh!  And Happy Cyber Monday!  I've been online bargain shopping all day!  How about you all?!?!

Chippendale Chairs- Take II

I hope everyone had a Happy Thanksgiving!  We had a bunch of turkey's running around our house in the form of little children and had a blast with my family who were visiting from out of state. 

I wanted to give a little more info on my Chippendale bamboo chair makeover.

Remember my before and after:

I could not find a turquoise I liked in my main squeeze Rustoleum so I "cheated" on him and bought Valspar.  Ugh!  It was like I left George Clooney for Charlie Sheen.  Horrid!  I hate to be mean and diss a product but this was really a pain in my rear!  It was one of these:

Not sure of the exact name because I ditched them all before I wrote this post but I wouldn't have recommended it anyway!  I did like the color...when that color actually came out of the spray can.  About 20% of the time when I was expecting my turquoise to come out an army green would show up.  So annoying!  And I shook the living daylights out of it so I don't think that was to blame.  The spray button was tough on the digits too.  It was a nice finish and didn't drip but I will never buy that brand again...its Rustoleum or bust for me!

Anyone else had any problems with this spray paint before?

So Thankful...

These stinkin' chairs are done!!!  And my guests will have somewhere to sit this Thanksgiving! 

Remember my $33 per chair before!

I was supposed to get your help in choosing the color but when I realized I had less than a week or so until my family was coming for Thanksgiving I had to take matters into my own hands!  I hope you all like how they turned out! 

I'll be back with more specifics on paint color, etc. but for now it's back to work in the kitchen! 

Hope everyone has a Happy Thanksgiving!  I have to say I am thankful for so much this year...including the people who read this blog and encourage me to continue following a dream!

Linking with these lovelies!

http://www.primitveandproper.blogspot.com/

http://savvysouthernstyle.blogspot.com/

So bamboo-a-palooza is taking its toll on me!  I have been up to my eyeballs in spray paint and think I've killed off more braincells then I would like to admit.  My love for these pieces has turned into more a love/hate, frenemy situation.  Does that happen to you when you put so much work into something you start to hate the piece and wish it never came into your life!  That's where I'm at right now.  Hopefully we can make up soon and live happily ever after.

I'm alllllllmost done but wanted to give you a sneak peek at the dresser and hope to reveal the rest this week. 

Remember my before:

I don't think I was very clear in my first post about this find.  I actually only got the dresser on the right, not the armoire.  It was missing drawers and pretty banged up, probably still should have gotten it but didn't.

Anyway...here's the sneak peek!

Hopefully I can get the dresser finished and give you the final reveal soon!!!



Sponsor Shout Out- Class and Trash

It's that time of the week again.  Time to thank a sponsor and today it's Class and Trash. 

Look what they have in store right now. 

Class and Trash: file cabinet that looks card catalog-ish: $75

I saw it in person today and it is AMAZING!  I think the price is crazy affordable!!!  If my garage was not full to capacity and my husband threatening to call hoarders on my butt, I would have TOTALLY taken this home! 

They have a bunch of other amazing stuff in store so visit them and for goodness sakes, if you haven't joined their group on facebook you are Looney Tunes!  It's so fun to see what they have in store each week!



Be My Guest- Swoon Style & Home

I wanted to share a very swoon worthy furniture makeover with you from my friend Shanna over at Swoon Style & Home.  I am so in love with her transformation and know you guys will love it too!  Take it away Shanna!

Owen has outgrown his dresser.  We bought it at Overstock.com a few years ago, and it was part of a child-sized set of furniture (headboard, nightstand and dresser with mirror).  As he has gotten bigger (sniffle), so have his clothes.  So the hunt was on for new furniture for him.  A few months ago, I happened upon a desk and dresser on Craigslist that I could not resist: beautiful, solid wood furniture for a song. The seller had a huge 7 drawer dresser and a desk for sale and was willing to part with both for $65 (total - not each!).  I high-tailed it over there, picked them up and brought them home.  The bones of these pieces were absolutely terrific: solid wood construction, dove-tail joinery on the drawers, great lines and tons of space.  But the aesthetics, well ... take a look at this:

I could see past the flaws in the finish and knew that with a few coats of primer and navy blue paint, new hardware and a lot of hard work and time, they would go from drab to fab and my little boy would adore them.  I was totally inspired by the seriously swoon-worthy furniture revamps that one of my favorite blogger-buddies, Erin from her fab blog Richmond Thrifter, does all the time (Erin did a guest blog for us back in our Mid-Summer Swoon week!)  

First, I took out the drawers and took off all of the hardware.  Here is a close up of the dresser's hardware.  Kind of odd, no?

I noticed the desk had little panels on the fronts of the dressers, which screamed 1970s to me.  I took my crowbar and gently pried them off so the drawers would be nice and flat.

Once the panels on the desk drawers were gone, I filled all the holes where the old hardware was with wood putty, because I wasn't sure if the holes would work with the new stuff.  Then I had a little construction to do.  The desk was missing a support piece between the legs.  I happened to have a 2x2 on hand from my failed door-desk project, so I just used my saw to cut the 2x2 down to size, sanded it nice and smooth and then screwed it onto the legs.  You can see it here: it's much lighter than the rest of the desk:

Next, I sanded the pieces.  I cleaned them up and used a coat of oil based primer - my favorite brand: Zinsser Cover Stain Primer (it's the best. Really).

Next up: paint!  I chose Naval by Sherwin Williams matched to Valspar's paint.  I love Sherwin Williams. I do.  But we live less than 5 minutes from Lowe's and I've had great luck with Valspar paints.  Three coats later and the pieces were looking good!  I will warn you: if you ever have a paint color matched be sure to hand over the paint number too.  I told the guy at Lowe's "Naval" and he typed in "Navel" - like the orange.  He handed me a gallon of neon orange paint.  Thank goodness for the Oops shelf.  Hopefully someone will need a gallon of bright orange paint in semi-gloss.  [note: I'm not sure what possessed me to get a full gallon of paint.  I barely put a dent in it ... double oops].  Here are the pieces before I put them back together. 

Finally, hardware.  I needed a lot of it, with 7 drawers on the dresser and 4 drawers on the desk.  I found some great satin nickel pulls at Lowe's.  I found 10 for $20 (in a contractor pack - 3-inch pulls).   I went with a simple satin nickel oblong knob from Lowe's on the small desk drawer to break things up (at $3). Unfortunately, the old hardware holes on the large drawers did not work with the 3-inch pulls - so rather than drive myself crazy, I went back to Lowe's and picked up four 4-inch pulls for an additional $12.  Ta da!   They totally transform the dresser, don't you think?

And finally, here is the furniture in place in Owen's room!  So nice right?  I still have a lot to do in here, like add artwork and a mirror, but that will happen soon!

I need a desk chair for him and he's getting a full sized bed and headboard soon enough.  His room is really coming together.  And now this means I can paint over his old dresser and put it in the guest room!  All told, I spent about $130 on these two pieces ($65 for the furniture, $35 for the hardware and $30 for the paint: and of that, I still have some hardware left and, um, 3/4 gallon of the navy blue paint) - not bad!  Here's one last before and after so you can compare:

Desk - Before

Desk - After

Dresser - Before

Dresser - After

Do you love to paint furniture like I do?  Isn't it so gratifying to take something sad and shabby and breathe new life into it?  Let's swap stories!

See you swoon,

 

Isn't the color just to die for!  And although I liked the hardware in the before picture, the replacements are drop dead gorgeous!  Thanks so much for sharing with us Shanna!

Bamboo-a-palooza (cont.)

Alight Ladies and Gents! 

As promised here is Exhibit B:

and my second crazy bamboo find from last week!!!

I found FOUR of these lovelies on Craigslist

(Ignore the missing seat cushion!  I have those but removed them before the pic to prime them!)

along with two of these pretties

for a total of $200!!!  So basically $33 a chair!

I think I am still in shock as I've been searching for these Chippendale style chairs for quite some time now.  It's one of the items on my list of must finds.

So now comes the task of deciding what color to paint them!?  I'm so overwhelmed with the job of choosing!  It seems like such a big decision so I'll be asking for your help!  I'll be back with pics of my dining room to get your color ideas tomorrow. 

But for now lets look at some chairs for sale that make me feel happy about my cheapo chippendales!

Jonathan Adler $695 for ONE!

Etsy $175

Ballard $249

Bamboo-a-palooza!

I am in bamboo heaven ladies (and the rare gentleman reader)!!!  Look at my first of two bamboo scores from this past week!  Brace yourselves...you might want to sit down ;)

Exhibit A:

I snagged the dresser on the right hand side for $55 from Love of Jesus Thrift after a reader named Cathy tipped me off on its whereabouts.  Was originally $65 but talked the guy down a bit.  He wasn't into lowering the price so there was a really awkward stare down but.... thankfully he budged!  I've already primed the drawers and the top of the dresser and the lovely bamboo artistry.  I also sold the dresser in our master on craigslist to a lovely couple from Amelia, cowboy hat and all, to make room for this beauty!

And call me crazy but here's what I'm thinking for the after.

http://www.centsationalgirl.com/2011/07/my-bamboo-is-peacock-blue/

Who better to get inspiration from then the fabulous Centasational Girl!

Okay, I'll share Exhibit B. of the bamboo-a-palooza tomorrow!
 I know you are waiting on pins and needles ;)

Hope everyone had a fabulous weekend!

New Sponsor...New Obsession

I'm excited to announce that I have yet another blog sponsor!  Whitney from Scentsy approached me about advertising her little side business on the blog.  Scentsy is a company that sells a safe alternative to scented candles! Their warmers melt and warm scented wax and release the fragrance into the air which means – no burning.  But the best part is the wax holders are so stinkin' cute!

Whitney sent me a plug-in warmer (they also have traditional ones that look like candle holders) so I could try it and give an honest assessment.   I immediately fell in love! 

 Look how cute this is! 

Love the design!

There's the scented wax.

Doubles as a night light!

I have it in my downstairs bathroom which is near the front door.  I swear every time I walk into the house its like instant relaxation!  Today I was running in and out about a million times getting my kids in the car for preschool, stressed and panicked, and each time I ran in to get a forgotten item the scent was like a breath of fresh air.  I felt like it was a stress zapper (I'm not exaggerating!)

Their prices are really affordable and since it's totally reusable it saves a lot in the long run.  I know these are going to be at the top of my list for gifts for that $20 range or a fabulous stocking stuffer!

If you are interested looking through their catalog click here.  You will not be disappointed.

And if you are interested in hosting a party (and earn free and half priced goods!) contact Whitney on her Scentsy site here.  You can also have Whitney provide you with a basket instead of hosting a full blown party and you can take it to your work, moms group, etc and still earn the rewards towards your own scentsy products.

For any other questions contact Whitney at 716-378-2542 or whitney.e.mayer@gmail.com.

So have you all ever tried Scentsy before?  Was I the only one in the dark about its fabulousness?!?!