All Moved In...

Well, mostly at least.

Here is my mantle for now. I'm still getting settled in so I'm sure I'll end up changing things. 

For instance, I really want to dry brush a pallet white with a simple wreath on it, similar to this photo below of  Donna's mantle at Funky Junk Interiors.

Funky Junk Interiors

My little thrift store owls found a new home hanging out with the awesome vintage suitcase and metal basket my mom found for me.

And last but not least, I have already found a new project. There was one wall in the dining room of the apartment that was just so bare and it needed something. Luckily there are 3 or 4 thrift stores near my new job (yay!) so I wasted no time after work to stop in there. I found a sofa table that was just the right size for the space I wanted to fill for just $20.

The top needs a little T.L.C. I think I'm going to paint the table an apple green a little lighter than the color of the suitcase pictured above, with the cane on the bottom and some details on the legs white.

Excited to get started on it, but the paint will have to wait until payday next week =P

In my next post I'll FINALLY share the after pictures for the table I painted a while back. I have more room in this new apartment so I ended up just keeping it. I'm bad about that, but hey I needed a table for the TV in our bedroom now!

Ugly Desk Makeover!

Whew! What a long weekend! I'm happy to announce that on Friday I was offered a job at a wonderful nursing home in Midwest City, OK. So everything has been set into action and my boyfriend and I are moving to Oklahoma City next week!

...Which meant I had to finish this desk more than ever! My mom picked it up for me since she has more space to work than me. She was a huge help. We finished everything, except spray painting the hardware, on Saturday!

Here is the before:

U-g-l-y. And dark. It was just a cheap Craigslist find that I found a while back. It was the right price and my boyfriend needed a desk. It fit the small space we had so we bought it. It's been patiently waiting for months now to get a makeover.

My inspiration was this Miss Mustard Seed desk.

I even have a chair that looks incredibly similar to the one in her photo that I plan on using with the desk.

I wish the color of the hardware showed up better in my pictures. It's a really pretty dark chocolate color with  a little bronze shimmer. The brown tone is so pretty on the blue drawers.

I'd like to lightly distress the edges, but I left it this way for now. I'm a little nervous to do it. It's a cheap desk. Pretty sure it's that stuff with like paper over particle board, so I'm afraid of how that might work (or not work!).

I'll probably just leave it how it is and not risk it. It's already SO much better!

Thrift Goodies

I usually try to keep this blog to furniture makeovers and other projects, but sometimes I find something at a thrift store that I don't plan on making over and I just LOVE...

...and I LOVE this set of three little owls I found today for $1.50! They're solid brass. They're so cute! They just make me happy looking at them =)

On another note, I've been pretty busy lately and the side table I've been working on kind of fell on the back burner. I'm hoping I'll be able to finish it up this weekend, and I'm definitely going to be painting my boyfriend's ugly desk this weekend. So more furniture makeovers soon to come!

Cheap Thrills

I love a quick, easy project from a cheap find at a thrift store. I found this little tray earlier today for 50 cents.

I wanted to put my address number on the tray and didn't have the stencils for it, so I just printed out some numbers, cut them out, traced onto the tray with a pencil and filled them in. It's just as well - the lines won't be perfect on the bumpy tray anyway. I now have the tray hanging as a plaque on the wall in my kitchen =)

Also, I'm currently working on this small side table below that I found at a thrift store for $10. I have painted it white, distressed it and now glazed a small section of it, but I don't like how dark it is so I'm going to have to paint over that and water the glaze down a bit with paint thinner next time. I'll definitely post pictures when I'm finished with that, hopefully after this weekend.

Until next time,

It's my Birthday! ...and recent projects!

As the title says, it's my b-day today! And this little bird was my birthday present to myself! lol!

Anyway, on to the projects! I have several small projects I finished this week. First I'll show you the stool I mentioned in my last post. Unfortunately I was so excited to get started on it that I completely forgot to take a before picture. I'm so bad about that. But it was a plain-jane light stained wood legs with a cheap fabric someone had tried to recover it using tape! Here it is after I worked on it...

The paint on the legs is a pale blue/gray color. I then lightly distressed it and finished it off with a brown glaze. I stenciled the 4 onto the fabric before stapling it onto the stool. I wanted to get in on the number craze and thought it was perfect for this little guy.

I also picked up this cute little guy for $2 to make a gift for someone.

I used the same exact technique (and the same paint colors) as the candelabra I did not long ago and I'm really happy with how it turned out. I hope the person I give this to loves it as much as I do =)

I also think it'd be a super cute with a fat candle sitting on it...

And last but certainly not least, my own little spin on this wreath from Mudpies & Marigolds. It was very time consuming, but fun and cheap. I found the frame and the old book I used to tear pages out of from a thrift store for $1.40 total. Everything else I had.

Then a few days later I found this frame at my favorite thrift store for $6.99 $3.50! Gotta love half off day! I didn't paint it or anything. I loved it exactly how I found it. It's too bad you can't see the detail of the carving in it with my crappy phone pictures. It's fabulous!

Phew... that's enough projects for a little while. I'm appreciating my apartment being cleaned up again. I think I'll take a little break... but we'll see how long that lasts lol!

PB Inspired Candelabra Makeover

Sorry took so long to post! I'm really excited with how this turned out.

I found it at, of course, the thrift store for a couple dollars.

Here it is before...

First I took it apart and painted it a cream color I already had.

Next I sanded kind of randomly to achieve a really worn out look. And for the final step, I dry brushed it with a grey and a brown paint. I wanted it to look really distressed and I'm really happy with how it ended up. I wish I had a photo of the Pottery Barn one I was trying to recreate.

Also today I picked up an adorable foot stool. It had been recovered and whoever did it had tried to attach the fabric using tape, so it's a little lumpy looking. But it's in great shape and I'll be recovering it anyway. That will be my next project on here probably, although I've been pretty busy lately and I'm not sure when I'll get to it. 

I'm linking up here:

      

Thrift Store Table Redo

Found this little cutie at my favorite thrift store for $10.

I painted it this cream color about a month ago and have been meaning to glaze and distress it, but I've never glazed anything before. I've put it off until Spring Break when I spent some time at my mom's house so she could help me get started on it since she has some experience with glazing furniture.

Here it is before distressing and glazing...

...and after! I'm really happy with how it turned out. I was nervous about nothing. Glazing it was actually fairly easy. Now I want to glaze everything! =P

I had one other project over the break for my next post.

I'll be showing off my Pottery Barn inspired thrift store candelabra =)

(before)