Thrift Store LOVE

I can't tell you how much I love to find a good deal. Last week I found some great stuff at my local thrift stores. This lamp for example. Saw it and knew right where I wanted it. I changed out the shade and....

Look at this beauty!

The lamps that where in that room I moved to the kitchen. I just love them in there.

I also bought some candle sticks too. They just need a coat of black spray paint in flat to match some of my other candle sticks.

A New Year Facelift

I have enjoyed every thing about our home since moving in other than the fact that there was no color on the inside. Everything, and I mean everything was chalky white throughout. We have added color starting with the kids bedrooms, the entry way, sun room and office over the past year but the rest of the main floor needed some loving color. Here are some before photos.I have been looking for the perfect color for the formal living room and dining room to go with the decor I have assembled. The color that came out the winner was Valspars' "Tropical Bay" from Lowe's.

This was a 2 day 2 person project that truly rang in the New Year! I also wanted to add some design to the dining area and went with the vertical stripes painted in "Brushed Pearl". The keys to making this part of the project a success were 1) a laser level capable of making vertical lines 2) Frog Tape- I highly recommend this product, there was no paint bleeding under the tape and lines came out crisp and clean. 3) Layout- Take your time and double check before you start painting. The method we used to layout the room was to measure the total length of all walls around the room. We divided this total distance by an even number that would give us a stripe width between 8 to 10 inches. In our case the stripes came out to be 8 15/16" to make all the stripes the same. If we would have made all the stripes and even 9" we would have had 1 stripe only 4 1/2" wide instead of 9". The final phase of this project will be completing the curtains but that will be a project for another day and another post. Here is how it turned out. I am so excited to have this project complete and be able to enjoy this part of our home everyday!

Making My Wishlist Come True

So I that I have been dreaming about this of my bathroom.

(from Pottery Barn) With the help of a few Christmas ormaments and black craft wire....
I was able to get the look I wanted for about $25.

Just a little peek

I found this beauty at my favorit store... Habitat for Humanity Restore. It was $10. I went in thinking I would buy a brass light and then spray paint it. But I could not pass this one up.

I hope to turn it in to this with a little TLC.

I saw this at home improvement store and wanted something like it to put over my tub.

Oh and look what's done!

Reduce Reuse Recycle

I have a hard time tossing out those Butter Cookie tins. Yes most of the time they are not the cutest thing to look at.

But with a little spray paint....

Mod Podge and craft paper....

You can change the whole look. And make it to what ever you want. This are now home to tons of things to do with your kids on rainy days or in the summer when the kids need to have a little project.

Befores and Afters

Here is the chair I have been working on.

Painted black.

Then I sanded it and did a little distressing and stained it with a mahogany Minwax Gel Stain.

I just love how it turned out!

Sometime when I start a little project it balloons it to a bigger project. I have a plan but I have to pick away at it because it takes time to find what I'm looking for at the price I'm willing to pay. So I got the chair done and I put it in the entry way. I played a little musical furniture to get the lookI was looking for.

Here is what my entry looked like before.

Now here is the after.

I haven't put the fabric on the chair yet I'm testing it out. I'm not sure if that is "the one."
I also got this mirror with all that cool stuff I got the other day.

I just put a brown glaze on it and hung it above the fireplace.

Painting the fireplace and changing the mantel is on my someday list.