White dresser.

There's something about white furniture. It's so classic, and clean and looks good practically anywhere! Plus, like I've mentioned before, it tends to sell quickly :-)

So when I picked up this beauty at the Habitat Restore, it was a logical choice to go with white! It was a pretty dresser before, but now she's stunning!

She's also bigger than she looks. Gosh, what a horrible thing to say, even if is about furniture! Haha! I just mean that she's a sturdy, solid piece and will, hopefully, make someone very happy!

The entire piece is solid wood and the drawers were in great condition!

While we were staging and taking pictures, my friend Jill's little boy, Grayson, just couldn't resist getting in on some of the action!

He's seriously the sweetest little thing and is practically the 3rd member of our design team :-)

**I'm linked up to Elizabeth & Co., Restore Interiors, Primitive & Proper**

Thrift store find.

When I was younger, I always hated when my mom wanted to go into a thrift store. They were dingy and dirty and there was never anything good anyway. Oh boy, how I've changed my tune.

I love thrift stores now! Even though more often than not, I don't find anything worth buying. But every now and then I see something that I love and must have!

Enter this dingy, dusty, off white milk glass vase I spotted from a few aisles away! It was a marked at a cool $1.49 and went home with me that day!

 Oh and even though it looks like milk glass, it's actually plastic! So it got a fresh coat of white spray paint and viola - perfect spot for one of my 23 Ikea plants.

All for a buck fifty!

Craigslist find & makeover.

Awhile back, I found these sad little things on Craigslist. They were listed for $15 each but we offered $10 each and they were sold! My friend Jill and I headed down to Belmont Shore (a cute little neighborhood in Long Beach) to pick them up.

They were in pretty horrible condition as you can see here:

 And here:

There was even some weird green slime in the drawers....super gross! But after lots of sanding, some wood putty, more sanding, primer and paint we were left with two pretty good looking end tables!

 We staged them in Jill's parlor aka showroom aka living room.

This is where our finished pieces live while they are waiting for a new home! I think they like it here because it seems like some things just don't want to leave (cough, cough, these end tables!)  

And just so you don't have to scroll back up, here's the yucky before again:

And the after:

Until next time...

 

Silver Metallic Giraffe.

 I enjoy bandwagons and have been known to hop on them every now and then and that's exactly what I did last night! While perusing the 30+ blogs I follow, I had seen a few that featured super cute animal figurines, like this over at Hi Sugarplum! Now anyone who knows me, knows I'm not much of an animal person, but that mostly extends to cats and dogs. And spiders. And monkeys. Monkeys creep me out. Especially ones that wear diapers. That's just weird. But I digress :-)  

I do enjoy some animals, like the horses and ponies that wander my neighborhood. Those are cool.

 And exotic animals are even cooler! Like this little giraffe. When I saw him at Michael's for a buck, I knew I needed to have him! And paint him.

And paint him I did! He got a lovely coat of silver metallic spray paint and is now making his home on the ledge above my desk.

I think he's just adorable!

 And when he gets hungry, he can just graze on the little plant from Ikea.

This is such a quick and easy way to add a fun little accent!

And since I already had the paint, the total cost was just $1 for the giraffe! That's totally my kind of project!

**I'm linked up to Happy Hour Projects, Shine on Fridays, The Shabby Nest, and A Bowl Full of Lemons**

It runs in the family.

A few months ago, I was up in Portland visiting family and did a few DIY furniture makeovers for my sister's new place! We scoured all the local Goodwills, Habitat Restores, yard sales and everything in between and found two amazing pieces! This three dollar dining room table and a ten dollar desk for my niece were our top two finds!

Back then my sister pretty much watched me do all the work but now she's joined in on the fun! She had been looking for an entertainment console for awhile now and finally found what she needed on Craigslist!

This snazzy thing was a mere $50! It has everything she wanted including lots of storage and character!

Now, I'm not sure why the previous owners had two of the drawers in the wrong spot, but my sis rectified that and then some with a few simple coats of gray spray paint!

Here's her gorgeous new piece...

I love it!! Good job, sis!

*I'm linked up to Primitive & Proper*

A little bit of sunshine.

One of my most treasured pieces of furniture is my sewing machine desk which belonged to my grandmother. I think it has beautiful lines and a clean, modern look, which I love. I've been wanted to do something to it because I felt it wasn't living up to it's full potential and didn't quite mesh with the feel of my house but had no idea what I should do!

But thanks to Pinterest, I was suddenly inspired and decided to paint it!!

 Here's the final product...

I love it. Love. It.

I opted for an ombre look using gradient shades of yellow! The term "ombre" is new to me...but I'm all of a sudden seeing it everywhere from Project Runway to nail polish one to even hair color.

So what did I do? I painted everything but the drawer fronts in Behr Ultra White and bought four small samples of Behr Ultra Premium paint in Moonlit, Daffodil, Vibrant, and Lemon-Lime which were less than $3 each.

Here's a view from the top which shows where the sewing machine tucks away. Even though I don't know how to sew, I love that it's still under there!

I left the hardware completely original and I love how the yellow lets it pop!

It's been awhile since I actually hand painted anything using a paintbrush and considering the value of the item I was painting, I decided to splurge and get the one that every blogger always mentions as the absolute best - the Purdy.

 After years and years of always buying the cheapest paintbrushes possible, I will never go back! This thing is amazing! Not ONE single bristle was left on the surface (meaning I didn't have to ruin the paint by picking out a stray bristle) and even after multiple washes in between coats and colors, once the brush was dry it was like it was brand new again! Now I understand why everyone always speaks so highly about these brushes...if you haven't tried them yet, you should! It's totally worth it.

Hmm...now what else can I paint?

*I"m linked up with Saved by Suzy, House of Hepworth's, Primitive & Proper, Southern Lovely, Miss Mustard Seed and Domestically Speaking*

Goodwill desk makeover.

Happy Friday, everyone! I am so glad the weekend is almost here and I hope you are, too! I wanted to share the other furniture makeover I did while up in Portland earlier this week. I wasn't necessarily on the hunt for a desk but when I saw this beauty at a Goodwill store in Forest Grove - I just couldn't resist!! It was only $10 and had beautiful details, was solid wood, had lots of storage, great hardware, and awesome little legs!

 I gave the top a good sanding, sprayed it with primer and opted for Krylon in Classic Gray. I've never used Krylon spray paint before, but I must say I really loved it and will definitely use it more often!

I then cleaned the existing hardware and gave it a coat of white and we were done!

Here's the after...

Not bad for ten bucks!

The three dollar dining room table.

I love bargains and on my recent trip to Portland, I had hoped to find some good ones that would allow for budget friendly decorating of my sister's new place. Little did I know I would find the deal of the century!!

After a quick trip to IKEA (Yeah right...I'm pretty sure we had breakfast, shopped and had lunch before we were done), I convinced my sister to stop at a Goodwill Distribution Center on the way home. I believe the words "they never have anything good" came out of her mouth but I insisted and she is glad I did because we found this...

A dining room table with two leaves (which are not pictured!) for a whopping $3! I wanted to take a picture of the price tag for proof but started sanding and cleaning it before I remembered and by then it was scraped off. Oh well.

My sis loved the look of the long dresser I recently made over, so I gave the top a light sanding and decided to paint the top black and the bottom white. I would have sanded completely and stained the top but time was of the essence and I didn't have the luxury of waiting hours between coats of stain so I opted for the black and it worked just fine.

Here's the after...

This puppy seats 12 when both leaves are in and I still can't believe it cost less than a gallon of unleaded!

I only had my iphone so the pictures aren't the best...but you get the idea! It fits the dining room so well, too! And the only thing left to complete the set, is to find a couple of long benches which I'm sure my sister is scouring Craigslist for right now :-)

Silver Metallic Trunk.

Happy Monday! I hope everyone had a lovely weekend! I was able to get a lot done on my day off on Friday leaving the weekend wide open to enjoy a birthday party, some shopping, church, lunch with friends and then some more shopping!

But back to Friday - I was able to tackle a project I've been wanting to do for months! I've been using an old trunk as a coffee table for some time now and I love it!

The interior is beautifully lined with cedar (at least I think it's cedar!) and I'm able to store pillows and blankets and other linen in the perfect spot - out of sight!

 The trunk use to look like this all over (it's a shot of the bottom which I never bothered painting)...

I painted it black awhile ago but had grown tired of it and wanted something new! I had the idea of doing it a metallic silver but had a hard time finding examples online. You all know my love for google images but when I searched "metallic silver trunk" I get a lot of, um...men's trunk shots. Not quite what I was going for Google, but thank you for trying.

Anyway, I was recently flipping through a Direct Buy catalog and found this beauty...just what I was looking for to confirm that a silver metallic trunk wouldn't look horrible :-)

So I hauled it outside and started spraying! I gave it two coats and thought it looked great!  I let it dry for most of the day and then brought it inside.

 I love how shiny it is and the overall look. But I'll tell you what I don't love...

...how it looked totally fine outside in the bright sun but in normal light it's all funky and uneven! The top looks great...it's just the sides that decided to act up.

Oh well...I'll give it another few coats soon and hope that will fix the problem!

Even in it's current state, I love it way more than I did when it was black and gold,  so I guess I can call it a success!

The green is gone.

I just couldn't let the weekend go by without addressing the green side table. This little corner of my room was so close to being done...I just had to finish it and I opted for gray all over. I might paint the knobs yellow. Or white. I just don't know yet.

 Anyway, I bid adieu to the green and purple...

And welcomed in a nice neutral gray and white!

 And so you can remember what I had to begin with...here's the original Goodwill wooden lamp with a brass base...

And here's the pretty sad water damaged night stand. Wow, I had pretty much forgotten what it use to look like...yikes!

Thankfully, those pieces are a distant memory and I now have this...

The whole thing is finished with a piece of beveled mirror I scored on clearance from Michael's for just $3.00! 

I'm still amazed as what a little spray paint can do.

Happy Saturday.

This time last week I was elbow deep in stain - and I am so glad that this weekend I am not! I haven't worked on anything major except for a simple lamp re-do.

Before I moved, I had a green side table and purple lamp in my living room. The colors worked with the otherwise neutral room. Then I had my yellow headboard and aqua bedding in my bedroom - again it worked with the color scheme.

Fast forward a few months and I'm all moved into my new place. My new smaller place. And with the smaller amount of space, I had to rework some furniture combinations and ended up using the green side table and purple lamp next to my yellow headboard and aqua bedding. Whoa...color!

 This has to be remedied and the first and easiest thing to do was paint my lamp, so goodbye purple... 

 And hello white!

I also switched out the lampshade for a gray one. I'm loving the difference already! The green side table will be painted next, I just need to decide on the color! Maybe gray, maybe white, maybe gray and white...hmm.

In addition to the lamp, I also spray painted some new frames that I plan on adding to my gallery wall and I created a little spot to throw my keys or sunglasses in my entry.

 I was recently given this gold mirror and I thought I would spray paint it white and use it in my gallery wall but opted to keep it gold and use it as a tray instead. I have never really been a "gold" person but I'm really liking this!

 It seems to be just the right amount of ornateness (if that's even a word) for me. It also provides a home for the closest thing I have to a pet - my birdie Barb.

No mess, no noise...she really is perfect :-)