Friday, October 30, 2009

Thrift Store Chair-Before and After!

I am so excited to share my newest project! I found this chair at our local thrift store the other day for $25.00. I snatched it up and ran to the register - with my 28 lb child on my other arm. I am sure I looked like a lunatic in the store, but I was so excited to find it because I knew I could make it beautiful! Here it is before...

I brought it right home, took the cushion off, lightly sanded it, and spray painted it with Rustoleum American Accents Heirloom White. It took about three light coats of paint.

I had to order fabric online, so I patiently (not really) waited for a few days for my fabric to get in. I found a GORGEOUS yard of Anna Maria
Horner fabric on Etsy for $9.25. I absolutely love this fabric!! I am excited about incorporating all of the colors in this fabric in our new house!

I took off the old, nasty cushion and padding and replaced it with a much fuller cushion and stapled on my new fabric.

Here is the after... Sorry for the horrible pics ahead of time! We have had rainy, gray days and so I had to use the flash and I am too impatient to wait for the sun to come out -which could be later this week :(



I love the details on this chair and the fabric is PERFECT!! I HEART this chair!! Can't you tell?!


I am linking this project to DIY Day at A Soft Place to Land, Furniture Feature Friday at Mustard Seed Creations, Reinvented's Trash to Treasure Tuesday , Metamorphosis Monday at Between Naps on the Porch and on Thrifty Decor Chick's Before and After Party...check them out!

DIY Day @ ASPTL








Furniture Feature Fridays

Linking up to The Nest's Frugal Friday Party!

Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Monday, October 26, 2009

Deck Transformation!

Well, as our family is planning to pack up and move to our new house in a few months, I have been thinking about all of the transformations the house we have lived in for almost 5 years has undergone. I have worked super hard trying to make our home comfy - indoors and out. I thought I would share pictures of our deck before and after while I am looking back on the past (almost) 5 years...

The deck when we moved in... I don't think the previous owners were outdoorsy people...just a wild guess...



The deck now - I love decorating indoors AND out!



I will be posting more before and after pictures of the rest of our house soon!

Wanda's Touches of Fall...






Sunday, October 25, 2009

Plates as Art

Hi! This is Wanda - the mom part of the team! I am excited to share my first project with all of you out there in the blog world. So, here goes...

I've always liked the way plates look on a wall. So after months of living with a blank wall in my
guest room, I headed out to my trusty Goodwill store and found the perfect plates. The most I paid for any plate was 79 cents.

Here is my "before" picture...


I wanted to paint my plates white and for some unknown reason, there is NO Rustoleum Heirloom White spray paint anywhere in my "neck of the woods" - so I settled for Rustoleum Porcelain. Well, I spray painted a couple of coats and was all excited about hanging my plates, when it occurred to me that I didn't have any plate hangers. Not wanting to get back in the car and drive another 30 minutes, I racked this old brain trying to figure out a way to get those plates on the wall. Then I remembered that I had some ring hooks that are used to put on the back of picture frames to hold wire to hang your picture.



Got those out, applied some good ole Gorilla glue, let them dry for about an hour, and hooray!!! It worked!!

Here is the "after"...


If you'll notice, two of the plates are pale blue. I had some paint called "Ocean Blue". Well, needless to say, it was hideous, so I just sprayed over it with a little Porcelain. Happy to say, I'm quite pleased with the color.

Now I know you're supposed to hang odd numbers - it just looks right. But in this case, because of the lamp being at the bottom of the plates, I think it turned out okay. Does that make any sense?

I'm happy with the way this turned out, and I've just hung some more plates in my dining room. I'll post that later!


Update! Linking up to the Gorilla Glue Party at Shanty 2 Chic!
Shanty 2 Chic



Check out Kimba's blog where we are participating in DIY Day!

DIY Day @ ASPTL

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Bulletin Board to Wall Art!

This project was completed over a year ago, but I had to share because it is one of my faves! When my mom and I get together we come up with the BEST decorating ideas on a dime! I was trying to find a cheap, but cute piece of art for my son's nursery. It had to be pretty big because I needed to cover up the electrical box in his room. So, my mom came up with the PERFECT idea. First, we went and bought a cheapo bulletin board at Wal-Mart for $5. This is just an example of the one we bought, but you get the idea...

Then, we took leftover fabric we bought at the $2.99/yard fabric store - LOVE that store!! Here is a closeup of the fabric - my mom made beautiful curtains with the fabric from the deal of the century fabric store. Here is a shot of one. Isn't it gorgeous!?!
We took the two fabrics and ripped them into strips. The edges look raveled but I like that look. We then took the tan fabric and stapled the strips to the bulletin board side-by-side until the board was covered. We made sure to pull the fabric tight before we stapled it to the back of the bulletin board.

Next, we took our blue toile fabric and wove it through the tan fabric stapled to the board. It reminded me of weaving potholders with a little kit I had when I was a little girl. After weaving and stapling the rest of the fabric, this is what we had...


We took a little ribbon and stapled it to the back of our "art" and then we hung our masterpiece over the ugly electrical box! Here is a close up of the box - you really have to look to see it when you are in the room...

Here is a close-up of the fabric. You can see the frayed edges...


I couldn't be more pleased with it! Total cost was around $10 for the board and the fabric! The perfect solution to my "cheap but cute wall art" for my son's nursery!





I will be linking this project over at Kimba's blog for DIY Day- check it out!

DIY Day @ ASPTL

Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Nightstand Redo-From Ugly & Ornate to Shabby Chic!

Hi everyone! SO excited about our first blog post! My mom and I will be sharing our DIY projects on a dime and we can't wait to start! With that said, I already have a big project that I have begun and am ready to start sharing.

My husband and I received a bedroom set of furniture when we got married 6 years ago. It was given to us, so at the time we were really happy to get it. Over the years, we have looked at it and thought, "Eh, it's just not our style". We are in the process of building a house and we are planning to buy a nice, new set of bedroom furniture for our new master suite (cannot WAIT to get that big king size bed!).

Anywhoo, our current bedroom furniture is going to be in a guest bedroom and I have taken under the laborious task of painting this beast of a bedroom set. Figured if it is going to stay with us it at least needs to look good!

Here are some pics of the furniture before...



The first picture of the nightstand is missing some drawers because I got ahead of myself and started the project without taking pictures - just a little too eager... The bed redo will be a separate post later because I am just not quite ready to face it.

So far, I have completed the first nightstand. After taking off the hardware, sanding with my power sander, painting it in two coats of creamy white paint, sanding the corners to distress and adding new hardware (with Gorilla Super Glue), this is what I have so far!



I played around with the drawers and decided the one with the medallion looks better in the middle - kind of balances out the piece.

One small piece down, only four pieces to go! I had to use super glue for the pulls because when I tried to drill the new holes for the hardware, they were too close to the original holes and they kept opening up, so super glue I did! I think it looks fabulous and can't wait to see what the complete set will look like. Stay tuned for more!!


I am linking up to Kimba's DIY Day and Trash t o Treasure Tuesday at Reinvented- check it out!

Update! Linking up to the Gorilla Glue Party at Shanty 2 Chic!
Shanty 2 Chic





DIY Day @ ASPTL