Vintage Chair

Hello Friends!  I have another furniture post today!

But, I have a disclaimer.  If you like to see really detailed before shots, this post is not for you.  

If you like dramatic transformations, this post is not for you.

But if you're my Mama and like seeing what I'm up to through this blog because your oldest daughter (and favorite, I might add) lives 2 hours away and you never come visit her and her ever evolving decor in her home, then this post IS for you.  And if you are one of her sisters, then this post can be for you too. =)

Remember that yellow, vintage looking, old lady smelling, dining room chair that I bought at that garage sale last spring for $4?

You know, the one with the ugly pattern?

Well, I finally got around to recovering the seat!  And it was soooo easy!

I used burlap like I had planned, but for now, I'm not going to paint those images on it like I thought I wanted.  I think it looks really nice with the seat just plain like this.  What do you think?

And I think it's perfect for the desk, don't you?

Our house has changed so much since the last time you were here, so ya'll will have to come visit soon!  





 
 

Fab Find Friday: Desk Reveal!

So a couple of weeks ago, I wrote about a desk that I was in the process of refinishing.  Well, it's finished! I'm proud to reveal my first ever furniture refinishing project!

Ok, well, I can't take full credit because Justin worked on this project too.  It was a joint effort!

 I found this piece at a garage sale for $10!  Can you believe it?  It was a beautiful desk, but it had A LOT of scratches. 

I got it home, unloaded it from the truck, and it found it's place in our garage for the next few months.  You can see some of the scratches here on the front.

But those scratches don't even compare to what the top looked like! EEK!  Look at that.  I definitely had my work cut out for me. 

I spent a long time sanding (thanks Daddy for letting me borrow your sander!) and got all that old stain off.  The wood underneath was nice and smooth.  I was ready to start staining.

It took about 3 or 4 coats to get the dark walnut stain as dark as I wanted it.  And I think it took 3 or 4 months to completely finish this beauty :-/  Our garage faces West, and it's our only outdoor work space, so I was limited as to when I could work because of the brutal summer we had this year.  But I think it all paid off because now we have a beautiful new desk for our formal living room/office area.

Justin spray painted the original hardware satin nickel from a brass color.  I initially had planned to keep this hardware around only long enough for us to have a little extra money to replace it.  But now seeing how the desk fits in the room, I think it goes with the decor perfectly, especially the settee.  So I think we'll keep it!

Here's another look again.  Before....

After!  

What do y'all think?



Linking to:

 

Fab Find Friday: Upcycled Kitchen Mat

My house has become a recycling center.  Ha ha, not really but I've been trying to make our house look nice and homey with little money as possible.  I've been thrift store shopping, garage sale hunting and re-purposing some of our old decor to make it look new!  One of our neighbors had a garage sale a few months ago and I bought her old kitchen mat, painted it, and made it my own! 

See the mat on the left there?  That's the one I painted!  

Fab Find Friday-Garage Sale Chair

I found this chair at a garage sale a few weeks ago.  It was just $10 but the lady let me have it for $7.50.  I knew instantly that this would be a great chair to do my first ever cushion recovering project!  I'll be working on this in the next few days and will be using that yellow fabric to cover the cushions and will be staining the wood a dark walnut.  Oooh!  It's gonna look so good against the green curtain and those....uh, i don't know what to call them...blinds.  We'll just call them Tahiti blinds from now on!  

Oh man. This is the stuff that is keeping me going these days!

Have y'all found any good deals lately?  I'd love to see them!

Hanging Votive Wall Decor Re-Do

I received the most beautiful hanging candle holder for my birthday.  My lovely future sister-in-law gave it to me.  The colors perfectly matched the guest bathroom, but there was a problem...the holders were linked together vertically so I'd have to hang it on the ceiling.  Hmmm, I loved it but I just could never seem to get it to look right.  So I made this instead!

Read more to see what it looked like before I transformed it!

Fab Find Friday-Papasan Chair

 I've been wanting a papasan chair for some time. Don't ask me why.  I just woke up one day and decided that these were the most comfortable chairs in the world.  It's perfect to curl up in and read a book.  I was constantly telling Justin how I'd really love to have one outside one day, under a covered porch, so I could drink my coffee and read in it on Saturday mornings (that has been my regular Saturday morning routine since Molly came into my life and has dragged me out of bed no later than 9 am.  And y'all know I'm not a morning person!)

Pier One

So after we bought the house and had a little more room, I decided that I'd price them, just to get an idea.  This one at Pier One is $140.  WOWZA!  Too much for me, thank you!  I guess I'd just do without.  

frowny face>>>>>    :-(

One Man's Trash Is Another Man's Treasure

And  boy is it sooo true!! I found this dresser yesterday on Craigslist for FREE!  I've been wanting to find a cheap dresser to repurpose and use as a server/buffet in my dining room.  This is perfect!  You can see that one of the drawer gliders needs to be replaced, but no problem.  I'm more than happy to make some minor repairs on something that was given to me!

 Now I have to decide what kind of style I'm going for and how I want to paint it.  Here are a few ideas...

Thrift Store Find: Vintage Inspired Clock

I've been at it again! I've been searching the thrift stores for a good bargain.  This time I found a vintage inspired clock at Twice As Nice.  If you haven't visited this thrift store in Denton, you should.  Not only do they have great things, but the store funds a great non-profit in the area.

I bet you are noticing that this clock is still in the box.  That's because it is BRAND NEW.  Regularly priced $15, I got it for $4 =) 

I think it looks simply smashing on the night stand in the guest bedroom (more pics of this room to come!)

Treasure Hunting

This week marks 2 months for Justin and I as homeowners!  Woo hoo!  We already have a lot of furniture and decor so our house isn't bare, but we do need a few more pieces of furniture.  And, I'd like to get some new wall decor and accent pieces along the way.  Sooooo, I've been bargain shopping at thrift stores and garage sales and boy have I been finding some amazing stuff!  A few weeks ago, I stopped off at an estate sale and found this beauty.

Since we don't have any kids, I'm using one of the extra bedrooms as a craft room =)  I needed a work table/desk but wanted to find something inexpensive and something functional.  When I saw this little gem, I yelled out in excitement (seriously, everyone was looking at me like I was a crazy woman).  I called Justin right away so that we could load it up in the Pathfinder and take it home.  And guess how much it cost...only $25!  That made me giddy.

After about a million bajillion attempts to get it into the room and me on the verge of tears with thoughts my perfect little desk not fitting through the door of my perfect little room,  we finally had to take off a hallway closet door in order to maneuver it into the bedroom.  But I think it was worth it, don't you?