Coldspring, Dresser, glazing, Painted Furniture, Repurposed Furniture, resale finds, Thrifting, using bright colors, Valspar Spray paint

Weekend Finds and the Plans I Have for Them

This past weekend I visited my favorite faith-based resale shop up near our lake house. It had been a few weeks since my last visit and stuff had been dropped off. I love this little place. It is totally run by volunteers and the proceeds go toward their youth ministry. It is hit or miss with me finding stuff but this week was a hit.

Outside in the weather was this 1940’s waterfall style Art Deco dresser.
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I was surprised that Hubby didn’t totally turn up his nose at this piece, but he liked it too. I mean she was rough. The veneer was peeling off on every curved surface. The varnish on the sides looked like reptile skin and was so loose it literally blew off when Hubby blew out the inside with a leaf blower. I offered the lady at the shop $20.00 for the piece but she said no. She told me she couldn’t sleep at night if she took that much for the vanity. She took $10.00 for the dresser.

Feeling guilty for getting the dresser so cheap, I walked inside and saw this beauty. I mean this side table defines 1970’s fabulous. Can you just imagine the room this beauty was in? Orange shag carpet…that needed raking, paneling, over the top lamps and a flowered couch. That is my story and I am sticking to it. For $5.00 this guy was mine.

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I know you think I am crazy right now. Hang on.

Hubby spied this beat up maple night stand hidden by the door. An additional $5.00 and it was also loaded up.

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She threw in an “ugly frame” when I asked the price. It is going to be a great project in the near future. No photos yet.

Soooo… Here are my plans for the three pieces:
The Vanity is going to be painted using this piece as inspiration. I would link the source but it is a dead end on the internet.

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I am sad there is no mirror, but I will be looking for an awesome shaped mirror that I can personalize to go above the vanity. I thought I might be selling this piece but it is going in my bathroom. I need an awesome vanity to make me feel pretty. That is my story and I am sticking to it.

This is the color I am going with.  Sea Salt.

French Provincial ornate

Here are my plans for the piece.

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The 1970’s Fab night stand will be sold. I love ornate side tables. In the right space they add that wow factor. Here are three of my favorite ornate end tables. All of them make me smile, but live in other homes now.
marble topped side table

spray painted ornate side table

Painting the Night Stands Yellow

My plan for this one is to add a stained wood top. The top on this piece is shot so I am going to skin it with super thin plywood stained dark. The base. Well I need help here. What do you think? Blue, green, aged white, or red?  Something different?  Help me… please. I plan on lightly distressing the edges and glazing once painted. Click the photos to take you to the source.

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I know for sure what I will be doing with the maple table.
I am painting it like I did the Junk Fairy end table and donating it to be sold by Team Dean. I know and love this sweet family. When they asked for art donations in green I knew what I could give.

Junk Fairy End Table

So, what do you think about my $20.00 finds from the weekend now that you can see past the ugly?

crafting, Decorating, DIY Art, moving, Style, The bedroom, the guest room, Thrifty Art, Thrifty decorating, using bright colors, Valspar Spray paint

The Guest Room Part 1

When we moved into our burb house, I did not plan on painting the walls right away, except the front guest room. Here is how the room looked when we purchased the house.

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I am not going to talk about the paint job in the front bedroom except to say it was not my style and the color scheme wouldn’t work.  I know that the former owner worked really hard on the faux painting.

As soon as we settled in I started looking for inspiration. Here are some of the inspiration pictures I found. I hope that clicking on them allows you to go site I found it at.
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http://cultureofstyle.com/tag/white-bedroom-furniture/

http://www.houzz.com/photos/171192/Turquoise-and-Green-Bedroom-eclectic-bedroom-san-Francisco

http://serbagunamarine.com/bedroom-color-schemes-blue-girls-ideas.html

green and turqoise

http://www.bhg.com/decorating/color/colors/decorating-with-color-expert-tips/#page=28

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http://www.bhg.com/decorating/decorating-photos/bedroom/blue/

I wanted the bedroom to be cheery but restful.
Here is what we have finished to date:
Walls painted. I love the light blue walls. They almost feel like a spa.
Empty frames painted. I found the frames at a resale shop. I spent $4.00 total on all the frames you see on this wall. The paint on the frames is all left overs from other projects. The white plates were 10 cents each at the resale shop. I glued metal soda can tabs to the back of the plates with E6000. I love that stuff.

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Painted Empty Frames
My bedding arrived. I am crazy about this yellowish paisley print. Target. Over budget. $90.00.

Yellow bedding in blue room
The throw pillows on the bed are all outdoor pillows that were on clearance at Home Depot, Lowes, and Marshall’s.
Curtains hung. Hubby and I went shopping at Ikea recently. I was thrilled to find off the shelf curtains that were 110 inches long for $34.00 a pair.

white curtains

The herringbone art project done.

herringbone art

I will be writing a DIY on this project. It was a fun evening project that cost less than $10.00 even factoring in the cost of the green tape.  ( I have plenty of tape to do several more projects.)$2.00 for the frame and the print that I painted over, Frog tape was $6.00 and I had to get one can of flat white spray paint for the frame. (I need to spray the frame again.) I had the other paint on hand.

The green lamp is in place. I think it is the best $2.00 I have spent in this room.

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New art work. Target. Over budget. $20.00

New lamp from Target.  $23.00.  I know, I know but the colors in the shade go perfectly with the color scheme.  Over  budget.

teal yellow and green lamp shade

I am not a huge fan of the bed frame as is and it will get painted and the posts are going to get trimmed down. I found this funky curio cabinet at a garage sale for a dollar.  Here is the before.

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Dirt Dobber nests and spiders were included for free.  A quick wash down, spray painted the frame and painted the back that amazing Laguna color I love.  I am not sure how long it will stay but I think it is a fun piece for now.  For a buck investment, It will not kill me to let it go down the road.

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I was able to incorporate the old dresser that once belonged to my grandparents, saved by my husband and completely restored.

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We have ceiling fans in our bedrooms thanks to a friend of Baby Boy and Sweet Amanda.  Don’t judge us for the fans.  I think they look ok,  It is going to be over a 100 again today here in the burbs.  In South East Texas it is miserable without air moving.

What do you think of the sort of finished room?

yellow and blue retreat mustard yellow bedding mixing blues, yellows and greens

Apartment living, Decorating, glazing, Repurposed Furniture, Valspar Spray paint

Painting An Ornate Side Table

In the process of clearing out the garage to get the house on the market I posted this sweet little ornate side table on Facebook for my friends. I bought this little beauty a year ago with the intention of “doing something” with it. When I find something like this for $5.00 at a garage sale, I must buy it… even if I do not have a home for it.

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The first person to jump on the side table was Sweet Amanda’s buddy, Tara. When I asked the color she would like it painted, she replied “Stone Gray”. I knew that the table would need to be painted with spray paint because the last person to paint the table had used some sort of questionable paint on it. The paint was flaking off and was sort of general mess. A quick sanding and liquid sand ensured that no more paint would come off, and she was ready. At Lowe’s I found a dark gray called gun-metal gray. I looks a dark bluish type gray. A quick run over with charcoal glaze and she looks so pretty. I know that Tara will enjoy it in her soon to be Houston location.

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crafting, Decorating, DIY Projects, home decorating, mantle, The City House, Thrifty Art, Valspar Spray paint

String Art Hearts

After attending the craft night I came home and looked at my empty mantle with shame. After I took down Christmas, I just never got around to decorating the mantle in our city house. I decided then and there that my weekend trip to the country would involve making stuff for the mantle. I knew I needed something tall. For a few weeks I had been thinking about a string art project and I decided that this would be the project to do the string art. Did you do this back in the 70’s like I did? Am I telling my age? I digress.
Anyway, on the way home from work Friday, I ran by a local hardware store and Hancock Fabrics. I picked up red string and white paneling nails and ocean blue paint. Total cost: @ $ 8.50. I knew I had plenty of wood at Star Hill for the project.
There were enough nails and string left to make at least three more. I may get busy,
Hubby cut the wood for me to length, then I got busy painting. As soon as it dried, I got out the sanding block and roughed it up.
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There are three boards here, but you will see two of them in this project. Sorry this shot is blurry.
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The Painted Boards Roughed Up
Nails, hammer, pliers in case of mistake…good to go.
I took chalk and quickly drew a heart on two pieces of wood then got busy nailing the nails into the board. It really went fast. I used some of the reclaimed cedar which is very soft. The nails went in quickly.
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I tied off the string then just went crazy wrapping it around nails randomly. I love the way that these turned out. I gave one to my neighbor and the other is on my mantle.

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Decorating, Tablescape, Thanksgiving, Valspar Spray paint

Decorating for Thanksgiving

This weekend I was a total city girl. Hubby got the stomach bug going around so we were home bound. I did have a few projects at the city house so there was no worry that I would be bored today. My main order of business was getting the house ready for Thanksgiving.

This is what I assembled to do today.

I got busy last night with candlesticks. I found these candlesticks in Onalaska, near Star Hill, for 25 cents each. I purchased the round bases at Michael’s for 68 cents each after the discount.

  I am a fan of the E 6000 adhesive.  It works great.
 
Here they are connected together.
 


 I used Valspar Whipped Apricot spray paint to unify the wood colors.I am really addicted to yellow right now. I love this yellow particularly. For just over a dollar a candlestick including the paint, I ended up with a something I really like a lot.

I used the spray paint on a frame that I got for  25 cents.  sprayed the liner of the frame with chalkboard paint but I should not have tried to write on it yet.  I will be repainting. 

The frame started out in a maroon color.  It is a good thing I used primer.  Here is after the first primer coat.

There was a lot of pink bleeding through the primer.

I did convince hubby to go with me to get some youpon holly from the ditches near our house even though he was sick. As the roads get busier this is not as easy as it used to be. Here is my table before I got busy and here it is after.

I need to bring my white plates home for the table from Star Hill.
 


  Here is my buffet finished.

 This is what my farmhouse table looks like.

I had a very productive weekend. More to come.