Blue Side-Board With Hand Painted Design

Isn't she a bute!! This was a streetside find....can you believe that!! My awesome friend Katie found. She picked it up for me and asked me if I wanted it...OF COURSE!! My friend knows me well! Isn't this side-board gorgeous! Well, not yet....but she will be!

It had a top peice that was screwed on the back. It looked like it could have held a mirror at one point or was purely decorative but, one side was broken so it ended up being taken off. 

I sanded this peice really well. It had a weird layer of clear coat so, I didn't want my paint to bubble so I had to sand extra well. I just got out my hand sander and went to town. 

This peice is so interesting because it looks as though it was made by a carpenter in the depression era because of what it's made of....everything. It's a well made peice with solid wood everything even the drawer bottoms. The inside of the drawers are made from wood pallets from an original music store downtown slc because it still has the antique pallet sticker....too cool! The back is made from some antique paneling. It definetely has some cool character features. 

I had seen on some blogs the use of blue ocean breeze by krylon. I had bought this months ago and had wanted to try it. I got out my spray paint and started painting. It looked a little bright but I really didn't realize HOW bright it was until I brough it inside to do the hand painting and it looked NEON!! 

I decided to put it in my dining room and knew I had left over paint from my dining room chairs so I went searching for the left over paint. I found it and you can see the test spot color difference. Yikes! My dining room chairs have a gray/blue/green tint to them but against the bright blue...it looks almost purely grey. 

So, the whole thing got a fresh sanding and repainted in the dining room chair blue color. 

Now onto the hand painting. This blue color here is the dining room chair color so you can visualize how extremely bright blue the ocean color was before. Way too bright. 

I used a shape I downloaded for free off the internet and then used a pencil to draw out the design across the front of the drawers. 

Then onto the hand painting. I used my craft paint from delta called light ivory.

The sides were feeling left out so I added the design to the in-set part of the sides. 

It looks so great with the design on the sides too! 

All that is left is sealing the peice(protect it) and the hardware. The original hardware was perfect...it is the exact hardware in my kitchen.....only needed to be painted black.

I used the krylon fusion black spray paint that is especially for metal. Tip: I used a cardboard box because I could push the screws into the box and they would get painted to match the pulls perfectly. 

Before attatching the hardware I needed to seal the peice. I tried the paste finishing wax from minwax for the first time because I didn't want the brush strokes to show from the polycrylic that I love so much. It worked great! It's not as hard of a sealer as a polyurethane but, worked just fine. Just follow the instructions on the can.

The last step was adding the hardware. 

I decided to move it to this wall in the dining room underneath the alphabet wall hanging(I hurried and took this picture before I moved the peice so everything had already been moved off the top). I love this black peice but, if you know me I am always moving furniture around to keep life fun.  So, now that the new side-board is painted to match the dining room chairs, it had to go here! 

here's the two peices side by side...the blue side-board is just so much fun! 

Isn't she gorgeous!?!?! 

I just LOVE how it turned out!! Better than I even imagined! 

I love how the hardware matches perfectly with the kitchen (open floor plan) because it's only steps away to the kitchen cupboards. 

The finish is so pretty...a nice satin sheen. 

I love how this peice makes me smile every time I walk past it...so happy and fun! Perfect way to add a little splash of color! I love how the pattern continues fluidly across all the drawer fronts!

My favorite part about this is that it didn't cost me a dime (except for the spray paint...that was a mistake but, I had bought that months ago...so it didn't hurt so much) because the original side-board was a street-side find (free!!), the blue paint left over from the dining room chair project (Yeah, I love left overs), light ivory paint (found in my studio...free!), the template shape was free online, and it was original hardware painted with paint off my shelf (yeah...left-overs). So, I didn't spend anything out of my pocket to complete this project and that just makes it all the sweeter!! 

Some White Painting

This cute little chair I picked up for three dollars. I wanted a cute simple chair to replicate a newborn photo that I've fallen in love with. I love the back ground fabric, especially because I already had the cute fabric. I just needed a simple white chair to finish the look and this one fit the bill...perfectly.

I started with a stark white paint and decided that an antique white was more of what I was looking for.

You can see the difference in the whites. The lamp base is in the antique white and the chair is stark white. Being right next to each other solidified my change of mind to go with the antique white. It needed some warmth.

This is the lamp base from the previous picture. I originally wanted the really cool umbrella lampshade on top and didn't care to purchase the base. I asked if they would be willing to seperate the pair since they didn't originally go together and they said, "I'll give you a discount on the lampshade and if you don't want the base... you can throw it away." The discounted quoted price was the price I was going to ask to pay for just the shade. So, of course I said yes and it came home with me.

The lovely daisies definetely weren't my taste.

It even had a lovely glue mark on the back where it had been re-glued back together. You can't really tell where it had been cracked except for the lovely glaring yellowed glue mark which makes the crack look even worse.

Painted antique white made it all modern and fun (this looks like the ones I've seen in magazines). I even love the daisy print on the tea pot because it adds texture to the all white look. Pretty cute.....for a throw away peice! Hee Hee. Now I just need a lamp shade...I just need to decide where it is going to go so I can choose a lampshade that will coordinate in that room.

Busy? Or just in-between projects?

I have been busy lately but, have been in the in-between stage in a lot of projects (it makes it hard to paint and finish when you have nice conditions one day, do a little painting, then have to wait a few days due to snow and cold temperatures the next...yuck!). I like to post when everything is all finished and done but, this means I haven't had anything to show you. 

On a side-note: I've been busy in my closet lately because I just put my regular clothes away and pulled out the maternity clothes again. Yes, we are pregnant again. We are expecting a little girl in April! This has been a roller coaster of emotions having lost our last little baby.  We didn't say anything to even our kids until we had our big ultrasound at 16 weeks because we were nervous about something being wrong even though the doctors and specialists kept telling us that it was a 1 in 30,000 fluke that our little boy couldn't stay with us and it statistically never happens to the same family again. So, needless to say, it's been scary yet, we are getting SO excited for a little girl coming in April!

What is funny about this closet clean-up is that I was all dressed and ready to go to my exercise class the other morning and couldn't seem to find my keys to the car. Come to find out...my husband had accidently taken my set of keys with him to work. Luckily, I didn't HAVE to go anywhere (the kids were off track) so I decided to get a few things done on my to-do list (be real....I couldn't go anywhere so the only things I could do were at home...it was even snowing that day...so I was REALLY stuck at home). Once I started pulling out my maternity clothes....well, I just kept going. My husbands side of the closet got done also. He came home and made the comment that "nesting" must have happened today. I guess that's okay because I haven't seen the floor of our closet this clean in....too long. Yeah....it's done and looks GREAT!!

I  think I might start posting on projects I am in the middle of...then when they are done...I can show the reveal. Who knows.....maybe January is the month for change. We'll see! 

Now that we are expecting...my daughter has put an official sign on the door saying it's hers and the baby's room. So, I am adding a little bit of fun to make it a little girls room and a nursery. Stay tuned... 

I am making a "mobile" or art hanging out of lamp shade frames and pom pom balls. So, as soon as I figure out what color to paint the frames and which color to make the balls...I can post it all done. I have three options and can't decide what I will like best. I have the shades all stripped down to the frame and have painted a few colors for a "test" run. So, hopefully I can get the choices narrowed down and get it done. So, stay tuned for some projects...I am also almost done with my new sideboard. I just need to re-attatch the hardware and put a sealer coat on it to protect it.

More coming soon!!



Penant Banner

Our son hit a milestone and I wanted to make a little something for the banana split party afterwards.

I started with a penant (triangle) shape. I made the first one with a little measuring and then used it as my template. 

I folded the end over so it could easily hang from the string. I had to clip the corners of the paper that showed from the front once it was folded over. 

I had these 3M hooks still up from my christmas garland on the mantle so I decided to use them one more time before I take them down. Might as well get good use out of something...right?!? 

The folded tab made it super easy to hang it from the string with just a little bead of glue in the crease. 

On each penant, I punched circles out of coordinating paper and then glued the letters to spell "congrats" and our child's name. 

The glue wasn't drying fast enough to keep the flap down so I used a small peice of tape on the back of each penant. 

There was extra string at the ends so I tied some ribbon knots on each end of the banner. 

Random peices of ribbon tied in knots. 

You can see the little peice of tape on each penant to help hold the flap down until the glue dried. 

The penant looked perfect and was great for the little family/friend banana split party afterwards. 

The banner was so FUN for the little party. 

Such a fun banner and was a great way to show how proud we were of our son. It was a little something to show him that we love him. Love ya buddy! Best of all...I was SO glad that he liked it!