Happily Ever After

One of my “virtual friends” noted that I have been a little MIA lately…sorry about that! My furniture projects tend to slack off in the winter months; it’s just too cold to paint outside! And then sometimes…life happens. Last weekend I got a nasty bout of strep throat, and then, being the caring, sharing person that I am…I proceeded to pass it along to two of my boys and my husband! Then my daughter tripped going UP the stairs at her school and gave herself a nasty sprained ankle, so she is in a boot and on crutches for the next few weeks. Whew! It’s been quite a week!
But I do have a project to share!

I had a niece who was getting married in December (yes, it already happened), and I made a simple copy of a beautiful wedding sign I had seen on etsy (note: the link to the original sign has been removed at the creator's request).

Using another of my salvaged cupboard doors (you can see other cupboard door projects here, here, and here), I base-coated the door black, then used my Silhouette to cut vinyl out for the words (those are the blue letters you see).

I brushed plain white glue on the board, and let it dry for a few minutes until it was just tacky.

(Note: you can also use a purchased crackle medium for this step, and to be honest—I think it works better. It’s not that expensive—especially if you “borrow” it from a friend! But use what you have on hand. Or what your friends have on hand.)

Then I painted a creamy white paint over the board, sticky glue, vinyl letters, and all! While the paint was still wet, I removed the vinyl.

You can see that the edges are a little rough, but that can be cleaned up with paint later if necessary. However, since the board will also get sanded and glazed, it’s not really a big deal!

The crackle finish takes a while to really show itself, but it’s so cool when it does!

At my niece’s wedding reception, the sign was displayed on a large floor easel right outside the door. It was super cute!

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Linking up here:

Coastal Charm’s Nifty Thrifty Tuesday	Elizabeth & Co.
Domestically Speaking’s Power of Paint	Stylish Once Again
Hookin’ Up with House of Hepworths	No Minimalist Here’s Open House Thursday
Friday Remodelaholic	2805
My Simple Home Life’s Simple Creations Friday	Miss Mustard Seed’s Furniture Feature Friday
Funky Junk’s Saturday Night Special	The DIY Show Off
Primitive & Proper	I Heart Naptime
Beyond the Picket Fence’s Under $100 Party	My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia
Perfectly Imperfect	{Primp}
Mod Vintage Life	My Repurposed Life
Too Much Time on My Hands	It’s So Very Cheri
Common Ground	Simply Klassic Sundays

The “Painted Hive” Coffee Table

Last fall I was contacted by Shelby, who was interested in having me re-do a coffee table for her. She wondered, “Had I ever seen the round table at The Painted Hive?”

Have I ever!

Kristine’s beautiful furniture makeovers are an integral part of my Pinterest “Great Furniture” folder!

Shelby brought me this lovely coffee table which she had found on KSL.com, and asked me to refinish it ala “Painted Hive,” although slightly less distressed.

The base was painted in a Behr Ultra paint color-matched to Sherwin-Williams “Creamy” paint. The top is stained with three coats of Minwax Antique Walnut stain, and then I hand-distressed and glazed the base to bring a little “age” to the piece.

I love the way the white shelf looks on the bottom!

Shelby also brought me this little pine table to get a similar makeover.

She planned on replacing the knob herself, so her it sits—knobless…

…but I think it will be a great complement to the “Painted Hive” coffee table!

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Linking up here:

Coastal Charm’s Nifty Thrifty Tuesday	Elizabeth & Co.
Domestically Speaking’s Power of Paint	Stylish Once Again
Thrifty Décor Chick	No Minimalist Here’s Open House Thursday
Friday Remodelaholic	2805
My Simple Home Life’s Simple Creations Friday	Miss Mustard Seed’s Furniture Feature Friday
Funky Junk’s Saturday Night Special	The DIY Show Off
Primitive & Proper	I Heart Naptime
Beyond the Picket Fence’s Under $100 Party	My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia
Perfectly Imperfect	{Primp}
Simply Klassic Sundays	My Repurposed Life
	It’s So Very Cheri
Common Ground

Lighten up!

I truly love this 15-pane window that I have hanging on my kitchen wall. I usually try to change it up a few times over the course of the year, but I’ve wanted to do something a little lighter and brighter for a while now.

So after Christmas, I just left my funky twiggy garland and some red beads hanging up for a while…

…until one day the mood STRUCK and I got out the paintbrush! I slapped two shades of white on, sanded lightly, and glazed it with some dark brown stain…

…added a little Valentine’s day sign: “Be Mine Forever”…

I love how it sounds like a command!

…and I think I like the new look! How about you?

Love Makes the World Go Round

I just barely got around to showing my post-Christmas buffet, but now it’s been changed up for Valentine’s Day!
The jumping-off point for me was when I found an out-of-date globe at the thrift store. I painted it with chalkboard spray paint, and wrote “Love makes the world go round” on it. I wish I was one of those people who had beautiful handwriting (especially on a chalkboard)—but alas, it is not one of my gifts!
I covered five balls with strips of maps cut out of an old atlas I found at a garage sale. They make interesting little globes, as long as you don’t expect them to be geographically accurate!

Using my Silhouette, I cut out a bunch of hearts from the same old atlas, and sewed them together to make a banner.


Other map hearts were sewn together in pairs, then folded to make a 3D “ornament” for my twigs leftover from the funky twiggy garland I made for Christmas.

My other globe got to join the display, with a few more map spheres.

I tried to go along with the ‘theme” by writing, “The best place to be is wherever YOU are” for my family. Quite frankly, I don’t think they ‘got’ it!

So I have to ask…do you ‘get’ the theme?

Maybe it only makes sense in MY head!

Happy Valentine’s Day!

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Linking up here:

Coastal Charm’s Nifty Thrifty Tuesday	It’s So Very Cheri
Common Ground	My Repurposed Life
Hookin’ Up with House of Hepworths	{Primp}
Elizabeth & Co.	2805
My Simple Home Life’s Simple Creations Friday	Miss Mustard Seed’s Furniture Feature Friday
Funky Junk’s Saturday Night Special	DIY Show Off
Primitive & Proper	A Simply Klassic Home
Beyond the Picket Fence’s Under $100 Party

January Buffet (with a new treasure!)

First of all, thank you to all of you who responded with thoughtful comments, encouragement, and advice on our home situation! I can’t begin to tell you how much it means to me.

If you didn’t get a response back from me, that is because you don’t have an e-mail linked up to your account, and I would love for you to consider changing that situation!

We actually had an offer on our home today…for a mere $20,000 less than our asking price! We politely said, “No, thank you.” We’re motivated, but not desperate!

On to more fun things…

Do you remember my Christmas buffet?

Well, the stockings came down, and the hurricane lamps moved to other places. I pulled all of my poinsettias together, including the ones from the suitcase wall, and made a new arrangement:

It was simple and pretty, and highlighted my beautiful flowers…

…but it still seemed to be missing something.

Lucky for me, a brief stop at a new antique store revealed that perfect “something” to me!

Do you like my new sled?? I adore it!

My boys are disappointed that it is to be decorative rather than functional!

And guess what else?? Even my husband likes this one!

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Linking up to Brambleberry Cottage.

Home Goals: Find One!

There has been a lot of talk on various blogs of “home goals” in the last couple of weeks…usually that consists of a list of home improvement projects we would like to tackle in the coming year…

I’m not jumping on that particular bandwagon, because I’m not exactly sure where “home” is going to be!

You might remember that back in November my husband and I reached The Last Straw which led to listing our home for sale.

We decided that the time had come to look for a home that would suit our family’s needs (and wants, let’s be honest here) a little better.   When we  moved here over eight years ago, we really didn’t envision that this would be our forever home…but it’s not an easy thing to think of moving a family of eight anywhere!

So we found a home that we thought was “it,” and made an offer on it.  However, the purchase of that home was continent on the sale of our home, and that hasn’t happened yet.  In the meantime, another party—who doesn’t have a home to sell first—has made an offer on the same home, so it looks like they will get it instead of us!  <sigh>

Really, I have no hard feelings about that.  I don’t it was THE place for us, and I’m sure there will be another…

The question is…what to do next??

My dear husband is tired of talking about it, so I am turning to you, my dear virtual friends…  I know YOU have a wealth of greater experience, and I am hoping to draw on that.  I would so love any words of wisdom you can offer!

So, put yourself in my shoes. 

• You are lucky enough to have a husband who makes a comfortable income, and his job is about as secure as is possible in this economy.
• You have six children, ranging from 4 to 14.  You want your home to be a place where they will eventually bring spouses and grandchildren.
• You love for your home to be a family gathering place.  Having 24 people over for dinner is a common occurrence.
• You are very frugal, and have a difficult time spending large amounts of money!

So my first round of questions are these:

1. Which is more important, getting the best house for the money, or getting the best house for the most money you can reasonably afford?
2. Would you prefer to buy a pre-existing home or build one, and why?

I’m going to stop there for tonight!  If you’re willing, there will surely be another round of questions for the whole “build vs. buy” question at a later date!

Compass Coffee Table

Oh, coffee tables…how I have missed you…

After my coffee-table-painting-spree last spring (all beginning with the French Chocolate table), there has been a dearth of coffee tables in my life.

It’s been very sad.

OK, that’s not really the truth.  The truth is that this particular coffee table has been sitting around half-finished in my garage for months.  But my post-Christmas don’t-know-what-to-do-with-myself-itis finally made me get it done!

I fell in love with Vintage Revival’s painted compass rug back in…let’s see, I think it was May—and promptly saved it to my “bookmarks.”  (See, it was so long ago, it was pre-Pinterest!)

I thought the compass idea would be great for a table, so I went on the hunt for a round coffee table and found this one:

After sanding, I base-coated it white, but then I dry-brushed two or three (I can’t really remember anymore) other shades of white and cream onto it to give the color a little depth.

Then it sat…and sat…and sat…in my garage.  It got dusty and dirty; it got paint remover spilled on it…it got circles of stain from the stain can on it…

I call it “character–building.”

Finally this week I decided to just GITTER-DONE (ala Funky Junk)!  After touching up the paint, I generally followed Mandi’s tutorial, and with the aid of a yardstick and a 45-degree triangle, I drew my compass with a pencil.  (I also did a Google search for “how to find the center of a circle,” because I no longer remember.  I used the instructions here.)

Guess what?  You can erase pencil marks off of paint pretty good.  Thank heavens.

I painted the compass design with plain old acrylic paint, while crawling around on the floor next to the table.  My knees are still sore. 

I don’t really have too many intermediate pictures…sorry; my kids have to go to school sometimes…so let’s just jump in to the “after,” OK?

The distressed the table pretty heavily, going down to the wood in places, but also showing off the layers of “white.” 

I glazed the whole thing with Jacobean stain mixed with Martha Stewart glazing medium.

I really, really love it!

Hmmm…maybe I should try this on a rug!

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This project has been featured at It’s So Very Cheri, Better After, Stylish Once Again, Elizabeth & Co., Bless My Nest, and…

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Linking up here:

Coastal Charm’s Nifty Thrifty Tuesday	Elizabeth & Co.
Domestically Speaking’s Power of Paint	Stylish Once Again
Hookin’ Up with House of Hepworths	No Minimalist Here’s Open House Thursday
Friday Remodelaholic	2805
My Simple Home Life’s Simple Creations Friday	Miss Mustard Seed’s Furniture Feature Friday
Funky Junk’s Saturday Night Special	The DIY Show Off
Primitive & Proper	Thrifty Décor Chick
Beyond the Picket Fence’s Under $100 Party	My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia
Perfectly Imperfect	{Primp}
Mod Vintage Life	My Repurposed Life
Too Much Time on My Hands	It’s So Very Cheri
Common Ground	Artsy Girl Connection

Painting by Numbers

My love affair with numbers on furniture is well-documented!

One of my earliest projects was a numbered--and lettered--desk and chair (click on images to be taken to the blog post):

Then there have been several sets of barstools:

A couple of tables (Roman numerals still count!):

…and even a chest of drawers.

So although I fell head over heels for this set of old wooden folding chairs at my favorite consignment shop last fall,

…I thought they could be improved a little—with numbers.

Yes, this is what I do with the nervous energy that remains after the holidays!

These chairs have been featured at It’s So Very Cheri and {Primp}!

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Linking up here:

Coastal Charm’s Nifty Thrifty Tuesday	Too Much Time on My Hands
Domestically Speaking’s Power of Paint
Hookin’ Up with House of Hepworths	No Minimalist Here’s Open House Thursday
Friday Remodelaholic	2805
My Simple Home Life’s Simple Creations Friday	Miss Mustard Seed’s Furniture Feature Friday
Funky Junk’s Saturday Night Special	The DIY Show Off
Primitive & Proper	I Heart Naptime
Beyond the Picket Fence’s Under $100 Party	My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia
Perfectly Imperfect	{Primp}
Mod Vintage Life	My Repurposed Life
	It’s So Very Cheri
Common Ground

Two-Tone Table

I actually wanted to call this the “Two-Friends-Two-Tone-Table,” but that was kind of a mouthful!

Once upon a time, one of my dear friends got it into her head that she wanted me to refinish a dining set for her.  The fact that she lives 750 miles away from me was no deterrent to her…nor was the fact that she has never physically seen any of the pieces I have refinished.  She was determined!

So the search began—long distance and on-line—to find a suitable table.  We were on a tight budget, since her husband is one of the nation’s many unemployed.

Enter Friend 2.  Upon hearing of our search, she offered to let me have a vintage dining set that had belonged to her husband’s mother.  Yes, let me have.  As in—for free.  She knew it was for another friend of mine, and that they had no money.  So out of the goodness of her heart, she donated to our “cause.”

Friend 1 and Friend 2 don’t know each other, and probably will never meet.  But bless them both, for having faith in ME to put this little transaction together!

The table was completely disassembled when I first saw it, but I fell for the chunky legs…hard.

The table top has pull-out leaves on each end and a beautiful apron (it’s the piece on the right, leaning up against the dresser that later became yellow).

Plus a pretty stretcher (it’s not quite so blurry in real life).

And six chairs, one of which is an arm chair.

Friend 1 only ever saw the pictures, but she trusted me to bring this dining set into the current century!  I’m sure she had a few misgivings along the way, though!

There were a lot of loose joints and such, so I had to do some gluing (this Bessey clamp was a marvel to work with—I borrowed it from a friend, and almost didn’t give it back):

…as well as some creative repair work on the arm chair.  The dowel had broken off, so I used a 3/8” paddle bit to drill out the old dowel, and then I cut a new one to replace it and re-glued the arm back on the chair.

I enlisted some of my short help to sand chairs…

He looks thrilled, doesn’t he??

I sanded the table top completely down—you can see how dark the original finish was on the leaves! 

The rest of the table top was not in nearly that good of condition!

The grooves on the top of the table reminded me of a checkerboard, and inspired me to try a two-color staining job.  The only problem was that the grooves did not extend down the sides of the table top—but that was nothing a little work with a handsaw and some black paint couldn’t fix!

I painted the base of the table (and the chairs) black, and distressed them to highlight the turnings and carvings. 

The dark stain on the table is Minwax Antique Walnut, and the lighter stain is Pecan.

Here you can see it with both leaves extended.

I love how the checkerboard effect shows up even on the sides with the leaves closed.

I wasn’t brave enough to pick out fabric for the chairs for someone else, so with the help of another friend, we took lots of pictures of bolts of fabric and sent them (via iPhone) before she chose this pretty black floral/paisley print.

The fabric on the seats wasn’t really dirty or in bad condition, so I didn’t remove it—I just added a new layer of batting and stapled the new fabric over all…plus a bit of my sleeve…  (whoops!)

And there you have it:  the Two Tone Table!  I really love the look of it.  It wouldn’t have been bad at all in my now-empty front room…

…but alas…my friend came and took it away (yes, from 750 miles away). 

I hope it’s happy in its new home!

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Thanks to It’s So Very Cheri, Stylish Once Again, My Repurposed Life, and Simple Home Life for featuring this project!

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Linking up here:

Coastal Charm’s Nifty Thrifty Tuesday	Topsy Turvy Tuesdays
Domestically Speaking’s Power of Paint	Someday Crafts’ Whatever Goes Wednesday
Hookin’ Up with House of Hepworths	No Minimalist Here’s Open House Thursday
Friday Remodelaholic	2805
My Simple Home Life’s Simple Creations Friday	Miss Mustard Seed’s Furniture Feature Friday
Funky Junk’s Saturday Night Special	The DIY Show Off
Primitive & Proper	I Heart Naptime
Beyond the Picket Fence’s Under $100 Party	My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia
Perfectly Imperfect	{Primp}
Mod Vintage Life	My Repurposed Life
Stylish Once Again	It’s So Very Cheri
Common Ground	Thrifty Décor Chick