Buchanan’s Nursery

My wonderful friend and next-door neighbor had a beautiful baby boy recently.  Today I thought I’d share the beautiful nursery she created for him.  We had lots of fun running back and forth sharing opinions and ideas for this fun room in the months before he was born!  <sigh>  Helping on a dedicated nursery like this makes me feel cheated that I didn’t get to do this for any of my six children!

The nursery walls were painted a soft gray, and she chose to use aqua and red for the main accent colors.

We spent probably two hours arranging and rearranging the elements for the gallery wall.  The two gears are not “real”—I think she got them at Hobby Lobby, but they’re much lighter than the real thing!  The rusty lock and key is a real railroad heirloom, though.

This was my main contribution to the nursery!  She wanted a sign reminiscent of an old-time train logo, and this is what we came up with.  The cupboard door I used had already been painted aqua, so I used the vaseline trick before the coat of red paint so you could see the aqua underneath.

The old train on the shelf is a family treasure, as are the wonderful old lanterns.  The old fan was a “treasure” un-earthed from my garage!

My friend has a very talented seamstress aunt who made a new cover for the glider rocker.  I need an aunt like that!

And this is baby Buchanan.  I like to cuddle him under my chin and revel in that fuzzy baby head!

This project featured at The DIY Show Off.

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Linking up here:

Domestically Speaking	Elizabeth & Co.
No Minimalist Here
Friday Remodelaholic	2805
My Simple Home Life’s Simple Creations Friday
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Beyond the Picket Fence	Someday Crafts
Knick of Time Mod Vintage Life	My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia
Perfectly Imperfect	{Primp}
Common Ground	My Repurposed Life
From My Front Porch to Yours	All Star Block Party A Little Knick Knack
Cowgirl Up!	{aka} design Coastal Charm

Moving On

I have finally showed off my laundry room…

…and the living room…

…and the workshop.

Is there a reason for this sudden burst of sharing, you ask?

Well, yes, there is.

Remember when we were trying to sell our home last fall?  And then in the spring we decided it was not the right time?

Everything happens for a reason.

You see, my husband was recently offered his dream job in Seattle.

So we’re moving.

For real this time!

So if I’m a little MIA, you’ll understand.  I’ve been spending a lot of time getting our home ready to sell.  Is it breaking my heart to leave, after all the improvements we’ve made this year…especially my beautiful workshop? 

Yes!

But is it exciting to think of a new adventure, a new home, new projects, and most importantly…a happy husband??

Yes, to that as well!

Wish us luck!

The Workshop, Part 5

In case you missed the previous entries:

• Workshop, Part 1
• Workshop, Part 2
• Workshop, Part 3
• Workshop, Part 4

It’s been a long, long time since I posted anything about the workshop.  I have been enjoying it, though! 

When last I left you, I showed the freshly painted interior…next step was to fill it up!

And fill it up…we did!

My good friend and neighbor Michael J., who is often my co-conspirator in the big projects, reached an agreement with me.  I had space and no tools.  He had tools and no space.  So we decided to combine forces and make the workshop “ours!”   Between the two of us, this is what we came up with.

See all these great tools on this wall??  Yeah, none of them are mine!   OK, the air compressor is…but I have certainly enjoyed using them!  (In the corner is a dust collector, with my air compressor in front of it.  On the left of that is a band saw, and left of that is the most awesome table saw.)

Next we come to my paint corner, with eleventy-twelve cans of paint!  There are shelves sized to hold spray paint, sample pots, quarts, and gallons.  They go up so high I have to use the ladder to get to the top shelves!  Oh, it just makes me giddy!  And underneath, there is a rolling cart with a scroll saw on it.  That is mine (I bought it from Michael J.), but I’ve never used it.   But I can start anytime I want to!!

See those two big sheets of peg board?  They make me giddy too!  For you see…

You can open one side…

…or both, and access tons of hide-away storage!  Isn’t it beautiful??

This is one of Michael’s brain-children.  He built a unit like this in his garage, and I fell in love with it!

Moving on, we have a lathe, which I have used once and can’t wait to try again sometime.  Then there’s a nice big workbench, which we literally rolled down the middle of the street on casters (from Michael’s garage to my workshop) to get here.  I’m sure it was a funny sight!

I love all the pegboad for holding small tools, and there’s a magnet board just above the lathe.  I store stains on the shelf up-top, as you aren’t supposed to store paint and stain too near each other.

I have a utility sink in here, although it’s never been hooked up properly.  When Michael hooked it up, it leaked a little.  After I tried to fix it, it leaked A LOT!  And we’ve never gotten back to it since.  The drill press in the corner?  Yeah, it’s not mine!

You may be able to see out the open garage door that the concrete apron has finally been poured!  It only took three months, but it’s gorgeous now.

The only thing left to do to the exterior is to paint it, but I honestly don’t know that that will happen this fall.  It’s not the painting that intimidates me…it’s all the caulking! 

Anybody wanna come help??

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This project has been featured at the All-Star Block Party.

 

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Linking up here:

	Elizabeth & Co.
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My Simple Home Life’s Simple Creations Friday
Funky Junk’s Saturday Night Special	The DIY Show Off
Beyond the Picket Fence
	My Repurposed Life
From My Front Porch to Yours	All Star Block Party A Little Knick Knack
Cowgirl Up!	{aka} design

My Living Room

I am giving up! 

Despite my best intentions, I don’t think there is ever going to be a time when I manage to show my living room projects piece-by-piece with a grand reveal at the end.  I am just not that blogger.

So here it is, folks.  My living room, dressed up for fall.

If you don’t like orange, it may not be your cup of tea…but I love it.

This is what my living room looked like just before Christmas last year.  We previously owned a sectional, but I sold it so the French Chocolate coffee table would fit in the room!  Pretty much the only seating we had at this point was the couch and my husband’s recliner, though, and there are eight of us!  And…it was too dark for me.  That’s what led to the grand living room re-design of 2012!

…and yes, it actually happened in about…May.  I’m a little behind in posting 

I lightened up the wall color with SW Nantucket Dune.  I tried out…no kidding…12 different paint colors before settling on this one.  My walls were very colorful for a while.

I was fortunate to sell our leather couch for exactly what I had paid for it a year ago.  The proceeds from that, our Costco rebate card, and  a little tax refund money allowed me to order the new couch, loveseat, ottoman and chair from Rowe furniture.  I am very happy with them…they are pretty AND comfortable!

I found a telescope at our local thrift store, and turned it into a lamp for the corner of the room.  I love it!  Just wish I could figure out how to hide the cord…

My map chest gets to stay in the room.  It’s still one of my favorite pieces.

I love the look of some colorful pumpkins and gourds on the mirrored tray.

I found this great ceiling tile when we were in Montana for Christmas.  I tacked it to a frame of 1x2’s so I could hang it on the wall.  I also “embellished” the coloring a little to give it some highlights and interest.

My little hand-knit pumpkins make an appearance every year.  They were one of my first learn-to-knit projects a few years ago.  And don’t worry—the French chocolate coffee table just moved downstairs to the family room!

I made several of the pillows in the room…the medallion one on the left, the green one on the chair, and the Hungarian grain sack ones in the basket, plus a couple of others you can’t see right here.  I am becoming a pillow nut!  I wish I could change them out monthly!

You saw my shutters last time.  The room started out with the flea market and farmers market canvases hanging on either side of the shutters, but for fall I switched them out for the sunrise “We can do no great things” canvas and this one…

…which I painted just for fall!  Yeah, it’s not great art, but I like it.

Thanks for visiting with me!

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Linking up here:

Domestically Speaking	Elizabeth & Co.
No Minimalist Here	Thrifty Decor Chick
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My Simple Home Life’s Simple Creations Friday
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Beyond the Picket Fence	Someday Crafts
Knick of Time Mod Vintage Life	My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia
Perfectly Imperfect	{Primp}
Common Ground	My Repurposed Life
From My Front Porch to Yours	All Star Block Party A Little Knick Knack
Cowgirl Up!	{aka} design Coastal Charm

Shutters

Serendipity was with me one day when I visited a local thrift shop, and I came across a set of three shutters.

They had obviously been painted before, as I could see a little bit of yellow underneath a dirty green color.  As I was on the hunt for something to fill a little wall space in my living room, I decided to take them home with me.

Luckily I always have a little paint on hand  ;-)

I used some sample pots of some other greens to give them a little more color.  (Yes I know it’s hard to tell the difference, but it’s there.)

Then I slapped on some orange acrylic paint…

I used vaseline on some of the colored areas, also concentrating on the edges.  It makes the funny little patches you see in the next coat of black (and for the black I used spray paint—I am an equal-opportunity painter).

With your bare hands, you can simply rub the paint off wherever the vaseline was to show the colors underneath.

      

Next I used more vaseline, then a coating of creamy white paint—plus a few splashes of some more green and even a little gray.  I think all together I used about 7 different colors of paint on these shutters! 

And this, my lovelies, is the finished product.  I love how it turned out!  I adore the chippy-ness of the finish and the layers of color. 

These hang above my couch…in my living room that has been completed for months…that I have never show you…

…I’m going to try to resolve that this week!

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Linking up here:

Domestically Speaking	Elizabeth & Co.
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Beyond the Picket Fence	Someday Crafts
Knick of Time Mod Vintage Life	My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia
Perfectly Imperfect	{Primp}
Common Ground	My Repurposed Life
From My Front Porch to Yours	All Star Block Party A Little Knick Knack
Cowgirl Up!	{aka} design Coastal Charm

Poison Control

I have to admit it—Halloween is growing on me.  Two years ago I put up a few small decorations in a “nod” to Halloween—the first in something like 16 years of marriage!  Last year, I put up a few more decorations.  This year…well, of course I had to expand yet again!

I fell in love with Down to Earth Style’s mantel, which included a very, very cool vintage-style “Poison” sign.

I loved it. 

It loved me. 

I had to make one.  THAT VERY DAY!

(Hers came from HomeGoods.  I designed this one on my Silhouette.)

Of course, that was only the beginning of my temporary insanity…

I used the free Harry Potter Potions labels from Over the Big Moon to spookify my collection of old bottles…

…and a free printable book cover from chickabug to turn a hardback book into a magical tome…

…along with a couple of oil lamps and a creepy-crawly or two, I have an appropriately creepy Halloween display!

And can I tell you how much fun it was to play with the Halloween overlays and enhancements on PicMonkey?

Lots!

Poison…may cause death…or heartburn!

This sign is also available for purchase in my Etsy shop.

This project has been featured at the All-Star Block Party or Mod Vintage Life.

 

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Linking up here:

Domestically Speaking	Elizabeth & Co.
Friday Remodelaholic	2805
My Simple Home Life’s Simple Creations Friday
Funky Junk’s Saturday Night Special	The DIY Show Off Stone Gable
Beyond the Picket Fence	Someday Crafts
Knick of Time Mod Vintage Life	My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia
Perfectly Imperfect	{Primp}
Common Ground	My Repurposed Life
From My Front Porch to Yours	All Star Block Party A Little Knick Knack
Cowgirl Up!	{aka} design Coastal Charm

Foil Bombay Chest

So I have a wonderful friend who suffers from the same ailment I have…

furniture addiction.

Sometimes hers gets so bad that she feels a little overwhelmed (I don’t know WHAT that might be like), and she has to dispose of some furniture or be buried in it (seriously, not WITH it…IN it).
I try to help her out by transferring some of her stash from her house to mine.  Aren’t I a good friend??
Here is a piece that came home with me a few weeks ago.  And this is exactly what it looked like.

My friend was in the midst of trying to rescue it from a bad paint job, but it was a mess!  The paint was peeling off in places, and sticking like glue to others.  It was going to me a major pain in the pantooka to either sand or strip all that paint off—and it just didn’t appeal to me in the least!

 So I went with “Plan B.”

 Last summer I experimented with a foil finish for a couple of thrift-store nightstands—using real live aluminum foil!

You can read more about it here:  Bling for the Bedroom.

I had been thinking about it because, for whatever reason, this little project has been extremely popular on Pinterest lately!  It seemed like a perfect solution to covering up the bad finish without having to remove it all.

If you’re interested in more of a step-by-step description of the process, see the nightstand project, or check out the Ivy Cottage’s tutorial on covering her wall with foil (Amanda was my original inspiration).

Here I am slathering wallpaper paste and foil on this Bombay chest.  You have to press down firmly, doing your best to remove all the air pockets.  It’s tricky on details trim.

And a word of warning…tin-foil-cuts are every bit as painful as paper-cuts, and they happen a LOT more often!

Oooh…nearing the finish line!

Once the foil is on and everything is dry, scrub off the paste residue with a damp cloth.  There will be a lot of it.  Then use a drop or two of acrylic paint (straight up, not diluted) to glaze the surface.

I chose not to try to cover the feet with foil.  They are painted with Rustoleum Metallic Aluminum paint, and glazed with black in the hopes that they will “blend in” with the rest of the piece.

Ready for some beauty shots? 

It really shines in the sun!

The whole piece is covered with 3 coats of polyacrylic.  It gives a nice, smooth finish—but beware, it will always be a little fragile!

The knobs came from Hobby Lobby. 

So there you have it!  I think this would be a super fun piece for an entry, don’t you?

  

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This project has been featured at Apartment Therapy, Bless My Nest, and Beyond the Picket Fence.

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Linking up here:

Domestically Speaking	Elizabeth & Co.
Primitive & Proper	Thrifty Décor Chick
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
Beyond the Picket Fence	Someday Crafts
Knick of Time Mod Vintage Life	My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia
Perfectly Imperfect	{Primp}
Common Ground	My Repurposed Life
From My Front Porch to Yours	All Star Block Party A Little Knick Knack
Cowgirl Up!	{aka} design Coastal Charm