Secretary Desk/Dresser Redo

I mentioned in my last post that I have been working on another furniture redo.  Well, here she is...

She was in sad shape when Mom and I picked her up (yes, another Craigslist find).  There were huge water stains on the top, randomly drilled holes, the inside was all scratched up, there was a large chunk missing in one area, and two corners were broken off of one of the drawers.  Oh, and she smelled!  I opened the drop down desk and the perfume just about knocked me out.  So here are the before pictures...

You can smell it can't you?

Even with all the dents, scratches, and smells I loved the look.  The curvy top, the awesome legs.

I really wanted to stain the top, but I was not sure I would be able to with all the water damage.  It took some serious sanding, but I was able to sand all the rings out.  I am embarrassed to admit it, but I was sore the next day.  Pathetic, I know.  I filled in all the holes and rebuilt the broken areas.

I cleaned the hardware with Brasso.  Amazing stuff! 

I stained the top, inside, and bottom a dark walnut and then painted everything else a midnight blue.  I really like the way she turned out.

Look!  No rings!

She is now for sale!

What do you think?

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Little Things

I know it has been a long time since my last post, but I have a really good excuse!  We have been sick, sick, and more sick.  Big brother started with a cold, then little brother got it, then sister got it, and then mom got it.  We went to AZ for a long weekend and shared our cold with our relatives there and they shared some nasty virus called Herpengina, fever and then a very sore throat.  So once again big brother got it, little brother got it, sister got it, Grammy got it, and then mom got it.  Notice daddy never got anything!!  Lucky duck!  Good thing since he has to go off to work.  Anyway I thought I would post a few pictures of some of the little things I have done around the house.

I found this chair for a steal on Craigslist.  I love the shape!  Eventually I would like to recover it; it was once friends with a cat and there is evidence mainly on the backside.

I rearranged the living room so that the patterned chair was not right next to the patterned curtains.

I hung up a couple things in the corner.  The little boy picture is from my Grandma.  The mat is purple, so someday that will need to be changed, but let's just pretend it matches okay for the time being.  :)  I would like to find some kind of corner something, but I am not sure what at this point.  Any ideas?

 
I hung up these wall sconces in the entryway.  They are also from my Grandma.

See that little strip of blue around the corner?  Yep, my most recent furniture redo.  It's not quite done, but I am really excited to show it to you guys! 

I hung up the hall pictures.  We have a lot more hall wall space in this house, so I will need some more pictures eventually.

I found something similar to this on Pinterest and had fun making my own version.  It has birthdays and anniversaries of our friends and family.

This is the above the hip shot because everything below the hip is a mess.  :)

These are some signs I made for the laundry room before we even moved into the house.

Another above the hip shot...same reason.

 

Well, that's it for now.  Now that we are all completely almost better I will try to be better with my posting.  Keep your fingers crossed we stay healthy!

This One's For You Reta!

I have had a special request to show some pictures of my mom's new house.  So here we go on a house tour...

The entry...

 

Living room (Bookshelves built by me!  Okay, so they were from Ikea and all I needed was a level, hammer, and screwdriver, but still be impressed! :)

Dining room...

Back bedroom/office...apparently this will be your room Reta...you like the purple Mom said.

Master bedroom...

 

There are a few other rooms not pictured, but I was working on a project for Mom and so they were not presentable.  (According to Mom :) 

Hope you enjoyed!

Kitchen Chairs

I have been keeping my eyes open for some bar stools for our kitchen.  The kids like to eat at their little table for breakfast and lunch and so I have been standing at the counter.  I mentioned to Hubby that it would be nice to have a couple chairs there for us.  So during my craigslist searching I found these...

 

For free!  I couldn't believe it!  Two of them are plain, but the one with the lighter seat has some really cool wood carvings...

The seats were pretty grundgy.



Last week Hubby went away for work for a few days and so I got busy.  I covered the seats with canvas left over from fixing the roll top desk and then stenciled on a cool design. 

 

 

I then painted them a blue/gray.  I love the softness of this color.  I distressed the edges and then glazed them.  The glaze really makes the wood carvings stand out.

 

 

They are so much more bright and cheerful now!  Not bad for less than $10!

 

  

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Elizabeth & Co.