Craigslist

Hi, my name is Lauren and I am a Craigslist-a-holic.  I am always searching for a good deal on some new furniture piece to redo.  The freebies are my first go-to place to search.  So, imagine how excited I was to find a free "night stand".  There were actually two pictured and they were super cute!  To make a long story short I was to make the pick up at a hotel...um, no!  Now I will be reading secret code messages in every post!  Hubby said "dressers are okay, desks are okay, no more night stands!"  So all you Craigslist shoppers remember there are weirdos out there and be careful!

Now onto one of my latest redos.  I have wanted a side table for our living room couch and found this...

The feet sold me!  Aren't they cute!  She was bright white and in great shape.  I decided to try a new technique I had read about using Vaseline to make the distressing process easier.  I started out by painting the edges black with an acrylic paint...

Then I rubbed a very light coat of Vaseline on the areas I wanted to distress.  I sprayed the entire piece with Heirloom white, same as the coffee table base.  Once it was dry I sanded where the Vaseline was and wahlah!  So much easier!  I love it!!

I sprayed the knobby gloss black and put it all back together...

  Here she is in her place...

And for the fun part...

Yep, green drawer!  How fun is that!

One more exciting purchase recently...

Sanding has become much easier!

I have a new project I am excited to share soon, so stay tuned!

Master Bedroom Entry Table

Another furniture redo!!  So here is the story...Once upon a time there was a master bedroom that had an entry way.  This entry way was boring...see for yourself...

So I decided to check out Craigslist for a "something" to put there and found this table...

 

Not bad for $30, right?  I love the scalloped edges!  It needed some TLC, but I was wanting to paint it anyway so most of the issues would be covered.  Here are the scratches, dings, chips, and missing pieces...

As I was poking at it I opened the drawers and found "Hekman" burned into the wood.  Of course I had to Google "Hekman furniture" and long story short received some information on this table from the good people at Hekman.  This is a 1979 sofa table from the Flanders Collection...retail price in 1979 was $529! 

So now instead of paint brushes dancing before my eyes I had $$!  Our new options were to A) repair all the problem spots, sand it down, refinish it and sell it, B) same as A except keep it, C) forget the Hekman name and paint it anyway.  The reason it has taken so long for me to do anything with this piece is because I could not decide on A, B, or C.

My biggest issue was that I needed to use a fair amount of wood filler to clean up the damaged areas.  My experience with wood filler on Logan's dresser is that it does not stain the same as the rest of the wood.  Also, I was not sure how to fixed the broken piece of the webbing.  Luckily that last picture is on the back side.

After much debating with myself and with Hubby, I went with option C!  So glad I did.  I was able to finish in a couple days (remember all I have is nap time and a few hours in the evening! :).  I wanted a light color...all our furniture is soooo dark.  I also had an idea for the top from one of my favorite blogs, Domestic Imperfection.  She stenciled the tops of a couple tables and I really liked the look.  Check them out here. 

Here she is painted with Ivory Silk and then stenciled...

I hung up our picture, which will hopefully someday have a frame, and put a few things on her. 

The birdcage is the card holder from our wedding...yes I painted it!  Loving spray paint these days. :)  Any ideas on what to put in it?  So what do you think?  Was C the right choice?

Major Construction

Yes, you read that correctly.  Today we had some major construction going on.  Since all three of the kiddos are sick, we decided to stay home and get some serious work completed.

Believe me this was serious work.  Mommy is serious when it comes to her Lego's!  These are my old Lego's...the real Lego's...the build from your imagination Lego's.  Part way through the "Helicopter" Logan tells me "Mom, we need to read the directions."  Haha...guess he was having a hard time seeing it...

Looks like a helicopter to me.  How about this one...

Daddy's truck...looks like a four-door F150 to me.  And this...

I have no idea.  But it's cool!  Here is the masterpiece...

A castle with two round towers.  The one on the right is the dungeon and I don't know about the other one.

The door to check on the prisoners.

The way cool roof on the smaller tower.  Logan was very worried about the rain getting in. 

Now it is nap time...what else can I build?  ;)

Living Room Curtains

I have been staring at my empty curtain rod and my selected, cut, and pinned fabric for way to long!  All I had to do was get out the sewing machine and get busy.  Actually, the sewing machine was already out so all I had to do was get busy.  I finally did!  Here is a close up of my fabric...

The blue looks kind of bright in this picture, but it is actually more of a grey/blue.  Here it is all finished...

Here is a before and after...

 
I think they add alot to the room.  Now I just need to get busy on a few pillows for the couch...

Hi again!  Yes, I am still here!  I wish I had some great excuse for the huge pause in posts, but I don't.  I think my biggest problem is that I haven't been doing much in the way of projects.  We have been playing instead.  Especially with Logan starting school in September (how is that possible?!?!), we are trying to get in as much play time as possible these last few months/weeks.

Here we are at the park...
 

Love the glasses!!

And at the beach...

We also went the the zoo, but can you believe we didn't take a single picture.  It was over 100 degrees and there were bees.  That is my excuse!

Here are a few updates to some of our rooms.  Logan's dresser is now settled back in the boy's room.  Check out the makeover here, if you missed it.

 Have I mentioned that I LOVE how this dresser turned out?!

Please do not notice/pay attention to the pink closet doors...someday they will not be pink.

We also redid the guest room a little.  I found an AWESOME deal on bedding from Macy's and it matched our pictures perfectly!

Out with the old (it is now on our bed)

In with the new

I have started a little of my project in the guest closet as well.  I used the leftover wallpaper from Logan's dresser on the back wall and then put up a clothes rod.  Someday there will be more.  Like I said in an earlier post, I have plans for this closet!

From my grandma...love them!

I guess that is all for now.  Hopefully I will finish up a few more projects soon to share!