First off, a big thanks to those of you who provided input about the crib in my last post. Although it could be absolutely beautiful if restored, I've decided to concede to safety and go with a re-purpose. After all, we have safety guidelines for a reason. I have an idea brewing that I hope will still be a wowzer.
Today I am adding this cute set of three bar stools to my shop. I wasn't with it enough to remember the before pic for these, but they started out as your average pine kitchen stools that were generously donated to my ever-growing junk project pile after a kitchen remodel. While they were still in great shape, these girls needed a serious wardrobe update.
The curve at the top of the back and the turned spindles made them seen a little dated and maybe a little too country. Now don't get me wrong, I love pretty country style. This just wasn't it. So I used a cream base with french blue accents to bring them out of bad country and into good country. They've each got some random stripes on the seats with a dark walnut stain, distressing, and polycrylic for protection and a bit of shine.
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The shiny brass ring around the bottom of each stool was a necessary blemish for support reasons. So I changed them to oil rubbed bronze. It made a HUGE difference.
Each stool swivels and is standard counter height (not the taller bar height). The measurements are 36" from the floor to the top of the stool and 25" from the floor to the seat.
Grab the whole set for only $75!
Thanks for thinking of me Katie! I hope I did them justice.
As mentioned in my previous post, I'm currently recovering from a giant butt-kicker of a summer and fall and am trying to get back to work. I have a couple of projects brewing, but one of them poses a conundrum for me. It's this beauty here:
An awesome vintage solid wood crib with beautiful detail and inset panels on each end. I about hyperventilated and peed my pants when I found it. I swear, if Zoe wasn't halfway through her crib usage, it would be hers.
It is totally sturdy, with all metal parts. Tyler laughed that its probably in better shape than either of the plastic-part cribs our kids have slept in. I have amazing plans dancing through my head. So here is the question of the hour: If you felt that it was completely safe and sturdy, would you buy and use a vintage crib? What if it was all rebuilt? Or is it better used in a re-purposed way? I also have some ideas floating around for that, but I would love love love to refinish and sell it as a crib. I just think it's gorgeous. Please people! Give me some input!
And there's also this little girl with her guts hanging out. Hopefully I can remedy that. Stay tuned.
I recently finished this sweet little desk for a client, my cute friend Brooke. I have a lot of cute friends :) It started out a dated golden oak but had pretty lines and was nice and solid.
She wanted bright white, with just a little distressing and some dark glaze to add a little balance to a 12 year-old girl's bedroom with brand new, glossy white furniture and a shabby chandy.
She'll add new hardware and a fun upholstered chair.
I also painted and glazed two of these shelves with stained pegs to hang above the desk. (Sorry for my lack of good pictures. This summer and fall seriously kicked my butt. I'm hopeful the butt-kicking is mostly over.)
Brooke has fabulous taste and is currently in the process of building up her design portfolio. I hope this helps a little! Thanks Brooke!
More pink! It seems when I did these tables, I may have created a very pink-very cute-monster. But that's ok, I really like pink monsters.
Another project for my ever-adorable friend, miss Lindsey. She had two matching twin beds from her childhood that she wanted to paint for her two equally-adorable little girls. Here is the before of one of them:
The perfect shape, just a little flowery and beat up. She wanted pink and cream with dark walnut stain and distressing again, to go with dresser that I recently refinished for her.
I may never get tired of this particular monster. It is so very sweet. Plus, keep in mind that when the bed is all made, with the box spring, mattress, duvet and pillows a lot of the pink on the headboard will be covered up. I think that'll keep it from being too much. You'll get just a hint, which is what we are going for.
The inside of the foot board, which again, will be mostly covered with bedding. But I wanted the consistency.
Lindsey is going to tackle the other bed herself. Last we talked the plan was gray where this bed is cream and cream where this bed is pink. Won't that be gorgeous?! I'm sure she'll do a fabulous job and I can't wait to see it! Please send me some pics of both rooms when you get them put together, Lindsey!
Thanks! It is always so much fun to work with you!
Yes, long time no blog. What can I say- sometimes life takes you by surprise and plans change. So I was so happy when my super cute cousin called. She is having her first baby girl! Yay! When Kellie asked if some of her boys' nursery furniture could be done to look like this dresser and the Molly tables, I was so excited! I'm loving how they turned out. Without further ado...
The crib:
You would never know that this crib used to be chocolate brown and live in big brother's room. White with pink accents and a dark walnut stain-nothing brother about it now!
With no dust ruffle, the under bed storage trundle will be getting the spotlight. I added a pretty little applique for another fun touch of pink.
After all the painting and staining was said and done, I distressed, distressed, distressed. But don't worry- all that chippy goodness is completely baby-proofed and sealed in with a clear polycrylic.
Just love.
Kellie also brought me this adorable bookshelf and hutch that was hers as a little girl. It was all white and in good condition, but I just had to add some fun to pink it up a little more.
I added my favorite pattern on the back panels, then stained and distressed the whole thing.
She plans on adding pink glass knobs like those I used on Lindsey's dresser.
In real life the pink is softer than in the pics. I amped it up just a little to make it easier to see on a screen.
Kellie, thank you so much! I hope that you and baby girl love it! And I wouldn't hate some pictures of it all put together sometime, either :)
If you were here with me as a I run through my daily list of favorite blogs, you would know that 6th Street Design School by Kristen Krason is one that I never, ever miss. She is an adorable and hugely talented interior designer here in Utah. I'm always in love with everything she does. So you can imagine my extreme excitement when I opened her blog this morning and saw this:
It's been recovered in the most perfect fabric for the room. Love it. And of course, I also still love the legs and apron with their chippy layers of paint. It's not often that I get to see how something looks when it goes home with someone, so I'm so excited to see it in this beautiful room! You can read the whole post about the rest of the room here. She did an awesome job!
A kind of long while ago the very sweet Caroline from cw frosting awarded me with the Kreative Blogger Award! How flattering is that?! I sincerely apologize that it has taken me so long to aknowledge this kind award. With summer here, things have been crazy.
Thank You Thank You Thank You Caroline!
In order to participate, the rules, I believe, are that I tell 10 things about myself, and bestow the award to 10 deserving blogs, who then do the same. Scroll down to visit the worthy recipients :)
For my version of 10 Things About Me (which is I'm sure way more boring info than you want to know) I'm going to fess up and tell you about my addictions. Serious addictions. I have a lot of them. Its a problem.
Pepsi, Pepsi, and more Pepsi. Ah Sweet Nectar. Sad but true: a Pepsi with a good burn is often what gets me through the day.
2. Flip flops and sandals. While I can (try to) totally rock a nice boot or heel, I have a super casual life and as a result have developed a major weakness for cute flip flops and/or sandals. If I didn't live in Utah, I would wear them every single day of the year, and have divided them all into two categories-"dressy" (non-rubber) and "regular" (rubber). Of he several pairs that I've recently purchased, these are my current favorites-Dressy bronze leather (faux, probably) with bronze flowers from Old Navy.
3. Sugar. Need to get a handle on this one. Anything sweet, especially baked. Especially chocolate. But really, anything with lots of sugar will do.
4. My IPhone. I used to be really, really annoyed that my husband's phone is permanently attached to his hand. Also, I swore I never wanted a smartphone. Why on earth would I need the Internet on my phone? For all my super important meetings? Cut to this past Christmas, when he talked me into one. Oh boy. LOVE. Pretty sure that I can never go back.
5. Bravo TV. The Real Housewives. Any of them. I know, its trashy. Its a total waste of time. I shouldn't. But that's what makes it soooo good.
6. The big wide world of design blogging. As we all know, be careful. If you get sucked in, you will never be the same again. Large chunks of time will disappear from your day. Its awesome and inspiring and awesome some more. So much pretty. So much talent.
7. Design magazines. I'm far from professional, but I could drink up just about anything to do with design. And as much as I love blogs, there's just something about being able to hold the magazine in your hand and flip the pages.
8. Country music. The good and the cheesy. I love pretty much any music, but I grew up on country and its still my fav. I might be partly hick. Oh well.
Yep, I'm totally down with Alabama:)
9. Old crappy furniture and paint. I know that seems like two addictions, but for me they go hand in hand, and have for years.
10. Going to the movies. Hands down one of my favorite things to do. I make it a point to go to a late show with my sister and sis-in-law on a regular basis. Those girls are fun. My sister has been known to sneak an entire box of eclairs in her purse. Not that we would eat an entire box. Ha! Guess you'll never know.
So now you know my weaknesses. Some of them.
And here are the 10 lovely bloggers who are more than award-worthy themselves:
There are so many incredible blogs out there I wasn't sure how to choose. My biggest love in this arena is re-creating furniture, so I tried to seek out bloggers I admire who also refinish furniture.
I actually really like this area just off my kitchen. But as you can see in the picture, it contains a very lot of doors. The laundry door, the power room door, the garage door and a door in the mudroom right where I am standing to take the picture that closes the whole area off from the rest of the house. For four years we have almost never closed that last mudroom door. Mostly it just swings inward and conveniently bangs into the garage door every single time a person attempts to enter through it. Every. Single. Time. To the point that the door knobs like to catch on each other and occasionally try to rip each other out of their respective doors. So the other day, a light bulb dawned in my brain. We need to take that door away! Yes, it took four years for that bright idea. So after waiting for about two seconds for Tyler to get around to doing it, I just woke up one morning and took that door right off the hinges all by myself. And...I LOVE IT! Why the crap didn't I do this four years ago?
And as always happens when I have finished furniture for sale patiently waiting under sheets at my house, I can't resist playing around a little. This is the beautiful vintage dresser I finished last month. I am drooling over how awesome it looks in the mudroom. Not to mention the storage! But alas, it is still for sale in my shop.
I have a before picture of the mudroom with the door and the bench that usually lives there, but blogger insists on loading it sideways! Why?!?
Now I have some patching and painting to do. Blah. But worth it. And a tip learned through trial and error from a door-remover novice? If you are permanently removing the door from the frame, just leave the hinges attached to the door and unscrew the whole thing from the frame. That way you're not removing twice the number of screws. Unless that's not the correct way to go about it. Then that's not what I did at all.
Just a silly picture from the playing around. I love this picture of me and my dad when I was little. Yes the bow is whatever. And a tarnished butter dish from Tyler's grandma that I will probably never put butter in. But it makes a gorgeous little spot in which to put keys and such when coming in and out of the house.
So what lesson have we learned here? We have learned that just because the builder put it there, doesn't mean it belongs there. After about eight minutes with a drill, I have a lot more light and a lot less door in my life.
A few weeks ago my cute friend Lindsey took one of the Molly Tables home to live in the room shared by her two little girlies. She mentioned that they were also sharing a dresser that had belonged to her husband as a little boy, and that she'd like to it have refinished to match the table. Remember how the Molly Tables were all pink and cream and girly curves? Well, a few days later she dropped off this dresser:
Can you say Total Opposite of pink and cream and girly curves? And then she said something along the lines of, "Oh, just do whatever you think will make it look good with the table." Hmm. It took a few days of contemplation. Here is what I came up with:
I thought about white with pink drawers, pink with white drawers, white top, pink bottom you name it. None of it seemed right for this piece. Because the dresser has a completely different shape than the tables, I didn't want to do an exact replica of their paint job. I decided it would be best to keep a simple dresser simple and do something that would just "go". Besides, its not really chic for everything to be exactly matchy anyway. At least I'm pretty sure I've heard that around:)
So I painted the whole thing the same white as the tables, distressed it, stained it with the same Dark Walnut, and coated it in polycrylic.
To bring in the pink and a touch of girliness I played around with a bunch of appliques and ended up again keeping it pretty simple by adding just one, similar to those on the tables, painted that sweet Ballet Slipper Pink and stained.
For fun and just a tiny bit of curve I added feet, and painted just the balls of them pink as well.
And of course pink glass knobs, the perfect finishing touch. Larger roses on the top three drawers and smaller round knobs on the rest.
Can you picture them living in a room together? I hope so.
