Chalk paint and refurbished table!

For my Birthday my sweet husband let me sign up for a furniture painting class!  I have painted many a pieces of furniture in my day so I am no amateur when it comes to this, However there is this new paint that I have heard people raving about called " Annie Sloan chalk paint"  so I decided to take this class and give it a try.  The place where I took the class is called the Faux finishing institute which seemed right up my alley. I was very excited to sign up for the course and I hope to possibly take more courses there in the future.  For the class we were to bring a small piece of furniture to paint.  I brought this table that I had purchased at a flea market a few years ago for I think around $15.00.

 

The table was originally just a dark brown wood and I spray painted it this blue after I bought it and put it in my sitting area upstairs .  I will have to say the class was a lot of fun!!  I was the youngest person by far in the class.  The other ladies were very sweet and we all had a great time!  One of the ladies said taking the class and painting furniture was like therapy and it truly is!!  The Annie Sloan chalk paint is very good paint expensive but it does a great job I only had to do one coat on my neon blue table!

The brush you see above it what we used to apply the wax that you seal your piece with when your finished!

The above picture is a close up of the finish!

The table in its new home

 

The day after the class I got a little inspired and painted a dresser in my bedroom and I been painting the cabinets in my bathroom all week.  I will post some pictures of those when I am finished.  I am a big fan of the chalk paint for sure and I certainly recommend you try it.  There is a whole kit you can buy with the waxes and paints and its super easy so anyone could do it!

 

House pics

I wanted to show some pictures of my house as it is now.  That way when I post about projects in the future I will be able to go back and see my progress and you can see the progress I have made!!  Some of these rooms I have already done some decorating in.  I have also had some help from http://www.casabellainteriors.net%20with/ my living room.  Which is a large room that I could just not quite picture how to place the furniture.  I am very happy with the result but it still has some finishing touches that need to be done.  Here are a few of the rooms that I have somewhat decorated.

Half bath ( I want to repaint this dark red so that is something on my to do list)

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Living room (we painted this room it was originally a yellow like the ceiling which will hopefully be painted white soon)

We still  need curtains, wall hangings, pillows for the couches and a new mantle display (I just  cant quite get the mantle right)

Kitchen ( I actually painted this room myself, It still has some things I want to change but I am happy with it for now!)

I repainted those bar stools in the pic they were originally black and I spray painted them white and recovered the seats in a outdoor damask fabric from Handco9ks

I made the hand towel hanging one the dish washer with my embroidery machine!

These accessories came from Casabella interiors  (my favorite interior design store, They always have wonderful/unique accessories)

This is a cabinet that I purchased off of  craigslist for 50.00 my husband thought I was crazy when we went to pick it up!  But look at her now!!  A simple coat of paint, a little distressing, and some fabric glued to the back!

This is a mushroom arrangement that my lovely friends at Casabella interiors did for me!   I have no experience with arrangements so that might be another craft project I can tackle one day :)

I still  need some curtains for this room but for now I just hung a small oil painting that I purchased at home goods!

Don't you just love the rug!!  Target!

The mirror was a flea market find of only 40.00 I spray painted it yellow and added some brown glaze to bring out the detail.  O and the table was made by my wonderful husband and father in law.  Didn't they do a great job! The whole job took about a day and about 80.00 but I have seen some similar tables for 1200.00 and this thing is HEAVY and solid wood!

Guest bedroom!!  The bedding is from Target!

This vanity was in my grandmothers house and my mother used it when she was a child.  I wanted to paint it but then I decided I liked it in it's natural state!  My grandmother actually refinished this herself decades ago and she kept it in great condition I just couldn't bring myself to cover up all that hard work!

This is the bed in my other guest room.  I haven't  done much to this room and it has a long way to go but I thought I would show you what I have so far.



And...that's it for now.  I have actually done a little to some of my other rooms and will hopefully get those pictures up soon! If you have any suggestions please feel free to comment!!

Desk redo

Here is a quick post on a desk that I purchased a few years ago that I redid once and this is my attempt at redoing a redo HA!!!  This desk was in my sewing room at my old house and I used it to house my sewing supplies and my sewing machine sat on top.  Here is a before picture.  It was originally black when I purchased it years ago and I painted it white.

I then took out all the drawers and sanded them lightly

Then I coated them with a blue paint that I had actually used in my son's bedroom.



Then I used some silver craft  paint as a glaze.  It added just the right touch!

You can see how the glaze turned out

I then sprayed on some acrylic sealer that I had lying around already I am not sure how it will hold up but I thought I would give it a try.

I bought some cute scrap booking paper at hobby lobby along with some spray adhesive and lined the inside of the drawers

I had to cut the paper to fit and spayed the adhesive in the drawer and wallah!!!

I purchased these knobs at Target!

I added the knobs to the drawers!

Finished Product!!  A great place for my computer!

Sorry for all the cords!  I will take a better picture when I get my room in a better order!

I spent about 15.00 on the whole project but only b/c I already had the desk I think I paid 100.00 for it when I bought it originally.

From Curbside to fantastic and functional

I am linking up today's blog post to http://www.southerninmyheart.blogspot.com/.  Vanessa has a fantastic blog so check it out!

Let me give you a little 411 on this curbside find.  In our old home, I had my sewing room in our sunroon.  I had a lack of space in there and i needed some extra counter space.  I knew we were moving soon so I didn't want to really invest in anything and have to move it a few months later so I gave up on the idea until one day while I was leaving our neighborhood i saw this on the side of the road  I immediately called my husband and asked him to go pick it up for me!  He said the guys standing outside of the house even helped him load it up.  He said they looked at him like he was crazy for wanting it!

I know I know!!  Not that bad right?  Well actually this is a after picture (kinda)  This is the picture after my wonderful hubby and his wonderful father put some molding around the top and on the sides.  They also added some wood to the front where there were missing drawers!  Then in the move to our new home it ended up looking like this.

Ha Ha it actually looks a little worse in this pic! This is after I painted it white and it sat in my sewing room and obviously it was not taken care of :)



I knew this tossed away cabinet had some potential!  and I needed a wedging table for my new pottery studio but of course it has to be fantastic and functional!  So I started the process of refurbishing it!  I first sanded down the top.

This hand dandy sander can works some wonders!  It was a cheaper version of a hand held sander that I purchased at Target a few years ago its hard to find the sandpaper to go with it but Target always seems to have some!

I made a quick trip to walmart and bought a $5.00 small can of paint in a orange color and got busy painting.

I bought some door handles in the clearance section at Hobby lobby that I thought would be perfect! I made a mad dash to Lowe's which just happens to be next to HL (don't be J!!).  I bought some wood accents and I simply painted them and hot glued them on!  After the process was complete, I wiped on a glaze and sealed it with this!

Please excuse my dirty cutting mat.  I use alot of spray adhesive for my sewing and then everything sticks to it!  HA!!  Not that you care!  Anyway here is the finished product!  Please feel free to comment if you have any questions!

OK I know the phone doesn't exactly make the most professional photo!  but you get the idea...thanks for stopping by!