Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Burlap Bench!!



My little burlap bench......

Sometimes I do not get it right the first time, but I just keep trying!






I have had this faux leather bench for many many years.  It was from Target and it went well with everything in my home.  That was until I decided I wanted to lighten things up!

I love projects like these.  I would much rather reuse something I have then go find something new.  Not only does it save a ton of money but it makes it unique!


Ok so my first attempt did not go so well.  I thought I loved the fabric I found at Hobby Lobby but it took me (and my teenage daughter) a few minutes to realize it did not work! I did not spend too much on that fabric, and maybe I will end up using it somewhere someday!






In comes the burlap.  I have never used burlap before but I was excited to try it.  The best part about burlap is it is CHEAP!

Before I go on you will see I do not have pictures of the actual process of recovering the bench.  I sometimes get on a roll and forget to take pics!  This bench was so easy.  Except for getting those darn legs off.   I spent more time on that than anything else!  I finally got a hammer and just banged on each leg and they finally fell off!  (you can see how distressed each leg is!) I was ok with that since I planned to have them distressed anyway.

Once I got the legs off I spray painted each one with Rust-Oleums heirloom white.

The burlap was very easy to work with.  I used my staple gun and went right over top the faux leather (I did take fabric #1 off in case I decide to use it on something else.)






Ok this is not it, but I love this burlap bench.   It is from Mecox and has a price tag of $1285.00







And of course my favorite store Pottery Barn ALWAYS has something I like.  This pretty bench is $499.99.





This cute bench above is my finished product!


After getting all the bench covered I added nailheads around the bottom.  Again this was very easy, just needed a hammer and the nailheads were about $2.00.






Here is my little bench all burlapped up.  I love how it turned out!  If we forgot about the first fabric incident this project cost me around $7.00!  :)



Sunday, February 26, 2012

Annie Sloan Chalk Paint!!


Annie Sloan Chalk Paint........I love it!


I had been looking for quite some time for the perfect piece to replace this buffet.  Nothing was wrong with the buffet, I just wanted something that had some more character.  I sold this piece on craigslist and went on a hunt.




I knew exactly what I wanted which made it even harder to find. I scoured many antiques stores and flea markets and did not see what I was looking for. Then one day My sister and I had spent many hours at the flea market and again I did not find what I was looking for.  We were heading out and decided to take one more quick look and there I saw it!  This beautiful buffet!!  I knew this was the one!! 




I had other plans for this little beauty.  I wanted to paint it blue.  The wood is absolutely perfect, but I also knew I did not want a solid wood piece in that space.






In comes Annie Sloan Chalk Paint.  I was so excited to try the color Provence.  It was exactly the color I had in mind when I pictured my new buffet.






One of the things I love about this paint is I can do it anywhere.  It does not have an odor and does not drip so I can paint in the middle of my kitchen!  There is also no sanding or priming so there is little mess.

I used the paint brush from Annie Sloan to paint this piece.  It was only a few dollars and it washes well and can be reused many times.

I removed the hardware before I painted but decided to clean it up and use it again.  It looked like it belonged there, which it did!







Another thing I love about this paint is it dries so quick!  I forgot to take pictures of this next step.  It is the wax.  I used the large Annie Sloan wax brush and went over the painted areas with the clear wax.  After it dried I took a soft cloth and buffed it.  I then added some dark wax to give it some more depth.  I really like the dark wax! 



 I decided not to paint the top.  I used alittle Old English on it and it looked perfect!






Here it is when completed.  :)



















It is exactly what I wanted for that space.  The buffet was $90.00 and the chalk paint was about $35.00.  I have used the Provence color on several other pieces and I still have half a can left.  It goes a long way so the $35.00 is well worth it!  


                   Thanks for looking!  Enjoy your Sunday!


         










Friday, February 24, 2012

Hooray it is a snow day!!!


Having a snow day today!





We woke up to snow this morning!  This is our first snow day and it is February 24th!  We are enjoying a very mild winter here! 



Although I could live in SUMMER all year long, I have to admit this is beautiful!









         

How is your weather today???


~Debbie

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Our little hallway..

Our little hallway.........


This is our hallway off the laundry/mud room.  It also leads to the den.


 I love these shutters I found at the flea market.  The lady says they were off a lake house in MI.  I thought the color was pretty neat.  The white frames are from the flea market as well, the bird fabric is from a little fabric shop in Cedarburg, WI.  The fabric has all my favorite colors in it.  I do love the birds too, they just brighten up the space!







That is the door to the mud room.  I showed in an earlier post how I changed out the bench. It used to be brown with a funky fabric on it.  The chalkboard is an old $5.00 window from a flea market.  I taped off the wood and sprayed a few coats of chalkboard paint on the glass.  I love to put inspiriational sayings on it.  Although the board said "Merry Christmas" until about mid February, I do try! :)


Thank for looking!

Debbie



Monday, February 20, 2012

My little blue table

One afternoon I had fallen in love with a beautiful accent table at Pottery Barn.  It was turquoise, weathered, and so pretty!  It was also close to $400.00.  After that I was on a mission to make my own!


 I got pretty lucky that day.  I went to Hobby Lobby and found this little brown table on clearance for $8.00!!!  I loved the style of it and the distressed tin top was neat!


 In comes the spray paint.  I love this color!!  It is Lagoon by Rust-oleum.  I taped off the tin top of the table since I wanted to leave that alone.  I applied 3 coats of spray paint.  Then went to town sanding it to let the brown show through. 


 This is the finished table! I spent about $10.00 on this little blue table. 






 I like how the blue just kind of peeks out from the corner of the room.  Just adds the punch of color I wanted in there.



This swatch was also an inspiration for this table.  I love the weathered blue!

This little table from Belle Escape is so pretty.  It is also $698.00! 

I love this table from Clark Street Home.  $249.99.









I just love doing little projects like this!  The more blue and distressed the better!!  Thanks for looking!  :)

















Saturday, February 18, 2012

On to the next room......

This is our family room.  It is for sure the most used room in our home!  This room has gone through many changes through out the years.  It started out very brown, then moved to red, then back again to very brown.  If anyone would have ever told me I would add BLUE I would have said no way!  Now I can not get enough blue!!



My sister and I had a war over this antique lamp at the flea market.  I won! :)


 
My favorite thing in this room is the dresser turned TV stand. 
If furniture could talk that little white table would sure have a story! It started out sad and worn and was almost forgotten at the flea market. (and did I mention it was brown!)  I bought it and planned to go back for it when our day was over.  My sister and I totally forgot where the table was and spent hours searching for it.  FINALLY the vendor found us because he wanted to go home!  All that for a $20.00 table and I just love it! 


Old crate for fire wood!


This little table was a fun project too!





Thanks for looking!!



Friday, February 17, 2012

Our Home.......

Living Room
My homemade industrial table!

Living Room

A mix of flea markets finds and things bought from my favorite stores!

I love my little yellow table.  I found it at a flea market.  It came with glass on top which I removed and used for my industrial table.

This is one of my favorite areas in our home.  The chairs used to be dark brown with fancy formal fabric on them.  I painted them white and replaced the fabric with painter's drop cloth.  Found the VERY distressed table for a steal at a flea market! 

I love this worn table, antique lamp, and the owl!





I have not posted anything in quite awhile!  I was in the process of redecorating our den, getting a new computer and trying to upload pics off the old one, and just all together BUSY!  I decided to start posting some pictures of our home.

The room above is our living room.  It has gone through many different styles.  The latest is a little of this and a little of that. This is one of my favorite rooms in our home. 

Everything in this room has special meaning to me.  Some things were handed down from family, some from my flea market expeditions, some were re purposed, and some just stay with me because I love them!

Hope you enjoy looking!