Ode to Summer

I was at Lowes one day picking up some items for my shop and ran across their new samples paint section, sporting all the new summer colors. I fell in love with this coral color. It's so yummy, it's one of those colors I just want to wear on my body. What does every beautiful coral color need? A gold accesory. I think the hardware on this dresser is the whole reason I was drawn to refinishing it.

I'm usually an A.S.C.P girl myself, but the color selection sometimes doesn't have what I need. I used latex paint for this armoire. I had custom painted this armoire previously but my client fell through. Since, it had been painted before it was back to good old sanding, priming, and painting. I think it looks awesome and was well worth the extra effort of latex paint.

Jenine



Linking back to...
www.bystephanielynn.com
missmustardseed.com
savvysouthernstyle.blogspot.com

Perfect Purple Paloma

I feel like this post is long overdue! Finally, I'm back to painting furniture again. I've been busy with a few of my own projects and I am in the midst of a couple of church girls camps that have been keeping me from painting. That's not entirely true, the 107 degree weather also keeps me away from the garage:)

Here's a beautiful dresser I refinished in Paloma chalk paint. It has a lot of little detailing, you might have noticed I'm a sucker for any carving or applique. I highlighted the details with Old White chalk paint then hand sanded the corners and edges for a perfectly worn look. I didn't use any dark wax on this piece, I wanted a clean look. I originally was planning on using white hardware but I am really digging the dark color against the Paloma, it also brings out the dark wood peeping through the distressed areas.

This large and sturdy dresser will be available to purchase. You can contact me with questions or check it out in my Etsy shop.

Jenine

Linking back to...
savvysouthernstyle.blogspot.com
www.bystephanielynn.com
missmustardseed.com
romantichome.blogspot.com

My Daughter's Room

I think my favorite part of looking at other blogger's sites is when they have a button where you can tour their home. I could look at all the beautiful homes for hours if I had the time. I've been decorating my home slowly, one room at a time, to make it "our" home and not just a cookie cutter house.

I'm not entirely done with my daughter's room but I thought I would share it with you.
Here is a picture I ran across on www.tidystuff.com and it was some of my inspiration for my daughter's room. I realize her room looks nothing like this, but we work on a budget! Most of the decor in her room came from a thrift store.

I purchased both of her dressers from Craigslist and repainted them with Duck Egg Blue Annie Sloan Chalk Paint.

Yes, I realize the TV is an eye sore, but I wanted to show you what the real room looks like.

The bedspread I found at Big Lots. The bed frame used to be a dark chocolate brown and I repainted it in Old White Chalk Paint and added some appliques. The curtains were a thrift store find. It was really a small miracle, I thought I'd attempt to sew curtains but found these instead for $2- you can't beat that price. Plus, I'm horrible at sewing.

The mirror I also found at the thrift store for under $5. It was originally gold, which wasn't so bad but wasn't right for her room. I painted it in Old White and it reminds me of the Snow White mirror. Perfect for a girl's room.

My husband built the under-the-bed storage for me out of old pallets and I painted them. It holds a lot of her toys. Speaking of toys, I'm sure I'll get around to painting her toy box at some point in time. I'm also on the lookout to put a small bedside table between her little pink chair and bed where I can put her teacup lamp.  My husband made the teacup lamp but I have yet to finish covering the lamp shade to spruce it up.

I feel like I need to make sure you know we do have books in her room. She has a whole bookcase full off them in her closet. We always pick up several used books while we out finding treasures at the thrift store.

Here is a thrift store painting that my husband can't stand, I kind of like it and hung it up today just to drive him crazy :) Anyway, there it is, I love it and I hope you do too.  I will have a new dresser redo to show you guys soon, so keep an eye out for that.

Jenine



Linking back to...
romantichome.blogspot.com
missmustardseed.com
www.bystephanielynn.com

Painting Faux Brick

I'm still feeling under the weather this week, but I have managed to get quite a bit done.
We have lived in our home here in Las Vegas for two years now, and in my opinion we have made a lot of great improvements. Our home has 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms. It is your typical cookie cutter home and there are several exactly like it in our neighborhood. I really wanted our home to feel like "ours" and not the same as the neighbors. We also know that we will not be living in this home for more than a few more years. I've had to show some restraint knowing that I will have to sell it down the road.

Some of our great improvements have been changing out linoleum and carpet in the bathrooms for tile, as well as taking some old disgusting carpet that didn't match the rest of the home and putting in some laminate flooring. Our kitchen is on open area that is joined with our family room so we spend a lot of time there. I knew we couldn't have carpet that close to food and drink with a toddler and dog. We spend the most time in these rooms and we needed to LOVE them.

I have since been on a quest to lighten the kitchen and make it more my style. I do love the look of a traditional kitchen. We installed some trim along the top of our cabinets and added some faux brick behind the back splash. It really added a lot and set it apart from all the other homes, but the brick was just so fake looking, not to mention it kind of made the space feel too warm.

I wanted more of a worn and weathered "real brick" feel for my $23 home depot faux brick price. I got on Google and ran across this tutorial. She has a great video tutorial on a dry brush painting technique for her brick. I just used white latex paint I had on hand. I painted all the grout lines white with a small brush. Then I watered down a small amount of white latex paint, dipped my dry paint brush into the paint, and dabbed it onto a clean dry cloth to get off any excess paint. I found it easier to paint a section all horizontal and then paint it vertical to get a more natural look. I just lightly run my brush across the surface. If I ever had too much on the brick, I could spray it with a water bottle and use a rag to blot off the excess.

I'm really happy with the result and can't wait for my order of Old White Chalk Paint to get here in the mail so I can paint those kitchen cupboards. I already painted my small kitchen island in Graphite Chalk Paint and I love it. Slowly but surely this kitchen is turning into what I always imagined it could be.

I realized that I have never shown off my kitchen table. I think it was the second piece of furniture I ever refinished. We were in need of a lager kitchen table badly but I wasn't willing to fork out the money. We also didn't have a lot of space for a big dining room table. We came across this cute antique table at a thrift store for $35. It was the perfect size. I hunted down some chairs on Craigslist- the big carved chairs were $40 for all four and the small ones were $5 for both. I used chalk paint and wax on the chairs. I used a black latex paint for the base of the table. The top, of course, is my favorite. I got the idea from Red Hen Home. She had done a small coffee table with a french advertisement and I was in love. I took the image off The Graphics Fairy and used a projector to shine the image onto the tabletop, then painted it on by hand.

I can't wait to show you our kitchen when it's all done. It has come a long way.

Jenine



Linking back to...
missmustardseed.com
www.kammyskorner.com
romantichome.blogspot.com
missmustardseed.com

Grain Sack Footstool

I have some exciting news. I've decided to have a yard sale boutique. This weekend I received an email from someone new in town asking if there were any cute little upcycled shops. Well, believe it or not Vegas is lacking in that area, especially for how large of a community it is. In a quest to find furniture from thrift stores, I also run across some awesome home decor items that I always wish I could buy. I usually already have something similar, or can't fit it anywhere since my house is only three bedrooms. This is a great opportunity for me to do all the footwork finding the best in the city and bringing it all together for you. How convenient- a garage sale with no junk, just the good stuff. I also plan on having several dressers, armoires, and even a little outdoor furniture for your next garden party or BBQ. I'll have some other cute crafts available too.

Here is just a sample of the cute stuff you might find at my yard boutique.I found this footstool tucked away at a thrift store hidden from view. At some point in its life someone tried to paint this stool pink but failed miserably, making it look like melted ice cream down the legs. The fabric had never been replaced and it was filthy and out of date.

I knew I wanted it instantly; just the day before, I was searching Craigslist for a foot stool.I recalled seeing a vintage footstool in Target that I had coveted but had no need for at the time. Well, here is my version, painted in Graphite Annie Sloan Chalk Paint, then Coco, then some dark wax. The distressing was tricky, I really wanted a very worn look but I just couldn't handle that pink showing through. I should have thought it through better and sanded the pink off first. I was just so excited to cover it up!

I recovered the top with some burlap I had around and stenciled on some words with acrylic paint. I used The Graphics Fairy blog as inspiration for my wording on the burlap.

 I just love it now, it's a little tall for my chair but unless something better comes along I might have to keep it.


Jenine



Linking back to...
fadedcharmcottage.blogspot.com
primitiveandproper.blogspot.com
missmustardseed.com
www.kammyskorner.com
savvysouthernstyle.blogspot.com
romantichome.blogspot.com

Secretary Desk

This Sunday started off as usual- waking up early to try and get my family to church on time. We never can seem to make that 9 o'clock time ever since it changed at the beginning of the year. I taught a good lesson to the young women of our church and then I came home to have a delightful nap with my husband and daughter. I woke up with pink eye, a fever, aching body, and a sore throat. So I finished painting a secretary desk a few days ago but having been putting it off until I could get out of bed.

Believe it or not I did not use chalk paint for once, this time I went for milk paint. I used a barn red color, this desk just needed a sophisticated look. I hesitated to use red because I tend to use lighter colors in the summer. I kept the original hardware, it doesn't get better than that. It has tons of neat little drawers and cubbies for storage. I don't have a before picture, but it originally came with shelves attached to the top. They were in horrible condition and weren't going to make the cut.

Milk paint has similar characteristic of chalk paint such as: no priming necessary, matte finish, and easy to distress. It usually is sold in bags as a powder and is mixed with water. A little powder goes a long ways. Once it's mixed it doesn't last so don't make more than you're going to use.

It's great on bare wood but if applied to an already-painted or stained surface you can achieve a peeled, chippy look. Not going for the chippy look? You can add a bonding agent and it will adhere and distress like a pro.

My husband picked up a dresser with some ornate carvings last week and I can't wait until I'm feeling better and can get to work on it!

Jenine



Linking back to...
primitiveandproper.blogspot.com
missmustardseed.com
www.funkyjunkinteriors.net
www.kammyskorner.com
romantichome.blogspot.com
savvysouthernstyle.blogspot.com

My Wyoming Trip

Over the past week I spent over 28 hrs in the car. I took my daughter with me to visit my brother and his family in Wyoming. It wouldn't have been possible if my parents didn't live halfway. We spent the night there and then they drove us the rest of the way. I can't tell you how much easier it is to travel with a two year old when you can be in the back helping them.

I was so excited for this trip, even the drive. We were planning on driving through Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons. It doesn't get more scenic than that. I was longing to see green grassy fields, meandering clean rivers, majestic snow capped mountains, open spaces with no one around, and of course the many buffalo and occasional bear.

Nature had a different plan for me. There's nothing like a huge snowstorm at the end of May to make you feel human, small, and insignificant. Unfortunately, it snowed in Wyoming and the Yellowstone gates were closed. Once you were in there was no getting out for who knows how long.

I guess I can't complain because I did get to see wide open spaces with no traffic. I got to go see the wild mustangs in Wyoming. Pretty cool, got some pics that I hope I can blow up for some art work.

My daughter got to go fishing, she talks about going all the time. It was raining and only 36 degrees out but the kids were all happy and there was not one complaint. My brother caught a fish every two minutes, no joke. We took the trout home and he smoked them for us. They were amazing, it's definitely my favorite way to have fish.

We spent some time riding his horses as well. I couldn't get my daughter off, she was having so much fun. We also spent some time with my horses at my parent's house. We tried to get some shots of her with my horse, Shelby, but my daughter couldn't stop moving. She kept calling Brandi the horse "my Brownie". Too cute.

I also dropped off my couch cushion and fabric for my Sister in law to sew for me. Yay! I can't wait for my couch re-upholstery to finally be over. Guests might have a place to sit after all :)  Check back in tomorrow, I'll be posting about a beautiful antique secretary that I just finished up.

Jenine