Thrift Store Furniture: Before and After

So I may or may not have purchased a mid century dresser at the Salvation Army a little over a year ago and left it in the garage until just recently to collect spiderwebs and dust (much to the chagrin of Shaun). But I did have really big plans for it and I did finally end up baking good on my word and painting it!

I actually planned on purchasing more thrift store pieces over the past few months but Shaun was slightly reluctant (exasperated is more like it) because I hadn't touched the dresser.

Since I got the dresser it spent most of it's life in the garage until one day Shaun got a storage system for the garage and insisted the dresser had to get the boot. We carried it upstairs and put it in the extra "junk" room that we were using as storage for the time being.

Well cue another one of my inspirational cleaning days and said room became my craft room, spare bedroom went into old craft room and the dresser ended up with it. Again it sat for about a month before I finally ended up biting the bullet and painting it. But paint it, I did and I feel so much better now with a functional piece! I still have to give it a light sand and a wax but I've already started on a billion other projects in the house so as soon as I sand the next piece I'll knock this one out at the same time. 

I really wanted to get some Annie Sloan chalk paint to do up this baby but the short trip to Warrenton provided to be just too much for my 10 mile radius of motivation to handle. I also discovered that apparently the stuff is quite expensive as well. This dresser is pretty banged up, not an antique in any sense of the word so I didn't want to waste a ton money if it turned out horribly.  But then, I thought, if I'm already DIYing this, why don't I see if I can DIY the chalk paint as well??

So I took to the inter webs and after a lot of googling, I found a quick, cheap alternative for less than $10. Plaster of Paris mixed with latex paint.

Easy peasy! I got to mixing, adding a little bit of hot water to get the right consistency and voila! I had the perfect, no prep piece painted within a couple hours.

As you can see there are still a few tough spots on the drawer fronts that I will have to touch up. I'm also thinking of getting new drawer pulls. Maybe something cute from Anthropologie?

Bear gets very jealous whenever I am taking pictures of anything other than him. So he likes to sneak in there occasionally to make sure I know he is watching. I think he has perfected his pose.

So there you have it! Bear is enjoying the new dresser in the spare bedroom (which he has claimed as his own) and I'm pretty happy that I finally got it knocked out. Now onto the coffee table! 

Snapshots of a day: a snowy morning at the new house

The finale of house hunting came to a whirlwind of an end this month when we put an offer on the house and settled 2 weeks later. It's been a hectic January with a lot of stress, a lot of busy schedules and a lot of excitement.

The house hunt has lasted over a year and I am thrilled to see it come to an end. I don't think we could have picked a more perfect place or a more perfect time. Even though we don't have all of our furniture or even half of the rooms filled yet, I really look forward to the process of painting, designing and setting up all of the furniture and decor in the house. The 3 rooms I'm most excited about are the foyer, my craft room and the climbing wall I'm building in the basement : )

This first week at the house has been appropriately snowy and peaceful and really a great setting for a relaxing, yet busy first few days. Even with boxes everywhere, a lack of furniture and a proper dining room table, it has been full of great moments and quiet times of reflection. I can't wait to start painting!

1. First sunrise at the new house
2. Meatwad trying to find his perfect lounging spot
3. boxes upon boxes
4. This is what lunch looks like when you have no pots and pans
5. Setting up kitchen things
6 and 7. Picking colors for the foyer. I think I'm going with "Icing on the Cake" by Benjamin Moore. The top one on the paint strip
8, 9, 10. A peaceful snowy day
11. I think Meatwad found his new spot
12. A hot cuppa coffee to help me unpack
13. Finally found some pans to make breakfast
14. Favorite thing about the fireplace is how it goes through to the outside so when we build a deck, we have an outdoor fireplace as well!
15, 16 and 17. someones sneaking up on you bunny!
18. I think he found his spot!


I'm hoping we get more snow soon, but I also won't complain when it warms up for spring!

We bought a house!

Home Sweet Home!

We did it! We finally found a home! It was a long and exhausting and sometimes frustrating experience (especially towards the end) but we finally found a house that will truly be worth calling a home! We are absolutely thrilled and completely overwhelmed with the excitement this stage in our lives has brought and cannot wait until move-in day! 

It's also kind of crazy how quickly this happened. We have been searching, like really searching for over a year. We are kind of picky and didn't want to sacrifice on the things that were important to us.  When we found this home, we decided over lunch to make an offer. On the 13th (a Sunday and one day before Shaun's birthday) a foggy, dreary, misty day we put in an offer. The following day, on Shaun's birthday we negotiated and they accepted our offer. By Wednesday we had financing approved and the following Thursday was the walk-through!

It's a terribly exciting time in our lives but also a crazy and hectic one. My last week of work at the shop is this week and Friday the movers will be coming to move all of our life (which is in boxes at the moment) to our new home. Saturday will be the first day I am in the house when it is mine and the first day I will be setting everything up. 

I feel like I've been on edge (but in a good way) for quite some time now. Ever since we put in the offer 2 weeks ago. I've been anxious and stressed anticipating the final settlement date (that was Tuesday!) and the craziness of moving all of our belongings into a new place and taking a few weeks (to a month) off of work to get our home in order.  The excitement of moving and planning and decorating and organizing almst overcomes the fact that I will not have a regular 9-5 job for an undetermined amount of time. I guess it's time to kick the etsy shop into overdrive!

I'll post pictures next Monday when our internet has been installed of all our empty space and sad lack of furniture, I'll also post pictures of the new things that are being delivered as well as the painting process, cleaning, organizing, breakdowns and panic attacks and little squabbles with Shaun.

Well I probably won't post the latter but I'm certain that all 3 will happen.

 

Pretty Things

Can you tell that I catch up on my blogging on Sundays?

Since I've been in crazy house hunting/painting/decorating mode the past few weeks I wanted to share some of the amazing things I found from my favorite ever furniture store, West Elm. They are like the grown up, unisex furniture version of Anthropologie. I told Shaun the last time we went there (last night) that he could literally buy anything in that store and I would be happy with it.

Since I can't show you the whole store, I've narrowed it down to my favorite few items for people looking to furnish a house or just for some nice accesorries!

1. Glass Terrariums

These pretty glass terrariums have a great metal base to hold them up from a table and give them an elevated, clean look while still remaining organic and beautiful. I can imagine these on the desk in the office, in my craft room, on the mantle or the kitchen window above the sink.  Anywhere you put these beauties they bring a great organic, green feel to your home. $59-$99


2. Organic Cotton Pintuck Duvet Covers and Shams

I have always loved the scrunchy, pin-tucked look of these type of bed dressings. I love the light grey because it works with almost every type of room from warm colors to neutrals to cools. Light grey is a universal safe color. You can paint that wall anything except neon and it will look elegant, cozy and wonderful.

You wanna know what's even better about this set right now? It's 20% until Monday! Since Shaun won't let me go too frilly for the master bedroom, I may just have to pick these up for the guest room! $19-$111


3. Mid-Century 6-drawer Dresser

This is clearly more of a splurge item. But I really really think a dresser can make or break a room. I love the warm tone of this wood dresser and obviously the mid-century theme of it's styling. The wonderful thing about mid-century pieces (or those that are designed like it) is that they work so well with a vintage or modern themed room. This can easily be dressed up with a shiny metal lamp, statue or mirror to give it a modern feel. It can also be easily paired with vintage pieces to give it a classic, vintage feel. The possibilities really are endless. Also, where you go with a basic, inexpensive bed frame you can build a pallet headboard and stain it to match this piece. This is definitely suited for a master suite. $799

4. Adjustable Metal Floor Lamp

You guys, can we talk about lighting for a second? As much as I think furniture and placement make a room my true belief is that no matter how you style something, anything, the lighting is what can make a room look like a brilliant HGTV designer room or a torture dungeon. Lighting is essential to a rooms decor. If you have a beautifully styled room with no natural light and dim, yellow lamps or even worse, a terrible globe in the middle of the ceiling it will ruin everything.  This lamp is a floor standing unit with clean lines and a wonderful adjustable base so depending on how high your furniture is or at what angle you want the light to come from you can adjust it. Again, these piece works well with classic or modern design and fits perfectly into almost any room in the house. But I would most definitely put this in the living room or entertaining space to show off it's great architectural style. $169

5. ZigZag rug-platinum/ivory/citron

I have been crushing on chevron for quite some time now and so when we decided we were buying a house I figured it was the perfect time to go chevron crazy on every single item I could find.  Shaun, however, does not share my chevron-crazed sentiment so I had to compromise. In my opinion, this rug is a great compromise. It has light, neutral colors that work with any decor with a great pop of yellow at both ends. Great for a family room or living room and it's low pile so cleanup and animal fur are not a problem! $49-$749