Foot Stool Transformation

So if you read my post yesterday, you know that I picked up this beauty in Savannah last week for 25 bucks!

I debated for a few days about what I wanted to do with it and where it would go. I finally decided that I want to put it at the end of the hallway for now, but probably move it to our office/guest room once we get our daybed- which I've ordered but is sadly on back order until June :(

I was first thinking of using burlap fabric for that natural look, and maybe paint the base white. But once I got the burlap on, I thought it looked a little too drab. Luckily it was only $4 for the fabric so I didn't waste too much moolah. So back to Hancock Fabrics I went, and found exactly what I had in mind.

I did this the same way as the headboard. Staple first at 12 o'clock, 3 o'clock, 6 o'clock, and 9 o'clock. Then fill in all around while pulling fabric tightly.

Tada! I love this print-it's grey with white lines and squares outlined in orange

So I had the cushion finished; now it was just a matter of deciding whether I wanted to paint the base. Here is how it looked with the original wood base and new cushion:

I finally decided to paint the base white to bring out the white in the fabric and I'm very glad I did! First, I sanded the wood just to make sure it was ready for paint. Then I painted 2 light coats of Ivory Dust in a satin finish. This wouldn't be my first choice of finish, I would rather use a semi-gloss, but I had it on hand from a paint sample I bought when picking out a trim color. Yay- this part was practically free! Here's how it looked after 2 coats of paint:

Almost finished! All I had to do now was put on a coat of poly to make it shine, or so I thought. I used the same can of poly for a previous painted-wood project and it worked perfectly. Next time, I'll be sure to read the fine print on the can BEFORE coating it on painted wood!

If you look closely toward the bottom of the can, it reads "Oil-based stains, paints, or coatings applied under Polycrylic may amber normally." Well apparently, the stain on this stool was oil-based because it ambered all over! So my work was ruined :(

I mean, it just looked awful. Talk about learning from your mistakes! I'll definitely read the fine print next time. So I had to wait a few hours for the poly to completely dry before re-sanding. After lightly sanding it, I put another coat of the white paint on and it covered up all of the amberness (don't think that's a word but you get the idea)

Then it was just a matter of letting it dry overnight and then attaching the cushion. I'm pretty pleased with how this turned out! Remember, this is how it looked when I found it:

And this is it now:

 

Total cost for this project = $35

     stool: $25

     burlap fabric: $4

     geometric fabric: $6

     staple gun and staples: already owned

     paint and paint brush: already owned

Not too shabby... What do you think?

A true southern city

A week ago, I returned from an amazing trip to Savannah, GA. I just love that city and am so glad my mom, sister, and aunt were able to experience it's beauty as well. Most of the trip revolved around which meal we were going to eat next and which restaurant we would eat it at. Good thing it's a walking city because I definitely needed to walk after all of that eating! While we weren't eating and walking, the next best thing to do was, of course, shopping! We shopped antique stores, vintage stores, and boutiques. I found a good selection of items, both old and new, for both myself and our house.

Something old, something new

 In the above picture, from left to right, is a foot rest I picked up at an antique store for $25. The current fabric is not what drew me to this piece, haha, but it's got clean lines, it's very sturdy, etc... I definitely want to freshen/ lighten it up a bit and change out the fabric (I've actually already done this but I'm behind on posting). I also picked up a vintage map of Africa and I'll give more details on it when I decide what I'm going to do with it:) The long brown wicker basket was a find at a second-hand store for 75 cents! I'm collecting brown wicker baskets for an upcoming project so this was the perfect, cheap addition! I also got some bath stuff at nour-ish, which sells natural bath products. 

 

Above are some super cute shoes I picked up at a vintage shop, along with a tree of life necklace in a matte gold finish.

This is the natural bath soap I picked up from nour-ish. If you like natural, eco-friendly skin care products, you should definitely check out their website here. I got an eco soap bag with a bar of "kiwi sunsweet" soap- it was hard to pick just one as they all smelled (in my best Outkast voice) so fresh and so clean, clean! I also picked up some loofah seeds- I'm gonna try my hand at growing some loofah sponge. I'll let you know how that turns out, haha:)

 

 This is the short, vintage black dress I got with the multi-colored sandals. It's hard to tell anything about this but, trust me, it's adorable. :)

That's all for now but stay tuned for my foot stool transformation!

Oops I did it again...

Well maybe not again, but I did forget a few things in my last post for the guest room. First of all, remember those bookends I scored for 5 bucks from the thrift store a few weeks ago:

well they got a fresh coat of teal paint and they currently live in the guest room (that may change but that's where they are for now)

I also forgot to mention the nightstand that Matthew & I found at ReStore in Birmingham, for $25!

And the fact that it's storage, which is always a plus in our house, makes it that much better! We're just keeping some extra blankets in it for now.

Here are some accessories that I picked up from Urban Outfitters (love. that. store)

Hoo doesn't love owls?!  (corny I know but I just couldn't pass that one up, haha!)

 And the handy "Stuff Every Woman Should Know" book. There's some pretty good stuff in this little read. 

So that's all for the guest room for now!

On a side note, when I'm working on all of my projects or just cooking and cleaning I'm usually listening to my favorite tunes, i.e. The Avett Bros., Mumford & Sons, Needtobreate, with some Coldplay and John Mayer mixed in. But I now have a new favorite album, Adele- 21. If you haven't checked this out yet, you must! I liked her last album but this one is just awesome! She's so soulful...

So thanks to all of my favorite bands that keep me motivated to work on projects, thanks to Adele for her new album, thanks to Brittany Spears and her catchy song that inspired this post, and thanks to you for actually reading this!

That's all for now! :)

Ready for Houseguests!

If you remember from an earlier post, when we moved into our house, our guest room was looking a little sparse. Essentially, all we had was a bed. The walls, trim, and ceiling were all the same color, which didn't really work for me because I love color!! But the room did have beautiful original hardwood floors, a decent sized closet, and a charming built- in bookcase. So this was definitely a blank canvas that we had to work with, which made it hard to decide which direction I wanted to take this room.

This is Matthew's full size bed from college and the frame sits way to low to the floor (I couldn't even fit an under-the-bed-storage container underneath). So I bought a set of 4 bed risers and I really like how it sits a little higher now.

For a while, we kept the neutral walls because we went through an 8 month period of trying to sell our house. Once we took it off the market, I was ready to throw some color on those walls! I went with Cafe Blue from Valspar because it was a mix of turquoise and baby blue (and I love turquoise). I wanted a serene color on the walls so that we could later add splashes of color in the decor. I'm very happy with the way this color turned out.

The next project on my list for this room was a headboard. I didn't want to spend a lot since it's for the guest room and one of the blogs I follow, the infamous Young House Love, conveniently posted directions on how to make an upholstered headboard. So I thought I'd give it a try; I mean, it couldn't be too hard, right? 

 

First I measured on the wall how big I wanted my headboard. I easily did this by putting painter's tape on the wall in the silhouette of the headboard. Once I had my measurements, off I went to HD to buy a piece of plywood, which they cut for free! While I was there I needed to buy a staple gun and staples, since this was my first upholstering project. My grand total here came to around $20.  My next stop was Hancock's Fabrics to pick up some batting and fabric. I thought an earthy lime green color would look nice with the wall color, and luckily they had it and it was 50% off (I got upholstery fabric because it's thick and easy to work with). I bought 2 1/2 or 3 yards of fabric and the same amount of the thick 2" batting, which was also on sale. Grand total here was $25. So my new headboard cost around 45 bucks, not too shabby.

Matthew was sick one Friday and went to bed early so I used this as an opportunity to work on my project (of course I was as quiet as I could be with a staple gun, but I did close the bedroom door). Luckily, he had taken nyquil so I didn't bother him ;) First, I laid out the batting and then centered the plywood on it. There wasn't too much overhang so I didn't bother trimming it yet. To get started, I pulled the batting very tightly and stapled at 12, 6, 3 and 9 o'clock. The most important thing is to make sure you are pulling the batting very tightly- you don't want any loose gaps. Then I just stapled every 1/2" or so all around the board until the fabric and batting were both secure and free from loose gaps.

After the batting was stapled, I trimmed the overhang and then repeated the process with the fabric. Then  voila, you have a headboard, almost.

The next day, Matthew was feeling much better so he went to HD and got a picture hanging kit so that we could hang our new headboard. He did a great job hanging/ centering it! Here it is:

So the room was beginning to come together but it wasn't near complete. While I was home for Christmas, I was looking around my parent's house and I came across a lamp that was in the office/ sewing room. My parents have had that lamp since before I was born! The base was brass with a big black drum shade. I immediately saw potential :) So my generous mother gave me the lamp and now it was just a matter of deciding  what color I wanted to paint the base. I decided on yellow! (sorry for no before pics but just imagine a rusted brass color)

 I was trying to find some shams and decorative pillows that would coordinate with the room and headboard when I saw this post on Young House Love and loved the shams on their guest bed. I had seen them on Pottery Barn website so I ordered those and then picked up a few throw pillows from Target.

Once I got the pillows on the bed and chair in the corner, I wasn't loving that black lamp shade. I thought about recovering it with a fun print but eventually I just replaced it with this shade from Target. I think it really lightens up the room better.

I also added a mirror in here. Remember this mirror in our living room when we first moved in?

Well I decided to hit it with some earthy lime green spray paint. I think it looks great in here, especially with the green headboard.

Here's the other wall in the guest room. It currently has an old chest that I want to either paint or stain, when the time comes. (please excuse the mess on top and laundry basket) The door on the left is the closet. 

So there you have it, our guest room went from looking like this:

to this: 

Now all we need to add is some art, curtains, and a rug. 

Who doesn't love a $20 find??

First off, Happy Monday everyone! Hope you were able to enjoy the beautiful weekend! :) I spent it in Savannah, GA with my mom, sister, and aunt- early birthday present for mom! Savannah is very special to me because that's where my husband, Matthew, popped the question 4 years ago:)

So a few weeks ago, I went to an antique/ thrift store in town. (The same one I found my Pepsi bin that's in my kitchen). Sitting outside were 4 small folding chairs that needed some serious TLC. They were bright yellow and had peeling contact paper on the seats in a super 70s flower print of yellow, orange, and green. We had recently had people over to our house and needed a few extra chairs so I thought these would be perfect. Inexpensive? check. Multiple uses? check. Good bones? check. So I went home with these not-so-lovely-at-the-time chairs:

The chairs after I began peeling off the contact paper

Again, and a little rusty in places

So after a lot of elbow grease, I was able to get the paper off. Next, I sprayed on a coat of primer and then 3 light coats of spray paint in a very soothing celadon color. They are currently spaced out throughout the house, but when we have guests over again, they can definitely be used for additional seating. There are still some imperfections so I eventually want to make some small cushions for these, but they work for now. Best part is, if we're not using them, they fold up very nicely for storage!

These 2 made their home on our screened-in porch

This one lives in the guest room as a plant stand

This one houses our coffee pot, for now...

That's all for now! Stay tuned...

Let's play Catch! (up)

Ok, so here's my attempt to catch you up on how our living room currently looks. There are some features in this room that we love, like that huge picture window (actually this house has quite an abundance of windows which we certainly love), the fireplace, hardwood floors, etc... The previous owners used this room as one large space just for the living room, but we decided to rearrange it a bit so that there was a more defined entry way. I didn't like the idea of walking in right in front of the t.v.  Remember this is how it looked when we moved in, again just with our furniture from college:

Since this is the room where we spend 90% of our time, it has changed a bit over the years, especially as our style has developed. The color on the walls was a little to peachy especially since we have red furniture so we painted. I wanted a taupe/ gray color and thought it would be easy to find. Err... wrong! Picking out a color for this room was quite a challenge because there's no overhead light, so colors look differently in the day than they do at night. Therefore, colors we thought would look great, didn't quite turn out that way. Thank goodness for $2.50 samples at Lowe's! I bought 5 in one night and my favorite before I tested it, actually turned out to look like a blue/gray color. I'm soo glad I hadn't wasted 35 bucks on a gallon of that, because sometimes that's how I decide on a paint color- just go with my instinct :) So anyway, we finally went with Stone Manor by Valspar and really love it!

Here's the gallery wall for the entryway.

We also desperately needed to paint the trim throughout our whole house. This was a project that I knew would have a great effect, but I just couldn't psyche myself up for it (yes, it took me over 2 years to finally get around to it). But as I learned more about types of paint and where to use them, I realized that the previous owners had painted all of the trim with flat paint! I know, right? So of course that means it can't be wiped off and cleaned. So that equals over 5 years worth of dust and dirt just chillin' on our trim. Not cool! So I finally got around to picking out a color. I didn't want a stark white or even a soft white, so I decided on Ivory Dust, again by Valspar -maybe I should buy stock in Valspar paint:) And yes, this had the WOW factor. Everything just looked so crisp and clean, like it should. And now, if it gets dirty, I can just wipe it off! Now I will say that it took me an entire weekend, even after my sweet husband decided to join in on the fun and paint the doors (and he hates to paint!) Not to mention I was pretty sore from all of the squatting, sitting, climbing a ladder, etc... and I was right in the middle of my marathon training so it took me even longer to recover. But, looking at it now, it was definitely worth a week of uncomfortableness  :)

So here are some pics of our living room now:

Looking into the LR from the Dining Room

Looking into the LR from the front door

The more defined entryway I mentioned earlier

We have purchased a few things for this room since moving in. Our coffee table, end table, console, and telephone table are from the Sourav collection at World Market. We love that it's made of real wood and with  the hammered top, scratches and imperfections don't stand out, it just gives them more character. We also got an 8x10 jute rug from World Market , which we love the natural look of, a few lamps and some other decorations too.

Now, I'm not sure if I've already mentioned this, but I read several house blogs and use lots of ideas I find in our own house; I mean why try to reinvent the wheel for everything, right? If you haven't checked these out you definitely are missing out: Young House Love (this is my favorite), Restoration House, Shabby Chic Cottage, and you can always check out Ana-White if you're in the mood to build something:) So that brings me to my current spring mantel. I was on Restoration House one day and she posted this lovely spring mantel:

I immediately fell in love with how fresh and green it is but with a little rustic flair in the driftwood, so I began planning. We were going to the beach in the next few weeks and I wanted to look for a long, irregular piece of driftwood to put on the mantel. Score! I found exactly what I had pictured in my mind!

So to incorporate the greenery, I got an idea from Pottery Barn. In their latest garden issue, they are selling these moss-covered initials for $79!

I loved the look of these but thought there is no way I would spend 80 bucks for a letter with moss on it! So, enter Hobby Lobby. I bought a 10 inch wreath for $10, a few bags of live moss (the dark green and light green), a styrofoam ball- the size you use for Jupiter when you make the solar system in elementary school,  and some craft glue. A few hours later, I was up to my elbows in moss, which really smells bad so I recommend this project for outdoors, and voila, I have greenery for my spring mantel :)

 

I had taken a trip to the thrift store earlier and scored those 3 white vases for $3 so I had an idea for the size of styrofoam ball I would need. I also used some smaller pieces of driftwood in the candle holders. I usually have a mirror hanging over the mantel, but I wanted to see how it looked without it... a little too bare, don't you think?

 

I also added some candles and played with the arrangement of everything until I finally reached this:

And said... "Finito"