Dresser Makeover

Tags

antique, design, DIY, furniture, makeover, paint, project, Things I've made

Last summer was the start of my obsession with furniture make overs. I got this great dresser at a thrift store for $20. It had nice lines and was well made, but full of stickers and needed some tlc.

The dresser – before

I started by scraping the stickers off of the drawers and stripping the paint. Lucky for me there was only one layer of paint on this piece. I filled in all scratches and dents with wood filler, and gave it a light sanding. Then it was ready for priming.

The dresser – stickers removed and drawers stripped

This dresser was going in my youngest son’s room. He’s a real boy and into anything with wheels! So I searched for some inspiration for the perfect finish for the dresser and found it here.

A simple switch of hardware and one black racing stripe later and we have the perfect addition to any little boys room. And he won’t grow out of it for a while!

The final product!

What do you think?

~Angie

Linked up on http://www.lizmarieblog.com/2013/03/inspire-me-please-linky-party-4/

A Family Favorite: Pasta and White Sauce

Tags

chicken, easy, family favorite, meal, pasta, recipe, sauce, weeknight meal, What's for dinner?

At our house, we do a lot of cooking from scratch. One of my favorite recipes is for a versatile White Sauce. We pair it with pasta, chicken and veggies for a quick and easy weeknight meal, but you can add cheese for a homemade mac and cheese, or use it as a cheese sauce for veggies!

White Sauce:

2 Tbsp butter
2 Tbsp flour
1 Cup milk
dash salt & pepper
1 tsp chicken bouillon
garlic powder to taste

Simple ingredients

First, melt the butter over low heat (be careful not to scorch your butter).

melt the butter

Add flour and cook while stirring for about one minute.

Add flour and cook while stirring

Next, add milk, salt, pepper, chicken bouillon, and garlic powder.

Add remaining ingredients

Cook over medium heat until thickened. Don’t forget to stir often, especially as the sauce thickens.

Cook while stirring until thickened

Easy peasy! You can use this sauce as is or get creative and make this sauce spectacular! You can a tbsp of pesto (the kids love it!), or pureed spinach (or cauliflour…a great way to sneak in some veggies for picky eaters!), asparagus, broccoli or whatever works for your family!

Get creative and add some veggies for a complete meal!

We like to add in some cubed chicken breast and toss with whole wheat fettucine.

Add chicken and toss with pasta…voila! A quick and easy weeknight meal!

Serve with garlic bread or a salad…or just on its own. Who says cooking from scratch has to be difficult!

Delish!

To make cheese sauce, omit the garlic powder and chicken bouillon. When sauce has thickened, remove from heat and add 1 cup shredded cheese. Stir until combined. Serve over steamed veggies (I love this over broccoli!) or add to cooked elbow macaroni for an easy homemade mac and cheese!

What would you add to this sauce?

~Angie

Linked up with:
http://itsalwaysruetten.blogspot.ca/2013/07/what-ive-been-up-to-recipes-link-party.html

Painted Furniture Reveal

Tags

antique, chalk paint, design, DIY, furniture, handmade, makeover, paint, project, Things I've made, What I'm working on

This week, I decided to update some of my furniture with a bit of paint. (See the post here) I wanted to start with my mid-century credenza turned tv stand but had run out of painter’s tape (I needed to tape off the top because I was only going to paint the bottom). So I ran next door to borrow some (I have awesome neighbors!). Lucky for me, my lovely neighbor had some and she decided offered to help me paint my bookcase as well! This was my first project using chalk paint, which you can read about here.

Here are the pieces before:

Mid Century Bookcase – Before

Mid Century Credenza – Before

These lovely pieces were “rescued” from the side of the road this past fall. Can you believe it? Lucky for me, one person’s trash is this woman’s treasure.

I have scraped, sanded, primed, painted and varathaned furniture pieces before, and I have also used spray paint. I have never worked with chalk paint and now I am in love! You don’t usually have to do much prep work (ie, sanding, priming, etc) besides just washing down your piece, and you can achieve so many different aged and distressed finishes with it. It is FANTASTIC!! Waxing your piece afterwards gives it a protective coating and depending on the wax you use, can add more aging and distressing.

Here are the pieces part way through:

-with a few coats of paint

-with a few coats of paint

Looking better already! Now for a pop of color!

A pop of color

And now the reveal:

All finished and waiting to be “dressed”

What a transformation!

Credenza Turned Awesome!

I just love the color!

The pieces are so bright and give the room a light and airy feel. And by placing a basket underneath the credenza, all the cords from the electronic are neatly hidden away!

Looking back at their former selves, I am in awe of the transformation of these pieces. And the colors are simply stunning! Sadly, I do not have any info on the colors (except the Duck Egg Blue from Annie Sloan used on the top shelf of the bookcase). The bottom two shelves on the bookcase were made from mistints I had on hand (yes, I also hoard paint!) and the color on the cubby of the credenza was made by combining what was left of the two colors on the bookcase.

Next up on my painting list…the roll top desk and the buffet and hutch!

~Angie

What’s your Fortune?

Tags

cookies, fortune, love, paper

Aren’t these awesome? I picked these up the other day while running errands. Perfect for tucking into your child’s (or hubby’s) lunch! My oldest just loves it! It’s a great way to brighten the day.

~Angie

Quick Craft: Accomplishment List

Tags

craft, design, DIY, handmade, lists, Things I've made, tutorial

I hate “To Do” lists. Just looking at all the things I have to get done over the course of a day or a week can be overwhelming. So I decided to make an “Accomplishment” list instead. That way, I can focus on the things I’ve done rather than what I have left to do.  

Check off all the things you’ve done throughout the day!

It was super easy to make.  I took a pretty piece of scrapbook paper and stuck it in a 12 x 12 frame. 

Then, with chipboard letter stickers, I stuck the phrase “what I did today” on the glass at the top of the frame. 

It still needed something, so I took some jute twine and wrapped it around the frame at the bottom and used some clothes pins to pin pictures, lists or whatever! 

You can use this idea for a memo board, a calendar, meal planning, or anything you can imagine!

I just love it!  And at the end of the day, just a squirt of glass cleaner and you’re ready to list all the things you’ve checked off the next day’s dreaded “to do” list!!  And seeing all the things I’ve actually completed is a great feeling at the end of the day.

~Angie

I was featured on:

http://www.theadoredhome.wordpress.com/

Painting with Homemade Chalk Paint

Tags

antique, chalk paint, design, DIY, furniture, makeover, paint, pinterest, project, What I'm working on

Pinterest…it can be a valuable tool and a complete time waster all at the same time. I can’t tell you how often I’ve lost track of time while scouring the internet and pinterest for ideas and inspiration!

This pin had me searching for pieces to paint! And today was the perfect day to try my hand at making homemade chalk paint!

Here are the pieces I experimented on.

Mid Century Bookcase – Before

The recipe was pretty straight forward. I used 1 part Plaster of Paris and 3 parts paint. I scored the paint during a previous trip to the Habitat for Humanity ReStore in Ottawa. I love checking out all the paints and hardware there. You never know what you’ll find.

Here are the pieces with a few coats of paint on them. What I like about chalk paint is that it is easy to work with and is pretty forgiving.

I have yet to wax and distress the pieces as I’m still deciding if I am going to paint the inside of the shelves or not. I’m thinking the Duck Egg Blue from Annie Sloan that I picked up on the weekend would be just beautiful! And I’ll probably leave the wood unpainted on the top of the credenza.

Stay tuned for the finished product!

~Angie

Inspiration and Motivation

Tags

annie sloan, antique, chalk paint, design, duck egg blue, furniture, inspiration, makeover, paint, project, upcycle

With the end of March Break and the beginning signs of Spring, I’ve been itching to paint something.  Last fall, as I was making over a few rooms in our home, I fell in love with painting furniture. I painted our night stands, our dressers, the coffee and end tables, and the dining table and chairs! It gives me a sense of accomplishment and pride to take something that I already have (or have scored for a bargain at the thrift store) and turn it into something amazing and unique!

This weekend, we went to visit my mom in Ottawa. We had just taken the two-hour drive to her house the weekend before to drop off our oldest son for the week (Thanks Mom!) and I had noticed a few thrift stores I wanted to visit. Well let me tell you…I was in inspiration heaven! And if we had a pick up truck, I think I could have filled it with all sorts of thrifty goodness! Sadly, hubby says I have to finish the projects I already have at home before I can collect new ones.

But that left me motivated and inspired! I had been following this shop on Facebook, and made a stop into her store. Swoon! I left with a pot of Annie Sloan Chalk Paint in Duck Egg Blue and my head spinning with ideas and inspiration!

Here are some pieces I have that I’m dying to paint!

Roll Top Desk – a Kijiji find

Mid Century Bookcase

Mid Century Credenza turn TV Stand

Buffet and Hutch

Now, the only question is, do I wait for warmer weather or just go for it?

~Angie

A little peak at my home

Tags

bed room, blue, color, design, dining room, green, grey, living room, make over, paint, red, reveal, room, yellow

There was such a great response to my post on my chair makeover that I thought I’d give you a little tour of some of my favorite spaces in our home.

We live in military housing at the moment and the spaces are pretty standard and boring.  Plain white walls and no character all around!  Over the summer, I decided it was time to give some personality to a few of our rooms.  Unfortunately, I did not take any before pictures, but I’m sure if you think back to your first apartment, you’ll get an idea of what the spaces used to look like.

The Bedroom

The Bedroom

The Bedroom

Our Living Room

Our Living Room

The Dining Room

It’s amazing what a few cans of paint can do to transform a space! Each room cost a little under $250 each in paint and accessories, and it was worth every penny!! A huge Thank You to Jody for her briliant photographs.

~Angie

Weekend Makeover Project

Tags

antique, chair, damask, DIY, furniture, makeover, project, tutorial, upholstery

I love DIY and I love antiques.  Put those two together and you get some amazing furniture makeovers.  I rescued a pair of chairs this past fall that were on their way to the garbage pile.  They were worn, outdated, and dusty, but they had beautiful lines.  So they came home with me and waited for their make over.

Since I had never actually done a big upholstery job before, off I went to scour Pinterest for some inspiration and guidance.  I found this tutorial on reupholstering a chair which was exactly what I was looking for. I found the perfect fabric for this chair at our local fabric store. It is blackout curtain material and was on sale for $3 a meter!!! I picked up 10 meters in total for these chairs, plus two extra meters because I wanted to cover my dining room chairs in the same material…perhaps that will be another post.

Now on to the fun part. I had to strip the entire chair down to the bones while keeping the old material intact so it could be used as a pattern for the new material. This was a very well made chair with lots of hand stitched seams and lots of tacks and staples!

I took lots of pictures during the disassembly process to use as a reference later when putting it all back together again. Finally, she was ready for her new look!

Ready for a new look!

Luckily, I didn’t have to replace very much of the batting as most of it was still good. I positioned each pattern piece on the new material and started the transformation.

Using the old seat fabric as a template for the new seat fabric

With lots of hand stitching, staples, and a bit of blood, she is finally ready for her reveal! My talented neighbor Jody took the pictures for the reveal. I will be painting the legs when the weather warms up a little. Other than that, I think this is the most glamorous chair I have ever seen! And so comfy too. Considering the only thing I had to buy was the material and some cord for the piping, these chairs were made over for under $35 for both!!!!

Makeover Reveal

Glam!

What do you think?

~Angie

Linking up with:

http://www.redouxinteriors.com/2013/06/link-party-108-and-les-features/

http://www.lizmarieblog.com/2013/06/inspire-me-linky-party-15/

Featured on:

http://itsalwaysruetten.blogspot.ca/2013/06/finding-friday-my-favorite-finds_14.html

http://www.keepingitsimplecrafts.com/2013/06/motivate-me-monday-178.html