From Dull to Dynamic: China Cabinet goes Gray

 Here's where we started, back in 2011 when I purchased this bad boy from craigslist for $80.00. Well, it was $100, but we I talked him down. ;). And this is the way things stayed, for a long time. I've wanted to paint this darn cabinet for ages and I finally did it! 

Here's how the process went.

Remove retro chunky wood from front door panels. (We tried a pry bar first but that was digging into the outer frame. Next, I tried a chisel and that did the trick)

Ahhhh, already so much better.

I primed, two coats...ugh and DOUBLE ugh with these doors and the glass shelf holders

And then I painted...two coats. Not so bad on the lower part. That upper cabinet is a beast.

Next I had to decide if I wanted Earthy Gray or Heirloom White wall paper panels on the doors. I used a paintable wall paper from Lowe's. It comes in a roll and I cut it to size with and x-acto and a straight edge.

The gray won my heart. MMMMMM MMM YUM!

I painted the interior of the upper cabinet the same gray. Now, it's all put back together now and oh so handsome.

Time to finish up this room and get some window treatments now that my lovelies are all in school. Hope you enjoyed this makeover. I love the finished product. The process is getting easier too. 

Painting the bookshelf next ;)

Here is the shelf with the interior lights on at night.

Before and After

PS if you love this kind of stuff you should visit the BETTER AFTER blog. Tons of inspiration.

Candy Enamel Dots

Been having a little fun making some more enameled dots. Tessa helped out this time and it was her idea to do the rainbow of dots. She is so much her mother's daughter, right?!?
These took less than an hour from start to dry. I'd still let them cure a while longer before use but I moved them around and stuck them to the card no problem.
If you'd like to see the video demo on how to make these just visit  youtube
DIY ENAMEL DOTS
Thanks for stopping by, and have a great day.

Bare Wood Wall Decorations

I'm so happy with my new wall decorations. I sliced up a stick of wood into pieces. Then I painted the centers with some aqua paint. I gave each of my children a piece of the wood to draw
anything they wanted to. These are the resulting masterpieces ;)

Tessa 10: Love Bird

Aaron 8: Wild Bunny

Jonah 4: Daddy, Mommy and Jonah all tucked into their beds.

Jakob 12: Flower craze (this one suprised me ;))

I drilled a hole in the each of the wood pieces and then strung them all together with a lenth of twine.
A personal snapshot of my kiddos art in a matter of minutes. :)
Have a great week!

Paisley Stencil Kitchen Table Makeover

So, this is pretty much the best picture I have of my kitchen table before. We were having our Back To School Sundaes!! I despised the grooves in this table which collected all the crumbs and food that a family of six can tend to leave behind while EATING! Sheesh.
We ended up getting a loaner table while we worked this one over.
Travis began my completely planing off the top layer of the table, making sure to leave no grooves and just a flat surface. Jakob helped by sanding it smooth.
Next, I used a tack cloth to remove any extra saw dust or dirt.

Smooth smoothy smoothness (sorry for the blurry pic) but it is smooth. :)

I then created a paisley cut image with my Silhouette and cut it out of a stencil blank I purchased at Hobby Lobby. I think it ended up costing about 3 dollars or you could purchase a larger stencil online for $50 or so. 

I rolled on the Heirloom White painted with a foam roller. I had to stop about 2/3 of the way through and pick off all the paint that had collected on the stencil as it wasn't letting the paint through the smaller holes in the design. 

While that dried for a while I painted the table legs and sides. When the top was completely dry I painted on Minwax Dark Walnut stain and then rubbed off the excess with a cloth. I did two coats and let dry and added a coat of Wipe on Polycrylic. I let that dry overnight. 

In the morning I added a second coat of Wipe On Polycrylic. Food wipes off like a dream even though it doesn't have a thick coat of polyurethane.

I'm really happy with the way it came out...Now to paint the chairs.

Have a super day!

Thrifty FRIDAY is Here Again

What can I say? I was a tad busy yesterday and had no time to post my most recent project.

Apparently I had no time to take a "real" before pic either. I had already started priming this girl before I remembered to get a good shot.

 

Yeah, she was pretty sad as is the fact that I don't yet have a garage to do these kinds of projects in yet ;).
The end result was worth my time in the sweltering sun though.

I'm pretty happy with the way it came out. I know the kids will beat on her but she will do for now :)
I used the Martha Stewart double ring stencil with a gray acrylic paint from Folk Art on the top. I finished it off with a few coats of wipe on polycrylic.

I think my table is a happy little table now :)

Especially with my craiglist couch find :)

Hope you have a scrappy, happy, thrifty kinda day!

Thrifty Thursday #3: Ye Old Stereo Cabinet

Yep, she's getting a makeover. I snapped her up for $20.00 big ones and she's been hangin' out with some paisley for a while, but I think she really wants to go lighter :)
I hope to have all of her luscious curviness finished by next Thursday for the big reveal!!!!
UPDATE: Go HERE for the reveal.

And just in case that's not enough for ya cowpoke here's some thrifty threads my dear husband found last Saturday at our local SA to wear for a youth western carnival they were putting on. He was in charge of the three legged race.

Express Shirt: .25 cents

Boots: .50 cents thanks to a 2 for a 1.00 sale (they were a full size too big but he stuffed them)

he had the jeans, the hat and the neckerchief

OH THE BELT BUCKLE-my husband's crafty too. TOTALLY handmade-from start to finish from WOOD!!!

He cut out the oval, attached a contraption to the back so he could slide it onto his belt, drew the longhorn image on the wood and then burned it into the wood. He also knows how to fix clogged toilets! WHAT A MAN!

Have a super thrifty day!

Tessa's Bedroom Makeover

This is what Tess' room used to look like. I think she was posing for her dad or maybe she just hated her room...haahaha. My mom made those curtains but sadly they got sun faded :(...and they wouldn't fit on her new window anyway.

Here we are starting the process of removing everything. The walls are wallpaper board that had strips inbetween each board that had to be pulled off. Then we had to tape over each seam and sand and mud and sand...you get the idea. We then hooked up the handy dandy texture bucket to the air compressor and began to spray texture on the walls. You hve to cover EVERYTHING!
In the meantime. I sanded off the handpainted flowers and dragonflies on her bedroom set (it was given to us by a wonderful woman at church and I was sad to see the designs go know that she paintd them BUT...).
Definitely needed some freshning up. I painted all of the furniture "Swiss Almond".
Here's the foot board before sanding.All painted in my kitchen, because it's freezing OUT THERE! I used foam rollers and the paint goes on like buttah.Let the painting begin. I choose this rich pink color by Valspar (thanks Lowe's for the coupon)Decisions, decisions, I really didn't want to paint the room two colors after having done the boys room, BUT one gallon wasn't going to cut it on bare drywall, even on primed drywall. Luckily, I had this gallon of "Softened Green" by DutchBoy in the shed (used to be the color of our bathroom). It went together very nicely.Painting is almost complete...touch ups on trim...used to be brown. Tessa loves her new curtains.Bed is put back together and bookshelf is in place.

Here's the dresser before:

I painted it 10 years ago when Travis and I were just married.And the after: See what a fresh coat of paint can do!!! I would like to get some fancy knobs for her to enjoy. I also painted the frame on the crossstich Rustoleum's Heirloom White, it used to be brown.

Here's the toybox her daddy made her with her doll house and Littlese Pet Shop playhouses. I painted the frame on the vintage "ABC" poster as well (thanks for that Mama) you can see how it looked originally in the "before" picture.Still need to do something with the desk...but I'm all tuckered out. Tess is a crafter like her mom so we need storage!

A bit of paint and some major elbow grease has made for one HAPPY little girl. I'm sure many beautiful memories will be made in this room.
Linkin' up to Li'l Luna's Linky Partay #7