The Beginning

It is time to really buckle down and get ready for this baby to come and live with us!  So, we started rearranging things.  You know, I am learning, with each subsequent child, all the unpractical notions of a perfect nursery, just the right bedding, or a dream space for your new baby,  leave your head.  Because you learn (and it has taken me 4 kids now to get it) that all the fluffy bedding, will be on the floor most the time, and you will use all those hospital blankets to keep them swaddled tight at night.  And in a few short years you will want to change all those hand painted details in their room to fit a different gender baby or to go with their personality more.  I know now that the best investments are the essentials, like good crisp sheets, because that is what people will see when the come into their room, or cuter recieving blankets because they will poop through them, and a good swaddle is your saving grace at night.  All the pomp and frills are so fun, and I would do them again, but this time, I know that she will probably spend most her nights sleeping wherever will give us a good 3 hour stretch at a time.  And as she grows the same sleeping arrangement won't always work, so we will switch her her around sharing with her siblings until we find just the right fit for two little personalities. . . and that is okay!   All that being said, I have been sluggish putting her stuff somewhere, because i want to have the best access and  with three bedrooms, she doesn't have the luxury of her own room.  But i made it official the other day that she is going to start out living in the corner of our bonus room.  That is her space.  She has a dresser, and space to be changed and a space to sleep, and there is a comfy rocker to rock her to sleep.  And she will just be a cute little nomad for a while. 

But, baby stuff aside, as I lugged this old dresser across the upstairs  from my bedroom to the bonus room, I realized this brown beauty was my starting place in home projects and refinishing: 

This old dresser was hand made for my dad to use when he was a boy.  It was old and rickety with a cherry finish. When my husband and I were newlyweds we acquired it from my grandparents house, and after a year or two we decided it needed a face lift.  So, I went--completely unknowledgeable of what I was about to undertake--to Walmart and picked up some bison brown paint and some poly, and went to work.  We added new knobs and although it was still old and rickety, it had a nice chocolate brown finish to match our bedroom.  And we had a great feeling making something, we already had, work for us.  I look around our house at our furniture--a vast majority of which is hand me downs, or garage sale, or more recently, made by the hubs--and it has all had our love worked into it in some way or another.   It all started with this first little dresser whose refinishing work pales in comparison, now that we have learned more through trial and error.  It has been such a blessing in our lives to have started working on these little skills of reworking old furniture and clothes to be something that is new, fresh, and exactly what we want.  It started out by just giving it a shot. . . there wasn't much to lose.  The dresser couldn't have looked any more out of style, so we just plunged in, and here we are 5 years later with a house decorated the way we love, and full of pieces that tell a story and have a little of our blood sweat and tears (literally) finished right into them.  And this rickety dresser, our baby of the furniture, so to speak, is all grown up, and will probably need some more TLC soon, but it feels good to see it in it's current form, being used for our new baby for a while.  We had we thrown it out long ago, we would have been one dresser short right now.  So, if you are a blog peruser and you look at the things people are doing and think I could never do that, then think again!  Your first few things may flop, but you will learn from it, and be so glad you have the know how to turn that $20 garage sale bed frame, with all it's cute little details and a bad stain, into just the thing you need for your little girls room! 

Wishing Well

My in laws have this pipe coming up out of their front yard. They were thinking it was a little unsightly, so they enlisted my husband to make a faux wishing well to cover it up.  He gathered supplies before we went down there, and a couple of days into our vacation he had this little cedar beauty sitting in their yard.  I love how it looks in it's natural wood state, all surrounded by the forest.  I am never very good about thinking of outside decor or landscaping.  It is something I wish I was better at.  I thought it was such a great idea my mother in law had to get rid of an eye sore that isn't removable.  It makes me want to drop a penny in and make a wish :)

I'm Pooped!

It's DONE, can you believe it!?!?!?  It has been a long two weeks.  But we finished the stairs, AND the hallway. . . AND added a new little pottery barn style bench for the foyer.  I must say, that the hard part was that we had to do all our work at night so the kiddies wouldn't touch the walls, or be in the middle of a mess, or have the exposed outlets all around.  So after they would fall asleep we would work like elves until we dropped, then we would have to put everything away until the next night when we could do a second coat, or more poly or whatever the next night needed.  It was tiring work for a prego lady and a busy husband, but we are so thrilled with the outcome.  It was a while ago that my hubs and I pulled up the hallway carpet, so let me give you a reminder of the "before" upstairs hallway: 

The new floors were nice, but still hardly enjoyable with the tattered, pale walls

until. . . .

{Ahhhh} MUCH better, huh!?  And here are the stairs new stairs:

And, some close ups of the bench (good thing my mother in law was here to whip up an awesome cushion for it in no time):

I can't say enough how much I am loving the final product, and how much I am loving having this project behind me.  It really add to the look of our house, and seems to make all the rooms around it look a little more put together.  We have been working towards updating our hallway for a while (see Here and Here) and It feels like it is officially done, and I have never been so exhausted in my life :)

Some things I have learned while doing the stairs:

Most carpeted stairs have a pine tread that is not "stain-grade" so use a wood conditioner before applying the stain.  It will soak in more evenly and richer on the soft pine wood. 

Also, if you plan to paint as well, do in this order: pull up carpet, paint walls/trim, sand stairs, stain, poly, then apply a pre-painted beadboard and finish with touch ups.   The order we did our project in wasn't the smartest.  Doing the stairs first was what we needed to do to realize what really needed to be done with the surroundings.  But I wouldn't recommend that.   Our plan was sort of unfolding as we were working, so we had to do some touch ups on the stair treads after we were done. 

Don't get hung up on the knicks or cracks or stratches in the wood.  I was so worried about all the imprefections until I saw the Thrifty Decor Chic's stair project and read her advice.  It is true, Once your stairs as a whole are finished you won't even notice it.  Even with our lighter stain, now that the whole scene is finishes you can hardly notice that totally damaged stair near the bottom.  It all blends in and it all adds character and charm.  I didn't even fill the holes left by the staples.  Stainable woodfiller really isn't as stainable as they say.  It never stains the same as the wood, so we left it out, and the holes are much less noticable that way.

Sand really good.  Even if it's a pain and even if you don't want to, just do a little more.  It will look so much better.  Also, use an orbital sander.  Your life will be much easier.  Our corner cat sometimes leaves vibration marks on wood that are hard to get rid of, but the orbital sander is fast, smooth and easy to use.  We borrowed one, but I think, after seeing how well it worked, it will be our next tool purchase. 

For those of you who are Interested the process for the stairs went as follows:
 1. Remove carpet/padding
 2. Use pliers to remove all carpet staples from the stair treads (if you are putting bead board up you dont need to remove the staples from the risers because it will all be covered, you can just hammer them in). 
 3. Use a sander (orbital is preferable because it works fast, gives and even sand, and can get right up to those edges where all the paint from the trim is dried to.  I like to feel each stair as I go to know how much sanding i need to do.  You want a smooth surface to stain.
 4. Clean stairs with a vacuum and damp cloth to make sure all the dust is up.
 5. Apply a wood conditioner per the instructions on the label.
 6. Stain stairs desired color (we needed ours light so we only did one coat, but you may need more coats to get the richness you need).
 7.  After stain has dried (per the instructions on the label), place a high durability polyurethane over top.  (we wanted to use the poly/stain combo, but the lady at home depot said that it was not great for high traffic areas or floors, so we opted to do a separate poly and stain.  But the poly will say on the back label if it is suitable for flooring. 
 8. Repeat coats of poly several times sanding in between.  We did 5 coats of polyurethane on our stairs. Make sure to do it at a time where you have adequate time to let it dry without stepping on it.  Doing it before bed worked great for us, it was plenty dry by morning. 
 9. Paint bead board desired color.
 10.  Measure and cut to fit the size of risers
 11.  Apply with finishing nail gun. 
 12.  Caulk any edges  that don't quite match up and fill all nail holes with wood filler
 13.  Finish up with a little touch up paint over the filled nail holes and cracks, and you are DONE!!!

Now, let's here those carpets being torn from the floor!!! ;)

Painting myself in a Corner

(pardon the dusty steps, we are still a bit under construction, but i just had to share the progress!)

Actually, I have been polyurethane-ing myself upstairs, every night for the past 4 nights.  It is a funny feeling to be stuck in your upstairs for 8 hours, but, with 5 people living here, is the only way to live in the  house, and still do the stairs.  The stairs are really taking shape now.  It was touch and go there for a few days, wondering if i would need to just order new carpet in the end.  But now that they are gleaming from gloss and that rich honey color has sunk in, I am starting to look past some of the imperfections (like the one pictured below. . . that i found on the second to last step that I stained) that were bugging me while i was pulling out staples, and sanding the heck out of the treads. 

Since the weekend, Hubby also put up chair rail in the hallway and stairwell, and put bead board or wainscoting on the risers.  It is really taking shape now, and I am so glad i pushed passed the staining and poly stage to give it a chance, because I have hardly noticed the stairs that seemed so glaring with uneven stain soak-age, or surface blemishes.  We are still trying to decide on a color for the top half of the wall.  I want something in the brown family, but it can't be to dark, and I want it to match the existing tan that goes throughout the main level. . . . AND. . . I want to have it all done by Saturday.  Hubby and I are exhausted at the end of each night.  Not because of how much of the day we are spending on it really, but because now that school is out and the kids are home,and it is a main traffic area, only time to work on the hallway is after the kids go to bed, which lately has been 9:30-10 at night.  So, we will be glad when it all comes together. 

And since ADD always gets the best of me during projects and I can't just focus on one thing at a time; i started looking up some entryway benches wishing i had a cuter one than the one i removed to paint.  It is one of those things i got years ago at a yard sale and painted black and set there, and haven't taken a second glance at since.  But now that it is out, and everything else is looking so upgraded, I started thinking a nice cushioned, pottery barn type bench would be nice.  So I sent my hubs THIS link, and last night before i went to bed, it was put together just waiting for me to sand and paint.

 I can't wait to go to the fabric store to look for a cushion fabric!  Isn't my hubbers the best?  I love a guy that loves a good spontaneous project!  Thanks Babe! 

Call me Crazy

No, seriously. . . this time, it may be true.  This nesting stage always gets to me.  I have done some pretty wild and detailed projects during this past stage in my pregnancies, but I think this idea takes the cake for maybe one of the oddest. . . and possibly most detrimental if it doesn't turn out the way I think it will.  BUT. . . if it does work out the way I see it in my head, than I just saved myself a couple hundred buckeroos and, will finally rid myself of the horrid covering, that currently two days ago inhabited my stairway.

 Just so we are all on the same page. . . everyone think for a minute of that thing you said you would do first when you moved into you house.  Was it change a light fixture?  Repaint?  Change flooring?  Fix a hole in the wall?  Well..... is it still there????  I find I have a few simple things I thought, we can fix that, we can replace that, and some days i stare at those things realizing that it has been 3 years, and i am just as accustomed to them, as I assumed the previous owner was.  Who knows, they probably hated it too, but other things take priority, and suddenly that rusted, vent cover doesn't seem so bad to live with for a while.  Well here is a picture of what my item that bugs me everyday, but I have yet to do anything about (I really hate to even claim these):

(I was already taking a peak at what was underneath the carpet, that was actually not like that from the beginning. . .I'm not that bad) 

In case it is hard to tell the dark encrusted stains that have taken up permanent residence on them, here is another view:

And although we did take action on some of the carpet the first week we lived in the house, by getting it out of the entryway it is a long slow process to rid ourselves of all of it in a cost effective way, while keeping some sense of uniform-ism to our house.  But this staircase is that last high traffic area that has the white carpet and other day I was staring at it thinking, this. is. gross.  I couldn't take it anymore.  We caught a glimpse of the wood underneath when we redid our hallway, so I tossed the idea of ripping the carpet out, and staining the treads underneath to my Hubby and got his thoughts.  We figured worse case scenario-- we replace the carpet.  So, I started ripping.  Meanwhile, Hubby sends me this link to an awesome blog (who knew he could get into this whole blogging thing?) The Thrifty Decor Chick, and she has recently done the same thing to her stairs.  It was great to see it done, know it can turn out good, and know not to worry about little imperfections. Plus, I LOVED her walls with white and and the brown (well, she has tan, but there is brown too, it's a great combo), so I was definitely getting some inspiration from that.  So, the staircase has been my night and day project for the last 4 days, and isn't finished (not even close).  I will post updates as I go throughout the next week.  I am hoping to have the stairs and the upstairs hallways done within two weeks (we have company coming, that always speeds things along. . .no one wants to visit a construction zone ;) ).  Wish me Luck!  And if it sucks, i may need to learn how to install carpet :).

 

Dresser Love

Oh, was it years ago I told you I got an awesome dresser off craigslist that I was going to refinish? I had my idea in mind before I even picked up the pine-topped, crackle covered, country dresser from the house I was buying it from.  I put it in my garage, and then {let the excuses begin} winter hit, and of course it was too cold to go out, and then the holidays, and then I found out I was pregnant and was too tired, and when I started feeling better, it was spring, and I was too busy with the kids, and then end of the year school stuff. . . . aaaannd then my hubs gave me an ultimatum. . . "If it's not done by the end of May, it is going to the dump."  Well, turns out that was all I needed to get my tush into gear (He should have said that about 6 months ago when I bought it, haha).  It was finished by the end of May, I went to put the drawers in place, loving my finished product AND. . . . the top drawer wouldn't fit.  In fact none of the drawers would fit in that top spot.  It must be the warm weather, because I'm pretty sure that wasn't a problem before, but I really wanted it to be a cute AND functional piece of furniture.  So, the hubs stepped in, and trimmed down the tops of each drawer so they all slide in and out with ease.  We just touched up the paint, dusted it off and brought it to our room tonight. I have been laying on my bed trying to blur out the mess of mismatched furniture around it because it adds such a regal touch to our room.  I need a matching one now to replace our other, now sad and droopy looking, dresser.  There are so many wonderful details I didn't notice or expect until I got working on it.  Fun little holes and details that give it just the right amount of character.  Oh, and don't get me started on how much I LOVE this stain with poly combine.  It's a dream!  I was worried it would be hard to get even and the finish turned out silky and smooth.  I must say though, I had decided when I started (after seeing a table of my sister in laws) that I would try for a bit of an uneven finish to it.  I know it seems like a weird idea, but there is a depth that that sort of finish creates that I am adoring right now.  So, without further ado. . the dresser that took about 9 months to birth.  It sure does fill my room with warmth :)  I think this new arrival of mine {the baby} has taken less of a toll than this piece of furniture!    

And the AFTER......

Don't you just love those little holes?    Well, now I have a lot more furniture in my room that need the boot or a good creative eye to get it up to par with this piece of furniture or it may just drive me crazy, and no one needs a crazy pregnant lady around ;)

P.S.  Next on my list of things to finish is the girls dresser, for which, I have already purchased a fun raspberry pink, so I am hoping to knock that out this weekend!

A Builders Dream. . .and a Mothers

My friend sent me a link to this blog called Knock off Wood.  It is awesome, the stuff that lady makes some awesome stuff.  Not only does she show it on her blog, but she gives you the plans, all cute and drawn out, with measurements and amounts.  We love to build stuff. . . let me rephrase. . . my husband loves to build stuff.  I love that he does, and I love to tell him what to build and then help with the finishing touches.  Coming up with the plans is really half the battle.  We have been talking about making an outdoor picnic table for a while but haven't really put the gears in motion.  Yesterday I sent him a link for this cute little kids picnic table.  And without a word, he came home with lumber (and some wonderful composite decking boards, that won't splinter, or need to be painted, stained, or power washed. . . ever, for the top and seats.)  Then with plans in hand, he watched the kids outside, and zipped this thing out all while i was making dinner.  We changed the plans slightly to make the table top bigger to accommodate more plates on the table, and then today i noticed she added a new post with a bigger picnic table!  We are definitely going to be returning to that site for more projects.  I am thinking maybe a farmhouse bed frame for our bed ;)

don't mind miss nearly two taking off her pants in the middle of everything :)

Doesn't this totally make your heart melt?

It's finished!  I just need to do my "finishing touch" work, which is painting all those non surface pieces of wood.  . . I need some color ideas to go with the grey top boards, any suggestions? 

This will certainly get lots of use, seeing as how right now my kids just plop their food right on the deck floor and eat away! 

Bold Colors, Awesome Furniture

I was purusing my local craigslist to find some cheap furniture gems when i stumbled onto a link for an etsy site that had the cutest shabby chic, and french country furniture in the bold whimsical colors. The site is Serendipity Chic Decor.  I was loving it. Teal salt and pepper shakers?  I mean,  it doesn't get much better than that, I just had to share! 

After looking at these cute things, I am am certain that one of the dressers in my house will soon be a bright bold purple :)

More of our Hallway Upgrade

Remember the laundry room we worked on a few weeks ago.  Well, the new flooring in there was all in preparation for the new flooring that was soon to come to our upstairs hallway. It is a high traffic area with really, really light carpeting.  The carpet needed to go.  We didn't want to spend the money it would take to replace the whole upstairs, and we didn't want to have mismatched carpet butting up against each other either.  So, we decided to install hardwood floors. We did it before when we first moved in, in our entryway, and so we knew what we needed and what to expect--a long grueling day (for my husband anyways), and the use of a lot of tools we don't own.  Only this time, we used some of the hubby's connections and got the wood flooring for less than half the price we did it for the last time, in about the same amount of space.  And we thought we had gotten a pretty good deal for the entryway from some sale flooring at Home Depot.  But this current hallway we did for about $280, that includes everything, the pre-finished hardwood, the tool rental.  We borrowed alot of the tools we would need from friends which saved us tons. And the prefinished flooring we got from a vendor the hubby knows through working in the lumber industry.  My Husband took the whole day Saturday getting it all put in, and it was finished just in time to go to bed.  We didn't get to creative with the color or width of boards because we needed it to match the wood floors in the rest of the house, but it sure does add an elegance and a charm to the upstairs.  And the hallway looks so much wider.  And better yet. . . no more traffic stains, hip hip hooray!  Now we just need some paint for the walls. . . I am definitely open to suggestions!  Without further ado, here are the before, middle and after pics! 

Great Job Honey!  Thanks for all the hard work, and for saving me from a life of carpet spot scrubbing!

The $30 Entry Table

Have you ever looked at entry tables?  I have, and most they are more than pricey.  Even at my beloved hometown Marshalls I need at least a Benjamin to get a cute little occasional table.  But they add so much style and class to a space, and give more room for fun decorating.  I gave up on putting an entry table in my foyer and instead painted a bench I got at a garage sale.  This was long before my refinishing days and I would have never attempted a table.  But my sis, has been working on her entryway the last couple of weeks and keeping me up to date with her progress.  I just loved what she did with this table. . . and for a steal!  She found this table at Savers for $15:

Then she bought some cherry stain  and refinished the top.  She painted the bottom black, with some paint she had on hand, and then splurged on a great oil rubbed bronze knob for $5 (because why not, when you are saving your self $100 bucks at least in the end).  And the end result is a beautiful $30 french country table with a modern edge.  I am always amazed at what some paint and TLC for a piece of furniture can do. 

And don't you just love those cute family profiles hanging on the wall?  You can't see in this picture but they are all hanging from a rod with strips of fabric.  It is a knock off she made from a picture frame set you can buy at Pottery Barn. . .  yet another great cheap decor idea from the big sis.   You can see where I learn all my tricks!  And, I've got 8 more big sisters, just as thrifty and stylish as she is, to bum ideas from.  Thanks for letting me share Adrienne, and for giving me some good ideas for the dresser awaiting some care in my garage.

Little Memos

Does anyone else have little elves that come and steal every spare scrap of paper available for little arts and crafts projects?  My daughter's teacher must seriously think we are crazy because I am always sending in notes on little scraps of handouts that she has sent home.  She is probably wondering why i don't invest in a notepad.  It is not that i don't buy them, it is that when i do, they disappear and I can never find it when i need it or if i do find it there is one giant letter from the alphabet on each page.  There must be something exciting to a 5 year old about having all that paper stuck together to write one little thing on each page and flip back and forth. 

Either way, I do need something in my kitchen to write little memos to myself.  And since I have an ample amount of chalk thanks to the big mama chalkboard in my kitchen, i decided to make a little chalkboard baby, to set on my counter.  I went to JoAnns to see what i could find and as i was in the wood aisle, i saw a few cheap little nick knacks that reminded me of a frame these clever girls at Shanty2Chic came up with.  So I bought some similar stuff, and got to working. 

I ran into a few glitches.  The chalkboard I bought was a poor excuse for a chalkboard, seeing as how chalk didn't actually show up on it, and for a buck and change, you get what you pay for I suppose.  Then to make a simple project worse my chalkboard paint ran out, and it really was such a small space I didn't want to go out and buy a whole quart for it.  So instead I had this great idea to let it sit on my counter unfinished, and get in the way of everything i was cooking, for about a month.  That is, until my daughter broke it because I was too lazy to use a screw to keep the post on the base (even though my husband told me i should, and i said, no this glue holds anything . . . i was wrong, sorry honey).  I used only E6000 to keep in in place which works well for it just sitting there, but apparently does not withstand the force of a 20 month old in an application such as this. So it was fix it or flop it time. . . and I gave it one last go.  I pulled out what I had during nap time and finished her up.  So with black craft paint, some satin spray poly, and a screw in the bottom I now have a usable little memo chalkboard. (I was pretty excited at how well the black paint and satin poly work for a chalk surface. You could make a chalkboard out of a piece of wood with that know-how).  So, finally my big mama chalkboard has a little baby on my kitchen counter, congrats big chalkboard, I hope you baby works better now.  .   . that is, until it too goes missing.

This won't help with notes to the teacher, but it will definitely improve the amount of little scrap notes I have lost in the stack of papers on my counter :)

P.S  I've been featured today on TIP JUNKIE for the Jewelry Board.  Go on over and Check it out!