Curbside to Roomside Dresser DIY

I have a new favorite Wednesday night activity - driving up and down the streets checking out TRASH! :) haha, it's true. We need a lot of furniture, and I figure if I can find something on the curb, even if we only use it for a little while until we find something better, it's totally worth it.

And, I figure, as long as I stick with wooden furniture I'll be okay. Don't know if I could ever pick up a couch/chair after watching this on the Big Bang Theory...

Anyway, I took my friend Rita on one of these trips with me, and we found this dresser. It had definitely seen better days, but it had all of the drawers and they opened nicely, so we picked it up!

 

I tried to use de-glosser so I wouldn't have to sand, just like I did for our kitchen cabinets. But it didn't seem to work on the dresser, weird, but whatever. I also decided, since this is just a dresser from the curb, I wasn't going to spend a lot of time on it. So I decided not to sand or prime...

I used some paint that the previous owners had left in the garage, a nice off-white color. And then I bought some oil rubbed bronze spray paint to give the hardware a quick makeover (new hardware can be expensive!). So, all I spend on this dresser was the $7 for the spray paint - and I have plenty left that I will use for other projects! 

Here's the final product in our spare bedroom! Not bad for off the curb, right?!

 

  

Have you ever picked up something sweet from the curb? Did it need a makeover too?!

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Happy Birthday to me!

Happy Birthday to me!

It's been a great day so far. My students "surprised" me with a banner, a painted jar, and cupcakes (I say "surprised" because they have been talking about it all week in not-so-secretive-but-trying-to-be-secretive voices!

And now I am headed out to celebrate with some friends!!!

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Personalized Baby Bibs

What I did today, made personalized baby bibs for my soon-to-be niece or nephew!  

So...I just made a mess...

 

 But thankfully I also made something cute too. I just spent WAY too long making these little bibs. But they are just so cute! (At least I think so, hope the baby's mommy will like them too!!)

I going for a running/work out theme because that is totally the mom! I also got a little Puma track suit at Marshalls today and little socks that look like shoes.

And of course I had to make a couple bibs representing the baby-to-be's favorite aunt and uncle! I'm so excited to be an aunt :)

 I used my Cricut to cut out the words on freezer paper (shiny side face down). On this one, the bomb was actually a balloon - could you tell?!

Then I put a towel over the paper and bib and ironed it on until it stuck.

I love painting over freezer paper - because you don't have to be neat! Just try to stay in the square. In this picture I had already removed the "Uncle Kevin" stencil, but you can see how messy the other part looks before I remove the stencil, just wait it will be amazing! Oh, and I used Martha Stewart craft paints mixed with a little fabric medium.

After 24 hours I will iron them again to "set" them and they will be washable (you know, important quality for a bib to have) and wearable!

 

Which one is your favorite?
(And if it's your favorite, feel free to pin it - wouldn't want you to forget!!)

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My Favorite Room in Our House - The Kitchen!!

I know it's been a while! But I keep switching things up in this room, even in the "after" pictures, you'll see how I've been moving things around. I finally think I got enough pictures for you...so here you go!

This was our kitchen before:

Then, I thought about doing something like this...

I actually ended up choosing a bright green (Grass Cloth by Behr) for the kitchen walls, since we already had so much blue in the bedrooms. And I love it!! It's so bright and fun :)

And those cabinets... They took a few weeks and our kitchen was a MESS, but we got started just about as soon as we moved in, so at least we skipped the step of clearing out the cabinets. And yes, I painted inside the cabinets as well. They were just so dark and I knew it would look cleaner (and make me feel happier) if they were nice and white inside too.

First we took the cabinets off and removed all hardware. AND I would recommend numbering the cabinets somehow before you take them down, so you know where they go back instead of trying to make them fit like a puzzle (what we ended up doing!!). Then I had to fill in the holes with wood putty since they were in the middle (why?!) and I didn't want to leave them like that! Then I wiped them with deglosser. You can buy it at Wal-mart, it makes the surface more paintable, like liquid sandpaper. It was so easy, I just had to wipe them down with the deglosser and you could see them, well, get un-glossy.

It took 2 coats of primer. When doing the cabinets I waited at least a day before flipping it over and doing the other side. Which really made this take forever!! I did two coats (maybe three in some parts) of paint (Almond Cream by Behr). My kitchen (and garage) were a mess for a while...

 

  

(And, yes, that would be contact paper from the dollar store!)  

 

Picking out new hardware was so hard! I love oil rubbed bronze, but everything else in the kitchen is satin nickle and our appliances are stainless steel, so I didn't feel like it would go very well. So I decided to go with a pewter. However, Home Depot and Lowe's didn't really have anything in a pewter, so I picked them out online from knobs and hardware!

I believe these were cheaper than the ones in the store anyway so that's pretty sweet. (You can see my knobs here and my pulls here). I tried spray painting the hinges, but that turned out awful, so we got new ones - thankfully Home Depot had those in pewter!! My brother-in-law helped my husband put all the hardware back on. We used this template for drilling holes for the knobs. It really helped make sure they all went in the same place, totally worth it for a few bucks!

My father-in-law came over with his level and I let him and my hubby have fun hanging everything back up in place. I love my new kitchen!

   

 

    

And the dining room side with my Craigslist table. It needs some work, but I love the style and the bench.


Also, just got this table runner from Pier1 today! Isn't it so fun?!

 

 

If you have any questions about the cabinet process just let me know, it was actually not that difficult, it just takes a while, but it totally worth it. I just love being in my kitchen now!!

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Remembering 9/11

It's been 11 years today. Wow. 

It's been so long already but I still remember the crazy mess of how I felt that day. Confusion. Sadness. Terror. Compassion. Patriotism. Unity.

I also remembered delivering newspapers around our neighborhood that day thinking the world was ending or something like that and an old man came up to me and said, "Beautiful day, isn't it?" I remember thinking he was crazy and must not have known what was going on - I sure didn't want to break it to him, so I said "yup" and just continued along my route. I remember hanging the American flag printed on newspaper in our window. United We Stand.

I shared this video with my class today. Watch it if you get a chance.

Toward the middle/end of the video the video shows countries around the world supporting and mourning with America. It was a touching piece that I had not seen before. Hard not to cry in front of my students! (I definitely teared up.)

 

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The House Tour Continues: Living Room with Wood Paneling! YIKES!

 

  

So wood paneling...not so pretty. If could have been worse. At least the previous owners put a coat of white paint to lighten up the otherwise what I would image was a very dark room. However, wood paneling is still wood paneling, and I was thinking we would just leave it until we could rip it down or drywall over it. Yeah, I know that sounds like a lot of work! Sooo we actually went another route, and...

I had no idea wood paneling could look so good! First, for some reason, I thought wood paneling could only look good if it was painted white...and as much as I love white paint, that wasn't really doing it for me! Thankfully my (color-blind) Father-in-law convinced me that we could do a color, or rather two colors since it's a pretty big room.

We choose two colors next to each other on the paint chip sample - Classic and Country Club. They are very similar - many people don't even notice we have two different colors! Can you tell in this next picture?!

  

And, see that little wood end table? I have two of them, actually found them a couple of weeks ago on the curb while my good friend Sarah and I were hunting for some curb-side treasure! They probably have a makeover to look forward to in their future!

Wow - it works, right?! I don't even think the wood paneling looks that outdated anymore. This, I can live with! :)

And I love my new desk. I plan on doing many crafts here, and I can still chill with my hubby while he watches TV. It's actually very organized, you should be proud :)

 

  

Well, there you have it! :) I like it. We still need a bookshelf, and I still have it in the back of my mind that I need to put legs on that TV stand, I know it looks funny...but it's been so long, it's easy to just put it off! We just started putting some pictures up on the wall and I need to do some more decorating, but it kinda makes me nervous putting holes in our "new" walls!

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House Tour: The Master Bedroom

Get EXCITED - the house tour begins! :) I'm am excited to show you our bedroom today! First - this is what is looked like when we moved in:

We brought along a pillowcase with us to help find a color that would match our comforter set - and we came up with Gulf Winds by Behr. And we painted the trim white - or technically, Swiss Coffe by Behr!

Frugal Home Tip: Home Depot takes competitor coupons! We used coupons from Lowe's and Ace Hardware A LOT! Every little bit helps :)

Here it is painted and waiting for furniture! Our room isn't huge, which is fine, who needs a large bedroom anyway - like we don't plan on having large parties in here :) 


I was nervous our bedroom set wouldn't fit - it is quite large and our room is small! But we got the main pieces in - we both have a nightstand so that made me happy! :) The armoire is chillin' in another room which is fine, we don't need that :)

What do you think? I think I'm going to return the curtains for ones without the circle hook things - only because that part is an oil rubbed bronze look and the curtain rod that was already in the room is a satin nickle. 

 

  

And I plan on working on those closet doors - eventually. I think some fun crystal glass knobs would be fun for a quick easy change to begin with!

So there you have it! I love how it turned out! :) Do you have a bedroom makeover you've blogged about that you want to share - please leave a link - I'd love to check it out!! If I get a few links I'll do a feature post - wouldn't that be fun!?! 

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