the desk is done!

And I'm so happy with how its turned out.

After I finished painting I was ready to put the wax on. I wasn't sure how to apply the wax with the bbfrosch brush so I called Whipperberry, she sells the bbfrosch chalk paint powder and teaches work shops which I still want to take. She also was SUPER sweet and totally talked me through it. And I'm so happy she did because it all worked out just like she said it would.

 

 She just told me to apply the wax with your brush in about a 12x12 area, then wipe the wax off with a lint free rag, microfiber worked for me. Then when you are done, you go back and buff it a little, or a lot for a more shinier finish. That part was my favorite. And just like they say, the Wax finish MAKES the piece come to life. The pictures don't really show that unfortunately, maybe because of the color I chose to paint it, but the look in person and the feel is much more professional.

 Then it was onto the jewelry! The hardware before would've looked great, I think, on this desk. However I wanted something more current that still was true to its style. So I went with these really pretty knobs and drawer pulls from Hobby Lobby.

Here are the old and the new. I decided to make things easier by creating a quick paper template for the drawer fronts, that would speed up the process of putting the hardware on.

Well folks, it didn't really.  Actually if the drawer pulls would've been consistently spaced it would have. But they were just a little off here, and there. Which translates into 2 days trying to get this hardware on!

 I first started with a smaller drill bit just to be safe, then I moved up, then when I realized that the hole on the pulls didn't all match up to my template, the one I measured did :) then I had to try to widen each hole by wiggling my drill side to side. Sometimes I only had to do that on one side, sometimes both, it was just super annoying.  So lesson learned, next time if I make a template measure each drawer pull to make sure it will work.

 The first one went on so fast, the others took forever... but I got it done!

 And it feels so good now to see it done!!!

 So last night my wonderful husband helped me move the desk over to its new home, for now anyway, and then I could get our dinning room back to normal too. I was ready for that.

 So I was tired of it looking so empty so I grabbed a lot of our books and some of my milk glass and now it looks like its always been there.

 I also wanted to show you how the one side has a deeper drawer, I thought that was fun, and the boys think its pretty cool too.

 Then I remembered that our yard was overflowing with cone flowers so I switched it up a little. Fresh flowers are so rare in our house, I can't believe I didn't think of doing this sooner!

So what do you think?

4th of July weekend

I recently had my birthday and my wonderful husband gave me some chalk paint powder from BB Frosch. I've been wanting to try this product our for a long time so I wanted to get started right away, and luckily I had the perfect piece to start with.

This vintage Chippendale desk with batwing hardware and rope molding. Now these pictures actually make this piece look better than it did in person. Trust me when I say there was no way I wasn't going to paint it.  It was pretty far gone. 

 Plus it was a disgusting mess. We brought it into the cool air conditioned house before I cleaned up the cobwebs and dust, the estate sale I bought it from said it had been in their garage for awhile, but soon I found out that wasn't the only mess that needed cleaning.

 This is one of the more mild pictures, but all over the bottom of the drawers, especially the ones at the bottom of the desk, and inside of the actual bottom of the desk I found these disgusting brown little bug pod things that just were clinging in every crevice and crack. My skin was crawling, I was completely grossed out, and yes I spent HOURS cleaning and cleaning and disinfecting this desk.

This picture above shows how they were all over the bottom inside, not the best picture, but lets be honest here, you really don't want to see it anyway right? Thankfully I believe the bugs were long gone, or just died in there years ago because they were actually pretty brittle. I still don't know what it really was, but I've never seen this before in my life and I hope to never have to clean that up again.

After it was clean Nate helped me fill in the holes from the original hardware with wood filler. The new drawer pulls I want to put on here are just barely too wide for the existing holes.

 Here was the very professional method we used to mix our chalk paint. :) An older disposable Tupperware with a 1 cup measurement marked on the side.

We measured the 2 tablespoons of chalk paint powder then added the 1-1 1/2 tablespoons of water, mixed it then added 1 cup of paint. Which we pored right into the Tupperware but just went above the line to compensate for the height of the powder mixture.

 The paint I chose was a $5 sample can of Sherwin Williams - Snowbound.

 I painted the first coat and almost went through a all of the paint I had mixed.

 So I mixed some more and did the second coat which was looking much better but not quite enough.

 I was a little disappointed that 2 coats wasn't enough because one of the big claims with chalk paint is that it has better coverage and needs less coats, but without a primer and with this dark stain going to white, I shouldn't be too harsh.

 So here it is with 3 coats, so I used 6 tablespoons of my chalk paint powder. Tomorrow I'm hoping to get the wax on and then the hardware and she'll be done and ready to be used.

Finally!

I finished making this upholstered bench and I love it! And our little girl loves it too.

There are little things that I wish I could fix, that always happens when I make something, but overall I'm so happy with it! I love it!

So a few years ago I bought this table for $2 at an estate sale around the corner from where we live. Then a year later I finally did something with it. I painted it with a glossy white spray paint.

 

 

 After choosing my fabric, making my buttons, and getting the right padding I got my wonderful husband to drill holes for the tufting.

Then I wanted to get started but this little one made it a little tough for the last year. But a few weeks ago I finally decided it was time to do it no matter what, but even with her awake it wasn't really working.

So during naptime and after Daddy came home, it was done! Just like that, I can't believe it took me that long to finish it, when really it only took a few hours and it was finished!

 And now it has a home in our little girls room in front of the window where she watches for passing squirrels, dogs, and her Daddy.

Re-Upholstering

So FOREVER I have wanted to take an upholstery class, and this last year, 2013, I finally did!!!!

It was a lot of money, the price of the class, plus the tools, and any materials you use there, plus your fabric, it adds up fast!!! BUT, Nate and I thought now that we have a few pieces that need to be reupholstered, that we got really good deals on, the cost might even out after I know what I'm doing and can do it on my own. Sorry that was a long sentence. 

 

 So my class started Oct 10th, It was on Thursday nights and was a 3 hour class.  I had it once a week except a few times when the teacher was sick and on Thanksgiving.  So I learned very slowly, but it was SO MUCH FUN, and SO worth it.

 

So the above picture is the first chair, or chairs, we have two, that we bought to reupholster.  And my plan was to do one of them and this other mid-century modern chair that my husband found at a yard sale, GO NATE! So I asked my teacher what she thought, if I would be able to finish both and she quickly told me that I should do his first, it was easier, and then maybe I'd get to start on the other chair before the class was up.

 

 So I was a dork and thought we had a "before" picture of this chair but we didn't so this is what I've got.  This is it upside-down on the table with the outside back panel of the fabric open.  And believe me when I say this thing took too long to take apart.  The staples were pretty stuck in there and with the pattern it was hard to find a few...

This is the bottom and you can see how the padding was damaged from the springs

cutting through it. But luckily the springs were still good so I didn't have to replace them I just reinforced them and put burlap in between the new padding and the springs.

So my last class was Dec. 12th, and I had barely finished my chair, but the arms and legs still needed to be put on, so unfortunately it wasn't ready before we left town that sat. for the wedding and Christmas, but now its done! And yeah I didn't even get to the other chair, oh well. I'm hoping I can figure it out on my own with only a few calls to my upholstery teacher with questions. We'll see:)

 

So Voila! Here is the after and here it is with the old fabric on it to kind of give you an idea of what it might have looked like before. Use your imagination :)

 

 I used a brown and ivory herringbone pattern I found on sale at Joanne's, we originally wanted the gray and ivory, but the brown was $30 cheaper per yard and it looked very similar.  Also I had hoped to get a larger scale herringbone pattern, but this was the right price for us, and I'm happy with it.  Also everyone in my class really liked it too so that helped convince me it was okay to veer off the original plan I had. We also decided not to add the extra piping and skirt piece that the original chair had on the bottom front.

Sorry for my yellow looking pictures, totally still use my point and shoot camera here. SLR's are just things in my dreams.

And sorry the fabric doesn't photograph very well, but it's definitely an improvement from what we had before, not that the fabric before was horrible, just harder to work with, and most important, Nate LOVES his chair, and takes all the credit for it because he found it, and said we should buy it, even though I did all of the work, except he did help me put the legs back on.  Merry Christmas Honey!

Oh and on Saturday I spent all day rearranging/ cleaning things in our room so now it lives there, i'll have to put a pic. up later, right now I'm getting over the flu...ughhh! Be smart get a flu shot, SO much cheaper and less painful than having the flu. Especially while you are pregnant.