Country Grey

I’ve had this table since I was in college.  My Mom and Dad gave it to me one year for Christmas and I have always loved the versatility of its size.  It can be a sofa table, occasional table or console table.  It was Perfect in our first house in the foyer.

In the brief stay in our last house it fit perfect in the dining room but the color always bothered me next to my dark walnut table.

In our current house it fits perfectly in our dining room space where we have a large blank wall.  Still the color bothered me, it just didn’t fit anymore with our darker woods and painted furniture pieces.

I knew I wanted to stain it and I wanted more of a driftwood or grey  look.  Minwax has a new color called Country Grey so I gave that I try.  I always forget how rewarding staining furniture can be until I do another piece.  I am not a fan of stripping the old away but the new finish totally changed the way this table looks. 

There is still lots of color in the furniture here but now all matches a little better.  Just today I finished hanging up a bunch of pictures and now I feel like this side of the dining room is done! 

This side…still a work in progress.  You’ll notice I painted a mirror too…hate it, still trying to figure out how to make it better.

Loving more grey tones with warm wood in here.  Now I just have to find some money and then I will be buying a rug and a new light fixture!

Happy Sunday!
April

Halloween At My House

If you know me or have been following this blog for long you know I LOVE Halloween!  Through the process of moving I have not decorated for TWO years!!  I had lots of fun pulling out my old decorations and buying up pumpkins at our state farmers market this year.  Here is a little house tour of my Halloweenies as I like to say.



The porch was the most fun to decorate because we have this really wide front porch now and it called for lots of pumpkins.  They are a mixture of real ones and fake ones that I already had.  I made sure not to ignore the side where we walk up so I can enjoy them everyday!  I may decide to add spooky spider webs as we near Halloween but for now this feels fun and cheerful.

Inside I found that it is hard to use a lot of decoration because our new floor plan is so open to the living rooms so I created a couple of fun vignette's.

This is a small little Dollar store candle holder spray painted black.


Surprise for you here,  this is a table makeover I haven’t even shared yet.  I’ll be sure to show you the before pictures soon.


I think this little pumpkin in the center was my favorite find at the farmer’s market, it has the coolest colors.

Lastly I have a cabinet of curiosities in my dining room.  I pulled together spooky Halloween décor with ironstone and glass for an intriguing look. 

I just love tying the spooky decorations and the fun colors together at Halloween.  It was also fun to decorate a new house and use my old stuff in new ways.

April

Office Chair

I finally finished the last piece I had from an estate sale my Mom went to last Summer.  The one thing I really wanted from the sale was this really cool old office chair.

I waited a long while before I decided on what to do.  Our office was looking pretty drab with all the brown from the desk, shelves and chair so I decided to paint it white.  If you are looking close at this picture you are getting a sneak peak of the thrift store file cabinets I painted.  The office is still a work in progress.  I’m wanting window treatments, a rug, etc., etc. the list never ends. 
Here is the same chair in white now.

I used ASCP in Pure White with clear wax.  I did distress the chair a bit to bring out some of the old charm.

Now if I can just get the office finished. 

Happy Weekend!

April

Lantern Turned Terrarium

I love TJ Maxx!  Are you a Maxxinista’s too?  I love to just stop in and browse, I find great inspiration there for home décor and fashion and sometimes I am lucky enough to find a great deal!  My local store has a really great merchandiser because the store always looks neat and is displayed nicely. 
Anyway…TJ Maxx certainly did not pay me to write this, I’m just a huge fan.  I was there Friday browsing and found this great little lantern for $20.

As soon as I saw this lantern I knew that I wanted to fill it with plants.  They had several shapes and sizes but this one was just perfect.  I loved the weathered wood and simplicity.  I found some small plants at Lowes Home Improvement.  I had two small pots that I had spray painted white a while back.  I simply sanded them a bit just to distress.

I also had some moss from the craft store and wanted to use that as filler in the bottom around the pots.

I simply repotted the plants and added them to the lantern.  It is simply charming!  Now is the perfect time to find tiny plants thanks to the popularity of fairy gardening.




I had so much fun with this I redecorated my little entry table…

Twice…

It’s nice to have a new item to adore every now and then.  Where do you find inspiration?

April

A Twenty Dollar Chair

This journey started in my favorite thrift store with a $20 chair.  I literally shoved this chair in my car if you remember this Instagram photo…FROM OCTOBER!!

I’ve kept you waiting long enough…here is the whole chair before I got my hands on it. 

I loved it from first sight!  It was in good shape other than scratches and I thought this was the perfect size for a bedroom chair. I knew I wanted it paint lighter and give it a lift with new upholstery.  If you remember during this time we were living with Will’s parents and I had no place to paint so it sat for a while, then moving took over and it was just put on the back burner of home projects. 
Back in April I painted it with my brand new box of Miss Mustard Seed Milk Paint in Grain Sack, the perfect white/grey color and I could not wait to see the chippyness.
I teased you with this Instagram photo…

Then I forgot to take a photo of the after.  Almost ALL of the paint chipped away, I was so disappointed.  I have this shot from the garage and you can see it a little. It was really bad, worse than it looks.  It mostly chipped all off the back but it was pretty severe and every time I touched it paint chipped off.  I then got the bonding agent and tried again but the paint that stuck was showing through and it looked horrible.

I contacted the team at Miss Mustard Seed Milk Paint and they were helpful and indicated that I would have to sand down to bare wood and start over.  I hate sanding! So I opted to sand until smooth and paint with Chalk Paint.  Lesson was I should have tried a test spot!
I’m not sure the colors I used but I mixed ASCP in Pure White as the base with a few others  a pale grey.  I also did not have it reupholstered .  I have a fabric commitment phobia.  Here it is in it’s orange velvet glory.

Here’s a close up, I brushed the sides lightly so I could get a peak at the brown and then distressed.

I'm happy with it for now…at least right this minute, that could change anytime.  I am sure the orange will someday disappear but the pillow helps tie the colors together and the only other color in our bedroom is blue so it’s a nice contrast.  The cat really likes it too, good window seat. 
For $20 bucks it is pretty sweet!
Fun Fact:  I have a strong dislike for the feel of sandpaper and velvet…maybe that’s why it took me so long to finish, HA!
P.S.  See those curtains in the background…trying to make progress in a few rooms around here.

April