Side Chair Makeover

Back in March I made Micheal trudge out in the rain to pick up this free chair from of course, craigslist.

I originally emailed about it because the lines of the arms seemed to fit the mid-century look; however, when we got there it was clear that wasn't mid-century, probably more like late 70s. BUT it was cute and free and dangit we went in the rain! So I carted it home.

This is where a person has to decide between painting and refinishing (staining.) My mama taught me never to paint wood and I've tried to stick by that... However, in this case staining would have not dealt with the outdated look. With the blessing of my mom, I painted it Dove white (Behr) and recovered the cushions in a bright, fun print!

Steps:

1. Clean and rough up with sandpaper
   
2. Prime with Kilz new odorless oil-based primer due to stain bleed-through
   
3. Spray with Behr Dove white paint with my new HVLP paint sprayer
   
4. Recover cushions
   
5. Replace seat webbing

I'm very happy with the finished product!! It transformed into such a fun and bright piece of furniture. It'll be on the truck to Delaware next week!

Shared on the DIY Showoff

Cute, Fun and Easy Lantern Makeover!

After a week of laundry and closet organization I definitely needed to add something cute, fun, and easy to give me a little DIY pep. When I saw that pyrex dish at the thrift store last week there were two other little guys that had caught my attention and I just couldn't get them outta my mind. So I went back hoping they were still around.

Yay!!

As you can see from the pics, they were a lovely brass color. Which of course called for a nice coat of spray paint to update these guys. I disassembled them and used some Bar Keeper's Friend to scrub them down because they had a few oxidized and rusty areas.

I primed with Rustoleum's gray primer, painted with Rustoleum's turquoise and then finished with their matte finish clear coat. I also ran the glass covers through the dishwasher to get them cleaned up. I'm in love!





I think they're so fun and summery! I used paint I already had, so my only cost was the 10 bucks I paid for the lanterns.

Painting Note: I did run into a problem while spraying with the turquoise, some bubbling in the paint - I think it had to do with the heat index and humidity, but I was tired of waiting! So I sanded it down and painted again with a lighter hand and it was fine.

In other news, the fabric I ordered for the sofa reupholstery project is due to arrive tomorrow.



I'm only slightly terrified as that means I'll have no excuse to delay this monster of a project...

Lastly, Kali approves of the cushion I recovered for the outdoor furniture. Too bad it's gonna have a divot now from her chunky butt!



Until tomorrow! - Kari

Simple Before and After - Closet

Amazing "Before & After" pictures are all over the interwebs - I find that they do one of two things to me. They either inspire me or intimidate me. I feel like if I can't turn my closet or my washroom into a beautiful oasis worthy of a Better Homes & Gardens Magazines front page spread I might as well just leave it the messy hole that it is.

Don't do it! Especially if you have no closet doors (like me) to hide the mess. So I followed some simple rules to closet de-cluttering.

1. If you haven't worn it in 6 months donate it.
   
2. If you've only worn it ONCE in the last six months just so you don't have to donate it on your next closet purge, you should still donate it. :)
   
3. Keeping clothes that you don't like to wear or don't make you feel good just to have a full closet is not a good idea.
   
4. Try not to use your closet for storage. I was keeping these items in my closet although I'd never wear them:
   

   While I definitely want to keep my cheerleading paraphenalia, it's unlikely I'm going to break it out in case of a rain storm. So to the keepsake chest they went!
   

5. Use one type of hanger - I had plastic (in blue, white, purple, turquoise, black...), wire, Zips, and store hangers. This makes for a cluttered look, so I went for all white plastic (which I had the most of) and added some wooden skirt hangers from IKEA.
   
6. Use extra space. I put up some 3M hooks that I had around the house to be able to hang a few things that were just piled onto the top shelf.
   
7. And finally, if you have three cats, bring the vacuum to address the dust/hair bunnies (ew)

Then stand back and feel good about the work you put in even IF you don't have a mini chandelier, striped walls, or anything fancy like that.
So who's in? Is it time to clean out your closet?

Orange is the New Black (Kitchen pics!!)

Our kitchen renovation started last July when Micheal texted me this picture while I was on vacation back home in Kansas.

After this there was no turning back. It's been a long year and it's still not 100% done but I felt we reached a spot that I could share pictures of the stuff that is done, because it sure is purdy, and we sure did work hard.

When we bought the house in July 2009 the kitchen needed just a little updating...




The appliances had to be replaced immediately but that left us with the painted tile backsplash, filthy cabinets, builder grade floor, fluorescent lighting...NO MORE!!

So without further ado...


New: Sink, Faucet, Floors, Pulls, Appliances, & Counters

Before	After

Extra Storage!




Our new orange kitchen, I'm in love!


The final list:

1. Floor trim
   
2. Pantry door
   
3. Backsplash (someday)
   
4. Fix passthroughs
   
5. Breakfast bar

Not bad compared to the original list from 8/10/2010...

Happy Monday!

I hope everyone is having a good Monday! Micheal and I are recovering after hosting my 9-year-old nephew for the past 10 days. We had a BLAST but man, this surrogate parenting stuff is exhausting!

I'm working on a post with pics of all the fun things we did in DC, but here's a sneak pic at some pics:


My mom came out the last few days too!

Natural History Museum

I also took my mom to my local thrift store, just so she could have a "visual" when I called her while I was roaming the aisles. And just our luck, all furniture was 50% off! So I picked up this little guy for a reasonable $4.50 and plan on painting it black and might even put a funky pattern on the top!



More to come this week - Ciao for now!

Weekend Update 1/30 & WWL

Hola! Ciao! Hello! How are you all this fine day? Me? Thanks for asking, I'm doing great. No more traveling, no more marathon interview days, no more rental cars, and no more hotels (all though room service was delish!)

Now to dive back into home projects, and TRUST ME there is plenty to keep me busy (and hopefully you entertained) until I start internship (hopefully) in July.

I've got lots of fun things to share with you this week including my best craigslist find yet, our little snow disaster, dining chair full pad replacement and reupholstering tutorial, and for today....

KITCHEN UPDATE!!!

A brief reminder of the old:





Friends and family have been hounding me for updated pics so I cleaned up today and snapped some update shots.


Hello my beautiful orange kitchen! Below I've highlighted some things to check out.



Some more pics...


I've officially deemed this my baking corner! The extra 3 feet of counter space we added is ah-mazing!


Check out the longer handles we put on the drawers compared to the matching smaller ones on the cabinet doors.


The view to the living room - keepin' it real with the kitty dishes :)


The view from the living room

So what do you think? We reached that point about 2 months back where everything was functional so we really became complacent with moving forward. But now we're both motivated to get'er done!

What have I learned over the past few months...

1. They don't have small vehicles for rent in TX (or at least the weekend I was in Houston) - hope you can drive a truck (or take a cab...)!
   
2. Big fluffy pancakes delivered to your room before an interview are amazing.
   
3. If you're flying Southwest you'd better get in the A group or you're gonna be riding bitch fo-sho.
   
4. The brush attachment on our vacuum has a long and a short option! Who knew?! (Well, Micheal did since he showed me...)
   
5. It's really hard to make decisions that will set you and your family's path for at least the next two years if not longer.
   
6. Parking is a SUPER motivating benefit!
   
7. I could never have a career that required me to travel regularly.
   
8. If you're looking for a cat in our house, check by a heater vent. Kali and Moshe have taken to lying on their backs and heating up their bellies.
   
9. Angry birds? Yes please!!

Faux "Before and After"

So this really isn't a "before and after" as we didn't really DO anything other than move everything back into the kitchen! (And some random piles on the table..and the floor...) But it made a HUGE difference so I thought I'd share.

Before:

After:

Our beautiful china cabinet is so happy to no longer be a makeshift pantry!


I almost forgot there was a door there!!

Pantry Party!

I'm almost ashamed to share these before and after pictures with you, simply because it means I have to admit I actually stored FOOD in this pantry before I made it pretty. (Hangs head in shame...)

It's clean and happy now!! It's AMAZING what a coat of paint can do!

Dirty ashamed pantry:



Ick...


Double Ick!

New happy pantry!

I need to work on straightening my camera shots!





I am SO happy with the bright clean look! The wall paint is "Celery Sticks" by Behr and the shelf paint is the same as our cabinet paint, Glidden's Swiss Mocha color matched with Behr Premium paint.

Micheal also caulked in the corners to make the shelves solid and so no crummies can fall down in the cracks! We've got the trim ready to cut and paint and the famous door is being given new life.

If you're still receiving my blog entries, thanks for hanging in with me during the off and on posting! My dissertation defense is scheduled for Wednesday which is a HUGE life moment for me. Maybe after that I'll have some free time. That is..until I start internship. ;)

Nightstand Before and After

My poor alarm clock has been living on the floor for about 7 months now. I donated my makeshift nightstand to the guest bathroom in October when Jason and Jolene came to visit and it has remained there ever since.


Once we found a nightstand to go with my dresser my alarm clock was elated!


I used a similar process to refinishing my dresser except I had a fancy new tool to get to all the small spaces - The Dremel Multimax!


This little guy has turned out to be an excellent purchase and has the potential to be even more helpful. I'll do a review on it and how it's the perfect woman's tool later this week.

Back to the nightstand. I used the orbital sander with 100 grit sand paper to sand all the large flat surface down to bare wood.

Some tips to think about when using an orbital sander:

1. Make sure to wait to turn your sander on until AFTER you have placed it on the the piece of furniture. If you life it off, turn it off and repeat the above step. If you start sanding when it's already turned on it'll catch and damage the wood.
   
2. Hook it up to your shopvac to reduce dust - there is a nifty attachment that you can find at your local hardware store to go straight from hose to sander.
   
3. When sanding paint or varnish keep your eye on the sand paper. Both paint and particularly varnish can get built up on the paper and cause irregular sanding. You can scrape it out with a wire brush (or just use your fingernails like I do) and continue to use the same sandpaper.

After I had the major sanding done I broke out the new multimax and got into the corners and crevices. I also had to do some hand sanding to rough up the smaller details. I did not sand the trim pieces down to bare wood but instead roughed them up some with sandpaper and then stained over the existing stain. Again I used the stain + poly mix by Minwax so it would match the dresser, however I'm not totally in love with this product. It can be difficult to get an even coat, but maybe that's operater error and not the fault of the stain. :) I stuck with the existing hardware because it kind of matches and the leftover matching one from my dresser was too big. Sad.

Before

After