sweet boy

dresser makeover

This tired, old (but not cool/vintage/antique old) dresser got the boot last month from our bedroom. I wanted to break up our furniture store set. I painted the bed, long dresser and nightstand white. And replaced this guy with my grandpa's old dresser.
We needed something in the corner of the living room to store puzzles, craft supplies and video games. And this seemed to be the best option.
I used liquid deglosser, because I'm too lazy to sand things down really well. And two coats Valspar Lincoln Cottage Black in matte finish. It seemed a bit dark in the corner of the room..so I decided to stencil the numbers on the drawers. After all..this was to keep kid's stuff in. Why not make it fun?
The paint I had in white was pretty bright, but no worries. I then rubbed some walnut minwax all over the whole thing. I especially like how it antiqued the numbers, and gave the areas I distressed a richer color.


Only before pic I had was with my iphone

and after..

in it's new home

linking to

It's not easy being green...

But according to boys 7 and 9, it's not a bad color for a bedroom! :)

We did a little "While you were out" make over for Micah and Asher last Tuesday. David took the day off to help get this done. Dumped the kiddos at school, and off to the paint store, Wal-mart and Lowes we went.

We still need to get an armoire in there painted, and some shelves on the other side of the room. But, they were over the moon excited with what we did. They had NO clue!!! Their reaction was priceless. And it's been a week, and we're STILL getting hugs and thank yous! :)


Before..western room.

After...went for a sports/non theme room. Meaning, anything you want to put up on the walls...goes!

The night before, we decided we'd try to squeeze a little desk in there. And I'm so glad we did. It was the hit of the room. As was the fun little red stool I picked up at a local flea market.

And I added a little rug in there a few days ago.

"wanna be" built-in bookcase

Every spring since we've lived here, I start talking up the idea of bookcases on the wall behind the couch. The dinky picture wall (although I loved seeing my beautiful children's faces) has always been "temporary". Basketball season finally comes to an end, and we have our Saturdays back. And then begins the long list of things to get done before the grass starts to grow. Because once that stuff takes off,  one of our two weekend days are taken over by mowing,  weeding, and tending to flower beds. This time around, I stuck to my guns. Called David at work on a Wednesday, and said "What about bookcases this weekend?" And as always, I get "Sure, shouldn't be too hard". :)
And it really wasn't. A bit time consuming, yes. But that guy makes every DIY project he takes on look like a piece of cake.
And the fact we cut some corners, didn't hurt.
We bought 4 cheapo Wal-mart bookcase. Then hubby built up a base, which was probably the most time consuming for him. After attaching them to the base, and securing all four to the wall. He simply trimmed everything out.

He also put some chalking between the bookcases and the wall. Give it more a "built in" feel.

We painted the whole thing white, and I threw some Benjamin Moore Woodlawn Blue I had layin' around on the wall behind them. I know in pics it reads kind of funny with the green couch. And it was just a quick fix to get rid of the tan. But, I'm kind of diggin' it. Instead of re-painting, I'm thinking it's time to break down and get a new couch. I see a cool, lime green sectional in our future :)

Before. Crazy how much this room has changed in just over a year.

After. Didn't get a good shot with the same view, because the light coming through the window is causing a killer glare.

I'm not 100% sure on how I want to style them. I had an inspiration pic, that I can't seem to find. The picture showed a bookcase full of Montana jars. One on each shelf, filled with all kinds of goodies.  I tried a similar idea...with cracker jars from wal-mart. Instead of $18 a jar, I spent just $3-$5. Took the shiny tin lids off, and sprayed them with ORB spray paint. To give them a more antiqued feel. I'm slowing filling them with things that mean something. Rocks from the kid's rock collection. Shells from our CA trip. A cute little pic on a handmade easel that Micah made in art class. I have several that are empty still. And I need books. Lots more books to get them raised up to fill the space a bit more.

I'm thrilled with the end result. It's amazing how much bigger the room feels. It really added some depth and dimension. Which is exactly what I was going for.

Happy Birthday to MEEEEEE!!

Ok, that was back in Feb..but this was the wonderful gift from my sweet sis. And it's finally up!!! I can't believe I finally broke David down enough to give it a go.
He's the bestest EVER about my little projects. But, I think this one intimated him just a bit. Part of it, was tackling moving the electrical. Which I will say, he made it through like the champ he is.
The other hesitation, was his pure dislike for this sparkling wonder. As IF, right????
Then there's the fact it came in a box..looking like this

And then once half way through installing, we had this

See any resemblance??

But, I'm happy to report I think he's in like. I'm in LOVE!!! For the first couple hours, he just walked around with a funny grin on his face. And finally admitted that it's not as bad as he thought it would be. Whoo hooo!!!!

Curtains coming shortly...

We're seeing...stripes!

Who knew yesterday when we woke up, we'd have stripes painted on the wall in our bedroom by the end of the day?!?

Because hubby had to work a bit on Saturday, I really didn't intend for it to be a "work day" at home.

We did some shopping with the kiddos. Had some lunch. I managed to get him to pull into Lowes so I could get a new paint brush for some furniture I'm painting. Pretty sure he was wondering why I was carrying the empty can of BM Manchester Tan. Or..maybe he wasn't? Pretty sure he was on to me from the start of my "accent wall" googling earlier in the day.

I'd been toying with wallpaper..or maybe a nice stencil pattern on the wall where the bed is?

None of which I could get much of a reaction from him. And knowing he's been a long time hater of stripes, I wasn't sure this would be accepted any better.

After showing him some great inspiration pics, I knew we were in business. Only poor hubby thought the business wouldn't start till maybe NEXT weekend :)

Young House Love

The Lettered Cottage



After I sweetly convinced him "it won't take that long. It's just a few stripes" HA! We proceeded to the paint counter.
I asked them to mix me up a quart of our Manchester Tan, and cut it down to about 60% strength (if that makes any sense. We wanted it lighter, but not so light it was white)

After a few hours of taping off, and my sweet husband handling all the painting himself

We have stripes! And I couldn't love it any more! It came out EXACTLY as I hoped it would!
Thank you, honey... for all your hard work!!!

Now on to finishing painting the bedroom furniture. Getting my lamps, and other accessories moving along. And this room will be done!!

Painted and added a couple night stands and lamps in there

2010 Christmas mantel...working with what I have!

Every year I say I'm going to do all white candles on the mantel. Maybe throw in some silver and glass. But one things leads to another and I end up with just the sad garland. I really didn't want to spend the money this year on extra Christmas decor, so I just used what I had. Took the apothecary jars off the sofa table. Left the shells in, just to mix it up a bit. Took the balls from a tragic Christmas ball wreath I made last season. Dug out some mason jars, votives, and no..I didn't have Epsom salt laying around. So, a quick trip to the store was needed.
I don't feel completely "done" with it. But, I know I'll never get around to doing anything else. So, it'll have to do.