Gramma's Kitchen Table Makeover

This past weekend, I finally decided I wanted to tackle the beast. AKA our kitchen. Our kitchen is the typical out-dated kitchen, fully equipped with dark wood cabinets, burgundy walls and the previous owners signature sponge patterned walls with matching outlet covers. I set the plan in motion and started with my grandparents kitchen table. 

I cannot type the word "grandparents" without tears coming to my eyes. We lost my Grandad in 2008 and my Gramma most recently in August of '13. My mom has pictures of me as a little girl eating breakfast with my granddad and making cookies with my gramma at this table. I have so many wonderful childhood memories and even adolescent memories of countless Thanksgivings and Christmas's at the "kids table". It means so much to me to have this piece furniture in my very own home. 

This past weekend was so gross out. We did the majority of our painting inside, but had to take the table out to our covered porch to do the sanding. Starting with 50 grit, then working my way up we went to 80, 120, 220 trying to get down to the actual wood beneath the layers and layers of polyurethane my granddad had put on there when he had it refinished. I needed to get down to the wood so that it would take the new stain.

Not even kidding, after about an hour of sanding with 2 different sanders (square and a 360 sander for the rounded edges) and 4 sheets of sand paper, the poly was finally coming off. I cleaned it off all the dust with a dry rag, then went over it with a damp paper towel. This was to make sure I got all of the dust off of the table so that I wouldn't trap it underneath the new stain. I also took the damp paper towel to moisten the wood and to hopefully open up the grain so that the wood would take the stain. 

I knew I wanted a dark walnut stain to go on the top only, but when we got to Lowe's, Andrew found an even darker stain called "Kona" by Rust-Oleum. It was perfect!

I applied the stain with an old ratty t-shirt. I dipped it in the stain and started from the outside and worked my way in.

DIY projects are FULL of trial runs and screw ups, so at first we didn't shake the can of stain (because I didn't read the directions) and we got this...

I thought, "what the in the world!!!!!!!! It looks exactly the same" It looked nothing like the picture. So Andrew read the directions out load, we shook the can up and tried it again.

MUCH BETTER!!! This was the desired color! While we let the stain dry (directions said about an hour) we tackled the chairs. I fought hard for turquoise, but in the end, we settled on Annie Sloan's "Old White" Chalk Paint.

With Chalk Paint, it's not like a normal paint. No sanding or prepping necessary. I painted right over top of the polyurethane on the chairs and bottom half of the table. You apply the first coat just enough to cover it. There is no need to slap it on thick and cover everything in the first coat. It is going to look awful and streaky and you might have your doubts, but in the end it is worth it!

The amazing thing about Chalk Paint, is that it drys so quickly. Each chair took about 45 minutes to paint. Had the legs been square and not round, it would of gone a lot faster. Needless to say 45 minutes X 4 chairs gave them each plenty of drying time and were ready for a second coat the moment I finished the 4th chair. 

I'm really particular about paint brush streaks, so to decrease as much of them as possible, I got an aluminum  pie pan (because I could just depose of it when I was finished and not have to worry about washing paint out of something I actually use regularly), filled it with water. I barely kissed the tip of my paint brush in the water before I dipped it into my paint can. The second coat was much smoother when the brush was wet, almost eliminating paint brush streaks! The paint almost falls onto the furniture and it's easier to spread out.

I'm going to let you know, this took an entire weekend. I'm trying to learn to start a project and finish it completely before moving on to the next one. We drug this little project into Sunday morning. Even left over night, the stain (because we had to do two coats) was still a little tacky, so I went back to the chairs to do some distressing.

With 220 grit (very smooth sandpaper) I started at the top of the chair and worked my way down. I sanded through the paint just until the wood started to show through as to not over do it. I tried to put stress marks in places where I thought "if this chair were really old and distressed, where would it be stressed?"

 (side note, we are not alcoholics/wine bottle hoarders. My soon to be father-in-law makes wine, so we save all our bottles we buy so that he can fill them up with his wine!)

The seats of the chairs have butt grooves, so I stuck to sanding where the grooves were and would most likely have been used a lot.

 Another thing about Chalk Paint is that it has a rough texture to it. It doesn't feel smooth like a latex or acrylic paint. To make the seat smooth I did one coat of polyurethane to smooth out the texture. Then, I took steel wool and buffed the poly to get rid of any air bubbles. We also polyurethaned the top of the table because it is going to get the most abuse. Plus we want to protect the top from water stains and food.

I'm in love with the way this table turned out. It is the center piece of the room. I can't wait to put some new color on the walls and a rug underneath to complement the Old White.

Be sure to check back to see our kitchen transform piece by peace!

xoxo

How I asked my Bridesmaids

Like any other girl, I spent months (ok, probably years) on Pinterest pinning the perfect wedding ideas waaaay before I even met my fiance'. With all that pinspiration, I knew I wanted to ask my girls to be my bridesmaids in a more creative and formal way, vs a plain text message. Considering the majority of them live in different cities, it would be too expensive to drive and ask them all in person.

I started at Hobby Lobby, and it was on from there. I found these adorable burlap envelops, some mixed media flowers and buttons in my wedding colors to put on the outside, some 4.5" x 6.5" cardstock to print on, ribbon to tie it all together and doilies just because I think they're pretty.

  

 Good ole' fashioned hot glue goes a long way. For once in my life, I really thought things through before I dove right into my project. I made sure to take a scrap piece of card stock and actually put it in the burlap envelope before I glued my pieces on. Otherwise, I would of glued the whole thing shut!

6 tedious envelopes later, I took off to my computer to write out all the things I wanted to include in the Bridesmaids package. I found a sweet Pin here and like the way she worded things. 

 

 

I just started writing their names on the doilies and not until I started stuffing the envelopes did I find where I wanted them to go.

 

I played around with the design of "will you be my bridesmaid" for days until I gave up on it. Again, call me last minute, but not until I was stuffing envelopes did I go with completely simply. After all, we aren't having an over the top, extravagant wedding. We want a simple wedding with all of our friends and family. So my bridesmaids package should reflect it.

 

Basic details like who, what, where, why.. these girls will be the ones I direct all my guests to when they have questions and I don't have all the time in the world to respond when things get to crunch time, so they should know as much as I do about our wedding.

All of my bridesmaids know of each other, however, not all of them have officially met. So I included their names, phone numbers, roles and how we know each other. I did this so they could get in contact with each other when it came time to plan the bachelorette party, bridal shower, whatever they need to get in contact with each other for, they now have the resource to do so.

In hopes of NEVER becoming or acting like bridezilla, I wanted to reiterate how much these girls mean to me and how much I appreciate them being with me. So I included that too :)

Again, I say, I don't want to be that crazy bride cable TV loves to cast. So to keep it simple and stress free, I want my girls to pick out their own dress. No 6 girls are going to look great in the same dress. Most dresses aren't made to flatter every body type. I am well aware so I picked out some color swatches from the local hardware store and included them in their packet. Granted they don't have to be exactly Cream Angels or Raffia Cream, but you get the idea. Creams, tans, and neutral. BASIC yet BEAUTIFUL!

My bridesmaids are my best friends as yours will probably be too. This took me a few hours to put together. The longest part was typing everything up and making sure I included all the important parts. It was a really special way for me to ask my girls and is totally worth it! All in all, this probably cost $5.20/envelope.

envelopes $2.00 x6 = $12
ribbon $.99
cardstock $4.99
doilies $2.99
mixed media $3.99 x2 = $8
buttons $1.99 x2 = $4
color swatches = free
hot glue I already had

Shipping was roughly $3.50 an envelope, which rounds out for a grand total of about $9 a packet.

Finishing Touches!

I am so excited to move my dresser into my bedroom.

But even more so excited to clean up my closet and finally unpack my clothes from garbage bags I so frantically packed the day we moved out of our rental.

With some help from my future husband, I spray painted the original handles in a flat black on an old pallet he moved out of our back yard.

I didn't want a shiny black because I wanted to give it vintage flare, so I went with Rust Oleum Flat Black.

After my coat of primer, it took 3 coats of Valspar Ultra White paint and primer.

I painted the first coat with a roller, but realized I used my last roller and let it dry out before I could put the second coat on. So I had to do the second coat with a paint brush.

My FAVORITE thing to paint with is a foam brush, which is what I painted the 3rd coat with. 

With my 40% off coupon app for my phone I picked up a variety box of about 12 from Hobby Lobby for under $5! I use them for every project.

I'm so weird about paint brush strokes, and this is the perfect tool to avoid crooked paint brush stokes.

Andrew (my fiance) also helped me screw the hardware back on the put the drawers in.

 

 

 I LOVE the way it turned out!



French Louis VI Chair

I'm a little obsessed with the French country/provincial look. 

The creams and whites really make my home feel cozy and inviting!

I was driving home over the summer and at a random thrift store on the side of the road of all places I found these two BEAUTIFUL French Louis chairs!!!! 

OK, so I won't go straight to calling them beautiful, but their bones and structure were so fabulous, I knew I could make them beautiful!

There is nothing pretty about purple velvet and black to me.

So I grabbed some pliers and a vice grip and got to work! I made sure not to tear the fabric too bad so that I could use it as a template when it came time to reupholster in the fabric of my choice.

I have a can of Valspar paint from Lowe's that I paint all of my furniture with. 

It took two coats to make sure all the black was covered.

I was going for a more antique/vintage/worn look and busted out my trusty Annie Sloan stained wax to give it that finish.

To apply, I took an old ratty t-shirt and ripped the sleeves off. With the stained wax, less is more!!

There is a fabric shop that was just right down the street from our rental house called Renees.

This little old woman from somewhere in Europe orders her fabric from overseas and has it shipped to her. I could spend hours in her store!

I eventually found exactly what I wanted. 

After a few youtube reupholster 101 videos, I started my first reupholstering job.

I knew I wasn't skilled enough to put piping back on the seams so I thought I would give nail head a try

I didn't think that individual nail heads would cover the staples, so I did some research on faux nail head trip. I found some 16 ft nail head trim from Ebay.

It was fairly easy to put on the chair, and it went around the rounded edges exactly how I wanted it to!

I will say I had to pull a few of the real nails I had to tack it on with out because they went in crooked.

I didn't have a mallet so I had to improvise

I had to borrow my moms fabric cutter that looks like a pizza cutter to trim off the excess fabric. 

And after about an hour of nailing, my chair was finished!!!

The picture doesn't do it justice. 

I'm so happy with the way it turned out!

Step by Step, Day by Day

In my last blog I introduced my beautiful French Provincial style 9 drawer dresser.
After countless Internet searches & early morning trips to yard sales, I finally found exactly what I wanted. 

Good things really do come to those who wait.
--And I'm not a girl that settles for the next best thing..

So about 40+ Lysol wipes later, I've cleaned this baby up and I'm ready to start my painting process.

 

Here's how it looked the first day I brought it home.

 

 

I'm a huge fan of this blog by a fellow DIY'er Virginia. We have very similar taste and I took some painting furniture tips from her blog Here

 

After the cleaning comes the sanding.

I like to sand all my furniture pieces to remove the shine from previous paints and stains.

Not to mention it helped to remove the gum crustified on top that no amount of Lysol wipes could conquer.

As well as buff out any of the abuse my furniture finds have taken over the years.

 

 

 

Christmas came early this year at my house!!

My dad gave me my very own palm sander and I am SO excited!

This one is rounded and spins on a 360* rotation. It makes sanding rounded corners much easier.

 

 

THANKS DAD! :)

 

After I coaxed my fiance into taking off the original hardware, I got a jump start on sanding.

The point of sanding furniture isn't to sand until all the paint/stain comes off, its just to give it a rough surface for the new paint to have some grit to grab onto.

 

I made sure I took off the shiny lacquer but didn't sand it down the the wood.

I didn't want to reshape the peice, just give myself a good base to work with.

 

After a little debate with myself, I was ready to prime in gray instead of white.

Because I have painted all of our other mixmatched pieces in our bedroom View them Here, I have lots of left over paint from previous projects.

Because I wanted a crisp clean white for this piece. I decided to go with some leftover gray primer in the hopes that it won't take too many coats of all white to cover the previous stain.

 

And I'm really glad I did. The last all white piece of furniture we tried to prime with white, took another 4 coats!!!! --Nobody's got time for 4 coats!

 



 

 

 

All 9 drawers took less time than it did to paint the whole dresser!

 

The more I primed, the more I wished that I would of gone ahead and sanded the entire drawer.

If and when it warms up I will sand the entire drawer and prime to paint both the outside and inside.

It's been about 20 ish degrees the past few days, and I haven't gotten back outside to finish painting!! Check back to see the finishing touches!!

 

 



 

 

 

 

The Quest for the Perfect One

We moved into our 1989 home in September 2013 and LOVE it.

 

 

 

 Between my college apartment furniture and his hand me down furniture not one piece of furniture in our house matches. But between the two of us, we have a bed, two night stands (that don't match) and a 3 drawer dresser that has two purposes: holding clothes and holding the TV. Because we have all these mix-matched furniture, I went to our Lowe's and bought some paint. I'm all for a mix of pieces, but they're going to look like they go together!

 

 

Our bedroom color is Valspar Polished Silver, and we love it, so I chose to go with black and white furniture pieces. But I get bored with just plain Jane, and wanted to mix it up!

This is one of our side tables

 

I striped it to give it a little bit of life. I love black and white. It's classic to me

 

 

I chose to do a Harlequin pattern so that I could really make the original hardware pieces of this piece pop against the black!

The side panels were the perfect place to put my pattern.

I painted the side panels white, and then got a piece of cardboard and made my template and stenciled the pattern on in black.

I'm sure there was an easier way to do this, but I free handed the pattern.

I think my flaws give it character! --at least that's what I tell myself to avoid OCD meltdowns on really tedious projects.

With a little bit of sanding and destressing, I roughed this baby up and love it.

 

SIDE BAR: Before we moved into our house we rented a 1920 historic home with TONS of storage, and we had no need for a dresser. Now, in our new home we are fighting over shelving in our walk-in closet.

 

I do this often, and in my mind picture exactly how I want my rooms in my house to look. I sit on the couch in the living room and think to myself. Why did I hang that there? It would look better over on that wall. But I had to make a promise to myself, to only work on ONE ROOM AT A TIME!

 

This "promise" I made to myself was for my living room... that's a whole nother story I will get to later.

So, back to this story. I joined a facebook group where the county we live in has it's own version of Craigslist.

I check it daily, sometimes more than 5 times a day hoping I might come across and be the first person to find what I've been dreaming up in my head as the PERFECT dresser.

 

I wanted a dresser with legs so that it stands up above our carpet and in my perfect fantasy, it would have the French Provincial rounded drawer look. We would get up on Saturdays and hit all the estate sales and yard sales for months. I would go cross eyed checking the latest furniture listings on Craigslist and Facebook. When yesterday.. low and behold...

MY PERFECT DRESSER HAS BEEN FOUND!!!!

 

With my charming negotiation skills (not really), I scored this baby and another piece for a STEAL! I am so excited to sand her down and paint her to be beautiful again!

 

This is my first shot at blogging, so please check back as a post my journey on making this dresser apart of my mix-matched, yet matching bedroom.

 

XOXO -KL