Factory Carts!

I. Am. Obsessed. With. Factory. Carts. The industrial chic movement is among us and I am getting on board! 

Here are some of my favorites...

The only downside to these stunners is the price.  I am a teacher so they are WAY out of my budget, but I had a plan.  Several years ago, Andy broke the legs off of our coffee table.  Not on purpose mind you, it was a beautiful coffee table. One day while he was playing hooky rocking out, the legs inexplicably shattered. (I still have yet to figure it out.)  We went through several different phases with this coffee table: no legs, spindly legs, ugly legs, but the original legs could never be repaired. We were in a pinch. That is, until I had an AH-HA moment.  I decided I would drive myself down to Harbor Freight and buy some industrial looking castors and solve my problem once and for all! And guess what?! It worked!

Using Fabric as...Wall Paper?

A couple of posts back I revealed my French Provencal hutch redo. To be quite honest, it turned out great, but I still wasn't wowed! Andy thought I was crazy (what's new?) and told me not to change it.  Sooo...I changed it :-) What can I say?! I had a vision, and the hutch did not match my vision! I made one small change that took, oh, about 30 minutes and it totally completed the look.

All I needed was a yard of gorgeous fabric ( a Waverly canvas print from Jo~Ann Fabrics),spray adhesive, a measuring tape and scissors! First, I measured the space in between each shelf and then cut the fabric to fit. I started on the bottom shelf and I lightly sprayed one corner and matched up the fabric.  I worked my way across spraying and pressing and then worked my way down lightly stretching the fabric as I went to get a totally smooth result. Remember: A small spray goes a long way.  Do not over saturate or it will show through the fabric.  I picked a thick canvas fabric to make sure this would not happen. I repeated these steps on the next two sections and I was done! The simplicity of this project really opened my eyes to the possibilities of spray adhesive and fabric. What an awesome way to update a boring bookshelf, drawer or cabinet! Needless to say, I am now WOWed by the hutch and Andy agrees I was right to add some pop! I love being right I humbly accepted his praise.

Photo Collage!

So after installing the headboard we realized we needed something else above it.  Thanks to Pinterest we got some great ideas.

 

Now here is what we came up with...

I love the idea of the state silhouettes as art as well as old vintage photos from our home towns :-)

 We decided to layout the pictures on the wall using plain copy paper cut to the size of the frames. Genius! Thanks....You guessed it...Pinterest!

 Here is my awesome future sister-in-law helping out using a nifty little nail marker.

 Ta-Da! Still thinking the his and hers sign need a different font...another project for another day :-)

Lovely little Instagram photo by Tara :-)

Ruby approved!

Pool Bar Remodel Surprise

Last Christmas Andy and I decided we would remodel his sister's pool bar.  They had recently moved in and had a gorgeous pool area with the exception of the bar...

 

 I love that awesome clock! It's a Howard Miller and was the inspiration to the color scheme we used.

The paneling of the bar was a so rough and dingy looking but I knew I could sand it smooth and stain it a beautiful rich ebony and it would be like new. The tile counter top was a whole other story...

While Tara and her husband Rick went out of town we scurried over to their house and got to work! 

Here is how it went...

 First, we had to bust out all of the dated yellowing tile. Andy was good at this!

 "Thing one and thing two were making a mess"

 After I cleaned out the cabinets I realized I had some priming to do! Yuck!

 I used my favorite bonding primer. Muuuuch better!

 Then I began to sand...

 and sand...

 

 and sand...

I painted the interior of the cabinets black to hide future stains.

 We found some beautiful marble tile at our favorite tile place...Tile Outlets of America!

 Looking good!

After all of that sanding I brushed on a pre-stain to prepare the wood for the beautiful ebony stain we planned on using.

 It is such pretty wood!

  Here is the finished product! Tara and I reupholstered the chairs the previous owners left and repainted them with a beautiful metallic paint.

We rehung the cabinet doors and were done.  Rick was really surprise since he had no idea we were even doing this! P.S. the chair you see in the picture above was another left behind by the owner. I sanded it down, painted it black and stenciled on the saying in glitter paint by Martha Stewart.  It is by far my favorite chair to sit in at their house :-)

 During the day :-)

Funny Bathroom Humor

Some of my friends call me surprisingly inappropriate (not sure if this is a good thing or not)but it did not surprise any of them when they show up to our house to find our second bath party bath renovated to include some colorful bathroom humor. :-) Life should be fun right?!

So this was the bathroom before we remodeled...terrible!

After a lot of cleaning bleaching, new fixtures, paint and counter top, it started looking better!

Then, as I always do, I decided to rearrange some things.  I was not completely happy with the chalk board signs. Although they did make me some money...we found several quarters on the counter after our house warming party! Gotta love the jokers! I also was not in love with the iron hanging. So I whipped up some cute distressed signs and wa-la!

 I got the basket from Kirklands and was going to put it to good use as a fruit basket in the pantry but it was so perfect as a toilet paper and towel holder!  Its amazing how even with a gigantic sign saying to put the seat down Andy still forgets! Silly man!

 I have had the thinking man since college and he has always resided on the back of the toilet.

Where else would I put him?!

Any Austin Powers Fans out there?

Amazing Handmade All-Wood Headboard by Andy!

Our Master Bedroom is still a work in progress, however, we are making great progress :-) Hopefully it will be done by the end of the summer! This week Andy made our headboard ( he is such a handy man)! It is solid wood and I LOVE it!  I stained it when he was all done and today we installed it.

To determine what we wanted I got some inspiration from, of all places...Pinterest and  Andy got his inspiration from the 

DIY Channel :-) 

Here are our muses...

 Mine...From Grand Design

His...from Anna White

I love the difference in colors :-) I love bold colors and he loves...Brown. :-) Don't worry we compromised!

We combined both ideas and Andy created our masterpiece!

 Working hard in the shop...

Here is the final product! 

We attached it to the wall with cleats and ta-da!

Gorgeous isn't it! I am one lucky girl!

$50 Craigslist Hutch...be still my heart!

So, I am a hardcore Craigslist window shopper!  I wake up every Sunday and make my coffee and sit on the couch while scanning the wood furniture posts on Craigslist.  I know! I am sick! We do not need anymore furniture in our house....BUT it's so therapeutic :-)  About a month ago I came across a beautiful French Provencal hutch for 50 buck! Needless to say, I wanted needed that hutch! I convinced my amazing fiance to drive me an hour to pick it up ( I never retrieve my Craigslist finds without a friend for protection.) With all of that said here is my hutch makeover...

 

This was the Craigslist post...Hutch BEFORE

 The first item of business was to remove the  hardware and spray paint it bronze to match our door handles throughout the house.  Then, I lightly sanded and primed everything with dark gray spray primer. 

*Sigh* I miss Valspar spray paint from Lowes! Bring it back Lowes! Bring it back!

Next, I mixed up some homemade chalk paint and got to work painting everything a light cream.

Then, I distressed the corners and edges with 150 grit sand paper and wiped it all down with tack clothe to remove the dust. I then waxed the whole thing with Minwax finishing wax.  It gives the furniture a nice buttery feel.

 Andy thought that the handles looked better upside down...

they look like mustaches to me.

 Ahhh much better!

This is the finished product! Now I have to decide if I want to wall paper the back...I think I will...another day :-)