Sweet Dreams

Perfect for my little princess.

Yes, it's a bench made from a bed...sort of.  I built this out of a full size bed frame but rather than constructing the standard bed-bench I decided to make it bigger.  I wanted something outdoors that was really comfortable.  What better than an big bench with a mattress and lots of throw pillows, right?

So much for my comfy outdoor bench.

My daughter confiscated it and turned it into a toddler bed for my little grand-princess.  

POLL QUESTION: 

 What color should it be painted?

Just in case you're wondering about the construction...

I built a frame and attached the headboard.  The foot board was cut down the middle and attached.  Then I attached left over IKEA bed slats and dropped in a $10 waterproof Craigslist crib mattress.

Total cost.  $35 for bed and mattress

Appx. $10 for wood and hardware.

Awwwwwwww!

A Little Girl's Dream

Nothing is useless.  Even if parts are missing...even if a substantial part is missing.  When you are willing to look past what others might see as limitations or defects the possibilities become wonderful.

I am sure that this piece when it was in it's full form was quite pricey, but after all is said and done, when half of it became worthless the other half became almost as much so.  For $12.50 we picked this fancy Armoire top up at the local Goodwill store.  Ponder, ponder, ponder.  It was beautiful, but what could be done with only half of an armoire.

Confession time.  My daughter and son-in-law actual came up with the idea and the 3 of us pulled it off.  A little sanding, a few balled feet, some paint and a miraculous fabric find at another Goodwill and voile'.  We turned this left-over, half baked idea into something beautiful.

What little girl would not want this in her room.  I wish I was 8 again.

Look beyond the defects and let the child in you see the perfection.

A Soft New Look - Recycled Kitchen Project

Finally!  It's seems to have taken forever but I have actually made some progress to the point where I feel like I can share it with you.  My new pantry.  Well, maybe and maybe not.  I haven't decided yet if I will distress the cabinets or not.  If you read my earlier blog you have seen this ugly cabinet.  We did make one attempt at improving these 57 year old cabinets after we moved in.   But we were rushed and never really did like the outcome.  Primer, brown paint and hew hinges were as far as we went.
 

With a little bit if ingenuity, some glue, recycled faux wood blinds, clamps, black spray paint and a new white finish...voile!

This is the same cabinet, same doors, same hardware.  I found some used 2" textured faux wood blinds and Stardust and framed the cabinet doors.  Window blinds have small holes to accommodate the pull strings so I had to come up with some way to hide these holes. 

I filled the holes with spackling paste then used a stencil and more spackling paste to create a Fleur de lis embossed treatment over the holes.  Those ugly chrome handles...a coat of spray primer and matte finish black paint gave me a more desirable piece of hardware.  Forget spending $3-$5 on new handles.  I spent that much on a can of primer and a can of paint and I'll be able to re-do all 35 kitchen handles and 3 bathroom handles.

The white looks so much bolder and yet somehow softer against the tan paint.

Redecorating can be done very affordably if one is will to think creatively and take the time to measure, cut, glue and paint, paint, paint.

Throw Something!

That's right.  Throw things all you want.  Why not throw cheap things.  Then you can throw things and not feel guilty.  Of course, with this kind of throwing you won't feel bad anyway. 

Most of our furniture is either hand-me-down, yard sale, or thrift store purchased.  With all this mix and match one might think they can't have a nicely coordinated decor.  Ha!  If you have recycled furniture of any type, try throwing it. 



A Pretty New Corner



Two Goodwill blankets dressed this ugly recliner up so much that even my husband, who looks at furniture only as a means to watch football, made a positive comment after I had fancified it.  Each throw cost $3.  The pillow is a Christmas pillow that my mother made that I turned around after the holiday.  About 15 minutes after I very carefully put this little corner together, our cat, Booger, jumped up and initiated the "new" chair with a nap.



This is what the ugly chair really looks like.

So why not rethink buying new or coordinated furniture.  Pick up a few blankets and give your old junk a whole new look.

Post Script 1/17/10 
Um, some one needs to tell my cats it's the same stupid chair we have alway had.  They are fighting over it now.

Post Script 1/21/10
It has also become a play platform for Bryndal & Booger

The Gifts Have Been Given...Time To Share Them Now.

The Christmas gifts have been given, therefore, they can now safely be shared here.  I made altered book photo frames for my sisters, sisters-in-law and my mother.  All I need to do now is find a place to host a how-to class for this art.

These books can be opened and the photograph can be changed in the hard plastic sleeve inside.  I haven't seen this done before, the idea just popped into my noggin one day.

Donna's Book




Mom's Book




Liz's Book




Kathy's Book



Nici's Book

All these books were decorated with various thrift store finds.  Two have Prima flowers.  I love making them just to see what idea pops up next. 

This really did bring out the joy of giving for me this year.  They were greatly appreciated, admired and shared.

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year to you all.

Go Toward The Light...

Turning something kind of tacky into something lovely to look at can be done in all sorts of interesting ways.  Take these lamps.  I found them a few years ago at a consignment store and I fell in love with the glass base.  The cut of the glass and the night light inside made me want to leave them on all the time.  But the ugly, dirty nylon shade left a lot to be desired.

I have no idea where this idea came from, but I really wanted to create something that used the light of the lamp as part of the decor.  Somewhere in the cortex under my hair the idea of a "slide" popped up.  How or what that would result in took a day of idea shopping and thinking.  More on this later...


After bringing in one of the usual suspects, thrift store fabric, I splurged a little bit on this project and spent about $15 on two different coordinating fabrics that match my bedding.  I didn't use this fabric on the lamp but it did help me create that unique light effect.  I also picked up some trim and some ribbon for an additional 8 bucks or so.

The first step was to grab a pair of scissor and remove the cheap nylon strips from the frame of the lamp shade.  Eye sore gone, yeah!  I ripped my cheap cotton fabric in strips and frayed the edges.  Yes, I do like to do this a lot.  It's because I am too lazy to sew things.  I stitched the strips together by hand with the seams facing out and frayed those edges as well.  After wrapping the fabric all around the shade frame I stitched the end onto the rest, again by hand, and frayed the edge.

Here is a tip.  Be sure to count the number of wraps between each support bar on the top so that the strips of fabric are evenly spaced all around. Count the number of times you wrap the fabric around the first frame and duplicate that count around the second. 

Now for the light effect.  I scanned the fabric I bought into my computer and created images of the moth's, butterflies and bees on the fabric and printed 6 color images on a piece of paper.  Since I live close to everything (one of the better features about living in this neighborhood) I made a quick jaunt over to Kinkos and printed 1 copy on transparency film.  Another jaunt over to Mystic Paper and I cut 12 small frames out of Idea-ology Grunge Board.  I made six slides gluing the transparencies between the grunge board with the top piece wrapped in the coordinating fabric.   With a grommet punched into either end of the slide I ran ribbon through and tied 3 slides around each shade.  When the light is on it creates a pretty soft picture on the shade.

Finally, I stitched a coordinating trim to the bottom of each shade and topped them off with a cheap $3 antique finish finial from Home Depot.

 

Originally my plan was to refinish the brass base as well.  I'm so happy with how pretty these turned out I've decided that it gives it a little bit of pizzaz and have left it alone.   It's very romantic.  Oooo, la la.

Mucho, mucho better.  Most of the time I do leave these lamps on now.  I just love walking into the soft light warming my bedroom.

Today's Thrift Store Re-purpose

Sometimes you run across a piece that you know is just perfect.  Even if you don't know what it is or where you will use it you just know that it's perfect.

An online search for "Maison de Provence" found several links referring to a shop with this name in New Orleans that specializes in French and Antique furnishings.   I think it is a tray for a planter but I was unable to find anything similar on their website.  Regardless, this $2.99 find at Goodwill was the perfect large piece for my kitchen shelf (a former kitchen cabinet).  It was a little grungy when I purchased it so I cleaned up the gooey stuff and was left with just enough distressing to make it simply beautiful.  P.S.  The solid marble candelabra next to it...also a Goodwill find.

These pieces will "pop" quite a bit when I have finished the inside of the shelf with fabric.  


I am becoming a Goodwill addict.  I must learn to control myself.

Creative Kitchen Cabinets

Update #1 on the Uber kitchen remodel.  Kitchen cabinets.

Testing various techniques - Tying in to the existing back splash and future counter tops.

 
I used a door from our old linen closet to create a test board for the techniques I was thinking of using for the kitchen cabinet make-over.  It was still laying around from our Master Suite remodel, and since it is the same type of wood I thought it would be a good work surface.  What I needed to accomplish was to achieve a technique that would maintain the visual integrity of the fabric print but allow me to distress it at the same time.

Fabric Distressing Technique

  
And the winner is...

 
I protected the fabric and created texture by covering it in two layers of clear, water-based kitchen caulk.  It's white coming out of the tube which allows you to ensure adequate coverage of your area, and dries clear.  Don't use the type that must be cleaned with mineral spirits.  It's too shiny and sticky, even after it has dried.  The first layer of caulk was spread on thinly with a drywall blade.  The second was slapped on thickly, and rather hap-hazardly to create depth and added a nice touch with the application of the antique glaze. 

I tried a few other ideas that I thought would create the antiqued look I was going for, but none of those protected the fabric.  Once the glaze was applied it just soaked right in and covered the pretty toile print.

In addition, I needed to test my use of old faux wood window blinds as the frame for the doors of the cabinets.  With these blinds you get nice convenient little holes about every 10" which allow the strings to work the blind when it's hanging in a window, but inconveniently create a quandary when you are trying to re-purpose them.   Problem solved.  I covered each hole by applying Spackling Paste to a fleur de lis stencil.  Once the paste was dry I dampened my fingers with a tiny bit of water to rub out any sharp edges and they look very attractive with the glaze applied.




I'll be completing the top doors in the kitchen first.  I think I may simply apply the same technique on all of the lower cabinets without the fabric, to lend a little bit of subtlety to the overall look.

Keep checking in.  This could get very interesting.


Yes, Bryndal, you can chew on my coke bottle.  I'm finished with it.

The Giganto, Humongous, Mondo, Uber Project Begins

My husband wants a new kitchen.  No! Seriously!  He hates our kitchen and he wants a new one.  Every day he has to walk through the kitchen to get to his precious Man-Cave so he is constantly reminded of how much he hates the kitchen.

1954 was a lovely year for kitchens

 But remodeling would be super costly, and we are too cheap.

So here is the goal...remodel my 1954 kitchen for as low a cost as possible, re-using as many of the current items as possible, while achieving a fine French Country finish deserving of a few "oooo's" and "ahhhhh's".

The cabinets are sight built and structurally bound to the universe.  They don't build them like that anymore.  They'll be staying put and receiving a fine treatment with fabric, recycled window blinds, paint, caulk and drywall mud.

The appliances all work just fine.  Olivia is the original 1954 gas cook top.  She works like a dream.  I'd like to find a way to re-finish her with a heat resistant enamel paint.  Carol (lovingly named after Carol Brady), the 23" gas wall over works just as well.  Even the built in timer functions flawlessy.

Dated but fully functional appliances

Ok, ok, ok.  So I have to throw in this story here.  This is the first house we have had with gas appliances.  Right after we moved in my husband, Dave was yelling from the kitchen that the oven wasn't working.  When I went into the kitchen to investigate he was repeatedly pushing a button above the oven door.  "It worked fine the last time I used it.  What did you do to it?"

"Nothing" he replied.  "But the 'light' button isn't working."

"The what button" I asked curiously?

"The 'light' button" he responded as he pressed his Schwarzenegger finger on the tiny little chrome knob over and over again.  I burst out laughing and he looked up at me with crooked, sheepish grin on his face, those blue eyes twinkling with confusion.

"Honey, dear", I mused.  "That's the button to turn the light on so you can see what's cooking.  You turn the oven on by turning the temperature dial."  I slipped my hand up the knob and turned it to 400 for pizza.

After a brief pause he huffed with embarrassment and said quietly, "Oh.  I thought it was like the stove and it had an ignition."

I love that guy.  Back to the project...

I took the door off of the horizontal cabinet above the sink.  No one but Dave can reach it anyway, so I will add a treatment to this "plant shelf" to tie it in with the cabinets.  I will also be shopping for a set of matching vintage light fixture to replace the ultra cheapo hardware store versions currently in place.

A plant shelf and new light fixtures are in the plans

 And last, but of course not least...the counter tops.  Those lovely Formica counter tops;  those UGLY Formica counter tops with their burn marks, scratches and permanent mold caulking around the sink.  I can't replace them without ruining the back splash, and that I actually like.  We will be tiling over the existing counter with new ceramic tile in black.  The current back splash is in perfect condition and has a sweeee-eet black accent that will tie the whole thing together.  You can see it better in the appliance picture.

Can you say "Yuk!"

I think this project will take several months, lots of man, um no wait-woman hours, and some minor expenses.  The project will be blogged as I proceed with the costs incurred and the techniques.  I will summarize all of the expenses and hours when I am finally able to post the photos of my completed Country French kitchen.

After that...  A vacation.  I don't think I'll be done before our pre-Army ship-out Disneyland trip with my son in March.  Hopefully when we return from his Basic Training graduation in May we will be coming home to our "magnifique cuisine".

Stay tuned...ask questions...make comments if you wish, and don't be surprised if an emergency room tale, or complaints about how old I am surface occasionally.




Where is Bryndal, anyway?

Continuing The Project

Here is an update on the "What To Do When You Don't Have The Energy To Do Anything" post from last week.  I've added a few things to my fabric wreath, but I'm simply not convinced that I'm done.

If you have any input please feel free to comment.

Cute As A Button

I love my house.  It's old, it's tiny, it needs a lot of sprucing up, but I love my house.  Did I mention the fact that I love my house?

Our 1954 Ranch style home has a warm cottage feel.  At only 1300 square feet it's small.  When everyone still lived at home it was packed and felt packed.  The rooms are small and the bathrooms...don't even get me started.  I think my kids have the smallest bathroom on the planet. 

But I recently gave it a little pick me up and the charm has increased.

Yes, it was cheap.  I used recycled exterior faux shutters picked up at Stardust building supplies (there is a link below) for $4 a piece.  These originally black shutters were painted a horrendous olive green.  Two can's of extra coverage paint put them back to their original black color.  Ha!  Take that you ugly green people.

After a ridiculous attempt to drill a hole in the block wall with my regular drill, a trip to Home Depot was in order.  Let me just say this, the right tool makes the job so much easier.  With that big power driver I rented my son and I drilled out the remaining 23 holes in about 45 minutes.  Well worth the extra funds in my opinion.

The shutters were a piece of cake to hang.  I just tapped 6 plastic nail looking thingy's with little teeth in each shutter.  Perfect.  Next, I painted the window grids and surrounding sills in an antique white.  The shutter project took about 2 hours, including the trip to HD.  The painting touch up took the rest of the day.  It took an additional day to scrape all of the extra paint off of 41 window panes, but the ultimate result was achieved.  Charm, charm, charm, charm, charm.

Shutters...$16.  Paint...$22.  Tool rental...$40.  The charm that greets you went you come home...priceless. 

Oh, did I mention that I love my house....even more now?

P.S.  This is Arizona.  We do have tiny little pockets of quaint neighborhoods, and flood irrigation makes for some very affordable green grass.



Bryndal, your feet are all muddy!

What to do when you don't have the energy to do anything.

I've been under the weather in various forms for the last few days.  Today I got hit with the chills and a little bit of a fever.  Yeah!  Just in time for Thanksgiving.

The thing I hate most about being sick is that I can't stand laying around doing nothing.  But when you are too weak to get up out of your chair the best thing to do is something in the chair.  So I grabbed an old hanger and a piece of decorator fabric I bought at a thrift store.  I cut the fabric into 9" x 1.5 inch strips (approximately).  Hey, I'm gone today.  There is no way I am going to measure them.

I sat in my chair and tied the strips around the hanger then used some pliers to wrap the hanger hook around itself behind the fabric.  This is what I got.


When I am feeling better, I'll look at decorating it.


Bryndal, stop licking your brother!

NO MORE DIGGING THROUGH MY PURSE FOR MY iPHONE!

I finally got sick and tired of missing calls because I couldn't find my phone fast enough.  Before I purchased my iphone, I had a nice little case that hung on the outside of my purse.  Since getting the iphone I haven't found one that was large enough that had the same outside-of-the-purse hanging feature.

So I decided to make my own.  I guess I just can't get enough of that recycled fabric.

Another piece of an old tie, some jewelry rawhide and a few matching beads later I have my own, custom made iphone pouch that I can put on my purse or a belt loop.  No more digging!

MORE CRAFTS WITH SCRAPS

I had some fun attaching new covers to old books with fabric recently.  I thought I would try to apply the same ideas to a removable book cover.  My beat up, old Bible cover was pretty sad after more than 10 years of use. 

I grabbed of few of my fabric pieces and played around with the idea.  After a few mistakes I had managed to pull something together, although it was pretty rough.  Some stitches had to be pulled out, and I laughed at myself a few times for how stupidly I was thinking.   However, once complete I was able to take the cover and some measurements as well to determine how to calculate everything for the next attempt.

Plus 2" inches here, plus 1 1/2" there.  Add a little zig-zag stitching...oooo, oooo, lets throw some jewelry and beads into the mix.  If you have been reading any of my blog you know I love to add beads.  Beads, beads, beads, la, la, la...

Ok, back to reality, my dear. 

This cover is pretty simple to make.  I would consider myself and Intermediate sewer, thanks only to my Sewing Goddess Mother.  This project took about 2 hours.  I think I'll try putting a few more together for my store and see if they sell.

I'll be putting an e-book together for this one.  Post a comment if you would like a copy.

$12.50 Coffee Table

So your dog chewed up the furniture.  Big deal!

Talk about keeping stuff out of the landfill...I found this great coffee table at Goodwill.  I had obviously been chewed on a little by a dog, and three of the four bolts holding the table to the base were missing bolts.  The regular price of this table was $25 but it was half-off day so I picked it up for $12.50.

The heavy base was in great condition and other then some teeth marks the oak was a little scratched but in otherwise good condition as well.  With some help from my son and his truck (save more dough by borrowing a friend or family member) we brought it home and dropped it on the back patio.

I pulled out all four bolts and put the base upside down in the yard.  This allowed the wood top to extend out over the base and all the sides and corners were easily accessible for sanding.  With an electric sander I gave it a once over on the whole table and a little extra focus on sanding where the teeth marks were.  There were a few spots with glue or something else dried onto the table, but these sanded right off.  I don't think it was more the 15 minutes of sanding overall. 

I then used Glidden brand house paint in a Satin finish, in a basic black, painted the inside corners and dips in the wood with a brush then quickly rolled on one coat with a lint free paint roller.  I did a final roll from end-to-end without stopping to get rid of "roll over" thickness.  The next day I did the same with a second coat of paint.  (I waited an extra day due to the cooler temperature)  On day three I used a light sandpaper to distress the finish in a few places and then hit those spots with a very light coat of a matte finish spray.  I think the distressing helps to "cover-up" the dog's rustic treatment.

After a week or so, I will hit it with some spray pledge to give it some protection.  If its gets a little worn down the road I have left over paint and can easily touch it up again.

Not bad for less then $13.

Decorating with recycled books

Here is a great way to go-green with your decorating. Use older hardcover books in your decorating instead of throwing them away.

I picked up a few from a second hand store for about $1 a piece, and chose books with a canvas type cover-not paper. Two coats of basic satin house paint covered any color that was on the book. In addition, I put a nice thick coat of the same paint over the outside edges of the pages. This had the effect of gluing the pages together.

I thinned out some acrylic craft paint with water and cut up one of my son's old t-shirts. (Do not thin the paint too much) Then using a damp piece of "t-shirt rag" is lightly wiped the craft paint until I reached the desired aged look. I touched up the edges of the books using a dry brush technique to a darker tone than the rest of the book.


That's all. Once dry I tried placing them in various combinations. This one worked well with a hardcover book I did not paint. The cover is very attractive so I left it in tact.