Herringbone Table

I got a phone call from Mindy over at Mindy's Classic Finds a couple of weeks ago letting me know she had some furniture in need of a makeover. One of the pieces was a cute little table that had endless possibilities. 

Here it is in all it's finished glory!

You want to see how it started out??

I of course had already started sanding the top smooth. I guess I just get a little too excited every time I meet a new piece of furniture ;)

The top of the table used to have a tray that sat inside which left a perfect spot to do something special. I wanted to try a herringbone pattern but didn't want it to be boring so I went to Pinterest for some inspiration and found this:

{via}

Aren't they awesome? They're originally from an Etsy shop, but either the shop doesn't exist anymore or they're not selling them anymore.

So I got to work painting the table Pure White by Annie Sloan and making a stencil for my pattern. I grabbed a big piece of my kids' craft paper, a pencil and a ruler. I started by marking how long I needed it to be (the length of the table top). Then I marked 2 " & 4" up from the bottom edge of the paper on each end. Then I took a yard stick and made straight lines across. I then marked every 2" across the paper and took a ruler to connect the dots making a big zig zag pattern. Does that make any sense?! Here's a picture of it:

I cut out the big zig zag and placed it on the table about a 1/4" from the top because the table depth wasn't divisible by 4". It was off by half an inch, so I wanted to have an extra 1/4" at each end, understand? No? I'm even confusing myself over here...basically I didn't want to have a nice full zig zag going across the top of the table but then the last zig zag being cut off awkwardly. So I guess I centered it. :)

I traced the zig zag with a pencil and then moved it down and traced again and again and again. Then I took my ruler and made straight lines down the middle of each zig and each zag :)

I painted every other rectangle with 2 coats of French Linen by Annie Sloan. I painted them freehand with a small children's water painting brush from Hobby Lobby. It didn't leave perfect lines but that was okay with me.

Then I distressed. I went to town on all of the legs and edges and every rectangle done in French Linen. I was nervous about that part since they had taken me so long to paint, but I was loving the way it was looking! I then taped off one of the rectangles and painted it with my leftover aqua mixture by Annie Sloan. I wanted this rectangle to be bright and eye catching and have perfectly straight edges. When it was all done I waxed the whole thing with clear wax.

I love it. I adore it. It's one of my favorite things I've ever done....and it looks adorable in my basement. But it's going back to Mindy's store. :) That's okay, I had so much fun painting it that I'd love to do it again sometime.

Here's some picture overload of all the details!

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Ikea Malm Hack

Happy Friday!

A client brought me an Ikea 6 drawer Malm dresser a few weeks ago looking to turn it into a piece of furniture with a nautical feeling that had a little more character for her boys' room. We decided to go with the color Napoleonic Blue by Annie Sloan and add some rope knot pulls from Hobby Lobby. So what do you think? 

As you can see from the before pic this was a laminate dresser with no knobs or pulls, very plain and boring! 

I started by making a template of one of the drawers with my kids craft paper. I marked where I wanted to drill the holes for the knobs and then taped the template onto the front of each drawer, one at a time.

I marked a few measurements on the template, as you can see, but I ended up using 5 1/2 inches from each end.

I'm not going to sugar coat it, painting this beast was a pain! ;) My husband came up with the perfect analogy, it was like washing a black car. Just when you think you've covered every spot you look at it from a different angle or in a different light and see a bunch of spots that you missed! I think I painted it about 4 times. 

One of the reasons using Annie Sloan Chalk Paint is so great is the fact that sanding and priming are usually not necessary. But I'm learning that in certain cases a little primer can't hurt!! And from now on when painting laminate I think I'll be starting with primer, just for good measure :)

I was afraid that if I tried to distress my paint job the laminate might come right off too. But I figured if that happened I'd just paint over it again, what's one more time at this point, right? ;)

It ended up distressing just fine. The paint pretty much just peeled off in some places when I ran the sandpaper over it with a bit of pressure. Then I waxed the whole thing with clear wax. 

Here's how it turned out!

The color was a little hard to capture on camera. And I have to mention also that when the sun is shining directly on this color it looks much brighter. Just something you might want to know :)

When I work on pieces for clients I get a little nervous. I want so badly to give them exactly what they're hoping for and then some! So I just have to say a huge thank you to my client, Amanda. She was my first real client and even came back with more work, she's recommended me to her friends and been nothing but delightful to work with. She's always cheered me on and encouraged me to go one step further with my new business. She's been such a blessing to me and I will be forever grateful to her!!

I hope you all have a very blessed Easter!

Linking up to:

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Too Much Time on my Hands

Under the Table and Dreaming

Old White Antique Desk

Hi all! 

I just finished my latest piece of furniture and it's another winner ;) I've been keeping very busy and it seems word has been spreading about my new hobby. I was blessed this week with some new clients and some awesome free furniture. I designed and ordered some business cards and am hoping to start advertising soon! I love painting furniture and taking something from boring to beautiful so I'm just taking this hobby wherever it (and God) leads me! :)

My poor husband's garage has started to look like a furniture warehouse....and sometimes like a furniture graveyard ;) But he's been so supportive and has helped me with anything I've asked of him, Thanks sweetie!!

So this week I worked on an antique desk that my client picked up at a flea market. She already had a bed that she wanted me to match it to and hallelujah! Annie Sloan's Old White was a perfect match. 

Here's a quick pic of the bed I was matching.

Isn't it beautiful? A lucky little girl who loves horses gets to enjoy these antique pieces :) Here's what her desk looked like before.

The foot of the desk kept falling off so I used some wood glue before screwing it back on and now it's on there really good. I sanded down the desktop because there were some very uneven spots and then gave the top a few coats of primer. The rest of the desk I just started with the chalk paint and ended up using three coats.

I only distressed the edges but tried to do them heavily. The drawer fronts with their rounded edges ended up perfect.

I would have staged it a bit more but I had just finished waxing and knew I only had about an hour of sun left. Thank goodness I got these few pictures because today it is lightning and thundering out and tonight this beauty is going back home!

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Under the Table and Dreaming

Aqua Dresser

I recently finished a dresser for a client who was looking for a nice aqua color. I wanted to use chalk paint and after seeing some of my pieces she wanted me to use chalk paint as well. But I soon discovered Annie Sloan doesn't have an aqua color!


I asked my stockist for some ideas on colors to mix to make my own aqua. She had a few different mixtures I could use but they all required 3 different colors that I didn't have. I wasn't too excited about buying 3 colors so instead I just bought Antibes Green and planned on mixing it with some Provence I already had. Perfect.

I had to try a few different mixtures but ended up with a whole lotta blue and about a 1/2 teaspoon of green. 


If you wanted to try to get an aqua from these two colors like I did I would suggest putting some Provence blue in a separate container and then starting with a tiny bit of the Antibes green and adding a little at a time until you get the color you want. 


Here's the dresser when my client brought it to me.

Sorry about the missing drawers! Beautiful on it's own, but not what they were looking for. 


I really love the color I ended up with and have some projects in mind that I'll be using it again for.


I had some fun decorating it this afternoon with random things from around the house.

I threw some baby's breath in my utensil caddy, it looks adorable, but now my silverware is just laying on my table....

Who doesn't love hydrangeas?

I hope you're having a wonderful weekend and that the weather wherever you are is as beautiful as it is here!!

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Shades of Amber

Waterfall Desk

I finally finished my desk! Yay! :)

I bought this desk with a few other pieces from Craigslist this fall. I have to admit I didn't even want the desk. I'm a little embarrassed to tell you that I saw no potential and am not a huge fan of the waterfall style. This is how it looked when I bought it:

So it sat in the garage while I worked on other things...Until I saw this beautiful piece of inspiration from Twice Lovely:

via


I knew right then exactly what I wanted to do with my desk. So the stripping began.....and went on and on and on and on. Under the white paint was pink paint, then gold paint, then the old stain. There were so many crevices that I couldn't get into. It was such a messy job that I couldn't just run to my office and work on it when I had a spare 15 minutes. 

So it sat for days at a time untouched. Finally my husband, Scott, realized that sanding all of those crevices was holding me back from finishing, so he lovingly spent a few hours getting it completely ready for staining. I'm forever grateful :) 

I stained the desk with Minwax Polyshades (stain & polyurethane in 1) in antique walnut. It was my first time using it and it was okay. I used 3 coats to get the color I wanted and afterwards I still felt it needed a coat of polyurethane for strength and for more of a glossy finish. But it was really easy to apply with a cheap sponge brush and I'd definitely use it again. 

For the drawers I knew I wanted to use some cardstock with pretty script writing on it. I got it from Hobby Lobby while it was 50% off. First I removed all of the old hardware, then filled in all of the holes with wood putty and sanded them super smooth. 

I painted around the edges of the drawers with annie sloan chalk paint in graphite, then I attached the paper to the drawer fronts using Modge Podge. I bought the drawer pulls on Ebay and got enough extras to use in my office for whenever I get around to that project! The two little knobs came from Hobby Lobby and were spray painted to match the pulls.

I am really happy with how it turned out and have been enjoying having it in my living room, but it is for sale :) If you live in the Chicagoland area and are interested in buying it you can find my email address above on my contacts page.

(The inset panels were all painted with Annie Sloan Chalk Paint in graphite and then waxed)

While I love how this desk turned out I'm not looking for any projects that involve stripping in the near future!! ;)

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The First Day of the Rest of my Life

I'm not huge into Valentine's Day. There's no decorating or big plans or anything. Me and the kids will be celebrating this afternoon by making heart shaped rice crispy treats and making their valentine's cards to bring to school tomorrow :) 

But this is still a very special couple of days for me. Nine years ago today my life changed forever. But let me give you some back story first....

I was 19 years old and working as a bank teller. I was quite outgoing and never had any problems talking/flirting with guys. I started to notice this cute guy who came into the drive thru every Friday evening. He was from my church but I had never actually really met him before. It turned out, after a little investigating, that he was 7 years older than me. Shoot, there goes that thought, he'd never ask a 19 year old out :( 

So I went about my business while he came in to get his cash every Friday night. I started dressing really nice on Fridays and fixing my makeup as often as possible. Everyone I worked with knew to let me run and help him whenever he pulled up in his black Mustang. But even with my usually outgoing personality I couldn't get myself to say one word to him other than, "Thank you, have a nice weekend!" As he drove away I'd mutter (or maybe yell, I was a ridiculous teenager after all) "Will you marry me?!" But I resigned to the fact that until I was at least 21 and able to go search for him in the bars he must hang out at, it was never going to happen.

To try and be proactive about it, you know with out actually talking to him ;), I told my mom about him. Even though he was 7 years older she was excited that she knew him and his family from church so she helped me out :) One Sunday after church she casually started a conversation with this guy's mom and started asking how old he was and if he was single and that she had a daughter who worked at the bank. Just enough to plant the seed!! But nothing happened.

A couple months later Valentine's Day came rolling around. My valentine's were going to be the 4 and 1 year old boys I babysat every weekend :)

I was, of course, at work in the drive thru on the night before valentines when my crush pulled up. My boss informed me that HE was here, which was the rule ;) But it was Thursday! I wasn't all dolled up! Then his canister dropped in the tube in front of me. It looked different....I opened it to find this:

(photo courtesy of my mom 8 years ago for a surprise wedding shower invitation:) 

It says:

 Hiedi (spelled wrong!:) 

Do you have plans for Valentine's Day?

I almost fainted. I got on the intercom and told him I was babysitting. I then PULLED myself together and told him I would find a replacement and I would love to go out with him!! 

After exchanging numbers he drove away and I ran to the back room and laid on the ground kicking and screaming in excitement.

The next night on our first date the restaurant was taking photos of all the couples for Valentines Day. I was ecstatic, even if he never asked me out again I would have a picture of us together! :)

Well, when he dropped me off that night he asked me if I could go to the car show in Chicago the NEXT night. I was on cloud nine. And I stayed there for a very long time :) 

The next Valentine's Day on our 1 year anniversary we were already engaged and about to be married in just 2 more months. Somehow, someway it turned out that we were absolutely perfect for each other. And we still are :) 

(on a family vacation, married 6 years)

In the end it turned out that Scott's mom started asking him casually about the cute girl in the drive thru at the bank here and there :) He thought I was in high school or something so hadn't really noticed me but that winter I chopped off my super long hair to my shoulders and looked a bit older and he took notice. He thought that I was only a few years younger than him and found out on our third date just HOW young I actually was! hahaha, but it was too late, we'd both already fallen for each other. So he was just going to have to put up with years of teasing from his friends for robbing the cradle ;)

So that's my story :) 

I suddenly feel the need to call Scott and tell him how much I love him!

Holey Jeans get a new life!

If you have a little man in your life you've probably experienced the frustration of watching as every single pair of jeans he owns quickly get holes in the knees. 

So the other day while browsing the awesome blog make it and love it I came across her boys jeans refashion and realized I could use this british flag to patch a pair of jeans that had gotten a hole! Awesome!

I already had plenty of torn jeans that I could cut up to make the flag so I figured this was worth a try. I didn't measure or use a ruler for any of it. I just cut a rectangle out of the holey jeans, cut a patch and some strips out of a lighter pair of old jeans, sewed the strips on to make a british flag, then attached the flag!

I'll leave the directions to Ashley but will just point out some things I noticed while making them. I used a pair of jeans that had a small hole in one knee. If the hole has already torn all the way to the side seams it's too late for this technique, sorry! Also, I would recommend just opening up the side seam of the jeans right away. It made it so much easier to sew in the patch and sewing up the seam afterwards was so quick and easy it was worth it!

Here's a picture of the side seam that you want to open up. It's just one little seam that will be easy to sew back up afterwards.

But here's a picture of the side seam you want to leave alone. 

Those are the only pointers I've got for you, but go get the whole tutorial here! There aren't a whole lot of clothing projects for boys out there so this was very exciting for my guy :) And the fact that his ruined holey jeans have a whole new life as fun and funky is just an added bonus!! ;)

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