Rescued Farmhouse Table

Well, it took me weeks longer than it should have I expected, but the farmhouse table Scott found me is finally done! :)

Here is the before once again:

After lots of cleaning, sanding, staining, painting, distressing, and waxing here is the after!

I went with Annie Sloan Chalk Paint in french linen and pure white just as I planned. The top isn't exactly what I was going for, nevertheless I think it turned out beautiful and I am proud of it :)

I started by using some paint removing gel on the table top to remove most of the original stain. Then Scott sanded it down really well for me until it was bare wood. I love when he does the dirty jobs for me :)

Then I felt stuck. I wasn't sure if I should stain the top before whitewashing it. So I tested a spot and here's what it looked like. Not good!

After sanding that area down again I stained it with some Minwax Jacobean stain. Then I felt stuck again! After the hours of work I put in on a piece of furniture I get super scared to do anything else to it, what if I ruin it and have to start over?!?!

Well, after some encouragement from Scott I decided to dry brush the top with pure white so that the stain would show through. Here's how it looked after two coats. 

It was okay, but not everything I'd been dreaming of. So I decided since it probably couldn't get any worse I should try whitewashing over the whole thing. And hallelujah, it worked!! It helped it look less stripy and more like a weathered white table top.

You can see in my pictures that I was impatient and did things out of order. While I was feeling stuck on the table top I went ahead and painted the legs with french linen. This went incredibly fast and I loved them right away. But then while staining and painting and whitewashing the top I of course splattered on the apron a few times and had to touch everything up!! Have patience, have patience, don't be in such a hurry.....

To protect it I used a few coats of clear wax on the table top and I used dark wax on the legs.

I am planning on selling the table. I'm going to try Craigslist and also I'm going to look into Ebay Personals. I just read about it in my MIL's Good Housekeeping mag, have any of you tried it? Wish me luck!!

Here's some more afters for you!

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Knick of Time
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TooMuch Time on my Hands
Blissful and Domestic
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Outside Wreaths

I tackled the outside lights this weekend. I'm afraid of heights, but having lights on the house is worth the terror ;) It actually went really well this year, I bought some new lights that are heavy duty and wrapped around three sides of the house! My first time doing it I made the mistake of buying inexpensive lights that only connected a few strands at a time and ended up needing to plug them in at two different locations. It was a disaster. Has anyone else been in that situation?!

Well, getting the lights up got me feeling VERY Chirstmasy! I found this little wreath at Target for $4 while picking up the lights.

I got 2 of them for my front windows. First I fluffed them up a little, then I got out my hoard of burlap and cut about an inch thick strip.

I tied a knot in the middle and then tied a bow. I used some embroidery thread to tie it to the wreath. 

I put the thread on a needle and pushed it through the back of the bow.

Then just tied it on!

I hung them on the front windows using some command hooks. They're stuck right to the glass. 

Here they are, and there's me in my pj's and a winter jacket taking pictures in my front yard while the whole neighborhood drives by :)

I love them, and they'll look even nicer when the Christmas tree is right in the middle of that picture window!

I also gave a makeover to a big wreath I already owned. I bought this wreath at Hobby Lobby about 6 years ago and decorated it with the berries and ribbon and bow myself.

Yeah, nothing too special. I realized that in 6 years I had never even fluffed the thing! Look at the difference:

Better already, huh? I stuck with the burlap theme and cut out some more strips, this time a bit thicker. I just weaved the strips through the wreath, made a bow, and attached it the same way as before. It took about 3 strips.

Here it is hanging on the front of the house. 

Hopefully by the weekend I'll have the front stoop ready for a reveal, then I'll show you a whole house view. 

I was very bad last night and plugged in the lights. I couldn't help it, after all that work I HAD to enjoy it!! I made my husband promise to not let me do it again until Friday :)

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Free Farmhouse Table

I've got a sneak peak for you! On Halloween night my WONDERFUL hubby, Scott, found some chairs on the side of the road while picking up our dinner. After talking his friend into jumping out of the car and loading them up with him they heard some yelling from the home owner. At first they thought she was yelling AT them, but it turned out she just wanted to let them know that there was a matching table up the driveway by the house that they could have too. SCORE!!

I love that Scott now has his eyes peeled for garage sales, curbside furniture, and even old pallets by dumpsters! I've taught him well ;) Now if only we could get him a pick up truck to haul all of these treasures home in!

So here's the table that he scored:

I love farmhouse tables! In fact I have one just like it in my kitchen that is still waiting for some TLC :( I thought about just keeping this new one, but it's a little smaller than the one I have. We'll see.....

Anyways, I'm in love with gray and white at the moment and have been a little tired of white legs with dark stained tops. (even though that's what I plan on my kitchen table looking like eventually!)

So I'm planning on painting the legs in ASCP French Linen and white washing the table top. Scott helped me sand down the top to bare wood last night but now I'm feeling a little stuck. Should I do a dark stain before I white wash? Or just white wash right over the bare wood?

I think I'll do a test area tomorrow and see what it looks like white washed over a small area of bare wood. I'm just hoping it won't be too much of a pain to sand it back down to bare wood afterwards!! Wish me luck!!

                                                 

The Numbered Table

Well my new camera is on it's way!! I was hoping that the next time I bought a camera I'd have time to save up for a dslr. Unfortunately, life doesn't usually work like that :) But I'm still very excited and hopeful that my new camera will take nice pictures. One of the blogs I enjoy reading had recommended it so I'll let you know after I've tried it out what I think of it!

In the meantime I borrowed my mother in law's camera to get you guys some pictures of the side table I had fun with over the weekend. Thanks mom! 

I still had a very hard time taking pictures and getting the right lighting, so I apologize for the differences in colors!!

Here are the before's again:

And here is an after:

In order to save myself from retyping the words Annie Sloan Chalk Paint over and over I'll just let you know that every paint color I tell you about in this post is indeed chalk paint :) I started by doing the whole table with one coat of primer red. I then did a second coat just on the spots I knew I'd be distressing heavily. I then painted two coats of French Linen over the whole table. Then I distressed all over showing off some red and even some of the original dark wood.

I've been wanting to try stenciling for awhile now but have been a little intimidated. I don't have a word processing program on my computer and wasn't sure how else to get some cute numbers or letters. I'm pretty sure that I should look into free word programs but for now I used Picasa and just made a plain white collage with text added to it!

I  cut out each number and drew a box around each one. I used a ruler to try and get straight lines but mostly just free handed it. Then I taped the piece of paper to the table.

I traced over the lines I made and around the number. When I finished I was left with very light lines to try and paint inside.

Can you see them? :) I used the color Old White and some children's paint brushes I got at Hobby Lobby for about $2. I started by painting around the edge of the box...

Then I painted around the number...

Then I just filled the rest in, waited for it to dry and distressed it with some fine sand paper.

It turned out to be very fun and my 6 year old son was SO impressed with me. He's a lover of all things crafty just like his momma :)

It's home is next to my living room sofa. The decorations are a bit "spring" I know, staging is not one of my strong points, but I'm practicing :)

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When Things Go Wrong

I was very excited to show you the side table I worked on all weekend. I checked the weather and it looked like the sun might make an appearance this afternoon so I thought I'd be patient and wait for the natural light. 

In the meantime I downloaded and edited the "during" photos that I had been taking over the weekend. Then my husband and I spent about an hour doing the dreaded health insurance enrollment that we had been putting off. Our 4 year old "Bugs" played so nicely in the basement while watching some morning cartoons. 

Afterwards Scott left to pick up our 6 year old and stop at the hobby store to pick up a model airplane for them to work on together while he's off of work this week. I went downstairs to play with Bugs and found my camera on the floor. Oh that Bugs, she played with my camera! Wait. It's not turning on. 

"Were you playing with my camera?!" 

"No......I was chewing on it."

My camera is busted. My day has become somewhat busted as well. Let's hope this week turns around.....QUICK.

Here's some before photos of the table I can't wait to show you. 

I think I'll go call my mother in law now to see if I can borrow her camera....

                                              

Pottery Barn Wreath Pillow

Last week I made this Pottery Barn Poinsetta Pillow knock off. While I was making it I decided with my leftover felt I could make one of Pottery Barn's other beautiful Christmas pillows too. 

via

I just needed to buy 1/2 a yard of linen, some gold colored thread and some more pillow stuffing. I already had cream felt and pom poms. 

I started by cutting 2 pieces of fabric to 13 1/4 inches by 13 1/4 inches like last time. This way when I sew the pillow with a 5/8 inch seam I end up with a 12 x 12 pillow.

I laid down one piece of fabric and tested out some bowls trying to find one that I liked the size of.

I traced around it VERY lightly with a pencil.

I then made a couple of different sized leaves on paper until I liked the size of one. I laid the leaf on my felt and started tracing it over and over and over and over....I used a pen and just cut on the inside of my pen marks.

After cutting a bunch of them out I pinned them to the linen using the light pencil mark as my guide. 

I sewed each leaf on using my sewing machine. I just started at one end, sewed forward a little more than half way up the leaf, then went in reverse back to where I started. This actually went by much faster than I expected!

Then I put my pieces of linen right sides together and pinned in place. I sewed a seam all the way around leaving a space to turn the pillow right side out and for filling with stuffing.

After turning it right side out I used my hot glue gun to just randomly add the pom poms. Then I stuffed it with stuffing and hand sewed it shut. Done! The colors aren't identical to Pottery Barn but that's okay, I used what I had and I love how it turned out :)

I also stuffed some Placemat Pillows while I was at it. Looks like my couch is ready for the Christmas season! Although, these will all be going away until November 24th of course :)

                                                 

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