Preparing the Pool Deck

Well, summer's here already! 

Just like every other year we have a plan of what we would like to get done around the house and then throw that plan out the window and dive into something else ;)

The basement windows were the plan for this Spring/Summer but when Scott found out our son, Casey, was having a birthday pool party in a few weeks work began on the deck! He's been wanting to work on it for years anyways.

So what's the deck's problem? The yahoo who built it used nails instead of screws, a LOT of nails. I can call him a yahoo because it's Scott's cousin ;) We bought the house from family years ago and we LOVE it :)

So now all of those nails are popping up and some of the boards are warping and there are splinters galore. We can't sand it to refinish it because of all those popped up nails. So last night Scott started pounding in all of the nails with a nail punch and hammer while I drilled holes in each board and we both took turns drilling in the new screws to finally hold those boards in place for good. 

It was back breaking work. We hurt. We hurt bad. And we're not even half way done.

Here's what it looks like after we've finished a row.

And a close up. There's three nails that have been punched down and two screws to hold it down for good.

There's a section like this on every single joist. Here's a bigger photo of the deck for you.

See that row of nails and screws next to me? Then see the next row that's right under me?? We are talking about a TON of nails and screws to deal with here.

The plan is to get all of these nails down and screws in and then cover the whole deck with Deck Restore from Home Depot. It's a super thick, textured paint like product. It's 10 times thicker than paint and has elasticity so it fills in cracks and holes and can hold up to the Chicago weather. 

Ow, my back hurts just looking at this.

Casey was my photographer for the evening. I liked this shot, it kinda makes me dizzy though. There's Lainey having a grand old time no matter what we're up to :)

Eventually even Casey was put to work sticking screws in the holes I had drilled. He even came out this morning at 6:30 while I was working on it again, he really is a great help!!

I just got back from a Home Depot run for more screws and it seems Scott has changed the plan of action. He is now prying up an entire board, knocking out the old nails from the bottom and then screwing the boards back down using the old nail holes. No word yet on how well this method is working!

Oh well, I'm off to celebrate my friend's birthday with some pedicures and maybe a glass of wine!! :) 

Nana's Antique Rocking Chair

I have a sentimental makeover for you today :)

About 2 months ago my Nana passed away. She fought a good fight against hodgkin's lymphoma but it eventually took over. I miss her and always will, but I take comfort in the fact that she was a Christian woman who loved the Lord and most certainly is now praising Him for an eternity in Heaven :)

She had a home full of beautiful furniture, most of it antique. She and I were able to talk in the days before she passed and it meant a lot to me that she wanted to pass some of it on to me to makeover. She was very supportive and excited about my new business and hobby.

First up is this adorable rocking chair for my beautiful niece, Etta.

As you can see it was a dark wood with a floral print seat. The wood had plenty of nicks and scratches and the floral was not exactly my 4 year old niece's style ;)

My sister in law picked up some pretty striped fabric from Joann Fabric to go with Etta's room. After taking off a few old layers I added white fabric and then the striped. This way the white stripes looked whiter and brighter.

I painted the chair with Annie Sloan's pure white, distressed, then protected with clear wax.

I know Nana would LOVE that this chair will now be in Etta's reading corner and I know that Etta will make some rockin' good memories in it! ;)

The main piece of furniture nana and I talked about was her antique secretary desk that I'm going to makeover for my younger sister. She just closed on her first house today with her husband and I'm so excited and honored to be getting this special piece of furniture ready to go live with such a special couple. Working on this desk will be a true labor of love :) I can't wait to get started on it!

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Two Yellow Birds Decor
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Stuff and Nonsense

Refinishing Antique Wood Chairs

Hello all!

Today I have some antique chairs to share with you. My mother in law's friend had these two chairs that were originally a wedding present to her grandma. Giving smaller chairs like these is equivalent to us having folding chairs now. We did the math and decided the wedding must have been somewhere around the year 1918!!

They had seen better days, some pieces were missing from both of them and even though they were lovingly and beautifully painted they were now getting old and in need of a refresher. 

Yes somehow that is the best before picture I took :( When I started on the first chair I thought "I'll take a pic of the other chair." Then when I started the 2nd chair I thought "I already got a before pic of the other one." Arg!! 

Their owner wanted them restored back to their original, beautiful wood finish. I love painting over wood but it's fun to do the exact opposite from time to time!

I use Klean-Strip paste stripper, I don't know why it's called "paste" I'd describe it more as a gel. Anyways, it's available at Home Depot for about $10. I buy packages of the cheap chip brushes to apply it with because it's easier to just throw them away after each use. 

After applying a thick coat and waiting about 10 minutes it's ready to be removed. 

For flat surfaces a metal putty knife works great but on all of the spindles I found using a rag to wipe it off worked best. I bought a "roll-o-rags" at Home Depot in the paint area for about $4 and cut each rag into smaller squares. 

I love these things. I've been using them for paint stripping, stain applications, and wiping off excess furniture wax. They feel just like my husband's white t-shirts that I used to cut up!

After I had stripped the whole chair I started the sanding process. 

(ready to be sanded!)


I started with the flat surfaces using my palm sander with 80 grit sandpaper. Then to sand all of the legs and spindles my sweet neighbor brought over some sandpaper strips that I had never seen before. They looked like this.

He cut me a piece long enough that I could wrap it around the spindle and just pull back and forth and back and forth from different angles until the whole thing was sanded. It was still hard work, but I'm sure it saved me lots of time. After that I still needed to go into all of the crevices by hand with small pieces of sand paper and then over the whole chair again with finer sand paper to get a smooth finish.

(ready to be stained!)

I stained the chairs with Minwax stain in the color Provincial and then applied three coats of polyurethane in a satin finish. 

They turned out beautiful and I just love that they're a family heirloom. I can't wait to give them back to their owner!! :)

Linking up to:

The Shady Porch

Miss Mustard Seed

Serenity Now

Funky Junk Interiors

Be Different Act Normal

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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House of Hepworth's
Two Yellow Birds
Miss Mustard Seed
Funky Junk Interiors
Craft O Maniac

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:

Miss Mustard Seed

The Rooster and the Hen

Funky Junk Interiors

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!

Linking up to:

Funky Junk Interiors

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Knick of Time Interiors

Grateful Belly

The Shady Porch

Miss Mustard Seed

The Rooster and the Hen

Too Much Time on my Hands

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!!

Linking up to:

Funky Junk Interiors

Craft O Maniac

Alderberry Hill

Sisters of the Wild West

Our Delightful Home

Knick of Time

The Shady Porch

Two Yellow Birds

Miss Mustard Seed

Shades of Amber