I did it!!

Hey All! Hope you had a great weekend. Mine was really good. Well , other than the insane storm that blew through Friday night. I accomplished a first Saturday - I painted my very first piece of furniture EVER!! Of course I've spray painted lots of things, but this was my first time using "real" paint. I will admit, I was a little intimidated by the thought of it. Thanks to all of you out in blogland who paint furniture and share it on your blog , I found the courage to try.  : )

Fortunately for me the piece I wanted to paint required pretty much no sanding. I was painting the dresser in Miss E's room. It's from Ikea and it used to be mine years back. The dresser is 11 years old and still in great shape. LOVE Ikea! The wood was plain Jane and just screaming to be prettied up.

See what I mean? Plain Jane! Oh yeah, I forgot to take a pic with the knobs still on. I started with a light sanding to the top only. After that I wiped the whole thing down and started on my first coat. I used a 4" foam roller brush for the large parts and a 1" foam brush for the thin parts. I did two coats Saturday and the final coat Sunday morning. I thought it'd be best with a third coat, since I didn't use any primer. I've got my fingers crossed I don't regret that.  : )  The results are fabulous! I'm loving it and so is Miss E. She was out of town when I did it, so it was a surprise when she came home yesterday. Soo glad she liked the color. Phew! All right, no more stalling. Here's the beautiful after!

So what do you think? Can you tell it's the same color as the shelf and chairs in the sunroom? The color is so soothing. We're still undecided what to do with the knobs. I could paint them to match, leave them as is or spray paint them with an oiled bronze color. Her desk has bronze knobs and she really likes them. Decisions, decisions. Oh, and there's still a lot of paint left which has got me thinking about painting my desk now. Hmm...

Since we all love 'em, here's another look of the B & F for ya! 

So nice!! 

What were you up to this weekend? Get any projects done around the house? I think I might have caught the painting bug!!

Sharing At: 

Savvy Southern Style

A Beach Cottage

DIY by Design

{Primp}

The Shabby Creek Cottage

Delightful Order

French Country Cottage

At The Picket Fence

Perfectly Imperfect

The Shabby Nest

Serenity Now
Remodelaholics
Funky Junk Interiors

Changes in the Sunroom

Hi There. Many of you have already seen our garage turned sunroom. Well, this past week while I was on holidays, or staycation if you will, I added a few new accessories. The first was a shelf above the TV. This is what it looked like before.

Not to shabby for a room that was once a garage! Don'tcha think? : )  Well, I wanted more room to display things. So up with the shelf. It was one that we'd had sitting in the actual garage side of our garage. It needed some serious help and only stayed up for a few days before I took it 

down to give it a fresh coat of paint. Here's what it looked like before. 

Lots of water stains and some sort of mark that resembled the bottom of a paint can. 

Kinda gross, huh? 

So I took it down, sanded, and started painting. This was after the first coat. It already looks
a zillion times better! I used the same paint that we used on the folding wooden chairs in the room.
Last night I did the second coat to finish it. This afternoon I sanded it a bit to give it a
shabby, beach cottage look. And here it is now. 

Much better! Did you notice the addition of my new bird on the right? Love it! $5 at a thrift
store. I've seen similar ones at Pottery Barn, they started a $25 for a small one! And I
have to say, mine is better looking. : )

There's a couple new pieces I put up on the wall. On the right, a basket I picked up for $1 at a thrift store. Under that is a paper umbrella in a nice dark aqua color. On the left I hung my textured bag, and the little boat used to be on the right. The other walls got some new accessories too. Where the textured bag used to be is now home to four cooper cookies cutters in sea life shapes. They were a gift from my mom years ago. I love them and a can't wait for the copper to get all weathered looking.  : )

The little boat hangs above the love seat that's on the right. That was a Kijiji find for $5. It's soo cute! 

I'm still not quite sure what I want in it, but the shells are ok for now. The little bottle has sand in it from the British Virgin Islands. It was a gift from Ms. E's mom, Ms. J, after she'd taken a trip there. 

One last look. I'm really happy with all the little changes I've made. Sometimes I can't believe I'm outside when I'm in there. It's soo cozy and homey. We just love it! So what do you think of the shelf addition?

If you'd like a look at the entire sunroom please click here. 

Sharing with:

Michele @ Primp's Primp Your Stuff Wednesday

Kim @ Savvy Southern Style's Wow Us Wednesdays

Sarah @ A Beach Cottage's Good Life Wednesday

Debbie @ Debbiedoo's Newbie Party

Gina @  The Shabby Creek Cottage's Transformation Thursday

DaNita @ Delightful Order's Delightfully Inspiring Thursday

Shaunna @ Perfectly Imperfect's DIY Furniture Makeovers

Courtney @ French Country Cottage's Feathered Nest Friday

Vanessa & Heather At The Picket Fence's Inspiration Friday

Wendy @  The Shabby Nest's Frugal Friday

Jenn & Jenna w/ Saturday Spotlight

10 Minute Table Transformation

Hey All! Yesterday I was with Ms. A in her room staring at her night table that has recently become naked. Well, kind of. It had had a mirrored tray on it, but Ms. E is redoing her room at her mom's and I thought it would go great with the new look, so I gave it to her. Ms. A doesn't have a very nice night table/stand and I do want to replace it eventually, but it's not at the top of my list. Anyhoo, it's not soo pretty and was looking rather plain and blah. I was inspired by the post Shaunna from Perfectly Imperfect had recently done. She used spray paint to paint stripes on a wood tray table. I thought about what I had on hand to achieve a smiliar look. Within minutes I was grabbing tape, craft paint and brushes. I cleared off the table and got taping. Keep in mind, I have never actually painted a piece of furniture before. I have spray painted wicker furniture, but that's not the same as taking a brush and paint to something. This was my very first time!! Because I was soo pleased with how it turned out I think I'll show you the after first! Sorry for the crappy pics, there's never very good light in her room.

Pretty cute huh? I have to tell you, I HATE her green wall!! It has got. to. go! I'm thinking maybe a light pink, but not too pink. Know what I mean? I don't want a pepto pink wall. Yuck. Here's the before of the table. 

See what I mean about blah? Not much to it and definitely boring. Although I do like the slates on the bottom shelf. It gives it a little something. So lets get tapin'.

The stripes are all even. I used a ruler to measure. However the camera angle makes it look a bit wonky. This is the part where I got the paint out, got a bit excited and completely forgot to take any pictures. Sorry! For the paint I just used acrylic craft paint I had on hand. I mixed a dark raspberry with white to get the pink color I wanted, and lightened up some green with the white. To apply the paint I used stencil brushes to get a bit of the brush stroke streaks. I gave each stripe two coats and minutes later, tada!!

It literally took me ten minutes and it was done for free! I was putting her things back on it within the hour. Gotta love how fast that paint dries.  : )  So what do you think of my first real painting project?? I love it and so does Ms. A! Now I just have to do something about that green wall. Oh, and I'm picking up a new pink lamp tonight to replace the princess one. She's soo over princesses now - she's 5 and 1/2 you know?  : ) I'll have to share the lamp with you later. I'm buying it off Kijiji. (Pronounced kee-jee-jee.) For those of you in the States, its like Craiglist, dare I say it's better. Sorry, but it is.  : )  The site is anyway. Check it out. They're only in Canada, (as far as I know) but you could still search listings in Calgary, Toronto, Vancouver, see where I'm going with this? Just check it out!

Partyin' with:
Donna @ Funky Junk Interiors Sat. Nite Special

Sarah at Thirty Decor Chick's Before & After Party
Shaunna at Imperfectly Perfect
Courtney at French Country Cottage
Vanessa & Heather At the Picket Fence