Dining Table Makeover

Well, hey there!  How are things this fine Sunday afternoon?  Over here, the boys are napping (well, one is chatting) and I'm trying to get caught up on things.  Including being more active on my blog.  So as I was taking a look at my recent posts, I realized I never showed the end result of my cheap-o dining table that I snagged from a thrift store this past winter.

Remember this guy?  Found him at a local thrift store, marked down from $200 to $25 right after Christmas!  I lugged it home, heart racing, waiting for a staff person to stop me and tell me they made a mistake and I had robbed them.

Now if you're a wood purist and hate painted furniture, avert your eyes.  Because I had loads e-mails from folks telling me not to paint it because it would destroy the value, wreck the wood, etc.  I get it.  I really do.  But what I wanted most of all was a two toned dining set that fit in to my "countryish" (new word alert)/ open style/no dining room kitchen.  So look away quickly if you were one of those folks....

Because I totally painted it.  Annie Sloan's Old White.  Not my favorite white since it's more of a cream but it was exactly what this old fellow needed.  Took three coats since I had some bleed through, a coat of wax, and minimal buffing on this one.

Love how it turned out! The top is the original finish, scratches, scuffs and all.  And so far I like how it works with painted parts and the style of this house which is pretty informal.

And because I was going for shabby chic, I don't even cry (much) when Liam drives his cars into it.

Doesn't it look great with the little slipper underneath, the basket of unfolded laundry and the baby jumper?  I really need to learn how to "style" a picture (aka hide my junk).

It's been four months and I still sigh with delight every morning when I sit down with my tea.  Since I married in the 80's, I can honestly say this is the first ever dining set that I'm totally thrilled with and didn't buy because it was "practical".  And I paid (way) less for this then the other two sets from furniture stores. Not bad for $25 and a can of ASCP.  Actually a quarter of a can since we all know ASCP goes super far.  Gotta love that.

Sharing at my favorite, and sadly neglected parties. 

House Hunting Adventures

Happy Hump Day, y'all.

So earlier this week I let it be known that I was breaking up with my house for a whole bunch of reasons. I thought I'd give a quick update and share some of the houses I've seen this week.

I had a chance to see this little place (and I do mean little) yesterday.

The pictures were great. And deceiving. I really wish folks would skip the stretch thing when they take pictures. I can usually tell when someone's done this but this time... total fraud.  Doesn't this yard look nice?  It is.  But it's really, really small.  Not that I care about that since I hate cutting grass but, again, I just hate deception.

Also these were clearly taken a few years ago. The place was dirty, had broken doors and holes in the walls. And it smelled like dirty sneakers.  I know adolescent boys are stinky critters but, still.   Yuck.

Later I went to an open house at a home in the country... Not bad except that its also listed for sale. Not willing to take that risk, thanks very much.

Then I contacted the owner of this lovely house.  

I loved the charm of the built ins around the fireplace in the living room and the gorgeous floors.

Too bad the owner didn't have the good manners to respond to my e-mail.  I see the home is still listed.  Good luck with that.

Here's another nice and super small house.  Again, very deceptive.  Can't even begin to tell you how tiny this place really was.

A small kitchen opens on to the "great room".  I think the term "great room" was a total exaggeration.

All of those houses were back in the city that I commute to every morning and actually pretty near my daycare.  I was willing to move back to the city for the right house and location.  Not an easy option since I'm a total country girl.  But I was willing.  Just saying.

This beauty was in the little town that I already live in.  Sometimes rentals in small towns are hard to come by but this was a new build in my area and I loved it from the outside.

But the strange layout didn't really do it for me and it was way over-priced.  Not going to lie....that one was my fault.  I switched up the numbers somehow when I was looking at the pictures.  Here's a shot looking down from the upstairs towards the front door.

Now that you've seen all the bumps along the road to finding our new place, I think I might have seen something that I really love.  Right here in my town, too.  In fact, the house is literally a couple of streets over.

How awesome is this kitchen?  Apologies about the blurred pictures... I snagged them from the Kijiji posting.  I was so super excited when viewing, after days of disappointment, I actually forgot to take pictures of my own.  That white door is actually a full sized pantry.  Full size!!  Oh emm geee!

The little powder room off the front hall is pretty sweet. I'm loving this sink!  And the faucet.  And the light fixture....see where I'm going with this?

This is the dining area next to the stairway.  Love the dark wood floors and stairway.  And those groovy little windows!

I think this might be the house!  Super exciting!  Stay tuned for the updates and our final decision in the next few weeks.



Link parties I'm sharing with this week....

Break Up Alert

Hey, hey everyone!  With the exception of my article about my bedroom furniture that I posted yesterday, it's been radio silence over here for the past couple of weeks so I thought I'd send off a little update about some changes going on at Cottonwood Lane.

First, as most of you know, I went back to my (more than) full time job at the beginning of March and I'm struggling to manage all of the demands on my time.  I have, what feels like, a gazillion half started house projects waiting for my attention.  (My caseload kind of feels the same!)  The boys have adjusted well to my return to work but I feel like I hardly see them anymore so I've put a lot of things on hold to spend real time with my fellows.  And then the dang job itself is completely exhausting at times.  So tiring that I can barely stay awake til 9:30 most nights.

Enough with the pity party stuff...

The real reason for this article is the thought that I might have to finally accept that this house and I just aren't getting along any longer.  The two bedroom ranch was already full with just me and Charming.  Since Bubs has come along we're just busting out of the place.  This is where I share my gratitude that I decided to rent rather than buy this house.  I've been waffling back and forth for the past few years about buying vs renting and I'm really, really glad I rented.  I know buying is usually better and I had always intended to buy when I moved home to Alabama.  In fact, I'd actually gone looking a couple of years ago in Alabama believing tha I was moving home in the near future but didn't settle on anything.  For obvious reasons (Charming and Bubs!) we'll be staying in Canada indefinitely. Well, a few more years anyways.  And because my life has been so full of changes in the past two years, it's nice to know that when something isn't working you can give 60 days notice and move on.

So here's what I'm struggling with.....First off, I'm sleeping in the basement bedroom which I really don't love.  It makes me feel like a college kid or like I'm in some kind of basement apartment.  I'm really too old to be doing this.  The room looks a little better since I painted the furniture white but, come on, it's still a basement.

I have half finished projects laying all over the basement and rec-room area because there's just no room to put anything.  Which means I can't make the playroom I'd been hoping for since the area is overflowing.

Which means my living area is still full of baby equipment and overflowing toy bins.

I re-did the "master bathroom" a few months ago (full story here) but there is no shower.  Really.  No shower!

Not sure why since the room is a giant waste of space.  You could hold ballroom dance lessons in there for crying out loud.  So I spend most of every morning running up and down the stairs going back and forth from the main bathroom to my bathroom.  Last week I stumbled up the stairs, dropped the blow dryer and everything else I was lugging and woke both the boys.  NOT. HAPPY.  There it is, the stairway to hell....

And then the waste of space that's the bathroom encroaches on what could have been a functional laundry and storage area.  Once again...everything is just crammed in and I'm forever banging into shelves and walls.

So ridiculously small, I can't turn around with a basket in my arms!

On top of all that the shed holds a lawnmower and not much else and there's no garage.

[Well, well, well....I just noticed when I was editing this post that the beer case is not full of empties waiting to be recycled as I had thought, but is actually full of beer.  Real beer!  Here's hoping that beer doesn't expire.  I apologize for my ADHD....Now, back to our regular scheduled program.]


Since the new baby was born I have no less than 4 strollers, a double wagon, a kiddie pool and all sorts of other play equipment that remains homeless most of the time.

I'm keeping strollers on the back deck, in the hall closet and shuffling them in and out of my van.  The rest of the stuff is just lingering on the back deck which means there's no real place to sit outside and have a clutter free view.  Here's a spare stroller just hanging around the side of the house.  Where the garage should be.

Oh, I almost forgot the best part....There are no screens on the windows and haven't been since we moved in. Which kind of stinks because the house is really humid/damp.  Then I found mold on the windows when I started my spring cleaning! Yikes!  The obvious solution would be to open a window to air the place out...I think you can see where I'm going with this.  And then, finally, last Sunday, the dishwasher ran all morning while I was out (Hmmmm....found the source of the humidity issue!), flooded the floor and caused the counters to swell so the drawers and dishwasher can't open and close properly.  (I did note that the dishwasher was struggling when I moved in but it never got addressed).  That was a week ago....I still have damaged counters, no screens, and no dishwasher.  Previous to this, most of the cheap laminate was peeling from the cupboards and had to be replaced.  From the humidity, of course.  Yup, I'm so done!

So now it's time to start seeing other houses.  I figure it's not really cheating since we're separating anyway.

I need storage, a real bathroom, a garage, and to sleep on the same floor as my babies.  And as much as I hate the thought of moving, I think I've just about had it with trying to make something work that just....well, just doesn't.

I've lined up a bunch of homes to look at over the next week so stay tuned for the updates!

Sharing my life changes and rants at all my regular parties! 

Bedroom Furniture Makeover- Part 2

Well, hello!  I've been uncharacteristically quiet the past few weeks.  Super busy at work and with the boys and haven't had a moment to myself to breathe.  I really need to start carving out some time to get back at all the half finished projects laying around waiting for my attention.   But enough whining...on to this week's adventure!

A few weeks ago I posted about the Chalk Paint disaster that happened to my cheap, crappy NEW(ish) furniture.  So glad I posted that project fail because I got loads of good advice.  Which I totally used.  Except for the best advice of all about the Zinser Primer.  Because I had already tackled the rest of the dressers by the time I read about this tip.  I did buy the primer, though, to have on hand for the next project makeover.

For those that are new here or don't know about the complete disaster that went down when I tried to chalk paint my black bedroom furniture, you can read all about it here.

I started off by just painting the tops in Paris Gray (Yup, again!  Love this color!) and the paint bubbled and peeled away.

So on the advice of lots of you, I scuffed up the surface of the sides and dressers when I decided to paint the  rest of the dresser in ASCP in Pure White.  I took a sanding block and scuffed the living heck out of it.

After making lots of dust, I was able to get rid of the shine and wiped everything down to get ready to paint. Aaaannnd.....(wait for it!)....It happened again!!!!  Aaarrrrggghhhh!!!!  So freakin' frustrated!   Here's the side of the tall dresser after THREE coats of paint!!!

A shot of the front after THREE dang coats!  Can you feel my frustration and blood pressure just soaring?  

Another coat and we almost have coverage.

Seriously!  It took five coats and two coats of wax to cover the bubbling.  I was so unimpressed that I just left it for awhile.  Like totally ignored the furniture like it didn't even exist.  Except for when I needed clothes, of course.  Because I eventually did clean up this mess....

After a few more weeks of pretending the dressers didn't exist and I hadn't completely destroyed them I finally decided to wave the white flag of peace.  We agreed to disagree.  I do love the color combo with my black and white bedding.  And once I added the little crystal knobs I ordered on e-bay for $1/knob, I admitted that I was kind of okay with the end result.

They are kind of cute and the basement master bedroom looks way better without all the dark furniture that seemed to suck the light right out of the room.

Black furniture....

Pure White and Paris Gray...

But goodness, they chip like crazy....This is what happened when I moved the dresser to the far wall....

Lovely!

I guess I'm going to be living with this set for awhile since furniture for me is definitely not in the budget.  And given that the total cost for this project was the $20 I spent on the knobs (because, as we all know, I have tons of ASCP already sitting around!), I can't complain too much.  And I like them way better than the dark "wood" they were before.

Here's the before and after....

As you can see from the different paint test splotches all over the wall, the rest of the room just isn't photo ready.  Hoping it will be in the next few weeks or so....stay tuned.

Linking to some of my favorite parties this week and to Coastal Charm.  

Nursery Reveal- Finally!

We finally have a nursery for the Bubs!  Here's the story of how we went from this....

To an idea....

To this....

For those of you that are new here, Bubs was a sudden addition to our little family last summer.  He came with a week's notice.  So I didn't exactly have nine months to pull a nursery together for him.  At first I thought Bubs would just room in with me until he was old enough to share with Charming but he was the noisiest sleeper EVER.  Seriously.  I've never heard anything like it.  Because there's a pocket door separating the foyer from the living room, I used that as a nursery for a few weeks until I gave up my master and moved myself downstairs.  Sigh.

I was excited to get my foyer back (read all about that here) and so began the process of pulling together the second nursery in a year.  But it's finally finished and I'm so thrilled to be able to do the big reveal.

I wanted something a bit different then Charming's room (posted here) and decided on gray, turquoise, and orange with white accents.  Initially I'd hoped to do sort of a beach theme but struggled to find any bedding to base the room on.  You can read all about that crazy experience here.

The entire nursery took off when I found this bedding from Dwell Studios.  Loved it!

The wall color is Benjamin Moore's Seahaze.  Oh, how I love this color!  It's such a beautiful warm gray. Then I tried to make a feature wall behind the crib.  Epic fail.  After trying stripes....

And Chevron...

I just gave up.

I re-painted the wall to match the rest of the room and decided to put Bubs' name above his crib and framed the spray painted letters to make them pop.

I spray painted some old end tables I found on Kijiji and one of them holds Bubs' lamp (also spray painted), a few books, and the coaster I made because I was paranoid about the formula dribbling all over my paint job.  I don't have enough experience with spray paint to know if the finish would survive formula sitting on it for any length of time.  The coaster is made from a tile from Home Depot (already on hand from previous projects) and some matching scrapbook paper and Mod Podge.

Mod Podged coaster to catch bottle dribbles.

Beside the end table is the glider I picked up from Walmart.  Huge indulgence.  Both boys have gliders in their rooms and I love being able to rock them at bedtime.

The art above the glider is some re-purposed thrift store frames, spray painted white and filled with the similar scrapbook paper that matched the transportation theme and color of the room.

Across from the crib is the dresser I found at Bible's For Missions Thrift Store and painted in Benjamin Moore's Peacock Blue.  More about that here.  I love this dresser! It smelled a bit funky but I cleaned it up with Murphy's Oil Soap and rubbed it with a soap bar.  Yup.  That really worked.

Then I photocopied the sections of the bumper pad and made some art for above the dresser (and wrote about it here).  Bonus points if you can spot which two are hanging upside down....Since I attached the pics with double sided adhesive they can just stay that way for now.  Thanks goodness I'm not OCD.  Much.

Shortly after that I found the cutest printable from J&A and Company and made it for the wall by the change table. Since Bubs is the most affectionate guy I've ever met, this little art piece really, really suits him.

I also made a mobile for above the change table (tutorial here).....

And then I made another piece of art by gluing some scrap book paper to a blank art canvas.  All things I had on hand so basically free.

The DIY drapes are twin bed sheets that I picked up at Jysk.  They're held in place with drapery clips that were from a previous window treatment at my old house.  Hurray for no sew projects! I spray painted the rod that used to hold up my black velvet drapes (sigh) to make it blend with the colors in the room.

And in the corner I've hung two shelves from Home Depot that I had from my last house (therefore free, I think).  I spray painted the owl, the turtle, and wooden car that I found at a thrift store to match the colors in the room.

And Bubs has himself a comfy, cozy space of his own. Finally!

Here's the sources and budget break down for the room

• Crib and mattress-  Purchased by the foster/adopt agency, set up and delivered.  I had no idea what it would look like.  (I would not have picked this but I'm super happy to have it!  Thanks to Bubs' social worker for requesting this for him!)
• Bedding set- Dwell Studios, $360 (gulp).  The major splurge in the room.
• Area rug- Re-purposed from my master bedroom.  Left it behind when I moved downstairs (more sighing).
• Lamp- $6 from the thrift store, spray painted orange.
• End tables- $20 for two, spray painted white
• Glider- Walmart.  I think it cost around $160.  I had a $75 store credit so I can't remember the actual price.
• Change Table- $20 from Kijiji
• Dresser $32.50 from Bibles For Missions
• Art above the dresser- $12 for 6 frames from the Dollar Store
• Art above the crib- $10 for 5 frames from the Dollar Store (but already hoarded in my frame collection)
• Art above the glider- On hand from the craft room scraps
• Window Treatment- Shade was from the previous owners.  $10 for the twin sheets from Jysk clearance section.  Drapery rod was re-purposed and spray painted and therefore free. I think it was actually here when we moved in but I can't remember. 
• Wall shelves were from my old house so free (yay!) and the collections on the shelves were re-purposed from other rooms.  The spray painted car was $1. I think the owl was 50 cents and the turtle probably around the same price.  I spray painted them both.

Relief that the nursery is finally completed? Priceless.

Linking to my fav parties this week...and to Coastal Charm.