I never pass up an interesting piece of wood.

The message on a wooden sign can always be changed.

The Margaritaville sign is fun and colorful and perfect for the tiki bar.

I removed everything and sanded the anchor.

I painted, distressed and added rope.

You can find pieces like this at yard sales, Goodwill and just about any re-sale shop.

It’s more versatile now, not just for the tiki bar

Which one is for you?

Here’s another wooden plaque that got a make-over:

I found this one and it looked like someone started a project and got distracted.

That never always happens to me too!

Maybe it was for a special guy, the relationship went south and she never finished it.

In the end it sent a message without hearts.

Grab those wooden signs, no matter their message and refresh them!

Wooden Signs is a post from: Welcome to reFresh reStyle!

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It’s hard to believe that we rented a building in mid-March and opened the store Nostalgia on April 5th.  Especially when I look back at the before pictures.  Many, many years ago this was a beautiful grocery store, and then it was remodeled several times.  

We don’t have anything against tile, but it just didn’t represent the homey atmosphere that we were going for.  It was just an ugly tiled wall.

The question posed with this happy wall was, what to do on a tight budget?

Yes, we could have demolished it.  But that takes time and lots of repair.  We were on a time schedule.

We used thin sheets of wood and construction adhesive,

and this inventive method of securing the board while the glue dried.  

It was trimmed out with 1×3′s , topped with 1×10′s, caulked,  painted and totally transformed.  (The Green Checkout Counter feels right at home now!)

I know, I can’t believe it’s the same wall either and I look at it almost everyday. 

It’s the background for many photo shoots and unless someone reads this post or Southern Revivals, they would not know.

What would you have done?

ps. We started working on Phase 2 this weekend.

How to Transform a Tile Wall is a post from: Welcome to reFresh reStyle!

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You see these style sofa tables pretty often in the used furniture world. 

Drab and dated, so you probably just walk on by.

I decided to use Miss Mustard Seed Milk Paint in Grain Sack, to liven it up a bit.  

I am a dare devil and did not use the bonding agent.  I do live on the edge.  It chipped away a lot in some places.  To achieve the look that I wanted I simply I sanded the spots that I didn’t like and painted over them with a mixture that did include bonding agent.

For the top I sanded, cleaned and re-stained with dark walnut.  I am a huge fan of the dark stains.  It really gave this table a richer look than the light oak.

I love the dual personality.  On top it’s dark and sophisticated and on the bottom it’s rough and ready.  Ready to be behind and awesome sofa

The top is coated with a wipe-on poly, also known as my best friend when it comes to a stained piece.  I just love the way it looks.

Now go forth and rescue those oak beauties, you’ll love them when your done!

Sharing at:  Miss Mustard Seed

Oak Sofa Table Makeover {MMS Milk Paint} is a post from: Welcome to reFresh reStyle!

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Making a natural switch in my kitchen.

I was recently given the opportunity to make the switch in my kitchen, to trade out my usual kitchen products for the ECO friendly cleaning products from The Honest Co.

My efforts for being green have been to use non-toxic paints and recycle furniture.  So using natural cleaning products was a great switch for me.

The Honest Company’s goal is to provide customers with products they need and love and provide exceptional service.  They love to hear from their community and take the feedback they learn from Facebook, their blog, and customer support to create products that make sense for your lives. You can follow them on twitter @honest and be sure to check out their website.  It’s these honest discussions with their customers that inspire them to expand their offerings in current and new product categories.

I love all the cleaning products. It feels great knowing that I’m using effective eco-friendly  products without harsh chemicals.  Plant based sponges, white grapefruit scented dish detergent makes washing the dishes a little more bearable!  Yes, I’m lazy about loading/unloading the dishwasher, sometimes I just wash the pile by hand

You can get $10 off a $40 purchase at The Honest Company using code $10off$40Pollinate. (Limited to first-time customers and one use per customer. Expires May 14, 2013.)

I was really excited about the next two products:

Painting and repairing furniture has not been good to my old hands.  I’ve been using the healing balm for a couple of weeks and even though I’ll never be a hand model, but they are looking much better.  Washing my hands a lot had really dried them out.  The balm feels like a protective coating

Strawberries are in season right now and I don’t know about you, but I always wonder if I’m getting my fruits and veggies clean by running water over them.  I sprayed and tossed and sprayed again.  Waited several minutes and rinsed. 

The Fruit and Veggie wash is:

100% non-toxic, plant-based formula safely and effectively removes unwanted:

• toxic pesticide & chemical residues,
• pathogens, waxes, dirt, handling oils & bacteria surface contaminants (found on both conventional & organically grown produce)

You can use it all fruits and veggies with exception of mushrooms as they are very porous.

Thanks to The Honest Co. my strawberries were truly clean

You can sign up for emails from The Honest Company, or start their free trial for the Diaper & Wipes Bundle, or the Family Essentials Bundle (which is perfect for your cleaning needs).

• Email Sign Up   https://www.honest.com/?sid=10096&cid=pollinate&mid=blog&aid=blog34
• Diaper Trial   https://www.honest.com/diaper-trial?sid=10096&cid=aol&mid=display&aid=blog34
• Cleaning Trial   https://www.honest.com/cleaning-trial?sid=10096&cid=pollinate&mid=blog&aid=blog34

This shop is part of a social shopper marketing insight campaign with Pollinate Media Group® and The Honest Company  but all my opinions are my own. #pmedia #NaturallyHonest  http://cmp.ly/3/8vNxcO.

The Honest Co. – Eco Friendly is a post from: Welcome to reFresh reStyle!

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I know everyone loves a brown stained piece of wood furniture.

I believe that you should use your fine china, sit in the fancy living room and

paint brown furniture, if you want to.

And I believe that if you love a color, and its green like this custom mixed La Craie or blue or yellow, then make a statement!

Don’t be afraid to use what you love and add new hardware too!

In the end, it’s just paint and new hardware.

And if you don’t want to paint it, I will

This piece is available at Nostalgia, stop by and see me and my love for green

Be sure to follow the Nostalgia blog too!

Green is the New Black {reFreshed furniture} is a post from: Welcome to reFresh reStyle!

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 I paint a piece of furniture.

Step back, and look at it and decide it needs a little something extra.

Like a stripe

This piece would have been fine just painted white, but I wanted it to make a more casual statement.

I think the distressed stripes did just that.

A solid blue desk would have been just fine and maybe a little boring without the stripes.  

This leggy end table went from French stuffy to striped fun!

One wide stripe wrapped over this piece with an assortment of hardware  woke up this girl up.

This kids table was pretty in white, but why not put fun stripes on it?

From brown traditional to striped and trendy

Except for the last one, I could have named this post striped and blue pieces!

I am such a creature of habit, can you guess what color I paint with the most!

Adding Interest with Stripes is a post from: Welcome to reFresh reStyle!

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I know you’ve heard this over and over from me

From boring brown to light and bright!  Here I go again…

What can I say, I just like light, bright and refreshing.

As you can see she started out kind of ho-hum, but functional.

After I painted and distressed, I decided to add a more interest.

I created a glaze that I called Vanilla, not much color, but just enough to tone her down.

This is before glaze and distressing, what a refreshing change!

I’ll just show you way too many pictures now, I love the way she turned out.

How do you like her now?

China Hutch Make over {refreshing and light} is a post from: Welcome to reFresh reStyle!

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This makeover was so much fun.  The piece was in terrible condition.  It smelled bad and looked bad, but it is very sturdy.  The lines are perfect.  It’s one of those pieces that you are always looking for. No matter what’s wrong with it, you think you can bring it back to life.

This sad piece had been in my storage shed for a while.  

Jamie and I were talking about a check out counter, she said, I’d love to find an old buffet.  

A little bell went off in my head and reminded me that I might have just the piece

I’m sure someone out there will say, why did you paint this?  or why didn’t your restore it?  But the answer is, we just loved it.  Broken and bruised, we thought it just needed some Maison Blanche La Craie paint!

So she got scrubbed, scraped, wiped down and painted with 2 coats of La Craie St. Anne paint.

We fell in love the minute we opened the can!

We needed a little more surface area, so a shelf was added to the back.  The keyboard fits on here perfectly!

The top had some loose veneer.  So I tried every trick in the book to remove it.  Nothing worked, so I decided to use a technique that I saw my friend Rosemary  use.  I used Mod Podge and wrapping paper to fill the places where the veneer was damaged.  I think it makes the piece!

I hope you get to see her in person, she’s a real showoff.  She just smiles from all the ooh’s and aah’s!

She makes your check-out experience a fun one, at Nostalgia!

She just proves that with a little love, La Craie Paint, & dark wax

Every girl can look good!

 What do you think??

A Buffet Make over {La Craie – St. Anne} is a post from: Welcome to reFresh reStyle!

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Thank you Cutting Edge Stencils for the wonderful giveaway!

Thank you to everyone that entered and left all the inspiring comments!

and Congratulations to:

Alisha H. is the winner!!

Last week I shared our latest adventure (click),

and while the store has a “Winning” exterior, look at those awesome lights!

The interior may not be such a winner, or at least it wasn’t until we worked our magic on it.

(this is after we painted the walls)

We have been working really hard.

We have had lots of encouragement!

We even refinished a piece of furniture!

There are only a few things left to do and we can’t wait to share our beautiful store!

Don’t miss a thing!

Follow Nostalgia on FB

and on Instagram

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One of the easiest ways to transform any surface is with paint.  Add a stencil and you take it up a notch.  I had this cute funky table but brown just wasn’t showing off her personality!

I painted the table with an aqua oops paint from my stash, used a linen colored craft paint and a stencil from Cutting Edge!

Thank you Cutting Edge for providing an awesome stencil for my project!

And Guess What?!

I am joining six of my blogger friends and we are ALL offering a $75.00 giveaway to Cutting Edge Stencils!

You can enter at all SEVEN blogs!

SEVEN blogs. SEVEN ways to win. SEVEN awesome stencil projects!

Now let me show you how I added color to my living room by using paint and a Cutting Edge Stencil.

Don’t you think she needs a little something?

I used the Allover Stencil Zamira from Cutting Edge Stencils.

With these awesome large stencils, you can complete a table, wall or floor in no time.

Just pour your craft paint on to a paper plate, load your sponge roller with paint.

.

Spread out some paper towels to unload the paint from your roller.

You don’t want your paint to drip and get under your stencil.

Keep in mind less is more, in this case

I used tape to secure my stencil.  I placed it under the edge of my table, and on the bottom of my stencil.

Here can see where I have stenciled one side and repositioned the stencil to complete the other side.

Once the paint dried, I waxed the table with dark wax and distressed.

Half way there!

My refreshed table, Murphy approved!

Summer look, created with Cutting Edge Stencil and funky table!

Get ready to win!

Enter the giveaway on all 7 blogs!  I can’t wait to see what you transform!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Cutting Edge Stencils -Table Makeover plus a Giveaway! is a post from: Welcome to reFresh reStyle!

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