Simply Salvaged

8 Decorating Tips From a Gal Who Loves Color and Simplicity

2018-10-30T21:35:00.000-07:00

I wanted to share a few tips on how I decorate my home and few ''rules'' that I've implemented to keep things minimal and tasteful. This post is a little long because there is no process that I follow. When I'm getting ready to decorate a room I like to start with a clean slate and make what I call my ''pile of things'' that I have in mind for that space. I then just start decorating from my pile. Sometimes I add things, sometimes I take things away- I just put the room together in a way that makes me happy and tweek it until I think it's perfect.

First things first...

1. Detach and de-clutter!!

If you know me, you had to know I was going to lead with this. You can't make a cluttered, messy house look good no matter how much decorating you do. In fact, decorating a cluttered space is only going to make it more cluttered. I could do a whole separate post on de-cluttering and organizing. This is a process. Detaching yourself mentally and emotionally from your junk takes a while but once you start, you will be so glad you did. Start in your closets, drawers, shelves, etc. If you have not used an item in the past year and you do not love it- donate it! Invest in bins, boxes, baskets. Spend a little extra on decorative storage options, when needed. Remember you do not have to display everything you own all at once. Keep a couple of bins in a closet somewhere with items that you do not want to part with. You can swap things out seasonally or as you see fit. And y'all... clear off the front of your refrigerator. It will make a difference, I promise.

Do not own anything that you find not to be useful or beautiful.
Personally, I prefer useful AND beautiful.

2. Keep a neutral shell.

Don't get me wrong- I love color. In fact, I need color in my life. But for larger ''commitment'' pieces, I like to keep it neutral and practical. For example, I'd never choose a patterned sectional or sofa. That is just way too much commitment. In my living room I chose a very neutral grey for the wall color and a grey/blue for my sectional. Sounds boring, I know.. but I've added color with my useful and/or beautiful decor items (blankets, pillows, famed art, etc.)

Of course there are always exceptions with paint. In our Kensington House, I painted the living room a neutral grey and the dining room a soft sage green. I then installed a grey subway tile back splash in the kitchen and plenty of green accents throughout the living room to tie it all together.

3. Bold is beautiful when paired with neutrals.

If I'm going to use a bolder color on a wall it's going to be in a smaller room (bathroom, laundry, bedroom) however, I wouldn't go bold in ALL of my smaller rooms and you want to make sure whatever color you chose blends with the rest of the house. When I use color, I basically do the opposite from my larger rooms by putting the color on the walls paired with neutral useful and/or beautiful decor. For example, in the master bathroom we just finished I used a beautiful blue/green on the walls paired with white and brown throughout. I have very little color in that room other than the wall color. You do not need to have blue walls, blue towels, blue soap holder, blue shower curtain.

4. All the things white.

This sounds scary at first but trust me on this one. Most of my secondary anchor pieces are white. I have 3 dogs and a baby on the way and I stand by this! I have white bedding (sheets, pillows, bed skirt), white towels and wash clothes, white shower curtains (always), white curtains and/or blinds, even white rugs in low traffic areas.

Why we made the switch: The same reason hotels use white linens.. Simplicity and sanitation! It looks better and in my opinion is more sanitary. I love freshly bleached towels and bed sheets!

Imagine having all of those things named above in a different color or pattern for every room. That's a lot! Some people can pull off a multitude of patterns in one home- or even one room very very well. I can not. So I go with white and it works for me and my style.

5. Decorate with things you love

Do you know what I hate almost as much as clutter? Store bought everything. Y'all. Donate that stuff and display things that mean something. Things that came from somewhere with a story. Family heirlooms, souvenirs, etc. Display the things you love instead of packing them away in boxes.

Pictured below, I have one of my Grandmother's oil paintings and hooks from World Market mounted to a piece of ship lap siding from my cousin's house in Alabama.

We all have things that make our hearts pitter-patter. I recently unpacked and washed a couple of old quilts that were passed down from my great grandparents. I love the way they look thrown over the back of a chair and guess what- we use them, too! I also have a rather large collection of my grandmother's paintings that I pull from and rotate around the house- so store bought wall decor is minimal in my house. I also have a plethora of WHITE milk glass vases that I used in our wedding. I love old jars and crates and baskets. I find all of these things to be useful and/or beautiful.

6. Decorate with things you use.
Earlier I said to invest in decorative storage options. Consider this- next time you're out shopping for a room, instead of buying trinkets and wall art and things of the such, buy clear jars/ canisters/ dispensers (IKEA is the best place I have found for this! They have so many options and sizes!). Take them home and put things from your room in them and display them. Think outside of the box on this one. Literally take your stuff out of the box it came in and put it in a canister.

Here are some everyday household items that I decorate with AND USE:

-Rice and noodles, y'all. Put them in a clear decorative mason jar and you've got instant neutral counter decor that is useful and beautiful!
-Q-tips and cotton balls in clear jars make white bathroom decor that's useful and beautiful!
-Your bars of soap put in a clear jar. Put that crap on a shelf. Useful and beautiful!
-As you can see below, I even ''display'' our toilet paper. It's a bathroom for Heaven's sake... I don't see the point in taking up a bunch of space in a closet when I can put it right there by the toilet... and BONUS! it's white and useful.
-Our white towels are rolled up in a basket beside the tub- beautiful and useful.

I personally will splurge on decorative bars of soaps for my bathrooms and here's something that's a foreign idea to most- I use my pretty soaps! Tuesday Morning is my go-to place for beautiful (and affordable) soaps that smell amazing.

You also will not catch me with a Dawn Dish Soap bottle on my kitchen counter. Or a Softsoap bottle on my bathroom sink. I bought decorative soap dispensers at Target and use them for all of my soaps- including bubble bath! If you're not into the idea of spending money on pretty soaps or pretty soap dispensers, consider this.. a pack of Dove soap bars is $3. Buy them in white or whatever color matches your bathroom. Or don't buy the blue Dawn Dish Soap, buy the one that's a pretty pearl color. Start thinking about the things you buy differently and you can make average everyday things that we need and use look great- or better. I even try to buy shower gel, shampoo, conditioner, etc that matches my bathroom! Yes. I'm a bit OCD.

It's all in the details, folks.

7. Keep your collections together

If you have collections, keep them together. You do not have to have a globe in every corner of the house. You do not have to have pillar candle holders on every surface. Jars, vases, books.., you name it. Whatever it is that you have a lot of- find a place and put them all there together. It will probably look really cool (ex: see my perfumes pictured above on my medicine cabinet shelf.. beautiful and useful!)

8. Incorporate house plants

My last bit of advice would be to incorporate house plants into every room. I have a mixture of fake and real house plants but I'm very picky about the fake plants that I bring in. Also a BONUS to having real house plants is that you can choose plants that will purify the air and remove allergens!

Ok ladies and gents! That's all I've got for ya for now!

Thanks for reading!

Partial Living Room Progress

2017-09-30T21:33:00.001-07:00

Thanks so much for stopping by tonight to check on our living room progress! If you're just getting caught up you can read all about what lead up to our living room demo [here]. We're still not 100% finished but we've finally gotten close enough to slow down a bit. We still need to put up a mantle and finish out the area around the mantle. We widened the entry way into the kitchen from the living room and need to trim that up. We're planning to install a new front door which will be black and have lots of windows. Not to mention, I have about 100 more decor projects to finish (story of my life, right?)...

I won't bore you with the rest of my ideas but the other half of the room needs basically everything. I'm working with a really awkward layout and spent all my living room monies on the pine beadboard walls, ha!..which I would like to toot my own horn for a second and announce to the world that installed 90% of those walls all on my own!! I also trimmed out the bookshelf, doors, windows (interior and exterior), did most of the crown molding, and baseboards. Where is my muscle emoji when I need it?? Because I really need it right now..

So while you're scrolling through this post and think to yourself, ''Wow, that window trim is quite lovely!'' THIS GIRL.

If you happen to think to yourself ''I sure to love the trim around that bookshelf!'' THIS GIRL.

If you're looking at those baseboards thinking ''Wow! Whoever installed those sure has some talent!'' THIS GIRL.

If you look closely, you'll spot 2 of our pups napping on the back of the couch. I didn't have the heart to make them move, haha. We've had our new sectional for about 3 weeks and they LOVE it (so do mom and dad). At most times of the day, you'll find them hanging out up there taking naps and guarding the yard.

Anyway, I found the linen and grey pillows while shopping for a rug but unfortunately they didn't have any M's left in that color combo. So I settled on ''A'' and ''J'' for Audra and James :)

I'm going to paint the lamps with burlap shades black and I'm not too happy with the placement of my mantle/shelf. I'm thinking about moving it to the other wall or lowering it a couple of inches and switching the decor up a bit. Maybe clock over the mantle and art over the sofa...?? I really wanted to use the mantle in the living room and those are the only 2 walls it will fit on. Anywho.., I'm not completely loving it yet but that mantle is suuuuper heavy and I'm putting off moving that sucker as long as I can stand it.

How do you like my simple Fall decor? I did hang my Fall wreath on the front door but this is about as good as it's going to get around here this year. I found $2.98 bags of pumpkins and things at Wal-Mart while I was grocery shopping and you'll never guess where the cotton came from....Hobby Lobby!! Wham-bam, Fall decor finished!

On a whim, I decided to paint the built-in charcoal instead of white. I consulted with my Facebook peeps who mostly agreed. So, off I went to Sherwin Williams to grab my go-to charcoal- Urbane Bronze. By the way, if you'd like to chime in on my future color/ design decisions, be sure to follow me on Facebook!! I often consult with any open mind when I'm in a pickle :)

I had almost everything I own in our living room last night trying to get this bookshelf styled. I didn't have much of a plan when I started but I was trying to use mostly whites and muted colors. Turns out, some of our most special things all came together perfectly.

I feel like the room is a little ''heavy'' on the bookcase side so I'm still working to balance the room and tie everything together but I'm super happy with my decision to go dark on the bookcase and wanted to show y'all our progress so far. I will share as soon as I have more :)

For reference, here's a before of this side of the room.. this was just before we started ripping the walls out. We replaced the walls, ceiling, all trim, and both windows. You can read a little about that [here]. You can also see our awkward front door that opens up right into the middle of the living room. No entry way. We almost decided to move the front door completely but decided to work with it. We're going to get a completely different door and also switch the way it opens.

As always, thanks for reading!

Wrapping Up Our Living Room Remodel

2017-09-11T21:54:00.000-07:00

We have been deep into an unexpected living room remodel for the past month or so. I'm finally seeing a light at the end of the tunnel so I wanted to catch y'all up on the changes we are making and also tell you about some of the not so pretty updates we've made since moving in...

I lost a lot of the pictures I'd taken just after moving in when my phone broke last month. Most of them were the ''not so pretty'' projects like: septic tank lids, tree trim/removal, etc... yes, I took pictures of our septic tank being pumped and also of the new lids going on. I've never been exposed to a septic system so I was very intrigued. Until the day our lids were replaced, I took a look into our tanks every single day because I was so worried about what was going on down there. So far, so good.

We spent the first month or so after closing taking care of some pretty important things that needed to be done: as I said, septic tank lids because the existing lids were cracked. We also had a tree company come clear the back half of the yard and clean our view up a bit. We had 3 small storage sheds removed to make room for my husbands ~~mini barn~~ storage shed. We had chain link fence put up across the back tree line and got new gates on both sides of the house. There were other small things that kept coming up upon move in... my husband (who happens to be in HVAC) had to repair the AC twice. Our garage door fell of the tracks so we ordered a new one. We then had to replace the pipe from our house to our septic because in week 3 of living at our new casa, everything was backing up into the house. That was no bueno. We found the original clay pipe from 1949 along with about 5ft of toilet paper followed by 10ft of roots. Yack! There are a lot of really cool surprises that come with living in an old house. Clay pipe is not one of them.

After the first month, things finally stopped breaking and we decided we needed new living room furniture. We tried to make our current living room furniture work but I just wasn't happening. Another cool thing about an old house is sometimes dealing with awkward layouts. So, needless to say, I have a custom sectional being delivered in the very near future. We had 8 weeks until our sectional was going to be delivered so we decided to go ahead and get the living room situated the way we wanted it. When I say situated, I mean we completely demo'ed it. We had very heavy texture in the living room which my husband and I both hated. After some back and forth about our options, we just decided to tear it out and start over.

One of the things that I really love about our house was that it really doesn't fit any specific building style. It was built in 1949 and seems to have been custom built. The exterior is limestone rock that is currently painted cream. As y'all know, I love older homes, particularly early 1920's... and although the exterior of our home leans a little more towards a ranch style house in that it's long and narrow with a masonry exterior, I think it actually lands somewhere in between. So, I'm taking this opportunity to give our home the look of a cottage style house and using a lot of Craftsman influence.

I always air on the side of caution with our remodels when it comes to trends. As we all know, shiplap and the ''farmhouse style'' is very much in style right now. I would think twice about putting shiplap on all of my walls if our house was not built in 1949.. Actually, I half expected to find some type of wood walls behind the sheet rock we tore out... so we decided to go ahead and put in up in lieu of sheet rock. The wood we used is technically not shiplap. It's tongue and groove pine beadboard.

Although I fought my husband on tearing out the sheet rock, it was really a blessing in disguise. We found that all of the joists and the band under both windows were rotten and needed to be replaced so we took that opportunity to go ahead and replace the windows, as well. We also relocated and added a few electrical outlets. When in Rome, right??

So the ceilings were popcorn. We considered covering them with the same wood panels that we used on the walls but after calculating the additional expense, we changed our minds really fast, ha! Of course, you know that I LOVED our coffered style ceiling that we installed in the Kensington house (you can read all about that here). It was my pride and joy of our kitchen and dining area. AND bonus, sheet rock is much for affordable than pine bead board panels. So, of course, that's how we're taking care of that popcorn situation in the living room and I'm sooo excited! It's going to be amazing!

That pretty much catches you up to date on our progress at the new house. This week, I'm working on trim and molding...fingers crossed that I'll be able to finish in time. Our sectional- the reason for the whole darn project- is being delivered this Saturday and we're also supposed to get our new garage door sometime this week. Yay!

Be sure to follow me in Instagram and Facebook to get updates along the way!

You can check out a few of the interior pictures of our new 1949 home here

Check out our coffered style ceiling here

Beadboard and Built-ins- Master Bathroom Reveal

2017-08-16T16:18:00.000-07:00

I guess it's past time for me to show you our master bathroom renovation at the Kensington house. As you can see, I didn't get too crazy with the decor and personal touches on this project. Other than a few small cosmetic updates, this was the last big project we finished before moving. In fact, this room was completely demo'd when our house went under contract. You can read the details of that here. Needless to say, we scrambled to get this room finished before the appraisal. My mother and father in law spent an entire weekend working with us to help us finish. Those two can work circles around Jamie and me. They are 2 very productive people and I was very happy to have their help.

We painted the walls in Agreeable Grey by Sherwin Williams which is the same color as our entry way. You can see a preview of that here

The bead board was added into the mix after I'd previewed a new build with my Real Estate team. There was a powder room with bead board from floor to ceiling on all four walls and painted navy blue. Omg! I had to have that in my bathroom that we were about to sell! I ran home and told my husband my wonderful new idea but he was not buying it. He's all like ''...floor to ceiling bed board?!?! that's cray!'' After some deliberation, we decided to do a floor to ceiling bead board accent wall.. because isn't marriage all about compromise?

I also completely fell in love with the Britwell vanity while perusing the isles of Lowe's. The matching Britwell mirrors were the icing on the cake!

This was our 3rd bathroom remodel and I'm happy to say it was the smoothest bathroom project, yet. I've always heard that it gets easier and easier with each project although, this one was not without it's hiccups... You may not know this about me, but I'm the tile girl in this relationship. My husband cuts the tile, I lay the tile and grout. I got a little carried away in our shower and we ended up having to pull 5 full tiles off of the shower wall the day after I put them up. So the thinset was nice and dry. Oh, and when I say ''we'' pulled them off, I mean my husband. So that was fun. Then, we brought home not one but TWO damaged sinks which was super frustrating but it could have been much worse. We didn't have any major disasters and I love the way the bathroom turned out so I guess we can count this room as a win.

I also realize that the blinds I bought for this space are extremely too long. They were a complete after thought, ha! Imagine working your tail off on renovating a bathroom, only to finish and not being able to shower in it because you didn't get window treatments.. so that was a last minute trip to find blinds- I think I grabbed the first one that matched the width I needed and ran to the check out line!... but I got to bathe in my shiny new shower that night!

Our new 1949 house has two very small bathrooms so I am seriously missing this space. We can't even shower in one of our bathrooms because of the way the tub sits, it can only be used for baths. We also don't have a master bathroom. The fully functional bathroom is a 3/4 bath and only has a stand up shower. We have plans to change all of that but in the mean time, it's been quite an adjustment. It's like going from a bathroom at the Hilton to a Motel 6! We will get back to our ''Hilton'' days soon, haha!

See what else is happening:

Click here to see our front bathroom remodel

Click here to see full Kensington House tour
Click here to see how we updated 32 kitchen cabinets for less than $700
Click here to see how we covered our popcorn using a DIY coffered style ceiling
Click here to find out why we decided to sell just after finishing a 3 year remodel

Why We Decided to Sell Just After Finishing a Three Year Remodel

2017-08-14T21:39:00.001-07:00

If you've been following along on Facebook, you know that my husband and I have been remodeling a house for the better part of the past 3 years.

It was our first home in Texas. When we bought the house, we never intended to stay. We did play around with the idea of staying on and off as we lived there. Especially after most of the work was coming to an end. The idea of ''no more projects'' sounded amazing. The idea of enjoying our hard work sounded spectacular. But that was never the real plan. We'd always intended to sell the house after a few years or rent it out and buy something else...

Earlier this week, I shared exactly what lead up to us selling our house. You can read all about that here but we decided to sell instead of rent because selling was more beneficial to us financially. Most American families have debt. My husband and I have been working for a long time to pay ours off. In fact, our journey to becoming debt free started just after we purchased this home. Although we'd made leaps and bounds to get out of debt and stay out of debt, we still had a long way to go. I could not stand the idea of going into another year with our debt. Being debt free took precedence over everything else financially. So we made our hard work pay off (no pun intended). We sold our house and paid off every penny of our debt. Have I mentioned that we also downsized when we moved? You can read a little about that here, but I will be sharing more about downsizing and minimizing later.

My husband and I were sitting on the couch and I was going from account to account paying off debt. Vehicles, cards, loans. We weren't in a situation where were in trouble with our debt, but it was a significant amount. Basically, we were very irresponsible in our early 20's and have been paying for it the past few years- literally.

I always imagined that when the ''debt free'' moment came, I would cry tears of joy. It's a moment I've been waiting for for years... but y'all, I was pissed. I was so mad at us. We'd worked 3 years on a house only to watch our hard earned equity disappear- and with nothing to show for all of the debt we had (and by the way, we didn't finance our renovations, that's why it took three years, haha!)

CLICK HERE TO SEE HOW WE UPDATED OUR CABINETS FOR LESS THAN $700

CLICK HERE TO SEE HOW WE COVERED OUR POPCORN WITH A DIY COFFERED STYLE CEILING

I was trying really hard to be joyful. I finally looked at my husband and said ''this is terrible!'' There were so many other things I would of loved to do with that money (like the next project house we bought which you can see a few pictures of here). My husband immediately spit out the dollar amount of debt that we started with 3 years ago when this journey to being debt free began. That is when the joy came. That is when I felt the liberation we had been working so hard for.

Click here to see the details of our guest bathroom update turned remodel

So that's the skinny on why we sold our house just after finishing a 3 year remodel and coincidentally, our 3 year journey to becoming debt free. God's timing is always perfect.

I'd love to hear what measures you have taken to pay off your debt!

Click here to see the full details of our master bathroom remodel

Pictures by Landon Day of Day Dream Photography- the best Real Estate photographer in DFW! Check him out. He does it all!

We Sold, We Bought, We Moved

2017-08-13T21:03:00.000-07:00

Holy moly, y'all. This summer has been crazy. Let me see if I can give you the short version....

It's been a dream of mine to have my own antique home. I really love Craftsman homes but basically anything earlier than the 1930's has me swooning. So a little over a year ago, my in-laws moved from 2 minutes away from us to 10 miles South of us- into their own 1915 fixer upper...

Every time we walked in their house I was dreaming of having my own. We'd already started talking about moving ourselves as the area we were in was getting a little too congested. It helped that our best friends also live in the same town as my in-laws. So basically we were there all the time, anyway.

About 3 months ago we were talking to my in-laws about a future move. At the time, we were just starting a master bath remodel and said bathroom was completely demo'd to the studs. About 2 blocks from my in-laws sat a 1912 home that had been on the market for over a year. Which, in the DFW market is a very long time. I had actually seen the home and met the owners just after I got my Real Estate license. So in this conversation, we start throwing around the idea of buying that house. I contact the owners, we go look at it.. Decided we want to buy it if it's still on the market once we finish our bathroom and can get our house ready to list. So, I'm talking to my lead agent about this house we want to buy but can't buy because we had a demo'd bathroom... she basically makes me an offer on the spot. We discuss, we accept. Easy-peasy.

You can see the full before and after tour here

So we make an offer on the 1912 house. It was for sale by owner, so I write up our offer, we negotiated a few things, our option period begins.

We anticipated that the 1912 house needed a lot of work. Just walking the exterior of the house, we knew it needed a new roof, possibly peer work, wood work, paint, updated electrical, etc. The inside had been completely updated in the 60's so we also had plans to tear all of that out and see what we could find/ restore. I won't bore you with the details but to make a long story short, during the inspection process, we found out the work that the home needed was more than we were cut out for. We couldn't come to an agreement with the owners so we terminated the contract.

I thought that I would be heartbroken because I really did love the house. It could have been so perfect. As the cost of repairs needed kept going up, I really had to put my emotions aside and try to make a logical decision. Could we have bought that house? Yes. Could we have done the repairs? Yes. but was it the best thing for our family? Absolutely not. In the end I was completely content with ''we gave it our best effort and it just didn't work out.''

So, back to the home we were selling... We busted our rumps to finish the master bathroom and other cosmetic updates that needed to be done. My MIL and FIL spent an entire weekend working with us to help us finish. The next Monday, my MIL came back and grouted our shower while my husband and I worked our real jobs. We moved forward with selling our house in hopes that something else would come along. My lead agent was buying our home as an investment property to rent out so she assured us that we could stay as long as we needed. We fully expected to be her tenants for quite a while as I had something very specific in mind for our next home. Specific age. Specific area. Specific price range.

About 2 weeks later, I saw a cute little house come on the market just 2 blocks away from my in-law's house. We checked it out. We liked it. We made an offer. We negotiated. We closed. We moved!

Our ''new'' cute little house was started in 1949, has a grand total of 1300 sqft, and 3/4 acre of land. It's not the 1920's Craftsman home that I've always wanted but it's perfect in it's own way. We can see for miles from our back deck (which is very hard to find in North Texas) and almost an acre of land (which is also very hard to find in DFW).

Click here to find out why we decided to sell our previous home just before finishing a 3 year remodel.. and stay tuned for the ups and downs of buying a home built in 1949, why we decided to downsize and how it's working out for us. In the mean time, I thought I'd share a few pictures of our new digs. I took these when we first previewed the house...

We're so excited to get to work on our new home. We've already got some pretty big plans for this place and I can't wait to share them with you! Be sure to follow me on Facebook for more updates along the way!

Cover Your Popcorn with a DIY Coffered Style Ceiling

2017-01-25T11:54:00.001-08:00

If you've been following me on Facebook, you probably already know that my husband and I have been working in our kitchen on and off since we bought our home over two years ago. The day after Christmas, we finally started demoing the old tile! I waited sooo long for that day!! Now that I have pretty new floors, I can finally show you my kitchen/ dining area and I hope you love it as much as I do...

The tile absolutely made the biggest impact in this area, but I think one of my favorite things about my kitchen is the coffered style ceiling. I won't lie- it was not the easiest task. Although, it was cost effective and with minimal mess.

If you're looking for a solution to your popcorn ceilings, this is definitely something to consider...

No scraping!

Minimal mudding/sanding

Minimal mess!!

Cost effectiveness (less than $300 for this entire space!)

The popcorn in our home comes off fairly easy, however, it always makes a huge mess and layers everything with dust. We decided to skip the scraping and put the sheet rock directly over the popcorn. We made sure to find and mark our joists before putting up the sheet rock. It will also help if you take a few minutes to make yourself and dead man. Like this...

In an effort to eliminate even more mess and time, we also decided that instead of mudding and sanding the sheet rock joints, we'd just cover them up!

We took a lot of measurements before starting. It worked out pretty great because we only had to adjust the width of one piece of sheet rock for our squares to be the same size. Once the sheet rock was all up, we covered the joints with one-by's using a brad nailer and construction adhesive.

Warning: lots of detail work to follow!!

Have I ever told you that I HATE detail work? By that point in a project I am usually OVER IT. I can see my hard work coming to fruition and I just want to call it quits and start decorating!... nevertheless...

After we got the one-by's put up, we filled and sanded all of the screw holes (sheet rock), all of the nail holes (trim), caulked everything up, and painted.

CLICK HERE TO SEE HOW WE DRESSED UP OUR BORING CABINETS

...and since I am the ''before and after'' queen, this picture was taken before we closed on our house (don't mind my FIL, ha!)

We still have a few projects to do and as you can see, I need to fill the space a bit more and put up some curtains. Although, I did find a home for my wreath that I picked up on my trip to Magnolia Market last weekend.

Thanks so much for stopping by! don't forget to follow me on Instagram!

How to Dress up Your Boring Cabinets

2017-01-25T11:54:00.000-08:00

We didn't have the budget for new cabinets when we bought our house but I actually didn't mind them at all. Besides being very dirty and greasy, I really loved the look of the beadboard. Before we ever even moved in, we'd taken off all 32 of the cabinet doors, removed all of the hardware, and started prepping for paint. A few of them even needed to be repaired but that's nothing that is ol gal couldn't handle. I'm a master of wood glue and clamps :) Especially if it saves thousands of dollars...

Although, the cabinets weren't bad, I really hated the soffit above them. We talked about busting it out and opening that space up, but honestly, I didn't want the mess. If you can't tell my by DIY coffered style ceiling post, we avoid mess at all cost. If you were a fly on the wall during our projects, you'd catch my husband and I standing around a whole lot, scratching our heads, asking "What can we do with this?...How can we make this work?" That is sometimes followed by hours of collaboration and bouncing ideas back and forth, measuring, YouTube video, ect. Less demo= less problems, y'all. So, instead of demo'ing, we wanted to make the cabinets and the soffit look like one unit.

This is what the kitchen looked like before we moved in:

CLICK HERE TO SEE HOW WE COVERED OUR POPCORN WITH A DIY COFFERED STYLE CEILING!

Here's a list of the changes we made to our cabinets to get this result:

(we did these projects randomly over the course of 2 years, so I'm going to list them in an order that would be best if you did them all at once)

1. Crown Moulding

We added thick crown moulding to dress up the soffit and also to add some ''wow'' factor. We painted the soffit and moulding the same color as the cabinets to make it all appear to be one unit.

2.Corbels

The corbels are one of my favorite touches in the kitchen.

From Lowe's, we purchased 6 of these spindles and 6 of these corbels then attached them to the ends of our upper cabinets. My husband secured them by drilling through the bottom shelf and into the top of the corbel. Corbels are a perfect way to customize your basic builder's grade cabinets. I really feel like they add so much character to our space.

Here's a ''during'' picture:

3. Paint

Our cabinets, soffit, moulding/trim, and corbles are all painted in an epoxy by Sherwin Williams. We had them color match Behr's ''Cozy Cottage'' in eggshell. Cozy Cottage has been my go to cream color for years. I've literally painted 100s of things with it. I was really worried about the durability of painted cabinets in a room that gets so much traffic. So, before painting, we primed with Kilz and used one of the highest quality paints that Sherwin Williams offers. We're about to go into year 3 with painted cabinets and they are still going strong.

4. New hardware and hinges

We swapped out the old 80's hardware for fresh new oil rubbed bronze knobs and hinges from Lowes. I do still have cup pulls for the drawers but I have not gotten around to putting them on.

Unfortunately, I've lost track of how much our cabinet update has cost, to date. Although, I can tell you it was less than $700 based on an estimated cost of primer, paint, pulls, knobs, hinges, moulding, spindles, and corbles.

What do you think? Not bad for completely custom cabinets, huh?

Thank you so much for stopping by today! Please let me know if you have any questions!

Click here to see our guest bathroom update turned renovation
Click here to see our master bathroom reno with a beadboard wall and build-ins

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Magnolia Market and my 29th Birthday

2017-01-23T08:00:00.000-08:00

Last Wednesday, I came home from my 2 week trip to Alabama just in time to celebrate my 29th birthday. At 9:30 the night before I left for Alabama, I finished grouting the very last tile in our kitchen. I left home with a dining room table in our living room and a layer of concrete dust on everything we own from the floor demo...

After being gone for a full 2 weeks, I planned to take it easy and spend my birthday weekend relaxing and working in my house before getting back to Real Estate and Simply Salvaged. My wonderful husband, however, did most of the house work while I was gone. He even put a pair of topiaries on the dining room table which was a very sweet effort to put things back the way that he thought I had them. He also installed new baseboards through the entire kitchen, dining area, and entry way... and we now (finally) have lighting in our kitchen. He was on the ball while I was gone! Although, I can always find things to clean and move around and redecorate. So for the first 2 days that I was home, that is exactly what I did!

CLICK HERE TO SEE OUR KITCHEN REVEAL

Saturday rolled around and my family surprised me with a trip to Waco to visit Magnolia Market for my 29th birthday! How have I lived only and hour and a half away from Chip and Joanna Gains' goodness for so long and never made the trip?? I know. It's ludicrous. I get asked all of the time if I have been and I can finally say ''yes!''.

Magnolia Market was ahh-mazing. I made two trips around the store and could have gone for a 3rd. Everything was staged so perfectly. They don't have the market laid out like a store. It's staged to look more like a home. If you pay attention, you'll see that their employees are constantly restocking. Instead of putting out a massive amount of items at one time, they only put out a few of each and restock as needed. It makes shopping a little easier because you are able to visualize each item as you would use it and I loved that. After we finished shopping, we headed out to the food trucks and had lunch on the lawn. I had the most amazing grilled cheese with gouda and basil on sourdough. It was actually pretty cloudy while we were having lunch so their tomato basil soup was perfect for the chilly weather.

I loaded up on #demoday apparel because... when in Roam!!

After we finished up at the Silos we decided to explore Waco a bit. If you know me, you know that driving through old neighborhoods and/or historical districts is one of my favorite things to do. So we headed in a direction that seemed to be where all of the old houses might be. We ended up driving right past ''The 5th Street Story'' house from Fixer Upper Season 1. At that point, we got a little carried away and it took us all of 2 minutes to go from ''exploring Waco'' to full fledged stalker fans who basically decided that it was a good idea to go to Chip and Joanna's house. Yep. I'll admit that. Not that we would have just walked up and knocked on the door but driving past it seemed cool.. We ended up on some back road about 20 minutes outside of town. Unfortunately, we weren't successful with our search but it was fun trying. We got a lot of laughs about how ridiculous we were being then left and went to an antique mall, haha!

It was a great trip that I would make 100 times. Even if only for another grilled cheese. I love days when you don't have much of a plan or a time line and life just takes you on an adventure.

As much fun as I have had over the past few weeks I have also been very anxious to get my year started... I'm truly looking forward to growing my Real Estate career and growing Simply Salvaged in 2017. So here's to the last year of my 20's being a great one with many more of life's adventures! I can't wait to share them with you!

Bathroom Update Turned Renovation

2016-02-28T21:46:00.000-08:00

We started our ''quick bathroom makeover'' with the intention of cleaning up the grout and caulk, painting the cabinets, painting the walls. I was really excited about an idea from Pinterest to paint the floor tile as a temporary fix...

The walls in the bathroom were very heavily textured. Then, we take down the cabinet from above the toilet and find wall paper behind it. After a little scrape here and a little scrape there, we'd peeled the top layer of drywall off. At that point, we came to the conclusion that our only option was to rip out the existing wall and put a new one up... and that's just what we did...

There were hundreds of other options for us to cover the mess on our walls and move forward. Most of those options, though, required moving the existing toilet and/or sink, then reinstalling. We just were not willing to put that much effort into keeping the crap...I'm talking crappy crappy crap crap that was in that bathroom.

What you can't see from the pictures is the inside of the cabinets were all rotted and water damaged pressed board. They were crumbly and smelly and icky! So we ripped it all out. All of it. Except for the tub.

...and roughly 5 months later we finally finished!

My most favorite part of our new bathroom is the vanity- we got the cabinet, sink, and faucet at Ikea. I picked it because:

1. Look at it

2. I felt that the porcelain really gave the room a timeless look

3. Ample storage

4. That faucet. Quirky and classic.

Instead of installing shelving over the toilet, I used a painting by my beautiful and talented grandmother. It matched the tile perfectly and gives the room a nice little pop.

A few months after we finished the bathroom, we also replace the bathroom door and door knob. It's literally a brand spankin' new space and we love it.

I hope you love it too!

Where I've Been Hiding & Our Home Reno Preview

2016-02-08T09:00:00.000-08:00

Hey folks! Long time no blog. I hope you're all doing well!

I have had quite a bit going on in my blogging absence- life has been quite different for Simply Salvaged. My poor little blog and a lot of other things that I love have had to take a back seat to a full time job and renovations to our house...

Wait. What was that? Did I say home renovations?

Yes!
Yes I did.

I do love painting furniture and for a while I had a really hard time letting that go... letting my business go and finally, after about a year in Texas, accepting that painted furniture just wasn't in God's plan for my life in Texas.

Then... THEN... I found a new love when we bought our house...

A new project to fill that creative void. I always said that once we got a house, I'd paint again. And yes, paint I do. A few pieces of furniture, but mostly walls, ceilings, cabinets, molding...

It needed sooo much work!! So many updates to be done!!

The entire house was a stark white, dirty, and completely blank canvas.
A DIYer's dream!!

We've made quite a bit of progress over the past year. After moving in, we immediately wanted to tackle the kitchen. Before we got too involved, though, I had this brilliant idea to "quickly update" our front bathroom.. paint a little (a lot), re caulk, clean up the tile and grout... However, one thing lead to another suddenly this...

Turned into this...

...and just like that, our kitchen project came to a screeching halt.

Click here to see the full bathroom renovation.

Since then, we've done some smaller updates around the house (when I say ''smaller'' I mean- we didn't rip the walls out) until recently, we decided to pick up where we left off in the kitchen.

...and guess what!! I'm really excited to share our projects with you!

I hope you've enjoyed your ''before'' peek into our home! Stay tuned for more!

Thanks for reading,

Anitque Empire Chest

2014-01-18T20:31:00.000-08:00

I've been going through pictures of some of my pieces and found photos of a few of my last piece that I painted in Alabama. We were so busy packing, and finishing up custom work, and selling the furniture we had, and tying up loose ends that they made it to my Facebook but never made it to by blog...

This was one of those pieces I thought twice about painting, however, I bought it specifically for a client to customize so I didn't really have a choice, ha!

As far as I could tell, it still had it's original finish which was in wonderful condition, as well as the original hardware. Thankfully, my client chose the two toned finish to replicate another Empire Chest that sold out of my booth before she could get to it. So, the drawer fronts were left with the original finish and hardware, then the body was painted and distressed to show off those beautiful curves.

DIY Studded Nailhead Dresser {How To}

2013-07-24T15:27:00.002-07:00

Remember the Studded Nailhead Dresser that I posted a few months ago? After tons of requests for a tutorial, I finally decided to get this post together...

I started by sanding this piece as if I were going to paint it- by removing about 80% of the existing finish. I wanted the wood to have a rustic look so, after sanding, I dry brushed on CeCe Caldwell's Vermont Slate in random places with the grain of the wood.

After Vermont Slate, I stained with 3 heavy coats of Dark Walnut by MinWax.

Between the existing finish, Vermont Slate, and the Dark Walnut stain, I had a great variation of color that created that rustic look I was going for.

After stain, I sealed it with Polyurethane and allowed it to dry over night.

Next, I started my swirls...

I free handed them with white chalk- keeping a damp rag on hand for when I needed to wipe off and redraw.

Once I was satisfied with my swirls, I used a ruler to mark every half inch but

After about one ruler of half inches, I gave up and started eyeballing it =)

I used an little bitty drill bit to make a hole at every half inch mark- making sure that my drill bit didn't penetrate all the way through the drawer front. This allowed the point of the tack to also penetrate the wood (inside of my little bitty hole) to help prevent my tacks from coming lose.

(Using the drill bit to make my holes was to prevent the nail heads from bending when I hammered them into the wood).

Did I lose you?

This was my 1st swirl- I didn't wipe off the chalk before applying the tacks.

Not much of a big deal, it was just a little difficult to wipe the chalk from between each tack.

So, the next time I knew better and finished all of the holes then wiped off my chalk before I hammered in any of the tacks.

I love the contrast between the rustic dark wood and the shiny silver nail heads.

There were a few ''oops'' places where I drilled too deep and the tack wouldn't grip inside of the wood- for these places, I marked the hole, then went back and added a little dot of super glue over the hole before putting the tack in.

This project used 13 packs of 48ct tacks. That's 642 holes drilled, 642 tacks hammered and about 12 hours of my time.

This was actually a really fun project... a little tedious and time consuming, but fun.

Sometimes beauty requires a little patience.

Get Out and Do Something!

2013-05-26T23:46:00.000-07:00

Hello blogger world, long time no see!
A quick little update for those of you who do not follow me on Facebook- we moved! To Mansfield, Texas!... going on week number 6 in our new state. The transition has been a stressful and busy one. We're currently trying to sell our home in Athens and looking for a new home here in Mansfield but in the mean time, we've settled in with my in laws...

It has been hard, on me, particularly- but not completely terrible. I do love the area that we moved to and have enjoyed the company of my husband's family and having him home every night (no more travel for Jamie!! Yay!!), but being so far from my family and friends has been tough to swallow. Our 3rd week here was the worst as the ''time to go home'' feeling set in- but instead of going back to Alabama, I had to face the reality that this is now my home. I cried a lot that week. I've lived away from Oneonta (where I grew up) for over 3 years, but still just an hour up the road. I never thought I could mourn that place... but that week, I did. No matter how hard I've tried to hate the little bitty town that I call ''home'', I can't change where my family is, where I grew up, the roads I traveled, or the memories I've made. I still haven't quite wrapped my head around it or accepted Texas as my home- I feel like my home will always be in Alabama but I am trying.

Anywho- I had to get all of the sad-depressed-feelsorryformyself out of my head. So, what does any furniture painter do when she needs to get out of a funk??? She paints a piece of furniture! (and plans a trip back home to Alabama)
I definitely gave this piece more TLC than it EVER needed but it was the 1st time I'd worked on anything in about a month and I was a little... happy. More specifically, veneer removal happy.

This was my 1st piece in Texas and also a temporary savior- an idle mind is the Devil's playground, and my mind was very idle It was great to get up off the couch and do something that I love no matter what state I'm in!

I haven't had an opportunity to paint anything else but I have started a new project to keep myself busy for a while...

I'm don't have much of a green thumb. In fact, I've killed everything I've ever tried to grow. Including 2 herb gardens and the unity tree from our wedding. Massive fail.

I have to be honest and say that I'm not very good at being able to recognize when God is leading me. There is always a conflict in my brain asking if I'm truly following what God is leading me to do or if I just think it's what God is leading me to do because it's something that I want or need or feel. It's something that I've been praying about for years. However, when it comes to my vegetable garden, there are no doubts about it! God lead me to it!

He who goes out weeping, bearing the seed for sowing, shall come home with shouts of joy, bringing his sheaves with him. -Psalm 126:6

God has been leading me to grow a garden (among other things) for quite sometime now. I could go all ''dooms day prepper'' on you, but I will spare you. Moral of the story is, I think this is God preparing me for something. Maybe he's just trying to teach me something that I don't know yet. Maybe it's a test of my ever so short patience. I'm not sure. All I know is he wanted to me grow a garden- so I am. So, as I was out in the yard with sun beaming down on me, tired, and covered in dirt.. I was literally "happy as a log" knowing that at that moment, I was doing exactly what God wanted me to be doing.

At the end of the day, my back was hurting and I looked like I had tilled the ground with my body (right now, picture me doing the caterpillar), but I was so so happy. Usually, a beautifully painted piece of furniture calls for my ''happy dance'' but today, it was big ol' spot of dirt.

Thank you God for giving me hands to work with and the joy I get when I use them!

Next time you need a pick-me-up, get out and do something that you love or FIND something that you love to do. Don't be afraid of hard work, we were not put here to sit around. Do it alone, or do it with a friend, just get out do something!

Home Tour/ Home for Sale in Athens, Alabama

2013-03-21T19:21:00.000-07:00

If you follow me on Facebook then you've probably seen that we are selling our house. So, I've decided to ''list'' our house here on the blog. Of course, we are using a real estate agent but I thought that maybe, just maybe, this will help us get the word out. It will officially be listed on Monday (3-25-13) and I will link to the listing as soon as it's live.

I'm going to start with the master bed room because it has a 3/4 bath that we just finished last night and I'm really excited to show you. I will have a separate post featuring the whole process of the bathroom remodel with before and afters. But, for now, you just get to see the afters (unless you're on my Facebook =)

MASTER BEDROOM

3/4 BATH

GUEST ROOM (#1)

The house has 3 bedrooms but for now, I'm only showing two of them because the other one, which we use as an office, is filled with clutter from the other rooms you see =)

FULL BATH

LIVING ROOM

(that is a faux stained glass film that can be removed by just peeling it off)

This house has a lot to offer- I really dread leaving. I've been crazy & emotional lately so, I'm sure I will probably cry when the sign goes up on Monday. A lot of milestones have happened in this house- it's where we spent the first year of marriage, it's where I built my business, it's where we built relationships, it's even where we got married- under the big tree in our backyard. You can see all of the details of our backyard wedding here (or just check it out, anyways, to see how awesome the backyard is).

I will be posting pictures of the kitchen, dining room, & 3rd bedroom by the end of the weekend and will link them to this post, as well.

Catching You Up on a Few Changes.

2013-03-08T21:17:00.000-08:00

A lot of things have changed for Simply Salvaged in 2013 and over the next few months {I think} we will be undergoing some HUGE changes that will be announced later. But for now, I thought I would catch you all up on a few smaller things that have occurred.

The biggest change has been that we are no longer taking custom orders. Phew. That's the 1st time I've announced it publicly... it was a hard chunk of my job to let go of but a necessary one. Custom work pretty much built my business and the clients and relationships that I've acquired. I've had AMAZING and loyal clients... ''the kind to keep ya' in business''. Clients who have multiple pieces of mine in their homes, in their family's homes, and in their friend's homes. Clients who never said one harsh word or gave me any complaints because they truly loved my work. Clients who I don't even like to call clients because I really consider them to be my friends. I've said it once before that my clients are my highest compliment and that holds true. I appreciate everyone of them. Over the next month I will be finishing up a few custom orders left on my schedule so if you see ''custom order'' pop up on my Facebook, they were scheduled before this decision was made =)

Another change has been that I am no longer teaching workshops.

There are a few reasons for this but, really, honestly, the main reason is because the painted furniture market in this area is so saturated that I can't afford to be teaching people to compete against me anymore. There, I said it.

I know of 4 workshops (including mine) between Huntsville and Tuscumbia. Between workshops and a few paints on the market that don't require prep work, the blood and sweat have been taken out of painted furniture and I've been noticing now, more than ever, that we have so much competition in North Alabama.

Last but not least, in line with not teaching my workshops anymore, I am also pulling my furniture out of The Chilled Canvas in Tuscumbia. I've appreciated Dusty letting me bum her floor space so much! and I've loved getting to know her in the time I've spent at her store- she's another friend that I have gained on my journey.

So, what do all of these changes mean for Simply Salvaged??

Well, I want to focus more on retail pieces for the time being. That is what I really really enjoy doing. So, keep an eye out on my page for pieces that I will be selling privately and also from my booth at University Pickers.

All of these changes are also in anticipation of something much bigger that we have in the works but I can't announce anything just yet =) sorry!

"All changes, even the most longed for, have their melancholy; for what we leave behind us is a part of ourselves; we must die to one life before we can enter another.''-Anatole France

How To Clean & Polish Your Old Hardware

2013-02-27T19:41:00.000-08:00

I found a super awesome antique door that had it's original glass knob attached. I almost did my usual quick clean (soap, water, & a quick scrub), and sprayed with oil rubbed bronze- but I decided to see what my knob looked like under years and years and years of people putting their dirty little paws all over it. I wish you could see how dirty these were before I cleaned them. They were all black and nasty and completely not brass looking at all.

So, I mixed up water & CLR in a big bowl and soaked everything for about 30 minutes. Then, gave them a quick scrub with a wire brush.

This is how they looked when I pulled them out of the CLR/water mix.

Using CLR pretty much removed all of dirt and nasty but I wanted them to be really really polished and shiny so, I rubbed them down with some Brasso.

Now that old hardware shines like a star =)

Get your Brasso by clicking the link below

Get your CLR by clicking the link below

Mid Century Modern Triple Dresser by Thomasville

2013-02-27T18:01:00.000-08:00

I almost pee'd myself when I found this.

Ok, maybe just a really loud squeal and a happy dance.

I love mid century modern.

So when I found this vintage triple dresser by Thomasville I was so so very excited!

This is one of those pieces that I'm kicking myself for selling.

Gah, why do I have to sell everything? It's like I just can't help it. My Father in Law says I'd sell my soul if I could rough it up and put paint on it...

It couldn't be more perfect.

This piece has officially begun an obsession with mid century modern...

so, THIS is what I picked up this weekend..

I can't wait to get some paint on it!!

Gilders Paste and a Birdie Dish

2013-02-20T17:18:00.000-08:00

Gliders Paste has been making it's way around University Pickers quite rapidly.

For some, this is an old trick of the trade, but myself and Simply Salvaged are totally new to this product.

I love that it adds so much character with little to no effort.

I grabbed up this dish with a cute little birdie perched on top.

I used Patina Gilders Paste, but you can get it in tons of colors.

You literally just rub your finger around in it and wipe it on.

I like to start light, then add more until I'm satisfied.

...and in just about 10 minutes, my little birdie dish had a whole new look!

If you're in the Huntsville area, please stop by Three French Hens inside of University Pickers for your Gilders Paste.
Be sure to ask Tina, of Three French Hens about her classes where you can learn everything you need to know about gilding!

(you can also find my birdie dish in the Simply Salvaged booth at University Pickers =)

Or, if you're not local to Huntsville, you can also buy it by clicking the link below

DIY Studded Nail Head Dresser

2013-02-11T23:40:00.000-08:00

I try not to surf the internet for ideas too often. I want my furniture to be as original and unique as possible. Although, I do realized that is very hard to accomplish. Even when I've thought, in the past, that I've created an idea for something, I always find where someone else beat me to it. However, when I do replicate the work of someone else, I always try to put my own spin on it.

CLICK HERE TO SEE THE FULL TUTORIAL

My ''own spin'' on this piece was combining two inspirations onto one piece.

Inspiration #1 was a nail head dresser that I've had pinned on Pinterest for over a year now- I think the original source is Montgomery Ward. I've just been waiting on the perfect piece for it.

When I picked up this dresser, I decided it was flat enough and that I had waited long enough- I was going to make this piece a nail head dresser come hell or high water! Then...

I saw my inspiration #2

This super awesome dresser by Redoux

I loved them both so much and decided that instead of choosing between one or the other, I wanted to combine the two.

So, 642 nail heads later...

I wish so very badly that I'd taken better pictures of this piece. However, due not having enough nail heads or hardware and being so far from the closest Hobby Lobby, I actually ended up finishing it in the back hall of University Pickers before moving it into my booth. Hobby Lobby is on my way to University Pickers so, instead of making 2 trips, I just grabbed what I needed to finish on my way.

Click here to see the tutorial!

Sharing at:

Miss Mustard Seed: FFF

Redoux

Embracing Change

My Repurposed Life: CCC

Liz Marie Blog

Depression Era Vanity

2013-02-11T19:07:00.000-08:00

You hear me say "I'm so in love with this piece'' and ''I wish I never sold this one'' a lot on my blog. It's not because I admire my own work enough to flatter myself over and over. I mean, I do surprise myself sometimes but usually, I fall in love with these pieces before I ever buy or paint them.

I don't buy things that I don't like. I've heard ''..but you never know what someone ELSE will be looking for.'' and that is true. However, I want my business and my furniture to represent my style and what I love. So, I only buy piece that I would want in my own home.

This piece was no exception.

I don't usually shop on CL because it's so much hassle to find a good deal close to home on a piece that I love AND beat every other person to it. Not to mention pulling up to the unknown of a stranger's home (usually alone). However.., I've been desperate, lately, for some ''wow'' pieces and you know what they say about desperate times. So, Craigslist and I had a date and lucky me, I'm glad I gave him another chance.

I almost glazed or gilded with either copper or turquoise accents. I couldn't decide which product or color to use. So, I decided that I didn't have to decided and did neither =) and I'm glad I did...or didn't????

I like the simple distressing against black.

My New/Old Wall Print

2013-02-07T23:06:00.000-08:00

I promise to get back to posting my furniture soon, in fact, I just finished up a hand full of furniture today. So, stay tuned for that.

Until then, I wanted to show you this really awesome Kipp Soldwedel print that we bought last weekend for $4.50 whole dollars. I fell in love with it as soon as I saw it!

I fell even deeper in love after I cleaned it up and hung it in our living room.

I hope you all have a very happy Friday!

Partylights.com Globe Lighting

2013-01-19T14:59:00.003-08:00

When I was planning our wedding, I had this vision of creating a blanket of lights over our backyard where the reception was held.

So, I searched.. and searched.. and searched until I found the perfect lights, at the perfect length, and the perfect price.

I really don't think the reception would of been the same without them. They added an excellent amount of lighting and created a fun atmosphere.

Two of those strings now drape over my booth at University Pickers adding the perfect amount of character to my booth.

Since hanging them in my space, I've had quite a few people ask where I found them- they got an answer similar to ''ummmm... I ordered them online... I think I found them at....ummmmmmmm, I don't know, I'm sorry!''

So, I decided to dig up the name of the company that I ordered them from

You can buy yours at Partylights.com

HERE links directly to the lights I use but be sure to browse their site- they have tons of styles & colors.

University Pickers Grand Opening

2013-01-17T21:11:00.000-08:00

My posts have been rather sparse over the past month or so and there have been loads of furniture that have come and gone that I literally snapped pictures of as we were loading them into the truck.

University Pickers has been kicking my butt!

The grand opening was Jan. 5th and it was amazing! So, I thought I would share some pictures =)

I don't think any of the pickers were prepared for the response from the community. There were people everywhere with a check out line that wrapped around the building and, really, it didn't slow down until about 30 minutes before the store closed.

I think we were all blown away.

The Wednesday following the grand opening, I took a trip to Texas to help my friend Mandie of Altar'd with a Miss Mustard Seed milk paint workshop. I flew into Dallas to meet my Mother in Law. Within 5 minutes of stepping off of my plane, I got a call from Paul, the store owner, letting me know that ''my booth was empty and looked like crap'' ha! 6 days until I would even have a chance to begin painting anything and I had an empty booth.

Thank God for Husbands.

This is what he pulled together while I was gone

So far, my experience with University Pickers has been amazing and I'm so glad that I made the decision to rent space from them. For over a year I painted ''alone'' with my husband's help when he was home. Now, I feel like I have a little family in University Pickers. I love being around people who share the same interest and passions that I do. I couldn't be happier with my little corner of their store. Also, the owners, Katherine & Paul, are super awesome! I love both of their excitement about University Pickers and where it's going. They have big plans for that place and I believe they will make it all happen.

Next time you're in Huntsville be sure to stop by!

Check out the other pickers here.

Ol' Glory.

2013-01-17T18:56:00.000-08:00

Maybe the Betsy Ross flag phase is over in the world of painted furniture but, really, this is America- the flag phase never dies!

If I had this piece to do over again, I would chose a piece that is flatter and more accommodating to Frog Tape but I still love the way this piece turned out. When I started the stripes, I thought this idea was a big fat waste of my time and paint. Mishaps are what heavy distressing is for =)

'mericuh!!

Get your Frog Tape here:

Sharing at: Miss Mustard Seed: FFF My Repurposed Life Redoux