All Things that Make a House a Home......

Our den, phase 2!

2013-10-05T08:00:00.003-07:00

Our den/office has been a work in progress. When we first moved in it was like this. While I liked the look of the room it was not very functional. It looked nice all closed up but when I opened up the computer cabinet it became a mess! Plus I felt like I was working in a black hole in that cabinet!

This is what the room looks like now. (sorry about the bright sun)

We wanted a wall of bookcases and decided to go with the IKEA Billy Bookcases. We chose a few different styles of Billy. One has solid doors at the bottom and that hides our office equipment. The rest are perfect for our books, my special finds, and storage boxes for paperwork.

The desk is our old dining room table from our last house. We had it in our basement. I painted it with Annie Sloan (of course) Chalk Paint in Aubusson Blue. I love this color!

We reused the leather chairs we already had in the room. They are worn and comfy!

This file cabinet is from Bombay & Company. We have had it for a few years. Now that I am looking at it I have the urge to paint it! :) The lamp and shade are from Target. I got the shade on clearance for $6.00! I like the pop of color! The starburst mirror was another deal I found at Homegoods. The blue candle is from Peir 1.

This little wall space is one of my favorite spots.

The cabinets with the doors are great for hiding things. We have all the cords running in there as well!

This room is almost done. I just finished up trimming out the bookcases. It was a much bigger job then I thought, but I love how they turned out!

Stay tuned..........

Have a wonderful weekend!

Guest room is ready!

2013-09-09T10:09:00.003-07:00

I am pretty excited about our guest room. I wish I would have taken before pictures. This is what was in the room before:

A green plaid futon, a large bookcase, a large TV cabinet, the bottom of a hutch, and a few smaller tables. We made it work, but the room was kind of the room with everything we did not know what to do with. It was furniture I was not ready to part with yet either.

I did end up selling the TV cabinet but the rest we found uses for elsewhere.

I am also excited about this room because I managed to do it for under $150.00! That is the most fun part for me, finding things to reuse and getting great deals!

Here it is finished.....

I was originally planning to buy a bed but decided to just leave the futon open. It now serves as a bed and the cost was FREE. No more green plaid! I had the sheets and pillows. I did buy the comforter, shams, and throw pillows. (all that for under $50.00 at Homegoods) The shutters were in our hallway downstairs, they were green. I spray painted them white and hung them for a headboard. FREE.

The dresser was a flea market find for $30.00. I painted it with Annie Sloan Chalk Paint I already had. I also bought the mirror for $10.00 from an antique shop. I had everything else. **The wall color is BM Weekend Getaway. Fitting name for a guest room paint color! :)

This is my favorite part of the room. I love this little corner. I had the bird prints in my hallway next to the shutters. I like them in here better. The little table was a DYI project I did last year and I was not currently using it. The chair was a flea market find for $2.00. I painted it with Miss Mustard Seed Milk Paint in Ironstone.

This shelf has been with me for awhile. It was my grandma's and it is one piece I will not paint. I love this little shelf.

I have had this table for over 20 years! I bought it for my foyer in our first home. I had found it at an antique shop. (I was not into antiques back then, but this table caught my eye) It was brown wood back then. When we moved I spray painted the table black and used it in various rooms. In this house it has been sitting in our basement. I decided it would work great as a bedside table. I painted it with the milk paint. Funny thing is when the paint started chipping off it took the black spray paint with it. I was so glad that happened, I would much rather see the original wood. Another FREE area.

I had bought the flower prints for $1.00 each at the flea market. I bought $3.00 frames for them from Hobby Lobby. I had the milk glass lamp in the basement. I found it at a flea market and had not found a spot for it until now!

I had some heavy chocolate brown curtains in here. I sold them $15.00 and for a total of $19.99 for both I got these linen gray ones. (from Homegoods)

The bird prints on the left were in our dining room and I moved them in here. The chalk board was made out of a $3.00 antique window. I posted about the piano bench a few weeks ago. It was about $25.00.

I am so happy with how this room turned out. For the first week I would just walk in and stare at it! :) I do that kind of thing a lot when I finish a new project!

$30.00 dresser re do!

2013-09-08T08:46:00.000-07:00

Hard to believe summer is over and it is September! I LOVE summer and I am always sad when it ends. I got so many projects done these past few months. I had a loooooong list and I managed to cross off almost everything.

Remember this dresser? I found it at the Elkhorn Flea Market for $30.00! It was in great shape. It was the perfect size for our guest room.

I decided to have some fun with this piece and use two colors. I usually like to play it safe with one but wanted to do something different. I love how the ASCP paint colors work so well with each other. I chose Annie Sloan Chalk Paint in Old White & Chateau Gray. I had both these colors and knew they would work with the room.

ASCP Chateau Gray

ASCP Old White

I painted the drawers the Chateau Gray and the rest of the dresser in Old White. I wanted to reuse the original hardware so I removed it and cleaned it up well. After two coats of ASCP I used a coat of clear wax and added a bit of dark wax.

**On a side note....When you buy an antique piece of furniture you never know what you may find. This old sleeping cap was stuck behind one of the drawers!**

Here is the dresser all painted and in place. I loved how it turned out and for $30.00 I love it even more!

The guest room is now done! I will post pictures soon! :)

A little night stand......

2013-08-24T08:14:00.002-07:00

I have had this little table for over 20 years. I bought it from an antique shop back before I liked antiques. I needed a small table for our entry way in our first home and this was perfect.

It was brown wood at the time. Over the years I spray painted it black. I used in several different rooms and it finally ended up in our basement. I never wanted to part with it though.

I needed a night stand for our guest room and decided this table would be perfect. I am trying to re-do the guest room using what I have. I love to go shopping in our basement!

I STILL have Miss Mustard Seed Milk Paint left. It really does go a long way. I wanted this table white and not too chippy so added the bonding agent when I mixed up the paint.

WELL I had a hard time covering the black paint so it needed a few coats. On my last coat I mixed more paint and forgot to add the bonding agent! After having two coats with the bonding agent I was surprised to see all my paint falling off from just the last coat of paint!

What I did think was cool was that it went all the way down to the original wood. I did not want it white with black showing through which is why I chose to use the bonding agent. I love that the black fell right off and the wood is showing!

You just never know with this paint......

I waxed this table with both clear and a bit of dark wax. I actually love how it turned out! It is not what I envisioned but it works!

I like how this table has so much dimension to it. It is kind of fun! I also like that it is one piece I have held on to for so many years.

A few little things left and our guest room is done!

A coffee shop with flea market finds.....perfect

2013-08-12T13:32:00.001-07:00

We have been relaxing on the beach this past week. No projects, no work, (ok I am a realtor, so I did have alittle work) precious family time, and gorgeous weather. We spent the week in Hilton Head and enjoyed every minute of it. We parked our car for the week and either biked or walk everywhere. Having a 16 year old and 18 year old these trips mean the world to me. Although in my world the kids will always want to come on vacation with us! :)

Here is some of our trip.....

For my b-day we went to this great seafood restaurant right on the water. We sat outside and listened to live music and ate some delicious food!

We spent every single day right here.

Brady & Bryce. Those two are not in the same place too often anymore, so nice to have time together!!~

We played a lot of prokadema on the beach. Not sure if that is what it is actually called, but that is what our paddles said. It was a fun game!

We decided to bring our dog Lacee with us for the first time. She was a great traveler. Never heard a peep from her the entire car ride.

We loved coming to the beach at night to just read and watch the kites.

We saw quite a few dolphins, it was beautiful!

This was our first time kayaking. I was a little nervous, but it was easy. Although my arms got pretty tired!

Brady is used to more thrill seeking kind of activities, but he enjoyed this too!

Now on to the flea market find!

On our first day we found this little coffee shop that was off the beaten path. It is called The Broken Spoke. I really wish I would have taken pics while we were there! It was a very cool layed back kind of coffee shop with big comfy leather couches, cool tables, mellow music, great coffee, and the best part?....... It is like a mini flea market! Everything (mostly) is for sale in the shop. Antique tables, wall art, trinkets, old clocks, rocking chairs, bikes, you name it!

I saw this crate the minute I sat down and knew I wanted it. It was big and our car was pretty full with 4 people and a dog. I left without it. But of course thought it about it ALL week. On our way out of town I just had to go back. I got that little beauty for $25.00! It even has old metal handles on both sides. TJ (being the good sport he is) made room for it in the car.

Of course I am not sure what to do with this yet, but I will find a spot! I just think it is pretty cool to have a vintage crate from South Carolina! If you are ever in the area check out The Broken Spoke Coffee Shop, it is a pretty cool place. The owner Tim made us feel right at home!

Sunrise on the beach.

I am thankful for the week of relaxing!

Piano bench project

2013-07-26T09:54:00.001-07:00

I have a lot of projects going on right now! I am finishing up the loft and the guest room. I have also started the bookcases in the den, which is turning into a really BIG project!

The piano bench was a fun little project to work on. I found the bench at a flea market and planned to use it for a bench at the end of the bed in the guest room. I got it for $20.00.

I decided to go with ASCP in duck egg. I bought this little pot awhile ago. I used it on my kitchen chairs under Graphite. I have never used it alone, so was excited to try it.

Since there was no padding on this bench I added my own. I glued together two of these foam pads. ($1.99)

I was going to use this gray burlap fabric I already had. Once I had it all stapled on I realized the weave was too loose over the foam pad, the pad showed right through! Not a good look!

I ran over to Hobby Lobby and for $3.00 bought this chevron fabric. It is spot on for matching with the Duck Egg paint color. I stapled that right over the burlap.

**I left out pictures for that step. I was able to unscrew the top of the bench. That made covering it soooo much easier. I placed the foam pad down. Stapled the burlap fabric over the foam pad. Then the chevron fabric over the burlap. Easy! Except I had an extra step in there with the burlap!

I used two coats of ASCP and covered it in a coat of clear wax.

I love the legs on this bench with the gold on the bottoms.

This little bench will be perfect! I love little projects like this one. :)

Target deals!

2013-07-23T07:09:00.001-07:00

I used to live in Target. When my kids were younger I was there all the time! I never got out the door without spending $100.00. I do not go there half of much as I used to. That is until recently. After finding these lamps for $17.00 each I was pretty excited to see what other deals I could find. I am really liking the Threshold line!

I love this little footstool. I had sold our old one on craigslist and was looking for a new one for awhile now. My sisters (2 of them) actually found this stool in red at their Target in WI. I loved it and set out to find it. I ended up finding it in gray/blue which is perfect for our family room. The size is perfect too! I also found it for $11.00, it was regularly $59.99. Not bad. I could not pass up the pretty gold candle holder for $7.00 or the turquoise throw blanket for $8.00! (I sold my old ottoman for more than all the 3 items I bought that day!)

I also found the ottoman in the red. ($17.00 for this one) I thought it would be perfect for the loft. There was something about that woven lamp that I just loved! $17.00 for the lamp. I do a slight lamp addiction.

Speaking of lamps.... I ran into Target for half and half the other day and came out with another white lamp! (TJ was in the car and just looks at me like I am nuts! :) It was just sitting on a shelf by itself and marked down to $7.00! That I could not pass up! What I spent on all these items was about what I was planning to spend on one new ottoman for our family room. I love getting deals!! I saw one lady in Target with two carts overflowing with all the Threshold clearance stuff. She said she was redoing a few rooms. You can not go wrong when you find what you love for so little! :)

Flea marketing with all 3 sisters!

2013-07-17T08:48:00.002-07:00

This past Sunday my daughter Bryce & I headed to WI for our annual mother daughter summer trip. We try to at least once a summer go up just the two of us. We leave TJ and Brady at home. This way we can shop and do girls things. Bryce loves to hang out with all her little cousins so she looks forward to this time!

This year was extra special. There just so happened to be a flea market in the next town! Yipee!!! It is called Maxwell Street Days. I remember going there as a kid with my friend and her family. My memory was getting up early to walk around a big rummage sale. I was not a fan!

Now that I have come to love flea markets I was pretty excited to check this one out. This time my other two sisters joined us too! Bryce opted to swim at grandmas which was a very wise choice for her! It was a very hot and sunny day.

I was not sure what to expect from this flea market. Here is some of what we saw....

This vendor had a couple of these big tubs full of manikin body parts. Maybe vintage manikin parts are all the rage now?

I thought this telephone table was fun!

We saw lots of dolls!

I liked this pretty light blue dresser!

I had these lamps in blue when I was little.

A name plate with someone elses name anyone?

Ok this is something we have never seen before. A misting tent. This was pretty cool and much needed!

I always love old doors!

I am from WI so I can say only in WI is there a bar at a flea market! Actually there were two. People did walk around with pitchers of beer. Now offer wine and I am in! How fun would that be!!

Heather's purchase for the day was this pink umbrella to keep her cool. She thought everything else was junk! :)

The top of this blue desk was covered in pennies. Different.

Fun colors!

Kim found a stroller for the new baby!

He is no Hippie Tom, but we did find a friend!

Fancy manikin!

So that was about it. I found a few things that I will post about later. Kim found a few things too. I told my sisters Lisa and Heather they could not leave without buying at least one flea market find. Heather got her (new) umbrella and Lisa said she paid for parking so that was her purchase! I am not sure if they will join us again, but we sure had fun!

Office: Part Two

2013-07-16T12:02:00.003-07:00

The Ikea Billy Bookcases were a breeze to put together. Just ask TJ! :) They fit on the wall just how we pictured it. Here is the office in phase 2. It is pretty close to being done. My next project will be fancying up the bookcases. I plan to either paint the backs of them, wallpaper with a pretty linen wallpaper, or I am playing with the idea of replacing the backs with beadboard. I also want to add some molding to beef them up a bit and fill those little holes.

Here is the room as it is now.....

Here is what went on in that room:

*installed bookcases on back wall.

*painted the table turned desk in Annie Sloan Aubusson Blue.
This table was our old dining room table and was just sitting in our basement.

*I kept the brown leather chairs, they are comfy and I still really like them!

*Filled the bookcases. I love books so I am pretty excited to have a place to put them! I love old and new books so the shelves are filled with both. I also now have a place to put my special finds!

*The left side of the cabinets serves as our working area. The doors hide files, papers, office supplies, and wires etc.

*The skinny cabinet on the end also holds papers and files etc. It is nice to not have to look at that stuff but to have it within reach!

The row of three glass cabinets above the desk is more space for books and special things!

This black filing cabinets is great. We had this in the old room. We have had it for many years, it is from The Bombay Company. It actually has the look of all the library catalog tables I love! (even though my little drawers are all faux ones!)
The sunburst mirror is from Homegoods. I found it in the clearance section. I was planning to paint it but then decided I liked it left alone in its teaky colored wood. The lamp and lamp shade are from Target. I got the shade on clearance of course! I love the pop of color it adds! The little blue candle holder is from Pier 1.

That little gray table used to be a little brown table in our living room. I painted it with Annie Sloan Chalk Paint in French Linen. It is perfect in this room because it 3 drawers for storage! *This room gets a lot of sun, it was hard to take a picture on the window side!

You can read about that table here:

http://myeverchanginghome.blogspot.com/2013/06/more-annie-sloan.html

This wall area is one of my favorite spots in the room. The burlap corkboard was a DYI project. You can read about that here:

http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=5262909746498862430#editor/target=post;postID=5594785172068549898;onPublishedMenu

The W is from Anthro and I just love it! Also love those pictures of my kids when they were little! The heart plaques are from a anniversary trip TJ & I took so have special meaning. The little gold sunburst mirror just caught my eye at Pier 1 and was perfect for that spot!

I love filling the shelves! It is a mix of special gifts, flea market finds, and old and new books.

This room works so well for us! Having two spots to work is so nice! There is so much work space too! (before in my little black work hole I had a teeny tiny spot to work!) I love having a spot for everything! I am so much more organized!

I am going to be having fun with those bookcases! I have a few other projects I need to complete first. My loft and guest room are currently in a state of chaos! After that I will tackle those shelves! :)

Our office....part 1

2013-07-11T08:36:00.000-07:00

I spend many hours in our office. I am in here first thing in the morning with my coffee, several times throughout the day and since I am a real estate broker many nights too! It is a bright sunny room! It was not always so bright and sunny. It used to be a pretty dark room. Lots of dark furniture. Although looking back at these pictures I did like the room before. It just was not functional. When the cabinet doors were closed and the chairs were in place it was a pretty room.

But it always looked like this......(with a big chair in front of it)

We bought that black cabinet for our old house. We did not have a separate den. We used the cabinet in the living room and it worked great in there. Back then I was not a realtor, I did not have too much to keep organized. This cabinet was not working for me now. I felt like I was working in a black hole! TJ also does work from home and there was only space for one!

Here are a few more pictures of the den before..

There was a big map picture above this file cabinet. I had just sold it on craigslist before I took this picture. The room had an old world feel to it. (most things were from Bombay Co.)

It was time to make this room more functional!

In comes IKEA....

I had been researching bookcases and found some great reviews on the Billy bookcases from IKEA. TJ and I went to check them out.

I knew I wanted an entire wall of bookcases. I wanted the look of built in bookcases, without the built in price! These guys were the way to go!

It was pretty neat, we could plan our entire bookcase system out on the computer. This helped so much!

We decided on white, but that black looks pretty sharp!

We bought: two full bookcase units, one book case unit with partial glass doors, one half sized bookcase unit, and a row of three top cabinets.

Everything (except one glass door) was in stock. We loaded up our car and headed home to start building.

This actually part fairly easy. (TJ is good at this stuff)

TJ carved holes in the bottom of the bookshelf for all the cords to feed through. This worked great.

The wood table in the picture is a dining room table we had in our last house. It has been stored in our basement for the past 8 years. I decided to use that as our desk.

This is a work in progress.....stay tuned! :)

Decorating around a red couch.

2013-07-10T09:13:00.005-07:00

I have two decorating projects going on now. Our guest bedroom and our loft. I am really excited about the guest bedroom. The loft it a little overwhelming. I love that room, it has served us very well over the past 8 years. It is a hangout for my kids and their friends. That rooms has seen more sleepovers than I can count! When I say I love that room, I do not necessarily love what it looks like.

The kids do not complain and probably rather I just leave it alone, but I can't!!

I do not have the best pictures of the room but here it is in all its unstaged glory.......

Basically brown and red.

This room gets the leftover stuff. The large tv and cabinet have been with us for years and years. I am trying to sell it on craigslist right now. It is a very dark room and I want to add some light and maybe a little color!

We love the little electric fireplace, it is cozy in the winter. That will stay. The other thing that has to stay is that big red couch!

We actually bought this new for that room. We were decorating in a fire department motif and thought the red couch was fun! It has served us well, but it is big and it is red! My sister suggested a white slip cover which would be gorgeous. Problem is there is way too much eating going on in that room for that!

So my challenge is decorating that room around the red couch!

Here are some color schemes to consider.......

I love the red and blue.

I like how this room is warm, but still fun!

hgtv

Red and gray. Very modern!

interiordesign

This is a sophisticated room with navy and red. Very pretty but probably too fancy for us!

bhg

I like how cheerful this room is!

bhg

This room is one of my favorites. I love the gold and turquoise mixed in.

tophomedesigns

I love this room too!

bhg

And back to mine.....

As you can see I have my work cut out for me. I would like to:

*change the wall color

*get a smaller tv and cabinet

*add a new color

*change out the curtains

*add some end tables and maybe a chair

I have started painting a tv cabinet so I am on my way! :)

Spray painting lamps!

2013-07-09T09:15:00.001-07:00

I was running errands yesterday and got side tracked looking at lamps. Happens to me often! I just love lamps! I was at Homegoods, Pottery Barn, TJMaxx, & Target.

I love my white Target lamps so much I decided I wanted another white lamp. I found a few but none I loved or wanted to spend too much money on. (you get spoiled after buying a $17.00 lamp!)

I did find this lamp shade at Target. It was on clearance for $7.00! There was just something about it, kind of an Anthropology feel to it.

Anthropology $118.00 (lamp shade only)

Anthro lamp shade $98.00

Anthro lamp shade $148.00

Target lamp shade $7.00

So the lamp shade brings me back to a lamp base. I wanted a white one. I was online shopping white lamps when I got home and found this blog. http://blog.houseoffifty.com/2012/03/how-to-get-high-end-look-for-less-table.html

She (Janell) spray paints some lamps and they turn out beautiful! I decided to try it on this lamp. I love the shape of this lamp, I was just tired of the black. I was really hoping to use it again!

My favorite white spray paint is Rust-Oleum Heirloom White. I usually always have a bottle or two on hand. This is the same color used in the blog.

I taped off the cord and the top of the lamp with blue painters tape. Then started spraying. It was really hot and humid yesterday. I was a little worried the paint would not dry, I would bring the lamp inside to dry between coats. I did not prime my lamp first. I am not sure if this is necessary. Maybe you use less paint? It took about 3 coats to cover. I lightly sanded in between coats to smooth out any rough spots.

Here is the lamp after two coats:

Then I ran to Home Depot for this:

For as much painting I do I have never used this. This is what gives the piece a high end look. I have never glossed up anything before and I now love this stuff!!

After the paint was dry to the touch I applied 3 coats of the gloss spray. I used quite abit, I really wanted this lamp to shine!

You can see how the gloss spray really works! I am soooo glad I found Janell's blog post!

This is exactly the look I was going for. Spending a little over $10.00 to achieve it makes me happy!

I am excited to try this on another lamp! :)

Some more flea market finds!

2013-07-07T12:16:00.001-07:00

Hello, I hope everyone is having a great holiday weekend! We have been busy with fireworks, festivals, concerts, etc. I did manage to get to the Kane County Flea Market for a few hours yesterday.

My sister Kim is done with flea markets until her baby comes. She was planning to come to this one but it was just too hot. It was sooooo crowded she is lucky she did not! Boy do I miss flea market shopping with her!

TJ came with me again. (what a guy!) This was one of the most crowded Kane County Flea Markets I have ever been too. It took us about 20 minutes just to park. The place was packed! I LOVE flea markets and was actually not loving this one. Way too many people for me! I think later in the day the crowds may have thinned out but we were there when it opened.

It was too difficult to get any pictures because of the crowds. There was some awesome stuff there though! (kind of feeling like going back today!)

This is what I had set out to find:

Frames, a bench, and a little table. (I have a thing for little tables)

Here is what I found:

I am collecting antique frames and mirrors for a wall gallery idea I have. I don't want any old frame painted white. (I can do that myself) I am looking for unique frames. This frame is awesome. The glass on it is convex or is it concave? Whatever it is I love it! You can't see it in the picture but it slightly domed.

I talked about these prints in my Gallery Wall post a few days ago. I had not seen the vendor who sells these at the flea market in awhile. My friend was there yesterday and texted me that this vendor was there and where she was. Thanks Tammy! :)

I love these bird prints. They are from the late 1800's and are hand inked I was told. I love the colors.

I had to get some botanical ones too!

Have I mentioned how good these pickles are? We love them!

I am pretty excited about this little rusty black metal table. I love that is has shelves.

I was also looking for a bench. I want a little bench to put in the guest bedroom. Most the benches I saw yesterday were already done and pretty pricey. I wanted a rough cheap one. This piano bench is perfect. It has the height I want and it has some storage too.

TJ found this army hat for $5.00. He needed to keep his head from burning!

It was a quick trip yesterday but I found what I set out to find. Love that! I now have quite a few projects to get started on. Love that too!

Happy 4th of July!

2013-07-04T08:27:00.001-07:00

Happy 4th of July!!!

Vintage wall gallery

2013-07-02T09:52:00.000-07:00

A few flea markets ago I came across some vintage prints. This vendor had pages and pages of old prints from books. I have not seen her at the flea market since. I hope she comes back because I would love to buy more!

She was selling the prints for $1.00 each. I picked out these six.

I had been wanting to do a gallery type wall with botanical prints for some time. I did not want to buy the prints from a store. Mainly because of the price and also because I like old flea market stuff! :) Finding these for $1.00 each was perfect!

Here are few beautiful wall galleries....

Emily A Clark

decorpad

heartsathome

Emily A Clark

house beautiful

I decided to take my prints to Hobby Lobby. The frames were half off and I did pay to have them professionally matted. I would have done that myself but they did not have six of the same mattes in stock. The frames were $5.00 each and with matting I paid less than $10.00 a picture. Not bad for a one of a kind vintage print!

Here is another before and after of our dining room:

Before:

I love how this little gallery turned out. It makes me want to try it on a larger wall now! :)

Elkhorn Flea Market

2013-07-01T07:56:00.001-07:00

Yesterday I spent part of my day at the Elkhorn Flea Market. This one was a little different since my sister Kim could not make it. She is the only one I have gone to that flea market with. TJ agreed to go with me. (what a guy!) We took my daughter and her friend with and dropped them off at a beach nearby.

The weather was perfect yesterday. 70's and sunny. Beautiful!

Here are some things that caught my eye at the flea market.....

These library type tables are really in right now. I love them!

This metal and wood one was cool.

I liked this one too. I just really do not know where I would put it! I love all this stuff this vendor has by the way.

This is an old mailbox. I have never seen one of these before. It would be neat in an office or den?

I like this one too. I ended up leaving without buying one. I have been thinking of a few of them that I saw ever since! That happens to me a lot! I also just saw my last flea market post had library tables in it as well. Surprised I have not bought one yet!

Old lamps can be pretty funky!

We saw a lot of antique fire equipment. Something for TJ to look at!

See those metal red lights on the left side of the table? Those were cool. $300.00 so they stayed on that table.

I am so curious about the manikins......

Funny thing is we did see a lady carrying a manikin head around under her arm. There is a market for these things I guess!

I have this little guy. This one is painted and was $65.00

Mine was $18.00

Here are my finds for the day......

One of my goals was to find a dresser. I am in the process of re doing our guest room and wanted to get a little dresser to use in there. This one was exactly what I was looking for. I got the vendor down to $30.00! I am excited to get working on this!

I love these old rusty metal drawers. These were $1.50 each. Usually they are much higher than that! Kind of kicking myself for not buying more!

I also set out to find antique frames and mirrors for a project I have in mind. I managed to get all the frames and the books for $20.00.

I thought these metal valves things were pretty neat too.

We ended up spending about 3 1/2 hours at the flea market. That is about 5 hours less than I usually spend! I of course could have stayed there ALL day and probably after it closed as well!

This was also the least amount of money I have spent at a flea market. That probably has something to do with my husband being with! :) Although I got some great deals on what I did find!

All in all it was a great day. We shopped and then had a nice lunch on the lake. My daughter and her friend got to hang at the beach for the day. A little something for everyone!

White lamps!

2013-06-24T08:34:00.002-07:00

I was in Target a few weeks ago and saw these lamps and immediately had to check them out. This is not the best picture, but I just loved this white lamp. It was $59.99. Not a bad price but I was not in the market for lamps so kept walking. (that is hard for me to do!)

A week later I was in Target again and saw the lamp and again had to check it out. It was on clearance now for $34.00. Not bad......

A few days ago I was shopping and saw the lamp again. This time the lamps were down to $17.00! Now that is a deal! These are heavy nice lamps! (they had 3 left at this time) I decided to think a little more and come back. I went back early the next morning and only 1 lamp was left!! I needed two!

Then I saw a lady with MY two lamps in her cart! I stayed around her for awhile in case she decided to put them back. She did not. ( I probably creeped her out too!)

I grabbed the one lamp and had customer service check other stores and the Target down the street had another one. Whew! So long story short I now own the two white lamps I had my eye on for weeks. I paid $34.00 instead of $120.00.

I think I got a pretty great deal on these lamps! Here are a few similar.

Jonathan Adler Nelson-$395.00

Lamps Plus -$213.00

Pottery Barn-$129.00

Arteriors Paulette Table Lamp - $478

These are the lamps I had in my family room. (sorry for the blurry pic!) I bought them a few years ago from Pottery Barn. I still like them so will to try and find another spot for them.

Here are the new lamps....

I love these lamps!

Sometimes all it takes is a little paint!

2013-06-20T08:00:00.001-07:00

I have had this wood wine rack for years. I bought it at Kirklands. (the Kirklands near my home is out of business, I just saw that the other day!) It has served its purpose well over the years. Lately I have been looking at it knowing it needed something. I was not ready to get rid of it, I actually like it in that little corner. I was getting tired of the BROWN!

I have been on a lightning up my home kick for awhile now. It was time to give this little guy a makeover. The little crystal knob is from Hobby Lobby. I added that to spruce it up a few months ago.

I decided on Annie Sloan Chalk Paint in Old White.

Old White (Chalk)

The colour of chalk and gesso, a cool soft white without pink or yellow in it. A colour which works with everything but for the quintessential French look use it over Paris Grey.
We also suggest adding it to the other colours to make them the exact tone for your room

Old White is by far my most used color. I think it is a perfect off white.

This project was pretty simple. It took two coats of ASCP. After it dried I did some heavy sanding. I wanted this distressed and worn looking. Then I followed it up with a coat of clear wax.

This is one of those projects that I should have done a long time ago. I love this cabinet white!

This dining room has gone through quite a few changes over the years. Here is a before picture the first year we lived here:

Before:

My favorite color was brown! I loved this room, it was cozy and warm. I got a lot of my accents pieces from Bombay Furniture. I loved that store! It has been out of business for quite a few years now.

Here is the dining room today:

After:

So happy with this room now! :)

More Annie Sloan!

2013-06-04T08:25:00.001-07:00

With the addition of my new china cabinet I have been changing things around. I was not sure where the cabinet was going to go, but I did manage to find the perfect spot! A few other things had to go to make it work!

I got this little table from Kirklands years ago! I have always liked this table. My sister Kim says it looks like it should walk away. Ever since she said that I picture that table on stage in Beauty and the Beast!

Anyways, I decided to paint it. I have wanted to paint it for awhile, the wood color was making it look dated. I just was not sure what color. Now since it was getting a new spot in my home I wanted to get it done! I went to Carter's Cottage and started looking at all the Annie Sloan Chalk Paint colors. I have quite a collection here, but I wanted a new color!

I decided on French Linen.

French Linen
A cool neutral khaki grey inspired by bleached deep neutral of old pieces of French and Italian furniture. It works beautifully with golds and a range of rich and bright colours such as Emile and Emperor's Silk

I skipped taking pictures of the painting process. I do this when I get on a painting kick. I just go and forget to stop along the way! With this piece I wanted to try something new. I was told to sand after painting and before waxing. I have never done this because it scares me! I started to sand once and it seemed to take off the paint and make it look flat so I stopped. ( I often sand to distress a piece but this sanding is different) After talking to the owner of Carter's Cottage she explained how she did it, and all her pieces are so smooth!

I applied two coats of ASCP in French Linen. (I mixed a small amount of Old White in with the French Linen to make it abit lighter)

Once the second coat was dry I used fine sand paper and sanded away. This really does change the paint. Before sanding the surface is chalky (makes sense!) After sanding it lightens in color a little and is soooo smooth! It actually makes it less chalky looking and much more shiny! A fine dust of paint comes off but it is not too messy.

I vacuumed off the dust and wiped the table down. Then coated it with ASCP clear wax. I used very small amount of the dark wax on it as well.

I love how this table feels! :)

I love the color too! It is not too gray, it is a neutral light gray just as described. It is a very pretty color!

I moved this guy into our office/den. It is perfect in this room!

Before:

After:

This was a fun project! I like the color French Linen so much I am looking something else to paint this color! :)

My experience with mik paint!

2013-06-03T10:59:00.000-07:00

I finally tried Miss Mustard Seed's Milk Paint! As most of you know I have been using Annie Sloan Chalk Paint for awhile now and love it! The store I buy my chalk paint from started selling the milk paint as well. I was very curious about it. I have heard mixed reviews and wanted to find out for myself!

I was originally planning to paint a cabinet I have had for awhile, but after a hearing a few more iffy reviews of the paint decided to try it out on my $2.00 flea market chair first!

Miss Mustard Seed Milk Paint (MSMP) comes in a powder. It has to be mixed with warm water. I read that mixing it in a jar with a lid is a good way to get it mixed well. I followed the directions on the bag. I had purchased the bonding agent also. This is supposed to keep the paint from chipping. I wanted it to chip so decided not to use it.

I decided to go with Ironstone. It is a creamy off white color. I saw it on some furniture and loved it.

I used an old pickle jar to mix the paint in.

It mixed well I thought. The hard part was reaching my hand and brush into the jar to get the paint. It got very messy!

Here is one coat. The paint is much thinner than Annie Sloan Chalk Paint. That could be because of the portions I used. It does indeed come out with a milky appearance. It also has an odd musty smell. (which I kind of liked!)

It dried fairly quickly, but not as fast as ASCP. I applied a second coat and still felt like it was not covering the best.

Just like this paint is suppose to, it started peeling and chipping after the second coat. I only took this picture. I was freaking out abit! It chipped bad!! I used sandpaper and a putty knife and removed the chips. This made a huge mess!!! I had to shake that blanket out a few times. The paint flakes were everywhere!

I ended up mixing another small batch and adding some of the bonding agent to it. I did not have much paint left on the chair so went over a few spots. The paint with the bonding agent bonded well! It did not move!

I decided on this blue burlap for the seat cushion. Hobby Lobby has some cool colors of burlap. This little piece cost me $2.00.

Here is the chair completed. You can see some whiter areas, this is where I added the paint with the bonding agent. There was no paint on those areas of the chair. (not sure I should have done that, but I did...) I also put a layer of Annie Sloan clear wax on. I did not buy any of the wax from Miss Mustard Seed so decided to use what I had.

I am not sure how I feel about this paint. I was told it is unpredictable and it is. That is not a bad thing, but on this chair I felt that too much paint came off. I wanted a chippy white chair so I guess I did get that. For me this paint was very messy to work with! In all fairness to Miss Mustard Seed I did not watch any of her videos on this product, I am sure I did a few things wrong.

Alittle of this paint goes a long way. I want to try it again. I have seen some beautiful pieces painted with this and I want to figure out how to do that!

Elkorn Flea Market

2013-05-24T08:51:00.001-07:00

Kim and I spent last Sunday at the Elkhorn Flea Market in WI. I was not sure if I was going to make this one, but at the last minute was able to. It was 75 and sunny, perfect day to shop!

Here is some of what we found......

I love these old telephone tables!

Cool rusty old drawers.

Kim bought this little library table. This was the main thing she was looking for.

We saw quite a few church pews.

Wonder if some day Kim and I will wear hats like these women?! :)

Here are some library type tables. Most of these were pretty pricey.

Not sure about this.

So pretty, white and industrial.

Hippie Tom's booth

Kim bought this metal cart. If she didn't I may have. It is so cool. I did buy the rusty metal tray under it. I acutally love that! This lady has the neatest stuff!!

This would be neat in a little boys room or a mud room.

I like this vendor too. They own a huge farm. They always have cool stuff that is priced fair.

Funny story. At the flea market last September Kim bought these metal drawers. We usually pay for our things and then come back at the end with her truck and pick it all up. When we went for these bins the guy was gone. This has never happened before, if anything the vendor leaves the item with the booth next to it or leaves it in the grass. She spent $35.00 on these. We could not wait to see if he was here this year. We found him right away and he was selling Kim's bins! We thought he might have them set aside just in case. Nope! He acted like he did not remember but did let her take them. hmmmmmmm.

Our signature Hippie Tom pics!

**Kim may be the old sister wearing the funny hat someday! ;)

Here are my finds. I was on a mission for old mirrors and I found a few of those. I also wanted metal drawers and trays, found those too. And I wanted a big glass vase and I found that too. The one I found is an old water bottle. It is pretty cool.

I also found this old chair for $2.00! I already started working on it. I am trying Miss Mustard Seed Milk Paint on it.

We had a great day in Elkhorn. We got there at 7am with plans to shop and get out early. We stayed well after close as usual! :)

Painting a hutch

2013-05-23T09:27:00.002-07:00

All I can say is painting a hutch is a lot of work! Much much more than I anticipated! Most of my projects I can get done in a few hours, not this one! The end result though made it so worth all the work!

This is the china hutch. I found it at the Kane County Flea Market. I fell in love with it the minute I saw it. It was alittle rough, but still so beautiful!

The cabinet sat in my garage for a few weeks. I was not too excited to get started because I knew it may take awhile. Little did I know! :)

Here it is in my painting spot in the middle of my kitchen. My family loves that!!

I knew the back had some water damage, but it was worse than I thought. I decided to take the entire back off and make a new one. TJ helped me with this, although it was not too difficult. I had some leftover beadboard in the garage so decided that would work for the back. I did not take a picture of that step, but we cut two pieces to fit the top and the bottom. Then I painted them both with ASCP in Old White which is the color I chose for the cabinet. Having the back off helped me paint in all the nooks and crannies!

Here is it with no back on. This job was getting messy, I should have done this part in the garage!

The bottom shelf also had some water type damage and was warped so we took that out too. We used the beadboard and just put it in upside down so the flat side was up. Perfect!

This was already more prep work than I thought it would be. After we re-built these parts I cleaned it really good.

Then came my favorite part. Painting with Annie Sloan Chalk Paint. I decided to go with Old White since I wanted it simple and clean looking.

When I say this is my favorite part, I have never painted an old antique china cabinet before! There is a lot to paint!!

When I started painting I noticed that the paint was turning pink! This was only on the existing wood. You can see that on the bottom shelf the paint is fine. This is the new shelf we put in. I have never heard of this happening before so kept on painting. Big mistake! I ended up going through an entire can of ASCP. I have never used one can on a project before. It would not cover the pink so I kept adding more.

I finally decided to google what was going on. For as much wood furniture I have painted I have never had this happen before. This cabinet must be mahogany, and when you paint over old mahogany it bleeds though pink! I should have looked this up before I did 3 coats of paint!!

I called Carter's Cottage where I buy my ASCP and she confirmed this. It also has something to do with the old varnish they used in the 30's and 40's over the wood. My next step would be covering the entire cabinet in a layer of Shellac. This will seal it and prevent the pink from coming through! UGH!!!!!

I bought a can of Shellac in clear and went to work. This is like day 3 or 4 by now! I also did this step in the house, probably should have stayed in the garage! I put one coat of the Shellac on in all areas except the new shelf and the new backing. I let it dry overnight.

Then I headed back to Carter's Cottage for another can of ASCP in Old White. I was at the point of just wanting this done and out of my kitchen!!!

If you look at the bottom the cabinet it is missing the trim piece. I was going to live with this, but decided I wanted this done right. I went to Home Depot and found a piece of trim in a remnant bin. It turned out to be the exact size I needed, and it was FREE! I found a little wood decoration to put on it.

I nailed on the trim piece and glued on the little wood swirly thing.

After I shellaced the entire cabinet and let it dry overnight I painted it again. This time it only took two coats and it covered pretty well. After the two coats of ASCP I covered it in a layer of clear wax and then alittle dark wax.

Here it is.......

Here you can see the new bottom shelf and the beadboard backing.

My homemade trim piece!

Before

After

I love this cabinet for so many reasons. For one it has my blood, sweat & tears in it. (literally!) I also think it is just beautiful and very functional!

When I finally finished this project I still had my original problem. Where to put it! I found a spot, but it opened up a huge can of worms and now I am re arranging my entire living room! Love when that happens, it my favorite part about decorating! :)

Found them!

2013-05-07T10:30:00.000-07:00

I found my dining room chairs. I only changed my mind a few times. I did try the industrial look since I love old and industrial together, but it just was not what I was looking for. Rustic and cloth is the look I wanted!

For Rustic I had decided on a cross back chair. Love these. I almost went with this chair from Restoration Hardware. It is the Madeline Chair. The seat is rattan and that is the only part I was not a big fan of. For a kitchen chair I like that, but not as dining room chair. I did come very very close to ordering though!

Then I found this chair!

Looking at picture online I did not love it. It is from World Market. I read the reviews and someone had said it is a light weathered gray teak looking wood. It does not look like that at all in the picture. So I went to check it out. I wanted a chair with that exact description!

And this chair had it! It is rustic, weathered, kind of grayish, has a solid seat, and it is actually comfortable, perfect! I also got it during the 25% off sale so that was a big bonus! As I was walking around World Market I knew I did not want 6 of these chairs. I wanted something different on the end of the table.

I love the linen chairs with the barnwood!

So when I saw these at World Market I knew they were the ones! They come in a few colors and I went back and forth between the linen and a smokey gray blue color. Linen won! I also got 25% off these plus they only had two floor ones left and they were missing a few pieces so they had to take them from other chairs to fix them up. SO I got an amazing deal and they look perfect!

Wow time flies!!!

2013-05-06T05:51:00.000-07:00

I was out to dinner with TJ the other night and a friend I had not seen in a long time said she was just on my blog. Then a few days later a neighbor said my blog inspired her to paint some furniture. Another neighbor just told me she loved looking at my blog. That is when I realized it was time to get back to my blogging! I have missed it and I am so ready to get back at it! What better way to kick it off then with a flea market!

My sister Kim and I headed out to the Kane County Flea Market this past Saturday. We were sooooo excited to check it out. This spring has not been the best flea market season so far. It has been rainy, snowy, and cold! Saturday it was perfect!

One of our missions for the day was a church pew. Kim is building a new home and wants an old church pew in her foyer. This one was an option, but the nice oak wood was painted and we were not sure how hard it would be to get it off. It was on pretty thick. We kept looking.

I love this kitchen island! It is made by the guy who made my barnwood table. He had some really neat stuff! His business is growing!

My parents had these chairs!

After a really long winter it was so nice to see all the flowers!

I thought this rusty little cart was neat!

Love this chair! Kim beat me to it! There is just something about it. A little paint and new fabric and that chair is going to be awesome! Kim got it down to $30.00 so it was a steal!

The vendor selling this china hutch always has awesome stuff. Her booth is always packed with people and it is hard to see everything. I noticed this cabinet right away and there was just something about it. I do not need a china cabinet and was not looking for one. But I have always wanted a glass doored cabinet. This vendor usually has finished things and the prices reflect that. This cabinet was rough and was $75.00! It is solid wood and sooooo pretty! I managed to get it for $60.00 and I am so excited to get started on it. Still not sure where it will go but will make room!

Kim beat me to this owl cookie jar too! I think it is so cute! She got it for $10.00! After that I was on the hunt to find another one. We saw every animal cookie jar there is except an owl until......

I found this little guy! I paid $18.00. I have plans to add a little more color to him too. Check out these......

Anthropologie-$68.00. This owl is identical to the one I found! (only mine is an antique-it used to be avocado green I was told)

Anthro-$88.00

Anthro-$128.00

I think we got a good deal!

I loved this metal cart. I thought would be great on my patio for my garden supplies. Kim thought it would be good for my dogs! It was $350.00 so I will keep searching!

After a long day of shopping Kim found her church pew! This bench is cool! It was from a church that burned down and they salvaged some of the pews. She was pretty happy! (I am not sure if you can see, but Kim is pregnant, we are trying to get in as many flea markets as we can while she can still get around!!!) I will push her in a cart if I have too! :)

All in all it was a great day! Can not wait to do it again!!

Barnwood Table Chairs

2013-02-18T15:26:00.000-08:00

I have been busy researching chairs for my barnwood dining room table. (is barnwood/barn wood one or two words?) Anyways I have a lot of ideas in my head! I want 6 chairs, not all matching, neutral color, smaller scale....

This is similar to the barnwood table I had made.

Here are a few chair ideas........

Traditional Dining Room design by Denver Interior Designer Chalet

I love this room. A bench and some upholstered chairs. Pretty and light!

Traditional Dining Room design by Charleston Interior Designer Linda McDougald Design | Postcard from Paris Home

Pretty cream upholstered chairs with nailhead trim. I like this look.....alot!

Traditional Dining Room design by Vancouver Architect Kerrisdale Design Inc

I like these chairs too! Perfect color and size.

Traditional Dining Room design by Los Angeles Architect Gus Duffy AIA

Mix matched chairs! This is not quite what I am looking for, but it is kind of neat!

Traditional Dining Room design by Atlanta Kitchen And Bath Splash Kitchens & Baths LLC

I love the cross back chairs! I also love everything about this room! Even the simple yellow flowers!

Traditional Dining Room design by Charleston Architect The Anderson Studio of Architecture & Design

Simple white rattan chairs. I do not necessarily love those chairs, but I love that room and that view!

Contemporary Dining Room design by Minneapolis Architect Charlie Simmons - Charlie & Co. Design, Ltd.

Cross back chairs again! I really like the look of these!

Modern Dining Room design by Vancouver Photographer blurrdMEDIA

Modern is not really my style, but this looks pretty cool!

Traditional Dining Room design by San Francisco Interior Designer Artistic Designs for Living, Tineke Triggs

I like how simple and clean these chairs look. Love that orange rug in the background too!

Tropical Dining Room design by Miami Architect Weber Design Group, Inc.

Favorite color is in this room! Love the weathered turquoise and white!

Traditional Dining Room design by Orange County Architect Brandon Architects, Inc.

More cross back chairs!

Traditional Dining Room design by Other Metro Interior Designer Wolfe Rizor Interiors

These clear plastic ghost chairs are cool! Too modern for what I am looking for though. I do like them with the reclaimed wood.

So I think I know what look I am going for now! I originally wanted industrial but after seeing so many other pretty chairs I think I may be changing my mind!