Flip-Off Reveal!

This is a story of two friends and four identical 3-drawer chests, (one of those must-have Craigslist finds). Each friend took two and flipped them - all while keeping their plan a secret from the other!

After weeks of planning, scheming, ordering supplies, and working at all hours, the friends and their once identical pieces were reunited for their big reveal!

And the two friends were delighted by each others cleverness!

Not identical anymore! We'll be revealing the full details of each makeover in depth this week, but we couldn't believe how different we had flipped these, (aside from the fact that we happened to choose the exact same leg size)!

Naturally, we had to get in a photo shoot with our muses before sending them their separate ways once again, (Cate is using hers as nightstands, and Chelsea's have already sold).

Thank you so much for stopping by! We'll be back tomorrow and Wednesday to share the low-down on each makeover, the materials we used, and how we styled our finished product!

DIY Succulent Wreath

Over the past few years I've really enjoyed making holiday wreaths. Wreaths are such a fun way of adding your own personal flavor to holiday decorating and with a touch of creativity they don't have to be expensive or time consuming! I've made one new wreath each of the last few years but hadn't been planning to make one this year until I came across this simple twig wreath I hadn't done anything with from last year! I loved its simplicity and still do - but I thought of a simple way to add some fresh life to it over this holiday season!

I keep faux succulents mixed in with fresh ones throughout our home year-round. But in getting ready for the holidays I take the extras out to make room for evergreen branches and boxwood. So, I had this pile of faux succulents which I was about to bag up for the next few months, but had the idea to use them with the simple twig wreath!

This was SUCH an easy one - probably my least time consuming wreath yet - and these faux succulents were $1 from A.C. Moore. Easy and cheap; my kind of DIY!

The first step is simply laying your succulents over the wreath roughly where you want them to go. I played with a few asymmetrical looks, then tried spreading everything all the way around the wreath, but ultimately decided on arranging them all together at the bottom.

Faux succulents are attached to wire which makes it super easy to insert them into the wreath! I stuck the wire of each piece into the wreath at a slight angle and then curled the wire around the thicker twigs to keep each succulent piece in place.

What I love about using succulents is their depth! I love me a thick, visually interesting wreath and these beauties give this piece a lot of dimension; it's exciting from all angles!! (About as exciting as a wreath could be, that is...)

Here's a little walk through wreath memory lane if you want to give any of these a try for your holiday decor! Full tutorials included in each post; just click the picture!

Crepe Flowers Wreath

Bookpage Wreath

Pom-pom Wreath

Feather Wreath

Thank you for stopping by and have yourself a wonderful weekend!

Modern or Coastal ||Flip List Item No.2||

So I'm trolling craigslist [like I've been known to do] and I found a modern dresser in need of some TLC.  Now normally, I would pass right by a laminate dresser but this piece was... special.

It's hard to tell in this pic, but this "white monster" as I've affectionately nicknamed it, had a weird cream/white two tone thing going on.  But it was still a modern dresser with glossy-fronted drawers that slide like butter.  It the perfect candidate for Furniture Flip Bucket List item No.2: wrap a piece in a wood shim treatment.  

wood shims taper off to one end so that you can wedge them in to help level something.  I could have used flat wood and gotten more of a butcher-block look, but I wanted to use shims to recreate this uneven affect in my inspiration photo:

Source:  The Rycotewood Furniture Centre at OCVC

So I went about covering the bright-white yucky laminate portions of the dresser with the wood shims: the top, sides, and toe-kick.  I started out with the intention of creating a polished modern look like the photo above but as I worked on it, it began to steer me in a different direction.

I liked how raw and rustic the cedar shims looked untreated (and not to mention the cedar smelled AH-MAH-ZING).  So I just went with it and ended up with a piece that's both modern and coastal:

To play off the unfinished wood's beachy vibes, I styled it with some tropical leaves [that I may or may not have harvested from a decorative potted plant in a parking lot.  I kinda felt like Chelsea did when "smuggling" home some paint sticks for this DIY project].

I then added a couple seaside touches like this piece of coral.

To play up the dresser's more modern side, I added vintage candle sticks with clean lines.  Despite the uneven surface, the shims are narrow enough that items large and small can find a flat surface to rest on anywhere across the top.

And modern satin nickel knobs on the glossy drawer fronts make a nice modern finishing touch.

All together the piece sings a modern-coastal song:

Modern Coastal Dresser
$600
SOLD

As for the progress on my 2015 flip bucket list, that means I've got 6 down and 1 to go before the end of the year.  Woot Woot!

Want to catch up?  Since January, I've crossed off items:
No.6
No.5
No.7
No.4
No.3
and now No.2: wood shim treatment

Here's to hoping that I can squeeze in item No.1: Build my Own Bakers Rack before 2016!