Dining addition and Project of the week!

Hi Friends -  I hope you are having a wonderful week! We have finally been given some sunny weather today after a chain of gray and rainy days. My little ones were so grateful for a trip to the playground this morning to play on the "Tunnow, swide and sings!" =Tunnel, slide, and swings for those not fluent in tot talk :)

I , too, enjoyed some playing of my own this afternoon. Over the past few days I've been working on a new addition for our dining room. This sweet little cabinet was just the perfect height for our not-so-grand dining room!

I have been wanting something for our short wall with a small 'footprint' that would still allow for plenty of walking space between the table/chairs. I say walking, but really, I mean running. Our main level is a high traffic area for our kiddos as they love to zoom around playing tag and hide and seek. While I wanted a piece with a bit of surface space, I also didn't want to sacrifice floor space for my kids. This fit the bill perfectly.

We have an outlet on that wall which I've been wanting to plug a lamp into since we moved in! I found this paper shade at Goodwill for 98 cents and painted it an aqua color to tie in some of the other blues/teals/aquas around this level.

What a sweet punch-out design! Not that ANYONE would ever notice this, but it reminded me of the celtic style knobs that I attached to the piece.

And our dining room would just not be complete without one of our family's all time favorite evening games: Dominoes! Now we've got a convenient spot to keep them, out of hiding and in the open. This antique set of Double Twelves was passed down to us from my husbands grandparents. How cool!

Our dining room; nothing fancy but we cherish our time around that table with dear family and friends. It's been a work in progress and seems to suit our {crazy} stage of life! 3 booster seats, (all Craigslist scores), for 3 wee hineys.

What? How did these pictures make it in?!? ;) *This* is my real project of the week:

Potty training.

The bane of my existence.

Our older two are twins, but I'm doing this one at a time. One's enough! Anyhow, I just thought I'd share some real pictures of what our house looks like at the moment. Dino potty on our main level and jars of m&m's lying around for 'successes'.

Okay, I can't leave you with a potty photo. Here's a pretty one, (or three). :) Matt got Shire and me a bouquet of flowers yesterday for all our hard work with potty training, (purple is Shire's favorite color). They took my breath away when i came downstairs this morning and the bright sun was beaming in. What a site to wake up to, huh?!

Much better; now, I can sign off. :) Thank you for popping by!

~Chelsea

The 411 on the Refinished Gray Cabinet
Supplies:
Paint, (custom blend), 4" paint brush, 120 and 220 grit sandpaper, Minwax Polyurethane clear semi gloss, extra fine sanding block, two cloths
Technique:
-Removed cabinet doors and hardware
-Used 120 grit sandpaper, (with electric vibrating sander), to strip the surface down to a smooth 'raw' wood, (removing the 'shiny' finish)
-Removed all sawdust with a damp cloth. Then used a dry cloth to remove any excess.
-Painted with a 4" brush, (I never paint insides of cabinets or drawers), let dry over night, smoothed surface with an extra fine sanding block and painted a quick second coat. Let dry.
-Lightly distressed using 220 grit sandpaper
-Sealed using Minwax Polyurethane clear semi gloss, (applied evenly with a slightly damp sponge)
-Reattached hardware and put the doors back on

House, Interrupted

We did it! We managed to turn the inside and the outside of our house upside down in one weekend! In the last post I told you we'd be uprooting our whole front landscaping to replace everything with some more fresh and current things. For over 5 hours yesterday, that's just what we did. Well, my Dad and my husband did. Bless their sweet hearts. It was pouring rain, which they both agreed made the ground easier to work, but they were completely covered in mud, soaked, and beat by the time they were done. I stayed inside the entire time watching from the windows, playing hide and seek, tea party, and 'choo-choo' with our 3 toddlers.

{That is onnnnne naked house}

We have no new plants yet. A landscape friend is going to be helping us with a design so we will be sitting bare for about a week until we meet with him. Some might have a hard time seeing their house this way, (understandably!), but this already looks better to us than the old, overgrown plants that were there when we moved in. It's a wonderful feeling to wipe the slate clean and start fresh. Now, the sky is the limit and we can put our touch and taste on the outside appearance of our house, just like we've done inside.

{Special thanks to my Dad and my husband, Matt for all their hard work in giving us a fresh start. Hope you're not too sore today!}

Inspired by the fresh start our front yard was getting yesterday, I tore off all of our living room slipcovers and had a field day in the laundry room. I frequently hear how brave I am to have white furniture and 3 tots under 3 under one roof. I confess that I do not clean my slipcovers as often as I should, but there is nothing in the world easier and quicker than throwing my slipcovers in the wash with a bit of bleach, hanging them to dry, and zipping them back on. I love knowing my upholstered furniture is actually clean, and since I am not one to ever get to spot cleaning, this works out beautifully for me.

{Slipcover cleaning day = ultimate living room bounce zone }

The kids had a blast with the pillows strewn about. There's something so magical about couch cushions; I remember spending hours playing with our couch cushions growing up; building forts or pretending the floor was made of hot lava and we could only jump from cushion to cushion to get around. I wonder what crazy fantasies my minis will come up with. For now they just think it's hilarious to pile the cushions on the floor for the heck of it. And I'm happy as a clam to watch them do so. :)

Well, that's just about the long and short of our wild weekend ;) We are looking forward to selling a dining table, (hopefully), within the next few days and opening up some space for some exciting new projects coming in this week! Any fun upcoming projects on your agenda? Do share!

~Chelsea

Rustic Burlap bar stools

Well, today I hit the nail on the head. Literally. I have had this pair of bar stools for a long time and had already refinished them. You may remember these from a while back? Anyways, something wasn't right - They just weren't 'me'. Even though these stools are to be sold I love the freedom of non-custom orders to do absolutely anything I want to a piece. Every piece that I have free reign with should reflect me and be something I would put in my own home. The first time around with these stools just missed the mark.

But, the good news is......PAINT CAN BE CHANGED!!!!!!

So this week I got to work stripping, sanding, spray painting, whitewashing, stapling, hammering; the whole nine yards. The result, I think, was totally worth the time to re-do and make it right.

{ah yes, much better}

My inspiration for refinishing these stools, (again), was this photo I found through a google search from Restoration Hardware. Their 19th C Rustic Stool is no longer available, but I loved the idea of burlap and exposed nail head trim. I also loved the driftwood texture of the wood and since we JUST spent a long weekend at the lake house I was extra motivated to create that look on my stools.

{Brilliant!}

I wanted more of a contrast between the burlap seat and the wood of the frame, so I mixed a very light gray rather than brown, though you could easily get that authentic 'driftwood' look with a light shade of brown. First, I spray painted my frames in white, (after stripping them of the old color). If you want to do this in brown, like above, then paint a base coat of a very light shade of brown - more of a tan. Then fill a bowl with your top paint color, (should be darker than your base color - I used a very light gray, if you want a real 'wood' look, then use a darker brown), and another bowl with some water.

Dip the end of your brush into the water, then shake it out

Then dip the end of your brush into the paint and let any large drips fall off, (sorry so blurry!)

Brush your watery paint on in long stokes. Watch for splatters! Thin paint flies far :)

The result when it dries; a worn patterned look to your wood. Finish by gently rubbing fine sandpaper, (I used 220 grit), over every square inch.

I also made the seat cushions from 1.5 inch thick seat padding, (JoAnn fabrics), and burlap. I layed the top of the seat on top of the padding and scratched with a pen the outline of the seat.

Then I cut and glued it onto the seat using all-purpose craft glue.

I attached the burlap with a staple gun and then the nail head trim along the bottom side of the seat using a 'chain' like trim from JoAnns, (brand Dritz Home, pictured), - which was technically cheating, but I made a mess of trying to nail in each tack individually! Every 4th 'nail' on the chain had a hole so I could hammer in a real nail which keeps the trim attached secure and tight to the seat.

It just felt so good to remake these stools in a look that feels natural to me. What a joy it was to find an inspirational style and work it out to make it my own.

{Available for sale}

We are going to be up rooting our front yard this weekend to dig out all our current bushes and shrubs that are both overgrown and outdated. Kind of scary to go to a blank slate but SO exciting! I have no green thumb whatsoever so I'm hoping to learn a lot as we re-landscape our yard.:) Any tips out there?

Next week I have several new pieces coming in for a custom job. I can't wait to hear what the new 'orders' will be and share some good before and afters!!!

I hope you have a wonderful weekend!

~Chelsea