He Still Gets Me

Once upon a time there was this poor little blog. Its blogger was a total slacker and it often sat for weeks with no new posts.

Yeah, yeah that's me.
Slacker status over here.

Here I am once again about to blog about superficial, mundane, surface stuff. Its all I can do right now which I think is good enough. 

Our new life here is insane.
It's different but we are still so unsettled we haven't even been able to to have everything sink in yet.

Even though we got here in July and had the keys to our apartment about a week later, we didn't start living here at our apartment until two weeks ago. My in-laws went out of the country and we house sat for them. We were finally able to move into (as in actually start sleeping at) our place the night before I started work. Yeah, crazy timing I know. I got hired on at my job about 10 days after we got here but since its a State job I wasn't officially in the computer systems until much later, delaying my start date.

So we have been living here in our tiny little Salt Lake City apartment but I still have boxes full of stuff, our balcony is full of boxes we no longer have a garage for, there is tape on walls waiting to be painted, furniture half-way refinished, bags full of clothes and things needing to be sent to D.I. (Utah's version of Goodwill), and everything is a MESS.

Here's a few pictures though.

The first wall I got fully completed. Right behind our sectional!

Our tiny hallway is halfway finished. One side has the chevron painted while the other is just taped off. 

This is the before, during, and after of my 4$ D.I. find! My new desk chair!

That fabulous fabric? Totally scored that from my MIL's craft room and she scored it from Colorado like 15 years ago. LOVE it!

Now this is directly across from our sectional. That's the dresser Mr. Superman got me for my birthday this year and I LOVED refinishing it. I did a mini-makeover on that lamp and I still love it but I just didn't like it in that corner. I'm really trying to have balance between all of my bright, colorful decor and my vintage, antique, eclectic pieces. I'm also having to just do what I can with what I already have. The lamp I have there now is a lamp we got five years ago for our wedding. It has modern lines Mr. Superman loves (the opposite type of design I'm into) but I like it a lot more now. I just taped it off and did a coat of paint I already had. Voila!

This ugly wicker chest of drawers? I've had it for 6 1/2 years. When I went away to college I inherited all sorts of ugly, unwanted, really old furniture from people. This, I think, came from my SIL's grandma. I've kept it around for years with every single move just because it was great for storing things. I decided to throw some of the same yellow paint I used for the lamp shade on it and it's now residing in the corner by our desk. Eh, it'll do for now.

Our bedroom is my labor of love. I didn't redesign anything from what I had in Georgia because I already love it so much. It's got a vintage/antique French theme going on. The square footage of the master bedroom here is SO much smaller than the square footage in Georgia so its been a little tricky. It's still very much an ongoing project and I have yet to finish painting the edges and refinishing the antique vanity I scored almost two years ago but I will. Someday, it'll all be done and perfect.

So that's it so far. I have SO much left to do including finishing everything that is only half done AND all of the stuff I haven't even started. I've got the guest bedroom, both bathrooms, the kitchen, and the laundry room/closet. After all of that I have a giant list of little things like replacing all of the door hardware, outlet and light switch covers, installing shelving into the closets, stenciling and painting the inside of the closets, replacing the light fixtures, installing custom molding around the bathroom mirrors...

I could go on and on but instead, I'll wrap it up.

I just had to share this last picture.
Every Thursday I get to see Mr. Superman in ABU's and guess what?
It still gets me.

Everything in our lives has changed.
Everything is different.
We moved.
He got discharged.
I'm working.
Our puppy lives with my MIL.

Everything has changed except once a week, I get to see something that makes my heart smile and gives me the reminder of why we are doing all of this. It reminds me that in three years we will once again be an Active Duty family. Every week I get to see my Loverface in uniform and it still gets me.

He still gets me.
Right now, that's enough.

I Call A Do Over: Goodwill Dresser to TV Chest

I have these things called 'creative bones' and with no warning at all, I get struck with intense urges and needs to go thrifting and/or makeover everything in my path. The process usually consists of DVR or Netflix, food sitting somewhere on the floor or couch, my drill, dremel, and paint.

Inside my living room.

When Mr. Superman deployed, I got more into DIY decor and refinishing furniture. My good friend Nikki, is a seriously incredible designer and she helped me a ton in teaching me techniques and easier ways to do things.

Now that I have a collection of stuff I've done and on my To Do List I figured why not share it with my  Lovelies? 

Back in January, Mr. Superman indulged me and came with me to Goodwill. Good thing it was a week before my 24th birthday because that was good leverage in convincing him to get me this dresser. It had been professionally painted a gross brown color but it was solid wood and in great condition. 

The cupboard doors had some very unfortunate flowers carved into them and I was so impatient I wanted to come up with a creative way to cover them up rather than going to the store to get wood filler.

I hated everything I tried. 

Everything.

I also repainted it about 6 times trying to get the perfect shade of mint green.

 So the chest under our TV went from THIS

to THIS

to THIS

 And finally to this swoon worthy beauty. 

The top middle drawer got removed, I built a platform, covered it in an antique coffee bean burlap sack, and the cable box and blu-ray player are now sittin' pretty.

The cupboard doors got a fabulous vintage wallpaper treatment with my go-to Minwax Provincial stain over the top and then the entire thing got a good distressing. 

I love that all of the other colors show through in the distressed parts. 

We'll keep her.

Linking up to these Lovelies:

I Call A Do Over: Book Pages Tutorial

I have these things called 'creative bones' and with no warning at all, I get struck with intense urges and needs to go thrifting and/or makeover everything in my path. The process usually consists of DVR or Netflix, food sitting somewhere on the floor or couch, my drill, dremel, and paint. Inside my living room.

When Mr. Superman deployed, I got more into DIY decor and refinishing furniture. My good friend Nikki, is a seriously incredible designer and she helped me a ton in teaching me techniques and easier ways to do things.

Now that I have a collection of stuff I've done and on my To Do List I figured why not share it with my  Lovelies? 

Since starting this little meme and sharing my projects, I have gotten a TON of questions on how I do things, what products I use, where I get my ideas.... The most popular have been the two pieces of furniture I made over with vintage book pages.

There was my Goodwill Coffee Table and my Ikea Chest Turned Vintage and I just never sat down to give a tutorial but then I had my beautiful friend Erica send me a message asking for help.

This is Erica's coffee table.



 

Its too modern and 'cold' for her. I agree. Its just not something I'd have in my house. She already knew what she was wanting but was really wanting tips, hints, a kind of rundown of the process I would take to amp up the vintage and cover those... um flowers.

I've never done anything on glass as far as Mod Podge or decoupage but its a pretty straightforward process. On all of my wood furniture I obviously do my treatments on top. If I were applying something to glass, I would do it on top as well because I just LOVE being able to see and feel the texture. Erica does have a handsome little man though so she was curious if it'd work to apply the paper underneath... OF COURSE!

I always use Mod Podge in Matte Finish and its amazing



  BUT for Erica, since she wants to apply the paper underneath so its protected and still seen, I would actually go ahead and use spray adhesive to initially get the paper on there.

There are tons of brands but since I've used Elmer's, that's what I know works.

You spray the surface and then put on whatever you want adhered. In this case that would be the book pages or newspaper your using. You want to make sure all the little bubbles are out and its lying flat.

Next, to get that antiqued look with the little bit of discoloration, I always use Minwax stain in Provincial.



Its my hands down favorite stain and I use it on pretty much every single project. Depending on how much discoloration you want will determine how heavy handed you are with the stain. I use an old rag and I just dunk it in and start applying, rubbing, spreading... If you're just wanting the edges or only slight discoloration, you could use Q-Tips or cotton balls.

Lastly, to seal it all and protect it and make sure its going to stay put, I do another heavy coat of Mod Podge. As it dries it will have bubbles but if you used a scraper or a flat edged anything to smooth it out while still wet, the bubbles will not be there once its completely done. So for Erica, even though we used spray adhesive to get the paper on, I would coat it with Mod Podge.



 Now since hers will have the glass as the protective top, my final step isn't really necessary which is to use Clear Acrylic Spray Paint in Satin Finish to make it water proof, protect from scratches and anything else coming at it. Krylon is my hands down favorite.

As far as the paper application/process goes, that's it! SO easy.

Now addressing the flower issue, I would simply take measurements/trace the shape, take it in to Home Depot, look at their scrap plywood, then have them cut it for you. They cut it for free so its even better! Depending on the coloring you're going for would depend on the paint obviously. For me, I would do another application of paper so it ties it in with the top in which case the process is the same but I'd use Mod Podge to apply it to the wood.

You could leave the frame black, age it, or paint it. I would probably go ahead and either age it or paint it. To get it 'aged' and a little rusty, I use nail polish remover and cotton balls. I just douse the cotton balls and rub away at the metal. It takes away some of the paint and instantly 'rusts' it without the nasty mess of rusty powder or chips. Again, depending on the look and how drastic you want the antique look will determine how much you do. As far as painting, I would pick an accent color in whatever room its going in and paint it. If you're painting, obviously tape off and paint before the paper application.

That's it! It really is so easy and doesn't take longer than a couple hours depending on the size of the furniture and taking in account how long it takes for stuff to dry.

Erica, I hope this helps you spark your creative bones a little bit!