Back To Work

Remember this piece that we pick up almost a year ago. 

It was in pretty rough shape. 

We cleaned her up. Pulled off all the loose veneer. Not an easy task.

Next, we sanded down the rough spots, dry brushed creamy paint over the dark green and applied stain. We then stained the top with a darker stain.

Look at her now.

Wouldn't she look beautiful in an old New Orleans home. 

Long Hot Summer

I know it's been a long, long time since we've written. It's been a long hot summer here in the South. 

We've mostly taken off for the summer. Without a real shop to work in it gets pretty hot outside. I don't know if it's global warming or menopause that's been heating us up. It seems like this summer has been unbearable. I've been taking 2-3 showers a day. 

You know it's bad when you have to peel your underwear off. 

Maybe a little to much info!

There's been a new addition added to Debbie's family. She has a new granddaughter named, Zoe. This makes number 3 for her. 

We've had a few pieces that we were able to work on. 

A cute little desk that we painted in one of our favorite colors.

A dragonfly made from old fan blades and a chair leg.

A shabby Chic bookcase. 

See, our summer hasn't been a total waste. 

OK, so 3 projects aren't very impressive. 

Promise we're going to get back into the swing of things when the weather cools off some. 

Visit to Round Top Texas

My daughter Melissa, Debbie and I had the pleasure of visiting my cousin Cindy last week. She invited us to go to Round Top, Tx. If you've never been you're in for a treat. 

Here are a few pictures of the sights of Round Top. 

This post is picture heavy.

Here we are on the road. 

Craft items can be found, like these butterflies made from old tin and spindles. 

Here we are buying some of Ce Ce Caldwells chalk paint. Can't wait to use it. 

We all loved this table made from an old porcelain table top. We actually have a porcelain table top. Now we know what to do with it!

Anything and everything you can imagine is sold at Round Top. Doll heads, velvet paintings, license plates and even rusty nails. One guy had a booth with just rusty nails. Yep, I said rusty nails!

Lots of china. 

Here's a pic of cousin Cindy, Debbie and me. 

Ya know I love me some angel wings.

I love love love this bedding. But $490 was to pricey for me. 

This lady had an amazing booth. She takes old light fixtures and adds her own unique touch. 

Expensive jewelry. 

There was so much to see that we only made a small dent in our journey. 

We'd love to go back. Next time we'll know what to expect and won't be so overwhelmed. 

Thank you Cindy for showing us Round Top and for opening your beautiful home to us. 

From Trash to Treasure

We've been pretty lucky on finding good solid furniture pieces. 

There's a lot that goes into painting furniture. Here's a little run down on what we do.

People ask us where we get our furniture...

Craigslist- 

Garage Sales-we spend a Saturday morning driving around hitting between 5-10 sales. If we're lucky we'll find a good piece of furniture at a decent price that fits into our SUV. If it doesn't fit we have to wait for the Hubs to pick it up at a later time with a truck or trailer. There goes most of Saturday morning! 

Word of Mouth-our favorite way to get furniture. It usually has belonged to grandma or another family member. We love a piece that has a story behind it. Knowing a little about the piece gives it more meaning to us. If you have a piece that you no longer need give us a call. 

Hotel Liquidators-this is a hit or miss way to find furniture. The furniture is usually great quality, solid wood, but the price is also higher. Higher price to us means higher price to you.

We bring the piece home which causes a slight problem. Where do we put it? Neither one of us has a garage, so in the house it goes. It sits in our living room waiting until it's time to work on it. 

When it's time to work on a piece its:

Cleaned- all drawers are taken out. The whole piece is wiped down with Simply Green.

Any repairs are made. Drawers stick, backs and bottoms seem to always be broken or missing. Legs need to screwed back on...etc.

Sanded-Most of the time we use an electric sander with 2 different grades of sandpaper for a smooth finish. A hand sander is used on smaller hard to get areas and in between paint coats. 

Primed-almost all the time a piece needs to be primed. 

Painted-our favorite paint is Benjamin Moore. We have also used chalk paint. We're going to be experimenting with Milk Paint in the near future. 

Glazed or topcoats added. Usually two coats of poly or wax is used. Sometimes both. 

Now it's ready for us to sell. 

You see a lot of time, energy and love goes into our pieces of furniture. 

We do it cuz' we love it. 

The Cobblers Children Have No Shoes and Procrastination

Everyone knows the story about The Cobblers Children walking around with no shoes...poor little kids, I hope they live in a warm climate.

Well this is a story about 2 ladies that can't seem to get their homes together. Here's a list of just a few things that we haven't completed in our own homes.

Lets start with Debbie's daughters bathroom. It's in the process of completely being redone. The marble floors and tub surround have been installed. THAT'S IT. For over a month nothing else has been touched. Debbie's all ready with the decorative touches, just waiting for contractors to finish.

Other projects for the both of us:

Paint rooms

Coffee table to be sanded down, add cushion and upholstery

Paint sideboard (make that 2 sideboards)

Take the hem up on bedroom curtains that have been hanging up for over a year. It was cheaper to buy the ones that were 14" to long. Yea, I don't get it either but they were over $30 a pair cheaper.

Make pillows for den sofa

Add shelf in closet

Paint rug on porch

Re sod back yard

Dust

Dust

and Dust the house.

You get the picture. We're procrastinators when it comes to our own homes. We love what we do and would rather paint furniture than do our own work. 

Are you a procrastinator when it comes to doing something for yourself? 

HOTEL FURNITURE

Hotels are constantly changing their furniture. Most of the hotels have high end, well made all wood furniture. 

A while back Debbie scored 4 nightstands from a local hotel on Canal Street. The hotel was in the process of changing owners and was being updated. The nightstands we're a light wood and the marble tops were missing. After my hubby made new tops a white wash was applied. 

Fast forward to this past weekend. We came upon these beauties.

We have 2 of these with the marble tops! We're planning on painting them in a creamy off white with a little shabby here and there. 

Don't be afraid to check out hotel liquidators. You'll find everything from furniture, lamps, and beautiful pictures. 

PLAYING WITH GOLD

Since we have some Modern Masters Olympic Gold Paint left over, we decided to dress up a jewelry box. 

This cute little jewelry box started out just plain old brown. After giving it a light sanding some primer and 2 coat of Modern Masters... look at her now.

We even gave it a New Orleans touch...

Fluer de Lis

SLACKER

Yes, we've been SLACKERS...

We have been busy working...really we have! We just haven't posted anything since January. 

One of the favorite projects that we've done are 6 maple dining room chairs. These chairs took us out of our comfort zone. We normally clean, sand, prime, paint and put a clear coat on our furniture. These chairs we're a little more detailed and involved working with a product we hadn't used before. 

Here are the chairs when we first got them from Kendra. 

Just regular dining chairs with a mahagony finish. 

Here's a close up of the detail.

Here's what they look like now. 

Thanks to the guys at Helm Paint for all the advice they gave us. We used a great product, Modern Masters for the gold. The process was basically the same as when we paint using Benjamin Moore Paints. We sanded, cleaned, primed and painted. Modern Masters was easy and fun to use. We did find that if we put one coat on vertically and the next on horizontally we got a nice texture. You can see it on the picture of the leg. 

Kendra pushed our limits even more. She wanted them distressed even more that what we had done. We took a knife and sandpaper to them. They turned out beautiful. I have to say this has been the most fun project that we've done. 

Kendra has since upholstered them in a black velvet. 

Beautiful...

Thank you Kendra for pushing us beyond our limits!

Happy New Year

Can you believe it's 2013! 

2012 seemed to just roll off your tongue

2013 

Not so much...

With the new year comes new hopes and dreams. Promises to ourselves and to others. Probably the three biggest New Year Resolutions are to lose weight, get healthy and get organized. 

I can't help you with your weight loss it's something I've struggled with for years. But I can give you a few ideas for organizing your pantry. 

All of these photos are from Pinterest. 

Here's a well organized pantry. Everything's in containers. This girl took it to the next level by labeling each container. When she sends her husband to get something from the pantry there's no excuses that he can't find what he's looking for!

I love the idea of the chalkboard on the inside of the pantry. Now with chalkboard paint it's so easy to add.

Again a well organized pantry. She made use of clear containers and baskets. 

I'm not sure if I'd want all of my items in jars without labels. But the jars do make for a neat pantry. 

This is a great idea. A shoe caddy was used to hold items. I love that it's clear making it easy to see whats inside. 

You don't need to spend a lot of money to organize your pantry. You can go to the dollar store for plastic bins or garage sales for baskets. 

The first step is to empty your pantry and throw away  expired items. Anything that you don't think you'll use before the expiration date donate. Now that it's empty take a look at your pantry. What items do you have the most of? Will you be using baskets, bins, or wire can holders? Take an inventory and decide what you need to buy. 

Does it need painting? Now's the time to do it. Use a high quality gloss paint to make it easier to clean. TIP: If you repaint your shelves give them 24-48 hours to dry before you put any items back on them. Look at your shelves. Do you need to add more or adjust the ones you have. 

Once you've cleaned, painted and decided what you will be using to organize it's time to put it all back in. Put the items that you use most at eye level. If you have kids put their items where they can reach them. It will make your life easier. 

Now stand back and take a look. Aren't you proud of what you've accomplished. 

Good job!