A Diamond In The Ruff: A Dresser Makeover

I'm going to be completely honest with you, when I makeover a piece of furniture I like for things to go my way. 

Well this one had a mind of its own!! And we fought...for a week. It was close to tears... and a fire...but then I won! 

Here she is before:

 A horrible paint job! 

 Whoever painted it decided to use a high gloss shell-like paint, then years of use had found it layered with stickers and tape. They even used that same white to paint the massive knobs. 

It was a mess. 

I had this great idea; strip and sand the drawers and stain the beautiful wood with dark stain. 

Well remember I told you it had a mind of its own? First I stripped off a metallic blue paint, then a light blue paint and THEN paper!!! All that white you see here is paper. Ugh, why? Ill never understand. 

 I stripped and sanded and stripped and sanded and sanded again and sanded some more and used nail polish remover and...no go! They used a crazy industrial type glue to stick that paper down and it was not coming off no matter what I tried! That little edge took me hours! 

So I gave up and said "Ill show you whose boss! 

You cant fight with paint! Ha take that!" 

And then she was painted! 

Boy do I ever love the feeling of victory, even if I was fighting with a dresser. 

I really enjoyed doing the hand painted Eiffel Tower, I think it adds so much more charm to the little darling! Yes I call her darling...were friends now. 

I hope you like the transformation! 

Remember, never give up. You may have to change your design idea but you can still find beauty in the oddest circumstances. 

Until next time

-Christina

Linking up to:

Paris Coffee Table

 My customers are so great and tend to think of me when clearing out their furniture. 

A sweet lady bought the coral chair from me and loved it, a little while later she asked me if I were interested in this coffee table she no longer needed. 

So here is the table before. She is solid wood and such a cute shape with the barn door sides. 

She just needed a little love. 

On the top I painted a paris decal to add some vintage character (and possibly because I have an addiction with the idea of paris even though we'll probably never afford a trip there).

One of my favorite parts of redoing furniture is seeing the excitement on the customers faces when they come to pick up a piece they have bought. The lucky lady that purchased this one brought her 3 year old daughter and when the little girl saw it she said "YAY, but we need chairs!" After some discussion about sitting on cushions we (the little 3 year old and I)  determined this would be a great table for tea parties! 

I love to see a happy customer, even if they are just a toddler! 



Linking up to:

Mint Rocker

I have always wanted to do a rocking chair. This week I got what I wanted! 

A lovely wooden rocking chair but lets be honest here she would look much better freshened up! 

I chose a mint green and dark wax to make her over. 

Now wouldn't you just love to be sitting in her prettiness with a cup of tea and a good book! 

Or even better a little bitty baby and a lullaby! 

Either way this chair will be loved for years by its new owner. 

Linking up to:

The Power of Spray Paint

This week my hubby and I went out of town for a few days. 

While out and about we ran into a thrift store; have I ever told you I LOVE to thrift shop? I do! Its a passion. 

While in the thrift shop I came across this big beautiful mirror and for $24.99 it had to come home with me! 

I decided to make it super chic and sprayed it with a metallic silver! 

Boy am I glad I did! It is so pretty don't ya think?

My $25 mirror looks more like $125 now! 

Not bad for a thrifty find. 

Teal French Provincial

While out of town this week we were doing a little shopping and my awesome husband noticed this cute French Provincial stand. He told me about it right away and I snatched it up right away. People in the store kept stopping me to look at it and say how beautiful it was. 

I was so excited to get it home and give it a makeover! 

The color is very hard to photograph, it is more of a teal then a blue. I left the original hardware, just gave it a good cleaning. 

So happy with this makeover, and so is the happy lady who took it home with her! 

An Unexpected Reno!!

Have you ever been thrown into a renovation you really didn't expect to be in? 

Some of you are probably thinking "aren't reno's supposed to be a thought out processes?" while others are thinking "I'm a home owner, of course I have". 

Well, last week we were thrown in head first. 

Let me give you a back story. 

Here is our living room wall the day we moved in. 

Not very pretty nor very useful. The bottom cubby in the wall is where the old owners used to have their TV. Who wants to stare at the floor and watch TV? Not I! 

So we had our awesome friend Mike come in and give this wall a makeover. 

In the end it looked like this. The main feature: A built in fish tank in the wall. All was well in our world. 

At least until last Wednesday. While talking on the phone I noticed the shelf that the fish tank was sitting on had changed, my first thought "Oh no the tank is falling"! After 2 years and solid construction by Mike that couldn't have been the issue so I needed a closer look. 

Yep..a leak. 

Turns out it was our own fault for not changing the filter sooner. Whoops. It was hard to tell when the filter was full because of the shelf on top. 

So everything had to be ripped out! 

Sad I know. 

I called Mike right away and he came back bringing the help of his dad, they are an amazing team! They created a custom built in and did exactly what I asked for every step of the way!

 Here she is primed. 

We decided to go with black to match the fireplace and I am so happy we did. 

Here is our living room set up now. 

At least we have no more worries of leaky tanks ruining walls! 

It was unexpected yes, but in the end I am so happy with the results.