Tales of a Desk

What I'm about to share with you all is not a big deal compared to the level of Fabulousness that happens here in Blogland, but in my little world it may be one of the bigger projects I've attempted by myself.  I have reservations about delving into projects that involve large, bigger ticket items and altering them to the point of no return!! *terrifying*

This desk was handed down by my MIL.  We love it because it's solid and it's simple but pretty, although it's seen better days.

We have inherited several pieces that have all been well loved & we're starting to look a little like the Clampett's.

The desk was missing some handles, as you can see.  On the right, you had to open the drawer below the missing handle-drawer, reach in and pull the drawer with the missing handle open from below.  I finally made the executive decision to go ahead and try to glam this little baby up just a little.  Who doesn't feel better in a cute, new outfit?!

Daughter A currently uses the desk and she's been going for a vintage Parisian feel in her space.  The colors in her room are green, black & off-white.  She has a black reading chair in the corner, a black headboard, a black distressed coffee table & and a rather large room.  So I thought her room could support another black element.  To go with the black coffee table I thought I'd distress the desk too.  Then I saw what Susie at Blue Artichoke Interiors did with her porch side table & paint and I wanted to do that.  And then I saw what Brooke at The Crafting Chicks did with her stool & fabric and I wanted to do that. 

The second I saw this roll of wrapping paper at Target for ~ $3 I knew I would still borrow *steal*  their ideas as inspiration but apply it in my more frugal way.

Now I know you're probably thinking that a papered desk top may not be the best idea for writing purposes but thankfully the desk came with a glass topper so it would smooth out all of my papering sins!  And sins there were! I've never Mod Podged that large a sheet of paper before so there was definitely a learning curve involved!! *air pockets, wrinkles, Grrrr*  That's ok! It's all going under the glass : )

I sealed the whole desk from top to bottom with an acrylic spray. 

I knew I wanted clear, plastic drawer pulls & was hoping I could get a whole pack of them at Target.  I was shocked at the price - 4 for $15.  Count the drawers, My Friends - 9!!!  Always in search of a better deal, I went to all the big box stores in town, ebay & other on-line haunts.  Sadly, I ended up back at Target and bought 3 boxes.  It was just the bling the desk needed *each and every drawer got it's very own pull too!*  This was not the thriftiest makeover but we do love.Love.LOVE it!!

It is the opinion of some that the desk could use a little more distressing.  I'm sure the desk will come by that honestly.  And Daughter A has assured us that much productive studiousness will be taking place here senior year *like college & scholarship apps*  Grades are $$$$ & Baby needs some $ for school! It's just...

With the rest of the roll of wrapping paper I lined the drawers.  

With the 3 remaining pulls Handy Hubby : ) is going to help fashion a board with the pulls to be used as hooks.  I may or may not even try to Mod Podge the paper to the top of the coffee table...

Watch out all you horizontal surfaces!  I've got Mod Podge & wrapping paper and I'm not afraid to use it anymore!!






Blessings!
MLE

*I'm trying something new to declutter my posts*
Linking to some great parties *HERE* also.  Check them out - you'll be so inspired!
 

En-light-ened Moments

My dear friend is moving to Minnesota. : (   She was one of the first people I met when I moved here and I feel our meeting & friendship was not an accident. Before her house went on the market she asked me to walk through it with a buyer's eye to help her get it ready to show. It's difficult when you go into a house and all you can see is LOVE & WARMTH & HOME!

As you know, I've been so inspired by all the transformations using spray paint going on in blogland that when she told me she was going to replace her brass dining room fixture with a new one I forwardly said, 'Oh! No! you should just spray paint it!' - like I even knew what I was talking about - like I had SO much spray painting experience - like I hadn't been dying to try it out on my own blah! kitchen fixture but was too chicken to do it. *At that moment all I could hear were the little voices from the Life cereal commercial 'I don't wanna try it, you try it.' Next boy,'I'm not gonna try it, you try it.' 'Hey, Mikey!'*

Well, next thing I knew, I had offered to take the light and spray it for her if she picked up the paint. I already had a spraying station set up in the garage because I was working on my 90's table makeover. * more on that here*  

Just love how empowering a can of spray paint can be!  She was so excited because she was getting rid of the brass and I was excited because I love doing this kind of stuff!  This is where I wish I could say I spayed it.  It's beautiful.  It's what clinched the sale.  We all lived happily ever after!

However... have you ever been to the store at Halloween and there are all of those graveyard accessories that are painted silvery/gray but totally look like plastic?  Uuumm - that's what I did to her light!  Seriously, in her mind's eye she thought she would be getting this:

And what I did for her was this:

I was truly horrified!  Handy Hubby : ) helpfully asked me what I was going to do because there was no way I should return the light looking like that!  There's only one chance to make a good first impression, he wisely imparted.   And when she called after her son's soccer game to get an update with her optimistic enthusiasm... it went to voice mail...

Cocky me had taken the first picture on a hardware store run with HH just to show my friend how much she was saving by spray painting her light.  I had a sinking feeling it was turning out to be a note to myself of how much it was going to cost to replace the one I ruined.  Finally I sucked it up and made the call to let her know the situation.  She said she didn't believe me, that I was too hard on myself and that at this point anything was an improvement.  So I ran right over to her house with only the ball and chain from her light and she almost fell over laughing.  She had to admit it really looked like plastic!

I took a deep breath, looked her straight in the eye and said, 'I know you trusted my advice the first time and it didn't exactly work out , buuuuut IF I may be so bold as to make another suggestion...'  At this point she should have wrapped me up with the ball and chain and kicked me out.  Kind, loving friend that she is said, 'Ok.  I trust you.'  And you wonder why I love her?! *sigh*

My idea was to respray the light with a bronze hammered metal finish like this:

The cream shades are a nice look too.

Thankfully, the second spray turned out much better!  Crisis averted!!  Yay!

Turns out she had been stashing a trio of light fixtures in her basement for a couple of years that she always meant to hang in the kitchen - wouldn't ya know, they were a bronze metal finish!  Now both rooms are coordinated!  How perfect is that?!  This light story is like a metaphor for life, isn't it? - Our prayers are always answered just not always in the way we imagined!  

And as for my dear friend, who has been a light in my life for the last few years,  she didn't want to move so far away but her husband's new job opportunity was not an accident.  They are being led there for a reason.  She touched my life during a dark period and has staked her place in my heart forever.  The distance won't change that.  Perhaps someone else needs her now.  I suppose it's time for me to pull up my big girl panties and stand on my own two feet. 

Speaking of which, we got together recently to celebrate friendship and to de-stress from the sale of their house.  We took a risk and bonded over paint again...

...but this time it was of a different variety : )

Blessings!

MLE

for Amy : )

linking up with:

monday:


tuesday:


wednesday:

Furniture Exposed - the naked truth

Handy Hubby: ) 's Grandmother's table before getting the Sweet Potato Queen dress.




After.



The 90's Table.



After.



The Mad Bench.



After.

Sometimes you appreciate a makeover more fully if you know where it started.

Linking up with Between Naps on the Porch's Metamorphosis Monday


and Modern Craftswoman Monday




Blessings!

Story II - 90's Table

So as you may recall, I found myself with an empty living room so I placed my potato-sack-dressed table under the chandelier so noone would run into it. I had kicked out my early 90's Coffee Table to do it. This table had a square bevel-edged glass top with a faux brushed metal looking frame. The "X" "O" details around the top were painted gold. Before eclectic and mismatched were 'in', matchy-matchy was 'in' so I bought the whole 3 table collection! *WOOO!* I was stylin' back then! Now? notsomuch...

90's CT ended up in the great room in front of my sectional. Although the couch needed a table, the colors in that room are more earth and jewel-toned so, the 'metal' looked out of place - not to mention I was soooo over that look mmm... maybe 8 years and 2 houses ago! 90's CT was truly at risk of being demoted to the basement - and I mean barely by the skin of it's faux brushed metal teeth!

Being inspired by all the spray paint fumes flying around Blogland, I decided to give it a twirl. The table couldn't look worse, right?! I chose a warm brown in a textured finish by Rustoleum. Handy Hubby : ) set up a spraying station for me in the garage where I created a cloud of brown textured paint haze.

I shook, I spritzed, I shook, I sprayed.

3 cans of spray paint later (textured doesn't go far), I emerged victorious!! I couldn't change the shape or style of 90's CT but at least I brought it into the next century - that's progress!! : ) I was on such a spray paint roll that I grabbed the sofa table that was part of the 90's Threesome, sprayed it a hammered copper and replaced the kitchen table/side board that was previously in the kitchen and is now in my living room. Bonus!! The 3rd 90's piece, the end table, escaped my clutches because it's still in the living room which has black in it.

I'll get you in the next furniture shuffle, My Pretty Ugly, and your gold X's and O's too!!!!

Boy! that little spray trigger is so empowering! I feel like I can change the world... at least a shade or two : )

Blessings!

Potato sack dresses, 90's tables and mad benches - Oh, My!

I feel it necessary to start today off with a confession:

I'm not a professional anything... I'm just a girl with many hobbies, a small budget and a desire to tackle challenges. I'm not super creative, but I am a great borrower of ideas! And I like to do things frugally (preferably without looking cheap but the results are sometimes iffy). What I'm trying to say is I copy other people's ideas aaaand I'm cheap!! Ok, so now that we've established that - on to the real order of business.

My first post mentioned spring being a time of rebirth. Well, spring brought about "The Great Furniture Shuffle" at my house which led to the rebirth of several pieces of furniture in our household. Short story long - I was storing my patio furniture set in my living room for the winter. Yup! It was the first thing you saw when you walked into my house. I tried to pass it off as regular furniture and called it my 'sun room' despite the fact that the room faces north, but I digress. Anyway, a few weeks ago when spring started springing, we moved the patio furniture back outside. Nobody wanted to give the original furniture pieces back that I had farmed out to accommodate the patio set - especially not my teenage daughter who ended up with a piece of the sectional in her room! After 2 days with an empty room I couldn't take it anymore.
I started stealing pieces from one part of the house to fill empty spaces in others, eventually unearthing pieces not to be seen by the general public! My solution was to give 3 pieces new spring outfits. Today I'll share the story of the table with the potato sack dress.

Once upon a time, to keep people from walking into the chandelier in the now-empty room I placed my old kitchen table under it. We got the table from Hubby's : ) grandmother after she passed away. It is a 48" double drop-leaf table that came with 2 leaves. In addition to it's sentimental value, I love it for it's functionality and all it's possible configurations. Before I moved it, it was placed in the kitchen with both leaves dropped, up against the wall. I used it like a side board.

Since I never use it as a round table I had no tablecloths that fit. I didn't want to buy a tablecloth because the ones I really wanted came out of catalogs like Ballard Designs. LOVE me some Ballard Designs - I could live in that catalog!! So I decided to do the next best thing - Fake it! BD offers tablecloths made out of burlap. Burlap! Who'da thunk it? But they make even burlap look chic on a table! I AM the idea borrower, so why not?

Now I didn't have a plan or a pattern, just an idea rolling around in my head and the determination to cover the table. So, I clipped my 40% off coupon and tooddled off to JoAnn Fabrics. I came home with my 4 yds of burlap, giddy to whip out this project, just to realize the burlap is only 50" wide. DOH! Not a problem. I went back to JoAnn's with my Michael's coupon and got another cut of burlap, came home giddy to whip out this project, just to realize that I STILL didn't have enough width to reach the floor. Double DOH!! Handy Hubby : ) rolled his eyeballs at me and loaned me his tape measure. Sheeesh! I never said I was the sharpest tool in the shed but determination WILL get you far!

I labored long. I labored hard.

Finally I stepped back and basked in the glory of my Ballard Design knockoff tablecloth. I was grinning from ear to ear because this didn't cost over $65 like in the BD catalog! Daughter A came home from school and said, "That's an *interesting* choice of fabric, Mom." My son came home from college and said, "Been eating a lot of potatoes lately?"

*SIGH!* That's ok! I'm sure if Grandma's table could talk she'd say, "Thanks for the new dress, Emily! I feel like a Sweet Potato Queen!" Didn't I say it's the little things in life? I think it still counts even if it's the little voice in my own head!! : D

Next time I'll share the story of my 90's table. Til then...
Blessings!

MLE
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