Progress...?

Well what can I say when you do too much you get burnt out. So yeah I am slacking a bit and slowing down. Besides school started and that is such a nightmare around here.
But with the whole turmoil that education causes in my home, I managed to get another room done! or well ... maybe half of it.
I started working on this guy a while ago with the help of my beautiful daughter and it is finally done.
I can finally display this amazing piece of furniture that I had stashed in my garage for 5 months. I love it!!!

Of course I never took a before pic because I suck at that, but here is the in the meantime pic that I took of Val, while she was priming it.

Thomasville beauty and extremely heavy, here it is. I now have storage for all my movies and board games!

And here are pics of the family room before and after. This is the side that is finished, the other side will be the dining room, still working on it.

And here it is now

 Here are my reupholstered old couches as well. I love doing my own stuff!

Stay tuned for the living room!
Cheers!
PS: Look at what my ma got me!!! Love my new Broncos key and hat! Thanks ma!

Secret project

So after working on this little project for a few weeks, I can finally reveal the results. This is for a friend who's baby shower is today and we finished it this morning.
I got the cradle for cheap on an online yard sale and we started working on it. Spray painted it off white and my mom made all the bedding. Lighting makes it look white but it is very light pink with striped and polka dot fabric.
Isn't it darling??? Stay tuned for more to come!
Cheers!

Before and after 

The chippy job was not good when we got it, and it was quite dirty. One of the legs was glued wrong, so we sanded it down and fixed the leg.

Hot off...my table.

Wow it has been a super nice day today! almost 80 degrees and not windy for a change.
I went garage saling this morning and I scored a few nice things. My garage cannot handle anymore treasures I think.
This week I finally finished 2 tables after a very rainy couple of weeks. Still working on the chair and started 2 more side tables, yes I have way too many of those.
My daughter stole one of the little tables I finished today and the other one is for sale.
Here are the results and I am now sitting down enjoying some spinach and feta pizza. Yes we have a weird pizza taste around here.
Looking forward to finishing more projects as the nicer days roll around.
Cheers!

Here they are! Valentina really likes the "white washed" look so she kept the gray/turquoise one as you can see. I didn't even get to take a picture before she put all her stuff on it.

Before and afters.My phone is not taking great pics today, or maybe it's me....

It's a new year

Wow it has been a while!
Between school and work I have hardly had any time to post anything.
Well first of all Happy New year! We had a great time over the holidays with friends and family.
So about a year ago I decided to reupholster my living room set and well I finally did it!!!
Yes it took me a whole year but 2013 was a hard year for me, I started school, I moved, I got divorced and I changed jobs twice. In between all that, I did finish reuphosltering my couches though. The last one I did in one day and I got it finished before Christmas.
If you are new to this post, well I started with my loveseat last March with a 55 yard roll of fabric I scored from my mom's workplace. I have had this set of couches for 10 years and I was tired of the print, of course I did not want to pay for a new set so after trying my hand at reupholstering some wing back chairs and other small things I figured I could do this.
I did my first one in about a month between school and work, then I finished my chair in between the move and finally I had to wait for winter break to tackle my big couch.
I am so proud of the result and I feel even better because I did it myself!
Here is the before and after pic of the big couch.

I wanted a solid color for the big couches so I could play with pillows, which I ordered from Ebay for about $5 each, they have not arrived yet.
Here I am tearing the couch apart.

 

I saved the dust covers and tack strip to reuse, but you can find tack strip online or at Joann if you break it.

 

Here are some pics of the process of putting it back together. I have a regular electric stapler and these are the staples I used.

 I even reused the card board that came with the couch, but if yours gets shredded when you take it apart you can cut pieces out of cereal boxes.

 

And voila!!! here is the whole set all finished!! Doesn't it look great? I love it, my small pillow covers are coming and they are all beige with pictures of crowns and tufted chairs. I love them! Will post pics when they arrive. School is starting Monday so it might be a while before I post my next project.
Cheers!

Winter is coming...

...And that means I can no longer camp out in my garage and paint, like I do when I have a minute!
Bummer! reupholstering time is coming and boy do I need to get my couch done. But I'll cross that bridge when I come to it.
Right now I wanted to share my latest creation. My mom has had this old hutch for a very long time, and after my divorce I am kind of short on furniture so I decided to give it a face lift.
Now, since we have had a cold fall so far I brought it inside and decided to use the amazing Annie Sloan Chalk Paint that it's the best out there for fast drying and no smell.
I had about 1/4 of a can left of the graphite I used for my table and chairs and I decided to use it.
I gave it 2 coats and it was enough for the whole thing except the inside of the cabinet.
So since I have a black and red sort of theme in my kitchen I thought I'll just paint the back of the shelves and the inside of the cabinet red.
Well the back board had a crack and the paint would not cover it well. I tried using wood putty to smoth it out but you could still see the bump. So I decided to use contact paper in a pretty red print to cover it.
Well who would have thought that they not make red chevron contact paper?? lol. I looked everywhere and no luck. So while I was at Hobby Lobby shopping I picked up a yard of red chevron upholstery fabric and thought, what the hell, I'll use this!!
And I did! I removed tha back board and I used E3000 glue to paste the fabric onto the board. After that I painted 2 coats of polycrylic on the fabric and once it dried it stayed nice and stiff against the board!! Woot! That way it does not get dirty and it stays put.
I distressed and waxed and spray painted the hardware in red and here is the final result! I love it!!

And here you have the before and after.

Stay tunned for more!!!
Cheers!

My desk is done!!!

Yay!!!! I finally did it! I bought this desk almost a year ago and it say in my garage and then moved to my new garage and oh boy I needed it.
I started it before I had school and I did not have enough time to finish it, so it took a while . Between classes and work I would do a little each day.
I painted it a light beige and I didn't like it, so I mixed in some black and came up with this gray I loved. Then I decided to do the white accents and the chevron chair, which was a pain. Whoever said chevron striped were easy!!?!?!
But anyways here it is!!!

I had a moment of panic while I was doing it when I realized I had picked up oil based primer, but after researching a while I found out it's ok to use any paint on it so phew!! that was a close one.
After the 2 coats of paint I gave 2 coats of polycrilic to the surface of the desk and the chair.
For the white details I used a concealer brush I had laying around somewhere. The chevron stripes were a pain to trace but I found a good tutorial on google and I followed it.

For some reason the different lighting affects the color in the picture but it is gray.
Here it is in my room all set up!!!

And of course the before and after!!!!

Stay tuned for more upcoming projects for my living room!
Cheers!

I'm on a roll

Sooo I seem to be motivated after my move. I have finished another PhD (Project half done).
This one I started right before I moved so it arrived to my new house half way done and it has been looking at me all along so last night I stayed up til midnight and I finished it.
I love it! Here is the old ugly print.

This set I bought 9 years ago when I was pregnant with my second child. I love it and it is the most comfortable living room set I have ever had, it is also in great shape, so instead of spending $1000+ on a new set I decided to reupholster them myself. Yes it has been a bit of an adventure considering I started in January lol, but slowly but surely I have finished 2, sort of.
Keep in mind between moving, divorcing and school it has been a bit crazy here.
So for this chair I got the fabric at Home Fabrics, I think I payed $5.99 a yard and I bought 6 yards to have a bit extra for pillows. This chair was a bit difficult because of the upholstered legs, but I figured it out by taking pics as I was taking it apart.
Here is the final result, I am pretty happy with it, there are a few wrinkles here and there, but it's ok since it is for me. My wign back chair turned out much better since it was an easier shape to do and no upholstered legs.

Here is a picture of my loveseat, which I started long ago and I finished a couple of months ago but never posted it for some reason. I still need to do all the pillows so only one pillos was made to try out the pattern and the rest are still with the old fabric on...oh well I will get to them lol.

And here is my upcoming project , this is my desk I got like a year ago lol and it's time to finish it because I need it!!! Hopefully I can do it before I start school on Monday .
Cheers!!

Just keep painting...

So yessss, I am all moved in!!! This has been so far the worst and longest move of my life! I started last Friday and I kept going back and forth even after work every day until we were done. What a hassle!
Of course I had a couple of project going on while we moved, yeah call me crazy but I needed a few new items ready for the new house.
First of all I had a dresser that my neighbor Jeanne had given me a few months back. My oldest daughter claimed it and I started painting it a while ago but I stopped and then I decided to finish it before we moved, nice idea! So I had painted the dresser part but I still needed to paint the mirror. She also wanted like a "washed look" with yellow and the hardware in a pastel color.
I went with Annie Sloan of course since it's fast. I did 2 coats of Old White on the whole thing and then I tried to "wash with Annie Sloan Arles but was coming out too dark so I mixed the Arles with some glaze and "washed away" . It turned out super cute!!!! She picked Krylon's Ocean Breeze for the hardware and we were set!! Look at how cute it looks!!

Here is the before, of course with all the craziness I forgot to take before pics so here it is half way done.

And here is the final result.

I love it!!

My other project was a dining set I picked up for $50, it has a half wood, half stone table and 4 matching chairs. I loved it , it is super heavy and very well built. So I started painting it before I moved and just finished waxing it today!!

Here are the chairs before.

  

 

 

And here they are after!!! I used Annie Sloan's Graphite for this project and gave it 2 coats of wax. I love it!! I really like the look of the stone with the chalky black.

 

More to come as I try to make my new home functional!!!

Stay tuned

Cheers!!!

 

 

After a few stumbles, here it is!! The crackle desk!

So it was a busy weekend here and I finished 2 projects!! Woot! go me!!
Between work and these crazy last weeks of school things get out of hand here sometimes.
I was able to finish my boys' desk and my other dresser matching the one I did last, remember?
And yes I do have before pictures this time!!!

So first onto my dresser number 2, here are pics of the before. These dressers were in pretty good shape when I got them. I did use my stapler to secure the drawer bottoms though.
As you can see I had already taken off the hardware when I realized I needed before pics!!!
But I got them.

So same treatment as the other one, 2 coats of Annie Sloan Chalk Paint, one coat of Annie Sloan Clear Wax, and touched up with Gilder's Paste in German Silver. Voila . Dresser number 2 done!

And the before and after of course.

I love these dressers!!! I looked for so long for the perfect matching ones and my patience paid off.

Now onto the desk.
Since I did not use Annie Sloan paint on this one it did take a bit longer. This was kind of a trial and error project for me lol. It took me weeks, due to weather, wrong paint, crappy looking map and so on.
So I will let you in on a few tips, so hopefully you do not struggle as I did.
First of all I did prime this bad boy, I gave it 2 coats of Killz primer, and let it dry for a couple days.
Next I went to Lowe's and the person who sold me the crackle glaze told me I needed to use flat paint first and then satin. Well I have never liked Lowe's for some reason, I always go to Home Depot and it turned out this person was dead wrong!!! UGHHGHG
After I bough a quart of flat off white paint and painted my desk, I happened to read the instructions on the glaze container, well it turns out you need to use sating paint before the glaze and then flat so the paint will crack nicely. If you don't,it does not crack!!! OMG I was so mad!!
I had even picked up a gallon of oops paint at Home Depot and I planned on using that color.
So now I could not use it because it was satin paint and I needed flat. Luckily I had also gotten a quart of satin off white just to have it and I used it for the first coat ( if you can count, my desk has now 4 coats of stuff on lol)
So off I go to Lowe's and I forget my sample at home, so I end up getting a color that was too blue, I was pretty fed up by now.
So I go and exchange it, and they tell me they do not exchange paint ( what????) but will do me a favor this time, blahhh, so yeah I got the flat paint and I was finally able to finish this desk!!! Geez!
I proceeded to paint the desk with the glaze, someone at Home Depot had told me to lay it on thick if I wanted it to work, since so many people complained the cracks were not that big, I got a bit discouraged by that but I just went with the advice and used like half the container of glaze on the desk.

I let it dry for a few days ( weather, work, kids you know). Finally I was ready to paint!! I had tried the glaze on a small piece of wood and it seemed to work well.
I started with a nice big Purdy brush ( use a brush for the glaze and top coat) and I went at it. Let me tell you the paint dries very fast on top of the glaze, so if you try it, just lay it on thick ( not to drip but you get what I mean) and do not go over the painted area with the brush or the cracks get smaller, so in other words do not overstrech the paint. Be generous.
I was amazed at the crackle effect, as soon as the paint started drying ( like 10 seconds) it started cracking, it was awesome!!! And the cracks turned out awesome, even better than I expected.
You only need one coat on top of the glaze so this step was quick.
After this I let the desk dry for another few days. Now the hard part, the map.
I had purchased a map on Amazon that was a bit too dark for my taste but hey , I was going to use it.
Well for all of us Mod Podge amateurs here is a word of advice, do not attempt to Mod Podge a huge piece of anything without watching at least a few videos on you tube lol.
I pasted the map and looked horrible!!!!! OMG I was so upset, we tried rolling pins, even puncturing the bubbles with pins lol, but it looked hideous. So I ripped out, yes I ripped the map out , washed the surface and went online and ordered a new map at the National Geographic website ( nicer map).
So of course my desk took yet another week to be done. My kids were whining and moping, MOOOOOOOM when is the desk going to be ready????
Finally the map got here and after watching some videos I learned the map needed to be sealed with acrylic sealer for a better result. Well I got the Mod Podge acrylic sealer at Hobby Lobby and I sprayed the map like 5 times, just to make sure.
Finally I Mod Podged it, and it looked much better than the first one. A few wrinkles here and there but, hey, I was happy.
So the desk was finally done!! I gave it 2 coats of polycrylic on the entire desk to protect the crackle from fading and I gave the top 5 coats to make sure the map doesn't rip or come apart and for a smoother finish.
It stayed beautifully and I love it !!!!!! This cost me blood, sweat and tears but I am in love with, not even mention my boys, they are super excited.
So here it is!!! Before and after.

And the chair to go with it.

I am so glad these guys are done!!! Busy week!!!
Hopefully next week I will have finished something else....like my couch!!!
Cheers!

Yes, Spring is here!!!

OMG I have been waiting for nice weather for soooooooooooo long. Today was 70 degrees here and yes you guessed it, I spent all day out in my garage painting and finishing stuff.
So here is my most recent makeover, I got 2 dressers a while ago on KSL for $20, yes 2 matching awesome dressers.
I was not sure what was I going to do with them so I had them sitting there for a while.
Finally I took the plunge and I splurged on Annie Sloan Chalk Paint, yes!!! And I LOVE it.
Yes the stuff is pricey but I was set on a nice look for my dressers, I got a quart of Old White for $38, a can of Clear Wax for $35 and a nice and expensive boar hair brush for $29, ouch!! But it was worth it!
Can we say fast and awesome looking finish??? This paint is amazing, first, no priming , you just slap it on any surface and it sticks. Then it dries in like 2 hours, so I was able to finish my dresser in one day, yep. Also one can goes a long way , I was able to give my dresser 2 coats, which covered nicely, with a small mason jar full of paint.
I was so eager to start my project with this paint, that I forgot to take before pics!!! ughhh!!!! But no worries, I will take pics of the sister dresser so you can see what this one looked like before.

Here it is, after I painted it with 2 coats of Old White, I waxed it with Annie Sloan clear wax and buffed it ( I got some muscles now!!). After that I wanted a tiny bit of gold accents on the distressed parts, so I used Gilder's Paste on German Silver . I love it.

There is the little gilder's paste can , you just wipe on with your finger to give it a nice aged and golden affect. I also sprayed the hardware with Rustoleoum's Hammered Gold, to match the paste.

I'm in love, and I will start the other one tomorrow.

I also got a chance to work on my boys' desk, I painted it and did the crakle effect and it turned out awesome!!!
Here is a little sneak peek. After this I will try and mod podge the map on top. Wish me luck!!!
Cheers!!!

P.S: My oldest daughter went to Prom today!

 

Isn't she a beaut?

And ...Mother Nature decided to behave.

Sooooo it has been a while!! These last few weeks have been busy! Glad spring break is here and I do not work Monday!
Today was a beautiful day, and I took full advantage of it by working on my backed up projects. I was finally able to get done with one desk and started the other one.
Utah weather has been so erratic lately, I had to wait several days between coats of paint to avoid cracking, since today we got up in the 60s, I was able to do it .
Here is the little desk I have been working on for Brenna's room. I got it for $5 a few months ago along with another one I will work on next week.

This one was pretty beat up , had no handles and needed some sanding, I gave it 2 coats of primer and then I used 4 cans of Krylon Watermelon spray paint, finally after a week of waiting I was able to glaze it today and I found some cute handles at Home Depot for $1.79 each. I also gave it 2 coats of Polycrylic on the top for protection. It is a nice heavy desk and I think it turned out super cute! Brenna is so excited to add it to her bedroom, she has been waiting patiently.

So happy to be done with this! Now while this one was drying I started sanding and priming my second desk which was also $5 and I will redo it for my boys' room.
I am going to try a crackle tecnique on this one so stay tunned!
Cheers!