Ivory Bliss

I found this set of dressers at a consignment shop for a great deal! (see here)

I knew exactly what I wanted to do with them for my bedroom!

I took off all the hardware first.

I love the handles, but I was a couple short!

I did all sorts of research to find out if I could get more or even have some made.

In the end, I found some vintage brass ones on etsy that didn't match exactly but would work perfect for one of the dressers.

Here's the steps I took:

Sprayed the handles ORB

Removed all the drawers (14 TOTAL!)

Washed and prepared them for priming

Spray-primed them with Kilz

Spray-painted a couple coats of Krylon Ivory Gloss

used the same brown glaze from my nightstands

And finally, a few coats of polycrylic!

And that was just the drawers...

I ended up stripping and sanding just the tops of the dressers so I could stain them

I used red mahogany stain so the tops would match my headboard/footboard and tie them together.

I taped the top part off, then primed, painted, glazed and poly'd the rest!

(then did the same thing to the mirror)

I LOVE the way they turned out!

 

 Here's some up close goodness of the glazed details:

Did I mention how much I LOVE THEM?!

Linking to:
Thrifty Decor Chick: Before & After Party
Transformation Thursday at The Shabby Chic Cottage 
Somewhat Simple: Strut Your Stuff 
Perfectly Imperfect: All Things Furniture 
The Shabby Nest: Frugal Friday 
Restore Interiors 
Primitive and Proper 
Miss Mustard Seed: Furniture Feature Friday
Simple Home Life
Chic on a Shoestring: Flaunt it Friday 
 Remodelaholic: Remodelaholic's Anonymous
Finding Fabulous: Frugalicious Friday
Tatertots and Jello: Weekend Wrap-Up 
Fingerprints on the Fridge 
I Heart Naptime: Sundae Scoop 
 The DIY Showoff: Project Parade
Domestically Speaking: Power of Paint

An Apple a Day...

Renting can pose a challenge for decorating

If you read my "about me" section, you'll find that either my husband or myself, or both have been in school since we were married

We have moved 10 times 

and lived in 5 different states

in 7 & 1/2 years

I am SOOOO sick of WHITE WALLS!

I decided to use my furniture as a way to bring some much needed COLOR to my life and my family's.

So what did I do?

Painted our TV stand a green apple color!

This is the dresser we bought off craigslist before we moved:

 We loved the details and carvings on the drawers!

However, this piece is laminate (lesson learned, don't buy anything until you actually see it!)

There were a few areas that had to be fixed up,

we just used some wood putty:

 I also sanded the top just a little bit, to take off some of the shine so the paint would stick to it better

I was nervous about painting the laminate and after doing a lot of research finally decided to use:

Krylon's Fusion For Plastic spray paint

With this stuff, you don't need to prime it first

I sprayed everything but the drawers with black gloss.

The drawers had knobs that were attached 

Obviously, not the originals because

1) they were single knobs and there were 2 holes in the drawers, so it was off centered

2) they didn't match at all

I couldn't find any knobs that had the look I was going for

plus, it takes away from the details on the drawers

They open fine without them, so...

I filled in the holes with putty!

 I primed the drawers with 2 coats of Kilz

Then painted a couple coats of this:

It looked good (wish I had a picture) but the final step of glazing would bring the whole look together

I glazed the drawers black:

 

  

Ready for the big reveal?

How about another before picture first?

 

and AFTER:

It's honestly taken a bit of time to grow on me,

but I LOVE it now!

FYI: not having handles on it actually prevents my daughter from getting into it and pulling everything out!

I also love using a dresser as a TV stand, there is so much storage and it's all HIDDEN :)

Linking to:
Thrifty Decor Chick: Before & After Party
 Transformation Thursday at the Shabby Chic Cottage
Somewhat Simple: Strut Your Stuff
Perfectly Imperfect: All Things Furniture
The Shabby Nest: Frugal Friday 
 Restore Interiors
Primitive and Proper 
Miss Mustard Seed: Furniture Feature Friday
Simple Home Life
Chic on a Shoestring: Flaunt it Friday 
Finding Fabulous: Frugalicious Friday
Remodelaholics: Remodelaholic's Anonymous
Tatertots and Jello: Weekend Wrap-Up 
Fingerprints on the Fridge 
I Heart Naptime: Sundae Scoop 
The DIY Showoff: Project Parade
Domestically Speaking: Power of Paint 
Workshop Wednesday 
Vintage Revivals

Lucky Find?

Some people would call me lucky.

My husband and I have won a reasonable amount of things in our lifetime

(in fact, the hubsters even started a list -haha)

But a big part of luck is being in the right place at the right time.

After we moved to Utah I was still on a furniture hunt

(even though our garage was filled with to-do projects)

We stopped by a consignment shop

it was filled with beautiful furnishings,

most of which had high price tags and work already done

but in the back corner of the shop there was a dresser set

a tall one, a long one, and a big mirror

the price tag on each piece said $100

This is what I was looking for

made by Thomasville, solid wood, all drawers were functioning, 

but $200 was too steep for me

What's that Mr. Salesman? 

You'll give me the whole set for $100?

YES!

It was my lucky day!

See for yourself:

These babies are going to look awesome in my Master Bedroom!

The Story of my 2 NightStand(s)

We moved last fall so my husband could go to grad school

we fit all of the "furniture projects" in the moving truck

my new neighbors (and family) probably thought I was a crazy collector/hoarder/pack rat

I was sort of wondering the same thing

I got to work with my sander and spray paint

Remember the 2 nightstands I found?

I only had to sand the top of them because of the peeling finish

Took off the hardware and sprayed them my favorite ORB (oil rubbed bronze)

Primed it with 

Then used my FAVORITE color AQUA

Finally, glazed her with dark brown glaze to make the details pop
added a couple coats of polycrylic

AND voila:

You wanna see more?

Here's the before again:

and after:

I love chunky legs on exactly TWO things:

Babies

&

Furniture!

Stick around for the whole bedroom transformation!


Linking to: 
Thrifty Decor Chick: Before & After Party 
Transformation Thursday at the Shabby Chic Cottage 
Somewhat Simple: Strut Your Stuff
Perfectly Imperfect: All Things Furniture 
The Shabby Nest: Frugal Friday 
Restore Interiors
Primitive and Proper 
Miss Mustard Seed: Furniture Feature Friday
Simple Home Life 
Chic on a Shoestring: Flaunt it Friday 
Remodelaholic: Remodelaholic's Anonymous
Finding Fabulous: Frugalicous Friday
Tatertots and Jello: Weekend Wrap-Up
Fingerprints on the Fridge
I Heart Naptime: Sundae Scoop 
The DIY Showoff: Project Parade
Domestically Speaking: Power of Paint 

Most people get rid of furniture when they move?

Yes they do.

I, however, am not MOST people

As we were gearing to move from Las Vegas to Utah for my husband to start grad school I started collecting furniture pieces to re-do once we got to our new place

I think my husband thought I was crazy

Yes, he definitely thought I was crazy

I seriously think he was worried about me and didn't think I would ever complete any of these insane ideas that were bursting inside my head

however, he is SO supportive

and let the furniture have his spot in the garage

BEFORE we moved I bought:

2 nightstands (from D.I. thrift store)

1 dresser (from craigslist-$10!)

1 end table (from craigslist)

1 big dresser (from, yep craigslist again)

1 GIANT mirror (from Tuesday Morning-only $10!)
BIG plans for this heavy guy!

{Just to name a FEW}

Our garage was full of furniture 

from people getting rid of furniture because they were moving

and here I was...moving...collecting it!

I'm not going to lie, I did get a little bit worried that I wouldn't be able to complete all these projects

So stay tuned to see if I did!

Inspiration Station

In my master bedroom I knew I wanted to have the color turquoise and while I was browsing at Tuesday Morning one day I came across this metal chest and fell in love:

It was missing one of its little knobby legs soooo that means it was on sale!

(plus the leg was in the box-easy fix)

I had to get it!

My master bedroom all started from this little metal box (it's actually not that little)

I started browsing the web for more inspiration with aqua (my favorite color, btw)

Found an awesome website:

 

(Her favorite color is Turquoise too)

 

I also really love:

 

Brooke is awesome and I have been inspired by many of her projects!

I really loved this aqua table she did:

And seeing her bright nightstand colors in the bedroom definitely gave me courage to proceed with my plan:

I started the quest to find some night stands!

The MOST important room

For the first 6 years of marriage I HATED our master bedroom.  

It was always the last to be thought about in the decorating scheme of things...

I felt like I had to focus first on the rooms that other people actually SEE

and then I never got around to actually decorating the bedroom

I hated being in there, the sheets and quilt set were a very nice wedding gift, but just not me...

I didn't want to buy curtains, because I didn't want to waste money trying to match something I didn't love

The colors made me feel like I was in an old issue of Better Homes and Gardens from the 1980s

The sparse decorations were leftover wall-hangings and pictures that didn't really belong any where else in the house.

I hated our hand-me-down, mis-matched, 1970s speckled dresser and desk


I wish I had a picture.

It wasn't this bad, but sometimes this is what it felt like to me:

YUCK!

Has this happened to you?

I dreamed of one day having a master bedroom that I could just retreat to

after all, it IS the room you spend most of your time in

it's where you wake up to a new day

where you retire for the night

it should be intimate, clean, relaxing and personalized

The bedroom should be your sanctuary...

I made a goal.

since I knew we were moving soon for hubby's grad school

the first room I would decorate would be the MASTER BEDROOM...

I would be thrifty and find vintage pieces of furniture to truly make mine.

It wouldn't be too girly (for the hubby's sake), but reflect my own taste and style

I started to look for inspiration

It so happened that the Pantone color of the year was:

TURQUOISE!

"Combining the serene qualities of blue and the invigorating aspects of green, Turquoise inspires thoughts of soothing, tropical waters and a comforting escape from the everyday troubles of the world, while at the same time restoring our sense of wellbeing."

 I needed this color. That I knew!