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Thrift Store Finds–Just Add Paint

Posted on April 1, 2013 by Christy

I’m writing this post because of my twelve-year old son. The other day, as I was walking in the door from a particularly successful thrift store run, he looked at my fabulous finds and said, “Mom, sometimes the things you bring home from Goodwill scare me.” Hmmm, obviously he lacks my vision, but I wonder how many of us overlook treasures just because they’re disguised as, um, trash? This was the item that “scared” him:

I’ll grant him that she does look a little tacky right now, but once I got her dusted off and spray painted white, here’s how she turned out:

Seriously elegant, right? And have you ever priced statuary? She’s about 2 feet high and made of ceramic, so I figure I got a steal (I spent $12 on her). My son’s just glad she has clothes on, as one of the last pieces I brought home was a reproduction of the Venus de Milo, and he was pretty scandalized by her semi-nudity (and armlessness).

Here’s a little frame I found that day. I love to paint these with either a black or white semi-gloss. Before:

And after a few coats of white spray paint and a Bible verse I printed on my computer, it’s perfect in my blue and white laundry room:

If you want to borrow that idea, it’s Psalm 51:7b, and the font I used is a free one called “Contribute.” I printed it on some blue chevron scrapbook paper and hung it on the wall above my washer and dryer.

Here are a couple of other finds…it’s pretty easy to see the potential in the oval frame (I LOVE oval frames), but the duck decoy is *hideous.* The checkout lady was laughing at me for buying it!

I spray painted the duck in some seriously bad weather just so I could get that white paint on quickly! Here’s how he (she?) turned out. Not bad, huh?

The sweet oval frame wound up on my powder room door. I love hanging things on doors because they’re always underutilized–and under decorated–space.

The glass would also have looked great sprayed with black chalkboard paint and then the lettering done in chalk pen. Hmmm…may have to change that up one of these days!

I guess my point is that you have to look at thrift store items with an eye towards their potential, rather than their current appearance. It takes awhile to train yourself to mentally paint, strip, sew, repurpose, or otherwise alter items, but once you’ve figured out how to do it, you really begin to see the treasure behind the trash.

One of our Facebook followers mentioned that the trash-to-treasure metaphor is a perfect picture of how God sees beyond our worn out, dirty, tacky, unwanted, or unloved selves, and instead sees how we can look after He’s cleaned us up and restored us to newness. I loved that (thank you, Stephanie L), and what a perfect lesson for Easter week.

Thanks for stopping by!

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Posted in Before and After | Tagged spray paint, thrift store, trash, treasure | 12 Comments

Ruler Growth Chart

Posted on March 15, 2013 by Amy

While I am slowly starting the purging, organizing and packing process that proceeds a move, one project I had to complete prior to leaving our home was to make a portable growth chart.

Soon after we moved in–it must have been all these plain white walls just calling out to me–we started marking our kids height on the wall next to our refrigerator. They have grown a TON this year, we’ve really gotten a kick out of looking back on how little they were when we first moved in this house not even two years ago.

So, not wanting to leave that precious little snapshot of their childhood behind, I had to move making a ruler growth chart from the “when I get to it” pile to the “today” pile. These abound on the internet, I think Pottery Barn might have originally introduced them but who can keep track these days?

My neighbor Ani has the most fabulous one. I pretty much knocked her version off because it already seemed perfect. Though when I went by to photograph it I realized hers is all cool and muted and distressed…of course it is, she is cool like that! This is hers below…

But for my version, I did this project fast, cheap and easy–the best kind, right? After all, I have boxes to get to packin’! Home Depot sells these boards already cut to size. I went with a 6′ board since my son is already the tallest kid in 2nd grade, so better to be safe then sorry, right?

I spray painted the board with heirloom white, giving it just a few quick coats so a little of the wood grain would still show through. Then, after measuring out the numbers, I used stencils to mark the numbers along the edge. I just used a black sharpie to color inside the stencil, and it worked perfectly.

Because my baseboards take up about the first 4 to 5 inches, I started my 1 foot closer then 12″ from the bottom, that way I could hang it slightly above the baseboard and be 12″ off the ground.

I just marked in pencil my kid’s height and age, matching what is on my {soon to be former} wall and I know we’ll keep going with it once we’re in our new home. They grow so fast, don’t they?

Thanks for stopping by!

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Posted in Children's Activities, DIY, Projects & Printables | Tagged diy, Kids, Kids crafts, project, ruler growth chart, spray paint | 1 Comment

Carnival-Striped Side Table for My Big (Little) Girl’s Room

Posted on July 23, 2012 by Christy

My 8-almost-9-year-old’s room is getting another facelift–not a huge redo, just a little tweaking. When we moved to Nashville last summer, she told me she was done with the pink and green bedroom she had in our old house (below):

Sigh. I loved that room! But, I understood that she was ready to be done with pink. She chose a pale aqua for the walls and we paired it with white and celery green. It was nice and peaceful, but that’s not really what she had in mind. I talked it over with her and we decided that bold punch of color would help jazz the room up a bit. After much deliberation (red? peach?) she actually decided on watermelon pink. Yes. PINK. Again. Granted, a brighter shade than she’d had before, but still, pink. I had a quick giggle and got to work.

When I grabbed this little table at a yard sale for $3, it was brown and kind of homely. The first time I painted it, it wound up with a pink top (Krylon’s Ballet Slipper, I think) and white legs, and an awesome pom pom fringe trim.

Sometimes this little table was used as a nightstand, and sometimes it went at the foot of the bed, depending on the time of year. When we moved to Nashville, it lost its pom pom fringe and gained a celery green top:

In case you’re wondering, I loved both of those previous iterations, but hey, you’ve got to roll with the changes! It’s her room, after all, and for $3 I can’t exactly complain that it’s an expensive antique.

When we decided to add pops of watermelon pink throughout the room, I thought about painting an awning stripe on the table top. I simply measured the width of the top (21″) and divided by 3″ as I thought that would be a good width for the stripes. I decided to use three different colors: aqua, pink, and green. After measuring and taping off my stripes with blue painter’s tape, I got to work. Here’s the result:

The paint colors were kind of random. I didn’t paint the green at all as it was already there–that was Krylon’s Celery Green spray paint. The blue was from the wall paint we used in her room (I think it’s Behr’s Ionic Sky) and the pink is actually from one of those little acrylic paint bottles that costs $1 at the craft store. If you wanted to use spray paint, Krylon’s Watermelon is a close match. I used that color to spray the big “A” over the table–that used to be celery green.

Once I added some knick knacks to the table, the look was done. I moved the multi-colored fabric strip shade to her nightstand as it competed too much with the table. You’ll see it soon enough when I reveal her updated room.

I just noticed that her cord cover is missing…it must have gone with the other lamp. Oh, well, that’s how we roll–there’s always SOMETHING that needs fixing up!

I’ve loved all the “lives” of this little table and don’t doubt she’ll get another makeover or two before my girl grows up and moves out. The moral of the story is: don’t be afraid to change things around every so often. Paint is cheap!

Stay tuned for more–the room will be done (again) soon. Thanks for stopping by!

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Posted in Before and After, DIY, Home Inspiration, Home Tours, Kids Rooms | Tagged aqua, awning, bedroom, blue, Girl, green, Pink, spray paint, stripes, vintage, watermelon | 4 Comments

Easy Chalkboard Picture Frame & Vintage House Numbers Giveaway Winner!

Posted on January 30, 2012 by Christy

Happy Monday! Well, maybe not so much…things are pretty busy around my house, and I’ve been fighting off a cold all weekend. But, with a full week of homeschooling, swim team, karate, ballet, and piano, who has time to be sick?

Thanks to all of you who entered our giveaway for the awesome vintage house numbers from Ramsign. Thanks to Random.org, our winner is….drumroll please…#19 Christina! Please check your email. Many thanks to Ramsign for hosting such a fabulous giveaway–love those enamel signs!

And now, because I didn’t want to leave you without a little bit of fun, here’s a quick and easy project that you can complete in an hour or two. I’m getting ready to put a small desk in the master bedroom sitting area, and one thing I’ll have on that desk is my chalkboard to-do list.

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To make it, I just took a picture frame that I didn’t like much anymore (it probably would have wound up at Goodwill) and spray painted the frame white. Then I took the glass and sprayed it with a couple of coats of black chalkboard spray paint. Easy-peasy! The glass works just fine as a chalkboard surface, and now I can sit it on my desk rather than mounting it on the wall, although you could certainly do that if you preferred. I’ve seen this done with mirrors, too, and it works just as well. You just have to tape off the frame when you’re painting the glass, and vice versa.

Here’s the before:

And here’s the big pile o’ stuff that I’m collecting for my desk area. Some people are classy and use inspiration boards (or pinterest), but I just make a big pile in the middle of my room! Note that the chalkboard is in that mess, and now it’s got 1. Pray 2. Run 3. Blog on it (that’s about the right order for things, too).

Hang in there; one of these days I’ll have a reveal to show you in the sitting area!

Thanks for stopping by!

Posted in Before and After, giveaways, Organization, Projects & Printables | Tagged chalkboard, frame, giveaway, photo, spray paint | Leave a comment

French Inspired Basket

Posted on November 5, 2011 by Amy

My new "French Inspired" basket

I am not really a “Francophile” by any stretch of the imagination, but my decorating these days seems to be inspired by many similar French themes…like burlap, white distressed furniture, galvanized metal, linen and lots of light.

With that in mind, I am trying to eliminate some of the “dark” things that followed me from my previous home. There we had a huge stone fireplace (you can see it HERE) that dominated the room, and had coordinated dark leather couches with it. In my new home, I have white walls and dark floors so in an effort to try to bring in some lighter elements I was inspired to re-do this formerly boring brown basket. Honestly, someone has a beautiful legitimate french basket on top of an Armoire on a blog I was drooling over recently, which was responsible for my inspiration, and if its you please let me know! I can’t remember where I saw it, but it was just lovely.

So, to start I took this basket that I got awhile back at JoAnn’s– probably for about $7 — and took some Heirloom White spray paint very lightly to it.

The boring before...

After deciding I didn’t need to spend the money on new numbered stencils at Michael’s, I improvised a way to add the numbers I wanted to feature. I bought the small wood numbers for less then $1 and glued them on before I spray painted it. I sprayed it very lightly so the previous wood tones would show through, which actually saved me from needing to distress it later.

Here is the during...

Everything was going great until I pulled off the letters (I probably waited too long?)

As you can see the glue pulled off some of the original color, and I started to wonder if this was going to turn into a "fail" project!

But, I had purchased some gray craft paint to distress the basket (I didn’t wind up doing that) so I used it to touch up the letters and it worked great.

This paint saved the day...

And, all in all it came out just as I imagined! I like it quite a bit, I just need to track down some dried hydrangeas to fill it and will have to add a picture then, but for now its filled with all sorts of things.

In case you were wondering, I chose the numbers 6-1-2 as June 12th is my wedding anniversary. I am waiting to see if my husband ever notices? {Doubtful}

Its nice to have a quick, easy and most importantly– successful –project!

By the time you read this, I will be getting ready to host an Engagement Party –200 miles away! Here is what my dining table “staging area” looks like and I still have loads to gather to pack in the car. I will report back on the party next week! Have a great weekend.

Linking up to:

Posted in Before and After, DIY, Projects & Printables | Tagged basket, Before and After, diy, french, numbers, paint, spray paint | 3 Comments

Outside Entertaining Rack

Posted on April 20, 2011 by Amy

This baker’s rack has been sitting in my garage covered with junk for many years. I have even tried to give it away, but there weren’t any takers (no surprise). It came to us from a “discount” store, we had purchased it for some extra kitchen storage in a rental home we lived in very briefly. After that, it became a collect-all in my garage and was just a dirty, dusty mess.

The dirty, ugly "before" shot

But, since I have discovered spray paint, nothing is safe. And, as I have a special baby shower coming up here in about a month with a green and black theme, I thought this would be the perfect shelf to hold the gifts (or something!?). And, well in the meantime, it sure looks cute holding drinks and plants on my deck.

So, for all my neighbors who were wondering what the heck I was doing spray painting this last weekend, here is the finished product. It’s cute, isn’t it?