January 25, 2012 – 9:40 am
I’m back! Hailey stayed the night at her Grammy’s house last night, so I only have one little one on my hands today. My before-and-after is an ugly vintage campaign desk Jerod found on the side of the road for me in Tacoma. (You might recognize it being almost exactly like Anna’s desk she repainted.) I love campaign furniture, so I was thrilled and saw potential in the pitiful thing. That was over a year ago.
Yes, that ugly thing has sat in our old apartment and our new home looking like that. After discovering Annie Sloan chalk paint, I bought some in Old White (it took two testers) and painted a thin coat and then a thicker coat. The great thing about chalk paint is it does not require sanding or priming, so even though the paint is expensive, you save time and extra supplies. My vision for this desk was to paint it with my chair fabric motif. I thought the huge drawers needed a little more than just that, so I took an inexpensive tube of gold acrylic paint and painted squares with the corners scooped out (is there a name for those?). I then penciled in the design from the chair and painted it with a cheap light orange acrylic paint, and a second coat of Basic acrylic red paint which I wiped away for a more “worn” look.
Now I just need to find the missing piece of hardware for the desk – it’s sitting in one of my many junk drawers somewhere.
August 23, 2011 – 4:41 pm
Although there are a few more things I’d like to add to the nursery, it is now baby-ready! And Madelyn is due to come home in less than 2 weeks. Here’s the little tour:
The rocking chair is the one I reupholstered for Hailey’s room, of which the seat cushion still needs to be fixed, but it works. The book racks on the wall are Ikea Bekvam spice racks painted grey.
Since this bedroom has a spiral staircase cutting a chunk out of the corner, I decided to make the closet part of the bedroom instead of just storage. Down the road I want to paint the closet the same color as the bedroom and put up a curtain or shade to hide the top shelving.
Cost Breakdown:
- Crib/bedding, swing, rocker, artwork: Hand-me-down from Hailey
- Sunburst mirror: Thrifted, $1.99
- Paint: $24
- Dresser + Paint: $45
- Ikea spice racks: $3.99 each / total: $11.97
- Lamp: Thrifted, $4
- “M”, paint and fabric for Ikea Ung Drill: $8
- Closet pole: $6ish?
Total Cost: $100.96
Still to-do checklist:
- Paint closet
- Cover lampshade
- Window treatments
- Buy Rug
- Curtain for closet
- Move closet rod support to the end of the rod
- Re-sew cushion for rocker
- Child-proof the stairwell
Remember our beige-pink fireplace? Quite bland, especially with the maple colored mantle against the white wall. After debating whether to paint it white, faux-paint it like rock, or stain it, I decided to try Minwax mahogany stain. First I applied it with a rag, but it took a long time, didn’t get into the cracks, and applied very thinly. I ended up using an old paintbrush which worked like a charm. The stain has a naturally oily finish, giving it a slight sheen.
BEFORE:
The mantle went white with Olympic Premium’s zero VOC primer and 3 coats of Olympic Premium paint, and the fireplace cover went to the dump. I also scrubbed the inside of the fireplace with Trader Joe’s Peppermint Castile Soap mixed with water.
AFTER:
The rag-painted left side will get another coat of stain, since it wiped away and is considerably less sheen-y. And yes, the right side of the fireplace is still a good nine inches wider than the left side. Maybe someday we’ll remedy that. But for now, we love how the brick ties in with our dining room table and leather sofa. Another view:
My sister and I painted the walls with Benjamin Moore’s Fantasy Blue color matched in Olympic Premium by the good people at Lowe’s. (Actually the guy who worked with me to color match asked me 5 minutes later if he could help me when I came back to collect my paint. Apparently a pregnant Asian woman is hard to remember.) We also removed the old drapes and sagging rods complete with their greasy looped pulls. New window coverings pending!
Total cost of the fireplace project:
$5 for the mini can of stain I bought to finish the left side of the fireplace (yet to be done)
$3 for the dropcloth
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Total: $8. I had the paint and larger can of stain on hand from other projects. The paintbrush had to be thrown away, so maybe the cost of the project in damages comes to a bit more.
