Sweet Little Bar Cart Facelift

What I'm Working on Wednesday :) Technically, this is a What I've Worked on Wednesday because I finished this bar cart about 2 weeks ago, but I'm still catching up! This sweet little bar cart is probably my favorite project I've worked on thus far in 2013. You see, ever since I saw this blog post last year: http://www.abeautifulmess.com/2012/11/elsies-restyled-cocktail-cart.html I have been on the hunt for a cart of my own. I looked high and low, but didn't come across much. Then I was browsing a Goodwill store out at the beach one day when I spotted this little cart hiding in the corner!

She was a little dirty and missing the piece of glass in the bottom of the cart but I knew  I could save her! $11 later she was packed up in the back of my car and I was headed home giddy as can be over my new buy! Luckily for me I have a bunch of different sized glass pieces I've collected from past projects and I had one that slid perfectly into the bottom of the cart. I used some all purpose cleaner on a microfiber towel to clean the cart all over. Next up was a fresh coat of paint. My house is decorated in a beachy cottage style feel so I opted for a beachy blue color! Lately I've been OBSESSED with Annie Sloan Chalk Paint for about a million different reasons , the main one being it's ease and versatility. You see chalk paint is different than traditional paint because it's not oil based or water based, it's chalk based and therefore adheres very easily to pretty much any surface. No priming or sanding needed, just wipe down your piece and paint. I've used Chalk Paint on several different wood based projects with great success and even painted a couple of mason jars that came out beautifully but had yet to use it on a metal piece like this cart. Typically I would go the spray paint route, start with an even layer of primer (my fave being Kilz) let that dry and then another 2 layers of my color of choice and maybe finish with a coat of poly or wax, but I decided to try my magic Chalk Paint this time. I chose the color "Duck Egg Blue" loaded up my fave paint brush (Purdy) and got to painting. The paint adhered fabulously and after 2 even coats I was over the moon with the results!

You like?! It reminds of something Don Draper would have at his beach house. That idea makes me happy. Here's a side by side so you can get the whole reveal:

Whadda ya think? I loveeeeeeeeeeeee it. 

If you wanna check out Annie Sloan chalk paint just check out their website: http://www.anniesloan.com/ you can find a retailer near you and discover the magic! Just make sure it's actually near you and you don't end up driving an hour and half on accident like I did. That's a story for another day. 




HAVE A GREAT WEEK! I'm headed out thrifting now :)

A Beachy Striped Coffee Table & An Almost Awkward Situation

Happy Monday! I hope you're not lagging because it's the first day of the week! Here to perk you up: a picture of this beautiful table I painted!

Isn't she pretty?! She didn't start out that way. In fact, she was a rescue!  Here's where the almost awkward situation comes in...

A couple of weeks ago a fellow Air Force wife on base posted on Facebook that she was tossing a coffee table and some end tables out on her curb and they were up for grabs. I headed out to check the tables out because we were currently looking to put a coffee table in the guest room to create a "man cave" and we needed side tables for our bedroom. What I found when I arrived were 3 tables in very good shape, just in need of a little facelift!

The Tables

The Coffee Table "Before"

I scrubbed the tables up really good and cleaned out all of the little crevices then gave them a quick sanding. Then I primed them all, I love Kilz spray on primer the original kind. It is so easy, dries quickly, and covers every little thing. I use it on everything. Then I gave the tables about 2 coats of an antique white color I got from Home Depot and let them dry overnight. The next day I distressed them all and the side tables were finished!

I used painter's tape on the top of the coffee table to tape off some stripes and painted them a turquoise-y color I got a little sample pot of from Ace Hardware. After the stripes dried I sprayed on a coat of MinWax to seal in the paint job and also for easy clean-up. Coffee tables are a high traffic area and need to be easily cleanable! I was super happy with the end product.

Oh wait, are you asking yourself where the awkward part comes in? Right, here goes. So after the paint dried and I had obsessed over the tables enough (I was really, really in love with them!) I came to the realization that we really didn't need them. I'm already seeing that a "man cave" isn't going to happen, we have enough guests coming this month and planning to come in the future that we are going to need 2 full-time guest rooms. Unfortunately you only need 1 coffee table per house pretty much and ours is only 2 months old, so replacing that wasn't really an option. So I decided to put the table set up for sale. I calculated my time spent on the tables along with the cost of products used and came up with a reasonable price. Even though the tables were Free, my time and the paint are not! I listed them on Craigslist and on a few local "for sale" Facebook pages. The tables garnered interested buyers almost immediately and I felt so proud that people really liked my tables!! One very interested buyer's name stood out to me, and I couldn't figure out why. I thought about it and realized... she was the same person who threw the tables out originally! ...Awkward. I sent her a text to let her know that she was more than welcome to purchase the tables from me but she should be aware that they are her old tables, just painted bright and pretty! I was nervous, was she going to be mad?! Would she think I just took the tables to paint and make a profit?! Did I look like a total jerk?! I waited anxiously for her to reply. Her response? "WOW! You are amazing!! I would never have thought to do that!" Siiiiiiigh of relief. Turns out she STILL wanted to buy the tables and came by the next day to pick them up. She was so gracious and complimentary of my work and I realized I didn't have anything to be nervous about in the first place. Now the tables have a new (old) home and very happy owners and I feel kinda crazy good about my artistry! Whoo! And in case you didn't get enough stripe-y table goodness here's a couple more pictures:

Have a good week everybody!
 

A Wicker Dresser & A Pinterest Tip!

I recently let y'all in on my little furniture upcycling secret. It's been a lot of fun and a super affordable way to furnish my new house... Up until this dresser. This dresser sucked. I was going to do a whole tutorial on my process, but this was NOT the piece for that. Instead I'm just going to show you the pictures and tell you that you probably shouldn't take on a wicker piece of furniture unless it's totally free. It's a really big pain in the butt. Here was what the dresser looked like when I salvaged her from a little antique shop:

Yes those are lightning bolts. I don't know what would possess a person to put lightning bolts on a wicker dresser, but that's what it looked like. What you can't tell from this picture is that the paint on the dresser was obviously very cheap spray paint. Shiny and thick and not painted well. A hot mess. I took all of the hardware off, removed the drawers and the doors and the interior shelf and sanded everything down as best I could. Then I sprayed the entire piece with white Krylon primer. I taped off the wood edge details and then sprayed the dresser with Krylon "Ocean Breeze". I went over the wood details with white paint and replaced all the hardware, drawers, doors, and shelf. Finished project looked like this:

Pretty big improvement right? 

This dude was a beast. Took me a good long while. I hate wicker. End of story. 

ANYWAYS the other thing I was going to tell y'all was this little Pinterest tip I picked up the other day. Shaving with baby oil instead of soap/shaving cream. It's supposed to extend the life of your razor (which I love because I'm a cheap-o & razors are expensive!) and give you a closer shave. I tried it out and I LOVED it. 2 days later and my legs are still super smooth, but the BEST part was that when I got out of the shower my legs were so moisturized! Usually I have to put on a ton of lotion immediately after showering because I have very dry skin, I didn't use any lotion and my legs were perfectly hydrated. Easy peezy. Bonus: saves me money on razors & lotion! Just thought I'd pass that little tidbit along :-) 

Hope everyone has a great day... I've got a Thai recipe coming up this week so stay tuned!

DIY Mason Jar Soap Dispenser

Happy Friday y'all! I've got something super cute for you today...

Mason Jar Soap Dispensers! I'm kind of obsessed with mason jars. There's just some kind of a rustic- country charm about them that I adore. The other day I saw an etsy shop selling mason jar soap dispensers and I was so in love. But... they were $15 each and I just wasn't about to spend $15 on a soap dispenser. I pondered on it a bit and I figured I could make my own. With items I already had in the house... so it was pretty much free. You can find mason jars by the case in your local grocery store or I usually find them at Goodwill for around .99 a piece. 

All you need for this little DIY is a mason jar, a soap pump from any soap dispenser, a nail, and a hammer. I painted mine afterwards with a little spray paint I had around the house, you can choose to paint yours or leave it clear.

1 Mason Jar, 1 Soap Dispenser Pump

Place your nail into the center of the mason jar lid, hammer it to make a hole and then hammer around the hole until you have a hole big enough for the soap dispenser to fit in.

Place dispenser in jar lid and VOILA!

Totally adorbs clear or...

Spray paint your lid and jar and let dry completely

I went over all the little letters and markings with a sanding block to distress

Wham Bam Thank You Ma'am

I promise you can do this yourself in Oh, about 5 minutes. Good Luck!

DIY 4 Life!

So I started this blog to share my recipes. And I love doing that. And I will continue to do that... Here's the thing. I haven't been completely honest with you. Cooking isn't my only passion. Actually currently it's not even my #1 passion! I have been crazy obsessed with...

Upcycling furniture! I've thought about starting another blog to share my DIY projects, but I decided that was a huge hassle and I would just expand this blog to be more than a recipe blog. If you are totally not into the DIY thing and just wanna stick around for the food that's totally cool- I'm still cookin! I'm just going to share more about my random life too. Like those gorgeous chevron side tables I did up there ^^ Here's a better picture: 

And my mom's coffee table I did...

And my bar stools I painted...

And all of these other projects...

My gallery wall in my living room!

A beautiful frame I found for $5 at Goodwill and re-did!

Our Pub style kitchen table I bought off Craigslist for $50 and painted!

Candlesticks painted to match

.99 goodwill frame made chalkboard!

More chalkboards!

Glittered chargers!

Anyways you get the point. I like to paint stuff. And I'm going to start sharing it with you! Maybe other random stuff too. Who knows? I'm just not going to limit myself anymore! So stay tuned... :-)