from gold to... gold

I decided to paint the gold mirror. I had posted my dilemma on a decorating forum and out of 49 votes, 96% said yes. So that was that... paint it is!


I started with a light coat of my usual white primer and then sprayed with a coat of Krylon Satin Ivory.


I thought about distressing and glazing it to mach the bench sitting underneath the mirror. But I wanted to do something different, and play off the style of the mirror. So, I decided to make it gold. Just not quite the bright and blinding color it had been. Instead, I went to Hobby Lobby and purchased some liquid gold leaf for $5.


Using a small foam brush, I used a couple drops at a time to apply a light coat to the mirror. I have to say that it was super easy to use. Unlike the glaze, it didn't dry moments after hitting the piece. It took me about 10 minutes to apply on the entire frame, creating a great patina.




I took some pictures outside so you can really see the gold color and shimmer, but here it is completed in its current home.

mirror mirror on the wall

While browsing the Centsational Girl blog a couple weeks ago, I was inspired by this post. I have been trying to come up with an idea for the front entryway, and decided this was perfect. I promptly headed off to a couple thrift stores who often have a fair supply of beds. Although I did not find the perfect headboard, I did find a mirror I could not live without. I had been keeping an eye for a similar one. Unfortunately, everything I found had a plastic frame. I was thrilled when I spotted this one with a wood frame and knew it was meant to be... especially at only $8!




I knew I would be doing some heavy distressing as I wanted the gold to show through. So, I opted to use spray paint and make my job a whole lot easier. When I bought the mirror, the glass was falling out of the frame, so it was breeze to take it out and not have to worry about covering the glass before painting. I bought a new can of spray primer and white spray paint. After two light coats of each (and before it was completely dry), I used a sandpaper sponge to rub off chunks of the paint. Then I brushed on some of the remaining glaze from my bench and homemade oak cabinet. In just a few hours I had this...



I love the gold underneath, and the few spots that started to crackle from the moisture.



Total Cost you ask?

Mirror - $8
Paint & Primer - $6
Glaze - $0

Total = $14

a "new" bench

In January I posted about a bench I found at my fave thrift store.


Well, I finally got around to finishing it today. After tearing off the gold chenille, there was a layer of some hideous upholstery fabric with some odd stains that gave me the willies. A little white paint, some new padding and a half yard of fabric later....


I first painted it with some of the leftover paint I mixed for our coffee table. It looked a bit too stark with the fabric, so I distressed it and covered with a very light coat of some leftover glaze I had from a cabinet.

The fabric is not exactly what I had been looking for, but there is a serious lack of good fabric stores in the Milwaukee area. The closest thing to me is a Jo-Ann fabrics - which is neither that great, nor very close (20 minutes). For only $6/yd, I decided I could easily replace it if I found something I love.



Bench - $15
Paint & Glaze - $0 (leftover)
Padding & Fabric - $5

Total = $20

another month, another post

I was talking to a friend over the weekend who said she had just been on my blog to get suggestions on spray paint and primer. It was then that I realized how long it had been since I had blogged. It gave me the motivation to finish up a couple things today (so thanks Amy!).

The first is a chair I got a garage sale for $1. The best part is the previous owner had done most of the stripping already.


I whipped out my new paint sprayer along with some paint I already had. A little scrub down with a sandpaper sponge and here it is! (Although it is very hard to see the distressing in the picture)


My new favorite find is this 1950's white metal garden cart. The wheels still even work! I had to look three times at the sticker to see it was priced at only $2!
I look forward to our landscape redesign and finding it a permanent home. For now it sits amongst my hydrangeas... which I cannot wait to bloom so I can enjoy them on my mantel.


Finally, I cut some fern leaves out of our yard to use in my ironstone creamer, which was only $1 at my fave thrift store

spray paint + old chairs

Is it Friday already?! I had every intention of updating the blog on Sunday night, but after spending 6 hours painting in the 85 degree heat and high humidity I could hardly move. Before I knew it, the nights flew by and here I am.

First off, let me say that I hate folding chairs. I hate sitting in them (they are always so uncomfortable) and I hate the way they look... so I began using old kitchen chairs. We had some at home and shined them up with a couple coats of black spray paint. And just like that we have extra chairs that dinner guests won't mind sitting in. Yes, they take up much more room than folding chairs, but we have a large basement where we keep them.

A couple weeks ago, I found four of these Windsor chairs for only $6 total. Perfect for our use.


I picked up some of my favorite primer and flat black spray paints. After much use of varying brands, these are they only two I will use anymore. The only problem is the primer is sold at Home Depot and the paint at Ace.


Two cans of each and Voila!


So much nicer than cheap plastic folding chairs!

A couple months ago while browsing a thrift store, I came across this old rocking chair. For only $7, I had to get it for our front porch.


I first used some wood filler for the chips on back and center crack. Then it was painted with the same spray as the kitchen chairs, starting with a coat of the 2x gray primer.


Here it is, in its new home.


Sitting beside the rocker are two galvanized wash tubs. I cannot tell you how excited I was to find them at a garage sale...especially at $2 each. I had been looking for one to use for firewood, and these were perfect. To think I almost walked with just one of them.

The smaller one will be used as a party tub for drinks on ice and the larger one has been loaded with firewood. I decided to place it on the front porch, just under the window. I am hoping its location will keep prying eyes from getting right up to the glass.


Finally, I got to use my new paint sprayer! I had bought a dresser for use at work and thought it would be perfect piece to try out the sprayer. The dresser needed to be functional, but not pretty. So even if it was a botched paint job, it would not matter. Honestly, I think it was uglier in real life than in the picture.


It was a bit of a struggle, but I really learned some things in using the sprayer. In all, it turned out pretty well. Given some of the faux pas, I decided to distress it slightly. I also sprayed the hardware an oil rubbed bronze color. I only wish I had thought to fill in the holes of the missing knobs. Oh well, it will still serve its purpose well.


Cost Recap

4 chairs = $6
rocking chair = $7
4 cans spray paint = $7 (after using $5 in Ace Hardware)
3 cans gray primer = $9

galvanized tubs = $4

dresser = $5
leftover paint = $0
hardware spray paint = $3

Total for all = $41

white & brite fireplace

Exactly 8 years ago we officially began the transformation of our home. I can say this with confidence as it was during the 2002 Winter Olympics that we first painted the Family Room a butter yellow color... covering the awful wood paneling. Well, it has taken about that long to convince D that we should paint the fireplace. It is a bland red-orange brick that I have never been fond of.

I did get him to agree to paint the cabinets several years ago. And by agree, I mean I started painting it one Saturday morning while he was still in bed. Once he got out of bed there was no going back. Frankly, this idea came from my mom saying "men cannot visualize, they just have to see it". I decided once he saw paint, he would know it was a great idea... and I was right. I will say this is the first time I did something this devious, but in the end he loved it. I think that is when he learned to trust me, and my crazy ideas.

I actually gave up on the painting idea a couple years ago, so I was shocked when D mentioned a few months ago that we should do it. We toyed with building a facade, or even ripping out the old brick and building a new fireplace, but, in the effort of saving time and money, we decided to paint. I was convinced it would work when reading the post on Young House Love.

We used Behr's Paint and Primer in Camembert and it worked great! Only 2 coats needed for full coverage. This sure beats 4-5 coats of separate prime and paint it would have been. We also repainted the mantle and went from this....(recently decorated for xmas)



to this....



Now I have still have some decorating to do, and we are looking to give a little style to the mantel, but you get the idea. I just hope we don't have wait until the 2014 Olympics to paint the wall a new color. I am a little tired of the yellow walls, but shhhhh..... don't tell D yet ;)

I also wish I had a true before picture with the faux wood paneling, dark mantle and brass FP screen (which was spray painted black 8 years ago), then you could really see what a transformation it has been.

old cabinet, new look

I realized yesterday that perhaps I should have named my blog "I Hate Oak". I think it mostly stems from having a house filled with ugly, dark oak. Every cabinet, shelf, door, bit of woodwork, and even two rooms with paneling, were covered with it. Our house was virtually a cave with few windows and everything dark and dank. I think this is why we immediately knew we would have painted white cabinets in our new kitchen. Luckily the only bit we have left is our yet-to-be-done laundry room. Here is the current sample of the gloriousness that is was our cabinets throughout the house.


With all of the redecorating in our living room I had another little piece I wanted to include. It is a cabinet/table that D made in High School. Unfortunately it was oak... with its heavy grain, bland color and all. So I decided to restain it. I had gotten a gel stain from Home Depot to test on the drawer front. I grabbed my favorite little palm sander and sanded it down to remove the original stain. I started with the new color and realized there was no difference in color. Fail. I went back to Home Depot and got another, darker color. After 3 coats of the new color there was still hardly a change in color. Another fail.

Then last week, while reading a post from another blogger that had a similar dilemma, I realized that mixing some leftover paint with clear glaze paint would be the perfect covering. It brings a nice rich color and, unlike stain, covers the heavy grain.

So off I went with a new plan...As you can see in the before picture, I had already removed the knob and tried the gel stain attempts.


I had hoped to get it similar in color to our game cabinet. I took the darkest paint we had - Chocolate Coco by Behr. It had been used in our powder room and there was plenty left for this project. I also bought a quart of clear glaze from my local Ace. Using a 4:1 ratio of glaze to paint, I mixed it up in an old glass pasta jar. Perfect!

Then using a sponge brush I put on 2 coats of the glaze mix, being sure to sand lightly between coats. Afterward, I sprayed with 2 coats of satin polyurethane. Using some leftover gloss black spray paint, I gave new life to some old hardware we already had (although I am not sure I love the black hardware on this piece). The only cost was the $7 quart of glaze!

Here it is in its new home.... but I am seriously considering making it my new bedside table.

details photo wall

For less than $100, we have a whole new wall of art!
A few hours of time cutting mats and framing + the price of the frames, mat board and prints = a large wall with one-of-kind artwork.
All the photos are pictures we have taken on a various travels... sort of. Since we could not decide on an 8th picture for the "details" wall, we put in a photo from our wedding that will be replaced after our next vacation....which is still yet TBD. We had been planning on Africa in June, but the World Cup is causing some spendy issues for us.

(please ignore the ugly oak table color, I am working on a new color for that soon)







We still need to decide where our "sunsets over the six continents" will be hung. It would be seven, but a trip to Antarctica is not looking too likely.

five, five dollar, five dollar mirror

D and I went to IL this weekend so he could repair mom's PC. AT&T Tech Support was not able to help her (in spite of the outrageous fee they charged), so she needed to bring in the big guns... my hubs.

With him spending what ended being the next 24 hours on the computer, mom and I went out for a little resale and thrift store shopping. At the first store, I found my biggest score of the day....
I had been wanting a large floor mirror and were just about to leave when I spotted one stacked up behind some others in a corner. We dug it out and noticed how banged up it was. On the bottom was a big split in the wood; but I was planning to paint it black anyway, so I could deal with the nicks. Now I needed a price. I flagged down an employee who had to check. I was thrilled when he returned to tell me all mirrors were $5. SOLD!

The color was actual a nice rich mahogany, but with all the damage I was not about to put that much work in to keeping it's color. Black paint, here we come!





A little wood filler, some primer, a can of black paint and we have....


After spending some time in the garage on the mirror, I came in and spotted these little stinkers out the back window. You can't really tell in the picture, but I am thinking they do this often as they were some chubby little squirrels.

"new" table and chairs

I was recently inspired by this photo and decided that a coffee table like that is perfect for our in-progress living room.


So on the hunt I went searching for something on Craig's List that I could make my own. I found this one that had been posted for several weeks and was able to score quite a deal in getting it for $25.


It is actually a dining table that we cut down to coffee table height. A little work with the belt sander, a couple cans of spray primer, some paint color I whipped up from a variety of white oops paints I already had, and two days later we have this. It's perfect for sitting around to play games!


Believe it or not, those cute white chairs behind the table had been in my parents' basement the last 30 years, and used to look like this...


A few weeks at the upholsterer, combined with several yards of fabric and we have the following.


The photos behind the chairs are new too. We purchased the square frames from Kohl's at their usual 50% off. We also had an additional 30% off while earning Kohl's cash, which made them a steal. We tossed out the mats that were with them and D cut our own. The photos themselves are all pictures we have taken on our various travels. We had planned to only have six pictures, but have since decided to add two more and are just waiting for them to be finished. The space is already there and ready for them to be hung.

While at an Estate Sale Friday, I found the perfect little round table to go between the chairs. It needs a little work and I am hoping to have it done in the next couple days.

mo' money

As I mentioned a few weeks ago, we have been working on finally getting some things up on the walls. Around that time I was inspired by foreign currency artwork I had seen on art.com. It got me thinking that we could make our own, using currency from places we have been. Unfortunately we don't tend to keep paper money and mostly all we had were coins. So on the hunt we went. Through the help of friends, family and eBay, we were able to find everything we needed in just a few weeks.

I had originally started with only planning to have one piece, but becuase there was so much currency I wanted to include, we knew we had to go to two. However, we didn't think we had enough money for two frames, so we included Canada and Mexico as well. Each frame with 5 bills - one set from before we were married, and one set from after.

I found two frames from thrift stores and spray painted them black.

Here is the inspiration piece:

This was a very inexpensive piece of art. We spent about $10 for the two frames, $14 for the mat board, a few bucks for the spray paint and voila!


(I am going to try to get a better picture tonight, when there is not so much glare from the windows. )

watercolor wonder

The watercolors have been hung! It took a couple days longer than expected, but, with a bit of patience, we got through it. Only one of them was re-matted and 3-4 of them have "new" frames.... and by new, I mean they were from my finds earlier in the week. All of the frames were originally gold and I spray painted them black. To add a little character I lightly distressed them to show some of the gold underneath. Unfortunately, on a couple of the frames the paint came off with barely any touch from the sandpaper and are showing more gold than I would like. I am thinking about repainting and trying those two again. We will see....














Luckily, D was an Art History major and worked for a few years at the Art Museum in preservation and restoration... so, in addition to his own mat cutter, he truly knows how to properly mat and frame any piece of art.

Blogger Tips:
* We have spray painted many items over the last several years and have found that Krylon spray paint from Ace goes on the smoothest, with the least drip. It's also the easiest on your trigger finger.
* Never, ever use cardboard in any type of photo or art frame as it causes the art/photo to fade.

This is a wide shot of the wall with the watercolors. The large cabinet in the corner is our game cabinet from Bucks County Furniture. We had it built to our specs to hold all our new and old board games. It is nearly full. Below the art is a cedar chest I bought at at consignment shop for $15. I have been meaning to refinish it. The small box was my grandfather's old tool box and the globe came from D's grandfather (via his dad). There is also a National Geographic from 1947 and the vintage suitcase was a quite find for $2 from a random thrift store in SW WI.