Pinkalicious

My friend Carrie who happens to be my neighbor as well showed up at my house the other day with this table.  She had found it at a yard sale for $5!

It was such a cute table with a lot of cute character but I could see why it was only $5.  This was not going to be an easy/breezy project by any means. 

Just to give you an idea of what the top looked like.  My sander & I became BFF's on this project.

Making some progress...

Finally done with sanding and ready for the next step

I always love Kilz primer and love how well it covers the furniture.  One of the biggest issues I have with the furniture that I do is choosing a color!  I try to view the piece and get an idea of where I think it would look great in a house.  For this table I just kept thinking a little girls room so what better color than pink!   

I knew that I wanted to glaze it and decided to add some black glaze to add a little depth.  One of the most fun parts I think it choosing the knobs for the furniture.  Well, let me take that back the most fun/overwhelming part!  Mostly overwhelming because I am so indecisive.  My favorite place to get knobs is Hobby Lobby and knew these would be perfect once I saw them.

This gives you a view of the top of the table.  Loved that it was framed.

Here is a little before/after shot!  THANKS CARRIE for such a great find!

*TABLE IS FOR SALE SO MESSAGE ME FOR DETAILS IF INTERESTED*

XOXOXO

A

Chalkboard Frames

For awhile now I have been wanting to make a space to have a gratitude wall.  A place where anytime we were thankful or grateful for something that we could jot it down and build off of each other's gratitude.  I thought about painting a wall in my kitchen but wasn't sure I wanted a whole wall dedicated to chalkboard.  

Enter these guys... 

I had decided that I would look for a frame to paint the chalkboard instead of a wall.  These frames completely caught my eye and I loved how they were double framed.  The next step was to look at the price.

I couldn't believe it when I flipped them around and saw this...

Heck ya!  $10 each!  I was SOLD!  I wasn't sure they would fit in the space I was thinking but I knew I could use them somewhere.

3 years ago when we moved into our house I painted a whole wall in each of the kid's rooms with this chalkboard paint.  I had some leftover so after a good shake it was good as new.

I applied two coats and made sure that they 1st coat was competely dry before applying the second coat.  I forgot to take a picture but I ended up painting the black trim as well.

BEFORE

AFTER

I have to admit they barely fit in the space but it was good enough for me and I am so happy with them!  My goal starting with the new school year is menu planning so I decided to make one to help keep me accountable and also so the kids will know every day what we are having for dinner that night.  The gratitude frame has been great!  It has definitely made me take a minute each day to express what I am grateful for and the kids have even written a couple things :-)

It is...

Hallelujah!!!

My goal this weekend is to clean out my garage which also means completing some projects!

Check back next week to see what they may be...

Until then...

XOXOXO

"A"

How To Paint a Perfect Stripe

I am going to try and explain this the best I can.  It really is an easy process and anyone can do it.  The only part that can be a little frustrating is taping the stripes but stick with it! :-)

The first step is painting the entire wall the base color.  For this project I chose to paint it all gray first for the fact I figured it would cover the Pepto pink better than the white.  On most surfaces that are a light color it would be best to paint the lighter color as the base color.

The next step is determining how wide you want your stripe to be.  For this area I just used the area over the door (see below) to determine the width of my stripes.  Normally you will want to measure your entire wall first and determine the inches of your stripe to make sure you have an equal amount of stripes.  Luckily, it almost came out even.  The bottom stripe is a little bit thinner but since it is at the bottom you don't really notice.

The third step is taping the stripes and getting them even.  Hands down the toughest/most challenging part.  There are many ways that you could make sure your stripes are even.  I used 3m blue tape and measure down 11 inches and marked a line with a pencil.  I then tore off a piece of tape (arm length to arm length).  I placed the middle of the tape along the pencil line in the middle and would use a level along the way of pressing down the tape.  Once I had the tape the whole way across I then took the level along the line and made adjustments.  You most likely will have to make an adjustment on each one (this is the time consuming part).  Once you have the tape in a perfect line you want to run your fingers hard along the line to make sure it is firmly pressed against the wall (eliminates bleeding).  You can also use a debit card to run along the line.

Now the taping is a little tricky as well.  I always have to think it through so I hope the pic below helps explain it a little bit better.  The first line you measure from the ceiling to the bottom of the tape (11 inches in my case).  For the next stripe you are measuring from the bottom of the first line of tape to the top of the second line of tape (11 inches) and so forth all the way down the wall.  Repeat these steps.

Once your wall is all taped up it is time to paint.  Before you roll the stripe you will want to take the base color of the wall (I ran out of the base color so that is why you see white on mine) and paint along the tape to seal it which also prevents bleeding.  Let that dry.

Just so I don't confuse myself and paint the wrong stripe.  I take a pencil and write a big letter for the color the stripe will be.  The pencil didn't show up in the pic but you get the idea below.

Once it is dry along the tape it is time to ROLL!  Make sure that your roller isn't soaked in paint.  You may have to do an extra coat but it will also help prevent bleeding which makes for a perfect line.

I went ahead and did three coats of white just to get it covered really good.

This next step is KEY!  Once you have painted your last coat you will want to pull the tape off while the paint is still wet.  This will prevent the paint pulling off the wall.  This is my favorite part.  It is so exciting to pull off the tape and see that crisp & perfect line!  You may have a few areas where there is minimal bleeding but you can easily take a painters brush and touch up along the way if you happen to be a perfectionist :-) 

Having an accent wall/corner of a room can completely add such an great statement and element!

I am excited to hear about where you decided to paint stripes in your house!  If you have any further questions I would love to hear them!

XOXOXO

"A"

Belle's Room Transformation

Ysabella has been begging us to re-do her room at least for the past year.  I was dead set that wasn't going to happen due to the fact that we just did her room 3 years ago when we moved in.  However, at the end of this last school year I had a change of heart and told her that we would re-do her room by the end of the summer (thinking that was a long ways off).  Not sure what I was thinking because as usual the summer flew by and the next thing I knew I had 3 weeks before school started.  We had wanted to do something special for her getting straight A's last year so we decided this would be it. 

I told her up front that this was going to be a process and it wouldn't be completed over night.  There were many things in her room that were left unfinished when we moved in due to the fact that I tried to completely paint every room in my house the first few weeks.  Cleary that is a tad bit crazy so there were spots were her trim wasn't painted.  Furniture was simply moved to cover it and her closet door was never painted, etc.  So I decided that if I was going to re-do her room I was going to do it right.  So we repainted all her trim, painted the doors and made sure to cover all the holes, etc.

I forgot to take a picture before I started taking everything down but this is a pretty accurate view of

BEFORE

CHAOS!!!

One of the things we did to prepare was to DONATE, TRASH & KEEP.  This is honestly my favorite thing to do because it provides me the opportunity to de-clutter and throw away crap that will never be used (even though everyone else in my family SWEARS they will use it again)!

As you can see her room is Pepto Bismal pink and she really is more of a blue girl.  I loved her pink room but it was time for a more grown up room...sniff sniff!

I wanted to rearrange her furniture before I started painting because I knew that I wanted to make a reading nook for her.  So I needed to get an idea of where that would go so after a few different options I finally found the best place for it all.  The great part was that it has made her room look so much bigger and provided a lot more floor space for her.

I am slightly embarrassed at how many holes we had to fill before we started painting.  As you can see below I am slightly impatient especially when it comes to hanging things so I just "eye" it which never works! ha!

Oh goodness!  This is terrible but had to be done :-)

I have been dying to paint stripes on a wall in my house.  I let Ysabella pick out the blue for her room which is almost equally as bright as the pink was.  In order to "kill" the blue a little bit and make it a little more grown up I decided that I would make her reading nook unique and sectioned off in her room.  We chose gray and white as the colors we would use for the stripes.  I chose to paint all gray on the wall because I knew it would cover better over the pink than the white.

The next task at hand was taping the stripes.

*I will post a tutorial later on painting the perfect stripe*

You will see why I painted the border of the tape in the tutorial

 

TA-DAH!!!  I love a good, clean line!

Here is my sweet girl!

She was so excited to help paint!  She was a HUGE help and would paint the first coat and I would follow behind.  We made a great team and it was so fun to do it together!

You can't paint a room without drawing on the wall first right?

One of my favorite memories as a child was with my BFF Emily.  Her precious mother, Melissa, let us write all over the wall in her room before we painted it.  We wrote all the boys we were in love with and it is such a fun memory for us.  Wanted to carry on that sweet tradition with Belle.

Still chaos but getting there

My big helper!

It felt so good to vacuum and mop...we were almost done!

Along with Ysabella deciding that she wanted a blue theme she decided on a dog theme.  I swear that God created dogs especially for Ysabella.  She loves and adores them!  Her and our dog Stella are the best of friends.  I mean she will spend hours laying around with Stella, making videos with Stella, goes shopping for Stella and buys her things for their anniversary, has a million nicknames, etc.  I mean pure, unconditional LOVE!

I had in my mind that I needed to look for some dog bookends for her reading nook.  It was on my list to search the Internet.  I happened to be in Marshall's one day and was just browsing the isles and spotted these beauties & they were on clearance!  SCORE!

Progress pic...

You can see her closet door finally got painted!  YAY!!!

I had locked Belle out of her room on Sunday and wouldn't let her come in until it was completely done.  The last time she saw it it was painted but still a disaster!

Here is she is after the big reveal!  She loved it!!!  Thank goodness because she is stuck with it for 20 years at least! ;-)

I was able to use a lot of the things she already had.  The dog picture in the middle was a painting she had done that was laying around her room so I took a simple white frame and framed her art work.  The white porcelain bulldog was another SCORE at Marshalls.

Remember these guys?  I had some left over wall paint so wanted to incorporate the blue color.  I LOVE THEM!

Another one of Belle's paintings that I framed

This beautiful mirror was left at the house when we moved in and has been over Belle's dresser ever since.  Since there was this huge blank space on the wall I decided I would make it a full length mirror for her so we moved it vertical and a little lower on the wall.

Here is a final look of her reading nook.  I gave her a few options of wording to put on the wall and this is what she chose.  I should have known but she chose "Stella's (our dog) Nook"

We already had her little chair and the rug.  The chandelier was actually in our bedroom but thought it would be the perfect addition.

I just bought plain wooden letters from Michael's and used Valspar spray paint.  The apostrophe is the blue wall paint and I just hand painted it.

I was so happy how it turned out!

Here are a few BEFORE & AFTER pics...

It really was a lot of fun to do a total room transformation!  Honestly, I kind of have the bug now (don't tell my husband)!  Belle LOVES it and that in itself makes me happy!

I will post a tutorial this week on the the wall stripes so stay tuned.

XOXOXO