Dresser Fixer Upper

This dresser was left on the curb!!! Can you believe it?!  Me and my hubs were relaxing on the couch watching Arrested Development when I saw this listing come up on Craigslist!  

It was in Tempe, which is about a 15-20 minute drive for us, but I didn't care!  I hopped in my car and drove over, hoping it would still be there!  

It was!  I have been lucky with dressers lately....2 freebies in the past two months! Oh Yeah!

Too bad it didn't look like this sitting on the curb!  Unfortunately, the poor guy was hammered! 

 I named him Buster.....cause ya know....who doesn't like Buster?!

His back slats were in a stack next to the dresser when I picked him up!  Luckily they were all there, except a small piece on the bottom that was missing:

His back was easy enough to fix, but his bottom still had issues, so I reinforced the bottom with some scrap wood:

But the WORST thing about him was that someone had filled his keyholes with wood filler!

 How sad is that?!

I thought this would be harder than it actually was to fix.  I just took my drill, and drilled away until all the wood filler was gone.

Anyways, I am in love with this guy!  

The gray I used is Valspar's Wet Pavement.   

 The white on the drawers is Valspar's Betsy's Linen.

Then I glazed him with Martha Stewart's Metallic Glaze.

 While I was at my local Antique Store I found this awesome brass hardware that I thought would look smashing on him!  

And an added bonus was they had keyhole escutcheons to match! 

He was a major project, but I had a blast refinishing this guy!

So what do you think?  Does Buster look pretty chic with the brass hardware?  Or is it too much?! 

  

Therena

Party Links:
Not Just a Housewife, Fluster Buster, Lil Luna, Savvy Southern Style, Domestically Speaking, My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia, The Blissful Bee, Sugar & Dots, Someday Crafts, I Gotta Create, Start at Home, House of Hepworths, The Crafty Blog Stalker, Living Better Together, Love of Family & Home, Miss Mustard Seed, The Pin Junkie, The Shabby Nest, Funky Junk Interiors, Remodelaholic, Tatertots & Jello, VMG206, DIY Showoff, It's Overflowing, Keeping it Simple, Craft-O-Maniac, Huckleberry Love, I Should be Mopping the Floor, Mod Vintage Life, Rain on a Tin Roof, A Stroll Thru Life, Skip to My Lou, Love Grows Wild, Artsy Chicks Rule, Sugar Bee Crafts, Dorothy Sue & Millie B, Suburbs Mama

Kitchen Pallet Signs

I have been going through some pallet withdrawls, so this week I made a few more pallet signs!  I've been inspired lately to do some for my kitchen.

Have I mentioned how much I LOVE Seattle?  I haven't been in a few years, but my parents just went there last week (oh, the envy!) 

 For me the best part about Seattle is Pike's Market!

  This is one of my favorite places of all time!  I could wander around there forever, looking at the assortment of fruits and beautiful flowers!

 Here's my Mom and I from the last time I went!

Ok, enough about Seattle....on to my pallet signs!  

I thought it would be really fun to make a sign that said Taylor's Market. Ya know, like Pike's Market!

I used two slats of pallet wood, and used the same method found here.

I used permanant marker for the word "Market"

 and painted the "Taylors" with acrylic paint and a Q-tip

I put this one above my cabinets to replace my Bon Appetit sign.  

So it went from this:

To this:

The next kitchen sign I made was inspired by the lovely Art is Beauty's French chicken sign found here

When I saw her's I knew I needed one, so here is my chicken sign:

Using basically the same method as my Market sign, I found a good chicken silhouette online and printed it off.  This time I cut out my image, traced it, then painted it white

 (and ya, I used another Q-tip lol)

Before I put my chicken sign up I had to rearrange some furniture!

I moved the small hutch from my living room to my kitchen nook.

It went from this:

To this:

Then I moved the ladder in my nook, and this corner went 

From this:

 To this:

I am liking my little hutch in the kitchen SO much better!  I always thought it looked too much like a kitchen piece in my Living room anyways, so I'm happy I finally made the change.  

These pallet signs cost me close to nothing to make! Who doesn't like that?!

And notice my cute burlap flowers?!  Don't forget you can check out how to make them here! 

Therena

Party Links:
Keeping It Simple, Huckleberry Love, I Should be Mopping the Floor, Coastal Charm, Commona My House, A Stroll Thru Life, Love Grows Wild, Coastal Charm, Nap Time Creations, Adventures of a DIY Mom, Artsy Chicks Rule, Sugar Bee Crafts, Skip to My Lou, Mod Vintage Life, BeBetsy, Not Just a Housewife, Fluster Buster, Lil Luna, Savvy Southern Style, The Blissful Bee, Sugar & Dots, Someday Crafts, I Gotta Create, Embracing Change, House of Hepworths, The Crafty Blog Stalker, Living Better Together, Love of Family & Home, The Pin Junkie, The Shabby Nest, All Our Days, Funky Junk Interiors, Remodelaholic, Tatertots & Jello, Six Sisters StuffIt's Overflowing, Craft-O-Maniac

What is a Liebster Award?!

Within the last two days I was nominated twice for the Liebster Award!  I am SO thrilled!  But I just have to say....since I've only been blogging for a few months, I had absolutely NO idea what this was!  So I checked out my nominator's blogs and I had a blast learning more about them, and about what this Liebster thing is all about!

The Liebster Award is a way for bloggers to recognize other up-and-coming bloggers.  Yay!

 

 

A HUGE Thank You to Orchard Girls and My Rays of Sunshine for nominating me!

 

Rules of the Liebster Award:

1.  Link back to the Nominating blog

2.  Answer the questions given by the Nominator

3.  Give 11 random facts about yourself

4.  Nominate 5-11 other blogs with fewer than 200 followers

5.  Ask the nominees 11 new questions

6.  Contact the nominees you pick and let them know they were nominated!

 

OK, here goes:

 

Questions from the Orchard Girls:

 

1.  What is/are your favorite color(s) to decorate with?

Blue!

2.  If you could go back in time and tell your younger self ONE thing, what would it be?

Life is too short, so just do it!

3. Coke or Pepsi?

HA, I love this one....Coke, but only if its diet!  I've been hooked since high school

4.  Do you subscribe to any magazines?

The Ensign and The Friend (publications from my church)

5.  On average, how much time do you spend on your computer in a day?

Well, this changed dramatically once I started blogging!!  Maybe two hours or so

6.  Are you currently reading a book?  Which one?

Sadly, no!

7.  Where did you go on your longest road trip?

We traveled from AZ up to Yellowstone

8.  As a kid, what did you want to be when you "grew" up?

Always a Mom

9.  What is your best habit?

Organizing

10.  What is one item you ALWAYS have with you?

My Burts Bees chapstick, and my diet coke!

11.  What is the last thing you do before you go to bed?

Check all doors and windows to make sure they are locked...yes, every night!!

I'm a little OCD about it! 

 

Questions from  My Rays of Sunshine: 

 

1.  Who is your celebrity crush?

This one is tough for me cause I crush on the character, not the actor himself. 

 So I'll have to say Ross from Friends!

2.  Princess or Superhero? Why?

Superhero, because I live with 4 of them!

3.  If you could relive one day of your life which would it be?

The day I married my sweetheart

4.  Do you have a tattoo?  If so, what is it?  If not, why?

No, just not my style

5.  If you could confront anyone from your past, who would it be and why?

Really, I can't think of anyone.  I am so easy going and non-confrontational, lol!

6.  If you could get rid of all the songs from a particular singer, whose would you delete and why?

Justin Bieber please!  He just annoys me!

7.  Rank the colors of the rainbow from best to worst and state why:

I love all the colors, so I'll just rank them by my favorites: 

 Green, Yellow, Pink, Blue, Purple, Red, Orange 

8.  What is something you've always wanted to do but haven't had the guts to try?

Haha, Make a bench from a headboard

9.  What website do you have to look at everyday?

Facebook...I can't stay away!

10.  Have you ever resorted to a fad diet to try to lose weight?

Um...pretty much every fad diet out there! 

11.  If you could go back and change your past, knowing what you know now, would you?

No, things happen for a reason and some things are meant

 to be learned along the way.  No regrets!

 

Now on to my 11 Random Facts:

 

1.  I play the piano (even though I am tone deaf)

2.  I went to school to be a Diagnostic Medical Sonographer aka Ultrasound Tech

3.  I'm a Mormon

4.  I still sleep with my baby blanket!  Don't judge, lol!

5.  I have Hashimotos Disease, and I hate it!

6.  I have been divorced

7.  I scuba dive

8.  I am obsessed with Walking Dead

9.  I have a phobia of being wet

10. I always ask for power tools for my birthday

11.  I absolutely LOVE being a mom to Boys.  I love all the things my boys love: monster trucks, star wars, video games, bugs, grass stained jeans, and dirty faces!

 

 

My Nominees:  

 

Lisa from Mabey She Made It

Gretchen from Boxy Colonial

Denise from Spittin Toad

Rachel at Remastered Relics

Katie & Vanessa from A House 2 Home

Christine from Little Brags

 

Questions for my Nominees:

 

1.  If you could travel anywhere in the World, where would you go? Why?

2.  Where are all the places you have lived?  Favorite?

3.  What is your favorite Holiday? Why?

4.  What made you decide to start blogging?

5.  Chocolate or Vanilla?

6.  What is your favorite season of the year?

7.  If you could meet anyone, who would it be? Why?

8.  Where is the most interesting place you have ever visited?

9.  Who do you look most like in your family?

10.  Could you live without your TV?

11.  What are 3 things you would like to do this year?

 

 

This was super fun, thank you ladies for the nominations!!!!

 

Therena

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thrifty Thursday: Progress on the Boys' Rooms

Happy 4th of July!
My goal is to finish my boys room makeovers by the end of the summer!  My oldest is moving into the spare room, so both him and my middle son will have their own rooms.

Well, unfortunately not much has happened yet, and its already July!!!

So this last week I really focused, and made many trips to multiple thrift stores for the sole purpose of finding stuff for my two boys!

And I actually did extremely well (YAY) which always makes it worth it to me!

Here are my thrift store finds:

I'll start with the things I found for Thing #1 (my oldest!)

Side Table: $10

BEFORE:

AFTER:

Headboard: $15

BEFORE

This actually came as a Headboard/Footboard, but I'm only going to use the

 headboard in his room

AFTER:

For both pieces I used Valspar's Lincoln Cottage Black.  I used my homemade chalk paint 

(found here), then lightly distressed, and added a coat of polycrylic.

Don't they look nice together?!  Well, I think so! hehe

I also picked up this shelf for $5 that I thought would look good in his room, and he'll need all the shelves he can get!

BEFORE:

I haven't hung this up yet because I'm not 100% sure on where I want it in his room.

AFTER:

 Ok, moving on to the next room.....the stuff for Thing #2!

I was thrilled when I found this guy!  He is pretty hammered, but I thought the color and size would be perfect for above his locker!

Old Foot Locker: $12

Lamp: $5

It was only the base.  The shade I already had.  But I thought it was pretty cool, and since I moved the old lamp into Thing #1's room, I needed another one. 

Side Table: $10 

(sorry no before pic, I got too excited and forgot to snap one!)

This picture makes it look white, but its actually a light blue (Valspar's Lament Blue).  

The knob I added was actually one that I had taken off of my dining room hutch when I replaced the knobs on it!

And the BEST part about this little nightstand was that it was a set!  

Yup, thats right!  It was 2 for $10!  

Not sure what I'm going to do with this one, but I had fun painting her!

 I just used an acrylic paint and heavily distressed her, then added a cute glass knob to bring out her feminine side!

Thats it for my Thrift Store finds this week!

  I feel much better about myself knowing that I made SOME progress on the boys' rooms!

Therena


Party Links:
The Shabby Nest, Love of Family & Home, All Our Days, Remodelaholic, Funky Junk Interiors, Tatertots & Jello, Six Sisters Stuff, Its Overflowing, Living Better Together, VMG206, Keeping It Simple, Nap Time Creations, Adventures of a DIY Mom, Sugar Bee Crafts, Someday Crafts

DIY Baby Gate

See this cute little guy...well, he turns 1 this month.  And that means he is crawling all over the place!  

We had to do something because he was driving me nuts!  We have a very open floorplan which makes it difficult to contain him, but we came up with a plan, and after 2 days I am happy to report that it is now complete!

The only room in the house that we can keep him enclosed is the playroom.  There are 3 hallways that filter into it, so that meant 3 baby gates!  I hate baby gates, so I knew I wanted to use the plans from the fabulous Remodelaholic found here for their barn door baby gate.

The first thing we did was go to Home Depot for the supplies.  We bought the cheapest wood we could find (which was probably our first mistake!), and all the hardware: drywall screws, latches, and hinges.  The total cost was about $120.

Here is one of them pre-paint:

 My hubs was concerned about the weight of these things, so he convinced me to leave out the 

middle "X". So unfortunately they don't look quite as pretty or as much like a barn door, but thats ok!

Also, because we used cheap wood, all 3 of them ended up being slightly bowed.  What do ya do?!  We weren't about to go buy more wood and start over, so we will live with bowed baby gates! 

We painted them with Valspar's Jekyll Grand Dining Sea Mist because that is the color of the playroom's accent wall.

Then we glazed them with Valspar's Antiquing Glaze:

Here's the hardware we chose:

These next pictures show how they look from the outside of the playroom looking in:

From the Laundry Room Hallway:

(yeah thats my son photo bombing!)

From the Kitchen:

From the Kid's Bedrooms Hallway:

 So that's all 3 gates!

This is a view from inside the playroom looking down the Laundry Room Hallway:

And how it looks open:

 This is the Playroom wall with 2 of the 3 gates open:

 I really wanted these 2 to look uniform when opened, so we made sure they both swung open to look like this.

(For some reason these pictures make these gates look totally different, even their color, but they look almost identical in person!)

 I have to admit, I was pretty intimidated with this project.  However, I was pleasantly surprised by how straight forward and uncomplicated it was!  And I have been SO happy with them.  They are extremely easy to use, especially for my older boys who have to use them constantly! 

 Thanks Remodelaholic for the awesome plans!!!

Therena

Link Parties:

Commona My House, A Diamond in the Stuff, Fluster Buster, Savvy Southern Style, Domestically Speaking, The Blissful Bee, Start at Home, Gingerly Made, House of Hepworths, Someday Crafts,

The Shabby Creek Cottage, The Crafty Blog Stalker, The Shabby Nest, Love of Family & Home, All Our Days, Remodelaholic, Funky Junk Interiors, Tatertots & Jello, Its Overflowing

Six Sisters Stuff, Living Better Together, VMG206, Keeping It Simple, Huckleberry Love, I Should be Mopping the Floor, Thrifty Decor Chick, A Stroll Thru Life, Love Grows Wild, Nap Time Creations, Adventures of a DIY Mom, Coastal Charm, Artsy Chicks Rule, Sugar Bee Crafts, Skip to My Lou, Mod Vintage Life, Not Just a Housewife, Lil Luna, My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia, Embracing Change, By Stephanie Lynn