Fifteen months. Nearly FIFTEEN months after receiving an antique dining room table set from a friend who was moving and didn’t have the space or time to invest in refinishing it, I am finally recapping The Big Reveal. Against all odds, and they were some pretty hefty ones after I got my inexperienced hands on it, its finally getting its happily ever after. Continue reading
When I posted a few months ago about making a conscious effort to stop overcommitting and find more time to just BE, I didn’t intend to go all MIA, but here we are a couple of months later. Oops. In my defense, I’m not a natural writer so it’s impossible for me to do this unless I seclude myself in the bedroom and forbid interruptions (and you can guess about how well that works….). I legit have at least 4 posts that have been drafted up on lunch breaks only to sit and chill until the next time I’m inspired enough to skip a lunch and work on them. Since nothing’s actually COMPLETE, I thought it only appropriate to give a little update on some of the projects you may have read about in earlier posts and drop some teasers about things that maybe one day might possibly (if I get off my tail and work on them) get finished. Continue reading
I tried. I really did. I used an app to match the gray color in the rug that I liked. I got sample after sample after sample and painted swatches on every single wall in the dining room. Took pictures with lights on, lights off, blinds open, blinds closed. Squinted. Asked for opinions. Got a fourth of a wall done before starting over. And in the end, I have a baby blue dining room. A BABY BLUE dining room. Par for the course for me when it comes to paint color picking…..*sigh* Continue reading
FINALLY. A project that even I could handle without messing up (I got pretty close though, but that’s neither here nor there….) No sewing machines or sanding required (hallelujah). Just some foam, fabric, scissors, and a staple gun. Continue reading
I’ve gotta be honest. Curtains are one of those things that aren’t a huge priority in our house. In fact, we probably went 2 or 3 years before buying the first set for our current home. And to this day, only one of the bedrooms has them up and they happen to be cheap target ones that are a solid foot off the ground (it’s a kid’s room, cut me some slack). It’s not that I don’t like curtains. I do. And I’m well aware of how well they finish off a room. But here are some of my issues with them: Continue reading
Ever get to a certain point in a project that you love just to have something happen that pulls the motivation right out from under you? I’m an accountant. I like to follow rules. In regards to projects, I like to do some research, map out a plan, follow the plan, and get the intended results. Let’s chalk it up to being new to this Refinishing World, but I’m quickly learning that reading a How-To article on chalk paint, distressing, glazing, waxing, you name it, is about like reading a book on parenting. Both contain some good tips and basic information, but it really all comes down to the uniqueness of the child (in this case 100 year old dining set).
I debated breaking this into two parts because there was so much work involved, but to be honest, I’d like to move past this phase in my learning curve as quickly as possible. So one post it is. Continue reading
You know that children’s story about giving a mouse a cookie? I recently felt like I was in the grown up version of it, except it had to do with an attempt at pruning an oak tree and ended with an 8ft privacy fence that may or may not fall over in high winds (we shall see). So the story starts like this….. Continue reading
Greetings! What do you do when you’ve hand sanded so long that your arm feels like jello and the thought of lifting a paint brush makes you want to cry?? You deconstruct the chair seats!!
This was supposed to be my take-it-easy day, but THE NAILS y’all (scroll down for a pic of these tiny boogers…). Honestly though, this was by far my favorite part of the process yet. I could tell there were several layers of fabric to be removed, but I totally got sucked into the history of it all. When did the table go through each transformation? Is this really blue leather?? And WHAT THE MESS IS THIS SEAT CUSION MADE FROM?!?
So let’s begin, shall we? Continue reading
Everybody’s got to start somewhere, right? If I was using better judgement I might have picked ONE chair to refinish instead of six chairs and a dining room table. But when a friend is moving and has a beautifully crafted 1920’s set and needs to quickly find it a new place to live, you say BRING IT ON (that and it was free and came with no expectations – I mean, WINNING). And there’s a little instruction manual for EVERYTHING called The Internet. All I’ve got to do is look up how to do it, right? Can’t be too hard…(stop laughing). Continue reading
Alabama Ginger 