Inspired by paint

Have any of you ever heard of Annie Sloan's Chalk Paint?? I'm reading a bunch of tutorials on it and doing some research...and let me just tell you...I cannot wait to get my hands on this stuff! Yes, it's pricey at $35 a quart, but from what I can tell, it seems to last a long time. You don't have to use as much to cover your piece as you would with regular latex or oil-based paint. And you don't have to prime or sand (you'd want to sand if you were going to use it to paint over something super shiny or laminate, but that would probably be the only time, from what I've heard). I've heard nothing but marvelous things about it.

Now if only I just had a place to paint and get my hands on some furniture!! The one downside to our quaint little apartment...no garage for painting. I will say that we put an offer in on a fabulous craftsman-style house and are waiting to hear back. It's a short sale, so it will be a long process, but our agent is pretty sure we can get it (as long as the inspection doesn't bring up any major repairs or serious issues that we can't afford to fix). And it has a huge basement for all my painting...which was a must in our house hunt! So as soon as we get in there (or get into a different house if this one doesn't work out), you can bet I'll be going crazy with the painting!

Any of you used the chalk paint? I'd love to see your pieces or hear about your experiences! I'm seriously dying to use it. If we don't get this house, I might have to make my living room into a makeshift studio. This paint doesn't have that toxic odor, so I wouldn't have to worry about that in the house and having it around the little one. Eeek! I'm excited :)

Grey dresser reveal!

I am soooo excited to share my before/after with you of this dresser. I am in love with this thing. Seriously. I just stand there and stare at it sometimes. :)

You can see in the "before" that this piece is quite chipped. Someone before me had painted cream on top of white without using primer, so the top cream coat was just chipping off.

If you look closely, you can see that the front part of the top was actually ripped off and then nailed back on. I like the nails because I think it adds something, but I had to use some wood filler in the crack and the corner on the right side. 

The finished (light gray) distressed piece with new knobs!

I just love the way the distressing turned out on this...some of the wood and primer are visible here.

You don't see that right corner here, but the top is clearly MUCH smoother. If look closely, you can still see a couple of the nails coming through (love that!). 

Love this candle from West Elm.

Hydrangeas freshly cut from my garden, and a succulent we lovingly call "Judith" in a teacup shaped cement pot.

 One more view of the top sans the huge crack.

Dresser #1 Before&After

I know you've all just been DYING to see this reveal. Hah. One can dream, right? :)

Without further ado...


Sorry, I was lame and forgot to take a "before" picture of it all put together. And I was too lazy to put all the drawers back in. It's a little hard to tell, but it was a cream/ivory color before. I painted it Antique White (Glidden brand from Home Depot). I got the knobs from Anthro...where else would I get them?? ;) Isn't she purdy? I'm in love.

New projects

Stay tuned because I have several posts coming! I’ll be featuring a friend’s gorgeous little apartment, my finished dressers, some curtains I’m making for the bedroom, and a new restoration project – a 100+ year old school desk. So check back soon! Happy Monday, all!

Dresser #1

Well, I had hoped to come home from work tonight and post fabulous pictures of my finished dresser. Unfortunately...that's not the case. I guess it's all part of the learning process as I'm pretty new to painting/fixing up furniture. I didn't use the right tape or just did something completely wrong (or both), and it totally screwed up my lines. I spent HOURS taping this thing! UGH! So frustrating. So, pretty much I am just going to repaint the entire dresser. I can't really cover up the mistakes without touching up the white, and I doubt I could find an exact match. So I'm just redoing the whole thing. You can see the "before" pictures below though when it was still white and pink.

Oh well. Like I said, part of the learning process. It's 9pm, so it's too late to start on the dresser tonight, but I DID come home from Home Depot with a new can of paint, some paint brushes and more sand paper to get this redo started tomorrow! Hoping to be done by the middle of next week.