room makeover - furniture refurb

The painting is finished! On to the next and what feels like the 110th part of my project to turn our guest room into a little boy room was to  refurbish 2 dressers. These dressers have been around since my husband was a kid and he had them in his room. When he moved out, they moved with him and into our first apartment, our first house and now our son's room. If wood could talk.....

Dresser with white primer

Anyway, rather than buy new furniture I wanted to update these pieces because frankly, there was nothing wrong with them except the color and hardware.Spray paint is the way to go. I tried other paint and it is just not good. You can see the brush marks and it takes many more coats. Here is a tip though. I decided to spray paint inside - bad idea. Apart from possibly developing "the black lung" (Zoolander) it is such a mess. I covered everything near the direct spray but it created a mist that went everywhere. Luckily it's easy to clean up the 'dust' with just a vacuum or damp cloth but needless to say when I began the second piece of furniture I hauled it out to the garage.

Even with the mask I had paint up my nose - ick.

On the first piece I used a primer. It took longer but I think in hindsight it has a better gloss look because of the primer base so I would say it is worth the time to do that. The second piece is in navy blue so I didn't use a primer and the finish is slightly lacking. Still, it's good enough and I'll share that picture soon.

I had some crackling which made me crackle I can tell you. It wasn't cold or too hot when I was spraying so it may have been a substance under the paint that caused the issue. However, when I didn't use primer I didn't have any crackling. Not sure what that means....

Sun is shining very brightly! Almost makes my dresser look angelic. 

The hardware if from Home Depot. I was kind of limited because the old hardware was 64mm wide and the selection was not great. Still I think it worked out nicely.

So far I'm about halfway through the list of things to do in this room. Just finished the trim today and wallpapering starts this weekend - gulp. 

I shared this story at some awesome link parties - check them out. 

'A' for embellishment

Years ago I purchased a wooden letter 'A' from Anthro. I also purchased a 'Q' in an attempt to create a unique design on my office wall! Since that time, in a fortuitous coincidence my last name now begins with the letter A. The letter Q is in a pile marked "Yard Sale"(This is beginning to sound like an episode of Sesame Street).

Inspired by a blog post I can no longer find (sorry!) I decided to update and embellish this wooden letter for the holidays.

 Firstly I covered the letter with festive material and added in some fiberfill just to pad it out a bit.

Then I cut up a lot of little circles from red felt, plus a few from purple felt just to add some interest. 

I hot glued the circles on to the material and put them really close together to create a petal effect. 

I'm really happy with the finished product which completes my Christmas mantle perfectly.

Happy Holidays from the A's!

Bathroom Makeover

The other day I noticed that a tile was loose on our bathroom floor. I have to be honest, I don't like our bathroom decor. The tile is old and brown and although we replaced the sink, vanity and toilet, the tile and bath remain. So, when I saw that a tile was coming loose I may have helped it along......slightly. Imagine my delight when I discovered the original 1946 tile that was underneath!

So, I continued on and it started to look promising. Ignoring my intuition that it was crazy to do this, I imagined a pristine black and white tile floor with a retro feel. My newly renovated bathroom would be so cool! But, it wasn't long before I hit a snag....

When I came across the 1 inch gap that is between the edge of the wall and the floor I knew that I was in trouble.

A trip to Home Depot and a discussion with a very nice lady confirmed I have bitten off far more than I can chew. Levelling, a new base floor, grouting???? Why don't they just have stick on tiles?

So now half my floor is up and my options are fading. I bought two samples of plastic adhesive tiles which is far from my original vision. However, I have now decided to paint over the old wall tile and to paint the wall too. I have two weeks to complete this project so I will keep updating!