Chalk it up to a great after

Remember this table?

Some paint - including chalkboard paint - and now it looks like this:

What do you think??  As always - if you are interested - let us know :)

Side Table ReFind

My husbands co-worker, Sharon, wanted to breathe new life into an old side table. Unfortunately, I didn't take an official "before" photo with the table still assembled. So, you'll just have to use your imagination :)

Here are all the pieces "pre" a little reFinding.

This project proved a little tricky, as there were some unforeseen obstacles. The fist being the overlay on the table top. You can see in the picture above that the table top has two different surfaces. I ended up sanding off the entire top overlay, to discover (thankfully) some really nice, clean wood underneath. Yeah! There was a ton of sanding going on, my hands are still shaking a little as I type this post, and I have the sweet smell of sawdust in my nose ;)

Once the table top and lower ledge were sanded, I was ready to tackle the legs.  

The legs proved tricky. Check out all those curves, nooks and crannies. 

Despite my best effort of hand sanding, I was left with this.

Close....but not enough. I had to resort to chemicals. 

Meg and I tag-teamed this portion using some good ole stripper. 

It worked perfect!

Once I had everything sanded down it was time to stain and coat with some poly. 

Let's see that before again...just for good measure.

And here is the after!

Ok. A teaser photo with Max first.

You know I couldn't resist having him in a photo.

Doesn't the stain look nice?!

Before and After Hutch

Remember forever ago when I told you I was working on this?:

Well here is what it looks like now:

What do you think? I tell you - hutches are hard and time consuming - because it is like painting 2 different pieces, the inside and the outside. 

If you are interested in purchasing this piece it can be yours for $165.  Please contact for more information if you are interested.

Final Bench After

Remember this bench?

Here it is in my parents cabin, holding a few beach towels:

An up close of the new shelf:

Over all I am really happy with it, and so is my mom!

Before and After Bench

A few weeks ago my mom picked up this bench for free from some friends of theirs.  It is a heavy and substantial bench - but the dark wood just wasn't what they were looking for.

In addition to painting the bench white- I decided to get rid of the drawers and replace them with a shelf. My mom loves baskets, and they would be perfect with this bench.  So here is the bench finished and ready to head to my parents cabin.

We loaded this large bench into the back of Nate's truck.  Well about 20 minutes out of town, it started to rain! (Nate does not have a topper on his truck).  Good thing that we thought ahead and had covered the bench with a blue plastic tarp.  Bad thing - the blue tarp was new - and decided to bleed all over the new white paint.  No amount of soap and water would take the blue off. 

One touch up coat of paint later, we were able to finally bring the bench into the cabin. Check back next week for the final pictures in the cabin.

What do you think - do you like the no-drawers look? The crisp white paint?

Changes...

It is coming up on 4 years that Nate and I have been living in our house. It seems like just yesterday, yet it also seems like I can't remember a time when this wasn't home.

Nate and I both love our house, and making it our own little by little. We love taking on projects together. Although I have a tendency to say things like "After this project, we will be done for a while" or "If we can get this (piece of furniture/accessory/etc) then the room will be complete".  Of course, those things never happen, and we are constantly making changes. Most of the changes that we make are small, and just add a touch to the room. But sometimes you dont even realize how much of an impact those small changes can make over time.

Take our master bedroom for example - This is what it looked like right after we moved in. Well - the room was off white - Nate picked out the calming green.

Yes- there is not much going on, and that is what we were going for - we like the simpleness of the bedroom. But over time it looks much different.

Out went the brown, and in came red and white.  Along with our wedding pictures as a 'headboard'. This was not done all at once, and sometimes I forget where we started.

There are a few more things that I want to update about our bedroom, and hope to have those done this summer.  Then I promise the room will be totally done. (Kidding- I am learning that it will never be totally done)

Any of you have a room that looks different, even though it was small changes that made it that way?

Coffee Table ReFind!

You might remember this post about the coffee table I was working on last month. This was a much loved coffee table that had seen some character building college years.  My friend wanted to keep the table, but just enhance it's existing quality. I am excited to show you the before and afters.

As a reminder, here is a before....

Nice, but a little "organe-ish". Not what we were wanting.

And here is a during.....



Isn't the wood underneath nice?

Here is the After.  In the happy owners home :)!

The stain we used is the same stain we used on her kitchen table reFind. Using the same stain provided continuity between her kitchen and connecting living room and really tied both space together.