Move Mountains In Your Home
As I've mentioned a couple of times, there are a lot of new things I'm working on behind the scenes. One of those things is new colors for the milk paint line! Well, Lucketts is the perfect time to test out those colors "in the real world" on a piece of furniture, so I've been doing a lot of "testing"! Here is the first new color I'm introducing... Dried Lavender The names of my paint … [Read more...]
It's finally done! Well...you know what "done" means in my house. It means I'm done with it for now. Although, aside from changing paint colors and/or accessories, I don't think there's much more I can or need to do to this room. I've always been drawn to white cabinets with dark counters (wood or black) and a wood or white floor. Now I have it! Here's a tour... … [Read more...]
Today was the due date for all of my bedroom project tutorials for HGTV.com, so I spent the morning taking the "beauty shots" for those articles. They will be available on HGTV.com in a few weeks and I will link to them when they are live. Here's how the room looks now... Here are some makeovers featured in the room... My $25 yard sale side table before... ...and … [Read more...]
Those who have missed my furniture makeovers lately are going to enjoy this post! There's a lot more furniture painting around with corner with the Lucketts Antique Market fast approaching, but one of my freelance articles was to show a specialty paint technique on a pair of nightstands. Right up my alley! And it just so happened I wanted to paint the nightstands in my master … [Read more...]
I'm still plowing through my list of freelance articles (all 30 of them), so today I worked on a tutorial showing how to reupholster a small armchair. See that yellow French chair under the window? That was my subject. It took a couple of hours to get her all stripped down and ready for a nice new look. I decided to leave the wood frame as it was. It was a pretty, dark wood … [Read more...]
In June of 2011, I painted my kitchen cabinets. I had been itching to since I first walked through the house that became our home. Several things stopped me. Number one was my husband. He just wasn't ready for me to paint over perfectly nice wood cabinets. Number two was that we had two babies 19 months apart. I was willing to refinish floors, paint walls, slipcover furniture and … [Read more...]
When I have trouble with decorating a room, I don't ignore it. I don't shut the door and focus on rooms I do like. Instead, I decorate and redecorate and redecorate to the point of ridiculousness until I get it right. The best example of that is my bedroom. Since I'm walking you through the current makeover, I thought I would share how it's changed over the 6+ years we've lived in this … [Read more...]
Today was a jam-packed DIY filled day and I have pretty pictures to show for it... I got my fabric yesterday and I couldn't wait to play with it...well, work with it. It is my job after all. This project was something I wanted to do anyway, but it was for an HGTV.com tutorial, so it got bumped up the list. Don't ask me how I did this project, yet. I wrote a full … [Read more...]
This post is a little blog buffet of a bit of this and that of my day. Enjoy the randomness... As I've mentioned the past few days, I have a lot of big projects coming up for freelance tutorials. Some of those projects are tied to others. (Remember the "decorating is like dominoes" thing?) For example, two of the tutorials I'm making are on installing a plank ceiling and crown … [Read more...]
I was going to show how we installed the engineered floating hardwood floors today, but I did a little photo shoot with my family room and I decided I would share the pictures and some of my reasons for picking this floor. This is how the room looked when we first moved in... We ripped out the fireplace a little over a year ago and I've been waiting to rip out this carpet since … [Read more...]
Now that our new floors are installed in the family room, I am very motivated to clean up the joint. Things were so busy for me in 2012 that I really slacked on my usual "stuff control" duties. I knew I needed to clean out a closet, organize the toys, or get rid of clothes that were too small for the boys, but I would feel pressed to get something else done and I wouldn't do it. For some … [Read more...]
Notice something new? I've been working with Reni on a new look for my blog over the past few months and it finally went live last night. I still have a lot of work to do on the pages, but it's getting there. Today I went to do a book signing in Warrenton, VA at The Empty Nest. I met Janet, the proprietress, a few years ago through our blogs. I never thought I would be signing my book … [Read more...]
Recently, some of my blog buddies have tried out my milk paint and I just had to share a couple pieces that knocked my socks off (in case you missed them!) The first was by Layla of The Lettered Cottage. Here's the piece before... I found it pretty interesting when she sent me the before picture. See, I had the twin... ...dangling hardware and all. Someone had removed the fretwork in … [Read more...]
A common question I've been getting lately is, "Can you paint milk paint over other painted finishes?" Yes, you can! This little dresser has been hanging around in my basement for a while and, after selling some other pieces, I was forced to work on it. The delay wasn't because I didn't like the piece, but because the drawer bottoms were jacked up and needed to be replaced. … [Read more...]
I got a call a few days ago from Lucketts It's a great call, but an "oh crap" kind of call, too. Both of my large furniture pieces had sold, so I needed to get some furniture into my space ASAP. I decided to sell a little wash stand I've had for a few years and I finally started working on the empire dresser I had in my basement for a while. Here's how it turned out... Here's … [Read more...]
I often have trouble leaving things alone. I like to tinker, tweak and put my stamp on things. The latest case in point - these ceramic trophies I found on clearance at Target. I spotted them a while ago and liked the shape, but they seemed off in white ceramic. I guess others agreed with me, because they ended up with three clearance stickers piled one on top of the … [Read more...]
Here she is... Here she was... Again, I have nothing against pink, but the pink didn't work in my home and really wanted to keep these and use them in my family room. I've been on a quest for years to populate my family room with comfy, yet stylish (and budget friendly) chairs and these fit perfectly. Right chair, wrong color. So, I stripped her down and gave … [Read more...]
Here it is... This is the piece I've been walking you through as I paint and finish it. You can check out the first post about painting it HERE and the second post about distressing and waxing it HERE. I purchased this wardrobe from an antique furniture store and it was beautiful to begin with, but it felt very dark and heavy. The wood was also not in the greatest condition, so … [Read more...]
It's now time to introduce the 12th and final color in my line of milk paint. Say hello to "Boxwood." Here's what the piece looked like before... My inspiration for the color was a boxwood bush (obviously.) I love the rich, green color of the leaves... ...and it looks striking on a piece of furniture. It's a bold … [Read more...]
It's time to introduce another one of my Milk Paint colors. Whew! Painting twelve dressers in all twelve of my colors has taken longer than I thought it would. I want all of my pieces to be special, but especially these pieces that will act as the "online swatch" for each color. After this piece, I only have one more left to do - "Boxwood." So, without further delay, here's … [Read more...]
If you're very, very observant, you may have noticed that my dining room table top looks a little different. That's because I finally broke down and refinished it. Again. I was going to write a quick post about it, but then I realized the evolution of my dining room is pretty funny. Not in a ha-ha sort of way, but in crazy lady who replaces her dining room set with ridiculous frequency … [Read more...]
I love using antique European grain sacks for upholstering furniture. It gives an immediate character to the piece of furniture and it's very durable, which is important in a house with two young boys. So, when I acquired this pair of chairs, I knew I wanted to use a grain sack to cover them. The pair of chairs cost $95 and the grain sack was $40. Here's the result of my $135 and a few … [Read more...]
I don't know why I left this piece sitting in my basement for so long! It was finished a couple of weeks ago and I finally hauled it up today for a photo shoot. I knew I would have fun with it and I did. It's definitely a favorite. Say hello to the MMS Milk Paint color "Grain Sack"... Here's the piece before... ...and this piece gets better when you … [Read more...]
I'm finally getting around to introducing another Miss Mustard Seed's Milk Paint color... ...Ironstone... What else would I call my white? For this piece, I'm so glad I finally got a lot of chipping. All white pieces aren't really my style, so I was hoping for lots of chippiness, which I got, and I left the top and drawers wood. Here's how the piece … [Read more...]
Today was not what I expected. I was planning to get a lot of work done on my computer...taking care of e-mail, working on the new milk paint website and then getting my house cleaned up a bit. Well, I came out of my room and turned my computer on, just like any normal day. I got my boys something to eat while my computer did it's thing to get ready for me to put it to work. I went back to … [Read more...]
