Does anyone remember this table? Does it look a little familiar? Well, how about this one? This was the table featured in my furniture stripping tutorial. Doesn’t it look great? I loved the shape of this table, but the finish…not so much. So, I stripped the thousands of layers of paint off the top, stained it with Min Wax’s Dark Walnut, and two coats of rub on poly. To the base I sanded, primed, and painted it in two coats of Sherwin Williams’ Frost White in a semi-gloss. I finished with a glaze of the Dark Walnut to highlight the details in the piece and take the “newness” off of the white. I love how the stain finds all of the little nooks and crannies. And this is the fall arrangement in my foyer. I’ve used some of the pumpkins I found at a yard sale this Saturday and the

Ok, all of you crackle lovers out there can relax. I actually like and have used crackle. But, I hope we can all agree that crackle in the wrong hands, on the wrong piece of furniture, with the wrong colors can be terrible. I found this vanity at a thrift store sitting outside with a $15 sticker on it. It was in very sturdy condition, had dovetailed drawers, and the cabinets doors worked great. It was just ugly. Someone had done a white and dark blue crackle finish with cheap brass hardware. Now, I recognize that someone put some time into this piece, but it DID end up at a thrift store, so they couldn’t have loved it that much! Anyway, it turned out the vanity was a yard sale leftover and had just been dropped off. It had not been priced by the thrift store (thank goodness), so I

One quick note – Make sure you check out the great 100th post giveaway at Rose Petals & Rust Are you sitting down? Prepare yourself for something truly horrible. This was my master bedroom when we first moved to our home 3 years ago…yikes. Where to begin? I inherited two-tone mauve walls with a chair height border. From my old house I brought a red, yellow, and green french country sort of theme. I do not recommend these colors all together in one room. I’m surprised the universe as we know it didn’t split apart. And here’s another corner of the room… Like all of my rooms, this is not the AFTER after, but it’s much better. This has been a tough room to decorate. It’s long, narrow, has 4 doors, and one awkwardly placed window. This is my husband’s dresser that’s in the corner in the before picture. It

This was a typical yard sale/thrift store table that you can find for about $1.00-$5.00 a piece. I have 2 others in my basement that are very similar. Usually they look tired, dated, and have damaged finishes. This one has such pretty legs that I didn’t even notice that when I bought it. I just can’t pass up a $5.00 table. For less than a Big Mac meal I can have a piece of furniture! I decided to jump on the chalk board band wagon, but I wanted to do it my way. I thought a modern take on the doily would be fun, so I made the edges lacey and feminine. Here’s how you can do it, too… 1.) Hunt. Find a cheap-o table…this may be as simple as shopping through your own house! If you don’t have one, I bet it won’t take long to find one at

This piece is special to me because it was my very first furniture job for a client. It was a challenge to blend her tastes and ideas with my own, but it was a great learning experience and I love the result. I didn’t think this piece was that bad to begin with. It was in great condition, the hardware was nice, the paint color wasn’t bad, but the client hated it and wanted color. We talked about purple and burgundy and finally settled on a rich red. She showed me some flowers out of a gardening book that she liked and wanted me to use those as inspiration for the decorative painting. This is the sample board I presented to her. (For those who are interested in decorative painting, sample boards are a great way to practice and make sure you love it before you dive in. The boards