It's that time of year...

Yes!

It's that time of year!

The time of year when I will paint anything that isn't nailed down. Or that doesn't have a pulse. The humidity and the temp are low (for now anyway) and there aren't many trees that are shedding leaves, pods, etc. It's perfect!

Over the weekend, I had a chance to tackle the chair .

The (Hitchcock-ish) chair had belonged to Hubby's PaPou, who incidentally, liked to refinish furniture. I loved it when we inherited it, but the years were starting to show and the old paint from the chair started showing up on our clothes too. It was time.

It received a good sanding followed by a rub down with a dry cloth

and a dry brush to get the dust out of the spindles.

(Sorry about the shot of the dog's bum...she's so cheeky.)

I masked the seat, which after looking it up, is called a rush seat.

Primer time. Some say it's not necessary, some say it is. I've never NOT primed so don't ask me. (I'm nothing if not helpful ; )

Next, spray paint (In satin Lagoon. Great stuff). Now, I'm not a girl who likes spindles much at all. At all. BUT all of the furniture pieces in my house that have spindles, have come from Hubby's grandparents. Why? Well, apparently my in-laws were insanely fantastic furniture restorers. The antique finish on all of them makes me love them so.

ANYWHO...I used spray paint because...well y'all...me using a brush on those spindles was going to end in disaster. Without a doubt. Guaranteed.

Painted!

Painted but something was wrong. I didn't love it. After some thought (and crying...I was terrified of ruining PaPou's chair!) I decided I needed to go back to what made me love the chair to begin with...the antiquing.

Let's just call this part what it is shall we?

I totally B.S.'d my way through this next step.

I didn't have a glaze, wax, antiquing kit or anything like that on hand. So, using what I had, I mixed some paint, brushed it in the grooves...

...and then wiped it off.

Because I was using regular acrylic paint for my *antiquing*, I thought it smart to use some clear satin spray paint over the whole thing just for insurance.

I'm pretty excited with how it turned out!

Oh look...the chair...with a different pillow.

Oh look...the chair...with my lovely *curtains*.



I was going to take another shot of the chair with the dog sitting in it but she wasn't game. She's cheeky so it probably would have been inappropriate.

PaPou isn't with us anymore, but I hope he still likes his chair.

I sure do : )

In the meantime...

Sooo, the weather is not cooperating with me. I may not be able to paint another piece of furniture until December. Yes, it kind of stinks. A WHOLE lot.

Grrr...

In the meantime, I realize had forgotten to post this. I bought this desk at a junk shop (I say that with love of course ; ) two years ago and thought it would be a perfect little size for D's room. It was white and a bit dinged up, but for $12 I knew I could do something with it.

Ha! These photos are two years old. I remember discussing the color scheme, drawer pulls, etc. with Delaney and she said pink with glass knobs.

Pink with glass knobs it would be.

Well, it was during the summer that year and I decided I didn't give a hoot about the temperature/humidity suggestions on the labels. HUGE lesson learned. Never again. I had quite a sticky mess on my hands. The paint was getting that crackled effect (nice when that's what you're going for, BUT...) and the paint would

N O T cure.

I ended up having to bring the desk inside thinking I could get it to dry. It dried a little but I decided that adding a coat of polyurethane would help it to harden. After a week inside with fans blasting on it (and my house smelling toxic and horrible), it was dry enough (but still a bit tacky) to move into her room.

I'm NOT crazy about how SUPER SHINY it is from the poly (seriously, you can check to see if that pesto you had with lunch is still wedged in your teeth in the reflection of that desk)  and I'm still entertaining the idea of putting something behind the drawer pulls. I know I would paint the desk quite differently if I were doing it today. It will probably go through a few different color schemes over the years as D gets older, so I'm sure I'll get the chance to give it a makeover : )

Delaney likes it so I'm happy...but I will never attempt to defy the paint gods EVER again!

The good thing about having to wait to paint the bits I have is, I can really take some time to decide on exactly what I want to do with them. I've already patched and sanded the phone stand and I'm still trying to decide the best way to tackle the spindles on the chair.

Still lots to learn : ) 

Up next

Up Next:

A chair that was owned and refinished by Hubby's Papou. I LOVE this chair and the color PaPou picked for it, but as you can see, it has gotten a bit too...well...worn. The seat is still excellent as is the wood, but the paint is starting to rub off on our clothes, so it is time for a face lift...not sure what color it will be yet, but I'm slowly getting it ready. The more I talk to my MIL, the more I wish I could have been around when PaPou was in his refinishing heyday. I'll have to take photos of a piece we have that he worked on...might be my favorite piece of furniture in our house : )

Found this little guy in S. Florida.

I'm assuming that THIS is what it was for. Do you like my cordless phone sitting up there? Ha! Slightly pitiful but I don't own a cutie retro rotary one...yet ; ) I have some gluing, patching, and sanding to do, but I think he'll be a fun little guy to work on.

Current problem is the weather. It is either too hot, too humid, or (most of the time) a suffocating combo of the two. Boo.

This past week it occurred to me that I was spending the last free days I had with Mal. Soon summer would be here and kindergarten would follow...my baby would be gone all day at school, five days a week. Like a big girl.

I don't often take photos of myself (much less in my pj's with NO make up on) but I wanted to capture some of our *us* time while we still had it. I set up the camera, put it on timer, and let it go (Ali Edwards would be proud : ). Mallory and I played Barbies all day, ate our lunch off of fancy pants plates, and drank decaf fruit tea out of fancy pants tea cups. I will never forget it.

This beauty is my almost MIDDLE SCHOOLER.

She takes my breath away. Where does time go?

Slaying the rusty beast...

Mal's pre-school teacher said she had been looking for a second sign-in desk for her class for a while now.

I told her I would keep an eye out for one...and I found one just a few weeks ago.

Here's where I first saw it...amongst photos of an upcoming estate sale.

I chose the best looking one (seriously) and decided that it was time to try to tackle something I had never tackled before...RUST. I've been watching American Restoration and they've inspired me to try and be a rust-removing bad*ss. What the heck right? The desk cost me $2.50...no better time to give it a shot.

I knocked off the gnarliest patches of rust with a wire brush, followed by a high grit pad on the power sander (it took about 4) and followed that with a low grit pad to smooth it out. It took a lot more elbow grease than I thought it would, but it's amazing to see that shiny metal underneath!

Stained writing surface was a bit of a pain too...

Oh yeah...then there was this warped loveliness.

Yes, the Hubby thought I was out of my ever-loving mind.

I had no doubt I was.

Started with LOTS of wood glue and clamps.

Mistake I made: after gluing, clamping, and drying overnight, I removed the clips. Glue was dry and it was sticking together fantabulously...UNTIL I tried to use the power sander to smooth down the glue.

Don't do that unless you are just dying to do the clamping, glue-all-over-the-dang-place thing again.

Hand-sanding it smooth does the job just fine.

A bit of wood putty (and sanding) where needed...

I was starting to have hope : )

Had to glue, clamp, and sand parts of the seat also...and look at that pretty, shiny metal : )

Don't know if I needed to do this or not (because I sanded 98% of the rust off), but I gave the metal portion a light coat of brown Krylon Rust Tough. Better safe than sorry.

 
 
 

The next day, it got a coat of Krylon Primer in white.

We're nearing the home stretch : )

Taping off.

I do NOT love this part.

Mal picked out the paint colors...and I kind of love them : )

I would have used a semi-gloss or eggshell if they were available, but I still adore it.

Never thought the metal would look this good!

I do believe I kicked rust's back side : )

(like the flower? Mal said that it "needed a little something". like the *after* photos? neither do I. wrong time of day to take them...it's MUCH more snazzy in person...ugh.)

                        I don't think I've ever been this proud of a finished project. I learned a lot.
                                                        I love it...and I LOVED doing it.

      I've done plenty of furniture re-dos, and I've loved (almost) every one.

                           I really want to keep on doing projects like this (furniture revamps, etc.).


Dear Hubby,
I know the word *project* is worse than the *f* word to your ears, but I LOVE furniture projects.
LOVE them.
They make me insanely happy. And I think I've gotten kind of good at them. I want to do more.
I'm sorry. Please still like me.
Love, Dianna


(p.s. I'm thinking about getting a patent for Krylon scented body spray....oh...too much?... nevermind...)

Mallory's teacher loved it and said it was the best teacher gift she had ever received. Her face said so much too, and let me tell you, it did my heart good.

(The kiddos seemed to really like it too ; )

Could I BE any happier?

Nope : )

That desk will be sat on by many little tushies. Every day the little cuties will sit in that desk outside of the classroom to print their names and sign in for the day. The first day they will be nervous and excited, the last day they will be worried and sad. All of the days in-between will be filled with fun, laughter, and learning.

I love knowing that they will start each day, sitting right there...

Tomorrow Mallory graduates pre-school.

Waterproof mascara? Ha! I laugh at you. 

Halloween 2010

Late much?

Ugh. ANYWAY....

With a lot of help from my MIL, I do believe we put together my favorite costumes to date!

I acted all prepared in this post like I was going to be ahead of the game this year. True, the costumes arrived 2 weeks after that post but finding the bits and parts to both costumes proved harder than I thought.

Mallory's pick was Bo Peep.

With a few additions (including a hoop skirt cut from a Scarlet O'Hara costume my MIL found and a bonnet from Grandma's Girl), we had the most adorable Bo Peep ever!

Delaney's pick was The Red Queen from the new Alice in Wonderland.

Despite not getting her sleeves adorned like I wanted to, we LOVED it!

She sure was rocking that make up and hair wasn't she?!?

Delaney loved the idea of her costume being our own interpretation ("No one will have a costume just like mine Mom!").

SUCH a fun night: )

This was toward the end of our night.

Mal was tired and Delaney (and I...and maybe Yia-Yia too) were still riding high from a compliment on Delaney's costume. We were on our way back to the house and the neighborhood was thinning out. A man who was handing out candy sitting on his front porch yelled, "Hey, Red Queen!...Best costume of the night!!!"

Delaney (and I...not gonna lie) was strutting all the way home. LOVE that!  

Both girls were thrilled with their costumes and smiled from ear to ear all night. Well worth the craziness we went through in the days leading up to Halloween.

This is Mal trying to comfort Delaney before we had to brush through that tangled mess and wash out that delightful hairspray.

No kidding, if that famous Hitchcock movie needed to redo that shower scene in color, they could have done it in our tub that night. Yikes! 

Great night.

Great fun.

Grateful it only comes once a year ; )

The freaking plate wall is DONE!

So hard to believe...

I swear she was just born.

*sigh*

Ok, so the plate wall is done. Finally. How long have I been at this? Been collecting plates for months. Been collecting those #%@*! plate holders for months. It took almost a week (and literally HUNDREDS of holes in the wall) to get them up.

I'm pretty sure this isn't the most practical way to go about arranging plates on a wall, but this is what I did. I measured my wall space and put a few blankets on the floor and folded them to the dimensions of the wall. After hours of arranging and rearranging (not kidding), I took a photo so I would have a diagram to refer to.

I strayed a bit from the photo in an effort to try and "fix" trouble spots only to make lots more hours of trouble for myself.

I have spent hours with a drill in my hand moving and rearranging, but for now, stick me with a freaking fork...

I talked about the inspiration for my plate wall HERE (click on the links in that post, LOVE them!) . My main goal was to get the feel of her plate wall...the way it flows and feels almost calming. By all accounts, a wall filled with so many different sized, colored and shaped plates should be a smidge frantic. Well, I was hoping that mine would feel like Lisa's did. I'm not completely sure I executed it as well as she would have, but I am happy with it (if I can resist the urge to add some red to the small plate to the right of the big square *wooden* one. I'm sure I won't be able to stand it.)

Thanks Lisa Congdon for the inspiration.