PAINTING MY NEW BAMBOO DRESSER

Hi Guys! I had a very productive weekend, finally got something done! I was at a thrift shop on Saturday, and ran into this (also came with two matching night stands).

This pic was taken inside the thrift shop, not my idea of decorating the top :) You can kinda see to the right the one of the night stands, sorry I got so exited about the dresser the night stands got neglected. The price I wont even mention, they were a steal! Now did I NEED a new dresser and night stands? No I didn't, but I decided that I would sell my current dresser (which was not very attractive ) just so that I could bring these home with me, which I did in only 30 minutes, thanks Mr. Craig and your list, your a life saver!! So all three of these baby's were essentially free! Cant beat that, right? The night stands I am going to paint and sell (no room for them). We loaded them up in the truck and drove em home!

These were DIRTY! I mean nasty. dirty. gross. I used my T.S.P. and gave everything a good scrub, dried them off and let them sit in the sun for a little to make sure they were good and dry. Before I scrubbed them down I did remove the hardware, scrubbed those too. Now I needed to decide what color I wanted this baby to be...I decided not white, I paint everything white, I wanted to go outside of my comfort zone. I got in the car and went to Ace and looked around at the paint, and decided on a dark navy blue spray paint with gold pulls, I thought that would look good (crossing my fingers I was). I had to force myself to walk out of that store without white.. I didn't get a primer only because the paint said that it would bond to pretty much anything, so we will see how it holds up. I got home and got to spraying..

The color I chose only came in gloss finish (come on spray paint company's give us some more options) ya know! After the dresser was sprayed (3 coats) I sprayed the handles with gold..(3 coats too)

I let the dresser and the handles dry outside as long as I could until it started getting cold outside and foggy (living on the coast side effect). So inside they came. I think I like how it came out, the color is growing on me the more I stared at it when I brought it inside. Then my mind started swirling, I thought do I really want to hide this in my room? I never hang out in my bedroom, its pretty much just there to sleep in and I wanna see this dresser. So I am contemplating using it as my buffet in the dining room and using the piece I have in the dining room as my bedroom dresser..haven't made up my mind yet.. but here is where she is sitting in all her blue and gold glory until I decide..

I am trying not to break out the white and paint her all over again, I am gonna let it meld for a few days. What do you guys think? Blue or white?

EASY WAYS TO CHANGE UP YOUR WALL ART

Taking a large scale print and cutting it down is sometimes a great solution for a "in your face" print. I wanted to add a little color to my wall, not in a large dose, so this is what I did.

 I had a large print of a rose I picked up at a yard sale for like 50 cents in one of my favorite colors, took a square coaster and traced out the square and just cut it out with scissors. 

Then I just put a piece of tape on the back and stuck it in the middle of the mat. That's it. It adds a little dose of color, just what I wanted. I also did the same thing with a piece of this fabric that I D.I.Y.ed that I had left over from this pillow..

  Switching up the art on the walls is a fast and easy way to change things up and add in new colors. It doesn't have to be expensive, mixing more expensive art with cheap D.I.Y. art is totally OK.

Got a weird reflection from the mirror, tried to fix it, but it didn't work.. not sure how long these will stay up, but it a change in the right direction as far as color goes. Have a great weekend!!

THE POWER OF THE LITTLE THINGS

This is so true, adding just little touches to a space can make all the difference in the world. Some color and some pattern spices up any space in my book! I added a few little details in my "office" area this weekend that made all the difference. The first being that I recovered my chair with some fabric I had sitting in a drawer, the second was wrapping another piece of fabric around my mouse pad (haven't had time to glue it down yet) and then lastly I just popped a colorful pillow in this here chair for a nice soft back rest. Wallah insta change up, and it took me a matter of minuets. Who doesn't  love a fast update? Here is what I was working with before..

Pretty boring right? I just popped off this chair seat (I made out of plywood and foam a while back) laid it on the floor and just wrapped my fabric around it and stapled to the underside, super quick and easy update to any old chair!

Boy, adding in just these few little details made a huge difference, and more importantly it makes me feel happy :) That's what's important right, doing what makes you feel happy? I do have some other plans for this little space of mine but for now this was a just quickie fix, but so impactful.

I think the bottom of these chair legs are begging for some gold caps (or maybe just some gold paint). A little bling never hurt nothing :) Have a great day, see ya soon!

FRAMING TURQUOISE STONES?

Happy Friday! I have been on a kick lately with natural decor. I think adding in natural elements in your home is somewhere you can never go wrong, and it makes the space feel warm and cozy too, perfect for fall! I have an idea, using a warm toned wood shadow box with natural stones, like turquoise or maybe this blue crystal..

You can of course buy these shadow boxes already made, but I might have to give building my own a try. We will see..but this is definitely something I will be adding to my walls. You can pick up these turquoise stones pretty cheap, but I have a couple I have had in a drawer for a while, and my new motto is to try and use things I already have, so...its time to break them out!  How about you? What's your opinion in adding in natural elements like rocks and stones? Would you hang them on your wall? Ya or Na?    Have a Great weekend!

SHOPPING YOUR HOME

I do this all the time, shopping my own home. When I get an urge to change things up a bit instead of going out and buying all new stuff, I know I cant afford that, I just go from room to room and gather things up that I think might look good in the "new" arrangement. After I have found what I think will work I disperse the rest in to the spots that I took from. It's that easy! It is too easy to accumulate little decor pieces, I do it all the time. If I am at a thrift store and I see something I think "oh I can totally spray paint that and use it', so I buy it along with a bunch of other stuff I think I will use. It adds up fast. So I have set a goal for myself to quit buying little things and use the stuff I already own...so I will be shopping my own stuff.

I decided to re-do my dining room buffet with things I already own and It came out better than I thought it would with the stuff I had laying around.

The bird pictures I made are now here, because that project I have been working on is almost done so these had to come down. I will post as soon as I finish, probably next week :) The coral picture I had printed out for under one dollar, everything else was "gathered". So it does work , shop your own stuff! Do you guys ever shop your own house?

CRUSHING ON NAVY AND WHITE

Happy Friday! I have had a little set back in my project I shared with you in my last post, well two set backs really. My son and I have both come down with the nasty flu that has been making its rounds in our area, I thought we dodged it as everyone we know has already had it and gotten over it by now. I guess it just took us longer to finally come down with it, fall is here, its that time of year when the weather changes and virus's are born..oh yippie..!  The second set back is that I ran out of nail heads! I ordered 2,000 nail heads and thought for sure that would be enough, but nope thinking I need another 2,000. That's a lot of nail heads and lots of hammering, I have blisters on my hammering hand...oh well they will heal. No Pain No Gain, right?

While being comatose on the couch eating my throat drops I was looking at one of my favorite as of lately color combinations, navy and white. I would love to do a striped hallway in a dark navy and white, like this one. I LOVE the graphic impact, stripes are on my top ten favorite patterns of all times.


 

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Here are a few more navy and white rooms I really dig..

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I am off to put some lotion on my nostrils, I think I have rubbed most of the skin off..sorry TMI? Blame it on the fever, have a great weekend!

PROJECT TIME! THIS IS WHAT I HAVE BEEN UP TO LATELY

I posted a couple of weeks ago about a project that I have been wanting to tackle for several months now, well I FINALLY started it! You know when you have a project in mind and it always sounds so easy when you think about it "oh I just have to do this and that and thats it...that should be easy" I should have learned by now that is NOT the case, for me anyways. That's a lot of that's which equals more work than I anticipate, and more time too. The good news is I did start at least and am on my way which is better than just talking about it. Yey! It's kinda fun too, who am I kidding that's why I do these things in the first place, or maybe I am just crazy, maybe a little of both.. 

This was the first step..

Yep I had to cut my own wood too! Patting myself on the back...

I skipped a bunch of steps (saving that for the final product reveal). Also I am doing this all by my lonesome so it might take awhile but when I am all finished I will show you guys the finished product. I am determined to get this done as fast as I can (insta gratification kind of girl).Wish me luck!

FIDDLE LEAF FIG TREE IS HOME AND MATCHING UP THE POTS!

Happy Hump Day Wednesday! Every time I think of Wednesday I think of the commercial on T.V. where the camel says "what day is it"? Hump Day..I don't know why but I laugh at it every time.

Our trip to San Fransisco was a success! Not in the way I thought it was going to be. You see I have been on a mission to find a fiddle leaf fig tree for about 2 years now, and found out that Ikea is now selling these baby's, and for super cheap too. I went to Ikea (the first one) with high hopes of getting one until I noticed how many people were in the store ( a TON) and had a premonition that there was no way that there was gonna be any fiddle's left, and guess what? I was right...not a one in sight! I spoke to a guy who worked in the plant department and he said as fast as they come in, they sell out...darn it!! So guys I just left, walked away so disappointed pouting like a child, I know it was an ugly site. My hubby tried to cheer me up by telling me that he would drive me to the next Ikea and we would check there. I pepped up a little and was hopeful again, only to be disappointed once more...this Ikea was sold out too....I told myself just enjoy being here its not like you get to come all the time, snap out of it! I sucked it up, picked my lip off the floor and starting looking at the other plants thinking that I didn't want this trip to be a waste again and found one plant I really liked, this guy...

Isn't he cute? They had these baskets next to the plants that didn't quite fit them properly, but I had to get one. I also noticed these awesome large basket pots that had black handles and a black rim, I had to get one of these too, because I was determined to put a fiddle leaf in it..

Our San Fransisco trip was over and we were headed home and something told me to call Home Depot to see if they had any Fiddle Leaf Fig's. We were close to a Home Depot according to my google map, so I gave it a try and called. A nice lady answered the call in the plant department and I asked her if they had a ficus lyrata (the official name) she put me on hold for a minute, which seemed to take forever because we were close to passing the store, finally she came back to the phone and said "yes we have three of them", I was so exited, I almost peed my pants! I asked her to hold two for me, she said sure no problem, yea! We pulled up to Home Depot and I ran skipped in to grab them! Finally after 2 years I had my Fiddle's! They had some brown spots on the leaves so the sweet lady let me have them for $10.00 a piece! Ha Ikea take that!..Now I am crossing my fingers I don't kill them.

Here is one in the pot I got from Ikea, Love! See the brown spots? I hope its not a fungus or something..

I love the touch of black mixed with the natural fibers, and it got me to thinking about the other plant I picked up at Ikea and its natural basket I got to put it in, how could I make them match? The pot didn't fit into the basket all the way so the brown was sticking out of the top, I could paint it black I thought, or I could use electrical tape! Ya that's it tape it is! Super easy and it will do the job.

I just started at the top and folded over the tape into the rim, and went around two times to cover all the brown, super easy, took me like 2 minutes.

Matching pots now! Well that's the story about the journey of finding my Fiddle Leaf Fig Trees, and making my pots match with electrical tape, I will leave you with some pictures.

If anyone has any tips on caring for these Fiddle Leaf Fig's I would love to pick your brain! Have a great day!