The Chair

Well it's been six months so it's time for my 6 month post.  Just kidding.  SO I don't blog much lately.  I barely shower as it is so really I don't have much time for blogging but I thought this chair was blog worthy. Blog worthy because this was something that I have never done before, well, I guess I should say, I've never completed something like this before. 
 I found this great chair at GW.  My favorite store.  It was not a simple chair.  But I wanted the challenge.  Bring. It. On. I said to myself.  My husband thought I was crazy.  Probably because I have a chair sitting in my craft room that is half done..(hence the never completed comment above)...and it's been in that condition for over a year.  So he laughed when I showed him this one. Not because he doesn't think I'm capable but because he knows I try to do 100 things at once and usually they only get half done, like the first chair.  So here is the before:

  As you can see, it have ALOT going on.  Not just your plain Jane wingback.  That's what I liked about it.  Challenge me!  So after a full day of deconstructing it, taking 100 pictures and a page worth of notes, I got to work.  See that cording along the top of the wing back?  Yeah, I attempted that with my brave sewing machine...did I mention that I don't sew?  Yeah, not so much.  Well I spent TWO days trying to do that part and I can tell you that I ALMOST had it.  Chair : 1 McKelle:0     Chair was winning.  Husband may have been right.  I went to bed that second night nearly defeated but I had a come back when the thought entered my mind that,"Just because it came that way, doesn't mean it has to end up like that!  I could do nail head.  Yes, it will be done...tomorrow....game on!"  (And yes, that's how I think.)  So I spent the next day, and the next and the next in a heated battle with this chair and a guess what?  I WON!    Here is the after:

I LOVE IT!

Sassy Behind~

LOVe, Love, LoOVE, Lurve!

XOXOXO

Did I mention that I love it. :)

Linking up to Miss Mustard Seed

McKelle xoxo

Breakfast In Bed Tray

My husband made this tray for me out of some Knotty Alder wood.  He's kind of taken up this wood working hobby that works great for me since he's able to help me fix up all the pieces that I work on. I think he did an awesome job with this tray if I do say so myself! He rocked it!  Then he stained it in dark walnut then I taped both the corners, put my stencil on top of the tape, traced the stencil and then used an exacto knife to cut out the stencil.  I removed all the tape except for the inside of the stencil.  I then painted it with some ASCP Paris Grey.  I removed the tape and then went over the whole tray with some dark wax.  I LOVE how it turned out.  The reverse stencil with the stained wood peeking through just gets me all excited in a crafty sort of way! 

These legs are from an old antique card table.  I didn't like the top even though it had a cute painting on it but it couldn't be fixed up and it just wasn't my taste so I chose to recycle the legs.  :)  (The tray isn't glued on so it can be taken off.)





Yard Sale Vanity

This was a yard sale find.  Can you believe someone would sell this beauty?!  So.Glad.They.Did.  She is done up in some ASCP Old White with some clear and dark wax, heavily distressed.

I thought the drawers were gorgeous as is.  The middle and bottom drawer were made with each drawer consisting of two pieces.  They put the pieces together so the grain on the drawers formed a diamond....isn't that awesome?!!  I loved it and didn't want to touch it and ruin the natural beauty and wear.

Hope you like her!! :)

I love trying out a new color of the Annie Sloan Chalk Paint....SO.MUCH.FUN.  This color is the Chateau Grey and I think it turned out really well.

Let me know if you like her!

Revived Bench

I was at my local thrift store a while ago looking for a treasure but there was nothing to be found. As I was walking out the door, I heard this screeching sound.  "Sounds like furniture,"  is what I said to the kids and we quickly turned around and high tailed it to the back of the store.  This very old yet full of potential bench had just been pushed out. "I'll take it," I said to the guy who just pushed it out.  I get the craziest looks from these people cause most of the stuff I buy is pretty hideous.  The Before:

I had already pulled off the icky leather covering and had my hubby add the legs.

The After:

I think it turned out pretty good.  That is fabric on top if you can't tell.  It's very soft and velvety.  Headed to my booth Merchant Square! :)

Olive*Via

LOVE this dresser. 
Want to KEEP.
Hope you LIKE!
BEFORE:

AFTER:

~Painted with ASCP, Olive and love. ~

Antique Dresser....again!

I have a thing for antique dressers!  My husband wants me to branch out and I have little bit but dressers are my 'go to' piece of furniture.  So here's the before:

And the after:

Yes blurry, I know and if I had this dresser still at my house I would go take some amazing  pictures.  This picture was taken with my cell phone. BUT I PROMISE photography is something I'm going to work on in this new year. :)

You can also catch a glimpse of her here....in my new booth at Merchant Square Antique Mall!!  Oh, you hadn't heard?  Yep that's right!  Does that make me old?  All the cool people are doing it!! ;)

I share this spot with my good friend Julia from 551 East Furniture Design, I'm sure you know of her and her amazing furniture pieces.  I can only hope that her talent will rub off on me by sharing this spot together. Hope you love it! Even though it's blurry. :/

Disclaimer: This post has been up for several hours but something about it wasn't sitting right with me but I couldn't figure it out.  Then it hit me.  If you haven't noticed it already well now you will.  That is not the before dresser!  Haha!  I'm so detail oriented aren't I!  So sorry!  I've searched and searched and apparently I didn't take a 'before'.  I had no intention of trying to 'trick' or 'deceive' all my lovely readers, I just simply posted the wrong picture. I make mistakes like that because I'm always in such a hurry.  BUT I'm going to leave it just because that is what the wood grain looked like so it's "similar" in that way.  Typical ME! :/

Sharing at:

Miss Mustard Seed

French Country Cottage

A New Adventure!

Eight years ago when my husband and I started building our house we were looking for every possible way to cut costs. I was pregnant with my first child and was planning on quitting my job to be a stay at home mom.  This meant that our income would be cut in half and since we were building a house instead of renting one, our mortgage was going to be twice as much as our rent.  SO we decided that we would paint our own house.  We as in my husband.....with a paint sprayer.....and little patience. At that time I had no idea what colors I wanted in my house.  I didn't even know where to begin.  I wasn't even sure about what colors I liked so we ended up painting all the ceilings the same color..which is fine. But we also painted ALL the walls the same color which was like 3 shades darker then the white that we painted on the ceilings. Funny how that '3 shades whiter' kind of turned into a pale pink. :/ Needless to say I ended up with a very big job on my hands because the pale pink everywhere was killing me.  Who would have known that it was upon this large pallet on which I was to DISCOVER my love and passion for painting?  I had no idea what I was doing but luckily I had some awesome friends who were also building their own homes who helped by giving my great painting tips! I quickly started painted most of the inside of my home. (Except for that hallway that already has the paint bought for it but I just haven't been inspired to finish it yet.)  Well I started quickly but it has taken me 7 years to do it all.  There are a few reasons for this. 1: my ceilings are 10 and 12 feet tall so it takes a lot long and a lot of ladder moving to do all that. 2: I've been pregnant for 3 of those years and  3: I have been raising babies for all of those years. That raising children stuff takes a lot of time...sheesh.  After..most..of my house was painted I had made up my mind to start REPAINTING rooms that I was tired of looking at.  Lets just say my husband was less than thrilled to hear about my repainting plans. Probably because I LOVE to multi-task but I'm HORRIBLE at finishing things so I would have like a bazillion dozen things going all at once and he couldn't stand to look of a half painted wall. Well I learned my lesson (on leaving half painted walls) when I went to Utah for 2 weeks and left our master bedroom half painted.  My husband took it upon himself to finish it. He can paint but remember that thing about patience? Yeah, he has very little of it to spend on painting.  My bedroom is now fully painted buuuuuuut......I'll just leave it at that! 
SO what was next?  I had nothing to paint.  I stumbled upon  a blog one time (I don't even remember what blog it was or I would give credit) and the blogger had painted some furniture.  GASP!  I can do that!  SO I zoomed to my nearest thrift store to find my first victims..er...pieces.  I found two, once lovely, side tables.  So I painted, then distressed with a fork and a hammer cause I wanted them to have a rustic look, and then I glazed with some brown.  I thought they turned out rather well for never having done it before.  I bought the 2 side tables for $6 each and ended up selling them to a lovely woman for $100 for the pair.  WHAT THE HECK JUST HAPPENED? That was AWESOME!   Not only did I have fun painting the tables, I actually sold them to some one that LOVED them!  Mind you they were Ethan Allen side tables so the lady got a smoking deal if I do say so myself. My husband thought I was crazy that I had actually done that!  Well, here's the rest of the story....I just acquired a spot at Merchant Square in Chandler, AZ!  I share it with one of my friends and amazing furniture revive-ist Julia from 551 East Furniture Design. I am so honored to be able to share a spot with her.  Not only is she an amazing furniture revive-ist (I made that word up) but she is an AMAZING person as well.   How did I get so lucky? :)  So please, if you're in the Chandler area, stop by and check out our spot, #124.  We hope to have it full or fabulous one of a kind furniture! Also, I want to thank all my followers, readers, friends and my husband and children for all your/their support in my latest endeavour!  Love you all!  

~Booth #124~

Ah, so happy. :)

Pretty in Pink

Remember in my last post where I talked about curves?  Well if not, let me just tell you that I love them.  If I see something with great curves, it's coming home with me.  I went to my local thrift store the other day for a book.  That's all I wanted.  I'd already scored big that week so I wasn't even going to go in the furniture department.  Oops. I didn't walk 'through' the furniture. I merely walked 'by' the furniture but va va voom.  I saw me some curves and I detoured in.  Totally forgot about the book and came home with this.

Isn't she gorgeous in a tacky and gross kind of way?!  She had a chair too!  Yippee!

Oooh yuck!

Well I couldn't wait to work on her. She clearly needed a full body makeover.  Here she is!

~WHISTLE, WHISTLE~

I sure hope she goes to a good home though my daughter is begging me to keep her!

Linen Love

I LOVE this tall dresser.  It was a Craigslist find and I went to look at it, decided it needed too much repair, didn't buy it, went home, had remorse, asked my hubs if he wanted a project, called the lady back, sent the hubs to pick it up the next day! Wipe forehead.

The Before:

All the hardware is OLD and it doesn't match and I love that.  Gives it so much character.  Makes me wonder what this beauty may have seen over the years. 

All the drawers are dovetailed, it's all wood and in great shape. (Now that the hubs fixed her up!)  Love the keyholes.  Love the casters. I love love love the curvy drawers. 

I'm super into curves right now. If it has a curve, it's coming home with me!

Painted in ASCP French Linen (love) and Old White.  Followed by some clear wax, a good distressin' and some dark wax.  The dark wax is to die for. If it wouldn't harm me I might just wax myself up for a good George Hamilton bronze.

I think that crooked pictures are going to be my trade mark. :/   I must be lopsided. 

*Linking up at "Southern Lovely"

and "Reasons to Skip House Work".....you can find the links on the right side of my page. :)

"Miss Mustard Seed"