Friday Favorites- Classic Blue And White

Friday Faves and Kitchen Project Update

Well we're into week….I don't know, I think week four of our kitchen project.  As I'm sure the DIYers out there know only to well, projects take more time than you anticipate, especially if you have to work!

Hubby and I have been putting in long hours at work so we only really have Saturday and part of Sundays to get things done.  Now I'll admit, I am a wee bit impatient…every room in the house is a mess due to the kitchen work zone and living in a mess drives me crazy!

The bead board ceiling and crown moulding is done for the most part, just a few paint touch ups to do.  The crown was a bear to install for hubby, I don't think we have a straight wall in the whole house! The cabinets are getting a facelift too with the leftover bead board, plus we're adding glass inserts to two full doors and the tops of two other doors.  I have one almost complete…the primer is drying as I'm writing this…I finally, after thirty plus years of living here, have a new fixture over my sink!  I also found an old fixture at a second hand store the perfect shape and size for over the table and I am giving it a makeover as well.  I got to use more power tools too, installing the bead board and trim on the cabinet doors!  I think I did a pretty good job on those mitered corners.

Now, for my Friday Faves….Blue and white is such a classic color scheme!  Crisp and clean looking it works well in any design style or room!

 You can see all my Friday Faves on my Pintrest board along with the photo sources!

Thanks for stopping by!

Tina 

Refinish, Repurpose, Rejoice! - Fabulous Furniture Transformations

Transformation Tuesday!

One of my favorite transformations is taking old and outdated furniture and giving it an updated look and new purpose.  Paint is an easy fix to refresh and give new life to an otherwise drab piece.  Really, it is ok to paint wood!  Now, I'm not talking about painting over a beautiful antique piece that has a value, but the old worn out, chipped looking ones.  These pieces just need a little TLC and possibly some modifications to make them work for a new purpose.

If it has a good structure and interesting details are the key elements to consider when repurposing or refreshing furniture.  We all have those furniture pieces that have been handed down to us from family, usually something no one else wants!  Often, when buying a first home, the daunting, and not to mention, expensive task of furnishing the place can be overwhelming, so utilizing any gifted furniture pieces is a good idea. 

For instance…I think every ones parents or grandparents had this china cabinet in their formal dining room.  Well, just look at the possibilities here!  This piece can be used in a kitchen, bathroom, hallway or even a playroom to store books and toys.  Re-think the purpose that these pieces in the rooms that need storage.

Wall paper or fabric make a great accent on the back of these furniture pieces!

A wall paper was used here also to give the plain drawer fronts some interest and texture.

From drab to fab in just a frew brush strokes!

Two classic chairs become one great bench!

Old dining room chairs get a new look!  We removed the arms and completely upholstered the host and hostess chairs for a softer look.  The frames of the remaining four chairs were painted in an oil base paint for durability.

Extra seating is always needed! I love how this transformation has a dual purpose!

I've repurposed and reworked many pieces over the years, some more than once!  The trick to using hand-me-down furniture is to not use them in all in the same rooms.  If you do, you end up with a mish-mosh of a room design.  Think of how each piece will function in different rooms, then make a choice of what pieces work best in what rooms.  Then you can decide on a color scheme and design for the finished piece acording to the rooms design.

I hope you enjoyed my furniture transformation favorites, and are inpired to think outside the box for your next furniture project.

Until next time!

Tina

You can see more, as well as links to the projects shown in this post, on my Refinish/Repurpose Pintrest board here!

Transformation Tuesday, Two Exterior and interior Makeovers

Happy Tuesday folks,  I hope your week is off to a great start!  Did you get any weekend projects done? If not, I hope this weeks Transformation Tuesday projects will get the your ideas flowing and give you some inspiration for next weekend! 

The weather here in the northeast is is getting chilly, but we've had some really nice autumn days.  Pretty soon it will be to late for the outdoor projects so roll up your sleeves and get started before it's to late!

I'm sharing two projects today, one my hubby and I did on a hot July weekend this summer on our front entry.  And in case it's already to cold for out door projects in your neck of the woods, or you have guests coming for Thanksgiving, I found a great bathroom fix up project that you can easily do before the turkey comes out of the oven! Well, maybe not that quick, but easy!

First up: Our front Entry.

We have an older Cape Cod style home, quaint but plum full of projects, even after 30 years of living here!  I swear, by the time you get around to all the necessary projects, the first one you did needs an update already!  This is the real world, not a TV show fixer upper!

Front Garden

 Here's a shot of the front of the house and garden in early spring, (don't mind the dead grass) the crabgrass fills out beautifully later in the season! There is along concrete sidewalk leading to the front door.  That's another project I'd like to tackle some year!

Front Entry

One of the quaint, but unfunctional, elements of the house is this front entry.  Although it's great for wiping your feet and getting out of the weather, it really is too small inside to do much of anything decorative. So inside I gave it a new coat of paint and called it a day. The blue stone landing stepping stones that were there seamed to have sunken into the earth over the years causing the rain water and ice in the winter to make a pretty deep puddle in front of the door.
When I got to pulling back the overgrown ivy, grass and Pachysandra vines that were there I discovered the blue stones were actually much wider than they appeared and quite a bit thicker than we thought!

Blue stone Slabs

After much sweat and tears, this is what we dug out of the earth! Three large blue stone slabs.  The largest was over five feet long and five inches thick!  Now let me remind you, this was a hot weekend in July and we were trying to get most of the digging done before the sun came over the roof of the house to the front…we didn't make it! Yes, that is hubby taking a much needed break!

Step One-Dig Out!


So, after seeing how large these blue stone slabs were, the plan was to dig out an area the width of the entry and  wide enough to make a nice landing area with a step up from the sidewalk.  We had these old cobblestones and used them for the border, they were just the right height for a step up.

"Set in Stone"

After laying a thick bed of paver stone base and sand we set the blue stone making sure there was a slight pitch to one side for water runoff. Mind you, moving these stones into position was no easy task!  Thank God my hubby has learned how to use his head instead of back over the years! 

Finally all stones in place!

Now there is a nice size landing area for the large planters as well as a small step up which give a feeling of grander entrance.  The rain no longer puddles and hopefully the snow and ice this winter will be easier to manage.  I sure hope we don't get the amount we had last year!

Next up: quick and easy bathroom makeover

I found a photo on Pintrest of this bath makeover project and though it was a great transformation!

It was done by fellow blogger Katie Bower of BowerPower . You can see the full story on her blog page.  The transformation shows how a little paint, new lighting and a few accessories can have  a powerful effect on a small space.  With home improvement stores like Lowes and Home Depot changing out cabinet hardware, faucets and lighting is budget friendly solution to a quick and low cost update.

                         

Painted Vanity

Afresh coat of pain is an easy update to a dated vanity.

Great Fabric

New lighting

You can see more of Lowes creative Ideas on Pintrest.

Ok, it's Tuesday, you have a few days until the weekend…what project are you going to tackle this weekend?  So, get all your ideas in place and your supplies and materials ready before the end of the week so you can transform your space!

Thanks for stopping by, and please feel free to comment or ask questions. I'd love to hear from you.  You can also post a photo of your transformation on the Facebook page here!

Don't Throw Out That Table, Transform It!

It's Transformation Tuesday!

This weeks transformation is a simple project I did a while back.  I have a sofa table that was being used as a television stand in my living room.  Although it worked great, there was not enough storage to hold the cable box, DVD player and it was a little to tall.  So, as I was looking at it one day a light bulb went off in my head!

Now, I love to repurpose things, mainly because it's cheaper than buying new but also because I never seam to find exactly what I'm looking for when sourcing products, and when I do it's usually costs way more than I'm willing to spend!  Any item, weather a piece of furniture or an accessory, can be altered and repurposed to fit the intended need.  In the case of the sofa table all it needed was to be shorter in height and have a shelf for storage, easy fix!

So here is my sofa table before the transformation. It was about thirty inches tall and had an open Cabriolet,  (Queen Anne) leg design that I liked. The simple design and distressed finish is elegant but also casual, so it worked well in my very "lived in" living room.  Our TV gave out, so we had to buy a new one. Of course, it ended up being a bit larger than the old one, so there was no room for the equipment on top as I previously had it.  I also wanted to hang a display of five botanical pictures on the long wall above the TV, however the height of the TV and table made it difficult to place the pictures so they wouldn't be hidden behind the TV.  After the light bulb went off,  decided to cut the legs of the table down and add a shelf for storage.

Sofa table before transformation

I figured out how high I need the table to be and proceeded to cut out about a twelve inch portion of the  legs making sure to save the feet.  I would use these later, under the new shelf.

Funny looking now, but just wait!

As I was figuring out how to add the shelf and feet my wonderful hubby entered the room! He just shook his head, "What are you doing now?" It really shouldn't surprise him to find me knee deep in a project….and he seams to always have a much better, and easier, way to accomplish what I start out to do!

His ingeneous method was to add the shelf first, making it the same size as the top of the table, and fastening the leg to the top of the shelf, then adding the feet to the underside of the shelf. All attached with wood screws. That idea got him a special dinner!

Since this shelf was not original to the table, I had to match the distressed finish from the rest of the table.  This was not very difficult. I just used some left over cream paint, added some distressing with my putty knife and some gold accent paint and called it a day!

I am very happy with the result.  All the issues were addressed and the gallery wall above the TV really makes a focal point.  If I was to even find a table like this in the right size, it would cost a small fortune.

This project cost me nothing but an hour of cooking!

I hope you got some inspiration here to find something you can repurpose or refinish from what you already have.  So don't throw out that old thing…find it a new home!  If you think you could use a piece you already have but not quite sure what to do or how to use it, send me a photo, I'd love to help!

What are you going to transform today!

Tina