Burl's Room

If you'd like to see what Burl's room looks like, I did a post about it on my other blog.  You can see it here, Where Lil' Man Hangs His Spurs.

I've Started a 2nd Blog!

This one will focus on my love of decorating, makeover projects, roadkill rescues (that's furniture, not animals!), and thrifty finds. That way I can keep the original blog focused on the family kids.  If you joined me from one of the link parties recently and became a follower, I hope you'll join me at my new place The Cozy Old Farmhouse.

My First Shabby Makeover

Ok, so I actually did this a few months ago and I shared the pictures with my friends on Facebook, but never blogged about it. So for those of you who've already seen this, I apologize for the repetition.

So in my "hunting and gathering" phase of getting ready for Halie's Shabby Chic room makeover, I searched and searched Craigslist and thrift stores for the perfect bed. But it was so hard! Everytime I thought I'd found the perfect one either it was already sold, the seller never responded to my inquiry, or it was too expensive. Then I came across this one that a friend was selling. I almost passed it up without a second glance, but, after reading many inspiring blogs on furniture makeovers, I did give it a 2nd look. And I pictured it white, shabbied up, and with a little extra detailing to make it more feminine. Underneath that dark wood ugliness, it really did have great lines. Perfecto! At last I'd found a bed for her.







I sanded it down a bit, bought a $4 scrolly thing (that's the technical name) and epoxied it on. This was when we still lived on the ranch in Florida, so our nosy horse, Toothpick, had to check it all out, sniff it, bite it, and knock it over while I was trying to prime it.




Here it is all painted, but not distressed yet.





And here it is after some distressing with sandpaper. I had read about glazing furniture to give it an aged look and to bring out all the details, but I decided I didn't necessarily want it to have a "discolored" aged look. I wanted it to be white and just have a shabby/chippy look. But, I still wanted to emphasize the details in the scrolly thing a bit more. So I used a very fine paint brush with some black paint and filled in the lines here and there to make it stand out more.

Again, here's the "before."

And here's the "after," (in our new house), with the bedding added.

Gonna link up to:

Bicycles and Bathrooms?

While walking through Walmart last evening, in the bicycle aisle no less, I was struck with a decorating inspiration/problem solution for my upstairs bathroom. Once I get a little extra $$$, I shall reveal my ingenuity. : )

Halie's "Kitchen" is Finished!

So, remember at Christmas when my dad gave Halie this kitchen set he had made her?

I wanted to take it a little further once we moved and actually decorate it and make it into a "real" kitchen for her. It's finally finished now!

I slowly got it all put together, but decided it needed a sign declaring it to be "Halie's Kitchen." Because we spell her name different than most girls with her name, there's never anything "pre-made" with her name on it, such as mugs, keychains, signs, etc. So I knew I'd never find one with her name on it and to have one custom made would be way expensive, so I decided to attempt it on my own for the first time.

I had thought to buy some wood, new, from Lowes or something. But I happened on this great little piece at the Restore for.........wait for it....$1. Can't beat that. I have no idea what it was originally, maybe a skinny cupboard door or part of a shelf. Dunno. But I did know it was exactly what I was looking for.

So I took my new sander (my 30th birthday present from the Hubster - yes, I specifically asked for it, he almost had a heart attack) and sanded off the shiny finish.

Coated it with a couple of coats of white paint as a primer base.

I put a coat of Krylon Candy Pink on the back, then dusted off my left brain and did the measuring to put in the hanging hardware evenly and correctly.

Then I finished off the front.

I used my Cricut to cut a stencil.....

Painted it....

And voila! My first sign. Not bad for $1, huh? She was SO excited to have a PINK sign with HER name on it!

So here is her kitchen, all decked out in pink.

My sister, Dee Dee, gave me 3 of these pink flowered, handpainted frames she found at a yard sale. This larger one was missing the glass and the backing was kind of falling apart. So I painted the cardboard backing with black craft paint and then used white paint to make it look like a chalkboard. No glass needed. I used "Chicken & Fries" because every single time we go out to eat, it doesn't matter where it is, Halie always wants chicken and fries. : )

My dad bought her this A-dorable apron set! And see that little pink trash can in the corner? From the dollar store.

It originally looked like this.

I have to admit, I saw this idea in a magazine used as a pen/pencil holder, and I ate it up in a heartbeat! It was perfect for all her cooking utensils.

Also at the dollar store, I got her these white plastic baskets to serve as her vegetable and fruit bins in her fridge. Sickeningly cute right? : ) And no, she does NOT keep it that organized. That was a little staging on my part. That orange pitcher was mine when I was little and loved to play house.

One more look for ya. Oh yeah, see that little salt and pepper shaker set on the counter to the right of the sink? My mom sent her those, they were originally a bright red and yellow. Spray paint works wonders. Meemaw Cantrell sent her the pink microwave, and the pink mixer was from my sister's husband's parents, who were here visiting from England at Christmas and were sweet enough to buy her a gift. It was perfect!

Halie LOVES it, so what do you think?

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Linking up to Funky Junk Saturday Nite Special

Another Thrifty Redo

I'm cookin' right along and got another little project for Halie's room completed this weekend. She had these great, shabby, white picture frames in her nursery when she was a baby. Of course, I didn't bother to take any before pictures of them so I had to go hunting for one that showed them.

Sorry about the blurriness, I tried cropping the picture so you could see them better. Anyways, they had red mattes and black and white pictures that Robert and I had taken. They were super cute, but alas, red no longer matches and she's no longer a baby, so I wanted to update the babyish pictures.

So one night while Robert was at school (the same night I painted her lamp) I got them out and painted (yes painted) the mattes pink. I figured, why go buy new ones when I could just paint them? I already had the paint mixed up for the lamp so I just used what was left and did these too. Then they sat next to my messy (creatively disorganized) scrapbooking armoire for about a week waiting on me to be struck with inspiration. I searched through my stash of paper, but had nothing that was calling out to me. I knew in my head what I wanted to do, but my paper stash wasn't cuttin' it. So, on my trip to Hobby Lobby to buy the trim for her lamp, I perused (walked up and down about 50 times) the scrapbook paper aisle until I found the combo I wanted.

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Then the paper sat on top of the frames (next to my creatively disorganized armoire) for another few days. Finally, this weekend I'd had enough of walking past them and decided to "git r dun!" So I dusted off my Cricut and set to work.

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This is what I came up with.

It doesn't show up well in the pictures, but the pink paper on the words is actually polka dotted paper. It looks kinda plain in the photos, but looks cuter in person.

Robert hung them up for me, but then I decided the top of the toy organizer looked too bare and needed some height.

So I stole the newly revamped lamp from her dresser and moved it over here. I think I like it there.

Now that means I have to restyle the top of the dresser. Sigh......one project at a time.

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Linking this up to Funky Junk's Saturday Nite Special.

A Fun Lamp Makeover

So most of you know that I'm in the process of redoing Halie's "big girl"room in Shabby Chic style and that I'm also revamping mine and the Hubster's room as well. We've had a pair of these lamps on either side of our bed for a few years and they're beautiful and I've really liked them. (Please excuse the water stain on the shade on this one. I forgot to take the "before" picture of the other lamp and had to settle for this less than perfect one after the fact.) But since the style of the room is changing they no longer matched my vision of what I want for the room. So I had them in the collection of yard sale stuff waiting for Spring.

But then I realized, wait a minute, the style is perfect for Halie's room, it just needs a little help. So I whipped out my white and red craft paint and mixed up some pink and went to work. Then I went to Hobby Lobby and found THE most perfect little trim to dress it up and give it that extra little touch of purdiness. I think I probably did it backwards, I should have picked out the trim first and matched the paint to the trim, but I was too excited to wait until I could get to the store. And in the end it all worked out perfectly anyways. Yay me! : )

So here she is.....

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Ain't that just the sweetest lil' Shabby Chic lamp you've ever seen?!? I have to say, I'm quite pleased with how it turned out.

While I was at Hobby Lobby, out of curiosity, I checked out the lamp aisle. I found something that was somewhat similar for..........$50!! This one only cost me the $7 for the trim. It could have been even cheaper than that, but I didn't have a 40% off coupon. (Waaaaaa!) But again, I was too excited to wait until I got one. Oh well.

On what was supposed to be a quick trip to Goodwill the other day to return some shoes, I came home with this......

...... and turned it into this.

I'm not sure I'm completely satisfied with the arrangement yet, and obviously I still need to fill that picture frame (I'm so terrible about that) but it's coming along nicely. Still on my "to do" list for her room is to redo the 80's style, honey oak and brass dresser.

So what do you think? And what about you, have you upcycled or restyled something fabulous lately? I'd love to hear about it.

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I'm new at this, but I'm going to attempt to link up to Donna's Saturday Nite Special over at Funky Junk Interiors. (LOVE that blog!)

Old Faithful Soon to be Retired

So this is the comforter set that Robert and I have had for our entire marriage. The throw pillow collection has changed over the years, but the comforter has been a constant. It was the only one we could agree on back then and I have loved it. It has lasted and served us well for 8.5 years. But alas.......I believe it's time has come.

It works out well that it's becoming full of snags, holes, and worn areas because I was ready for something new anyways (and no, I didn't put those holes there on purpose just so I could redecorate, lol!).

I've come across a few pictures in the past year or so that are along the lines of what I'd like to do. I like a few of the elements in all of these pictures, and they are the inspiration for a bedroom makeover. I'm going for a sort of simple cottage type feel with lots of white and touches of red, with a mixture of patterns to soften it up.

(I love the curtains in this one!)

I'm excited because the other day at Home Goods I found my first two pieces to help me get started.

I'll let ya know how it all turns out. : )