Here’s a hint….it’s pink. Ok, ok, just kidding. Do you remember that I mentioned that I was going to spray paint the handles that came with the dresser. Well as you can see, I tried it. Still don’t really love them. Last week, I was in Anthropologie and picked up one of their ceramic pulls in pink…the only had 2, and the other one was a little chipped. I thought if it fit the dresser I could order the rest online. LOVE how it looks with the dresser. Very sweet and girly.
I was so excited. I went to my computer to place the order and guess what friends…..they’re SOLD OUT!!!! WHY????
So now I come to you. I spent some time on Amazon and Ebay with no luck. Do you have any suggestions as to where I can find something similar to this? I appreciate any and all suggestions!!! Thanks friends.
It’s been a while since I’ve posted about the progress in my daughter’s room and that’s because, not a lot of progress has been made, unfortunately. I wish I had a beautiful “after” picture to show you but sadly, I do not (yet!). This is what has been done so far…..
I had the headboard shape cut out and I got as far as covering it with the foam and batting. After all of my deliberating on the fabrics, colors, etc., you may remember I decided to cover her headboard with a raffia fabric that I have had for a while.
This was my inspiration for her headboard.
Only to discover that the raffia fabric that I have has a thin foam backing which I learned is not suitable for upholstering a headboard, especially with the shape of her headboard with a lot of curves and flats. Knowing what I know now, I should have gone with a simpler shape, although I love the shape of the headboard. Let’s all say it together class….”hindsight is 20/20“. Very good.
So it’s time to regroup on the headboard. I did decide to go with the John Robshaw fabric for the bed skirt and accent pillow…which of course is on backorder for 5-6 weeks.
I think the design gods are taunting me. Trying to see if I will cave in and change my mind, yet again. But I will not give in. The check has been mailed, fabric has been ordered, and now I wait.
Here is the headboard in it’s current state.
For those of you have done this before, does this look correct so far? Seeing how I have the time to fix it, if it’s not. I have to be honest, this was a little stressful for me. I definitely felt outside of my comfort zone. But I think the most challenging part is still to come…covering it!
Moving on….I have finally painted her dresser. I changed my mind decided to paint it white versus off white so that it will match the trim color.
I haven’t had the chance to look for new hardware for the dresser, but my friend Maria sent me this picture that she found in a magazine.
(She took the picture of the page with her phone, but you probably already figured that out)
The hardware is identical to what is currently on the dresser and it was simply spray painted! I’m going to give it a shot. If I’m not happy with it, then it only cost me a can of spray paint.
In other news, the bedding has arrived from Overstock, and the rug is on order, well, back order, that is. Baby steps, my friends.
On one of my many recent trips to the antique store, I came across this little table.
I was drawn to the size of it and the price…$24! So I began asking myself….do I have a place for this? Do I need this? And the answer to both of those questions was of course, yes.
The small size of the table got me thinking about where I could put this little number. There were so many possibilities. Then it hit me….the landing at the base of the staircase. You can see in the picture above that the stain on the table matches the wood on the stairs, so I knew that would need to be changed. I started thinking about what type of finish to give the table and this is what I came up with.
I am really happy with how it turned out. I was going for a driftwood finish and think I got pretty close to it. I started by mixing white paint that I had on hand with some water then I simply brushed it on…..
and then wiped it off with a cloth.
When the paint dried, the table looked too gray, so I decided to lightly sand it. This made all of the difference and gave it the driftwood effect.
A perfect fit.
One of the projects that I have wanted to get to for while but haven’t had the time for is my daughter’s room. You may remember a while ago I posted my ideas for her room, but I hit a road block when picking the paint color. Originally, I was thinking of blue-gray, but never could nail the right color. The accent fabric that I want to use in her room has a very, shall we say, “complex” color in it……
At first, it appears blue-gray, but against blue-gray paint, it looked periwinkle blue. So after I painted 12 samples on her walls (no kidding), I finally picked the color……BM Violet Pearl. Bingo. We have a winner.
And the best part is the painter’s are here painting her room as I type! The trim getting a fresh coat of BM White Dove. So far, so good.
While I was out scoring my favorite new chair at the antique store, I also found this dresser for her room which is getting made over this weekend in SW Creamy. I plan on changing out the pulls. My mom and I debated on this…she likes them but they are a little too ornate for my liking. Not sure what I am going to go with yet….any suggestions?
I love the details on the sides. You can see where I tested the creamy paint on the dresser(please don’t mind the mess). The size of the dresser fits perfectly in the space. Some of the smaller dressers I looked at were a good size but didn’t offer adequate drawer space. The top drawer even has dividers which will help keep things a little more organized. I hope.
Oh ,and I almost forgot, her headboard frame is getting made today (wow…this is turning out to be a lot of progress for one day!) A sweet reader sent me this link on a DIY upholstered headboard. Maybe I’ll get the chance to cover it this weekend.
Hope your weekend is productive and relaxing.
I don’t know what it is about this chair that I have always liked.
Martha’s Vineyard Chair from here.
Maybe it is the coastal New England feel of it.
image from here
scanned from Cottage Living
image from here
So I was pretty excited when I stumbled upon this little number in an antique store a couple of weeks ago while I was out Christmas shopping.
I was a bad blogger and forgot to take a ‘before’ picture of the chair prior to spray painting it, but it was a dull gray, taupy-brown color. But 10 minutes and a can of espresso spray paint took care of that. The chair has one little defect as you can see here. But the chair only cost me $47 so I can live with it and I can add making a chair pad to my project to-do list and no one will ever know it is there.
The chair is the perfect size to fit pretty much anywhere which is a good thing, however, it can be a problem for someone like me who likes to move things around. It has already made it’s way around the house but I think I’ve decided to keep the chair in the family room…..for now.
around the ole’ Leonard house. For what ever reason, the Christmas decorating has been done in stages this year. It has taken a while to get the place ready for the holidays, but I think it’s as good as it’s gonna get this year. Like so many of you, this has been a busy week….I’m ready to sit back and start enjoying it all. How about you? Thought I’d share some of my Christmas “decorating” with you and what we’ve been up to.
The kids made a gingerbread house from a kit…they thought it was the greatest thing ever! Well worth $9.99 at Walgreens.
Everything was going smoothly…..until it was time to share the icing bag.
We had a few tears…
and a tantrum.
But in the end, they managed to finish their masterpiece.
I tried real garland this year for the first time….it didn’t last long. 2 weeks later I took it down. What a mess!?! So I went back to my Ballard’s boxwood garland.
I used real garland on the light fixture
and on the mantle.
You’ll see that I like wreaths.
I’m happy to report that our tree is still standing.
Please don’t mind the orange extension cord.
The only thing I changed up this year are the bows on the wreaths. LOVE the upholstery webbing. It made such a big difference on my $2.99 Michael’s wreaths.
We made some treats for our friends
and had a Christmas party at school.
We have a Christmas program tonight and then all of the kiddos are off for the next 2 weeks. I’m looking forward to some time off, too! Is your shopping finished? I hope to be finished this weekend. Now if only some elves would come and help me wrap! Stop by on Monday to see my bestie Maria’s house decorated for Christmas…it is something! Have a great weekend friends.
Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving.
After our family left on Saturday, and in between football games, we made it out to buy our Christmas tree. As we were driving off with the tree strapped to the car, I half-jokingly asked my husband if the tree falls off the roof does that mean we don’t have to put one up this year? Well, I almost got my wish. We were about 5 miles from our house when we noticed the tree had slid down and was hanging off the back of the car. My husband got out and re-tied the tree to the car and we drove the rest of the way home with the hazard lights on driving about 15mph. Since last year, I’ve developed a “thing” with Christmas trees because of a little situation that we had. You see, in the middle of the night our tree came crashing down. And when I say crashing down, I mean it sounded like someone threw a brick through the window and shattered glass was hitting the ground. My husband bolted upright and was ready to attack whomever was breaking into our house. I was able to mumble out the words ‘Christmas tree’ before he went on the attack. Sure enough, there it was lying face down on the family room floor in a puddle of water. And that smashing glass sound was the sound of my ornaments. Can you say…. oh crap! We stood the tree up right, mopped up the water and went back to bed, only to find that the darn tree had fallen down again when we woke up. It took everything in me to not drag the tree to the woods behind my house and leave it there…lights, ornaments (what were left), ribbons and all! But we figured out why the tree fell and unfortunately I have no one to blame but myself. Since I wanted the tree to be taller, I stacked up boxes of tile under the tree to give it more height. Somehow when the tree shifted/settled it tipped right off of the “platform” that I had created.
And here is this year’s tree…all 8 feet of it, no plans on making it taller. Finger’s crossed this one stay’s vertical.
Can you tell my daughter helped me decorate the bottom of the tree? She believes in “more is more”. Have you put your tree up? In case you are in need of a little inspiration or motivation, these may help.
via Holly Mathis
via Holly Mathis
via Holly Mathis
I wonder if this one is on a “platform”?
Now, who has done their Christmas shopping??? Have a great Monday.
Do you remember a while ago I posted about the lights that I was having made for my bunk room? Didn’t mean to leave you hanging, but after that post, I was contacted by HGTV.com about featuring my bunk room on their ‘Stylish Bunk Beds’ feature. I was so excited to be asked, but that meant I could not show you my lights until the feature went up on their website. Flash forward 6 weeks and my room has been featured!
And here it is in ‘real life’……
The bunk room is our upstairs “bonus room” which we added onto the house in 2006. I love how light and bright the room is which serves as a guest room a.k.a. sleepover space and playroom. On the other side of the room is my office space which is in desperate need of some organization. I’m not sure if that will ever happen. These days, I’m having my doubts.
My electrician did a fantastic job on the lights. He nailed it. I couldn’t be happier with how they turned out. While I was at it with the lights, I made some other changes to the room (surprise, surprise). I added a board and batten wall treatment which instantly made the room feel different. I also purchased some inexpensive navy quilts from Target. I don’t know if you’ve ever made up a bunk bed but they are a pain in the a**. So I learned that thin quilts are the easiest way to get the job done. I splurged on the John Robshaw fabric which I used to make the large 24″ pillows. To save money, I backed the pillows in a solid, navy linen.
The small pillows I made using this fabric from Calico Corners. Much easier on the wallet.
The bunk beds from Ikea were my attempt at trying to get as close to a built-in look as possible, obviously for a lot less. These little bunk beds came in a flat box with about 200 pieces. I looked at my husband and said “omg…I may be in over my head”, and I’m the type that won’t go down easily without a fight! We assembled the beds and then I painted them BM ‘White Heron’ to match the wall color. Can you say nightmare? Don’t forget, we multiplied this times 2!! I still don’t know if I’ve recovered from that project.
The seagrass rug is from Pottery Barn as well as the navy and white striped rug. I purchased the throw from Serena and Lily. I love the little bit of color that it adds to the space, plus it is super soft.
The P-L-A-Y letters came from Joann’s and I painted them navy. I purchased the small children’s chairs a couple of years ago from an antique store and I also spray painted them navy. I made the chair pads from a seersucker shower curtain that I purchased from Target.
In this picture you can see the chairs and fabrics a little better.
I think that pretty much covers everything in the room. Thank you so much HGTV.com for asking me to be a part of their feature.
TGIF. Busy week. Sick kids. Now I feel like I am fighting off something. Hope I stay healthy. We have a fun, football filled weekend coming up. How many more ‘f’ words could I fit into that sentence? Here’s a few more……
But on a bright note, Sharon of Ms. Magpie Designs featured the planking in my kitchen on her ‘Friday Fave’ feature. Thanks, Sharon!
Here is a picture of the planking in my kid’s bathroom. I’m happy with how it turned out….now if I could just find the time to paint the cabinets.
Have a great weekend.
Image via 2008 HGTV Green Home
I have had this picture on my inspiration board for as long as I can remember. It is an antique belgian bakery cabinet. When I found a space for something similar to this in my dining room, I enlisted the help from my friend’s husband, Kenny. He has amazing carpentry skills and can build just about anything. I handed Kenny my chicken scratch drawings and dimensions and he went to work. I like how the HGTV cabinet is low and long, but for my space I needed something that was the right scale in comparison to my fireplace. My design inspiration started with this coffee table that I purchased at an antique store about 5 years ago.
I knew this coffee table had another life in it. So off came the top…
Here it is…a sad, plywood box.
I know, it’s not looking so good…but of course I couldn’t resist filling it before it was even finished. The next step was attaching the boards from the old coffee table and adding some decorative trim to give it the look of an old piece of furniture.
The old table top was not wide enough to cover the entire top of the cabinet so I added a strip of wood and stained it to match the existing top. I then went over the entire top with the stain to give it a darker finish.
After I stained the top, I stained the plywood frame. This was definitely not my favorite part of the project. If you have ever stained anything you know how strong the smell can be. I went over the stain with cream paint that I had on hand…I think it is Behr Swiss Coffee? Afterwards, I went over the cream paint with sandpaper and sanded away. I’m very happy with how it turned out. Everything that I have in the cabinet I already owned. My favorite piece is the large wire basket that I purchased from the antique market.
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