Thursday, November 15, 2012

color grading.

This dresser was in my room when I was a teenager.

Since I am terrible at choosing wall color,
I have about 80 paint samples in my garage.
5 of them were used for this update.

The rope pulls are my favorite part.

They were also the only things I had to pay for,
so this "new" dresser only cost me $2.50.




Tuesday, November 13, 2012

stenciled floor.

Our Guest Room carpet was thrashed:
stains from hair dye,
worn parts in high traffic areas,
and some mysterious melted spots...
I know it doesn't look that bad in the picture,
but I was not a happy camper.

I have envisioned something like this for a while now.
I think it's beautiful, and I wanted to recreate it.

So, while Eric was on a business trip, 
I ripped up the carpet, pulled out the tack strips, 
scrubbed glue, and patched many holes and seams.
I was afraid I was in over my head when after 2 days of hard work
 it still looked this bad:





But, I carried on.

I tried to purchase the stencils in the picture above,
except they were no where to be found ...
so, I made my own.



I painted the base coat, stenciled the designs, 
applied the poly floor finish, and 
vuala!






I'm in love.

There are a ton of imperfections 
due to the crappy sub-floor and homemade stencils,
so instead of hiding the mistakes, I highlighted them.


It's better than I even imagined.








Friday, November 2, 2012

desk subtlties.

I got this desk for $20 at our neighbor's garage sale.

It's a good little desk, 
but its knobs weren't doing anything for me.
So, I changed them to match some other aspects of the room.

I got this drawer organizer for free from a different neighbor.

I didn't like the light color, 
so I changed that too.

My new office chair fits right in.

office chair.

This chair was sitting out on the curb in our neighborhood.
I could see it's inner beauty immediately.

I'm not sure what its previous owner was thinking
when they drizzled varnish all over it.
It also had a busted seat that needed repair ...

but after a makeover, it's inner beauty was able to shine forth!


Isn't it darling!