The Dresser

Here is a dresser that my Mother-in-Law gave us. It was the very first bedroom suite her and Jake's dad had when they were married, which I think is pretty cool. It is in great shape and is a well made piece of furniture. But, as you can see, it is not much to look at. So, I decided to give it a make over!

I started out by taking the hardware off and then lightly sanding it. I knew that I could not just paint this piece without sanding it with a high-powered sander or priming it, so I decided to go with primer. I had heard about this Kilz spray primer on a couple of blogs and decided to try it out. It worked so well! It was also super easy to apply. I just sprayed on a few coats and then sanded it down a bit after it was dry. The thing that I have learned with spray, though, is that it is hard to get it really even. The one thing about this particular primer is that it takes a lot to coat something. The dresser took 2 entire bottles.

Here is the dresser with the primer

Jake wanted to get all new hardware, but I did some research and found that the hardware we liked ran from $4-$12. This dresser requires 12 handles, so it would have cost us quite a bit to get all new hardware. I actually love the original handles and finally convinced Jake that I could make them look great. I bought a metallic silver spray paint and painted all of the handles.

After I primed the dresser, I used a flat black paint over the entire thing. Wow, it took forever, but it turned out so great!! I really like the way the flat black looks with the shiny silver handles. I also painted a mirror to go with it.

Here is the finished product!

Here are a few things I learned from this project:

-Good primer is a MUST

-The finish does make a difference. Flat has a completely different look than gloss, etc.

-Spray paint takes a lot less time than paint, but is less even.

-Polyurethane anything that is going to get a lot of use

Until next time,

J and M

Very First Furniture Painting Experience

Disclaimer: I do not plan on starting a blog devoted to DIY since I do not have the time, patience, or money, but I thought it would be fun to record my experiences. Maybe some of you fellow amateur DIYers can learn from my mistakes.

My Mother-in-law gave me this coffee table for my house with my college friends. It has been a great coffee table and I actually really like the style. I decided it would be a good "color pop" piece in our new apartment. I wasn't quite sure how to go about painting a piece of furniture, so I did some research. I found that you do not always have to sand a piece before painting it, which was a relief because I do not have a sander. I also found that you can spray paint furniture rather than use plain old paint. I also decided I wanted to paint it blue, not a baby blue, but a light, greenish blue. I wandered the aisles of Lowes today trying to figure out exactly what I wanted to do. I found ready made Valspar paint samples in a color I really liked. So I decided to go with regular paint instead of trying the spray paint.

I started by lightly (very lightly) sanding the coffee table with a sandpaper cube. I decided to forgo primer, because I wanted a worn look with the wood showing through. Not sanding first really worked for this piece because I liked the wear and tear. After I sanded it, I wiped it off and began painting it in long strokes with a regular paintbrush, simple as that.

Or so I though. Little did I know it was going to storm right in the middle of this project. I was under my porch, but the wind blew the rain in right after I was done with my first coat. I kept moving the table, but old house means leaky roofs and water all over the table. Finally, the rain slowed and I was able to salvage my piece. I really liked the wood showing through after the first coat, but continued on to the second. I really liked how the paint looked, but I was not sure about the color. It turned out more baby blue than I was hoping.

so here is the before

And after

I wasn't sure how I felt about the table at this point and was starting to question my creative ability. I thought maybe I needed to do something else with it. Then, Jake came home and told me how much he hated it. He thought that it was too blue, which I agreed with. So the next day I headed out to Lowes (again) and bought some glaze. I sanded around the edges of the table to give it the aged look. Then, I mixed the clear glaze with some black paint that I had. I then glazed the table by painting on the glaze and then immediately wiping it off. I am so happy with the way it turned out and so is Jake. It looks great in our apartment and gives the right amount of color to the room. I consider my first furniture painting a success!

Here it is!

Until next time,

J and M

Housewife Syndrome

I have always heard of "nesting" and that it is something that pregnant women do. Although I do not plan on having kids anytime soon, since being married I feel as though I have been nesting. I am going to just call it housewife syndrome for now. Nothing makes me happier than cleaning and organizing. I spend all of my time that I am not working cleaning, organizing, vacuuming, doing laundry, cooking, researching DIY projects, and dreaming of ways to decorate our house. Yes, I might be spending copious amounts of time on pinterest as well.

Right now, we are living in the house that I have lived in for the past year with 4 of my college friends. It has been so much fun living with these girls and the house is awesome for a very old, college house. Fact is, though, I am ready to get out. I have one of the biggest rooms, but I feel like Jake and I do not have enough space. I also do not have much to work with right now when it comes to my need for decorating and organizing. We are moving to a small, one bedroom apartment this month and I could not be more excited. We are so ready to have a place all of our own. Until then, though, I will have to stick to vacuuming and scrubbing the kitchen twice a day to help with my housewife syndrome.

I have also been couponing. You are probably imaging those ladies on extreme couponing with huge binders and stockpiles of laundry detergent and macaroni and cheese. I cannot promise that won't be me eventually, but right now I only have one small expanding file of them. The other day I decided to put my coupons to good use. I went to Walgreens and bought $70 worth of toilet paper and cleaning supplies. This may seem like a lot of money, but I now have 3 months worth of toilet paper and a large stockpile of cleaning supplies, soaps, and trashbags. Also, I saved almost $30! I was proud of myself.

What does $70 of toilet paper and cleaning supplies look like you ask?

Exciting right?? Well you may not thinks so, but I sure do!

There will be plenty more posts reflecting my current condition. I will be posting about DIY projects, decorating our new apartment, cooking adventures, and much more! I am currently working on painting all of our furniture. As many blogs as I have read on this, you think I would be a pro, but I am so nervous. All of my supplies are purchased and I am ready to go so I will be sure to post the before and after pictures. Wish me luck!

Until next time,

M (since J obviously does not have much say in this post)

Honeymoon

I plan on posting about each event from the past couple of weeks, including the wedding. Just a small disclaimer, though, they will be out of order. Everyone has been asking about the honeymoon, so here you go!

The day after our wedding, Jake and I began to get very nervous. We had discovered that a tropical storm was headed for South Carolina, not so conveniently right in time for our honeymoon in Hilton Head. We checked the weather non-stop and found that the storm was supposed to make landfall Monday night. We had planned to leave Monday morning and possibly spend time in Myrtle beach, but we decided to drive down to on Tuesday instead. We left early Tuesday morning and spent the afternoon and night in Charleston at my parents house. It was good to spend a little bit of time with them after all of the wedding chaos was over. We couldn't check into our condo in Hilton Head until 4 on Wednesday, so we decided to go to Savannah that morning.

Savannah Highway. What tropical storm?? The weather was perfect.

The drive from Charleston to Savannah was gorgeous. We spent the morning walking around downtown Savannah and getting lunch at a place on the river. Savannah was beautiful. I loved the architecture and the artsy feel.

The trees were amazing!

After we were worn out from walking all day in Savannah, we headed to Hilton Head. We checked into our cute condo right on the beach and next the the main shopping center. We hit the beach right when we got there for a bit. We then went to the Piggly Wiggly to get breakfast and lunch supplies. We wanted to find a really good place to eat nearby and had heard that The Big Bamboo was good. When we go there, we were seated, but then all of the servers ignored us for about 15 minutes before Jake and I decided to leave. We went to another restaurant in the shopping center that we discovered was owned by a Western Kentucky Alum.

Thursday we went to the beach at 10 am and spent the whole day there. It was perfect weather and the beach was great despite being very crowded.

Jake is ready for the beach!

Despite all of the laying out I had already been doing, I got extremely sunburnt. I have a picture of it, but that would require me posting a picture of me in my swimsuit and that is not going to happen, sorry. Three weeks later and I am still peeling from this sunburn. Peeling might actually be an understatement. I am shedding an entire layer of skin from head to toe, just like a snake. It is disgusting and despite my best efforts of exfoliating and moisturizing, people are still looking at me like I have a disease.

After the beach, we decided to make dinner at the condo. When I say we, I mean Jake tells me what to cook and then watches me cook it. But I guess I probably wouldn't want him to cook anyways haha.

The next day we rode wave runners in the morning. It was so much fun! We then explored South Beach and ate lunch at the Salty Dog Cafe. After that we went home, took a nap, and got ready for dinner. We took a walk on the beach before heading out to a restaurant with live music in Harbor Town. We listened to live music and walked around. We also got to see a really pretty sunset.

Jake loved the wildlife. He chased crabs and picked them up. He made me take a picture with him and this dead, giant horseshoe crab. He also made me chase a raccoon that was eating crabs so I could take pictures of him.

The next morning we took a walk on the beach, packed up, and drove the 9 hours home. The honeymoon was pretty short, but we were both ready to get home and start out new, "normal" life together. (Normal being used loosely here)

Until next time,

J and M