Springified Blue & Red Distressed Dresser

I told you I had a lot of furniture pieces in the archives!!

This one was a gorgeous piece I did for my sister last year. 

Dressers are my favorite to redo- they are usually uncomplicated, make a huge impact and are fun to paint!!

I'm a terrible blogger and couldn't find a before picture of this piece anywhere.

You'll just have to imagine a red dresser with lots of wear and tear on it. 

This is the best I have showing off the previous red color: 

It was a pretty, deep red and it wasn't that the color was bad.

My sister just wanted a lighter color to match the new bedding she had bought.

She bought a pretty, pale blue that matched the bedding and luckily, red & blue are her colors so distressing this piece was definitely in it's future :) 

It took two coats to cover and then I used my sander to distress all around the dresser to bring out some of the original red hues. 

The original hardware was some pretty ORB pulls & knobs so they stayed. 

I love the card catalog look the top drawers give off. 

I love all the distressing around where it would naturally wear anyways. 

The red was the perfect pop of color against the pale blue!!

And it had the perfect amount of pretty lines & grooves to give off some beautiful curves.

Plain, flat dressers aren't nearly as fun.

I love to have some curves to show off :) 

You could easily still achieve the layered paint look by painting a coat of red on first and then the pale blue over it. 

Distress and you've got a gorgeous pop of color underneath to show off!!

Similar to my black and white dresser I redid here. 

Sad that I don't have a dramatic before & after to share but we can all agree that it's a gorgeous, spring-happy piece, right? 

I'm thinking another red & blue piece needs to make an appearance soon :) 

Like me on Facebook. Follow me on Pinterest. Subscribe to my feed. 

A Colorful Spring Chair Makeover

I guess that one good thing that can come out of being sick..yet again... is catching up on some blogging :) 

My goal was to blog at least twice a week this year but so far I have seriously had to try to get one a week up. 

But it's all about what I can manage right now so I try not to beat myself up about it & hope that you'll still love me anyway!

I have a huge amount of furniture makeovers to share with you and I'm going to try really hard not to share them all back to back.

I'll sprinkle some wreaths, parties & printables in there too :) 

But for now, I'm thinking you'll love this colorful makeover as much as I do!!

I had a client that wanted a fun, girly chair for her daughter's room. 

Luckily I had a super cute chair with fun spindle details just hanging out in my garage.

It didn't look like much at the beginning...

This picture was taken after it was cleaned up a bit.

It was worn & grimy to begin with.

And seatless. 

poor chair couldn't even be a chair. 

I gave it a good sanding and cleaned it all up to prep for paint. 

Next came replacing the seat.

I got a piece of MDF and traced around the seat to get the right shape.

Bring in my trusty jigsaw and within a few minutes, we had a brand new seat to cover.

I got a piece of two-inch foam and used a serrated knife to cut it to fit the shape of the seat. 

The serrated knife is the perfect way to cut foam because it slices through it easily if you use a back and forth motion. 

After creating the new seat, I grabbed my gorgeously- bright fabric I had picked out and recovered the seat.

I love recovering chairs because they're so quick & easy.

Instant satisfaction. 

Then I flipped the chair upside down and drilled screws into the bottom of the chair into the new seat to secure it in place. 

Oh, and before I screwed the new seat on, I painted the whole chair my favorite glossy white. 

Just in case you were wondering :) 

I've handpainted a few spindly chairs before because there wasn't a spraypaint in the color I wanted and I definitely try to avoid that whenever possible :)

Those spindles are not fun to hand paint. 

So spraypaint makes it quick & easy with amazing coverage. 

Isn't it looking so bright & happy? 

I'm in love with all the spring colors in the fabric. 

I have another cute chair that is going to get a similar makeover for my little girl :) 

And of course, the drab to fab colorful before & after...

Doesn't everyone need a little bit of color in their lives?
I'm thinking this cute chair is just the ticket :) 

Are you as spring-happy about it as I am??

Like me on Facebook. Follow me on Pinterest. Subscribe to my feed. 

Vintage Mantel Makeover

Ah...I feel like now most of the holidays have passed, it's finally time to start focusing on the things my heart loves the most!!

I have so many awesome furniture redos stored up to share with you and I was waiting until all the Christmas craziness died down...and then Valentines :) 

So now hopefully the weather will start cooperating and spring will finally start to peek out. 

Because that means all kinds of paint projects which I'm dying to do!!

I hate cold garages and not being able to paint. 

It makes me stir crazy!!

Soooo it's not entirely perfect painting weather yet but I have several projects from last year (yes, I've been saving them up!) that I can't wait to share.

And today's furniture redo had me drooling.

One of those pieces that a client brought it then I secretly wished I could pretend to 'lose' so I could have it for myself :) 

I mean, check out this amazing vintage mantel she scored at a flea market: 

I know, be jealous.

Cuz I sure was :) 

She had all kinds of fun plans for it to be in her daughter's room and make it into a book nook area.

It was in amazing shape & had gorgeous curves and corbels on it!!

She wanted it a bright blue which made me incredibly happy!!

(Painting pieces white & black for people gets old after a little while) 

Bright punches of color is where it's at!!

She chose a gorgeous aqua and wanted a distressed finish on it. 

I'll just let you sit and drool over it for a minute :) 

I loved loved loved the color of the raw wood underneath.

Not terribly dark and no crazy oranges :) 

I sealed it with a clear wax for protection and a smooth silky finish. 

And doesn't my milk glass look gorgeous up on it? 

I'm telling you, I've had my eye out for something similar to this ever since I redid it.

In. Love. 

This was one of my favorite pieces I've done- so simple & effective. 

The bright blue drew the attention to it that it completely deserved.

Here's the beautiful before & after: 

Are you as in love with this piece as I am? 

And I know it looked absolutely amazing in her daughter's room!!

Like me on Facebook. Follow me on Pinterest. Subscribe to my feed. 

DIY Wedding Vows Wall Art

Only a few days left until Valentine's Day!!

I can't believe February is already nearly half over. 

What the what? 

It was just the New year...and now this!!

We had a fun little snow storm over the weekend and now that we've had one 'real' snow this year, I'm dying for spring to come. 

I need some sunny days stat. 

But in the meantime, I've had a few little love projects under wraps to share for Valentine's day. 

You can check out my ruffly Valentine's wreath here and my 15-minute Valentine's Mantel too. 

This project is actually one I made last year to showcase me & hubby's wedding vows.

Hubby is very sentimental and loves when I make something that has to do with us. 

And we got married last year just a couple weeks before Valentine's Day so I decided to make something that would show off our vows that we had written to each other. 

So this is what I came up with...

It's all my favorite things!
Rustic wood, distressed white, subway art and sweet hubby!!

Here's what I used: 

*Scraps of pallet wood

*Paint pens (blue & white) 

*Chipboard letters & stencils

*2 square frames

*Our typed vows

It was a bit tedious and messy but totally worth it!! 

This was before my Silhouette days so I opted to use chipboard letters as my lettering on the sign but I wanted it to be painted on so I could distress it.

I laid out all the letters where I wanted them to be...you can sketch your design out on paper first to get a better idea of how big you need your sign to be.

After sanding my pallet wood down really well, I laid out all my letters.

I used a white paint pen mostly to trace around my letters and then filled certain words in with a blue paint pen. 

And I just hand-sketched the arrows on to fill in space. 

For our vows, I had two square frames on hand that were the perfect size for the project.

(I believe they were from the Dollar Store) 

I painted them white and then distressed them to bring out that gorgeous dark wood color.

I typed up our vows on the computer and then printed it on some very light patterned paper. 

Hot glue did the trick to secure them to my sign :) 

Before adhering the frames to my sign, I took my sander over the whole thing to distress and fade some of the words.

You know I can't stand a perfect finish- it has to be a little distressed :) 

If you want perfect spacing and lettering, you could definitely cut out the vinyl on a Silhouette or Cricut but I loved the hand-painted feel against the rustic wood. 

Hubby says it's his favorite thing I've made so far and it has a special place in our bedroom so we can read our vows & remind each other of those special words whenever we want. 

It's the perfect valentine's gift but really, it would be perfect anytime!

I'm hoping to get little man's valentine's up soon with a free printable but we shall see how that goes :) 

Hope you guys are having a great week!

Like me on Facebook. Follow me on Pinterest. Subscribe to my feed. 

A Quick Valentine's Mantel Makeover

Who else got a snow/ice day yesterday?
We got drizzles of ice and the world shut down :)

But me & little man got a day at home so that was worth it. 

I usually don't create mantels for all the little holidays...I like to do the big ones and then get to stare at the mantels for a while :)

But I was in the process of making a few valentine's projects for a client and decided to throw together a quick Valentine's mantel for the photo shoot. 

And why, yes, yes I do already have my spring mantel up in case you were wondering. 

I'm ready for it!!

So I literally tore down my spring mantel, ran around the house to quickly find some 'love' related items and threw together the mantel in about 15 minutes.

That's effort, ya'll. 

And I'll apologize in advance for the not-so-great picture quality. 

I got tired of fighting the terrible lighting and my camera that evening. 

So you get what ya get :)

It went more white & neutrals than in-your-face reds but I like the small touches it had :) 

Apparantly, I'm not a big red person...so I didn't have a lot to grab when I was throwing things together. 

But I had plenty of mushy signs :) 

The "Love" print is my beloved MadebyGirl print that I won several years ago. 

It was perfect for the main focal point of the whole thing. 

You might recognize my DIY initial carving from a while back...it usually hangs in the master bedroom but it was too perfect to not make an appearance on anything centered around love. 

The "sweetheart' sign was one I made a few months ago when I changed some things around in the master bedroom.

Me & hubby love singing this song to each other so I whipped up a fun sign for us to be reminded of it. 

The garland is for a client of mine who loves mustaches like crazy so it was fate :) 

I added a few pieces of milk glass, some glittery hearts and a couple birds to finish it up.

So...not bad for a 15 minutes change-up, huh? 

Do you change your mantels out for all the little holidays? 

Like me on Facebook. Follow me on Pinterest. Subscribe to my feed. 

Valentine Interchangeable Felt Wreath

I've felt crazy unproductive for the last few weeks. 

Valentine's is nearly here (like 11 days away guys!) and my valentine decor is sorely lacking.

I've done a couple projects over the years but I have about a half of a box filled with pieces to put out. 

Sad times. 

And I've got great ideas swirling around in my head...just have had no energy whatsoever to put them into action.

Take for instance the fact that I wanted to make a new Valentine's wreath...well actually I just wanted a new wreath in general once the Christmas decor got packed away. 

Usually, I'd have it knocked out in a day.

Two at the absolute most.

This wreath took me nearly three weeks to finish.

Because  I'm lame. 

And this first trimester + work + just keeping up with the house

has been enough to do me in everyday. 

So this wreath took it's own sweet time to get finished.

And there were several times I nearly didn't finish it because I didn't like where it was going.

But I love how it turned out so yay! 

Whew. 

All that & I don't even have great tutorial pictures to share. 

So I'll point you to what the wreath started out as... my original felt wreath. 

It had seen it's better days and needed updating.

So I started by taking all those tiny circles off and baring it back down to the straw wreath form: 

This wreath form is h.u.g.e and took forever to fill. 

But here's the rundown on supplies: 

*A million sheets of white felt 

(Just kidding, more like 18)

*Grey & White fabric (quarter yard) 

*Burlap Ribbon

*Random scraps of red, blue & burlap ribbon

*Twine

*Sewing pins

*Black Sharpie

The tutorial is basically a mix of my original felt & fabric wreath and my most recent square felt wreath. 

I decided to use square pieces of felt rather than circles because it made the wreath so much fuller. 

Most likely because the wreath form was so huge. 

Plus circles are a pain to cut out :) 

Here's my gorgeous finished product...I absolutely love the white ruffles against the fun pops of colors!!!

If you want to save a little time and add a fun pop of personality, you can do the little trick I did :) 

Before pinning on all 1,546,324 squares, I cut a strip of grey & white fabric that I found at Hobby Lobby and pinned it to the inside circle of the wreath.

Just stretch it and pin as you go...the inner ring of squares you add on will cover the seam where the fabric pins to the wreath form. 

It helps you save time plus I love the pop of pattern it gives it!

Once your fabric is pinned into place,

add all your felt squares. 

Just cut, pin and repeat about a million times. 

(Did I say a million times?? Because it really is...basically) 

After it was all filled, I wanted to add some more color to it plus a little vintage. 

Best of both worlds, right? 

Let's talk the cute burlap banner first. 

I used some wired burlap ribbon I had on hand and cut little pennant banners from it. 

Then I took a black sharpie and drew lines down the centers to mimic the look of a grain-sack.

Because they make me happy in a weird way :) 

Then they were glued to a piece of twine and strung across the wreath.

Pin in place. 

Super easy to remove when I want to change it out! 

You can leave just the burlap banner if you're wanting to stay simple & rustic.

But I wanted more color & texture. 

So I added a mini rag garland. 

I love that it took a bunch of my ribbon & fabric scraps.

Some were leftover from our wedding which adds the 'aww' factor to the valentine's part of the wreath :) 

I pinned it onto the wreath above the burlap banner and went ahead and made another one perfect for spring so I can change them out. 

(and yes, I'll share pictures of that when the time is right!) 

I love how simple & texture-filled it turned out

and I love, love, love that I can change out the banners for different colors & holidays.

Make this pregnant, exhausted momma happy :) 

So there we have it.

The one (& possibly only) Valentine project I've had up my sleeves so far. 

Are you loving my new little (er, huge) wreath? 

Anyone else severely lacking in the Valentine decor department or is it just me? 

Like me on Facebook. Follow me on Pinterest. Subscribe to my feed.