furniture painting....

this is what i did today.

i painted this blah black and beige bench for my client to match the rest of her kitchen decor. she is going to use the bench along with some other chairs to go at her kitchen dining area...it's gonna be so cute! she was lucky to find this pretty bench second-hand on craigslist...it just needed a little facelift:

in addition to painting the black part, i stained the seat with a "java" furniture stain:

here is a little collage i made of the piece. i did it in a putty color, and distressed it and glazed it to make it look old - it actually looks better in person (everything always does - argh!). but i like the way it turned out, nonetheless!

she found this bookcase secondhand as well, and i gotta say, the red paint on it reallllly pepped it up. i love it now!

before:

after:

bedroom fix-up!

last friday, we finally closed on our condo! (seriously - 3 months of living here, negotiations, etc etc.)

sooo, yesterday, i took it upon myself to totally fix up our bedroom - something i had been putting off until we closed, just incase something happened and we didn't stay here. the deal actually almost fell through more than once. after having 3 months of living here and thinking about what i could do, i was chomping at the bit to DO something! i had planned to paint our bedroom the popular charcoal color "down pipe" by farrow & ball, but about an hour before i went to get the paint, i decided it was a little to cold and modern for me, and i decided to pull from a color that somehow made its way into our family room - chocolate brown

here is the "before" pic (it's gross, i know):

after! i painted the walls chocolate brown, and i painted this faux-bamboo headboard onto the wall. (it's not done, actually, i still have to do some brown linework between the criss-cross patterns to make it look overlapped, but i didn't have time last night!) i had planned, initially, to hang the starburst clock above the headboard, but when i got in there, the ceilings just weren't high enough, and i wouldn't have been able to make the headboard as tall as i wanted. (i will post a little tutorial on the headboard once it's finished)

one of the few items i purchased for the room was this extra-long white rod for the window. i did the ol' hang-it-longer-than-the-window-to-make-a-statement trick. 

i really love all the pops of white against the dark walls.. i think the brown/yellow/white combo is lovely, if i do say so myself :) i think it's got a sort of 70's-palm-springs-jonathan-adler vibe, with the faux bamboo headboard, and all!

the starburst clock makes its official debut. i think i am actually going to pull in a small white bookcase that we have in here, to go below the clock, later on. i also like this dark color on the wall because it helps disguise our monster ugly tv (to the right, in this photo)

here are some photos i framed and hung on the left side of the wall. i framed some leftover art paper i had, to bring in some more yellow, and i plan to replace the cat picture with something else in the brown/yellow/white color family. the "prefontaine" poster is jordan's and it's something he always had on his walls. he's a big runner, so he loves prefontaine, and i wanted to have SOMETHING in the room that represents him :)

i also sprayed my vintage laundry hamper white, and recovered the top of it in this yellow fabric that i already had.

i also quickly sewed these pillows to go on the bed with the fabric. i will probably get prettier pillows to go here (i think i'm actually going to get some jonathan adler pillows for my house for christmas!), but these work for now. i hand-sewed them without a sewing machine, so they are not the best craftsmanship, but they work for now. i already had all the bedding, so i was workin' with what i had :)

so everything's not totally done - but this is just what i got done yesterday, and i am happy with it! i would love to get a really graphic and awesome rug for the floor, so if anyone sees one in a happy yellow/white pattern, let me know!

bamboo

i re-did my entire bedroom today :)

here is a "preview" photo.....

stay tuned for pics of the whole thing!

clock progress.

so, i told you that i can't take credit for this one - i give credit where credit's due, and this is to miss michelle at three men and a lady blog. she showed her sunburst mirror project a while back, and i thought it was genius! 

i loooove the vintage feel of these mirrors, but they're often in metallics that have really worn and gotten yucky over time. in the case with mine, it was actually a clock, in the center of a plastic-mold like thing, and had some broken pointy things. i snapped off a few of them, and thankfully, was able to glue them back on every other spoke to make a nice consistent look, and to keep the vintage feel.

as you saw from the pics i posted earlier, i glued bamboo skewers onto the back of the clock, in a pattern that i just sort of made up as i went along. 

then, i spraypainted everything white, with leftover spraypaint i already had. i took the little hands off the clock before i sprayed it, and cut out a piece of paper to cover the clock's face. i cleaned the face once i was done painting, and now i just have to put the hands back on!

doesn't it just look lovely lying on our parking lot floor? heh...i moved it from the dropcloth so you can get the drift of what it will look like hanging over our bed! i am going to paint our walls dark this weekend, and this will be the statement piece hanging above the bed. i think the silhouette will be nice...and for such a bold piece, i paid only $5!

incase you missed it, this is what the clock looked like initially (and those little pointer-things are what i was talking about when i said i snapped them off, then glued them back on, on top of every other outside curly-cue) :

just some stuff.

i got this awesome (the one all the way to the right) vintage towel at a thrift store the other day. isn't the pattern great? similar to the pattern that i did on that orange and white table. anyway, when you flip it over, the colors are reversed. 

aaaand, a preview of my clock project. i haven't had a chance to finish it, because it's been dark outside when i'm getting home from work, so i can't spraypaint...but it will be finished soon enough, my dears.

me, looking rather frightful whilst hot gluing. note: it was cold.

another note: i stole this clock idea from someone else, by the way. i will explain when i show the entire process!

little white table

also painted white last week: this little breakfast table. i found it at a thrift store...i think it's a really interesting table, and i like its spindle legs. i know that these chairs are a) too big for the table, and b) way too big for this space; but, a) i really like them and b) i worked really hard recovering them, oh, and c) everything's a little bit snug! hah.

seen better days? yes.

this horrible creature is about to get a purty new makeover. stay tuned.

SALE!

some pieces i painted a while back are now for sale!

two (heavy) wood box tables. they're really unique, and i love the sort of moorish shape of the wood in the sides. my client now has little square baskets that fit perfectly inside them for sale as well, and glass has been cut to fit the tops, which is included in the price of $150 for both. the color is a nice sagey green; it's called "grape leaves" by behr. these make really unique coffee tables, and they're great because they're easy to move around as well.

email tish, at tisha_dawn@hotmail.com, if you are interested.

sweet little turquoise night stand...she has decided to have me paint something a little brighter to contrast the blue walls (the pillows she had made for the rocking chair are blue as well, so when it all came together, it was too much blue!), so this little nightstand is for sale.

80.00, email tish, at tish_dawn@hotmail.com

both of these pieces are located in atlanta, and i'm pretty sure prices are somewhat negotiable!

when in doubt...

...paint it white. 

i have a little (healthy) obsession with painting everything white. it's cheap, it looks crisp, and it helps open up small spaces.

i painted our tv console white yesterday. if you remember, i have painted it royal blue, stripped it, stained it, wallpapered it, and now painted it white. its going through a lot with me, my ol' trusty console. (now don't you think a white flat screen tv will just look fab on top? hehehe, that's my plan...)

i also cleaned the old original hardware by soaking it in vinegar, and scrubbing it down. it took away the tarnish, and now it's shiny again...yay! in some cases, there's nothing like the original hardware, and with this piece, i have tried other knobs and such, but keep coming back to the original. it's classic, i guess.

i also got this sweet little faux cactus plant yesterday. mika eats all plants that i try to grow in this house, so this little guy adds some green without being eaten by our feline friend.

mika's new favorite spot: looking out the breakfast nook window. he also has some white paint stuck to his nose from being  a little too curious when i was painting the console.

i-dee-yuhs

superkewl (my first screen name on aol was 'kewkidz3'. i shared it with my brother. kewl, huh? hehe)

from here

aaand another cool pattern from an after on design*sponge:

do you see what i see?

SIX FOOT WHITE CHRISTMAS TREE FOR 99.00!

i should've never clicked on the stupid garden ridge ad...i already have a red vintage tinsel christmas tree, but the white one is AWESOME (so is the black one...and the pink one...and the silver one...) maybe i'll wait until they're 50% off after christmas...or maybe not

cabinet color

since we are finally approaching a closing date here, i am getting mentally prepared to do a lot more painting! the first thing i said when jordan found these condos, and brought me to look at them, was that, although the kitchen appliances and overall kitchen look was clearly "nice" (black granite countertops, cherry-stained cabinetry, and a beigey stone backsplash with black/stainless appliances, for the visual), it was definitely NOT my style, and i would be painting the cabinets. he agreed that that was okay, and gave me the ok to paint them when the time came. 

i've always loooved nicole from making it lovely's kitchen, and crisp white cabinetry. more than likely, i will paint our cabinets white, but it is fun to dream about...

mustard-colored cabinets! (when i came up with the color mustard yellow for the kitchen, i googled images of mustard cabinets, and this is the only photo i found. i actually remember the photo from a domino magazine story about cooking)

though i do love the mustard cabinets, i think the combo of those with our black countertops would read too "bee"-like to me (i'm weird), so i probably wouldn't do that. it's a cute look though. 

more than likely, i will spice up the white cabinets with cool new hardware. 

has anyone ever retiled on top of existing tile? or is that stupid? it's probably not smart. how do you remove tile? is it hard? i really hate the "stone" backsplash we have...suggestions?

princess room is complete...for now

finished my princess project today! i will have to go back after their bathroom remodel, so i will get better photos then (my camera died right while i was taking these :( )

here is the mirror i painted (it was initially brown wood, leftover from their nursery). i did it in a shabby chic distressed finish, and did this decorative crest in the top, middle. the little thing in the middle is a pumpkin princess carriage. the pink and white stripes will echo the fabric on the corniceboard, once they are installed. i wanted to do a little tromp l'oeil ribbon and medallion to make the mirror look as if it were hanging from the wall...a bit more "princessy" if you ask me :)

the ceiling. i want to show more pics of it, but this is when the camera died!

here is the mural! i know it's hard to see -- i will post better pics of it when i go back to paint the bathroom. the rainbow was a request of sara and mary...there are also little bumblebees they requested, and a butterfly. at the request of their mom, there are two little blondeheaded princesses walking up the road.

the mirror, with the dresser i painted before!

their older brother got a little jealous of all the painting action going on in their room, so he got a UGA helmet in his room :)

accent walls are not so evil

normally i hate hate hate "accent walls". you know, the rooms where people get lazy and "just want to add a little color to the room" and only paint one wall a color? yeah, those. for some reason it really bothers my sense of balance to only paint one wall, and i find it lazy.

anyway, i have decided to give myself an accent wall. heh. 

when we FINALLY close on this home (supposed to be on the 31st of this month), i am going to paint my bedroom, and accent one wall (where the bed is) in a pattern like this:  

(minus the messed up peeling drywall)

*image from here

pretty, pretty paper

i love this desk/area/look:

image from design*sponge

re-covered chairs

i recovered these chairs this weekend as well..you may remember them from about a month ago, when i found them at a goodwill. 

not the best lighting for a photo (it's rainy and dreary in atlanta today!), but you get the drift! i used this sweet ikea fabric, and have plenty left over...i think i'm going to maybe get some pillows made for our bed with the leftover fabric. anyway, i love the way they turned out, and stay tuned for the awesome table that i found to use them with...i'm going to make a little breakfast nook with the trio :)