Postcard from Hibernation #5

These days, it's a big deal for me to post more that one thing per...six months. You know I'm psyched if it's two in the same month! I must be responding to the sweet comments you've left on my last blog post. Seriously, thank you so much for taking the time to say nice things to me...I tried to email you back if your address was attached to your comment, but if it wasn't, please know that I am thankful for your words!

I went to a local charity tag sale last Saturday. That's less than two weeks ago, girls! I am on some kind of hot streak. I picked up this red chair with cute-but dated-fabric for $15. (Nina and Henry discovered that Mama had the camera out and insisted on helping.)

We have crazy warm weather in northern California (this Midwestern girl is not used to 60 degrees in November, I can tell you). So I headed outside, whipped out the paint stripper and went to work.

After stripping, I added some color with Minwax's Dark Walnut stain, followed by two coats of satin polyurethane. Then I dug in the fabric bin for this yellow plaid that I bought a few years ago on clearance. Thanks to my husband's muscle and the staple gun, the "reupholstery" was a cinch.
It's a perfect spot for my Thanksgiving turkey pillow, and I love walking by it and knowing that I rescued this baby from ugly, all for $15. Happy Thanksgiving!

Postcard from Hibernation #4

Happy November! I truly can't believe it's been over four months since I've sent you all a "postcard." I think about you, and blogging, frequently. I still sit on the couch after the kids have gone to bed and read about all the wonderful things you are doing. But I am still very much smack dab in a season of life that takes all my attention. Blogging continues to take a back seat to Nina (who is loving kindergarten!), Henry (who still attends "mama school," as he calls it!), supporting Brent, and building a life here in California. I admit that I often daydream of living in my forever house, close to my family and back in my Ohio hometown, but for the time being...I am here. So.

That doesn't mean I haven't been busy! Just that my teeny tiny California ranch house is bursting at the seams, filled with projects that I do in hopes of giving them a more permanent home someday. Here are a few examples!

I found this ship at a local resale shop for $5. Though Henry is enchanted with pirate ships right now, I didn't so much fancy having one in my living room.

I took off the metal sails, covered the red bottom with a dark walnut stain, and stitched up some simple blue ticking stripe panels for some new sails. Cute!

Next, I searched for this table for about six months, biding my time on Craig's List. I wanted an antique that I could refinish to match my current dining room furniture, which I inherited from my grandmother years ago. Here it is (before), covered in at least three layers of brown paint. Pretty.

After many...many...many hours of stripping paint, I finally got it down to bare wood.

A few coats of dark walnut stain, a few coats of polyurethane, and I finally have a sideboard that is worthy of the rest of my grandmother's furniture!

Of course, the California ranch doesn't have a dining room to put it in, but a girl can dream!

Lastly, here is a lesson for all your husbands. We were out one Saturday afternoon and passed by a garage sale. Just that morning, my husband had said to me "We are not buying any more furniture while we live here!"

Um. You can see where this is going.

We spotted this huge, sturdy bookshelf for $11.

Let's pause a moment to take in it's ugliness, combined with layers of blue goo.

I cleaned. He sanded. I painted. He added new beadboard backing. It was a joint effort!

But Nina now has a home for her growing collection of books. And I just love the beadboard and cream paint combination!

Just remember this story when your husband tells you to stop acquiring projects. :)

Well, that's about it from around here. I'm sorry it's been so long! Here's hoping you're all doing well...I miss you!

Postcard from Hibernation #3

Once upon a time (15 years ago, to be exact), I purchased this dresser for $20 at an estate sale. (I blogged about it here if you'd like to know more!) It was a horrible shade of green, and I spent the whole summer stripping and refinishing it.

My dresser gave me a lot of good years in it's refinished state. One day, however, I started wondering if, perhaps, it needed a little makeover. After all, how good would any of us look if we hadn't changed our style in 15 years? Don't answer that.

(And yes, that is a photo of me in overalls, circa 1996. See? We all need a little upgrade sometimes!)

About this same time, I stumbled across Miss Mustard Seed's blog. That girl is a genius! She does some amazing things to furniture, and I fell in love with this dresser:

So, when I had a few days of nothing on the calendar, I whipped out my paintbrushes and got to work.

My dresser looks like a whole new piece! I used leftover off-white paint in my garage, as well as some wall paint from my kitchen (Sherwin Williams Comfort Grey). Then I just sanded the edges and roughed it up a bit.
This girl's got at least 15 more years in her now!

Postcard From Hibernation #2

Hi everyone! I have done some research on behalf of us all, and I just had to share. First of all, let's revisit a photo of my humble little rental house in California, right after we moved in:

Ah, the green outdoor carpet. The abandoned flower beds. Lovely.

This spring, I've been trying to clean things up out there, on a very limited budget. I don't need Buckingham Palace here, folks. I'm just going for inhabited. So here's the look today, with some flowers, hanging baskets, and updated accessories:

And speaking of accessories, here's my new discovery: how to age a mirror (specifically the one now hanging in my outdoor entryway). I bought the frame below, complete with six individual mirrors, at a local thrift store for $12. And I love it when the original price is still on there. ($99.99 at Cost Plus World Market!) Please excuse the glass cleaner spray on the mirrors. I was impatient...you get the idea!

I took it apart (unscrewed the backing and took out the mirrors) and painted the frame with some off-white paint (Krylon Gloss Ivory), followed by rubbing on some stain (Minwax Dark Walnut) to age it. So then I had a situation where the frame looked all cute and vintage, but those mirrors were winking at me, all shiny and new. Can't have that!

So I looked up a tutorial of how to age a mirror (this one), and came up with this process. It works!

I started with some paint stripper (Ace Extra Strength Stripper) to scrape off all the paint on the back of the mirrors. Then I switched to paint thinner and scrubbed the backs with a steel wool pad. Then I washed them all off with some water. The last step was splattering liquid bleach on the mirror backs to get that spotted appearance, then blotting it off after a few minutes. (For more detailed instructions, follow my link on how to distress a mirror.)

Can you see how the individual mirrors look all beat up and old now, slightly foggy and age-spotted? Not bad for $12! I already had the rest of the materials on hand, but even if I hadn't, this project is much less expensive than all the other adorable-but-out-of-my-price-range antique mirrors I have seen out there!

Give it a try if you want the antique look without the price tag!

Dealing With My Dated Den

Sorry for the silence last week, girls! I had some kind of flu bug rip through our house and it took us all down with it. Feeling better now, and I have saved the best for last in my new house Before & After series!

Behold, the horrific Before photo of the den, from the day we toured it:

And the same room, minus the laundry, clutter, huge television and dated wood paneling:

From another angle, here's a During shot:

And the same wall, after three coats of primer and one coat of "Pearl" by Olympic:

I love the built-in bookshelves and the iron chandelier I got to hang from the ceiling. (Note: I did not love the built-in bookshelves when I had to paint them all four times!)

This house was built in the 1950s, and I'm telling you, those fifties chicks knew how to work the storage. I have lots of cabinet space in here for all my crafty business, plus a cubby that holds all the over sized stuff. I just sewed a few squares of fabric and hung them with a tension rod to hide the messiness!

This bulletin board was part of the room already, and I really like how it looks now that the wood paneling above and below it is painted. I've already used that work table for a few projects, but it also doubles as a catch-all for mail and the usual junk!

A close-up of the bulletin board, with some of my inspiration clippings, fabrics and paint samples. I love having a place to hang up all this stuff!

I also have a little basket for my latest magazines, with a pen handy to circle stuff I like. I know, I am a big geek who gets all excited about a marker and a pile of magazines! I realized that as I was typing it.

So there you have it! How I Made Over Every Room In Our House With Paint for Under $500. Too bad there's not a House Painting Olympic Team. I would SO try out for that.

But now I'm off to take a nap!

Master Bedroom Changes!

Hello again! Today I'm sharing the updates we've made to the master bedroom. Just like in Henry's room, you're gonna have to look closely to see the changes, because I didn't get a true "before" photo. But here's the master bedroom with it's white walls and general messiness.

And here's the same room, after a little lovin'. The walls are painted "Bristlecone" by Olympic (just like Henry's room; I am nothing if not frugal!).

As you can probably tell, the room isn't all that big. Compared to my master bedroom in Colorado, or even the one in our previous California house, it's a tight squeeze. And would I love some crown moldings or hardwood floors? Um, hello? Do you know who you're talking to? Of course I would! :)

But it's a comfortable room, and at the end of the day I feel safe and cozy there. That's got to count for something, right? The patchwork quilt (Pottery Barn) adds to the general coziness, and it's nice for the winter.

But I've already tested my "summer look" and definitely plan on rolling this out when it's time to open the windows again! Like it?

A girl's gotta have options, right?

Kids' Rooms in a Rental

This is fun! You guys are a great audience, and thank you for being so complimentary of the changes in our house. Are you ready to see what else we've been up to?

You'll have to look close to see the before and after differences in this post! I wanted to share with you my son Henry's room, but, as usual, my impatience prevented me from getting a true "before" photo. But just notice the white and boring walls before:

And the after: Henry's room is painted "Bristlecone" by Olympic. It's a nice taupe, with some slight overtones of gray. I'll keep saying this: adding paint is the only thing we did in here, and it made such a difference between feeling like a rental and feeling like a home.

We added our usual cowboy accessories in here, mostly focusing on warm browns and reds as the accent colors.

The rug works well in here, although it probably wouldn't have been the one I'd choose if I had an unlimited budget. We liked the price tag though. (Free! It used to be in my husband's basement office in our Colorado house.) The curtains came from Pottery Barn Kids. I love them because they aren't too babyish and can grow with him as his room changes.

And just because this photo cracks me up, I had to leave you with one of Henry in his new digs:

He looks like he could be reading the Wall Street Journal with a latte and a muffin. Nope, it's just his Thomas the Train books. (Big business for a little man of almost two years!)

Upgrading the Playroom

OK girls, you know I must like you if I am willing to share this photo. It will help you to understand how nervous I was about decorating our new house. Without further ado, I give you the "before" photo of the playroom, taken on the day we toured it:

Fluorescent lights. Dated vertical blinds. White, white walls.

But I shouldn't have worried. This place has been fabulous for us in so many ways, and once I added some things to cozy it up, it felt like a new room. It sits on the far side of the of the house, and is accessible by both the kitchen and the family room...an ideal playroom for the kids!

We painted the walls (Vanilla Brandy by Olympic) and added some curtains to the sliding doors. Just opening the blinds made a huge difference. And of course, adding some family photos made it feel like home!

I know this room will never win any design awards, and that's not the point. But I thought it was a great example of how some cozy furniture, rugs and artwork can distract you from the fact that this could be a rather sterile room.

It's a good fit for our young family. It's practically indestructible, and we need that these days. And it reminds me never to judge a room based on first impressions!

Being Happy With Small Changes

Guys, I think I may be setting some kind of record. We are less than two months into the lease on our new house, and I have ONE...ROOM...LEFT...TO...PAINT. Can I get an Amen?

I can't exactly say why I am so inspired to get things done around here. Maybe it's all the upheaval we've had for the past few months, but I am ready to give my family a place to settle down and make a home. I seem to have some kind of crazy energy that kicks in between the hours of 2-4 p.m. each day (nap time, folks!). Here are my latest results:

This is our front porch. If we owned this place, I'd be scouting house painters to take care of that wood siding. As it is, though, I am content to just do some small things. Starting with that green outdoor carpet. Buh-Bye.

Here is the same front porch a few weeks later. I ripped out the green stuff and found a perfectly serviceable cement step underneath. It was a bit discolored from years of carpet glue, but I doctored it up with some furniture stain. I spread the stain with a sponge brush, then immediately wiped it up with paper towels. Done!

The cement color isn't an exact match, but believe me, it's an improvement!

And here is the even less exciting post-Christmas version of my front porch.

Renting a house is giving me lessons in "good enough" decorating. It's the cousin of "distraction decorating." And I am becoming intimately involved with both!