Job for the Professionals: Exterior Home Paint

When it comes to painting the inside of our home, we roll up our sleeves and get to work.

Andrew (brother) & hubby Joseph painting the living room in 2008.

But now, we're getting the exterior of our home painted and that, my friends, is a job for the professionals - no doubt about it!

Our house was bleach white inside and out when we bought it, and over the last 3.5 years we've put some color on the walls. Now it's time to warm up the outside.

Here's what it looks like now:

And here's a computer image of what it should look like when the professionals are finished:

Photo courtesy Dunn-Edwards computer program.
Colors: House-Rustic Taupe, Garage-Mesa Tan, Trim-Finest Silk

I love it! The consultants at Dunn-Edwards were so helpful in narrowing down the color. Do you know how many shades of beige there are?!? We painted most of them on our back wall.

The winning color is the bottom right (Rustic Taupe).

Our neighbors' homes are both a shade of tan so the tough part was finding a shade that we liked that wasn't too similar to theirs.

The painters come in the morning to start the transformation. I'll post a pic of the finished product.

What jobs around the house do you call in the professionals to do?

Reveal: Vintage Vanity from trash to treasure!

I am so excited to reveal a mega-transformation of the vintage vanity!

Quick recap: I picked it up from someone's curb -- in the bulk trash pile!! It was in bad, bad shape, but I saw the potential of beauty. After all, it was in pretty good structural condition.

My husband, Joseph, wasn't convinced at first. He told me to give it a good look once we got it home, to make sure we didn't need to put it right back in our bulk trash pile!

But after a little sanding... and taking off a lot of veneer, it was a blank slate.

I started by adding a little wood decor to the top drawer, since once I peeled off the old veneer there wasn't much detail left.

And then it was time to put some color on this bad boy!  I primed it with KILZ spray paint primer - super easy. Great coverage and fast-drying.  

Then, I had a tough time picking out a color -- I mean, do you know how many shades of white there are?  So I searched some of favorite blogs and went with the advice from a furniture project from Before Meets After. I went with Glidden's Muslin White. I found this blog on Pinterest and love it - a lot of great furniture transformed into treasures! 

So back to the vanity. Once it was painted white it looked amazing! Totally transformed!

But it still needed more work.

The top was bowed from previous water damage. It was worse on the left side.

I really didn't want to replace the top - I just didn't want to start tearing this piece apart.  So I tried some wood glue and I needed some muscle. I grabbed a 55 pound weight to help hold it down.

Now, for the fun part! Ok, it's all been fun, but I was really excited about the glaze.  I debated between using a metallic silver glaze or a black antique glaze. I went with the silver and loved it!

Before the glaze

After some glazing

This piece has come such a long way. Here's a look at the stages of the drawer:

You noticed, one of the drawers is missing. It was a perfect opening for a basket to give it some more color and style.

I bought 5 baskets before I found one that fit! Thanks, Target!

But I did need need to do something to cover two pieces of metal that would have held the drawer in place.

So I got some help from my husband to put a board on the bottom that would serve two purposes: cover the metal and raise the basket a little bit to make it fit better.

Once he cut the board, he used the table saw to cut a ridge that fit nicely over the metal pieces.

 Then we glued it in place and voila!  A cute little basket fits right in place.

So here's what the final product looks like!

Before & After

I just love how the silver glaze accents the details ever so slightly.

This has been my favorite project yet! And the clue I found inside makes me think it's at least 50 years old.

Gorgeous Cutting Boards

Finding a gift that is special and meaningful can be hard.  During Christmas, Joseph and I struggle with finding the perfect gift for each member of our large families - and I've got to admit, a lot of the times it comes down to gift cards.

But for Christmas of 2009, Joseph wanted to make something special for our family, really special.

When he showed me what he wanted to do, it was easier said than done, but it was worth the work.

He made gorgeous checkerboard cutting boards - MADE them!! Joseph was the brains and muscle of the operation and I was his helpful assistant. :)

We started with loads of boards -- a rich purple heart and hard maple. I don't have pictures of every step, but we did have a nice system to get these boards done. We had big plans of making about 10-12 and each one had to be glued twice, so once all the boards into strips we glued one each night.


The picture below is what it looked like about halfway through. It started as 8 strips of wood, then we glued them together alternating purple and maple. You can see form the photo below that there are several different sizes of the strips to make the detailed checker board look.

So in the photo above, we had already glued 8 strips together, then cut them into even more strips the opposite way. Then, we flipped every other strip long-ways to create the pattern. Then, there's more gluing and drying overnight.

Look at all those cutting boards!

But they're not done yet!

They needed a lot of sanding, and Joseph took a router to the edges to make them rounded. He also routed some grooves to act as handles underneath.

Then all they needed was a nice top coat to make the wood absolutely POP!

This was such a rewarding project! Each time we gave them to a family member as a gift, they were blown away that Joseph made them.  It was a lot of hard work but we were thrilled with how they turned out.

I should mention that half the battle of finding Christmas gifts is that we're the only ones who live in Arizona so when we go back to Louisiana we have to load up everyone's gifts (hence the gift cards!). I wish I had a picture of our large suitcase packed full with a dozen cutting boards. Talk about HEAVY!

Source: These cutting boards were made with instructions from awlfreeplans.com.

Wood chairs reupholstered

Finally, I can sit in one of my redone chairs!!

These beauties have been ready to reupholster for a few weeks, but I've been side-tracked by the vintage vanity and, well, life.

I love the contrast of the gold fabric and dark, rich wood. Looks good with the "new" table, too.

3 of my second-hand projects: Chair, table, buffet

How's this: I've been eyeing this gorgeous gold fabric for about 2 weeks. I spotted it one Saturday, went back to show Joe the next Saturday - but it was gone! I was bummed, so I went back this Saturday to find a new fabric. As I was checking out the clearance rack... I found the gold fabric from a few weeks ago! Instead of being $13.99 a yard it was marked down to $7 a yard. Nice!

Take a look at this awesome before and after! And yes... I still have one more ugly blue chair to transform.
  

A big shout out to my favorite helper, my husband Joseph! He pulled out his power tools to cut the wood for the new seat, and of course, is always there for support. It's rewarding to see the completed product. The chairs look better than we imagined!

What project are you putting off finishing?

A Clue on Age

Rarely do you know exactly how old a piece of furniture is, unless there's a date stamped on the back or you have the original paperwork.

And trust me, when you pick something off someone's curb, as I did with the vintage vanity, it doesn't come with the original bill of sale.

But, this piece did come with a hidden clue!

After I sanded and stripped it, it wasn't until I set it on it's side that the clue popped out.

It's an old pamphlet for "Ayds Vitamin Candy Reducing Plan" - aka miracle weight loss pills!

I started doing some research online and quickly found out this advertisement has to be from before 1956.

Here's the what wikipedia told me:

"The Carlay Company later became a division of Campana Corporation of Batavia, Illinois. Then Campana bought Allied Laboratories of Kansas City in 1956"

So, sometime between 1946, when Carlay got a trademark, and 1956 when Carlay became Campana which then became Allied Laboratories, this little piece of paper was made.

I'm hoping that's a clue about the furniture, that maybe it's at least 50 years old. Either way, it was a fun clue to find!

Vanity reveal coming soon! Consider this your sneak peak of the color and hardware.

A Jewel of a Dresser

New project complete!

Check out this dresser I got at Goodwill!

Ok, it's not a dresser!

It's a jewelry box, haha!

I thought it would be a quick project to paint it and fix it up. And, it would give me some practice on detailing the vintage vanity (I'm deciding between a silver metallic glaze or a darker antique glaze).

So for $6 and a couple hours of playing with my existing paint, it turned out pretty nice!

Hmm.. maybe I'll need more jewelry to fill up this box? Just kidding... :)

Update: Chair hunt almost complete!

So much to update! Progress on the vintage vanity will come later -- I promise it'll be worth the wait!

My other project is finding dining chairs to go with our 'new' dining table. And this weekend, I scored!

I picked up 2 chairs from an estate sale. One was $5 and I splurged on the other that was $10. Ha!

I think the size is perfect. They're not in bad shape but I will stain them to match the other chairs I finished up (Minwax English Chesnut).

Then, I'll cover all the seats with the same fabric.

And... I still have to tackle this guy to make it 5 chairs around the table.

I'm in no hurry to pick up a 6th. I'll know it when I find it! But right now, my focus is finishing the vanity. I am beyond pleased with how great it's turning out! Look for that post too!

Hope everyone is enjoying this gorgeous weekend!!