Coral Dresser for the Nursery

She's DONE!!!

Excuse the tarp and the deck... This is most likely where she will stay until we move in a month or so (still working on where we are moving to...) with the tarp over top (and covered by our awning) in case of rain. 

Isn't she pretty?!?! I'm kind of in love. Well, not kind of. Seriously. Seriously in love.

Here's a quick before and after before we get in to the nitty gritty.

Here's my original post about the dresser progress. I might recap a little bit here too... We started out with my $100 Craigslist find. The brass knobs were a worn dark brown and there were quite a few scratches and nicks. 

After sanding...

And after priming...

It was time for paint! I chose the color Youthful Coral from Behr and got a pint in the Interior Semi-Gloss Enamel (and No-VOC for the nursery). I mostly used the 1.5 and 3 inch brushes. I splurged a bit and bought the Purdy brushes, since I'd heard they were such good quality and helped show less brush strokes. There were still a few visible brush strokes, but only if you got close after 3+ coats.

First coat...

Second coat...

Third coat...

Touch ups on the top (fourth coat)... I used a small foam roller for the top on the third coat, but it didn't cover as nicely as I liked, so I used the large brush to do one good final coat and it turned out great.

Next up was attacking those knobs. I had heard about Brasso from this blog (and one of my inspiration dressers) and it worked like a charm! I enlisted Zach to help me polish up the handles since I heard it was really smelly and didn't want to be around it in my "condition." :) It probably took about an hour to get all six of the long drawer handles (and various pieces) polished. Not easy work and a lot of scrubbing, but for $2 and a little elbow grease it was well worth it! Check out the difference it made.

I could not handle the ring knobs on the middle drawers though. They kept reminding me of the nose rings that you would see on a bull. Even when they were spruced up. No thanks. So for the middle drawer knobs, I bought two sets of three each while I was in Arizona at Hobby Lobby (similar to these ones and these ones from Anthro). The knobs at Hobby Lobby are so much more reasonably priced and they have a lot of the same styles as Anthropologie. They cost around $3.99 each, but were 50% off when I bought them! I decided on the white flower shaped knobs because they looked awesome and the aqua polka dots were a little too much with the coral dresser. Plus, the white flower shaped knobs matched the flower design on the original knobs.

I did end up leaving the base part from the original ring shaped pulls. I liked the flower shape and it made it so I didn't have to do any hard core sanding and/or refilling of the grooves that they left on the drawer fronts.

I also decided to paint over the brass decals that were along the bottom. I originally had the two squares on either side taped off, but didn't like the hard contrast once the rest of the dresser was painted. I like them painted the same color much better - still keeps the detail, but doesn't distract from the rest of the dresser's fun details.

You may notice that she has a middle leg, which I kind of forgot to paint (see it in the picture below? Still brown. Oops!). I don't know if I could have reached it even if I did remember it, but I think I'm going to be lazy and just leave it for now. Unless I can convince my lovely husband to get down there and give it a quick coat or two. Obviously it's not super noticeable or else I would have done it in the first place! Haha.

I was also thinking about doing a top coat of polyurethane to really seal and protect the piece, but the enamel semi-gloss is pretty sturdy and I think it should hold up well. At least for now. Honestly, I'm so glad I'm done with this piece now and that I started when I did because I am getting so uncomfortable. To have to bend over and paint any more would not be fun. I was getting really out of breath towards the end! Especially since I was fully clothed, gloved and had my surgeon-grade face mask on (safety first!).

The only thing I still want to do is get some fun paper to line the drawers. Maybe a fun pattern or even some pretty florals? I'll be sure to post an update when I get around to it!

I'm so pleased with how it turned out! I think it will look amazing in the nursery (which I can't wait to get all set up!). Here's another before and after just for funsies. I love seeing the dramatic change. So much fun.

What are you working on these days? Any fun DIY projects? I feel like I'm in full on nesting mode right now and want to make a ton of stuff! Next up for me is a DIY pouf ottoman! 

A Dresser for the Nursery - Progress

I bought a dresser for the nursery about a month ago for $100 on Craigslist. I'd been looking for a while to find the perfect one, something similar to this one, this one or especially this one. I knew I wanted a long dresser with plenty of storage (for all those cute little socks and onesies!) and some kind of interesting detail. I found just that with this beauty. 

Craft Day - David, Mitts and El Rudolpho

A while back, my friends Kim, Shan and I had Craft Day! Craft Day is a tradition we started a few years back where we get together and do crafty things. We've done Christmas crafts and Halloween crafts in the past, but this time there was a theme of spray paint. Kim spray painted her $20 David head (see her blog post all about it here) and I worked on my $1 reindeer from Goodwill. Shan brought her mitts (she was knitting) and they turned out great! I actually used the pattern on a couple knitting projects lately...

Gettin' Our Bob Ross On

We had a blast painting one of our favorite landscapes last weekend - the Seattle skyline (although it didn't have any trees or little squirrels). Painting, combined with wine (and healthy appreciation for mustaches - ahem, Colleen, ahem) made for an awesome night at Canvas! - a paint & sip studio in downtown Kirkland! I'd been wanting to go for a while now and even though I'm not the best artist (I'm no Bob Ross - definitely far from it) I love being crafty and creative. 

We had Thai food before we went and then wandered down to the Kirkland waterfront for a quick photo. Sutira turned me on to Thai Iced Coffee! Have you had it? You MUST try it. It. Is. Amazing. I already decided I have to order it every time I have Thai food from now on. It's that good. Think sweetened (and strong) coffee with a dash of heavy cream on top (I never said it was the healthiest thing on the menu).

I really hope that is not a cat on a leash behind us in the above photo... kinda looks like it, no?

On to the wine and painting! It's a little spendy coming in at $40, but Sutira found a living social deal that ended up being about $27/each for a party of four! The deal included two bottles of wine between the four of us and painting, so it wasn't a bad deal at all. Plus, it's more for the experience, right?! And I'm all about experiences. 

We were the first ones there at 6:30, which meant we got the best spot with a view of the instructor. They had very light appetizers (think chips, salsa, grapes, cheese + crackers, pound cake) and a bar with beer and wine. Since we had wine included in our deal, I'm not sure if you have to pay extra to get a drink or not beyond the $40 regular price.

They give you four paintbrushes in various sizes, then you fill up on all your paint. The instructor then teaches you step by step how to paint! It's like a grown up paint by numbers. Pretty awesome. And as you can see, all of our paintings turned out pretty darn amazing (ifidosaysomyself).

Getting our paint on! Colleen is not impressed...

Ready to paint!

The sweet set up (Rule #1: Don't mistake your wine glass for the water glass to clean your paintbrush).

I don't remember what was so funny... but we sure had fun!

Here's a bigger and more elaborate version of what we were painting.

On all the walls they had inspiration of all the different painting they teach. You could actually paint whatever you wanted, but we all figured it would be better to just stick with the instructor. :)

Me and my masterpiece! Yes, my space needle is ginormous (that's what he said?). I just wanted to make sure if was the focal point... totally planned it that way. :)

Sutira and Colleen.

Colleen's masterpiece (can you spot the mustaches?).

Sometimes you just have to turn is upside down.

Ellie's masterpiece.

And here's Sutira's masterpiece already up on the wall at her place!

The whole group!

The whole process went surprisingly smooth since the instructor gives you each step. When you layer all the different pieces like they show you, it's actually pretty easy! Although, with two doctors-to-be and an accountant in our group you probably won't be surprised that we were the last group to finish up our paintings (perfectionists, much?!).

We had a blast, and I would highly recommend going if you want something fun to do with a group (and have the bones to spend). There was even a bachelorette party painting right next to us! I know there are a few other similar places around the Seattle area, too.

And one more time because we did so awesome.

Have you ever been to a place like this? If so, what did you paint? Did you find it easy? Challenging? Frustrating? Do tell!

Time For a Change

When Zach and I got married, one of the items on our registry was this awesome retro style wall clock from Target. I think they still sell it four years later. It had the aqua on the clock face that was throughout the rest of our kitchen and the red outer that we still liked as a contrast even though nothing else in our house is red. We loved it so much, we bought it ourselves before the wedding and took it off the registry. You know, just in case it was sold out by the time someone bought it. 

DIY Chalkboard Planters

Is anyone else in shock that 2012 is half over already?! Hello, July! I just hope it starts to feel like summer up in here. C'mon Seattle! Get with it. The rest of the country has already!

Well, I finally got with it and hopped on the chalkboard paint bandwagon. Took me long enough, but I'm really diggin' it. I needed a cute solution for one of my little succulents. So I picked up a little planter and some Martha Stewart chalkboard paint at Michael's and got to work. I opted for the paint instead of spray paint because well, they were all out of the spray paint at the store. Next time maybe I'll try out the spray paint and let you know how it compares.

Better After Feature!

Hey everybody. I'm back again today to share a little feature! Check out my Jade Dresser Before + After featured on the blog Better After today!

DIY: Painted Chevron Canvas

I haven't been able to post about this (and a lot of crafty things) since we hand made a lot of our Christmas presents this year. Now that the holidays are over, I can finally share! My sister-in-law, Katelyn, has her own place now and was in need for some fun and colorful paintings to adorn her bare walls. I wanted to do a square canvas and use reds and oranges to match her other decor. My inspiration was these paintings found on Pinterest (find them here and here).

Tape is one of my favorite things to use when painting. I really like using geometric shapes and patterns when I paint because I can in no way, shape or form paint anything other than that, so tape is the perfect accomplice when I try to be artistic. 

I used masking tape (about 3/4" wide) directly on the blank canvas, but should have used the blue painters tape because it ended up leaking through just a bit (you'll see how I fixed it in a moment). First, I measured how far apart I wanted each vertical line. Then, I just eye-balled the chevron lines and taped them up! 

Next, I just randomly started painting the different reds and oranges on the canvas. I think I used five different shades of orange and red all together.  I actually kind of like it with the random blobs painted on over the tape, too.

Then I waited.... waited... waited... 

Finally! The fun part! Ripping off the tape - I liked how it turned out, but like I said, it bled through a little bit and wasn't as clean on the edges. I ended up using some off-white paint to go in between where the tape was to finish it off. 

Here you can see the difference between what it looked like right after taking the tape off (on the right) and what it looked like after a little paint (on the left). Much better.

So crisp and clean. I love how it turned out (and so did she!). Have you painted anything lately? Do you stick with geometrics like me or do more of a free paint (if the later, impressive!)?