New Entertainment Center

In order to make the hubby happy, I needed to figure out a new living room arrangement, which required me to figure out a new place for our t.v., which required a new piece of furniture. YAY!

I ran across this really cool post over at “No. 2 Pencil” which inspired me to find a bigger dresser to use as a new t.v. stand. Lucky for me!!! My brother-in-law found a lady on craigslist who was selling 3! dressers. He and my MIL both got one, and then I went and bought the biggest one a few days later. I’m proud to say that I talked that lady down from $75 to only $30 (although I still think I paid too much)! 

The hubby says it’s a really well built dresser but unfortunately, it’s not solid wood. The pieces of wood sticking up from the back are for a mirror that goes with the dresser, but since we are using it for a t.v. stand, I took those off.

That’s Lady, our Beagle. :)

First things first- removed all hardware. I decided to keep them because they really are kinda cool. The little round knobs might have to go soon though… they’re sort of hard to grab and make it so the drawers don’t open very easily. We’ll see.

So I believe this was after 2 coats of paint… I chose a latex paint/primer in one by Clark+Kensington called Yellow Raincoat in a satin finish. It wasn’t really what I had pictured, but it’s what I got. I have such a hard time matching the color in my hand to the color in my mind! The hubby and I decided to remove both top drawers, including the drawer guides so that he we could build a shelf for our media equipment. ;) We also removed the top vertical drawer divider so that we could put a new one in the center once everything was all back in place.

Sorry, this picture is a little blurry. This is after the shelf was built (obviously). We just used 3/8” particle board and with the paint, you can’t even tell. It cost us roughly $17 for an 8’x4’ piece and we used exactly half of it to cover the back, sides and bottom. The hubby just used Liquid Nails (construction adhesive) to attach all of the pieces to the dresser.

Don’t mind all the junk in the background. Our garage was a little messy at the time… I had a few projects going on at the same time and it was still REALLY cold outside!

In transition. I swear my house doesn’t look like this all of the time. I thought this would look really cool for “before and after” photos. ;)

SO- Before… (oh and the blue chair used to be where the easel is but we’d already moved it when I took this picture)

And- After! We tried a few difference pieces of wood for the support, and ended up choosing this little piece of leftover trim we found at Joe’s parents’ house. One day when we get a “real t.v.” (yes, I realize we still have a huge and ugly box t.v.), I’ll just remove that little piece. It’s not nailed in or anything, so hopefully it won’t leave any marks in the paint.

Anyway, I hung some pictures, got rid of the corner entertainment center (You’re welcome Hubby), and rearranged some furniture. I still have a long way to go to get my living room looking the way I want it to. But it’s a start. I hope to one day put some short legs on the bottom of the t.v. stand and possibly remove the round knobs. Also, the ugly rug might soon be going bye-bye and I would LOVE LOVE LOVE to have my chair recovered. I also thought the yellow on the t.v. stand was as bit much, but I’m trying to find some pillows or pillow covers with some yellow in them to help tie it in.

 

We are loving our new room! It really opens up the downstairs a ton and there’s so much LESS clutter! I put all of the kids’ toys and blocks in the bottom two drawers and movies are in the top two.

What do you think?? Should I add the legs or just leave it?

Thanks for stopping by!! Come back soon!!

Retro Table–Part II

Regret sucks. Giordi and Rachel, I should have listened to you girls. I mean, what was I thinking? The lines on this little table are amazing and there wasn’t a single scratch on it! Now that I think about it… based on the location of where I picked up the table and the people who sold it to me (not trying to judge- but they were pretty shady), and the condition of the table, I’m starting to feel like maybe I just bought a stolen piece of furniture. :/

Anyway, not important. So I did paint this and while it doesn’t look horrible, I am still feeling like someday down the road, I will probably strip the paint and re-stain it. It really is too cool. I don’t like how the paint sort of camouflages the cool lines on the legs. And I really like the slanted lines on either side of the drawer. But for now, it is what it is. It works for the boy’s room and now he can read before bed without having to get up and turn his light off.

So while my sister was here during the third week in March, she helped me sand down and paint two coats. And then after she left, I did one more coat and called it good. I bought this paint at Ace Hardware, because it’s the closest place to my house and it’s “Soft Serenity” by Benjamin Moore in a pearl finish. I only bought a quart too, and it did both his dresser and this table. Pretty good deal, if you ask me!

Thanks Kel for helping with the boy’s table! :) And sorry… I promise you Giordi Beth and Rachel that I will one day strip the paint and leave it natural. ;) Lesson learned.

Retro Side Table

I found this beauty for sale on a page I “like” on Facebook. There’s NEVER any kind of wooden furniture for sale on it, so I immediately told her I’d take it! We had to drive out in a pretty shady part of Rock Springs, but the woman selling it was standing right outside waiting for us, so I didn’t have to go inside her scary apartment or anything. And it was scary!

To my delight, it is SOLID WOOD! I was so, so, SO excited. Any guesses on how much it cost?

$10!!!!!!!

It’s going in my son’s room, next to his bed and will be painted the same color as his dresser.

More to come when it’s finished!!!

P.S. Thanks to my wonderfully talented and amazing sister for helping me sand and paint!

New Dining Chairs! (sort of…)

When I was a kid, my mom and dad bought an antique mahogany Duncan Phyfe table and chairs at an antique store in Stanfield, OR. The set used to be beautiful, but over the years has gotten really worn from the multiple dinners, marks from us doing homework, dings from the vacuum, etc. Actually, we had another table where we ate our every day dinners, so we rarely used “the good table.” It was usually only used for parties, card playing, holidays and other special occasions. My mom got remarried a little over a year after I did, and didn’t need the set anymore, so when she asked me if I wanted it, I JUMPED FOR JOY!

Isn’t the material wonderful?!?!?! ;)

I’ve been meaning to recover the seats ever since I got it, about 5 years now, but just haven’t gotten around to it. I thought it was going to be a huge project too, which didn’t help in the motivation department. Come to find out, it IS NOT a big project.

MY MOM’S HERE!!! And my SISTER and her boyfriend CODY! (YAY!) Today, we ran over to Wal-Mart, and just happened to be walking by the fabric department, so I suggested we stop and look, just to see what they had. We found this faux leather material and we both decided it would be worth a try. So I bought a yard, brought it home and realized it would be enough to cover all 4 of my chairs. Just over $8 for a whole new look? Uh, I’ll take it! My mom helped a ton… every little move I made, I consulted her first. She’s been giving me the credit, but I totally would have screwed up if she hadn’t of been here!

The chairs and table are still pretty beat up… material doesn’t do much for that, obviously. But for now, we’ve got a whole new look for under $10!

(Sorry, bad lighting.)

I should have taken a picture of the table too, but it’ll have to wait. The only thing I wish is that I had some more of the same chairs.

So I’m thinking a creamy antique white for the table, but my sister says I should sand it down and re-stain it.

What do YOU think?

Tooth #5

Yesterday morning Haylie lost her 5th tooth!

And the Tooth Fairy remembered to come!! ;)

How many times?

Recently, my SIL posted on her blog about how frustrated she gets because her kids won’t sit still for a picture. And yesterday I felt the exact same way! Only they weren’t really running off… I just couldn’t get them to look at the camera! I kept telling Haylie to crouch down by Maggie. But then Maggie would crouch down/bend over. So I’d have to keep telling Maggie to stand up and Haylie to crouch down over and over and over!

This was the best I got. Oh well. At least they’re both SORT OF looking at the camera.

Connor’s “New” Dresser

When we sold our house, I tried getting rid of as much furniture as I could; particularly furniture that I didn’t think would survive an 800 mile move. Connor’s dresser was one of those that got left behind. The drawers were breaking from the kids hanging on them over the years and it just didn’t seem like something I wanted to mess with once we got here. Plus it was made for a baby and had a changing station on it, and I thought that Connor needed a “big boy” dresser.

So- we moved the end of April, and it’s now March… poor kid. He’s been using a shelf for the last 11 months to put his clothes on and let me tell you, I am SO ECSTATIC it’s gone! His clothes were constantly OFF of the shelves, strewn all over his room and I was sick of it!

A couple weeks ago, I bought a hutch from a store that went out of business and just in passing, mentioned to the owner that I was looking for a dresser. She said she had one at her house that she was just going to throw in the trash before she moved, so naturally I jumped all over it! And it is such a great dresser! It really didn’t look all that bad the way it was, except it had holes drilled all over 2 of the drawers. (Don’t mind the mess on the table.)

 

Unfortunately, when I sanded down the paint, I saw that the drawers had laminate on the front. So, I filled all of the holes in with wood filler and then Joe and I sanded down as much as we could, without going all the way through the laminate. With a TINY bit of help from Connor, we picked out a really pretty blue and got to work!

It took me four coats of paint, plus touch-ups afterwards, and thankfully we had two really warm days so I got to paint outside! But I’m excited to say it is finished!

Ahhh. I feel like I can finally breathe! Now on to the next project!