Sunday, June 27, 2010

Goodwill Faux Silver Leaf Table


I've been obsessing over silver leaf furniture for a while now but never had the nerve to try to do a project.   Last week while in Goodwill I spied this table (I apologize for the grainy camera phone photo). 


Priced at $10 it was so in my budget and I love anything with a cabriole leg.  At the time I made myself leave the store and not take it home because I knew my husband would hate it (he hates anything old and I adore everything old!).  I kept thinking about that table and since we don't currently have a coffee table I decided a couple days later that I'd see if it was still there.  It was still there!!! no other goodwill shoppers could see that this table had style:)  Lucky me!!!! So anyway I decided I wanted to silver leaf if but I was still a little unsure of using the silver leaf sheets since the table had some grooves in it and curvy legs and I didn't want to mess this beauty up.  I decided to use paint on it instead.  While I was looking at the silver leafing supplies I stumbled upon this really pretty paint that I decided to use instead


I really loved that it was so soft and shimmery and at $5.99 it was a great deal.  I first gave the table a good sanding with my husbands sander, then I primed it with Krylon's Indoor/Outdoor spray primer in Gray.  I then painted on the metallic paint with a sponge brush.  The paint dries really fast and I did 3 or 4 coats because I wanted the color to be rich.  I probably should have purchased a small roller to paint it with because I did end up with some streaks and I've been told a roller is best for this but I just used what I had.  Once everything was dry I sealed it with Valspars clear satin spray (what I had on hand).  Here are some photo's of the final project.  I really love how it turned out, can't wait to move it into our new home next month!




Thursday, June 17, 2010

Tablecloths Into Curtains

In my quest to find Anthropolgie style curtains on a Target budget a lightbulb went off in my head after seeing some gorgeous table cloths at World Market today. Why not use a standard oblong tablecloth for curtain panels? Just get those clip on curtain rings and voila anthro inspired curtains! While at World Market I saw this and couldn't stop staring at it...


Purple is my favorite color and turquoise is a close second choice, so when I saw this tablecloth I instantly loved it since it was mostly purple with little hints of turquoise. The tablecloth was $34.99 so I would need 4 of them for the living room and dining room windows in our new home.  I didn't want to jump to conclusions and spend $140 without knowing it could actually work so I did a little research when I got home and discovered that 1. I am not the first blogger to think of this wonderful idea and 2. this could totally work. Check out some of these examples...


From the ecklife.blogspot.com

From livinthesimplelife.com






From Apartmenttherapy.com
From theplaidpost.com

After looking in enough stores that I've lost count, the table cloth from World Market is the closest thing I've come to what I'm looking for.  I may check out tablecloths at homegoods just to make sure I'm not missing something and hey if I could possibly find an equally amazing tablecloth for way I would be even happier:)  I'll keep you posted and post pics once I make my decision.  Thanks so much for taking the time to read my ramblings:)

Wednesday, June 2, 2010

We Are Under Contract!


I'm so sorry that I haven't posted in forever!  I promise I have a good reason and I also promise that my blog is about to get so much better because we finally did it! we finally are under contract on our first home!!!! We met so many roadblocks through this process for sure and we still haven't closed but inspection is this Friday.    I'm a mixture of nervous excitement, and hope.   Please cross your fingers for us that our little fixer upper won't have too much wrong with it.  She needs some work for sure but we are excited to take this little house out of the 1950's into the new millenium.  She is a 4 bedroom 2 1/2 bath with a large basement and large yard that backs to a local park.  I can't wait to plant some flowers in the little flower bed in front and do something with the patchy lawn.  I'll save the inside pictures for future post but there will certainly be lots of do it yourself projects on the horizon!  Thanks so much for checking out my new post, I promise I will start posting more often.