Fireplace Makeover

We moved into our "new to us" home a couple of years ago and I have a LOOONG list of rooms that need makeovers. When Superman goes out of town I seem to get sooo much done! For some reason I just don't feel like sleeping much when he's not here. Anyway, so his last trip was a doosey- 3 weeks! 

You know what that meant? 

Yeah, makeover time!

Here are some pictures of my main living room wall before...

Excuse the clutter. I have kids. We live here. :)

After playing around with a few colors for the walls. I decided to keep the walls pretty neutral because I had other ideas for bringing color in. I went lighter and less "pinky". 

Much more refreshing. 

See that fireplace? Yeah, it's hard to miss. 

I know. I've never been a big fan of river rock. 

I think it's something about all the colors and just the look in general I guess. 

What to do?

I had a SUPER great idea, but no one agreed with me. 

The more everyone told me I shouldn't do it, the more I wanted to do it and make them all 

eat their words! 

Mwahaha! 

I decided that I wanted to do an antique white wash over all of the rocks. Picture it...a nice old white with a distressed glaze over top. 

I was in LOVE with the idea! 

I tried finding pictures of others who MUST have had that idea before...nope. 

Made me want to do it even more.

But, then I painted the walls. 

The light walls screamed for a dark fireplace.

How could they do that to me?!

Dang you walls!!

I was so disappointed!!! 

If any of you have a river-rock fireplace and darkish walls..PLEASE let me fulfill my dream!!??

Rather than lightening the fireplace, I stained the whole thing...dark. 

I love it! 

Almost as much as I would have if I had been able to paint it.

 But then there was the mantle. Bleck. Needs to change...

Cue some Annie Sloan Chalk Paint...

Old white.

Better, definitely, but still not what I wanted. 

So then this happened...

And finally this is where I landed with this baby...

Chalk paint, some cracked plaster, glaze. Yep. Fun times!

I feel soo much better! How bout you?

Do you like my dark rocks better than the river rock mayhem?

Tell me whatcha think.

I've got an empty trailer, and a load of furniture to pick up!

It's like Christmas morning..almost...I'm not wearing my jammies!

I've got some super exciting things brewing with my business.

Can't tell you yet.

But soon.

Very soon. 

My Painted Piano

A couple of weeks ago my piano looked like this..

There is a story behind this piano.

I have some daughters that have taught themselves to play. As they were growing up my sunday mornings were filled with the sound of my oldest daughter playing out of our Hymn Book. I often would sit in the corner of the room, close my eyes, and just listen.

They learned to play the piano on a much different piano.

It was very old, and very cool. It was the piano of their grandma on their dad's side of the family.

Well, when divorce hit our family, the piano left along with a number of other things, both physical, and emotional. I'm sure that those who have experienced it know what I'm talking about.

We missed having the piano very much.

I missed hearing it's sweet sounds and the peace that came from it.

I mentioned this to a few friends.

One random day, a dear friend showed up at my door, and told me that he had a piano to deliver to our house. Apparently, someone in my neighborhood had heard of my situation, and had arranged for him to pick up and deliver this piano to us.

I cried.

We lost many things, but have gained so much.

So there is my little story of my little piano.

It isn't fancy.

It has moved a few times with us now, and has joined our new family.

Above it hangs our new family picture, and together we will make new memories.

SOoooo... enough of the mushy stuff.

Do you want to see what my piano looks like now?

I thought so.

I used Annie Sloan Chalk Paint. I could have done it in a day, but because I have a life and kids, it took 2 days. For those who may not know about chalk paint. It's so great!
No sanding.
No Priming.
Just Paint.
Typically, you seal with wax.
For this one, I'm experimenting.
I love how smooth chalk paint gets when you buff it out really well.
I sanded over it lightly to distress it on the edges, and then lightly all over.
Then I buffed, or polished it with a soft rag.
I did that until it felt slick.
I LOVE how it feels!
I'm just gonna leave it and see how it goes. I don't have little kids anymore, and my teenagers know if they are in that room with food, or with icky hands they will likely loose something important to them. They don't like that, so I'm not worried about greasy handprints etc.

I painted some planters in my front yard last summer with Annie Sloan.
Just like Annie suggests, I left them alone without any sealer.
They have held up amazingly. Heat, sun, wind, rain, snow 
and daily watering of the plants in the box. 
I figure if my planters can hold up to all of that, my piano might have a chance in a home of teenagers and their friends. 
Maybe.

I'm almost done with a major makeover in the room my piano is in, can't wait to show you!
Just picked up some chains yesterday to use with the last little details.
Hows that for a hint.

So what do you think about my piano now?
Do you have an old piano in your home?
Wanna paint it now?
I know I can't wait to get my hands on another one!
SO many ideas!

I'd love to see pictures of your painted pianos...
please share!

Chalk Paint Comparison

Do you keep a journal? Well if you read mine it would go something like this:

(Date)  "I haven't written for a while..."

The next entry would start like this:

(3 months later) "Wow, it's been a while..."

Then maybe I have a few consecutive entries and again:

(a year later) "Well, since the last time I wrote I got pregnant and now have another baby!"

Needless to say, I have a history of not keeping a regular habit of writing anything.

I REFUSE to start this blog with another comment about how

"Wow, it's been a while..."

So I will just pick up where I left off and catch up with some projects I did a few months ago.

I have been following the Chalk Paint trend since it first found it's way onto the web. I have been right there with everyone else and said 

"It sounds too good to be true"

And then I tried it. 

I broke down and sold cookies on the street corner to earn the money and bought it! (ok, I didn't really sell cookies...but it sounded good, eh?)

I join with those who blog because we blog and not because anyone is paying me to do so. 

If that were the case I'd be sittin in a cardboard box typing this on my "speak-and-spell."

Before I get to the details of how I feel about chalk paint, let me briefly tell you a few things about me. I am a professional. I have been doing custom finishes on walls, ceilings, floors, cabinetry and furniture for about 12 years now. I have spent a LOT of money to take classes on the use of various products and have found that there is definitely something to be said for good quality products, there is usually a reason they are expensive. I have also been a struggling homemaker who has this huge desire to make my home beautiful and fun and decorated with little to no money to work with. I get the need to use what I have and go with "cheap" because I had to for many years. Now, my name is at stake. Now, my business depends on quality, or I don't get jobs. Another HUGE factor is time. Soo, after all of that, here are my thoughts on Chalk paint, in particular, Annie Sloan Chalk Paint.

A few months ago I had the perfect opportunity to put Chalk Paint up against a paint I had been hearing about from other bloggers. It is the new paint that Home Depot offers that is a paint and primer in one latex paint. I figured maybe it would be great and maybe I would love it.

I have a client that I've been working with for months as we have transformed her house room by room. We needed some tables for her new office/craft room and used one she already had, one that I had in my inventory, and one that I found and had modified just for her. Perfect, I would use chalk paint and the new paint and primer in one.

Green table: 

Top painted with 3 coats of the paint and primer, and then the stencil pattern and light wash done with ASCP. The legs were painted with ASCP. The whole thing got a coat of poly to help seal it up nice. 

Orange tables:

Corner table top done with ASCP. The long one done in the P&P. 

Details done with ASCP. Poly on everything.

So here's my opinion:

Both paints work.

I did not prime before using either paint.

P&P from HDepot took at least 3 times as long to dry, which slowed me down substantially.

Luckily, I had plenty of areas I was painting with chalk paint to keep me busy the whole time while I was waiting for the other to dry. 

I used about 1/3 less chalk paint than I did the other paint. 

Considering that I painted much more area with the Chalk paint, that is also significant. 

The cost of Annie Sloan is twice what I paid for the P&P, but I will get more out of the Chalk Paint. Besides the fact that it covers better, ASCP dries in a fraction of the time. For me, time is money. Saving the money on the paint, and then spending twice the time to get the job done doesn't have much value to me.

I sand in between coats to get a nice smooth finish. Chalk paint sands smooth in MUCH less time than the P&P. If time wasn't a factor and I wanted to wait a day in-between coats I'm sure I would like the way the P&P sanded, but for me, time is money and I didn't have the luxury of taking multiple days to get the job done. 

After all was said and done, I put an extra coat of poly on the P&P because latex always seems to dry softer than what I prefer, and since this is a table top, I wanted the extra assurance. This would be another factor in the cost breakdown. 

BOTTOM LINE:

If I was a homemaker doing a project for myself and was on a tight budget, I would get the Paint and Primer in one from HD and patiently take 2 days to do the project. I would like it, it would be inexpensive and would do the job.

I put my business on the line every time I use a product and hope that it lives up to what it is supposed to do. I have yet to be disappointed with ASCP, which happens to be the one I use the most. There are other brands, and homemade recipes, but that is a whole 'nuther post, for a whole 'nuther day! 

I hope this helped.

Soon I will have a post about the famous Miss Mustard Seed's Milk Paint. 

Can't wait to show you!

Can I just say as a ending thought...

I'm so glad that there are brave, intelligent women in the world willing to put themselves out there, willing to try, and fail, and try again so that we can have such amazing products to make out lives happier! They inspire me to keep chasing my dreams!

Thank you Annie, and Marian, and all of you amazing women bloggers who have changed the world with your crafty, witty, entertaining, and informative posts.

If we only knew how much we influence people we have never met.

What a thought.

Happy day to Y'all!

Old Iron fence, Rusty Tricycle, Chalk Paint and Me! Good times!

I've been waiting to show you something. 

My friend/client just made over her daughter's room.

I got to help a little.

But I couldn't show you until her daughter saw it first!

I don't have pictures of the whole room finished, 

just the two things I helped with.

I love them both. Really, I almost got giddy doing them.

Have you ever seen a puppy play with a ball, bouncing one way and then the other...

That was me.

Except, I don't have a tail or a wet nose.

Ready?

 Honestly, I loved the fence before I painted it. Old and rusty and just so very cool! I have 2 sections of this fencing propped up in my flower/weed garden, and then I just put a small section near my front door with some ivy climbing it. Love love L.O.V.E this fencing! The rust and chipping paint wasn't gonna work for this room. It's totally vintage, but I just couldn't let rusty paint chips fall off on to the bed below. SO my task was to make this old fence look old, but be clean and nice for her headboard. 

Here is what I started with...

 The picture above makes my heart race a little....

I'm weird, I know it, I've accepted it, you might want to also :)

I started with a good power wash to get anything off that wanted to come off. Followed that with a coat of Annie Sloan Country grey mixed with a little old white to lighten it a bit. After that I hit it with a smattering of straight Old White to help make the details pop a little. When that was dry..which was almost instantly, I lightly sanded the whole thing with a fine sanding pad just to burnish it a little and give it a smooth feel. Dust it off and voila! 

I have a few more of these fence sections around if anyone local is interested ;)

Now for the second project!!!

My friend used to ride this trike when she was a little girl.

Isn't it sooo amazing?!

Well her daughter thought it was amazing also and wanted it fixed up a little,

you know... cute-ify it a little?

That is where I came in.

Me and Annie Sloan.

Seriously, Chalk paint is so great!

What other paint can you just paint right over something like this without having to use a primer and even then I would have to use paint meant for metal..blah blah blah.

Crack me open some chalk paint and lemme at it!!

One more look at the before.

Before you die a little, I didn't paint the whole thing, just couldn't bring myself to do it.

And after...

 Sorry for the not-so-professional pictures. Sometimes it just is what it is. 

And today, this is what it is...

Alright-y then, I'm glad I could finally show ya..I mean it's been like 5 days! 

I thought I might die, but I made it through. 

On another note.

My studio.

It's done, and I actually am using it!

I'm preparing a class schedule and sooooooon 

Y'all can come paint with me!!

I'm so excited!

Hope you are too ;)

I'm so excited to be joining
"Meet Me Monday"

at one of my favorite blogs!
 http://youaretalkingtoomuch.blogspot.com/

If you stopped by from the party, so glad you came!
Hope you want to stay :)

Bedroom makeover part 2

It's summer and that means everything is either going 100 miles an hour or in slow motion. Do you ever feel that way? It's sorta like a tornado...sometimes I am in the middle of the vortex, and other times I am whirling away on the outskirts in a mad frenzy. Anyway, I'm finally getting around to part two of my two bedroom makeovers in two weeks episode. I showed you my first daughter's room in this post.

On to bedroom two...

 My 14 yr old has been putting up with this room since we moved here a year and a half ago and dreaming for the day she would get a more grown up room. She gave me some paint cards with the colors she wanted which were all bright. Her favorite color was the one I landed on mainly because I had some paint already that matched it almost perfectly, and another lighter color to paint the walls which was a nice much lighter shade. ANyway...

The BEFORE.....

It was a cute idea, for a much younger girl, and I personally would have chosen different colors, but I'm sure that the little girl that lived here before we moved in loved it and that's all that matters!

There are a few finishing touches that I still need to finish up...I'm waiting on new hardware for the cabinets, and need to "cute up" her dresser a little, and obviously there aren't pictures in her picture frames yet....But I thought I'd show you what got done in the week while she was at camp...

Brace yourself...it's a little blue...

She desperately needed more storage in her room. I found the cabinets at the thrift store and thought they would do the trick. I'm not totally happy with this space yet, but I'm sure I'll figure it out. When I get the new hardware I will be covering the lovely built in handles on the bottom drawers with a thin piece of wood so you won't even know they were there! I already had the vintage mirror as well as the lamp. The bed may be a little boring, but with no budget and a blanket I already had that fit her order of "I just want a soft fuzzy blanket, nothing fancy" I figured it will do.

When I got the cabinets, they looked like this...

Obviously I added the little scrollwork and after a primer coat, and then 2 coats of paint we were good to go. I have to say that I love my HVLP sprayer, things like this would drive me crazy to have to paint with a brush or roller. 

I'm all for speeeeedddddyyyy projects :)

I already had this shelf below..it's actually one of those fancy things you put over doors to make your house look nice..technical term would be a lintel...but I'd rather just call it a door do-hickey-thingey. She quickly added a few of her special things up there, her own touches!

I painted it with my latex that I used on the cabinets, but then had a little fun with my ASCP by brushing it on and into the cracks and then wiping it with a damp rag. This shelf is her favorite part of the room. I'm pretty happy with the look, and like how the green is a nice break from allllll the blues!

 Now I have to show you my FAVORITE part of her room.

 I can't take full credit for this, it's not an original idea.

My Sister in law did something similar in her daughter's room

...with butterflies

...it was

A

MAZE

ING!

Hers looked more like this...

As soon as I saw it I knew that I had to do something similar... 

Ready...

...set...

...squeeeeee......

It's prettty obvious how to do this one, scrapbook paper of choice, paper punch, glue dots, a little bling, and there you have it!

She loved the photo wall I did in her sister's room HERE and so I did a smaller version of it for her. It will look great with cute smiling faces in the frames...but for now you'll just have to imagine that. Very good. You've got a great imagination...except I think I'm younger than you had me pictured...and thinner...and..oh wait, you had it right. 

And there you go! I really need to get back in there and finish up those last few things, and then spend a day and help her put all her fun things in fun little places. I just love my girls! I just can't imagine doing something so fun with a sports theme for a boys room...

or could I?

I'm so excited to be linking to:

www.nutmegplace.com