More Mid Century and a Cabinet Revamp

Waaaay back here I showed you a little piece I picked up on Craigslist. It was aching for some love. It was also not exactly what I was looking for at the time for that space. I liked the style though, and had other plans for it once I revamped it a bit.

Check out that yummy top. Ew.

It's clearly veneer, and not wood, so I didn't feel the least bit uneasy about slapping a couple coats of paint on it. I started by cleaning the thing (a lot). Then roughed it up a bit with sandpaper. 

I spent about $10 on supplies, including a sample of cream paint (not pictured) and navy paint from Lowe's, a set of little round sponges from Walmart, and a small tube of Martha Stewart metallic gold paint.

After a good cleaning and sanding, I brushed 3 coats of cream on the doors and interior, then 3 coats of navy on the outside. Once dry, I used a small watercolor brush for making the door stripes and dipped the round sponge in gold paint to randomly place polka-dots on the inside back. I also brushed some gold on the bottoms of the legs. 

I left the legs brown, but I'm considering painting them... maybe cream? What do you think?

This piece stands near the front door now (if you couldn't tell), with the main purpose of housing the pugs' harnesses, leashes, and poop bags. It's a dirty job, I tell ya.

Oh, and if you're wondering why I have 20-something wine glasses stored here, I'm in a Mardi Gras krewe this year (!!!) and am decorating these for throws. More to come on that later.

So what took this guy's place under the chalkboard in the dining room? I did a little shit-ton of Craigslist searching to find something of the perfect size and style. Finally, I came across this beauty for 50 buckaroos. You may recall my minor tantrum after "losing" the last mid century dresser I spotted. Let's pretend that didn't happen.

Unlike the cabinet, this dresser is solid wood. I'm not opposed to painting wood, by any means (see here, here, and here), but I really like a bare wood every now and then. 

I think I need to use a good furniture polish or something to get the sheen back in order. It's not so bad to need refinishing (thank all the furniture gods), but there are quite a few nicks and worn areas. If you have any ideas, let me know!

If you didn't notice, we've decked the halls for Christmas! I'll be back with more holiday festivities soon :)

Thrifty Thursday & the one that got away

As any of you Craigslist-ers, yard sale-ers, and thrift-ers out there know, this hunt can be hit-or-miss.  I can search Craigslist for a month to no avail, then BAM!  This happens.

I had a "bam" moment recently that I feel inclined to tell you about.  I've been searching for a dresser for the dining room (you know, a buffet, or whatever), and suddenly one afternoon I came across this:

That's right.  This.  Magnificent Mid Century Modern beauty.  For 50 bucks.  The stars had aligned,   the clouds opened up and a beam of light shown down on me sitting in front of my computer screen.  And I'm pretty sure I heard angels singing, too.  I almost pulled a finger muscle hitting the "reply" button so fast.

Then I realized the beam of light had actually been shining on some other lucky a-hole.  Someone had beat me to it.  I wanted to cry.  Like a young, spoiled child.

But don't think I didn't get back up on that horse.  Like a gambling addiction at one of those quarter pusher machines, I became obsessed.  Furiously searching Craigslist, I decided this unfortunate situation would NOT happen again!  (stomping foot and shooting fist into the air).

On the bright side, I did manage to rake in a handful of other bargains that are attempting, unsuccessfully, to fill the void left by my dresser (yes, mine).

Exhibit A.  Hello, little cabinet.  I nabbed this guy for $40- probably more than I should have spent looking back, but I was rebounding, people.

He's a little worse for the wear, so a paint job is in order.

I plan to put him where the little grey cabinet is under the window in this picture.  Then the dresser will go under the chalkboard.

I also snagged this sweet quilt at a neighbor's moving sale.  I bought 6 dresses and 2 pairs of earrings from her for $8 (because when you're as freakishly small as I am and you find anything remotely cute at a good price that fits, you buy that ish).  She tossed in the quilt.  Fo' free.  Whoop whoop!

The last addition is this ginormous beast of a trunk.  It had seen better days when I bought it.  A couple of boards were loose, and the trim on the lid was coming off.  But as mentioned, it's gargantuan.  And only 20 bucks.

A little hole-drilling and nailing got this baby into workable shape.  I've been considering a paint job, but I'm kinda digging the beat up, rustic look.  At any rate, it holds a ton of blankets, which until now were kept in giant crates in the office.  Also, don't mind that crater coming from beneath the window.  The glories of old-home-ownership.

I did spot this great MCM sofa as well, not long after the dresser catastrophe.  A bargain at $90, and new upholstery would make it a beaut.  It didn't really "get away".  I actually emailed the person selling it, had plans to reupholster it myself (oh yea, and learn how to reupholster a couch, because that's also important), and was figuring out a way to haul the thing back to our house.  Then my brain came out of hibernation, smacked me in the face, and asked me why in the heck I would buy a couch.  I freaking love our fantastic Chesterfield.  And I no longer have an extra 3000 square feet of space to just... fill.  Poo.

So what about you?  Any celebration-worthy finds recently?

The Table Tale

I sneaked in a shot of our new dining room table in this post about our Christmas decor, but didn't get to share the story of where we found it.

It started with an endless search for an inexpensive table... Okay, it only took about a month, but I had a burning desire to fill that empty space in the dining room.  This is the "dining room" sans dining room table and plus desk and office chair, from when we first started settling in.

A little less brown, please...

When we moved here a few months ago, I mentioned the idea of changing the color of these two rattan chairs.  After eyeballing this set-up for a while though, I realized I was more aggravated by the color of the tile-top table in the middle than by the chairs.

Sideboard gets Sassy

I talked here about our old sideboard that made the trip from Indianapolis to New Orleans with us.  A little traditional flare is great, but she was stuck in the past.  She wasn't really unattractive to start with... she'd just had the same metaphorical hair cut for far too long, and needed a wild new do.  Of course it took several weeks of letting the can of paint sit next to her before I finally got a chance to start the makeover... but she's finally looking like a new woman!

You remember the sideboard in her boring old "before" state:

Our Sideboard Turned Creole

One of the things that excited me about moving to New Orleans was the style.  The clothes, the art, the decor.  Wild colors and eclectic bohemian mixes are the groove here.  As you know though, we came from a pretty traditional old house.  Wild was not our style.  So I'm working on it.

Meet sideboard.  He's dark, shiny, and beautiful.  But a little boring for such a lively city.  So I plan to jazz him up.

Here he is in our old house:

And in our new house:

I'm hoping I can successfully incorporate multiple colors into this project... without it looking like it belongs in a kid's room.  Here are some of my inspirations from good ol' Pinterest:

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On my way home from work yesterday, I picked up a few paint chips that struck my fancy.

These are the combos I've been playing around with.  I have to admit, I'm sort of nervous about getting so bold.  I could do one bold color... but two or three?  I feel like I wild woman!

What do you think?  Should I stick to different shades of the same color, maybe?  Or go with opposite colors on the color wheel?  Help?!

Slap a Little Paint on It

I showed you my Craigslisted cabinet in this post, but I haven't gotten around to showing you the finished makeover until now!  

I started with this guy for $20.  Shabby, right?  Someone loved that green/gold spongepainty look at one point, but it wasn't working here.  

And check these out.  Especially the ones in the background.  Falling a little short in the leg department?  

Here's what I had to work with.  

• 6 little legs from Lowe's- $1.50 each
• $3 sample container of Valspar satin paint in "Almost Charcoal"
• foam paint brush
• mini foam roller- the same kind I used for the kitchen cabinets
• fine grit sand paper- I used 220, because the original paint was flat and I just needed a little roughing.

The new legs.

After taking the lion pull off the front (which is completely awesome, by the way), I sanded the whole thing down.  Next, I wiped over the surface with a damp cloth and got to painting once it was dry.  I painted the new legs separately, then added them on at the end.  Total cost for this little cabinet including facelift?  32 bucks :) 

The mirror came with the buffet we have in the dining room.

I've been getting a lot of questions about the next giveaway- For those of you wondering, we don't have a date nailed down yet, but there's some good stuff coming your way in March!  Stick around!

Chester for Cheap

As I discussed in this post, I've been doing a little more thrifting and Craigslisting lately.  I am seriously on a roll this month though!  If you remember, I was gushing before about how super-duper amazing it would be to find a Chesterfield sofa for less than... ya know... 1000 bucks.  Ohmygoodness did I find the perfect piece!

I happened to look at Craigslist Saturday morning just seconds after this post was written:

Umm... a Chesterfield sofa AND 2 chairs?  For... $169?!  Holy moly was I on it!  Naturally, I professed my creepy, stalker-style, undying love for this sofa to the guy selling it.  We stopped by Monday afternoon to see it, and the seller told us he had gotten over 50 responses in the first 3 hours and had to remove the listing.  And yours truly was the first to respond!  Woop woop!

Tuesday evening we rented a Uhaul van for about $30 to get the thing home.  And here he is.  Chester.  My lover.  Isn't he handsome?!

Now that our furniture family is complete, what's left to do?

1. Tile the fireplace.  I'm thinking small white and grey marble, like this, this, and this.  And I'm also loving the different designs from Home Depot, like this one and this one.  For such a small area, price won't be much of a factor.
2. Spruce up the floor tile around the fireplace.  I'm thinking about painting it.  We'll see.
3. Replace the curtains with something darker and heavier.  I considered painting the walls darker, but curtains are much easier :)

Don't forget, the Etsy Valentine's Day Giveaway ends Thursday!  Scroll down to get your entries in before it runs out!