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 :)

How It's Looking- A living/dining room update

Did everyone have a fabulous fourth of July?!  I still can't believe it's mid-year already.  We spent our day biking (at the crack of dawn when it's still possible to breathe outside), "swimming" (AKA bobbing around in a pool without actually exerting any energy), eating/drinking with pals, and enjoying fireworks and the extended hours of Crescent City Park on the Mississippi.  Don't worry, I won't be sharing photos of various fireworks.  But I will share this:

Aaaanyway, it's time for another house update.  I think the last time I photographed the main part of the house was at Christmas.  Also, we've been sliding small updates in, not mentioning them, and pretending like no one will notice.

For instance, we painted the dining room and kitchen, as well as all the trim near the crown molding.  Did anyone notice the walls suddenly weren't yellow anymore in this post?  I think it helps tone down the "everything around me is yellow" factor.  The cream cabinets, yellow ceiling, yellow walls, and yellow trimming between the molding was making me pine for something blue-toned in my life.

Yes, the ceiling is still yellow.  Uggggghhhhhhhhh.  Sorry.  Every time I think about painting a ceiling it makes me groan for extended periods and feel like I might vomit.  It may be a while before we tackle that beast.

We've got a few new pieces of art hanging out in the living room these days.  The two larger pieces are mixed watercolor and ink by Geza Brunow- his stuff is awesome.  Check out his "Kings" pieces.  They make me smile so much!

Then we balanced out the fancy schmancy art with some pieces that are more tolerable to the Arvin budget.  The top piece we acquired for $2 (!!!) from a guy who lives nearby and doodles little pen on paper pieces like this all the time.  The bottom right is a postcard-style advertisement for the Tennessee Williams Festival we picked up at a performance of Night of the Iguana at a warehouse in the Marigny.

Here's the 2-buck doodle a little closer:

Remember when I mentioned how bright the 60W bulb seemed in this fixture I pieced together?  I switched it out for a 40W.  It was a good move.  I also love the shape.  Ooh lala!

I've gotten into the habit of picking up flowers every week, and it's fantastic.  Flowers make me happy.  So do ice cream, chocolate, and cake.  Keep that in mind, friends.  My birthday is nearing.

You may have noticed (above) the little cabinet to the left of the window.  It was a Craigslist find we snagged for $50 a few weeks ago.  Plans are to paint it.  More on that soon.

So what have you been up to?  Any home-updates on the to do list?

A Budget-Friendly Display

We've been fortunate to host some of our friends and family since our move south, many of which are able to stay longer than just a weekend.  Because they're usually looking for something to do while we're at work, we've been wanting a way to display our suggestions.  We've collected a hefty stack of brochures for tours and activities, but let's be honest, it's mostly about the food, drinks, and socializing here.

I thought about painting a list of our recommendations onto canvas, but there are constantly new restaurants and bars popping up.  And our favorites change quicker than it takes Kirb to run from bed to dish at dinnertime.  He's hefty, but can really move when it's time to feed.  So we decided on something less permanent.

We started by searching thrift shops and Craigslist for a large, chunky frame.  Turns out it's hard to find one on the cheap.  Anything I spotted that fit my liking was over $100.  Right.  So I figured it was time to think outside the box.  With some loot from Lowe's and my own stash at home, I took a less traditional route to get this 2-foot by 3-foot chalkboard creation for less than $35!  Woop woop!

Here's the end product:

I guarantee Pinterest is already teeming with this idea, but here's the how-to for my version.

I bought two 10-foot foam trim pieces from Lowe's for about $15 each.  They had several styles, but I chose a wider version for a sturdier look.  I think it's about 3" wide.  Wood trim would've worked well too, but I liked the idea of the foam being so lightweight.  Our paint situation is looking pretty ridiculous (we're talking big grocery sacks full of paint samples I've collected over the years), so I already had chalkboard paint and a sample tub of red satin paint that happened to be from the front door.  I also busted out some Frog Tape, Liquid Nails, mini foam roller, paint brush, tape measure, ruler, and miter box and handsaw- all of which I had on hand.

You can probably tell by the lighting that I took this after dark.
It was daylight savings time, people.

The first thing I did was tape off the area on the wall where I wanted the chalkboard.  I decided on 2' x 3' for the inside dimensions of the frame, so I taped off an area just slightly larger to make sure I had some leeway with frame placement.

Then I rolled on my chalkboard paint.  It ended up taking 3 coats to get a nice, solid black.

Next, I used my handsaw to cut two 2-foot pieces and two 3-foot pieces of trim.  These would be the top/bottom and sides of my frame.  I used a little sandpaper to smooth out the edges.

After wiping them down (sawing the foam gets a little messy), I layered on the red satin paint with a brush.  I added the first two coats, then used Liquid Nails to connect the pieces end-to-end to form a frame.  I ended up slathering on one last coat once the frame was together, just to make sure all the nooks and crannies were covered.

Once everything was dry, I attached the frame to the wall with Command Strips, cut in half lengthwise.  The advantage of making a frame that weighs no more than a pound!

Boom!  So easy and inexpensive!  

Here's the completed version with our latest restaurant/bar/music recommendations.  You can see we've already made some changes- every time we turn around there's a new place to add to the list!

A New (Door) Face

I won't waste any time building up to this announcement... The front door is complete!  It shouldn't be big news, but this project was moving at tortoise-speed due to all the Mardi Gras festivities.  It's been over 2 months since I first asked for opinions on plans for this guy, so I got my act together to show you what we decided.

Let's rewind to what we started with.  Here's the original plum colored door.

I did some stripping, as you know.  The paint kind.  Then after several weeks with the rustic looking half-red-half-bare door, I took the plunge.  I bought some red paint.  Yep.  The door got a little rouge.  Before I got to painting, it looked like this:

I started by taping off the glass.

Then I added a layer of Kilz primer.

After drying for 24 hours, I painted on the first coat of red.  I let each layer dry overnight, and all-in-all it took 3 coats.  I'm loving the look!

The trim is pale green, but when it's time to repaint it, we plan to use a different color.  Something a little brighter.  Maybe periwinkle?  Wouldn't that be pretty next to a bright red door?!

This is what it looks like from the inside now (with the nice weather, we nearly always have the door open when we're at home).

Did you happen to notice the front light switcharoo?  The original lights were pretty tiny, so we replaced them with some larger, more prominent lights.

Check out the before and after:

Not bad, huh?!  So what do you guys think?  Was red the right choice?

Going Green

I mentioned before that the holidays have really been a primary focus since we moved in.  Apart from smaller updates (like these bookshelves we installed), holiday projects have been nearly the only thing on my mind.  I'm not used to the "holiday season" lasting through March!  As a result, I'm trying to redirect a bit onto what we want to accomplish in the next few months.  Just thinking about painting a wall a few weeks ago made me want to nap, but the inkling to paint and create an overall vision for each room is finally setting in. 

With our last two homes, I began painting in the first 24 hours of taking ownership.  Literally.  So an unpainted house was starting to feel weird.  The pale yellow was neutral enough to handle for a time, but I was dying to add some bolder colors.  I pretty much had my heart set on green from the beginning.  After perusing my Pinterest boards, I discovered I'd been not-so-secretly fawning over green rooms for quite a while.  Like the two below...

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When we hit up Sherwin Williams, there were a few different shades we pondered.

Pardon the cell phone picture.  This probably
                doesn't depict the colors very well...                      

At first, I thought an olive or avocado color was going to win, which is a bit more yellow than blue.  But then I considered more of a "true green" as well.  Relentless Olive (not pictured above) and Garden Grove made the cut, and the samples came home with us.  I slapped 'em on the wall in a few spots to see what looked best.  

Top: Relentless Olive.  Bottom: Garden Grove.

Maybe it was the fact that Will referred to Relentless Olive as "baby poop green", or maybe I just dig more of a blue undertone, but Garden Grove came out on top.

Thanks to a 50% off sale Sherwin Williams had right after we bought our house, I had a couple gallons of base paint set aside to have tinted to whatever color we decided on for the living room.  What made the whole process even easier was my super fabulous hubby.  He painted the whole room, both coats, while I was living it up in Tampa for a bachelorette party.  Swoon.  My hero!

Because it's been a while, here's what it looked like before.

And here's what I came home to.

Yea.  I came home to that beached whale on the couch, too.

The following weekend, we added white between the crown molding and chair rail near the ceiling.  See above how it was yellow before?  

This is how it looks after adding some white.  We still need to touch it up aaaaaand  paint the ceiling white.  Ugggghhhhhhhh.  I'll need to recover from Mardi Gras before tackling that beast.

It's been 70 degrees here, by the way.  Therefore, I refused to close the door, even to take these pictures.

Also, nice weather and door open means it's impossible to get pet-free pictures in the living room.  

Notice the new poster to the left of the window?  It's a Jazz Fest poster from 2004 that we got signed and framed for a bargain.  We've made a handful of New Orleans art purchases recently... hopefully I'll get a chance to share more about them at some point. 

That rock to the left of the cabinet above?  Our "rustic" door stop.

Anyone else making bold changes recently?  Even when it's just paint, it's sort of refreshing, right?!