Vintage babydoll crib

Posted on May 24, 2013 by Tarah

WHAT IS THIS? Well, it is the vintage babydoll crib I used for my baby dolls when I was younger. What you don’t see, that I apparently forgot to take a picture of — an ugly bass fish sticker on the other side. This little piece of history is going to be used by my daughter but not before it’s had a little facelift makeover. It’s in need of one, don’t you think?

Purple is my favorite color. As you can see, I’m trying the force my love for purple on my child. Its what every good mom should do. I had this purple paint left over from painting her nursery at our last home. I’m going to start planning her “big girl” room soon, so I just decided to use this paint on small stuff.

After covering up the little bear and ugly bass fish, I felt that the ends needed something. Luckily, Heather thinks ahead and brought her stencil set from Royal Design Studio that she used on her Barcelona Orange dresser for her craft room. I just took some acrylic paints that I brought with me to the Pinterest Party. (If you go to our April Pinterest Party, you’ll see this pretty little makeover in the front. At least half of the makeover)

I know. You don’t have to say anything. It’s ugly. And most definitely does NOT go with the pretty purple crib. Time to fix it.

As our Facebook “likers” heard yesterday, I did something with fabric. You know, the person that doesn’t want to sew or do anything with fabric. I totally tried it. I left the ugly fabric on because I needed the thickness. However, it wasn’t enough so I had to add something else so that the staples from the staple gun wouldn’t go through.

Enter piece of cardboard. Yes, I totally used cardboard. Don’t judge. You work with what you got.

Please notice this piece of “wood” looks like it was a piece of 1970s paneling. See the little crease to the right side.

Look at that perfect corner and use of staples with the staple gun. Its almost like a hospital corner. Yes, I do make the beds with hospital corners WHEN they get made, which I’ll admit isn’t often enough.

I chose a duck cloth to use for it’s durability. It is going to be used by a child and hopefully she’ll be able to pass it on to her children. Maybe she’ll even want to make it over as well, but I’m sure paisley will still be in style, or back in style.

I most definitely like the after. It looks so cute. I’m sure that the baby dolls will love it, along with my children, who will probably end up sitting in it. (They tried it out while it was sitting in my craft room before the makeover.)

This was an easy fabric challenge for me. Just fabric and a staple gun, simple. I might venture into making some of those fabric flowers that Heather is addicted to making. I did see a cute wreath made with them.

What do you think? Did I do a good job with the fabric? Isn’t it cute?

DIY Nursery Decor

Posted on April 25, 2013 by Whitney

This last Pinterest Party was really more of an ‘Operation Get Benjamin’s Nursery Decor Done’ party for me. And I got it all done! I love all of it and I think his room is going to be modern, bright, and cheery–just what I was going for. And it really didn’t cost me anything, other than the cost of a few sheets of scrapbook paper, some spray paint, and some DIY knowledge. Remember this post and the sneak peeks I gave? Well, here you go!

This sign was in my son’s old nursery at our previous house, but it just didn’t go with this nursery. I tried to sell it but I guess it was just meant for bigger and better things. So, it got re-purposed.

A couple coats of ASCP Napoleonic Blue and it was good to go for it’s new plan!
And ta-da! All done. Scrapbook paper, the trusty Silhouette, some mod podge, and a clear coat of spray paint and it was a brand new piece.

I found this huge B at the Hob Lob and immediately knew what I wanted to do with it. I love the name Benjamin, but it is a *little* long to put up on a wall. The space on this B would allow me to put his name on there without taking up an entire wall. Problem solved. (I was so proud of myself and my craftiness this weekend…you guys don’t even know.)

Again, more Napoleonic Blue, Silhouette letters, and a frame found in Aunt Toni’s attic (which I spray painted orange), and we have decor for above the crib.

Now, this little beauty (ha) started out as a plant stand when my sister was going through a Mary Engelbreit-ish stage. I needed a small table for beside the glider and this was just sitting in her garage collecting dust.

You guessed it–Napoleonic Blue, some scrapbook paper and mod podge and it’s a cute table to hold my phone/water/bottle/etc. I LOVE it!

Now, this next project took the most time. More time than it probably should have but it was SO worth it in the end.

I had these old framed picture of herbs hanging in my old house, but was over them by the time we moved. Again, tried to sell them but couldn’t.

We took them apart (which took quite a bit of effort–thanks Aunt Toni) and got to work. A little spray paint, some cute pictures and sayings from the Silhouette, scrapbook paper, and posterboard for matting and they have a whole new life.

Can you even believe it? So much better, right? These will look adorable above his dresser/changing table.

I got the idea for the ABC canvas off Pinterest (I know, imagine that).

Source: blackflipflops.blogspot.com via Whitney on Pinterest

My version (thanks to Heather for helping me out with this):
It took a lot of effort to line them up and make the patterns “random” enough and then I *still* ended up spacing them wrong, which is why you see the 2 stars placed in odd spots. Oh, well. Still works.

My final two projects weren’t even in the original plans, but they sure did turn out cute! When scouring my aunt’s attic for other goodies, we came across this lamp. Old and brass, but would work great in the nursery.

That other cute sign? Totally last minute. I had this rustic sign from my old house and it wasn’t getting used, so I figured–why not paint it?

I figure I can hang it on his door or on the front door during naptime or something. Better than letting a good piece of wood go to waste! Oh, wow, how I have changed. A year ago, I swear I wouldn’t have looked at any of this stuff twice.

I can’t wait to get it all hung up this weekend and of course, I will share the pictures once it is all completed!

So what have you re-purposed? Or are you more of a ‘start fresh’ kind of person?

Maison Blanche Part Three – Le Dirt and Organza

Posted on April 21, 2013 by Heather

Remember those pieces of moulding I showed you in the first post?

Maison Blanche makes two products – one is called Le Dirt and one is called Organza. Both of the products amazed all of us!

Once you have painted and waxed your piece, you can add Le Dirt to it to give it that old, antique-y feel. The wax helps it “stick” to the piece!

(This picture was pre-waxing – I forgot to snap a pic after!)

Once we were all waxed and ready to go, we took our moulding and Le Dirt outside with a chipbrush. You definitely want to do this outside if possible, because it is a powder (much like dirt). You don’t want to inhale this stuff, and we made sure that Whitney did not do this part since she is pregnant. Annie @ Maison Blanche did not think there were any problems with a pregnant person using it, but we didn’t want to take the chance!

First, you’re going to pour some Le Dirt onto your piece. Wherever the wax is, that is where the Le Dirt will stick!

Once it is on there, start brushing it off.

Keep brushing until you’re happy with it.

Can you see how it has settled into the crevices? It looks like an antique piece you would find in your grandmother’s attic! It completely changes the look of it.

The Organza really blew us away, and was probably our favorite product we used that day. Remember Whitney’s faux zinc coffee tables? Yeah, she has been kicking herself since we learned about this stuff – this makes it SO easy to get that same look with almost no work at all.

This was the “before” picture of the moulding. No wax, nothing but paint.

Can you believe the difference?! I’m pretty sure a jar of this would last the normal person for years – we used VERY little of the product to get this effect.

It is a cream and we just dabbed it on with a clean rag. You can wax it afterwards if you want (I probably would just to protect it). These pieces that we have pictures of have not been waxed.

Organza comes in three colors – Pearl Gold, Silver, and Gold. Whitney can’t wait to try the faux zinc look with this!

That’s it for our Maison Blanche “Heather Has a Big Mouth” Tour! You can find Maison Blanche on Pinterest, their website, and Facebook. All of us really had a blast at their warehouse when we went, and we would all love to go back if they invite us! Thanks again to Annie and Nicole – you girls are great! (Go check out Part One and Part Two if you haven’t already!)

Barcelona Orange Nursery Dresser

Posted on April 15, 2013 by Whitney

Only a little over 9 weeks to go and I FINALLY got the nursery dresser painted!

Remember this:

My $30 Canton steal? It sat in our bedroom for WAY too long and I was finally motivated/energetic enough to get started on it. I knew it would be a longer process–I have learned this with Barcelona Orange. But if you can’t put a bright orange dresser in a young boys’ room (or craft room), where can you put one?

From our previous experience with this color of paint, I knew it was going to take several coats. For some reason, it just doesn’t cover as well. Now, I think I know the reason, thanks to the ladies at Maison Blanche! Apparently, some colors (usually darker ones, but not always) have a deep base (when you look at the paint cans in the big box stores, they will say deep/medium base, etc.) and that means it isn’t going to cover as well. The way to overcome that is NOT to use white primer, but rather a gray color as a base coat. Wish I had known that BEFORE I started painting this beast (5 coats later!). Oh well, lesson learned.

Do you see that? Not great coverage like I have come to know and love from my ASCP. But I persevered.

And 4 (or 5–I lost track) coats later, it was finally done to my liking. Well, pretty much. I like my furniture pieces more modern-looking and smooth, rather than chippy and distressed (at least for boys’ bedrooms), so other people may achieve that look quicker if that’s what they’re going for. I also did 2 coats of poly (no wax) since it was going to be in a high-use area and I didn’t want to have to worry about it or re-wax in anytime soon. Plus, I am 7 months pregnant and waxing is pretty labor intensive.

I reused the same hardware (don’t love it, but hardware is expensive!) and just spray painted it chrome.

I still can’t believe I have an orange dresser. I can’t wait to see it with the rest of the room all put together, which we are getting to soon! I will be working on some nursery crafts this weekend at our Pinterest Party, so I will post pics when they are done. But I will leave you with some sneak peeks/hints:

If I can find some fabric I love (Heather might kill me by then), the plan is to recover this. Or attempt it, anyway.

Say bye-bye to the hearts and wood tone.

Old decor will become new again!

And look at the cute whale my aunt found at HomeGoods! Love!!

There is more where this came from–can’t wait to get it all done and put together! And of course, show it off to all of you!

What do you think? Would you paint a dresser orange? What’s the boldest color you have painted a piece of furniture (or anything)?

Have a great week!!

Maison Blanche Part Two – Glacage

Posted on April 15, 2013 by Heather

If you haven’t read Part One of the Maison Blanche field trip, go ahead and check it out!

Our first project was learning how to use Maison Blanche Glacage. It’s kind of difficult to explain exactly what it is, so I’ll just say it is a texturing/embossing process. It comes in five different colors (Natural Wood, Oak, Cherry, Black, and Walnut), so you can match it to what you are working with.

Annie and Nicole from Maison Blanche, showing us just some of the effects you can get by using Glacage.

To teach us how to use Glacage, Annie and Nicole had cabinet doors lined up against the back wall. These can be bought for next to nothing, and would make cute gifts! We each chose the style we wanted (yes, they had a variety!), then chose the stencil we wanted to use, and then chose the color of Glacage we wanted to use.

Our “BEFORE” cabinet doors.

The first thing they had us do was lightly sand down the cabinet doors to take a little bit of the gloss off of them. Once that was finished, we used some stencil adhesive and laid our stencils out where we wanted them. (FYI: Stencil adhesive spray works SO much better than tape!)

Now comes the fun part (and the part that we basically managed to not get ANY pictures of!) – slapping that Glacage on. Glacage is a cream, not a liquid, so it is thick. We applied it to the outer front edges of the cabinet doors, and also onto the stencil. You can use whatever color you want, it just depends on the color paint you use and/or how you want it to look after distressing if you distress it. The Glacage takes a little while to dry, so Annie and Nicole magically had more for us that were already “Glacaged”, dry, and ready to go! It was like something on the Food Network.

You can kind of see what Annie is doing – she is using “Natural” Glacage over a stencil. She applied hers with a plastic scraper. It’s just that easy.

Here is my “during”. I used Cherry Glacage. You can see the texture! Another thing we learned is that Glacage is “sandable” after it is dried.

Once your Glacage is dry, it’s time to paint. I chose Pastille, Whitney chose Chicory Spice, Tarah chose Collette, Christie chose Cayenne (although now that I think about it, she could have used Cerise!), and Aunt Toni chose Robin’s Egg. (Collette is new and is not on their color chart yet!) Annie did a cabinet door in Bayou Blue. The paint was smooth, went on great, and covered just like I knew it would! I think I did maybe two coats on mine, and that is only because it was a really light color.

Maison Blanche Pastille, Chicory Spice, Collette, Cayenne, and Robin's Egg.

Maison Blanche Pastille, Chicory Spice, Collette, Cayenne (or was it Cerise?), and Robin’s Egg.

Cabinet Door painted with Maison Blanche Pastille over Glacage - RCHOTX

You can see the texture from the Glacage in this picture. Once the Glacage dries, it is raised and you can feel it – it looks like the cabinet door was made with that design in it!

We took our wet cabinet doors over to some fans to speed up the drying while we worked on some other things (that’s for another post, y’all!).

Once the paint was dry (maybe 45 minutes?), we took them outside and sanded them down a little (to distress them). You don’t HAVE to do that, it is completely optional. Then we chose our wax. Maison Blanche has Dark Brown, Light Brown, Amber, and Clear. The Maison Blanche wax was almost like a liquid, it went on so easily! I was amazed. It got in all the nooks and crannies and it really was as simple as brushing it on (we used chip brushes – cheap and you don’t feel bad throwing them away once they’re worn out!) and wiping it off with a soft, clean cloth. Some of the other waxes I’ve used are so thick it almost hurts to put it on – I’ll never buy the cheap stuff at Lowe’s / Home Depot again!

Robin’s Egg with Dark Brown Wax on edges

Robin’s Egg with Dark Brown wax during – still needs to be buffed more, but can you believe how much the wax you use can change the color of the paint?!

Collette before wax

Collette after Amber Wax. This is probably the biggest difference we saw!

Cayenne (or Cerise) and Dark Brown Wax

Annie is the quickest waxer in the west. You can see how easily this wax brushes on in this picture.

Annie told us that when we got home we needed to “buff” it a little with a soft cloth to make it shine a little bit more. I still have not done that since I have been a tad bit busy, but I plan to work on it next weekend at our Pinterest Party, and hopefully have a totally finished project to show you!

I still can’t believe how much fun we had while we were there. I seriously have thought about going back ever since we left! In the next post, I’ll show you some of the finishes that Maison Blanche carries, and how much they can change the look of your painted pieces. I couldn’t believe what a difference it made!

Read our other posts about Maison Blanche here! Part One / Part Three

Recycled pallet wood

Posted on April 9, 2013 by Tarah

Do y’all remember that time I posted a picture on Facebook? Yeah, if you don’t maybe its because you need to be a Facebook fan. Go. LIKE!

WEEKS ago (yeah, so what I’m *just* now getting around to posting about it) I drove around our neighborhood and gathered some good-looking pallets. I picked up 3-4 total. One looked awful, but I wanted it that way.

Well-loved pallet

My tools – a hammer, mallet and gloves

All taken apart and ready to be used

I’m sure you’re asking, “what on Earth are you going to make with these ugly boards from that ugly pallet?” Well, see, I have this sweet BFF that got married on March 29th. While her dream was to get married during the winter with silver, sparkle and snowflakes, she changed her mind based on the date and the place she found to have this little shindig. The place she secured for her wedding was a rustic barn. From there we went to Pinterest and she literally had a Pinterest wedding. Maybe I can get her to do a guest post about her Pinterest Bridal experience. She is a wife now, you know.

This recycled pallet wood was made into a sign for wedding guests to see as they were walking up the walkway to the barn. Both Lindsay and Brice love it, and I saved it after the wedding for them to put in their new house in June.

Goodwill Makeover – Before & After!

Posted on April 5, 2013 by Heather

If you follow us on our Facebook page (um, you should be, because we talk about cool stuff on there), then you may have seen some “before” pictures of some lovely items I picked up at a local Goodwill a while ago. Are you ready for a cute, easy Goodwill Before & After?

So, I almost didn’t buy that second shelf. See that white spot there on the left? Yeah. That was a Tic Tac. Apparently it exploded at some point and I don’t even want to know about what happened – I will just say that I took a screwdriver to it and knocked the Tic Tac off. Yeah, the Tic Tac was STILL on the shelf. I have an extremely weak stomach and just didn’t know if I could handle dealing with someone else’s breath mint gone astray. I powered through it and decided to just cover that nastiness up instead. (Can I say Tic Tac ANY MORE? Tic Tac. Yes.)

A little spray paint, a little Mod Podge, a little bit of washi tape, and some scrapbook paper – and here’s what I ended up with! I love them now, and they were so worth the gagging. The one with the drawers will hold all of my glitter (yes, I have a lot of it), and the shelves will hold my craft paint (yes, I have a lot of that too – I was just making sure *after the fact, of course* that they fit on the shelves for the picture!).

Have you ever “redone” something you purchased at a thrift shop? I LOVE doing that – it just takes me a few months to get around to it sometimes!

Y’all have a great weekend!

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Category Archives: DIY Makeovers