Old Wooden Chair Redo April 8, 2011

I recently got to refinish an old wooden chair (something I’ve wanted to do for a while). Our neighbors had 2 old wooden chairs on their curb ready for the dump, but I asked if I could take them instead. Of course they agreed. The other one I haven’t touched yet, but I did get to redo one of them.

Here’s the chair in it’s moldy, worn, ugly state:

I went out and bought some 100 grit sand paper, two 2″ angled brushes, and a can of interior/exterior primer. I’ve had this small can of Glidden paint which has been itching to see it’s debut for a while, and it’s day is finally here!  After sanding it (which isn’t hard, but took me some time) and 1 coat of primer, I let it dry for over an hour. Then I put on 2 coats of Spring Leaf by Glidden. I used an oil based primer and latex interior paint.  Since the paint I used is really meant for walls and interiors, I plan on putting a coat of Polyurethane to protect it since it’s sitting outside. I just have to wait until the end of the month for funds.

So here is the Ugly Duckling turned Swan Princess (in chair world):

The chair is settled right next to the front door. In fact I’m actually sitting in it writing this post! It’s such a fun fresh spring color and looks great.

I did learn a few things from this paint job to take onto the next:

• Don’t skimp on sanding. I was eager to get going with the project and paint (you know the fun parts ), but I should have taken a little more time and sanded out a few other areas.
• Not to worry about coats of paint being too thin. Better to have multiple coats than some clumpy or goopy spots.
• Try hard not to go over anything immediately after painting it, because it does get sticky/tacky as it drys which makes your paint job look tacky.

So there’s ugly chair turned better than it was. Not perfect, but a fun project none the less!

Home Tour: Kitchen April 1, 2011

Alright! Last home tour post. Let’s take a look at our kitchen this time. I really enjoy being in our kitchen. I enjoy baking, cooking, and using my espresso machine.

So here’s the BEFORE:

Now here are the AFTERS:

There’s not a lot different as far as what you see at first glance.  But it is less cluttered than before, which is great! I recently purged of some kitchen items and am trying to sell a few things.  Getting things that aren’t used everyday or nearly everyday keeps things looking neater and prettier. In addition to less clutter both on the counters and in the shelves, I’ve branched out of the whole black & red exclusive color scheme. I have a yellow Anthro dish towel, yellow teapot, colorful cookbooks displayed, and put out some yellow fruit usually.

I love my Anthro dish towel. Pretty pricey, but it’s so super cute! I also enjoy my pop of yellow in the teapot and the blue olive oil ceramic bottle.  The backsplash here looks really pink for some reason; it’s tends to look a little pinkish even though they meant for it to a tan color. Oh well.

Reminder when I shared in the Living Room post, that I rip out magazine pages. Well the big Brown and White geometric print binder holds all my loose leaf recipes. I’ve sorted them in categories like appetizers, main dishes, and desserts. So all my Women’s Day magazines & printed recipes go in sheet protectors and get store on the counter.  Now the teal peacock feather binder to the right of the fat one has the same concept, but it holds loose leaf pages from magazines that  I really liked. Everything from decor ideas, articles on how to throw a successful garage sale, spring cleaning checklists, etc. are in sheet protectors and filed in here. It’s fun to disguise all those pages with these cute binders. Plus they add a lot of fun to our kitchen.

I really like old glass jars and old retro cans. The little tea canister sits on top of a funky candle from Target (smells like Pomegrante )

So after cleaning the kitchen for this post, I went ahead and left the dishes up for a “true to life” shot. The truth is, we always have dishes either in the sink or in the drying rack. It’s the nature of having no dishwasher, and we cook everyday, sometimes 2 times a day, so they just pile up.  I great way to save on storage in a smaller kitchen and greater accessibility is to use a pot hanger like we have. I love this feature in our kitchen.  Before the shelf was there that entire wall was totally empty. Kinda weird right?  The rack and “S” hooks are from Ikea.

This is my morning nook I make my coffee here most mornings. I love my espresso machine and my nifty burr grinder. They’re awesome.  Next to it is a make-shift fruit bowl. I took a pewter dish I had and a glass cake stand I wasn’t using and then added some rolled duck tape in between them. Voila! Isn’t ghetto fab-oo-lous fruit bowl!

In the pictures of the BEFORE, we had magnets and pictures everywhere on our fridge. I think I like having them more clumped together a little more neatly.  We have notes and letters that are important on the side of the fridge.

Last but not least is our pantry. We house charcoal, a whale bathtub, vacuum cleaner, mop/broom, and our pantry items. There are only 2 shelves in our pantry, which necessitated the use of an over the door pantry rack. I think we scored this at Bed Bath and Beyond. I hold mostly spices and baby food in here. Great way to boost storage!

So there you have it folks. I guess the only thing I left out was to open my fridge “Cribs” style, but oh well. That’s not the pretty stuff anyway Thanks for joining me in Tour de LeJeune!