DIY Itch

It's undeniable, I am a Pinterest addict! I love how creative some people get; I don't know if it is because I am one of the LEAST creative people in the world or if it is because I am sort of bored lately. At any rate, my husband and I are pinching pennies as mentioned in earlier posts and have recently move into our new house together, recently meaning last November. I am always looking for ways to make the house look better. My style is very shabby-chic. I love old barn wood, roughed up furniture, light airy colors, flowers, etc. I grew up in a farm town in Michigan and am thinking my inner soul will always be a country girl :) 

I began two projects a couple weeks ago and have been feverishly working on them in my spare time. 

DIY Cable Spool Patio Table

In the town where we live there is a cable company, as in cable cording, and whenever I drive by I always see old spools laying out in the grass, just decaying away. I finally got the courage up to go in there and bother the poor workers asking if it would be possible for me to steal one. To my surprise, the man that helped me was very sweet and went out the the "spool graveyard" with me in the 98 degree Georgia sun to help me find one. He was actually relieved I was taking one because he admitted they were kind of an eye sore but were costly to get removed, and that I could have all that I wanted, score for me!! After finding one that wasn't overly decayed, he generously cut the remaining cable off and helped my husband load it into the back of his truck. I was thrilled that I finally had my own cable spool and couldn't wait to get started.

After giving the spool a thorough cleaning with some Dawn and a hose, I let it dry in my back porch for about two days. After which I began to coat the top with polyurethane that I had left over from when we painted our countertops; I didn't really want to paint it or restore it any further because I loved the look of the wood just the way it was, so rustic! It took about 3 days to finish because I had to let it completely dry in between the coats of poly I brushed on. I wrapped the middle in burlap that I got from Hobby Lobby for 50% off, originally priced $4.99, so about $2.50.

Refinished Night Stand

When we moved into our house, one of the agreements in our contract with the previous owner was that he leave his two dressers and bedside table. We have never really got around to buying a dresser/dressers since we've been down here and since we knew he was trying to sell all the furniture in his home before he moved, we thought we'd ask for them. Let me begin by saying I am so thankful that we have dressers now and do not have to hang everything anymore. However, the dressers and end table were from circa 1975 and were not either of our style. I decided since our bedroom is small and we truly have no room for a nightstand to turn it into an end table for the living room. Now, I have read a few articles on Pinterest about re-finishing wood furniture and went on my merry way of re-finishing the night stand. I took the dresser apart, removed the handles and began sanding with some sandpaper we had leftover from when we re-did our countertops. I sanded off all of the LAMINATE wood surface which left the particle board exposed. 

***FAIL***FAIL***FAIL*** 

I'll get to the fail in a moment. When I had sanded the whole thing down, well the majority of it, I wiped the sanded dustings off with a damp paper towel and began to spray paint. I found a can of Rust-Oleum on clearance at Hobby Lobby and decided the color was actually a perfect match for one end table that we already have in the living room, a light, creamy yellow. Anyway, I noticed that the paint was soaking into the particle board and not really covering it how paint should. I also noticed that the paint was covering the parts that I had not sanded, like the bottom, perfectly. UGHH!

 This is where the ***FAIL*** comes in. When you are painting LAMINATE furniture, you should LIGHTLY sand the glossy finish just to be sure the paint will adhere, NOT sand the whole covering away; hey, the title of my blog is Not So Suzy Homemaker for a reason :) Not wanting to accept defeat, I used the rest of the spray paint and painted the whole night stand anyway and let it dry. I did all of this in my backyard mind you and coming in after my painting session, I realized I HAD FORGOTTEN TO PAINT ONE OF THE DRAWERS!!!! OMG! What was I going to do!? It also turns out the paint color was on clearance because it was DISCONTINUED and wouldn't you know it, I bought the LAST one in the store. Wahhhh!!! Still not wanting to accept defeat, I opted to cover one of the drawers with scrapbook paper and Modge Podge. Does it look perfect? No. Do I think its cute in its own way? Yes. Along with the scrapbook paper and Modge Podge I bought, I also picked up four new pulls for the drawer. The finished product is below.

The edges are roughed up a bit with sandpaper.

I really hope this blog post helps someone else on their quest to DIY paradise!!! Oh, and not making the same mistakes I did!

XoXo

Sara

Kitchen Re-Do (On a Budget)

Since nothing interesting has happened lately and we had a lazy weekend, besides going to Bass Pro Shop (I LOVE Bass Pro!), and Dexter, my son, pulling the coffee table into his face and onto my foot, I thought I would post our small scale but big impact kitchen renovation.

My poor baby!

Paint

Let me start by saying we got our house for a steal. The inspection came back with a clean bill of health, it had been newly painted and had quite the home-y feel. Plus, we're paying almost half of what we were paying when we were renting. Even though the house did have a home-y feel, it didn't really suit our taste. We decided that the kitchen was our least favorite part of the house and was the room that we would re-do first. We went to Home Depot and checked out some paint colors and decided we wanted a cool, minty green; thinking we were being super smart, we got a small sample can to try on the wall at home before we bought a gallon. Well, we took it home, rolled it on and loved it! The foolish part we didn't realize is that we had no lights on in the kitchen at the time so the paint was quite different when we went to paint the walls. Having paid for the paint, we decided to make the best of it and paint the rest of the room to see if the color would grow on us. My husband promised if I still hated it in a week, he'd go back and get a different color. I have to say the color has grown on me and I love how light the kitchen is now that it is a bright green rather than a dark blue. Especially since our house is on the smaller side, its nice to have bright, light colors rather than dark ones which make it look even smaller. Total cost: $75.

New bright green and counter tops.

Old blue paint and old blue and white counter tops

Counter Tops

After we painted the walls from deep blue to bright green, or maybe we did the counter tops first, my mind fails me often, the blue and white counter tops needed to go. We looked around at the pre-made ones but they were truly all very ugly; I felt that they were all trying to hard to look like granite but just looked like big messes (sorry counter top manufacturers.) We knew what we could afford and the installation and cost of many counter tops were just out of our price range. We looked into Rust-Oleum Countertop Transformations and it really was a good option but still a little pricey and I didn't really like the speckled look that they all yielded. I remembered my uncle had re-done his counter tops with regular paint and sponged on another color so I called him to ask how durable it was and how exactly to do it. He said they have had them for over 10 years and they are still very durable and gave me exact instructions on how he painted and sealed his. We followed his directions to a 'T' and they turned out great! He used roll on paint and we decided to use Rust-Oleum spray paint for a more airbrushed look; my husband and I selected a hammered copper and a dark brown. First, we taped off the sink and walls and put protective plastic covering over everything that could possibly get paint on it. We didn't worry much about the floor because that was going to be our next project, this was kind of a bad idea because our feet stuck to the floor and got nasty film on them until we did re- do the floor. So, please, cover your floors. He sanded the original counter top down with 1000 fine grit sand paper just until it was roughed up enough to accept the new pain. Then, he alternated colors applying both until we got the desired look, I think it was about three coats of each. After we achieved the desired paint color, we applied SIX coats of polyurethane, letting it dry in between each coat. This part took a long time but was well worth it because we know our counter tops are nicely sealed and durable. Total cost: $50

Floors

We decided on getting flooring from Lumber Liquidators because of their unbeatable prices as compared to Home Depot and such. We ended up settling on a dark bordered wood laminate. The padding was included under the floor boards so we didn't have to worry about that and it cost about $1.79/sq foot. The only other expense we had for the floor were the siding boards and the water barrier that needed to be put underneath. We chose to install it ourselves because the installation cost was just more money we didn't have to spend. Someone had to watch my son while all of this flooring installation was going on and it most definitely wasn't my husband. I built a make shift barrier in between the living room and the kitchen so my son couldn't get through and my husband called me as he needed me to help click the floors in place. This lasted about 2.5 seconds before my 6'3" 220 pound husband was on the floor freaking out and sweating. He swore he could install it by himself, swore. He had helped his dad lay flooring in his childhood home and thought it would be just the same as that. My father-in-law is quite the handy man and I don't think my husband really knew what he would be in for when installing the floor by himself. Anyway, luckily my husband works with some really great people and two of his co-workers came over to save the day. I may or may not have told them about the mini break down my husband had before they had gotten there. :) Thank God for good people. Total cost: about $700.

Furnishings

Furnishing the new kitchen was my favorite part! Of course I hit up Goodwill and the dollar store to find great things to fill the kitchen with. The two things I splurged on were the clock above the fridge and the shadow box above the microwave. I saw the clock at Tuesday Morning and I thought it would be perfect so a had to get it. The shadow box and faux candles inside are from Hobby Lobby. Total cost: $28.

If I've forgotten any step or if you would like more information, please my all means, ask! 

XoXo

Sara

PS!!! Here is a picture of our old oven. We got a new one of those right away!

Can you say 70's?!?!