Beadboard Picture Wall

Wah lah here is my beadboard picture wall in my kitchen. I just love the way this turned out!!! So much brightness and a personal touch that can't be beat. I absolutely love looking at my cuties everyday.
And I just love my kiddie table and chairs.

Here is the before. Ugh so plain. Sorry to pain your eyes.


Now just for eye candy after that horrible before picture, here is a beautiful sunflower that we grew. Yumm just love it, and I can see it out of my kitchen window. Makes doing dishes a little better. :)

The custest little thing ever!

I love the way this turned out!! And it was so easy. It is so bright and fresh now!! What a difference paint makes.
First I scrubbed the grime off the old table and chairs then painted on 2 coats of primer. My daughter loved helping me with this.
This is what the table and wall looked like before.

I used spray paint for the chairs. Krylon is rolled back at Walmart for only $2.67 a can now. ;) The yellow is called Bright Idea.
Cherry Red for this one.
I used my lovely turquoise blue for the table and polyied over everything!
My girls love it just as much as I do! It's like she's hugging the table. :)

We are in the process of finishing up the bead board behind here. I also plan to put a picture/gallery wall above the bead board.

Happy 4th and a few "free" crafts

Hope you are having a great 4th of July! Oh how I love our new flag.
Best $10 for outdoor decor ever spent.
One of my favorite parts about the fourth of July is all the good food. I will be posting the best cake EVER- Fourth of July Cake. It is even requested for birthday cakes in the fall at our house.
My mother in law made these cute calendar blocks for me. One for everything month of the year. She is great on the computer.
When I get the "creative bug" I want to create now. So here are a few free crafts using supplies you probably have on hand:
Dress up your Scentsy with a little ribbon.
Using your scrap wood, paint, scrapbook paper, modge podge, ribbon, buttons and some stamps (or if your lucky your Cricut) you can make this.


Using some scrapbook paper, Elmer's glue, brads and jute make these cutie pin wheels.
Makes a cute banner or attach to a straw or skewer for a fun toy or arrangement pick. The rest of my banner was a craft fail- so I won't be showing you that. :)

Directions:

1. You can use double sided scrapbook paper or what I did was cut 2- 5 1/2 in squares and glue the papers back to back and press and dry under something heavy.
2. On the diagonal- corner to corner cut a line and stop about an inch from the center all the way around.
3. Punch a hole in the corners- every other one.
4. Gather the corners and put your brad through the holes then punch through center.
   
5. Punch hole in another corner to hang on a banner- or attach to a straw or wooden skewer for a pick. WA- LA!
   

HAVE A FUN FOURTH!!!

Dining Bench Completed!

Here is how I finished it!



It matches quite beautifully.

Here it is before the paint and stain. See this Post
And here's a sneak peek at what we are working on now. Any guesses?

To see the beginning of this project go here. The plans were based on Ana's at Knock Off Wood.

Big Reveal!!

Can you guess what we built today?


It's our new dining room bench! We got the plans from Ana at Knock Off Wood. Except her plans were for a 54 in bench so we modified it and made a 6 footer.
Now I just have to figure out how I want to finish it! I would love suggestions.



This is what my dining room looks like (well a few months ago actually). Now I need to tie in my rustic country bench and shabby chic dresser. Did I mention I found this table and chairs for $50 on Craigslist! See this post on my dining room.

And instead of the armoire I now have this blue buffet/dresser- see here. I am actually going to redo this look on another longer dresser I found recently. Ahh shoot me.

But I think it will be good, because this time I think I will leave the top brown to tie into the table better and darken up the blue a bit.
I love all the colors in this fabric.

No I am not afraid of color- but don't want to over do it.
Should the top of the bench be stained dark brown with the bottom painted blue/turquoise to match the dresser?
Should it all be stained to match the table?
Should I paint the chairs and bench a distressed black? Maybe with a little blue peeking though?
Should I refinish all my pieces?

Oh the possibilities! What would you do?

A Table That Will Last

I finally refinished my kitchen table! What I thought would take a Memorial day weekend ended up taking a week. Mostly because I took extra care to make sure it would be durable. It was worth it though cuz it is beautiful and I am so happy with it now!

Here is my table before. Not too bad and pretty flowers but too much brown for me.

And with 7 good years this is what it looked like close up. Eww!

This is my kitchen and I thought a cream color table would stand out from the floor and the brown leather couches on the other side and brown drapes on the other side. The cream would also tie into the island bead board, bar stools and ceramic accents.


Creamy goodness close ups.
As you can see I sanded and lightly glazed for the antique look. And with this high traffic table the antiquing will hide any nicks and scrapes the kiddies might make.
Here are the steps I took to make sure this table will stand the test of time.
1. Sand off the polyurethane (shiny finish). The primer will stick better. You can also use a deglosser product.
After I sanded I rolled on 2 coats of Kilz primer (brushed the bottom).
After the primer rolled on 2 coats of Creamy Cottage by Behr.
Then I sanded the edges with my power sander.
Next is glaze. I like Ralph Lauren glaze. It is thicker than most which is better for furniture. Most are thinner which is better for walls. But sadly Home Depot is clearing it out and replacing it with a Martha Stewart line.
Before
During- I wipe on with a brush and wipe off with a damp rag.
After- gets in the grooves for antique beauty. Allow to dry completely.
Then I polyed 3 coats for an extra tough protective finish. Brush on and wait 2 hours between each coat and 24 hours to fully dry after that. For a cream or white table you have to use water based poly. Which is called polycrylic because regular polyurethane will yellow over time.

Now I have to do all that all over again for my chairs. Wish me luck! After that I hope to tackle the kiddie table and chairs and make them different fun colors.



UPDATE:
I used a flat finish paint. This way the glaze and poly adhere better to it. Because the paint is a flat finish I didn't see the need to sand between coats like some do.

The glaze I used was Lowe's asphaultum antiquing glaze. I only recommend using this if you are putting a poly over it. It is thinner and doesn't seem to dry 100%.

If you use Ralph Lauren Glaze, the Home Depot guys can tint it for you. But warning it is being discontinued! You choose the color tint you want. I prefer a brown tint.