I love Board and Batten walls. I’ve just never had many places that one would work well before. Until this house. I knew the minute that I looked at the guest bathroom that this would be a perfect place for one.

To refresh your memory this is what the guest bath looked like when we moved in. It’s a functional bathroom, but the design had seen better days. It’s like a time capsule for the 80’s. Can I get an Amen? The first thing we did was change out the flooring. Once we had moved in and unpacked, I started removing wallpaper. If you’ve ever removed wallpaper you would know why I will NEVER put wall paper in my house again. Nope. Not doin’ it!

By the time I got all of the wallpaper removed and the cabinets and walls painted the holidays were fast approaching. We called a halt to all major projects until after the new year.

The holidays are long gone, and it’s time to get busy finishing a few of the rooms that we started! The first thing on my list in the guest bath was the board and batten wall.

After taking a few measurements, we headed to our local lumber store and picked out the lumber we wanted to use. Full disclosure, we could have done this wall for a much lower price had we used a different lumber. But, after much research, we decided to put up our wall a little differently which required a higher grade of hard lumber. It seems that there are two main ways that most people installed their board and batten walls.Both options had issues that we didn’t want to deal with.

The first option was to glue the boards directly  onto the walls, then add nails.Ummm…no thank you. If I ever wanted to change things up, I knew that I would also be replacing sheet rock. And I thought that removing wallpaper was a nightmare…

The second option was to simply nail the boards to the wall. However, unless you hit a stud there would always be the possiblity of the board popping loose. And realistically, there was no way we could design the wall to do that and it look right. Neither of those appealed to us.

First step:

Remove the existing base molding.

Now here’s where we went in a different direction than most. Instead of installing the boards, piece by piece directly onto the wall, we built the entire wall in the garage before installing.

To hold it together and for added stability we used pocket screws on the back of the frame. It was like a huge picture frame! And solid as a rock. Once we had it built, we then nailed it to the wall making sure we hit studs as much as possible. No chance of boards popping off and it can be fairly easily removed if we ever want to!

For the baseboard we used a 1 x 8″ board.The vertical boards are 1 x 3″ boards. And the top cross board is a 1 x 6″ board.

To finish it off we placed a 1 x 2 ” board across the top.

Next, I caulked every place the boards touched the walls and at the floor. I used wood filler to fill in all nail holes. There were still a few places on the dry wall that needed a little patching also. Once the caulk, sparkle, and filler were dry, I gently sanded everything smooth.

Time for paint! I love this paint. We painted our cabinets with this paint in our last house and it was so durable!

Three coats of paint, installation of the hooks and my board and batten wall was finished! I love it! I still have a few more projects before I can call this room done, but by far I think this is one of my favorite projects that we’ve done in this  house. It just gives that room so much character.

I am toying with painting the wall above the board and batten the same blue that I painted the vanity. But before making that decision, I’m going to live with it as it is for a little while.

Putting in a taller shower curtain, a little mirror project and decorating the rest of the space is on my to do list next. So stay tuned for the finished room!

Until next time…

Well, it’s official. We said good-bye to Saddlewood Court and said hello Cumberland Trail.

We’ve jokingly said that we are homeless, as we still have a week before Cumberland will be ready for us to live there.

You might say that the new house is a bit of a fixer upper.

For the next week we will be having a few new renovations done before we move in.

New flooring will replace the old tile.

I have to admit that it’s been fun choosing new flooring.

Hardwoods, carpet….

And tile.

Beautiful, glorious tile.

The new house will be a little more neutral than the last.

Also, a little more bold.

Remember I said that it was a fixer upper?

There are a ton of projects that we can’t wait to start.

We are saying goodbye to a LOT of wallpaper.

Adding a new colors, textures and hopefully a bit of fun.

Lots and Lots of cabinets to paint!

Backsplashes to be replaced.

And, if I can talk The Hubs into it, new countertops to be chosen.

I’m going to share a secret.

This will be our first project.

While I love the fireplace from the mantle down, the mantle up isn’t exactly to my taste.

So The Hubs and I have a plan!

As you can see, the carpet has seen better days, hence the need for new flooring before we will move in.

One of the things that I am most excited about is my new studio.

It’s much larger than my last one and I’ve got the most fabulous desk to put in there!

So, while the floors are being replaced, the dust will be flying and I will be on the back porch.

This is my view.

So, Hello Cumberland Trail!

Until next time…..

Want to see my least favorite room in the house? Don’t we all have one of those? NO? Well, I certainly do.

I have a room that has taunted me from the day we moved in 13 years ago.

Every time I would walk by, its lousy layout would scream at me.

Not only is the layout bad, but the door placement is a nightmare.

And don’t even get me started on the fact that the previous owner put carpet in the sink area….

What room is it?

It’s the jack and jill bathroom between the guest room and my office.

In case you were wondering, this is my favorite room.

At least, it is today….

After 13 years it was time to show that bathroom who was boss.

First up, we tore out the gross carpet and the ugly linoleum.

Once that was done, it was time to lay tile.

I chose a tile that I thought looked clean, timeless, and fairly easy to put down.

Clearly, this was the winner.

It IS clean, white and timeless.

It is NOT easy to tile with.

In fact, I’m sure that I heard The Hubs muttering things under his breath on more than one occasion.

I’ll be honest, it was hard to put down!

Here it is before we grouted it.

So pretty!

I wanted to put a black grout in, but The Hubs put a stop to that in a New York minute.

The Hubs is perfectionist time 10.

He was certain that the black grout would show every imperfection of the placement of the tile.

So white grout it is!

I love it.

The only downside to the whole tile project?

Now you can see how beat up the trim is.

So guess what this girl is going to be doing over the next few days?

After the grout set and the room was caulked, I decided to go ahead and put it back together until I got the chance to finish the painting.

I realized that the shower curtain, rug and towels just weren’t working for me anymore.

So, I did a little shopping!

I still have a lot to do in this tiny bathroom before I share the end result with you.

More painting, more decorating.

However, I have a feeling that my least favorite room in the house is fast becoming one of my favorite.

Until next time…..

Today I am sharing the Before and Afters of July.

I have been so busy working outside of the castle, I haven’t had much of time to get a lot of things done.

I am obsessed with the pink flamingo!

I blame my obsession on Target.  A few months ago, I received my weekly email from Target introducing their Pillowfort line.  When I saw their pink flamingo sheets, I fell in love. One large problem. They were already sold out of the sheets.

Ryan’s RV bedroom and bathroom.

I’ve shared a few other posts about my son Ryan’s RV reno before. If you missed it you can see it here and here.  Today I want to show you the rest of his humble abode.

It’s all about the details. Well, in this case the architectural details. I love decorating with old doors, found objects, and unusual pieces that you wouldn’t normally see on their own.

My sweet friend Shelli had these given to her, and then she gave them to me. Apparently once upon a time they graced the top of a cabinet or armoire.   Their finish was beautiful, but really, really dark. So dark that the details disappeared here at the castle.

I found this new paint, or new to me, at my local Ace hardware store and decided to give it a try.

It says one step painting. This is what I got after three coats of the white and an antiquing coat of AS Paris Grey. I guess if you consider that you are only using the paint – no primer – then it is one step painting.

Pro’s – The color was killer awesome! A beautiful white.

Con’s – Three coats of paint. Most other chalk/clay/milk/mud paints that I have used only need two coats. After two coats my ADD kicks in. BIG TIME.

Also, there was an unusual odor to the paint when wet.

I also bought the brush that was sold along with the paint. I give the brush a “D” grade. It was really just a fluffy chip brush. It lost a ton of hair, separated and the ends were ragged leaving streaks in the paint. Save your money!

Overall, I liked the end result but will probably just stay with some of my other tried but true favorite paints and would definitely use a different brush.

I still wanted to see some of that really pretty original color so a little distressing was in order.

Followed by a coat of wax.

After the wax dried I gave it a buff…

Now all that’s left is the hanging. It already had these holes in the back along the bottom, which were perfect for hanging. Since these are a bit heavy, it needed another hole along the top.

A little measuring and a drill and we were rocking!

Ta DA! I really, really lurve them!  My headboard is kinda short. When I put a mountain few pillows in front of it you just don’t see it. These architectural pieces help give it some weight visually.

Here’s the thing, ever since I added a new tv armoire to the bedroom I have been struggling with painting the bedroom set. Should I paint it all? Or just the the bed and nightstands? Or should I leave the bed alone and paint all of the other pieces?

I tell you it has been a never ending argument amongst the voices inside my head!

So I have done absolutely nothing.

BUT… after painting these architectural pieces I think I may have decided exactly what to do!

Until next time….

                          Tammy

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Y’all know I live in “manland” here at the castle. Well, except for Sadie the black lab and Firehydrant the cat, but I don’t think they care about the decor. For the most part I try to keep a balance on my decorating style, not too manly and not too girly – it keeps everyone happy. Awhile back I redecorated the game room and I recently added  a cute turquoise lamp to it that I can’t wait to share with you!

When I redecorated I used a lot of my existing accessories, including a lamp I already had.

The first lamp I used was a candlestick lamp on the bar… but it was a little wimpy. I had this  lamp that I wasn’t using at the moment, but felt like it was a little dark and heavy.

This is the curtain fabric that I used in the billiard room… every time I say that I want to yell ” It was Miss Scarlet and she did it with a lamp!” Not juvenile at all.

Okay, so this is my curtain material in the “game room”. Since the walls are a dark gray, I thought I would use one of the accent colors from my curtains.

Turquoise spray paint to the rescue! I love how this just pops off of the gray walls. The turquoise color lets you see all of the cool detail on the lamp and it really brightens up that corner. It is a little  girly, but not so much so that the men have complained.

I think this is a great  balance of manland meets Tammyland, don’t you? I don’t know why, but I’m always amazed at how such a small change can make all of the difference in a rooms decor. It just makes that corner feel so much more finished.

If you look closely you can see my butler, Mr. Belvedere.  He photobombs all the time here at the castle!

Speaking of manland you may have noticed a some special candles in my posts lately. My youngest son got tired of candles having “girly” scents. He felt it was time for something more “manly” in the candle world and has started his own candle company, Black Road Company.  He has some pretty unusual candles scents like Hot Towel (my favorite), Campfire, Coffee and Garage just to name a few.

I was pretty skeptical at first, but I was quickly converted.

Bottom line? They smell good!!! I just wanted to give you a little peak and tell you to high tail it over there and check it out. I will be sharing the full line with you on a later post.

Until then….

                Tammy

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I am so excited to show you the sweet little nightstands before and after!

My seester and I were hitting the garage sales when she visited a few weeks ago. We found the cutest nightstands, but they are really small. I mean REALLY small. I was going to walk away when my seester told me I would be crazy not to buy them. I loved the lines. They were really sturdy. They would look killer awesome in a little girls bedroom after they were redone. So I bought them.

I pondered what to do with them. I finally decided to go with a really pretty white that wasn’t too cold or too warm. Annie Sloan Pure White.

Since the tops were laminate, I gave them a light sanding even though AS Chalk Paint adheres to almost everything. Better safe than sorry!

I liked the hardware, which is very unusual for me, so I left it on and painted right over it!

Two coats of paint on each stand and they were looking good!

I lightly distressed each nightstand to help all of the detail stand out. So. Darn. Pretty!

If you follow my blog, you know that I am not gonna leave the drawers plain jane! No way.

I gave them a couple of coats of Rustoleum turquoise spray paint. The perfect pop of color.

On a recent trip to Michaels I found these really cool papers on sale for $2.99 a roll! What a bargain. They had tons of colors, I wish I had bought more. These papers would be perfect for a lot of things, including lining the drawers.

See how cute? I have said it before, and I will say it many more times I am sure, I love opening a drawer and finding a fun surprise! Business on the outside and a party goin’ on  in the inside!

Here you can see the “after” of the two nightstands. So much better, don’t you think?

My seester was right, these nightstands redone are killer awesome. I honestly love how they turned out. They are definitely in my top 10 fav’s of all time. I can’t wait to see them in the perfect little girls room!

Don’t forget to check them out in my shop before you leave.

Until next time….

                            Tammy

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Also, you can find this post and other fabulous bloggers post at Stonegable and Wow Us Wednesdays at Savvy Southern Style

Recently I made a few changes in my kitchen. I took down the metal pot rack hanging over the kitchen island.  Mainly because I never hung pots off of it. For years the only thing the pot rack held was a decorative vine with berries on it and a ton of dust. Not attractive. At all! I like to recycle when at all possible, so rather than toss the pot rack to the curb I decided to make it into a royal dog bed!

I thought I had a before photo of the pot rack hanging in the kitchen, but for the life of me I couldn’t find it. The pot rack’s original finish was an oil rubbed bronze. Which I love, but it just didn’t fit into the plans I had for it. The plan? White Shabby Chic with lots of bling!

I gave it a couple of light coats of white spray paint and sanded it down in places to give it the shabby chic look.

My son put in a bottom and attached wooden legs for me. I originally wanted to put a french decorative leg on the dog bed, but I was afraid that it wouldn’t be sturdy enough. The wooden block legs can hold a ton of weight without breaking off.

After it was all assembled, it was time to decorate! I made a custom dog pillow for the bed and added 20 crystals to the top and sides of the bed. You just can’t have a royal dog bed without a little bling!

Here’s a better picture of the the detail on the top. Truth be told, I wanted to add a lot more bling, but it was pointed out to me that for safety reasons it might be prudent to stick to a minimal amount of bling. I really, really wanted to add a tiara somewhere!

See? A tiara is perfect!

I have made other dog beds, you can see those here, but I believe this is my favorite!

Let the royal dog’s nap begin!

Until next time….

                       Tammy

It’s trash to treasure time again. You remember that I found some cool stuff in the trash on my morning walk recently? No? Well, you can see that here.  I have been slowly but surely repurposing everything I dug in the trash for    I found. My first was a table/magazine rack that was turned into a table/planter. Today I am happy to share my new and improved trash to treasure cross with you!

The cross wasn’t all that bad to start with, but I just didn’t like the goldish green color of it. The center medallion on it was also a coppery gold and the two together?  Well… not so much!

I painted it Junk Gypsy’s Free Spirit, which is a really pretty turquoise color, using mostly dry brush technique.

Then I added some lime green, using the dry brush technique also… love how it gives it some depth and just a pop of color!

I wanted to add something to the middle and found this metal flower at Hob Lob.

I had some old earnings that I picked up in an on-line grab bag. I cut the post off and glued it to the center of the flower.

It was still a little plain for me so adding coral pinkish color to the center of the flower gave it some pizazz…

I glued the metal flower to the center of the cross using E6000. It was still a little too turquoise all over for me, so adding the gold around the outer medallion edge not only gave it some depth but matched the gold on the earring. Perfect!

Here is my finished trash to treasure cross.  I like it. I like it a lot!

Amazing what a little leftover paint, an earring and a metal flower can do to transform an old cross found in the trash to a thing of beauty!  Not a lot of time or money invested either. My kind of trash to treasure.

Until Next time…..

                                  Tammy

I admit it. I own it. I pick up things from the trash occasionally. On my morning walks on trash days you might be surprised what people throw out. Now, don’t think I am actively digging in dumpsters, but a dresser by the side of the road will have me braking my car faster than you can say furniture! This past Tuesday I hit the trash to treasure jackpot!

I found this magazine rack/ table. You can’t really tell it in this pic, but it was an ugly yellow ochre color. Yikes! The one good thing it had going for it was that it was sturdy. Of all the things I have picked up on the side of the road, this one needed a trash to treasure makeover, more than any other!

In the makeover process, this piece went from a table/magazine rack to a table/ planter. It just screamed outdoor table!

First thing I did was paint it a beautiful fire truck red. The ends were open so I added chicken wire to hold all of the dirt and plants. It looks a little messy here, but I promise you won’t see the wire so much when it is finished.

Sheet moss was the perfect thing to put behind the chicken wire to help hold the dirt and plants. It also helps hide the chicken wire and let’s face it – it looks awesome too! There was a tiny crack at the bottom of the magazine rack, so it provided great drainage. No need to add more holes!

All that was left was to add the plants….

Here it is in the garden… apparently the cat  even likes it…or maybe he just likes to be in every picture that I take outside?

I think that it works much better as an outdoor table/planter than a magazine rack – well at least it does for me.  This trash to treasure was super easy, so easy I can’t wait to get started on the other finds of the day!

Until next time…

                Tammy

                                                       Shared on…

Savvy Southern Style Wow Us Wednesdays…

My BFF Roxanne’s sweet momma Sarah just moved here to be closer to her girls. In the move she downsized and had to get rid of some furniture….you know where this is going, right? Miss Sarah was kind enough to give me some of her extra furniture! Yay… picture me doing some serious backflips! She gifted me two tables that would make awesome night stands, in fact they would make awesome turquoise night stands!    My sister T needed some night stands  to go with her new bed. After consulting with her, she was in love with the turquoise idea and said to just go for it.

This is what the tables looked like when I got them. A little worn and missing some handles, but overall great bones.

First thing? Remove the broken drawer handles. Only, there was a big problem. The handles were attached to the drawer face and THEN the drawer face was attached to the drawer. There was absolutely NO way to remove the handles. Can you say cray cray?

My solution was to gently pry off the drawer face and remove the handles. Then re-attach them before painting.

If you think that I was excited about getting the end tables, you should have seen me when I discovered Junk Gypsy paint was sold locally! I couldn’t wait to try it out. I absolutely LOVE their colors. I chose a color called Free Spirit. A really beautiful blue turquoise color.

Junk Gypsy paint is a clay paint, so I wasn’t sure how the application would be. Honestly, the first few strokes I wasn’t really thrilled. I had already stirred it up before beginning, but went back and stirred some more. MUCH BETTER! Moral of the story? Stir, then stir some more.

When painting JG goes on like regular latex paint. JG also dries like regular paint, but the end finish is a little “chalky”. I used a gloss poly to seal it. The end result? A smooth satin finish. Which I really, really liked!

My sister chose her drawer handles and after drilling new holes ( that went all the way through the drawer face AND the drawer!) this is the end result.

My sister and I are crushing on it big time! So much so that we are going to paint her new/old bed and dresser in a complimentary color! I love it when redecorating a room all comes together!!! Girl squeal!

I loved the Junk Gypsy paint so much that I am already planning to use a few other colors on  some of  furniture in my pile waiting to be done.  I’m thinking of new colors like: Flower Child ( bright pink) or Landlocked Mermaid…( lovely light green)  or Singing the Texas Blues ( navy – my favorite color!).  I think I would use them just because they have such great names! If you need me I will be in the workshop painting away!

Until next time…..

                       Tammy

P.S. Check out The Scoop at StoneGable and Wow Us Wednesdays #233...

I have been knocking out a ton of small projects, which is good – and bad. Good that I am finally getting around to getting them done. Not so good that it takes time away from my bigger projects.  A lot of these projects would normally have been done in the spring, but this years torrential rains kept me from getting them done.

One of the questions I get asked a lot about is using chalk paint outside. Can you? Yes! It is as durable outside as it is inside. The only difference? The top coat finish. You clean and prep the same. Paint the same. However, you can not use a wax to seal it outside, which if you think about it makes sense. Wax melts in the heat, and honey it is one great big hot mess in Texas right now!

This clock has been on my back patio for awhile now. As you can see it has developed this patina from weather. At first I thought it was kinda cool and would just leave it alone. However, when I was replacing the battery I realized that it was one rainy, hot humid day away from rusting. My first thought was to just paint it the same color with spray paint, but where is the fun in that?

I cleaned it thoroughly and then taped it up.

Gave it two good coats of chalk paint.

Distressed the edges to make it look old. I love the oil rubbed bronze color showing through the paint!

Once that was done I gave it a good spay of polyacrylic top coat to protect the finish.

And this is my finished clock! Much better don’t you think?

It always amazes me how a little work can give you such great rewards! I mean, I literally took this clock down at 11:00 a.m. and put it back up at 4:30 p.m. I don’t think I spent more than 40 minutes of actual hands on time – most of that was dry time. Which allows me to work on a ton of my other small projects! Yay, me!

If you were wondering if using chalk paint outside was possible, this proves that you can. If you were wondering how it will hold up in my hot Texas sun… I promise  to share another photo of it in a few months just so you can see. Your Welcome!

Until next time…

                      Tammy

I shared my office with you last week in a really HUGE post. So huge that I couldn’t show you all of the tiny details in my office in one post. So today I get to share those with you! Tiny details always make the piece come together. It’s just like adding jewelry to your favorite outfit.

Here is a reminder of how my new/old tv armoire/office looks like. It was done in chalk paint, so it has a beautifully soft patina. The back plates on the doors would NOT come off without some serious damage to the doors, so I left them.

I added these modern lucite and brass pulls. If they look familiar, it’s because I used them on the chest of drawers in my wrapping closet. I really, really lurve them! I like the modern pulls against the traditional back plate – I’ve always leaned toward the eclectic.

Most of the tiny details in my office are on the inside. The most obvious being the cheetah print stenciling.

If you follow along with me, you know that I love doing something to the drawers to make a statement. On the outside face of the drawers I have hand painted crowns ( you know I love them) and numbers . The Hubs asked me if I needed the numbers so that I would know how many drawers I had. That earned him a serious eye roll!

On the inside of the drawers I lined them with this fun paper!

The doors themselves were a great opportunity for some organizational tools.

On the left side, I painted it with chalkboard paint. Love me some inspirational words of wisdom.

Since my post on Friday I went back and added a calendar below the chalkboard.

On the right side is the bulletin board, which is really clean right now. Before long I will have it filled with everything from swatches to photos of ideas or upcoming blogs.

On the upper shelf, I added baskets and attached cute chalkboard signs  so that I would know where I put what. Hey, Go ahead and judge, but I never seem to remember where I put what at first. Besides they are CUTE! I also put some of my favorite art and design reference books up there.

And one of my favorite tiny details in my office is the chandelier which was formerly a candlelier. I love it – I do. Although I am still not digging the gold and silver together on this one.  There may be some changes coming to it in the future! But for now… it’s all good.

I also had this Do What You Love print that I could never find a space for.. it’s like it was made for this spot.

Some of the tiny details that you don’t immediately see are my newly painted office supplies. I taped them all up…

and spray painted them gold! LURVE!!!!

And the finished piece….drum roll please! There are a ton of tiny details in my office. Individually they really don’t make that big of an impact, but put all together they give it that WOW factor. I couldn’t be happier with how it turned out.

Do you have a dedicated office space in your house that is a little unconventional? I would love to hear about it!

Until next time…

                       Tammy

I hate to admit it, but most of my blogging is done from my sofa in front of the TV.( My ADD prevents me from just sitting and watching a TV show – at least that’s my excuse!) If you thought that I have a stylish office that is perfectly decorated where I sit with a big cup of coffee and write, you would be so wrong. I have the office, but it is also my craft room. Nine days out of ten, I have a billion projects going on at one time. It can be one hot mess!  As I get more involved in blogging I realize that I need a dedicated space to do nothing but blog. I think I have the solution. Here’s how my tv armoire becomes an office! 

I have a ton of photos, so get yourself a drink, settle in and get comfy!

This tv armoire came with my bedroom suit. I had it for quite awhile –

and it was fine… although it looks much better in the photo than in real life! It was really beat up.

Until I found this piece. It was love a first site! Old armoire out, new armoire in!

So I had my old armoire sitting around wondering what to do with it. And then it hit me…why not make myself an office?

My office/craft room is “tiffany” blue, black and white. Over time I have been adding in gold accents, so my new “office” had to match. The first thing I did was paint all of the inside white. The outside I painted black, slightly distressed it and added a little gold accent. I will say though, that when the doors are shut, you can see the white. No bueno! So I am going to go back and paint the one inch lip on the inside of the armoire. Problem solved.

TA DA!!! Here’s the finished office!  I was a little worried about the cheetah print, but figured I could always repaint if I hated it. Thing is… I really do like it!

Hand painted crowns – ya know I gotta have those! – and numerals on the drawers. (The hubs snickered at the numerals asking me if I need the numbers to know how many drawers I had? Serious eye roll!)

The shelving above is perfect for books and baskets to hold all my knick knack paddy crap. Drawers and adjustable shelving below make for a ton of storage for me. A girl needs her storage, am I right?

After opening, I can push the doors into the cabinet or leave them out.  I figured these were the perfect spots for a few organizational tools. On the right side I painted the inset on the door with chalkboard paint. Gotta have a place to put some inspirational quotes.

On the left side, I mounted a bulletin board to hold all of my swatches, notes etc. Below the bulletin board I mounted some Command strip hooks and hung clips from them to hold my photos. I may change out the command hooks with something more decorative over time, but for now they work well.

I needed a small light in my new office, but couldn’t find what I wanted. I had this “candlelier” hanging in the guest room and inspiration hit. I made it into a hanging light! I will share that with you in a later post – just because I love you. I am gonna change a few things with it though. Usually the two tone metals wouldn’t bother me, but since there is absolutely no silver anywhere else, I will be taking it apart and painting it gold. I may paint the black cord too…. OCD much? Oh, yeah!

Now heres the part that lets this tv armoire become an office. The TV sliding stand/tray- thingy. Yup, real technical term there for ya!

Because the tray slides out, it creates a desk that is the perfect height for this stool that I repainted and recovered earlier this year. Woo Hoo!  Major room for my legs and feet.

I love how my tv armoire becomes an office for so many reason – too many to show all in one post ( so check back next Tuesday for all of the details!).  I love that I can push the desk in and close the door when I am not using it, giving me plenty of room for whatever I am working on in the rest of the room. I love that it is pretty,  I mean, who doesn’t want to work where you feel happy and at home?

This project was a ton of work. A little painting and a ton of details. But so worth it!

Until next time….

                         Tammy

P.S. Check out the Flaunt it Friday Party at Chic On a Shoestring…, Stone Gable Scoop #180 , Savvy Southern Style: Wow Us Wednesdays #231! I love looking at all of the awesomeness and you will too!

My good friend Susan called me and asked if I wanted some furniture that her daughter left in her garage after she got married. Of course! One of the pieces was literally “in pieces”.  It was a small bench that had a lot of potential. With a little glue, material, trim and spray paint it became a beautiful small gold bench!

The leg was detached and splintered. A little glue, sanding and clamping took care of that!

I removed the seat and started removing the material. Layer one: the gold and tan you see in the before photo above. Layer two: this red, and layer three the original white that covered the bench. The white was in perfect condition, so I decided to just leave it.  A little more cush for the tush!

Next up? Gold spray paint of course. If you haven’t figured it out, I am obsessed with it. If anyone had told me a year ago that I would be painting anything gold I would have thought they were cray cray. I love it! I love how warm it is in a room. Not a lot of gold – just shots here and there.

I had already sanded the damaged leg area, so I cleaned the rest of the frame with some TSP, then gave it a couple of light coats of spray paint.

While this was drying I covered the seat with a black and multicolored fabric that has a few shots of gold in it to tie in the gold legs. If this fabric looks familiar – it is! I used it here. I love it so much that I have been looking for a place to use it again!

TA DA! The broken sad bench became this awesome small gold bench! It is not too big, not too small, but just right in size. It would be perfect as a vanity bench or a small piano bench.

It is also the perfect size for an entryway bench.  Sit down and take off your shoes!

I love these small pieces that can make such a difference in your decor.  If you are interested this piece will appear for sell soon in my shop.

Now I am off to finish up a really big project that I have been working on for awhile. I hope to share it with you later this week. Fingers crossed!!!!

Until next time….

                        Tammy

I know that you won’t believe me, but I don’t paint every piece of furniture that clients bring to me.  Sometimes the piece of furniture is so perfect as it is, that it would be a crime to paint it. This  mid century modern dresser was one of those pieces.

A friend and client of mine was looking for a mid century modern piece that could also serve as her TV cabinet and also provide storage.  When we found this mahogany dresser, we knew that it was the perfect piece for her Swank Lounge.

It had a few dents and scratches, but was structurally sound and very well made. Instead of striping and sanding we decided to just refinish it. I used Homer Formby’s Furniture Refinisher. It basically takes the old top coat off and leaves the original stain. Since the top coat is where the dirt lives and most scratches occur this was the perfect solution. We then gave it a few coats of Hemp Oil to finish this piece. I love using hemp oil, which is much like tongue oil, it gives the wood a smooth, worn patina rather than a shiny finish. The mahogany wood in this mid century modern dresser was so beautiful we felt like a shiny poly top coat would detract from it’s beauty.

Look at the brass detail on the legs…OMG! Serious awesomeness. The craftsmanship in this piece is unbelievable. You don’t find that in furniture today.The clients swank lounge was already gorgeous and this mid century modern dresser fits right in.  It fits perfectly under her wall mount flat screen tv.

I love my job, but on days like today – when you get to see a piece that you have worked on fit so perfectly in a clients home – well I really, really love my job!

Until next time….

                        Tammy

Remember when I shared my patio cover and new lights this year and you could see part of a “crop circle” in the photo?  The crop circle is the pad for my redneck pool. ( It’s only redneck because I thrive on super tacky pool decor!)

I am a water dog. Texas summers have three temperatures – hot, humid and hotter. Some days I feel more like a lizard on a rock rather than a water dog. So a pool is high on this girls priorities.  We plan on moving in the next couple of years so an in the ground pool just doesn’t make sense financially. So  I did the next best thing, I bought a above ground  redneck pool. The Hubs hates it. He really does. It is big, takes up a ton of room and it is a big gray blob that I decorate in the tackiest way possible. The first year I put plants all around it and about 25 pink flamingos. I didn’t think the Hubs could hate it more, but I was wrong!

Somewhere on Pinterest a long time ago, (I wish I knew who to give credit to!)  I saw where  they wrapped the pool in reed fencing. No more gray blob.  I ordered the reed fencing on-line from Home Depot and wrapped that baby up! The reed fencing was taller than my pool but it was super easy to cut it off with scissors. It took four panels to go around the pool, we tied them together using jute twine. That’s it. It was just that easy. 

I had also seen on Pinterest where they had made a shelving unit using two pallets and a board. A girl needs a place to put her drink, towels etc. No pallets here at the castle, so The Hubs built me one using pressure treated lumber. I added some fun lights and we were in business!

Of course you know I wasn’t gonna leave it like that!  I was at the Dollar tree and found these super cute and colorful tubs. Score! Michaels had their spring flowers on sale 70% off which made these about .30 each. The 1.50 bin had these chalkboard tags. Really cute bins for just under $2.00!

Just tie the tag on…

And  hot glue on the cute flower!

They are perfect for all of the extra pool stuff. And they are super cute!!!!

I also bought this super tacky hula girl. She makes me smile! Solar powered, she hulas all of the time.

Here is the finished pool area. I love it. Does The Hubs love it? No. But even he admits that it is a little less of a redneck pool.

This is the perfect pool for me right now. Cool, wet, fun with just enough tacky to make me happy!

It even has a nighttime light show – I love my redneck pool!

Until next time….

             Tammy

If you haven’t noticed before, I love navy. Years ago I had a ton of navy in my house. Then the red, gold, and green trend came along and I reluctantly waved good-bye to all of my navy. Well, things have come full circle and navy is back, jack! In the next few months I will be redecorating one of my guest rooms and guess what color I am doing? Yup, Navy! Navy, white and gold. I have this small black table that I have had for years that needed a little TLC. This post is about how a cute small black table became a navy rock star!

I bought this small – it is really small- black table at Bombay years ago. It had a cherry wood finish back then. A little wear and tear and I painted it black – which I loved, until it landed in my sons room.

You can’t see it very well in the pic, but it had gotten wet or something- no one seems to know exactly what (eye roll!) -and it “bubbled”up. Plus, some of the paint had been pulled off of the top. Time for a serious makeover.

Usually when I use chalk paint I don’t need to sand, but since I had the “bubble” syndrome going I gave it a good sanding with my hand sander. All of the white spots? That is where the paint had bubbled. After sanding I gave it two coats of Annie Sloan Napoleonic Blue.

Another thing that I LOVE  to do is give the inside and sides of a drawer a different color of paint from the main body. Makes me happy every time I open one. Don’t judge – it’s the little things! I painted the drawer face two coats of Annie Sloan Pure White.

Then gave the interior and the sides of the drawer a couple of coats of hot pink paint.

At this point it was cute, but I wanted to add a little pop. I painted the edges of the table top and the drawer a coat of true gold to match the pull. Perfect!

The drawer is so darn cute…. I love everything about it. Except… the pull. It was too tiny.

I had this pull left over from another project and decided to give it a try. I wasn’t sure that I was gonna like the style of it, but I really do love it. It gives it more weight and makes the painted gold accents feel like they had always been there. I really, really love it now.

In the next few months I will be giving a lot of the furniture in the guest room a total makeover. Some will be painted like my small black table – or should I say my beautiful navy, white and gold rockstar of a table!

Until next time….

                  Tammy

When my sisters and I were trying to figure out what to buy our Dad for Father’s Day we really had to rack our brains to think of something! I mean, he rarely wants or needs anything. Don’t get me wrong, he seems happy with whatever we give him, but we always want to give him something that would be truly special, ya know? So we bought him a small patio set. Bet you didn’t expect that! Well we did cuz he really wanted one, but my sweet sister Darrla also came up with the idea of a memory box. The idea was, that we would all – kids, grandkids, and foster kids,  ( yes, he is 72 and has six foster children living with him, the man is truly a saint! ) write down our favorite memories with Dad and put them in a box for him to read. So today I am going to share with you the Father’s Day memory box that we came up with.

The Hubs has a business called Roxx Boxes. He builds beautiful boxes so we asked him to build us our Father’s day memory box. Unfortunately, cleaning out the garage and an uncooperative tool box resulted in a shoulder injury that has sidelined him from doing a whole lot of anything.

Plan B. A few years ago I bought a big box of cigar boxes for crafts and I had a few left. I started with one of those.

I painted it black, distressed it a little and finished with a coat of spray poly.  I wanted a masculine look and I think this works really well.

Now the fun begins! I wanted to hide the cigar label on the inside of the box, so using scrapbook paper, I lined both the bottom and top of the inside of the box. Then using pictures of my Dad with me and with my sisters, I decorated the top inside lid of the box.  (He really is the ‘best dad ever!”) I wanted to keep this simple since the main focus will be the handwritten notes that we put in the box, but really you are only limited to how you decorate it by your imagination.

Here is a close up… after I already had it decorated I realized that I could have taken my sister Darrla’s photo and converted it into a black and white for a more cohesive look. The more I thought of it though, she is ten years younger than my sister Terri and I are. When Terri and I were younger black and whites were the bomb. No color to be had. Ten years later… it was all color, all of the time! So I am good with the pictures representing the sign of the times.

The hardest part of this Father’s Day memory box was deciding which of my many wonderful memories with my Dad to choose to write about. All it takes is a box, a little creativity and a lot of love!

Happy Father’s Day!

Until next time…..

              Tammy

If you have been following me for awhile you are probably looking at this post thinking “Didn’t she redo the powder room before?”  Well, you would be right, I did!  You can check that out here. But you KNOW that I am never truly done with a room – ever. It is always evolving.

My BFF Roxanne is one lucky girl. She recently remodeled her powder room and had a custom upper storage cabinet made for room.  She was tossing this upper cabinet and I snatched it up. I was going to use it in the garage, but then I had that light bulb moment and realized that putting it in the powder room would be a much better option.  A girl has to have some storage! This is what it looked like when I got it.  Needs a little love.

So the Hubs sanded and added crown molding around the top of the cabinet to match the crown molding that is in the room….oh, wait that is still on my to do list.. but I WILL get there!

After the Hubs finished building, it was my turn. If you read my earlier post about this powder room you know that I decorated the whole room around a picture from my trip to New Orleans. I love that city almost as much as my first born! New Orleans is such a blend of old and new – french and industrial… Let’s be honest, you can find just about everything in that city.  I was determined to at least get that feel. On the last decorating adventure, I painted my vanity a white and distressed it. I really liked it.

One night of almost zero sleep and too many hours of Pinterest led me to think that it need a little more “distressing” which involved adding two more colors and a lot of dark wax top coat.  I hated it! I mean really, really hated it.  Note to self: stay off of Pinterest when getting zero sleep! I left it alone until my head cleared – which was about the time I was given the cabinet.

So I started over. I painted everything AS Pure White, gave it a little distressing and a lot less dark wax.

I also added some oversized crystal drawer pulls – which I usually love, but these just seemed to disappear!

So I switched to these…. which look too dark here, but are really an oil rubbed bronze. I love them, plus they mimic the color of the ones on the vanity..Woo Hoo!

Here is the potty side with the cabinet. Sorry- I can’t get pictures of the whole room top to bottom.  Pictures are almost impossible to get because it is so small with tall ceilings. Just not gonna happen!

The vanity side of the room…. I did put on a little more dark wax on the front to give it that old, dirty, well worn feel. Loving it a lot more than before!

I admit that I am usually a plain white paint kinda girl when it comes to my trim and cabinets, but I wanted this room to be a little different. In my opinion the three rooms that you can really go crazy decorating are:  1. Dining rooms, 2. Children’s rooms, and 3. The Powder room.

I am not done with the powder room yet. I still have some crown molding to put up and I will be honest and tell you that I will be changing out the accessories as  my mood the season changes. I have never been completely happy with the rug I put in there… well you can see why a room is never, ever complete to me.

Until next time…

                      Tammy

A few weeks ago I was in Oklahoma visiting family and my seester D took me to Restore to do a little shopping. We found a ton of old cabinet doors. My mind was whirling with all the possibilities. Sign, chalk board, coat rack, bench, bulletin board, etc… So today I am sharing with you my first repurposed cabinet door. Because I love you. Just how I roll.

There was this HUGE bin of cabinet doors. I looked at them and all I could think was “where are the cabinets that go with the doors!” Seriously, I couldn’t buy them fast enough. They were $2.00!

I started by painting the white door Paris Grey.

Then I layered- really unevenly, rough coats of both Old Violet and Napoleonic Blue. After some sanding to distress the door a little so that the white could shine through, this is my end result.

At this point I knew this  cabinet door would make a great coat rack. Since I was going to add crystal drawer knobs to the bottom and felt like I needed a little weight on the top. I had a piece of ironwork in my craft closet that was the perfect size! Yay me.. I mean, how often does that happen?

I simply applied screws into two small holes in the ironwork to hold it to the door.

Since my screws did not come with the ironwork I had to use some silver ones that I already had. Yeah, that looked fab! NOT. So I painted them with a flat black paint. You can also use a black sharpie to hide silver nails.. it really works!

Now you know I wasn’t gonna leave the center with out some sort of decoration. I thought that a monogram would look cool. I made the monogram on my computer, printed it out and transferred it to the door using transfer paper.

I then just filled in between the lines with white paint.

Next – add the crystal drawer pulls – which are oversized – and my repurposed cabinet door was done!

I hung it in my entry way – here is a sneak peek.  I am not done with that area yet! I can’t wait to share the finished result with you at a later date…

So what do you think?  This project was super easy and super cheap! I spent $2.00 on the door but everything else was something that I had left over from another project. Woo Hoo! I love that.  See? There is a good reason for hoarding keeping all my leftover stuff!

Until next time….

                Tammy

I have to admit that I have about twenty projects in the works at one time. Which is rare for me. Now that we have sunny days, I am trying to play catch up with everything I had planned to get done this summer. This painting project was one of them and it was so simple that I am almost embarrassed to share it with you… however simple it may be – it makes a huge statement. My little blue planter went from pretty – to pretty darn spectacular!

I won this sweet little planter at PoKeeno. If you are from the south -sweet southern (pronounced “suth-urn”) ladies either play Bunko or PoKeeno, the first is dice game that involves grabbing, rolling and lots of squealing and the other is a combo of poker and bingo. At times I have played both. Recently I am cutting back on my cray cray addiction and just hitting the once a month PoKeeno group. Woo Hoo!

Anyway, I won this awesome wooden planter. I couldn’t wait to get it home and put it on the back patio. One problem0 …. it didn’t match anything I had on the Party-o! So I painted it, of course.

I painted it the same accent turquoise color that I painted the blue chair in… truly one of my favorite colors!

I dropped in this  awesome bright pink plant and my small blue planter was ready to go.

Honestly, the hardest thing, if you can call it hard, was taping off the black metal bands. I wanted to keep the black metal because it matched the black on the patio furniture. Plus, the black makes the blue really pop!

This project took all of thirty minutes to complete which is my kind of project. Easy – but so worth it!

What do you think? If you look at your patio, do you have small thirty minute projects that could make all the difference in your patio decor? If so, I say go for it… you might be surprised at the difference of it going from pretty – to being pretty awesome just like my little blue  planter.

Until next time….

                          Tammy