Welcome to this month’s DIY Challenge! Every month our wonderful hostess Terrie, from Decorate and More With Tip, creates the best challenges for us to accomplish. She is the BEST! If you’ve never met Terrie before, you can visit herhere . 

If you are coming here from Danya’s,  A Vintage Flare Farmhouse, I’m so glad that you are here!

This month’s challenge is one that I think a lot of people struggle with. It’s decorating your TV wall. Can I get an Amen? Back in the day our TV’s found themselves behind closed doors. In an armoire or built in shelving or cabinets . Today’s TV is much larger and thinner than those of old, so putting them behind closed doors creates a major problem, especially if you aren’t putting it above your fireplace!

My fireplace mantel is so far off the ground that if we tried to put our TV there it would be like sitting on the front row in a movie theater.

And nobody wants to do that!

So over the past few years our TV has lived sitting on a large cherrywood  console.

It’s like a humongous black hole.

And to make matters worse, we live stream now so the large hole below the TV, where all of the equipment used to live, is no longer needed.

But that’s a challenge for another day!

So how do you decorate around the TV to make it look like a part of the room?

I’ll be honest, I’ve been looking around for ideas for quite a few months.

I knew it had to be simple so that it didn’t compete with the fireplace wall.

Cause there’s  a lot goin’ on there.

Not as easy as it sounds.

Then I saw this photo from La Dolce Vita blog and thought not only how pretty and outside of the box it was, but also how genius to use something that I already had in my cabinets!

So I gathered my supplies.

Scissors, pen, brown paper, nails, hammer, plate hangers, blue tape and level.

And dug through the cabinets for some blue and white plates in several sizes.

The first thing I did was to draw the outline of each plate onto paper, then cut the silhouettes out.

Once I had them cut out, I started placing the outlines onto my wall using blue tape.

I always do this for gallery walls as it allows me the freedom to move them around until I’m happy with the arrangement.

Once I have the arrangement on the wall just right, I then lay the plates out to correspond with the template arrangement.

That makes it super easy to put the right plate in the right spot.

I put plate hangers onto each plate.

Then measure from the top of the plate to the top of the hanger.

Leaving the template on the wall, using the measurements I just took from the plate and hanger, I measured down from the top of the template for the picture hanger placement.

I nail right through the paper.

Then, I pull the paper off of the wall.

Next, hang the plate.

Works like a charm every time!

In the beginning I left two botanical art pieces up to go with the plates.

However, I still felt like I had a heavy black hole.

The scale was off. 

After a few days of living with it.

I had a lightbulb moment.

In one of the guest bedrooms there were a pair of old small armoire doors.

Once they replaced the botanicals, I knew I had my scale just right.

So much better!

Now, I’m on to the next challenge.

The TV console.

Do I paint or no?

Does it stay or should it go?

The struggle is real my friends AND now I’ve got the song “should I stay or should I go now…” in my head!

Remember, if you like it, please be sure to PIN it!

Next up is Teresa from Through A Vintage Door.

I can’t wait to see what she has to share with us today.

Vanity drawers repurposed are a good thing, right? Yes, but that wasn’t always the plan.

I’ve had a vanity in my stack of furniture that I had planed on flipping for awhile now. I finally pulled the vanity out of the pile with the intent to make some minor repairs and give it a quick coat of paint. However, once I started on the repairs, I realized that the damage was so extensive that it would need to be totally rebuild. That was not in the plan!

Three chairs become a bench. I hit the neighborhood garage sale recently and bought three white chairs.

The minute I saw them I thought they would make a great bench.

This is what they looked like when I bought them.  Really gross! They were already white and distressed, so I thought once the material was removed and the wood cleaned up I would be able to use the existing finish. WRONG! The wood did not clean up. Definitely needed a new paint job.

I just got back from Oklahoma where we celebrated my sweet Daddy’s 76th birthday.  After months of working on the inside, my sister Terri has begun working on the exterior of  her bungalow. With that in mind, I was on Pinterest looking for ideas to share with her and saw where someone had taken a full size bed and turned it into a porch swing.  Well, you know we had to try one! I have to say that Terri’s porch swing turned out pretty cute!

I’ve got a sweet little Turquoise Bench Refresh to share with you today.   Remember the turquoise nightstands that I painted for my sister’s new bedroom? If not, you can see those here.

She needed something in her bedroom to sit on that would  match the turquoise nightstands. And it needed to be small, as she only has a tiny spot for it.

Remember this bench? ( yep, it’s all about testing your memory today!)  I had it in my entry hall, but honestly we rarely used it, unless you count piling newspapers, purses and packages on it. So being the giving person that I am, I volunteered to give this cute little bench a tiny makeover to match my sister’s bedroom.

I loved the gold, but there’s not any gold in my sister’s bedroom. So I gave it a couple of coats of the same turquoise paint that we used on her nightstands. Once it was dry, I gave it a little bit of sanding to distress it, followed by a black wash. I love how you get the gold and brown from the past colors the bench was painted showing through.

Then a couple of coats of poly for protection.

I covered the seat in white mongolian lambs wool that I had left over from a couple of other projects. I love that fur! Not only is it cute, it is super durable. I really love the way this bench turned out.

It’s the perfect size for her room… a little girlie…. a little glam…. Perfect for my sister!

Until next time….

                    Tammy

Hey you! See anything that you like? Pin it!

You can find me at these fabulous parties!

The Painted Drawer Sunday Link Party 

The Scoop #212

My favorite room in my house is one of my guest rooms. It isn’t big. It isn’t even colorful and y’all KNOW I like color. It isn’t even perfect- there are many things that probably need to be changed, but even with all of it’s imperfections, I love this room!

The Hubs made this bed for us many years ago out of a couple of old doors. It is a trundle bed, so it is the perfect size for this room. I’ve thought of putting a full or queen size bed in here, but I really do love this bed.

For many years this room had apple green walls. I still miss them, but the gray is so soothing. I’ve always liked black and white , I think it really pops off the gray walls.

I love using multiple patterns of material. I made these shams with left over material from the curtains. I’m not gonna lie, I change out the throw pillows fairly often to give the room a totally different feel and to add pops of color.

I am a nut for botanicals! This print was one of my very best garage sale finds. The shelf is from Hob Lob. It was  white , but I quickly painted it, as the white was just too blah in this room. I really like it now. I would love to find a bigger “L” for the self though!

Tucked away in the corner is a small chest of drawers used as an night stand. The bed was so big that the night stand needed to be taller also. This is perfect!  I love my sassy glam lamp too. It’s girly style isn’t my norm, but it so fits this room. Plus, the drawers provide a ton of extra storage for bedding etc.

Across from the bed is the dresser. I can’t even believe that I am sharing this side of the room. Until recently we had a smaller tv on the dresser. Our son needed a smaller tv for his RV so we traded him. After seeing this photo I seriously need to do something different with the wall behind it!

You can’t tell it, but the dresser has a tone on tone damask pattern. I like that it is subtle but adds a little bit of style to what would normally be a plain dresser.

I love using pictures of family in my decorating. This is the room my youngest son uses when he comes home, so I have photos of him with the rest of the family displayed.

I have a tv cabinet in the corner, but it doesn’t house a tv. It is full of all sorts of “stuff”, mainly photo albums and photos that I need to sort through. Trust me the irony that the tv doesn’t fit isn’t lost on me!

There are two smaller “end” walls in the room. One has a bank of windows and the other hosts the closet and doorway. There is just enough room for a cool chair. This chair is one of the first chairs I ever recovered many years ago and it is still one of my favorites! Plus, guests need a place to sit and put on shoes or read a good book.

Above the chair I have some of my youngest son’s photography prints that he has gifted me over the years. He is a very gifted photographer!

I guess the reason that this is my favorite room is that it gives me a peaceful tranquil feeling every time I am in it. And in my book that makes this room a decorating success!

Until next time….

                   Tammy

Hey you! See anything that you liked? Don’t forget to Pin it!

You can find me at these fabulous parties:

Fab Friday Link Party #4

The Scoop #209

Wow Us Wednesdays #260

I am the mother of two adult boys, so I guess you could say I have a soft spot for little boys. I love all the things that go with little boys. The toys, the mess, the pets, the hugs – I even miss the crazy science experiments that I used to find in the refrigerator freezer. ( think swamp monster action figure frozen in red and green water in a cup OR whatever bug they wanted to preserve for another day.)  I never knew what I was going to find. Crazy, I know.

When my friend Siana gave me a couple of old end tables I wasn’t sure what I was going to do with them, so I put them in the to do pile in the castle’s shop and went on to other projects. And then I saw an end table on Pinterest, much like those she gave me, made into a children’s play table and I knew that one of those old end tables needed to be made into a Lego table.

The tables were made of solid wood and in great shape structurally, but the finish needed to be redone. One problem was that there were leather inserts that needed help but that was way out of my experience level. So painting them was okay with me.

The Hubs is sidelined for awhile due to injury, so I asked my oldest if he would like to collaborate with me on this one.  He took the bin I wanted to put in the top and made a template of the hole he needed to cut into the top of the table.

Using the template he drew where he wanted to cut on the top of the table.

Then using a hole saw he drilled a hole in all four corners.

After drilling all four holes, he used a jig saw and cut the straight lines between the holes.

I gave it a couple of coats of Waverly chalk paint in red. Then a couple of coats of spray poly.

After that it was just a matter of dropping in the  bin on the top and attaching the Lego plate. This plate was 10″ X 10″.  I really wanted to use the 15″ X 15″ plates  however, the leather insert area is slightly raised in the middle, so that larger plate didn’t fit flush.

Here is the finished Lego table complete with Legos that I dragged out of storage. ( yeah, I’m the mom who is still storing all of the little boy toys! Some day they will come and pick them up, right?) Even with the 10″ X 10″  plate there is plenty of room to build!

The bin is perfect for Lego storage. I think that the easy access may make putting them away a breeze for little ones. Better stored here than food for the vacuum cleaner, right?

I loved working on this project, it’s fun and useful. But I really loved working on this project with my son! Brings back so many wonderful memories…even the crazy ones.

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!

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

Honestly, I just wanted to get my car washed after a trip. Instead, I ended up hitting our neighborhood garage sales. Y’all know I can’t help myself! Most women buy shoes – I buy furniture in need of a facelift.  I bought two really cute small chairs, a chest of drawers and a small dresser.

I saw these two small, but sweet chairs and I knew that they would be perfect as vanity chairs. I have no idea what their original purpose was for, they are shorter and smaller than the average chair.

The first chair I painted Annie Sloan Old Violet, which is really a steel blue color. I wanted a casual glam feel, so I covered the seat with a long white mongolian lambswool material. I used this same material on my glam foot stool.  I was originally worried that it wouldn’t hold up well, but so far it has been stellar on the footstool, so why not use it on the chair?

The second chair I painted in AS Graphite with a clear and dark wax finish.

I added a tiny bit of gold on the distressed edges. At first, I thought the animal print was an awesome fabric for the seat. It was cute, it just didn’t give me that “I Lurve You” feel. Ya know? I just wanted something different.

So I took off the animal print and added a drop cloth seat. Using 2 inch drop cloth strips, I made a pleated trim for the edge. Tan gimp was added to hide the stitching on the pleated trim. I had a little bit of the drop cloth material strips left over – I used them to make some flowers and glued them to the front of the chair.  A little added bling and I was done. Better this time? OH, yeah. This was exactly what I was looking for!

There you have it – a before and after of two small chairs! I think that these would be awesome vanity chairs. Hopefully, I won’t change my mind about how they should be decorated before I sell them! Now…I really need to wash my car!

Until next time….

                   Tammy

Yay! It finally stopped raining so I can get out into my yard and start planting, pruning, rearranging and enjoying the sunshine.  This is my favorite time of year. Today I gave my garden chair a makeover – again!

It’s not the first time this garden chair has had a makeover, and it probably won’t be the last either. This is what my chair looked like last year… well, at least it did when I decorated for fall. For the life of me I can’t find the original pic of when I first painted this chair. Mental note: photo re-organization in my future!

As you can see Mother Nature took a big toll on this sweet chair in the last year. Time for a little TLC!

My plan was to do a little light sanding to chip away any peeling paint and spray paint a solid  bright, happy blue color onto the chair. However, as I was spray painting the happy blue color I could still see some of the turquoise color from last year peeking through.  If you look at the front seat area of the chair you can just see what I mean in the pic above. I gotta tell ya, I LURVED it.

So… plan B. I embraced the two tone colors, sanded it down a bit in places to enhance the turquoise  to let it shine through a little bit more. I gave it a polyacrylic top coat and TA DA!!!! My garden chair makeover was done. I love a happy accident, don’t you?

One other tiny adjustment that I made was the depth of the chicken wire bowl that holds the soil and the plants. Last year it was way too deep. So deep that when it was filled with dirt and flowers it hung down and rested on the wooden cross piece.  Way too heavy. So I made it smaller and so far it is functioning much better.

I can’t wait for the plants to grow and fill in, it’s going to be so pretty….Now all that is left is finding the perfect spot for it. Did I mention that I love this time of year?

Until next time….

                  Tammy

I’ve been featured! For Reals. Me!

HnGideas, Home and Garden Ideas, is an on-line source about home and gardening that helps you get your creativity and inspiration on. You can imagine my surprise when I was notified that one of my posts was featured in their April 6, 2015 article 25 DIY Projects to Update Your Home. Woo Hoo! Go check it out…I’m number ten!

I gotta tell you of all of the projects I’ve done,I was surprised that this was the one picked up. Maybe it was because it was so easy that anyone can do it AND this project proves that making a room look great is all in the details! Truth.

Here is a pic of the before…. yikes ! I am messy when I paint. This stool has seen better days for sure!

Gotta say that when I read the notification it made my day. I love knowing that maybe I can help someone find inspiration to make their home better.

Until next time…

                          Tammy

If you saw my post last Monday you saw the cutest shabby chic dog bed that I made for my sweet seester. Today I am going to share with you the Diva Dog Bed 2.0!

For those of you who missed it, this is what my sweet friend Shelli found dumpster diving and was kind enough to haul it home for me. (I made it into a dress up armoire for my great niece, Hannah.)I had a couple of extra drawers and just knew that they would make awesome dog beds.

Here is the killer awesome one I made for my seester and her two pups…. shabby chic with a little bling.

Since my friend Shelli was nice enough to give me this piece, I thought that the least I could do was make her a diva dog bed of her very own! This one is more glam with a fun twist.

The entire drawer was spray painted a black gloss and distressed to let some white show through. Gold accents around the drawer’s front and handle just scream “look at me!” The legs are a little more 50’s glam style instead of the carved ones I used before on the shabby chic piece.

Here’s the twist… on the inside, I painted two different sizes of gold circles.  A little fun to go with the traditional glam of the outside. Cute, no?

I honestly don’t know which diva dog bed that I like the best… as long as my friend Shelli likes it that’s all that matters!

Until next time….

             Tammy

Lately I have been so blessed to be able to paint a few projects for my family. I truly love being able to do that – it is so darn fun! I can’t wait to share with you Hannah’s dress-up armoire.

If you saw my last post about Diva Dog Beds, you know that my friend Shelli gave me this really cute dresser. Score! This was a great dumpster find. After talking with our niece Rachel, who told me that she needed storage for her daughter Hannah’s dress-up clothing, I knew that this would be the perfect piece for that. So grab a drink and sit back while I show you the before (above) and after!

After removing all drawers and the drawer guides except for one, the amazing Hubs built in  a shelf above the bottom drawer. As you can see we left one drawer because a princess needs a place for her crowns, glass slippers and jewels! Duh! A couple of coats of cream paint and then the fun painting began.

On the inside of the armoire a large damask medallion on the back is the focal point – so girly!!!! Polka-dots in three different colors flank either side. The hanging rod was painted gold because a princess has to have a little bling!

A harlequin pattern on the side just screams “look at me!”

I took old drawer pulls and mounted them onto dowel rods to make hooks that were mounted on one side of the armoire. Can’t you just see boa’s and necklaces hanging here?

And what princess can live without “a mirror, mirror on the wall?”   Love, Love, Love this mirror!

When the princess opens the drawer to get her glass slippers and crown she has to look at something pretty, so we painted the inside of the drawer a dark pink. The sides got a flower “wallpaper” treatment.  Even the Queen would love such pretty drawers!

And last but certainly not least we painted Princess Hannah’s royal crest on the top of her armoire. A sweet floral garland around the edge finishes the top off. Simple and sweet.

There you have it… even I can’t believe the before pictures compared to the after ones. I’m not gonna lie, this took a little time to paint, but I believe the after pictures prove that it was worth it.  Now if Princess Hannah loves it as much as I do then I will be on cloud nine!

Until next time…..

                           Tammy

Ever thought of making your sweet pet their very own  diva dog bed? Me either!

I am not the owner of a yippy, skippy dog, but my sweet seester Darrla is. Meet the royal canine couple Sampson and Delilah… all dressed up for cold weather! ( Bless their hearts!)

It all started with this dumpster dive piece. My friend Shelli rescued it out of the trash and called me to see if I wanted it. Oh, heck yes! I wasn’t sure what I was going to do with it but I knew it would come to me.

I spoke with our niece and she mentioned that her daughter Hannah needed a way to store her princess dresses and I knew exactly what this piece would become.( Which I will show you on a later post!) I only needed one of the three drawers that the dresser came with, so I began looking at how to repurpose the two leftover drawers. Yep, you guess it – Diva Doggie beds!

Really a simple and easy thing to make, all I did was paint the drawer with Annie Sloane chalk paint in Duck Egg Blue. Then did a light white wash over it. Since this piece would take some unusual wear and tear I used lacquer for a top finish.

I  attached screw in legs to the bottom of the drawer to get it off of the ground.  I left the original drawer pull – just cuz I like it! I painted it white and added a little gold for some glam.

My sister’s dogs are a yorky and a morky?- I think . I know, BAD Aunt!! Any who, I hand painted their initials on the front of the bed – it is big enough for two and they like to be together!

Once done with the painting of the drawer,  I made a large pillow for the pupsters to lounge on. Of course they needed a few glam pillows to lay their royal little heads on! I made all of these pillows from scraps that I had from other projects.  Add a little bling and a little decorative embellishments and you have a bed fit for the King and Queen of all dogs!

However, I wasn’t done yet. What if the King and Queen of all small canine’s ( y’all know that Sadie is the Queen of darn near every dog!) wanted to lounge outside? Well, those sweet babies couldn’t break a sweat! So I made them a glam doggie umbrella.

The handle of the umbrella is inserted in a bottle filled with pebbles and then taped shut. I covered it in white ribbon and you have your very own stand alone doggie umbrella!

I hope these spoiled sweet pupsters love their new royal bed. I know her cat is going to be super jealous!

I have one more doggy bed in the works for my sweet friend Shelli, when it is done y’all are gonna be the first to see it!

Until next time……

                   Tammy

Office facelift stool makeover

So I have slowly been giving my office a facelift. You know- when you still like the room but it just seems a little tired? Well, this room was so tired it was almost asleep! I have been slowly chipping away at  hundreds a lot of little projects. When I am finished I hope to have the most bee-you-tee -ful office , EVER!

My poor stool has definitely seen better days… it was still sturdy and fairly comfortable.

I am definitely a messy painter…( unfortunately my side dresser looks the same on one end! yikes!).  It really needed some serious help.

I wanted to add in a little gold to the room. Rustoleum Metallic Gold spray paint to the rescue. If I haven’t told you one hundred and fifty times already, it is my all time favorite!

Like my high end tape job?  I was just too lazy to tape up four legs, so I just put the legs in the trash bag and tied it really tight as close to the top of the seat as possible.  HEY! Don’t judge. It worked!

Now for the seat.

I had left over material from making new curtains for my work station so I used that for the seat cover.

So easy. Just lay your seat on the back side of your material and lightly draw around your seat. Before cutting add an inch to an inch and a half to the circle you just marked. This ensures that you have enough material to wrap around to the back side and staple it. Cut your circle out.

I also wanted a little more cush for the tush, so I cut out some batting slightly smaller than the cut circle.

Make sure that your seat is in the center of the circle. Start at the top, pull the material around to the back and staple. Repeat the same process at the bottom of the circle, directly across from your first staple, making sure to pull snugly, but not too tightly. Repeat on the right side, then the left side. Keep doing this process until you have worked your way all the way around the circle.

Cut off any excess material.

Yeah, I label my scissors! You never know when some crazy person will want to use your good fabric scissors to cut wire, or gum or some wild and totally inappropriate thing! Argh! And ain’t nuthin’ worse than bad scissors.

The seat is done! Just reattach the seat to the legs.

Ta da! I am so excited. I lurve it!  Again, everything that I used, I already had….. basically a free up- cycle and it only took about 30 minutes. Score!

I can check off one of the hundred items on my office facelift.  I will be sharing the office with you if I ever  when I finish all the tasks on my list.

Until next time….

     Tammy

The weather here is seriously cray cray. For reals.  If we are not snowed/iced in, we have dreary,cold, cloudy, wet days.

Need. Light. Therapy.

During one really cold, wet day I spied not one, but two, bed frames in my neighbors trash. A full size bed and a king size.

SCORE! Visualize me doing a huge happy dance!

I called a friend and neighbor, Laura, and bribed begged her to help me go dumpster diving and haul the beds to my house.  I guess this full size bed is literally a trash to treasure bed!

My first thought with this bed was that I would just restore it, rather than paint it. Then I got a better look at it.

The feet had been broken and glued back together – and not in a good way! The veneer had crazed. Lots of scratches. Someone had put poly on top of the original finish and there were runs and clumps of poly. In a nut shell? It would take a miracle and many, many hours to restore this bed to it’s original state. It was clear that it would be a better painted bed, rather than trying to refinish it.

 Furniture really does tell you how to paint it if you listen. The detail on this bed cried out to be more ” masculine”. I gave it a couple of coats of Maison Blanche Hurricane. Which is kind of a “greige” color. ( Who thinks of these color names?)  Hurricane is a great neutral that will go with just about any color.

I love the detail on this bed, but painted all one color you did even see it.  I painted the raised bands white so that the detail would stand out.

I also wanted this bed to look old. Really, really old. You know, like it was hundreds of years old, a little dirty, with that smooth, worn patina that comes with age. To get that look I gave it a good coat of Annie Sloan clear wax, followed by AS dark wax.

Here is the finished bed.

Looks old? YES!

Look masculine? YES!

Time worn, smooth patina? YES! YES! YES!

I truly love giving furniture a new life! This piece is going up for sale sadly – no room here at the castle. If you are interested, check out the SHOP page here on the website for more information.

Until next time….

              Tammy

I am so darn excited!  Giving myself a huge pat on the back right now.  I bought these two channel back chairs last spring to reupholster for my newly designed office/library.  Then got side tracked.  Big time.  After reupholstering the big red chair for my seester, I wasn’t sure I had it in me to tackle these.  However, low budget and needing more room in my work shop lit a fire under me to get these babies DONE!  I have to admit that I do love these cheetah print chairs!

I found these fab chairs on-line and snatched them up.  I had never repurposed a channel back chair before so much research was needed.  I immediately started the hunt for material to recover the chairs.  A good friend of mine recently moved into a house and had these totally AWESOME wingback chairs made for her dining room.  They are this absolutely gorgeous peacock / teal green velvet.  So. In. Love.  I had to have something like that.  Except that finding  a material that fit my criteria AND was in my price range proved to be impossible.  I decided to go more neutral, using that color on the wall, since I wanted this room to be warm and cozy anyway. I wanted a warmer, darker neutral that wasn’t a solid black or brown, but was neutral enough to go with almost any color.  I ended up with a cheetah print.

Gold is back “in” so the wood part of the chairs would be gold.  I lightly sanded the legs and arms then taped up any of the upholstery batting that was showing so that I could paint them with my new favorite gold paint.

TA DA!!!  This paint is seriously the bomb.  It is a true gold with out being blinding. It goes on with even, perfect strokes – no crazy lines that you get with other spray paints!  AND usually it covers almost everything with one even coat! For reals! Dry time?  Super fast.

Once the chair was dry, I “antiqued” the gold slightly with a black glaze to hid all the imperfections in the wood. Had I left it shiny gold I would have sanded and filled all of the dents and dings in the wood for a more perfect finish.

I have to admit that this project had some sewing involved.  Each channel had to be sewn together and then “stuffed” with the channel batting.  I was lucky that all of the batting was in pristine condition so I was able to use the old batting.  Then the side arm material was sewn to the back channels. If I am honest this was why I procrastinated for so long.  Eeekkkk!  Just the thought of it scared me.  But guess what?  It was do dang easy it was ridiculous.  Once the sewing was done it went back together so fast it was crazy! It looks awesome.  Even the Hubs, who is kind of jaded from all of my projects over the years, said that he was impressed!  Woo Hoo!

Here is the side detail.  I may have gone crazy with the gimp embellishments, but I love the black against the cheetah!  As you can see the wood on the wings is a little battered, but I am good with that.  You don’t notice it that much in person and I like that it has a little patina and wear to it.

Here it is again…. I can’t wait to get started on the library/ office so these beauties have a good home!  Oh, yeah.. that project got put on the back burner too… oops!

Until next time…..

Good Monday morning to you! It’s time for another Before and After. Woo Hoo! My sister is contemplating a new business adventure that has a slightly chic country theme to it and needed some seating.  She had scored some pretty steel blue and white material – and I mean ALOT of material – for $3.00!  I have a pile few chairs in my stash here at the castle and this is the one that she chose.

My good friend Shelli called me about a year ago and had found this chair at the curb.  One of the legs had been broken off.  The Hubs rebuilt legs for it and I had been storing it until I could decide how I wanted to give it a makeover.

Here is this sweet little chair after removal of the old fabric, staining of the legs to match the rest of the wood, and adding  the new upholstery with the blue and white material.  I also added the skirt to give it a little bit more  of a country chic feel.

Of course it needed a little bling so I added some white trim and these really cool rhinestone nail heads!  LOVE these and can totally see using them on future makeovers.  Found them at Hob Lob for $3.99 a box.  The cool thing is they also come in about 4 different sizes.  Woo Hoo!

If it seems a little plain, we plan on adding pillows from another fabric and stenciling her logo in the middle of the chair back IF she decides to go ahead with her business adventure.  You can be sure that IF and When she does I will be sharing all of the news with you.

I have to say that this project may just be one of my very favorites.  I love the color, the lines and the practicality of this piece.  I love it so much I would love to keep it – but I have NO place for it.  That’s right, you heard it here first.  I have no room here at the castle. ( So it goes up for sale… and it is a sad , sad day!)   Right now I have a ton of chairs just waiting to be painted, repaired and repurposed. What to do with so many chairs?  I could have worse problems! At any rate, I wanted to share the process with you just in case you want a sneak peek of how we turn chairs into a bench.

I won’t bore you with the building process, other than to say thank goodness for the Hubs!  He took three chairs, two regular and one with arms, removed the middle chairs legs then screwed all three together.  You get that?  Me either.  I basically  let  leave all of the major building to the hubs.  If you really want to know how to build one there are a billion youtube videos to help you with that!

Now it was my turn. I gave the bench a couple of coats of Annie Sloan Chalk Paint in Granite, followed by a top coat in clear and dark wax. The dark wax makes the Granite look more black than charcoal. Then I added a few gold accents to the details of the chair backs and legs.

The beauty of this design is that I was able to use the chairs seats.  We just turned the middle seat  around with the long side to the back.   The hubs also cut a board the size of all three seats put together and then screwed the seats to the board.  Yes! Ready to reupholster!

Before covering the seat with material, I wanted to hide the separation between the seats.  I used batting rolled up and pushed it down into the cracks.  Then wrapped the entire piece in poly-fil to smooth it over and make it look like one long, smooth seat.

Next wrap the entire seat in double layers of poly-fil and staple.  Time to cover the seat with the fabric of your choice.

All that is left is to attach the seat to the chair frame with screws.  Did I mention that I love how this one turned out?  Just one or two times?  Love this material… my sister has used it for her bathroom for curtains – so versatile!  It makes me happy every time I look at it!

So what do you think?  Great use of extra chairs? Some day I will have an entry hall big enough to put a bench like this in…imagine me projecting Scarlet O’Hara!

Until next time….

         Tammy