New Chalk Paint Recipe and a Desk Reveal

Several weeks ago I posted about the desk I worked on with my mom on Martin Luther King Jr. Day. By "worked on with" I mean painted while she busted her butt to sand and refinish the entire top. I didn't get it oiled and moved off the porch and back into the house until a week or so later. Ever since I've been meaning to move our desk stuff back into it and stage it for some glamor shots.

That's not going to happen in the near future and I'm working on being honest with myself about what I can actually accomplish and not starting new projects I won't finish.

I've come to terms with it. I hope you have too and you appreciate the poorly lit shots I took.

Before I show them to you I want to share my mom's new homemade chalk paint recipe. It is a MASSIVE improvement over the old one.

DIY CHALK PAINT RECIPE:

1 part HOT water

1 part plaster of Paris

3 parts paint

Mix the water and plaster and shake the bejesus out of it, shake it like a Polaroid picture, shake it like I don't know what, but shake it really, really well. Then just add the paint and shake it a bit more. It was the most amazing painting experience I have ever had in my whole life.

I mean that.

My WHOLE life.

Anyways, so those iffy, dark pictures of the amazing desk I promised you.

Someday you'll see some improved shots. Maybe when I add the room to the house tour.

Friday ReStore Finds

On Friday over lunch I like to stop by the ReStore and see what I can find. I took some pictures with my phone so you could feel like you got to come along.

There were oak chairs.

and this absolutely fabulous table. Guess what, Babe. I would even leave it stained, well at least the top. I might want to paint the pedestal.

I also found some potential options for a little project I've been wanting to work on for the entryway.  I saw this "Catch-All Shutter" from Life as a Thrifter and wanted to do something similar on the wall behind the door right as you walk in.

Source: Life as a Thrifter

It's this huge wall spot I've never shown you, but it's just door frame and then wall so furniture is not an option. At the moment it has a not large enough for the space wall hanging that is missing some hooks and makes me a little batty when I think about it.

So anyway, I've been on the prowl for some shutters, but I haven't found any in a week or two of Craigslist searching.

I saw these bifold shuttered doors and had the guy move two dishwashers so I could get a closer look then mulled over the idea of turning either of these into something like this for the entryway.

Would they be too tall? I have nine foot ceilings, but I also have about a foot of baseboard to deal with so they would be significantly taller than the door. 

The doors on this cabinet had potential, but they wanted something crazy for it (as opposed to the $5 a piece for the shutter doors).

I couldn't decide and I'm working on talking to my hubby before I make decorating decisions so I didn't buy any of them.

I even asked him about something I saw on Craigslist today. I'm really glad I did too. I thought he would like it but it turns out he didn't. Super glad I asked instead of getting it and being all proud of myself only to find out later he was not impressed.

I did walk out with some treasures though.

A new vent cover to replace the one that has been rusting out since the refridgerator installation flood and the personal cell phone number of the person who runs my local ReStore. I'm calling her tomorrow about some interior shutters for a whole different project.

I Love Research

Last week a friend told my mom she should consider marketing her work at a place called Good Juju in Kansas City. Neither of us had ever been, so we decided a research trip was in order.

First thing Saturday morning my mom and I loaded up Norie and headed to KC for a second hand shopping adventure. After we got there we found out that Good Juju is in an area of KC called the West Bottoms and there is an entire district of antique/vintage/awesome stores there. Almost all the stores are only open on the first weekend of the month and it's an event with vendors outside and the whole deal.


It was over 100 outside Saturday and definitely in the 90s in most of the stores. We spent a good deal of our time spritzing Norie with cold water and standing in front of fans to keep her cool, but we were about to make it to four of them before deciding it was time Mexican food and air conditioning.

I got way too distracted shopping and trying to keep Norie's body temperature below 100 to take many photos, but I did document my two favorite pieces. Apologies for the blurriness. Taking a picture with your phone while holding a wet baby is harder than you might think.


I love this couch. I have no desire to own it. It's not really my style and I'm positive Austin would kill me if I brought something like it home, but you can bet I would purchase it in a heartbeat if I was a professional photographer and wanted an interesting piece of furniture.

I was also a huge fan of this "Lamp of Awesomeness." I'm not making that up. It's what the tag said. From a distance it looked like it was made of old mattress springs or something. It was actually some fiber I couldn't identify, but was much lighter than I expected. Love.

I think we'll go back in September or October when it's a little cooler outside to check out the rest of the shops.

I did it! And other interesting yet somewhat random facts of yesterday

I jogged/walk 2.5 whole miles yesterday. I figured I could, but I wasn't really sure about just how difficult it would be. I stayed pretty active during my pregnancy, but I certainly didn't run or jog or even think about it beyond staring wistfully at joggers as I waddled about campus. Yes, I'm a little sore.  Luckily, I just need to put in 30 minutes on the elliptical today which should be a lot easier.

Yesterday was Norie's first day of working on furniture with me and Grandma. 

She mostly just supervised. I was impressed with her dedication to the cause. She didn't even get very upset when I used the power sander. Apparently all the time I spent using power tools while I was pregnant paid off.

And perhaps the most exciting news of the day - Kleio seems to be warming up to Norie. That's really good since I'm pretty sure she spent the first couple of weeks hoping one of the people who came by to visit would take Norie home with them. She even joined Norie for some tummy time. 

I also attempted to actually take those photos with my real camera yesterday. That didn't quite happen, but maybe today. Not sure though. I have big plans to finish the Thank Yous from the baby shower AND construct an awesome medal display for the tasting room.

Changing Table Reveal: Hibbs House Project Week 2012

I've been having a little trouble posting a reveal of the changing table my mom created for me the baby. It's been done for almost two weeks (like ever since that Hibbs House Project Week (HHPW) I promised to post about), but it's so fabulous I haven't wanted to post until I could take pictures that would do it justice. I've been busy during times when the light was right and I never quite got around to being ready until it was dark and the lighting was atrocious. As a result, I keep pushing it off.

Until today. I'm posting about this bad boy today if it kills me. I'm writing this post before I even take the pictures so I know I just have to take them and stick them in and it will be done.




It's been a long time so here's a refresher on the whole changing table situation. 


My mom brought this dresser with her when she came for HHPW.

It has all the drawers, but I forgot to take a before shot until after we had already started painting and I wanted the before to be pure before. My dad had already put some serious effort into improving the functionality by making the drawers actually work and slide in and out easily. He's a genius when it comes to stuff like that.

She painted the whole thing out in Old White Anne Sloan Chalk Paint. And I got this crazy hair to paint the inside of the drawers with some hot pink paint I had leftover from the Dream Dollhouse project. 

I think its part of the ongoing battle between my love of pink and my hate of girl's nurseries that are swimming in it. I like pink a lot more than I ever thought I would, but seriously people, your child having two X chromosomes does not necessitate her living in a room that looks like Strawberry Shortcake threw up all over it.

After I got done I was a little concerned that it might be too pink, but since its only the inside of the drawers I figured I could give it a bit and see how I felt about it later.

Once the inside of the drawers had so much attitude it became clear to us both that the outside needed to have a little something more than off white going on. We talked over several ideas and settled on a chevron pattern in Provence. Pink was discussed, but we determined that would be just a little too much.

Could that be the result of Anne Marie's recent (it was recent when we were making this decision) guest post on Perfectly Imperfect? I think yes.

I did a little google image searching of my own and came up with this fab dresser on ampirlot's flickr.

Source: theoldpostroadblog.blogspot.com via Amber on Pinterest

LOVE.

The dresser had the same basic shape and I liked the proportions of the stripes so I used it as a pattern for the chevrons on the changing table. I taped off the stripes and my mom painted them. She was a little concerned about my taping technique at first. Apparently my plan wasn't immediately obvious when she looked at the dresser and she thought I just wasn't super careful in my taping. Once I clarified that the neat lines where around the spots to be painted and the random torn tape ends where in the part that was going to stay white she was on board. I didn't remember to take picture until after she'd gone over the tape edges with a layer of white (which is a great thing to do if you want super sharp tape lines).

It took every bit of self control I had to leave the tape on long enough for her to finish two coats of paint on the stripes. I wanted to see it so bad it literally hurt. Seriously, I'm pretty sure I bit my lip a little.

Isn't it just the cutest little thing you've ever seen? And check out the hot pink inside the drawers.

The next day I went to Hobby Lobby and picked up a couple of potential knob options you might remember.

We both thought the polka dot would win out, but when I put them on the whites didn't quite work and the knobs seemed a little small given the scale of the chevrons. We settled on the clear glass ones.

I came up with a great of idea for a couple of the polka dot ones though.

Here's the finished product.

Hutch for my 28th Birthday Writing Desk

My mom (and I think maybe my dad too) gave me this vanity for my 28th birthday.

They gave it to me because she knew my Illustrated Discovery Journal is the best place to find birthday present ideas for me. (Apparently, when you don't really get too excited over new items it makes you hard to shop for.)

This desk was one of the very first items I added to my IDJ.

I'm going to make a hutch for the vanity to convert it into my very own fabulous desk inspired by this own.

Now, depending on how well you know me or how much attention you are paying you may or may not have noticed just how long this project went undone. (I'm 29 and I got this desk before we moved into The Parsonage.)

I'm going to finish it though. And soon.

Why? Because I desperately want to add a Project Plan to Ana White's website and because I just really want my freaking desk. How could anyone not want that desk? It makes me smile every time I see it.

Since it was a vanity the center of the top was hinged to open up with a mirror. I've already cut out the front center and built the drawer box. (I still need to reattached the face. I made a tiny cutting error and I need to fix some collateral damage before it's ready to attach.) Other wise I just need to build the hutch, change out the knobs, and do the sanding/painting part.

Now that I have a reason, I think I can get in short order. I designed a couple different versions of the hutch in SketchUp over a year ago thanks to Ana's helpful tutorial. I made the center a little higher so my laptop can be pushed back into it while it's open. I need that. I should probably also add the decorative bit of detail to the top of the hutch before I post it, but you get the basic idea.

I'm not entirely sure which of the two I want to do, but since the only difference is a shelf I think I'll make it peg style adjustable and then I can just take it out altogether if I decide I don't like it.

So that's the plan. Buy wood, cut, and build the hutch and create the Project Plan so other people can do it without having to think quite so hard about how to make the whole thing go together. Should be easy, right?


Update: I swear I didn't remember posting about this exact same project last April. Check it out. Let's hope I actually do it.

Nursery Armoire: I need color help

I've been trying to figure out what to do about storing clothing in the nursery. The one I put in the nursery floorplan was the Pottery Barn Catallina Dresser and Hutch.

 

It's not exactly my dream piece, but I needed something to represent an armoire in the room. (I really prefer to hang clothes over folding them. Drawers just turn into a complete mess.)

I seriously thought about making this nursery armoire from Ana White's website, but I'm pretty sure it would make my husband insane if I started a major building project at this point.

That, and I'm pretty sure that I would spend as much or more on wood and hardware as I'm going to pick up this armoire off of craiglist.

My in-laws even offered to buy it since we're getting most of the other major pieces of nursery furniture free. I'm not one to say no when people make generous offers so I took them up on it. My mom is going to come paint it for me, but I we need to decided what we want to do with it. 

My husband doesn't always care about these things, but I've learned that its better to ask and have him look at me like "why would I care what color the armoire in the nursery is?" than have him think I don't value his opinion.

I really like the bead board look of Ana's so I think some bead board paper on the door insets would be a good starting point and I'll probably go with hardware similar to what we used in the kitchen. The real question is what color to paint it. Yes. I'm painting it. I am without hesitation or remorse covering every inch of that cherry wood in milk paint.

Originally I assumed we should off with an old white, but then I saw a couple of pieces that really inspired me.

This one is for sale at a little shop called Joanie's Junk an hour or so away.

There is something I love about that mustard color. I also loved it on this piece that I can't find the origin of. I think it was from Ana White.

 

 But then there are other colors like the blue used on the dresser on the cover of Shaunna from Perfectly Imperfect's Book. I'm pretty sure it must be Duck Egg or Provence since she only uses Annie Sloan chalk paint.

Or a brighter blue like this one from Young America?

Or maybe a pea green like this Seymour Office Armoire from Pottery Barn?

Or maybe something else? What do you think?

Actually, now that I've seen that last one I really kind of think green. I know. It's basically the color the room was before we painted it, but that's because the room used to be my favorite color in the whole world. If only I had some of that paint leftover I would be set.

But seriously, if you have a great suggestion let me know. :)

Cribs!

I'm sure you wondered why I didn't post something about the baby yesterday since Wednesday is Baby Day. (What? You're not obsessed with my schedule?) Hopefully awesome cupcakes were a satisfactory substitute. Just in case, here's some baby action for you.

Austin and I are freegan-ing as much of the baby stuff as we possibly can so I haven't done a ton of shopping or registering for big items, but it looks like we are in the crib market after all. (Feel free to let me know if you have one you'd like to sell cheap/donate to the cause.) When thebump.com sent me a newsletter with a slideshow of 10 Cribs We Love I couldn't resist a peek or four. Fair warning though, they have excellent taste, but some are not budget friendly. I think I'll just look at them.

My favorite:

Graco Lauren Convertible Crib ($150 Target)

I am totally registered for this one in case you're curious. It's not super flashy, but it converts from a crib to a toddler bed to a full size bed. Yes, please.

 

There were also a couple I think are totally adorable, but absurdly expensive (sorry if you're into high end baby gear and are offended by that).

Muu Sam ($1775 MuuKids)

That aqua whale design makes me smile.

I also like the design on the PetitNest Alloette Crib ($1490)

Do you suppose there is a place where people sell them on craigslist after their kid grows out of a crib?

It's all in the details (my camera works again!!!)

My computer hasn't been on speaking terms with my camera for a while. It's meant that I can take photos, but you can't see them unless I hold my camera up in front of your face. Not exactly functional if you want to take pictures for your blog so you can show stuff to people you don't see on a daily basis, you know?

When you take them with your phone they just aren't as nice.

Case in point: this lovely little green desk. (She's for sale if you know someone who would like to give her a new home.)

Photos taken with my iPhone

Photos taken with my camera

Neither are amazing, but I think it's clear which are better. 

How did I make it work again? After a bit of research I realized I had somehow changed the communication mode from PTP to Nomal. Once again, normal is bad and makes you less happy. PTP is good and means you can import all the pictures you've taken in months.

I'm very excited about the possibility of taking fabulous photos in the near future.

Also released from camera limbo is a TON of beer porn (i.e. glamor shots my husband takes of beer).

I think it's clear where the real photography talent is in this relationship, but I'm going to take pictures anyway.

Woohoo!

Nursery Floorplan

In an effort to structure and use my time effectively this year I've allocated days to each of my major project areas. Wednesday is Baby Day which means I get to spend the whole evening playing with things related to the baby. To be honest, most of things on the baby prep checklist aren't exactly thrilling.

Maybe I'm missing something, but scheduling a glucose tolerance test and filling out paperwork are exactly ideas that have me all excited about Baby Day. I added work on the nursery so I wouldn't go crazy. That and because I can't not decorate. It's just not in my nature. I MUST make things attractive.

Since I'm not exactly in a condition to move furniture around repeatedly and I wanted to visualize the space I decided to try out Pottery Barn Kids Room Planner. They do mention it in every email they send me. Not sure I remember signing up for those. I bet thebump.com sold them my email. I don't mind though. I'm all about nursery ideas these days.

I measured the room so it would be to scale and started adding in the furniture we already have, have been offered already, or probably need to acquire before Little Miss is born. It was fun and now I know exactly what size of rug I want which is super helpful.

I colored in the stuff we have like Austin's family heirloom rocker,

 

the papasan chair and bookshelf we already have, and a huge corn plant I'm going to put in there. I even put one of the placemat throw pillows I made on the chair.

It would look great with that vintage aqua afghan I saw out shopping last week, don't you think?

I also colored in the existing carpet. If Austin has anything to say about it that will be covered up with new, plusher carpet before we're finished so maybe it should look more like this.

For the record, he has great taste and decided where most of the furniture should go. I didn't like the way I originally had it nearly as much. What do you think?