I Painted Some Pine Furniture

With a little inspiration from Edie and Nester, I painted an old pine table I had.

I knew it was old, ugly and dirty, but the plant I kept on the top hid the ugliness a little bit. I just about died when I looked at the photo I took because I just didn't realize how bad it was. I bought this table 10 years ago, and don't really want to buy new furniture right now.

So first I painted it creamy white. I wasn't liking the color or the rust colored hardware. It just wasn't working for me.

So after the layer of white, I painted a pale blue.

I distressed the whole thing with my electric sander.

I also took the hardware right off and spray painted it with flat black to give it an iron look.

The above photo shows my laziness. See, at the top, I didn't paint underneath the lid. My guests don't open it up so I'm not going to waste any more time on it.

I finished it by rubbing on some Miniwax Finishing Wax Paste. It gives a little color to the wood spots. It also gives a little shine, because that pine wood can be really dry especially after I ran a sander over it, and protects the wood from moisture.

Next, I'm going to tackle my pine bedroom furniture. Here is my inspiration at Pottery Barn. I love the bright red furniture with pale blue walls!

On a sidenote, I stripped my lovely vinyl floor in the room with the table and polished it with this stuff. Can you see the spot I missed? That's how shiny the polish gets this floor. You just wipe it on, too. It's not hard work. Strip the floor first to get TONS of dirt out of it.

Raingutter Bookshelf

Tonight I made a bookshelf out of a raingutter! Woohooo, it was sooo easy.

I got the idea from Jim Trelease's website on reading. Here is his article on why using raingutters to hold books is a fab idea. Side note: One of the absolute, hands-down best things you can do for your kids' education is help them to love reading. I have his book The Read Aloud Handbook, and I recommend it.
Here is the before picture. We just had the carpet replaced, and I am in the process of putting everything away. I was just too lazy to pretend like my house is clean tonight.

Another shot of the finished product. Aren't books so much more inviting when you can see the beautiful covers? My little one doesn't read the spines. But these books almost call to you when you walk by.

I bought the hooks that are designed for the raingutters, but they go over the top and not under the bottom and I didn't like the way it looked. So I just screwed the thing right into the wall. I could only find one wood stud, so i started there, I put another screw into a drywall anchor, and 2 more screws right into the wall. I think it will hold up nicely, unless a kid tries to stand on it or something. I also bought 2 endcaps.

And for your reading pleasure, here are some of my favorite books:

Dav Pilkey is the best author. Not just because he wrote a book about Captain Underpants, stupid bunnies, dirty diapers and Corgis (which are the dogs I have) . . .

. . . but the Ricky Ricotta's Mighty Robot series is one of the absolute best for young readers who are in that transition time between picture books and chapter books. They can decode the words, but they still aren't mature enough to read a book without pictures on every page. Ricky Ricotta is a chapter book, but the chapters are fast and there are pictures everywhere. My son LOVES that. It is important for a young reader to believe that he or she can read, and they can get a big sense of accomplishment from reading a book like this. It propels them into reading the more difficult chapter books.

At the end of the Ricky Ricotta books, it shows the reader, step-by-step, how to draw two characters in the book. My son has a lot of difficulty with fine motor skills, so I was really shocked when he broke out the pencil and drew the pictures. I love you Dav.

Eats, Shoots & Leaves by Lynne Truss and Bonnie Timmons, and Skippyjon Jones by Judy Schachner. Now, when you read Skippyjon, you have to go for it and read it in a fun way.

An All-Time favorite by Berkeley Breathed, Mars Needs Moms!

If you want to go check out a raingutter bookshelf tutorial, here's one at Raising Olives. But I say, bolt that thing to the wall.

The Theory of Decorativity

Theory of Decorativity: No. of Paint Swatches = Husband Torture Squared
I won't bore you with all the gory details, but let's just say the husband torture at Casa Jones has involved painting, is the paint color right? discussions, love the paint color, scaffold, a suggestion by Mr. Jones that we replace one small room of nasty carpet since we were already moving huge furniture to paint, a buy 1 get 2 rooms free carpet sale, entire contents of upstairs being boxed up and relocated to dining room and living room, new carpet not looking good with paint color, search for entirely new paint color, arguing with Home Depot paint guy about whether he gave me the color I asked for (he did), starting over on the paint.

While I was clearing out the contents of our bedrooms from our living room today, I decided to make a small change.

These white shades that the previous owners of our house installed have driven me a little nuts over the years. Like an annoying little grain of sand. (The owners, by the way, had white walls, white shades on all windows and white carpet. It was like a hospital. It could have been worse though, like obnoxious colors on the walls and floors).

They are ugly, boring, and are installed over the beautiful molding. The jewelry of the window covered up!

And little gnats fly in there in the summer and get stuck. How do you get that out?!! Say hello to one of my little friends:

So I finally took them off this morning.

I think this looks a lot better.

No one else may ever notice, but I do and it's my house and I look at it every day.

It's not a bedroom, so it doesn't need complete privacy. A little see through is ok. Let's see how long it takes Mr. Jones to notice.

Painting a Closet and Fave Painting Tools

I'm painting the closet in the Girl's room today (here's the first one I painted, and you can see my other posts on her room here and here), along with a mirror and this desk to go in the closet to be used as a makeup table.

I might actually finish a room.

Dare to dream.

I thought I would share a few of my fave painting tools with you:

I bought this plastic thingy that pops onto the top of the paint can and makes pouring it out easy and it keeps the can clean. The reason you see paint dripping all over the side of the can is because the we did not use the plastic pouring thingy the first time we used this can of paint.
You need a paint brush to paint the corners, but it got to be a pain trying to paint all around the metal shelf in the closet, so I also used my favorite painting tool: A mini foam roller. It's awesome for painting furniture, too. It makes painting inside cabinets and drawers a lot easier.
Mr. Jones and I do not like to clean painting supplies, so we use disposable tray liners, and we throw away the rollers (not the frame, just the foam part). It will take you forever to rinse out a roller . . . I've tried. One thing we do not throw away is the drop cloth. Don't buy the plastic ones. Fork out $8 for a drop cloth at Walmart and use it over and over and over. It's better for the environment people. Yes, I know that doesn't really jive with all the disposable liners and rollers that we toss, but no one's perfect.
So what do you do when you have to let the first coat dry and you don't want to rinse everything? Wrap it all up in plastic wrap. Put a sheet over the paint in the pan, too. Beeeeee lazy. I'm such a lazy painter, that I might not even paint the 2nd coat. I'm going to wait for the 1st coat to dry and see what I can get away with. It is just a closet after all. And I've NEVER painted primer on a wall.

Last thing you might want to consider doing is wearing gloves. Just sayin'.

Lamps

Today is Nester's Lampapalooza Party. Here's what I've got to show you . . .

Here's the thrift store lamp I bought for a couple bucks. This picture does not do its ugliness justice. A couple coats of oil rubbed bronze spray paint, add a new lampshade from my closet, throw a tassel at it . . .

Not bad!

Next up, my bathroom chandelier:

I love it, but I hated the chain. I really wanted to sew one of those cute cord covers but didn't have time. So I broke out the hot glue gun.

I cut a very long piece of extra fabric I had sitting in my "to do" pile, and I glued that sucker right on.

Well, I didn't actually glue it to the chain, but I did fold a little hem and glued that. Then I slipped it on the chain.
Can't even tell, can you? My one piece of advice if you try this is, try to go light on the hot glue. It's difficult to get the fabric to bunch up naturally if there is too much glue on it.
This is the most recent addition:

Mr. Jones replaced the nasty builder-brass lights out front. They were pretty cheap, and it made a huge difference.

For more Lampapalooza, stop by Nesting Place.

Free Furniture

Rhoda at Southern Hospitality asked us to share our thrifty treasures from this week. Does free count as thrifty? Oh, yes, I think it does. Woohooo woohoooo.

I stopped by my friend, Laura's house last week to look at what colors she is painting her basement, and I spied a lonely piece of furniture off in the corner. I freaked because it has some serious potential. She told me she was trying to get rid of it and couldn't. I could have it. For free. I freaked again.

The guys have been teasing poor Miss Laura because they think it is junk. I knew right away what she had seen in this piece when she found it on the roadside years ago. She should get an award for saving it. I'm going to send pictures to all the guys who teased her. They won't even recognize it when I'm done. I can't wait to drench it in paint. I already have some beautiful knobs for it.

The only catch was, I had to get it out of their basement. No problem. Mr. Jones was patient with me. He doesn't see the potential, but he trusts in my vision. He learned to do that when I painted this little desk that looked like trash.

Do you see the vision, too?

Stop by Rhoda's blog for more thrifty finds.

Got Epsom Salt?

Have you ever heard of all the things you can do with Epsom Salt? I had no idea what the stuff was, until I had a conversation with the plant manager at Lowe's. Lowe's always has great sale racks of plants at the very back of the plant department. A lot of times, the plants look pretty sick and wilted. The guy told me, just mix some epsom salt in with water and water the plant with it after you stick it in the ground. It worked! It helps them recover and grow nice and healthy. I had no idea.

So I looked it up on the internet, and it turns out, epsom salt is a great thing to use regularly on all your plants. Apparently, even Martha uses it. For more on using it for your plants (like why and how much), check out this and this.

I noticed that the epsom salt looks a lot like sand because it has big grains, not tiny ones like table salt. I always use this for my hurricanes. Much cheaper than buying pretty white sand.

You can also do things like keep away racoons, soften your skin, and clean tile floors with epsom salt. Go here, here or here to see more ideas.

I'm going to give some of them a try, and I'll let you know if it works.

I'm In Love

With white burlap. I'm decorating the teacher lunchroom at school for Teacher Appreciation Week, and I bought this burlap for a table runner. I've always loved burlap, but now there is burlap in color. White, blue, turquoise, red, yellow. $2.50 a yard!

But I need your help! Can anyone tell me how to get the awful smell out of it? I've washed it and Febreezed it, but it still is a little too stinky to cover a table where people are eating. Help!

Lamp Love

I bought this old lamp yesterday.

This picture does not do its ugliness justice. First I painted it gold, but I didn't like it. Little bit of white ... no. Then I remembered my paint from yesterday's post, oil rubbed bronze. Add a new lampshade from my closet.

Throw a tassel on there. All better.

Now off to my next project ... Star Wars triage.