Cute Dresser Update

Its Monday again.  Already.  Wow.

A quick weekend wrap up:  Thursday evening we took the boat to a local restaurant for dinner.  The sunset was gorgeous.  The marsh looks amazing at sunset. We spent Saturday on the boat exploring and fishing but not catching.  Even though we didn't see a lot of fish, it was a beautiful day to be on the water and to take a break from work.  Sunday, a front came through and the sky turned scary while I was drinking my morning coffee.  Yikes.  The dreary day led to a lazy day after church.  I laid around, watched a movie, and of course, fit in an hour or two of work.



Thursday night from the boat.  This is an unedited photo.  Just beautiful.

The front moving over our house.

Last week I mentioned here that I picked up several projects.  Today I am going to show you the make over of a client's dresser.

Overall it was in ok condition but definitely needed some help.  There were tons of scrapes and scratches plus it looked like someone had started an update but didn't finish.  Here are the before pictures.

My clients are putting this dresser in their master bedroom that they are currently giving a makeover. Thankfully, she had an inspirational picture that they are basing their makeover on so I had an idea of her vision for the room.  Here it is.

I am in love with this room.  The clients currently have a clean lined black dresser with nickel handles that has to be incorporated into the design.  It has a bit of a modern feel so I needed to come up with a look for this dresser that will feel a little casual (more like the room in the picture) but will coordinate with the black dresser.  The bedding colors are khaki, greys, whites, with a few accents with green.  They wanted this dresser to be transitional so it could work in other rooms in the future if necessary.

They let me have creative freedom on this project which is exciting and terrifying all at the same time!  Most of the time I have a vision for a piece fairly quickly and that was the case with this dresser.  After asking my clients several questions, I felt I was on the right track and my idea was going to work for them...hopefully.  :)

This is what it looks like now.

I decided to go with khaki as the main color to keep it transitional and it goes well with black and other neutrals in the room.

Before the dresser was extremely flat. Flat front drawers and flat hardware.  To give the dresser some character,  I distressed the edges just a little to show the grey primer.

To add depth, I replaced the hardware with the same ones that they have on the black dresser.  It shows the clean lines of the dresser without making it feel too modern and now it coordinates with the black dresser even if they don't match.  I am so happy this cute dresser has a great home and is going to be part of a beautiful room.

Have a great week everyone!  If you follow me on Facebook (thanks to those who do and if you don't, you should :)  you got a preview of my bookcase.  Stay tuned for some more updates on that and a few other projects this week!




Sharing at:  

The DIY Show Off

The Dedicated House

So Much Better with Age

Mod Vintage Life

Remodelaholic

VMG 206 Designs

Dressers and a Bookcase

I know, I know.  I haven't posted all week.  Its funny how things can instantly change.  I went from DIY/blogger mode to refinish for client mode overnight.

It all started last Thursday, when I went to North Houston to see my best girlfriend.  She had her 4th child a few weeks ago so I went to see the baby again (and her) and to take some pictures of the baby.  Baby Taryn is so cute and I loved getting sweet snuggles from her.  Here are a few of my favorite pictures.

Isn't she precious?!  All of their kids are super cute and I am absolutely in love with them.

After a day off from furniture on Thursday, Friday to Sunday was crazy busy.  We went to my hometown for my grandmother's 80th birthday party on Sunday but we also scored football tickets to the best high school football game of the year for Friday night.   On Saturday, I had 3 client appointments and I picked up a piece for myself.  Needless to say, it was a busy weekend packed with driving, working, and visiting with family.  Absolutely no down time to relax which resulted in me being exhausted on Monday.  This week has been consumed with furniture projects and a few secret projects that I am not ready to tell you about.  Here are some pictures of what I have been up to this week.

Before pictures of a client dresser.

This dresser will be in the master bedroom.  The client sent me an inspiration picture for her bedroom makeover and has given me the freedom to paint it how I want.  I love these kind of projects.  Surprising my clients is the best but there is a little stress and nerves I get hoping they will like it.  It is turning out great and I can't wait to show y'all the final product.

My bookcase

I bought this really neat bookcase from my friend's grandma.  She was downsizing and having an amazing estate sale.  I got early access and fell in love with this unique bookcase.  It is over 6 feet tall!  I debated painting it since it isn't in horrible shape and is solid wood.  Ultimately, I did decide to paint because I don't want anymore wood tones or brown in my living room and now I am having a little bit of painter's remorse.  I love it painted but I feel guilty about it since I know I could have refinished the wood.  Today, I am going to get it placed and accessorized.  After photos will be posted tomorrow.

Here are the before shots.

The only other piece I am going to tell you about is the office dresser.  Somehow I didn't get before pictures of it but it is part of the set that matches the dog feeding center.  (Read about that here.)  Remember, it was big and brown and ugly?

This dresser was the same just shorter and longer.  Now it is in my office being used for storage for anything from fabric, to office supplies, to my Silhouette machine.

I haven't talked about my office much mostly because I haven't had time to work on it.  It has been used for storage since we moved in and has just now started coming together.  Blittle decided to put all his fly fishing supplies downstairs so the office space is now totally mine.  It is the one room I am going more beachy than coastal. I want bright, happy blues and as many of my beach pictures as I can handle.  I will do a detailed post on the office later but for now here is my dresser.

These two felt the camera was out for them.  Silly.

I hope everyone else is having a great week and is enjoying this fall weather.  It is beautiful here!  I promise to have some more pictures and details over the next few days.  And soon I can tell you about a few of my secret projects.

Preschool - Playroom - Classroom Tour

This post is long overdue, I realize. I’ve been saying that I would post a ‘tour’ of our school for awhile now … the problem is just that I’m always adding something or changing something or SOMETHING. I think I’ve just about finished all the little finishing touches … so … if you can stand to jump back to the age of 4 with me, I’ll take you on a little ‘tour’. ;)



Our preschool room uses the front ‘two’ rooms of my home. It seems the safest and least awkward place to dedicate to a smattering of pint sized lovies. I’m not a huge fan of my 8 year old carpet; however, please feel free to praise me lavishly for being on year 5 of preschool with the same original carpet. Maybe next summer will be the summer we finally get around to putting in wood floors … maybe.

See? There’s my front door, in all it’s glory. Yes, this means that this preschool room is the very first thing that people see when they walk into my home …. …. which is probably why I’ve been so obsessive with its evolution.

You can read the tutorial for those adorable 'Knock Off Pottery Barn Kid’s tables' here. The little yellow stools are from IKEA.

This poor bargain rug from IKEA is on its second year of torture and abuse from all these little ninjas and warriors. It gets trampled, rolled, folded, and chewed on daily. I seriously think it was $15 at IKEA … so … it’s been well worth the price. IDK, maybe it was $20.

Our class calendar is a new addition this year … holy cow … I love it! Superman framed a piece of sheet metal with some cheap baseboard, then spray painted the whole thing white … and KABOOM! A magnetic calendar was born!

I bought the calendar itself at Mardel’s, then I laminated all of the components and hot glued a ceramic magnet on the back, like this:



There’s plenty of room at the top of the frame for any extra monthly magnets, so that I can keep them handy. I store the rest of my calendar supplies in a pencil box in the cabinet.

My most favorite things in our classroom are the fun gifts that kids have given to me over the years, for our classroom. * HINT: If you’re ever uncertain on the perfect teacher gift … just give her (him) something to display in the classroom. They are my favorite gifts!

This sweet subway art sign was gifted to us from a little boy last year … and I could not agree more with its sweet message. I love every single one of those little squirts.

The very first year that I taught preschool, sweet Emilee’s Momma gave me that ‘World’s Best Teacher’ sign. Made me feel like a million bucks. And the following year, Little Corbin’s Mom gave me the subway art that hangs below it. I love them both so much. I truly LOVE my job.

It seems that every corner of this classroom is filled with sweet memories of years passed. I feel so blessed every single day.

After a couple years of teacher preschool by myself, I was able to hire a teacher to come teach with me everyday. Ms. Andrea has been a major blessing in my life. This summer, she found this ‘You Get What You Get And You Don’t Throw A Fit’ sign and brought it by for the classroom. We must say that phrase at least a half dozen times every day.

‘If it worked for me, it’ll work for them’ … every morning, we place our hands on our hearts and pledge our allegiance to that flag. It’s a simpey $1 American Flag that comes on a wood dowel … you know … the one you wave at the local parade every year? Yep. That el-cheapo one. Superman framed it out with some baseboard and we slapped a piece of glass in it. You can hardly tell that it cost all of $4, total. ;)

And … because I work with a slew of little circus animals each day, we needed some sort of behavior ‘chart’ to help them to be aware of their behavior at all times.

Behold: our behavior ‘chart’ …

It’s just a piece of sheet metal, covered in vinyl, and framed with baseboard. Superman is a genius … have I said that before?

Each kiddo has their own magnet … the goal is to stay on green, obviously … but every now and then someone needs a visual reminder to bring their listening ears to class. ;)

Another new(er) addition is our decorative alphabet and hanging pompoms.

A friend of mine does vinyl lettering and made the vinyl alphabet for me … I made the pompoms, with the help of a Pinterest tutorial. Holy cow, they’re soooo easy.

I actually made the pompoms over Spring Break and surprised the little lovies when they came back from the break.

Needless to say, they LOVED them! I just raided Superman’s fishing tackle for some fishing line and strung them up using eyelet screws in the ceiling. I know, I even surprised myself with that crafty plan.

And, while my main goal is to make this room feel like home … even if it’s my ‘office’ … I also strive to be very functional. Every inch of that entertainment center is filled with preschool necessities. After 4+ years, you figure out a few tricks …

Sorry … that picture looks a little blurry … even more sorry … I’m too lazy to take another one. ;) I’m a major fan of these $.99 plastic shoe boxes. I must own 100 of them. Not joking.

These pencil boxes are also the perfect size for a lot of supplies … and … about 2 weeks after school starts, those babies go on sale for $.10/each. KABAM!

Supplies that no preschool teacher should ever be without or run out of … cannot tell you how many times I have reached for cotton balls for a certain craft and come up empty. It’s the WORST!!! You can’t make rain clouds without cotton balls, people!

I’m telling you … every. single. inch. of these cabinets is filled with preschool nonsense.

I know you’ve seen these rain gutter bookshelves a hundred times on here … but now you can see them in ‘context’. ;)

And, typically, all of those books are upside down, backwards, sideways, disheveled, and totally unkempt … but I wouldn’t have it any other way. Books are a ginormous part of our lives between the hours of 9am and 12pm, Monday – Friday.

No classroom could be complete without a short people mirror, framed out with … you guessed it … baseboard. ;) Ms. Andrea and I love watching the vain little circus animals amuse themselves with their silly faces. (ps- I totally left those finger prints on the mirror for you on purpose … wanted to give you the full effect ;)

And …. at the end of the day … it’s still my two favorite kiddos' playroom. Our favorite time is when we can let the swings down and play to our heart’s content … after school hours.

If you’re interested in hanging some swings in your home … you can read that tutorial here.