Adventures in Thrifting

I like the DI. Our kids...not their favorite, but they endure it for the chance at buying a book when I am done looking. If I am looking for something specific then my trips are more frequent. I also am a stalker on KSL (just like Craig's list for Utah) when I am looking for something. Luckily, my patience and persistence normally pay off. When I am out Blake will get a text from me that looks a little like this:

"Check it! $15 and it is coming home with me!!"

Our kids may have said something along the lines of "Gross! that is dirty and ugly. I don't like it. Are you buying that?!"

Yes kids. Yes I am.

You may remember that I stole our extra storage out of the downstairs bathroom for our bedroom. I had found a few dressers that I liked online but they were all around $65-100. So when I spotted a $15 dresser...it practically jumped in my cart.

I made sure that it fit in the space and then I got to plotting its make over.

Pinterest once again to the rescue.

Blake said that he liked this one the best, so that was going to be the winner.

I used Citristrip and it removed that paint like it was nobodies business.

What caught me off guard, was how nice the wood looked underneath, and for one hot minute I debated on just having a nice wood dresser in there. Then I remembered that I still have 3 more dressers to paint so I snapped out of it.

When I had removed as much of the old paint as I could, I took it outside and gave it a real quick sanding, and a coat of primer.

Then I brought it inside and started painting it black before I could second guess my decision.

(Ignore the mess in the background! This is what happens when you do projects in the laundry room...you have to look at the piles of laundry.)

But not all of it was painted black, the drawers were kept white. 

After two coats of paint, I moved it into the bathroom, and then made a trip to Hobby Lobby.

When I went into Hobby Lobby I knew exactly what knobs I wanted (left middle--the swirly ones). That is, until I looked at the knobs. Then? I was completely useless. I found four choices right away, and then my choices quickly doubled.

Black and white?

Colored? Glass?

With back plates? With out? 

Well, wouldn't you know. I ended up with the exact ones that I had gone in to buy in the first place. I evidently just like to over complicate things.

The dresser has already been filled with the necessities like towels, soap, a hair dryer, and toothpaste.

The vintage metal magazine holder is going to be used for holding towels down the road, when I get around to buying them.

A little something like this:

The upside is our kids have told me that the dresser looks awesome. 

I wish I was the kind of parent that rubbed things in their faces, because I would be like 

"See! I told you!!"

The Little Things

I have been sick. Coughing up a lung sick.

Not awesome.

I have also been a bit busy with my shop. Nothing horrific, it just takes up extra time that I could spend doing other things.

But there is something about sitting at home and seeing all of the little things that are not getting done. Things that no one else probably thinks twice about, but bug you endlessly.

My list:

1. The paint on the wall going down the stairs. The paint didn't go all the way down to the new stairs because there used to be carpet there. With the carpet gone there was still part of the wall that needed to be touched up. I finally did it this last week. Woot!

2. The main bathroom has a "window" at the top of the wall. It lets in light from the master bathroom and gives the bathroom daylight that it otherwise wouldn't have, because it is in the center of the house. Around the edges of the window was paint.

The previous painter was not especially careful. It bothers me every time that I look at it....and yet...here it is 7 months later.

Because our kids just had spring break, and because I believe in slave labor, I made the kids clean the bathroom while I got to scrape old paint off of a window.

It probably took about an hour or two to scrape all the paint off, and my fingers were screaming by the end. Old paint does not come off gracefully. It is mean, and sticks around, and really puts up a fight.

Good thing I was determined. Now our window doesn't look like I don't know how to paint.

3. Our front windows next to our doors.

In all honesty they weren't horrible, and I feel bad covering them up because the previous owner was so proud about how he "got them professionally etched." But roses...they ain't my thing.

I knew I was taking a risk that might not work. Luckily, the paint that I was using was removable with paint thinner and only cost $4 for the can.

At Home Depot I found the frosted glass spray paint, taped up my windows and got to spraying.

About 30 minutes later, I had frosted glass windows that had stripes going down them.

Surprisingly, it worked much better then I had thought that it would. The upside is, if I get tired of it I can just remove it.

I also have a lot of projects half started right now. You should see my laundry room...it is nuts.

At one point last week our living room looked like a furniture store. It had two extra dressers sitting in it, a new chair, our green bench, two nightstands, my white cabinet, and all of the regular furniture that belongs in it.

Here is a really quick breakdown of the madness:

Our dresser and nightstands were just too big for our bedroom. I have been looking for small dressers online to act as nightstands, in order to get rid of our current dresser and nightstands.

I found this dresser online and was excited because we had a dresser exactly like it that would match, so I bought it.

The dresser that matched it was in the downstairs bathroom.

So I moved our nightstands and dresser out of our room and moved these two dressers in to act as nightstands.

(This is how it is, for the moment. Although, there is still tweaking to do.)

Then came the problem of our missing dresser in the downstairs bathroom. The dresser in the bathroom acts as storage, but also blocks the ugliness that is our fuse box and water softener.

Insert this $15 dollar dresser that I found at the DI.

So...right now I am working on...

Striping off the paint from the dresser and then redoing it.

I also need to paint our bedroom dressers, and the boys new dresser, and the new laundry cart that I bought.

Now you understand why our laundry room looks like a war zone. Removing paint is a messy business.

A Little Bit Fun, A Little Bit Function

I wouldn't say that I have a certain style, although if colorful was one...that would probably fit best. 

Buying what I like, and finding a place to put it, seem to be what works for me. Sometimes I don't even know that I want to change something...until I find just the right thing. When I was on the look out for knobs for the downstairs bathroom vanity, I happened to go into Hobby Lobby. They also happened to be having a 50% off all knobs sale. So, I grouped some together and sent a picture to Blake to see what he liked best.

Ultimately we ended up going with the second one from the top, although the first and third were big contenders.

The knobs (although they don't look like it in the photos) are crystal looking with only a hint of blue.

They are probably a little more fancy then what I would normally go with, but I really love them on the vanity now.

The problem is...I really loved the third ones down but couldn't figure out a reason to have them.

Then...my reason came.

Truth be told, this cabinet didn't really need new knobs but once they were on...there was no going back. 

They made the vanity seem a little less...I don't know...sad? Plus, I think the size helped too.

Wouldn't you know, a new shower curtain also helped out the bathroom situation.

In all honesty, finding things for our home is a long process. I typically start thinking that I want one thing and end up with something completely different. I tend to lean towards things that are vintage because it can give you a unique look....but not all vintage is good, and not all things "unique" end up working either. Take for example my chairs.

I bought the metal ones off of a local site, and the striped one I painted myself. I loved them. But...they just didn't work. No matter how much I willed myself to keep them, for the sake of loving them, I couldn't. In the end, I ended up selling the chairs and going back to our wood ones, and putting the striped chair in the kids Secret Laboratory.

Sure the chairs were cool, and very in style, they just weren't my style.

I have said it before and I will say it again, some things that are done in jest around our house end up sticking.

The wall in our dining room is off set from the other wall so it makes it hard to hang things on it. I had decided to do a gallery wall opposite the mirror in hopes that it wouldn't make it feel lopsided.

I laid out all of the frames that I had, and moved them around until I got a general shape that I liked.

All of the frames are ones that I had painted the same color as the wall, and I had planned to do the same with the horse print frame.

I figured that when the weather got warm I would paint it and fill it with a different picture.

Then night after night, as we ate dinner our kids would play "I spy." Without fail, there would normally be one of them saying, "I spy...something golden." To which someone would reply after a few guesses..."the horses?"

Unintentionally the horses have stayed. Sure, I get a couple "What is up with the horses?!" but I just shrug and normally tell the story and end with "They have grown on us. We kind of dig 'em."

Another frame got filled simply because this hook

reminded me of Tick-Tock from Return to Oz.

I figure at some point all of the frames will be filled, but I am not in a rush. Filling them is half the fun.

Luckily there are more shelves to fill and spaces to decorate, so it seems that the fun is never ending.

It happens to be especially gratifying when you start with a blank slate and it evolves into something unexpected.

As soon as we started on the bathroom I knew that I was going to put my antique bottles in there. They have moved places and been rearranged about a gazillion times, and I am sure that will continue.

If given the option of going with something normal or something a little fun, I will almost always choose fun. It is just a added bonus if it has some kind of function.

Insert our Hand hooks. Literal hands holding stuff. 

Sure, this hand is giving you a nice finger gun...

But you know what else it can do?! Hold your towel.

Winning!

Somethings that are purely for purpose can be cute too.

When it comes right down to it, changing things around happens to be my biggest hobby. It some how makes our house seem different with out really changing much.

A picture in the spare room that looked perfectly fine there,

ends up on top of the piano.

And a felt, string owl ends up in its place.

It is ever evolving. The owl may not be like that for long, but at least I got you caught up...for now.