Painting my outdated bedroom furniture, done!

Ever since we completed our final bathroom renovation last fall, we've been slowly making our way through a variety of long overdue upstairs projects - new closet doors, painting, carpet, curtains, etc... It's not quite finished, but the end is in sight. And I realized that if I wait for the big reveal, I'll be writing the longest post in blog history. So let's get started with my bedroom furniture. You had a little preview here. It was sad, really really sad, 1970's Colonial style dark pine sad and outdated!

The furniture was a wedding present from my husband's parents thirty three years ago. If you're too young to remember, just take my word for it that it was quite popular at the time.

Now it's just kind of painful to share!

If you saw it at the Goodwill, would you pass it by or consider it a candidate for a makeover?

For the longest time, I had an inspiration photo from Pottery Barn with white bedroom furniture from hanging over my bed. Yes, I'm very visual. The furniture was really so similar, I had to give it a shot. I mean seriously, what did I have to lose?

My husband's only question was, how was I getting it to the garage?  We've been in this house for almost thirty years and I really don't even remember how the movers got this stuff in here. But since the entire upstairs was being painted and we were getting new carpet, I knew we could just paint it right in the bedroom - whew!

Only the headboard and the drawers had to be carried outside.

And thankfully, I had a fearless helper! Megan actually encouraged me to go for it from the very beginning.

That sweet girl removed all the hardware, then painted, distressed and waxed all twenty five drawers.

And I made sure she had hot coconut muffins every morning!

And then we moved inside and with two of us working, this part was a breeze! We lightly sanded everything with a sanding sponge, mixed up some Behr Silky White with the homemade chalk paint recipe, lightly distressed and finished up with a coat of wax.

The paint adhered beautifully and all that dark pine was becoming a distant memory!

Just when we finished, our painter was ready to paint the walls. Having the drawers out and the hutch off the dresser made his work a whole lot easier too. And no, I do not paint walls if I can possibly avoid it.

Okay, ready to see what it looks like?

(No pretty accessories till after the carpet arrives.)

Now I'm really loving the curves.

They've gone from dated Colonial to sweet Cottage Style!

I love the way the distressing brings out the details.

The hardware was replaced with pretty crystal button knobs and satin nickel cup pulls.

I'm not missing that eagle one little bit!

So there you have it, a pretty new Cottage style bedroom in the making! I think it has a beachy, coastal feel.

A cushy new chair arrived yesterday and curtains and carpet are on the way. I think the end is in sight! And I'm just loving the fresh new look!

I'm linking to...

Under The Table And Dreaming

Look what I found at Elizabeth & Co.!

One of my favorite things about our tag sales is chatting with our customers and hearing about how something they found at Elizabeth & Co. now has a happy new home or just makes them smile! At our summer sale, newlyweds Stephanie and Derek stopped by to say hello. They are so cute! 

And Stephanie brought along her beautiful brooch bouquet to share with us. And of course it has a great story to go along with it! It all started when Stephanie's great-grandmother passed away last December. She left Stephanie a big box of brooches. There really was no plan for them until one day when Stephanie saw a photo of a brooch bouquet in a magazine. That was it. She knew she was meant to have a brooch bouquet for her wedding.

In spite of the large collection, Stephanie still needed more brooches to round out the bouquet. Well if you've ever been to one of our sales, you know that Karla always has a lovely collection of vintage jewelry. So she started collecting brooches for Stephanie. Then family and friends heard about it and and they wanted to get in on the fun too.

Stephanie did not need to purchase a single brooch. They were all given as gifts. And each one is from a special person in Stephanie's life or has special meaning. She attended WVU, hence the Flying W. Her granddad was an optometrist. Did you spot the little eyeglasses? Stephanie had a poodle named Pepper and you guessed it, there's a poodle pin. ... Each one makes Stephanie smile!

Through a whole lot of trial and error, Stephanie's mom figured out how to put the bouquet together and she was sweet enough to share the details. The base was created with a bunch of pink silk hydrangeas. Then she used floral wire to create stems for each brooch and tucked the stems down into the flowers and adjusted them to form a nice round shape. Then she slid a toilet paper roll (love that!) around all the stems, cut off the ends and covered it all with white silk. Then to make it more sturdy, she put a pearl stem wrap around the bottom. ... Now that's my kind of DIY gal! ... And even after the wedding and a whole ot of traveling, it still looks as perfect as it did on day one. And how sweet is this photo of Stephanie and her mother on the wedding day!

And the brooches aren't the only connection Elizabeth & Co. had to Stephanie's wedding. At one of our first sales, I was telling her aunt Beth (one of our very favorite customers!) about all the chalkboards we used at Megan's wedding. Well next thing I knew, Beth was buying up all of our chalkboards and requesting more white ones. Stephanie and Derek used one of them for their save the date announcement.

And just a few weeks ago, they tied the knot. Just look how much fun they had with all the chalkboards!

And now Stephanie and Derek are using the chalkboards in their home as a sweet reminder of their lovely day! We are so honored to have had a little part in it and appreciate them sharing their story with us!

*If you have something from Elizabeth & Co. in your home and would like to share, just send me a photo! I'd love to make "Look what I found at Elizabeth & Co.!" a regular feature. Or if you'd like us to be on the lookout for something special for you, just ask. We do our best to make our friends smile!

I'm linking to...

No Minimalist Here Open House Party

Jennifer Rizzo

Making Monday Marvelous at C.R.A.F.T.

Be Inspired Features and Link Party #31

Happy Tuesday! Welcome back for features and party day!

Awesome projects as always! Here are just a few that caught my eye this week...

In response to all the Union Jack projects out there, Dee from Deelitedesign decided to recreate her state flag on a dresser. She toned down the bold design with subtle colors. And of course I love it, Maryland is my state too!

And I just love this beachy bench makeover from Jo at Coastal Home Love. Sweet! And can you believe this little beauty started out covered in orange lacquer?

I know I'm not the first and I certainly won't be the last to feature this beachy pallet table from Rendition Road. It's really cool!

Angela from Number Fifty-Three took a new pair of curtains, a thrift store painting and a beloved family chair and created this lovely corner in her dining room. It's so simple, yet I just keep coming back to it. There's just something about it that draws you in. How perfect is that!

I just can't get enough of the signs that Korrie creates over at Red Hen Home. And this one just might be my very favorite!

And last but not least, my friend Gail over at My Repurposed Life shared a nifty tutorial on how to make your own shadow box from a thrifted picture frame! Gail always makes projects do-able!

Thanks so much to everyone who linked up and linked back! If you've been featured, feel free to grab a cute little button from the sidebar!

Now on to this week's party! The guidelines are simple...

* Link up your furniture makeovers, DIY projects, home decor, crafts, recipes, thrifty finds, etc... We want to see whatever is inspiring you at the moment!

* Grab a party button and add it to your post or link back in some way. You must have a visible link back to be considered for a feature!

* And be sure to follow along with us!

We'll be back next week with features and a brand new party.
Now let's share some inspiration!

Megan's Pretty Coral Desk Chair

Okay, I managed to avoid my garage for at least a few days in order to recover from our summer tag sale! ... But Megan is counting down the last days of summer before teachers head back to school and she wanted to get a few projects done. First up, a new chair for her home office.

You might remember the vanity she painted last summer in a beautiful combination of Paris Grey and Old White chalk paint. It made it to our summer sale for all of about 5minutes before she decided she needed to keep it as a desk. Good decision, don't you think?

Megan finally found the perfect chair to go with her desk. It just needed a little update.

First she painted the chair in a creamy white we had on hand that is a perfect match to Old White. She just mixed it up with my homemade chalk paint recipe. Now there was a whole lot of red in that chair, so she gave it three coats for thorough coverage. A light distressing and a coat of wax and that was it!

But the real star of the show here is the fabric.  Megan was originally thinking about a yellow and grey color scheme for their home office. But Liam loves maps and Megan recently scored a cool pull down map at a barn sale. She decided to pull out lots of the bright colors from the map instead of focusing on just yellow and grey. And coral has been calling her name recently. So when she spotted this coral and grey combination at JoAnn's, she knew it was a keeper!

Isn't it pretty?

I think it will look awesome with her desk!

And I have to admit, I just love having company in the garage. I am so much more motivated. We got a whole bunch of projects done in the last few days in spite of the crazy heat! So stay tuned, there will be lots more to come!

I'm linking to...



Between Naps on the Porch

No Minimalist Here Open House Party