Commercial ready: Just call me Mrs. Minwax

Okay, so I am not really doing a commercial. But I did refinish a dresser using Minwax products a month ago, and submitted the project to their website. I just found out they picked little ol’ me as the winner of the Minwax Project Showcase! Hooray!

I’m a Project Showcase Winner !

You may remember this project where I salvaged a dresser from the Goodwill store for my nephews. This solid wood, but badly abused, dresser originally cost $15. I refinished it using Minwax tinted stain in Antique Red and finished it off with Minwax Wipe-On Poly.

Before:

Water marks (removed with mayonnaise):

Burn mark:

In Transition:

After:

Minwax likes me! They really like me !

See my winner’s profile here on the Minwax website.

And if that’s not enough, stay tuned for my other Minwax product redos: a little bench, and my entire two story staircase.

So now it’s time to celebrate !

Yesterday, I featured my woefully inadequate dining room space, which is a work in (slow) progress. For inspiration, I turned to my magazine file of my favorite dining spaces, and scanned them for your eyes only. Now if my dining room could look like any of these, no one would ever remember what food I actually served.

You will notice that I lean traditional. However, my personal style is less Architectural Digest, and more Better Homes and Gardens. Yet I constantly peruse and collect copies of Traditional Home, House Beautiful, Southern Accents, Decor, and Remodel magazines to dream my little dreams of someday adding extra glam to my little dining room corner.

Here are just a sampling of the many images I’ve collected. (All efforts were made to acknowledge the photographer, if known.) These pictures are so lovely, you’ll be glad I’m featuring Part Two next week.

House Beautiful, April 2008: Such a calm color scheme, and a great mix of chairs. It could just be the light, but it appears that the chandelier and picture frames are a champagne color, which is noticeably softer than gold or bronze. Photo by Francis Janisch

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This dusty old chair was sitting at the local thrift store with a $3 price tag.  I offered $2 cash, and she came home with me.  I gave her a makeover, and bibbity bobbity boo, now she’s Belle of the Ball.  Or at least, the belle of my office. 

Before and After:

If you don’t have a handy magic wand, then gather these supplies:

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You know how you look at some design element in your home over and over, and it just doesn’t look right, and you just can’t put your finger on why? (Enter blogger helpers…) That’s the story behind my kitchen window valance. It’s a large picture window that looks out into my garden in the backyard, so I didn’t want to obstruct the view, I only wanted to add some soft fabric detail. The wall paint is a dijon color, the wall cabinets are white, and the center island cabinets are this complimentary butternut color:

The original fabric I chose to create the first valance last year was a Waverly rooster toile. The problem with the original valance was that the fabric’s yellow background was the color of American mustard, while the wall color was more Dijon mustard, and with the clashing of these two yellows, the walls finally exclaimed, “Excusez-moi”.

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Learn how to decorate your Easter eggs like these at this link by Better Homes and Gardens.

Happy Easter everyone !