My little boy has the teensy tiniest bedroom in our house and it doesn’t fit much more than a bed, his dresser and an armoire.  Nevertheless I’ve been wanting to find him a little play table for under the window for the longest time, but I wanted to spend very little since he will outgrow it in a few short years.    

I happened upon a little coffee table a few weeks ago, and some funky little chairs (at where else, a thrift store) and decided we could give them a little makeover so they would work in his room.  I paid $25 for all three pieces. 

Here’s the not-so-attractive set before (ew, yuck)

And here’s what a little paint, new foam and fabric turned them into:

Here’s the simple steps in their transformation. 

I stripped down the chairs as fast as possible and ceremoniously burned the fabric.  Heh heh.  No, I removed the fabric and tossed it out, yuck yuck yucky.  Then I painted the legs white and added some foam to the chairs.  

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We’ve owned this laminate and particle board media center for about fifteen years.  It was purchased in the leaner years from a discount furniture store.   Back in the 90s, we used it in our family room to store all of our media equipment, but then we eventually moved it to the kids’ play space.  For the longest time (like most moms) I was just grateful for the storage it brought me and I didn’t care what color it was.

Then all of a sudden I just couldn’t take it anymore.  I was staring at the faux maple laminate last week and I decided the day had come.  It was time to paint it!  It’s not that I don’t like blonde wood, I just don’t like faux blonde wood.  It’s the fakeness that bothers me.

So it was time to rid my world of the maple tone and give it a fresh coat of white paint.  This is a relatively sturdy piece, so rather than go out and buy a new system, or build one myself, I determined the best way to save it was to simply paint it.  The best part of all is, I changed the look of this piece in 48 hours!

Here’s the Before:

Here’s the After:

Here’s how I painted my laminate storage center.   

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There are those years when your kids are growing up that they really want to be in charge of the décor in their room.  And that’s important.  And ya gotta respect that. 

So for years and years, my stepdaughter was in total control of her personal space until something happened when she turned 17 – she was ready for a grown up girl’s room, and I was invited to help !  OMG, are you kidding me ?  I get to collaborate on the new space?  For real ?  Pinch me !   I was honored and delighted to lend a decorative hand. 

So it was out with the tween decor and in with the girly glam.  We finally got around to hanging some pictures and adding a new chandelier last weekend, so we deemed the space officially ‘done’.  Here’s a tour of the new and improved grown up space for my girl !

Before:

After:

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Over the past months, I’ve been putting just a few finishing touches on my stepdaughter’s bedroom, and one of the last things I wanted to do for her was inject the space with a dash of big girl glam.  As you know from my fixation on metallic finishes, I’ve been wanting to silver leaf something, anything, for quite some time.  An inexpensive bronze Kmart lamp became the victim.  I’ve had this lamp for over three years and it was just looking a little, well, plain to me.  So rather than buying her a new lamp, I just decided to give it a glitzier look. 

For the faint of heart, the lovers of standard lamp bases, and the devotees to dark bronze, avert your eyes, look away, look away !   Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

Now, for those like me who adore all things shiny, feast your eyes on my latest transformation, a lamp refinished in silver leaf. 

Before and After:

This project was incredibly simple, and took only a few hours to complete.  Here’s the play by play. 

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