It’s a habit that can never be broken, and that is my constant need to visit to thrift stores in search of cool pieces.  Four out of five times I walk away empty handed after seeing a lot of junk, but last week was a gold mine at my local St. Vincent de Paul.  On the floor were no less than five pieces I would have loved to buy, including a beautiful French buffet plus a few fab armoires.  At one point, I heard two college girls discussing a six drawer dresser and they said “We can prime and paint this, I saw it on a blog” which made me feel proud of us DIY bloggers!  I departed with my favorite find, a fab little mid century style chest, and since it was 50% off day, it cost me $20 bucks.

I thought this little chest of drawers would be absolute perfection for my hub’s office – for storing extra office supplies.  Matt has his own small real estate office and all of the furniture is dark wood, but he’s a dude and he likes it that way so I don’t mess with that preference.  But I couldn’t pass up this perfectly sized piece that screamed “make me wonderful” so I brought it home and gave it a facelift.

He used to give me the hand pinching the top of the nose plus creased forehead combo when I brought beat up stuff home years ago – but no more.  I snuck this revamped piece into his office while he was out on an inspection and then got an email three hours later when he returned that read “LOVE it.”   Mission totally accomplished.

I’m a big big fan of the wood + white combo (hello, these tables and these shelves) so again I’m up to my old tricks.  I was inspired by this mod Austin Dresser by DucDuc and all the wood/white combinations – check out the reverse too!  The real wood drawers on this particular piece were just too amazing to cover up, but the laminate faux wood grain top?  Um, no.  Goodbye and good riddance.

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At last at last at last, I finally have a potting bench to call my own!  Last weekend, my mister agreed to spend a day building this for the corner of our yard since I’ve been nudging him for a few years now.  On Saturday, we built ourselves a 6 foot long potting bench that now sits in a shady spot in our side yard.  Finally, a place for me to do all my gardening – I’m so crazy excited about this new handmade bench!  

We used the tutorial for this potting bench I found over at Better Homes & Gardens as our guide, but we made a few modifications.  I won’t repeat all the instructions, they’re pretty detailed if you follow the link, but our three changes are listed below.

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Thanks so much everyone for the kind comments on yesterday’s IKEA hack of the Vittsjo shelving unit!  We’re loving the sleek modern look of the new shelves along the wall in the study.  I did some research online and found a few ideas for even more alternatives to this versatile piece, with product suggestions for transforming them yourself, here ya go!  

Spray paint a set for a bright bold statement to add a punch of color to a plain wall.  I can see them in all the colors: cherry red, Kelly green, peacock blue, so fun!

shelving image via Better Homes & Gardens

Industrial chic is all the rage, and the nesting tables can transform with some gray primer and stained wood planks.  For a look less painted and more like metal, check out Freckled Laundry’s faux zinc tutorial.

table image sources from Ballard Designs

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Progress continues on the playroom to study transformation – I’m trying to get it all done before the kids go back to school in late August.  One of the major changes I wanted to make was to have a wall of shelving that would contain books, art supplies, games, and a modern TV for the kids to view videos on occasion.

You may recall the laminate entertainment center that used to sit in the space – a fabulous piece but always a little bulky.  It jutted out into the room, but that was necessary to hold my old college television and my kids would watch their VHS movies on it.  We decided to donate that piece of furniture to the Alma Project family room so I went in search of some new shelving for this space.

I wanted to something streamlined, modern, narrow, but wide too and I most definitely did not want to spend a fortune.  Enter the IKEA VITTSJÖ shelving unit, $70 bucks each!  It comes in black metal with glass shelves, but I wanted to transform it to suit our home, so I painted it white and substituted dark wood shelves for glass – here it is.

The unit when assembled looks like this.

But I thought white with wood shelving would be better fit for our home. These transformed inexpensive shelves are now perfect for this space !

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