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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Last week, I picked up a pair of dusty chairs at a thrift store.  I loved the classic cottage shape and the cheap price, but the finish was so grungy.  I brought them home and sanded them down to the raw wood, removing all the dirt and grime.  Then I gave them a fresh coat of spring green paint ! 

Here they are Before . . .

. . . and After

All it took was half an hour of sanding and and an hour of painting to give them a fresh new look with some paint and a little distressing !

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Happy Monday all, hope you had a fantastic weekend !  Last week, you saw the upgrades in the dining room, and one of those changes included this trestle bench that I found on Craigslist a few weeks ago. 

The bench was the perfect size to add seating to our dining space and very sturdy too since it is solid wood.  However, I wasn’t using any maple tones in the room, so I decided to give it a new look.  The bench received a two phase transformation to arrive at two different looks.

Here’s a reminder of the bench ‘Before’:

Here’s the first new look I gave this bench:  

And another different style achieved by adding a washable cotton slipcover:

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I cannot keep track of all of the school calendars, memos, and tiny pieces of paper that bombard me on a daily basis.  I live for memo boards as a place to display all those reminders of things I need to do or people I need to call.  If it’s not staring me in the face, I’ll just forget about it.  Memo boards help to keep me sane organized. 

Back in January, I mentioned the need for more organization in my mud room.  Actually it’s not really a mud room, just a wee hallway and closet back by the garage door.  I like to pretend it’s loftier space than it is and call it a ‘mud room’. 

The easiest way to make a memo board is to find a bulletin board in the size you want and cover it with fabric.  Well I’m a troublesome creature and after a search, I couldn’t find a frame in the exact size I wanted, so I decided to just build a tall narrow memo board to fit the hall space. 

Supplies:

2’ x 4’ thin plywood from Lowes or home improvement store

Fabric and batting to size

Ribbon

Trim molding

Caulk or spackle

‘D’ Ring hooks

Nail heads

Finish nails

Tools:

SkilSaw

Mallet

Staple gun

Pliers

Hammer

Sawhorses (optional)

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