Getting ready to sell your home?

I love my home. I really love it. It's pretty and it's special. You see my husband and I designed it. Every inch of it has been touched by us. 

No we didn't actually build it, but personally I was here between 3 and 5 times every single day of it's build working with the builder and the foreman..all those little design and construction decisions that needed to be answered. And everyone that has gone through this process knows that it's better to find mistakes sooner rather than later. 

But what does this have to do with Selling? 

Well I've sold my share of homes. In my whole life I have never lived in one place for longer than 5 years. Really! 5 years was my limit. 

Until now that is. We have lived in this house for just shy of 6 years. 

When I hit the 5 year mark I started to freak. I had no idea what to do or how to think. I started pressuring my husband to sell! 

He held firm. 

I'm still a bit nervous about this whole staying in one place thing, but I'm getting used to it. 

So no, we are not selling and moving at the moment but for those of you who are.... a friend of mine has a blog about house and home and she has a great post today about staging your home, so go check it out and leave a comment. I'm sure she will appreciate it since she's new to blogging :) 

Home Decor Blog

Industrial style dresser

This is a first for me. 

Normally I love doing the whole paint and distress or glaze thing. And I did do both for this piece but in a totally different way. 

If you read my post on the French provincial set From ewww to Ahhhhh You would know that I was able to go in and remove some wonderful pieces from this home that will be sold. 

One of the things I picked up was a solid wood dresser. This one is unique though. It's not all that old I would guess it was built in the 60's or early 70's. But it's solid, I mean solid. The shape was not something I had ever seen before and when I laid my eyes on it I knew instantly that I wanted to give it an industrial feel. 

Sadly I was so excited I neglected to take any before pictures. I was getting so good at the whole before thing too...so please forgive me for my slip up. 

I stripped it down, stained it and then painted the base with a really nice medium grey. 

 I then started mixing different coloured glazes. I started with a green glaze, followed with a light grey, then layered a purple over it...then I sanded it down a bit. Then finally followed it all with a black. Then sanded it down again before sealing it with a Poly.

 I really wish I could get the colours to come through in these pics. The pictures don't even come close to what it really looks like.

 I do love the unique shape of this dresser.

 And don't you just love the new wheels? I thought it added to the whole "industrial" feel. 

I really love this. I wish I had a place for it in my own home or cottage. I picture it in a man cave or in a rec room with a TV on it. Or I see it in a boys room. It to me is just to cool! 

Hope you had a wonderful Monday :) 

Sharing here:
Knick of Time Interiors
The Dedicated House
Savvy Southern Style 
Domestically Speaking
Coastal Charm 
The Vintage Farmhouse 
  
   

From ewww to ahhhhh

I love the internet. 

No seriously. I know there are people out there that think it's wonderful but there are just as many out there that think it's awful. 

Personally it's been a wonderful tool for me, but on top of the information and helpful hints it's given me it's also given me some wonderful friends. (not to mention I met my husband online..almost 12 years ago, but that's another story) 

One person I met through my facebook page (sweet sweet woman) keeps "sharing" my projects on her own facebook page. As a result a friend of hers called her and offered her some furniture that she deemed fit for the garbage and not good enough to even give to Goodwill. 

You see where this is going I'm sure :) 

I received a panicked call from my friend, "please, can we just drop it off at your place for you to redo" YUP!

I had no idea what I was in for....lol 

 I thought I better snap so "before" pictures as they were dumped in my front hall way.

 The set included this long Dresser, two matching bedside tables, a mirror and a king sized headboard.

 All that yellow stuff is nicotine stains. The husband thought it was the colour of the paint that was once used till I pulled out a bottle of spray cleaner....can we say ewwwwwwwwwww!

 Since I had just finished another dresser and a couple of chairs it wasn't much to move them all out of my workshop and put most of this set in. I got to work right away!

 I stripped and sanded it. There was NOTHING wrong with it! It's solid wood with some veneer over the top, no chips, no cracks. A real pleasure to work with :)

Now I'm not totally done. I do have the dresser and the end tables complete, the headboard and the mirror still needs to be worked on, but my workshop is only so big. 

And here she is! 

 Ok...go look back at the befores, I'll wait :)

 Isn't she lovely?

 I know I'm the one that worked on this, but I still can't believe how wonderfully they all turned out :)

 Ignore the dust please, I did polish them, but forgot to clean my own fingers before moving them and grabbing the camera.

 I can't wait for my friend to see them in person, and I can't wait for her husband to see them...oh and the person who thought they weren't good enough for Goodwill. Another sweetheart of a woman who allowed me to go and grab some more things from the house she was emptying...but that's another blog..or two or three :) Lets just say I have my basement full of projects now :) 

Have a great weekend! I'm off for a day with my daughter :) 

Sharing here:
Miss Mustard Seed
Funky Junk Interiors 
Homespun Happenings
Knick of Time Interiors  
The Dedicated House 
Savvy Southern Style  
Domestically Speaking 
Coastal Charm 
The vintage Farmhouse 

  

Longggg dresser redo

I can't believe how quickly this week is flying by, look it's already Thursday!

I'm in a Dresser kind of phase right now. 

And I've come across some pretty awesome ones too. 

Last night a friend of mine dropped off this amazing bedroom set for me to redo, that will be for another post. 

But last week my partner in crime (aka Jo) found this dresser at the Re store.

I know...the pictures aren't the best and my dog (Riffy) managed to get himself in the shots. 

He's such a suck you know, he loves the camera and as soon as I pull it out he no longer walks behind me he has to be close to whatever I'm taking pictures of. 

I absolutely love the curve on the front of this dresser. So often with these types of dresser there is a bit of design, but everything is flat. 

I'm still loving the natural tops so I set to work and stripped and sanded this girl down and gave her top a wonderful deep colour, then painted the base a very light green. In most light it looks off white but in very bright light you can see the hint of green to it. 

 Isn't she pretty now? I saved the hardware. Scrubbed it all down and gave it a flat black coat of paint.

 The top came out amazing. And check out the insides of the drawers? They were all in great shape and all of them had this faux newsprint. How cool is that?

 After some poly and a final sanding, she is ready to go to her new home! 

Now to run to the grocery store and get to work again. Finishing up another dresser, chair and get to work on that bedroom set. 

Have a wonderful Thursday :) 

Sharing:
The Shabby Creek Cottage
Savvy Southern Style 
Domestically Speaking
Elizabeth & Co.
The Brambleberry Cottage 
Stacey Embracing Change 
Beyond the Picket Fence 
Miss Mustard Seed 
  

office redo

I had the pleasure of having my daughter home for a whole week! 

This doesn't happen very often since she is in the middle of college. I take what I can get! 

So I didn't do a lot in my workshop last week so that I could spend as much time with my daughter as possible. 

Well you know I can't just sit still..so spring cleaning was well under way in our house. 

I managed to get all my junk drawers cleaned out and my wonderful husband took it all to work today and threw it in the dumpster there :) 

I then tackled my dumping zone aka my office. 

It's the place where I store all my paperwork and all the things I pick up, clean up and put in my booth. 

So this is what I've started with. 

When people come in our front door my office is right off to the side in this room. I'm constantly trying to distract people and lead the away from that area in order to avoid my own embarrassment.

I moved some things out.

Cleaned it all up and moved in one of my sideboards. 

It's not exactly what I had in mind...I originally bought this piece for my office. 

But as luck would have it, someone else fell in love with it and I sold it :( Really happy for the new owners...but now my own search continues. 

Ohhhh right, back to my office. (had to take a teary moment there...lol ) 

 Until I find my forever unit, I will use this one.

 Baskets help to stay organized :)

 LOVE these aqua mason jars.

 Love the marble lamp...don't love the shade, but that can be fixed. Not sure if I'm keeping this or letting it go.

 I need to replace both this bookshelf and the car holding corner unit. But again, I haven't found a replacement. That will come in time. I'm finding that I can be patient when it comes to finding things for "me" :)

Now it's Monday, hubby is at the office, daughter is back in school and I better get off the computer and back to my workshop. 
Have a great Monday :)