Mikes senior pictures

It's hard for me to believe that Mike is a senior and is less than a year away from going off to college. Today we went to the Olympia Capitol building and took his senior pictures. If you've been watching my blog for any time at all you know this is one of my favorite spots for pictures. It was a little rainy so we spent most of our time on the steps of the capitol under cover but we did manage to dodge the raindrops and get some others too. Mike really doesn't like having his picture taken but he was a good sport and posed for over an hour. These are just a few of the over 300 pictures I took. Check out my grown up boy!

$20 Goodwill table

I found this table at the local Goodwill and instantly knew it was a great project to use with my new Annie Sloane paint. I loved the details on the side of the table and thought they would look beautiful with the stark white of the paint. The bonus was that it was only $19.99! Jim took the top off so he could stain it while I worked on painting the rest of the table.Unfortunately he found out quickly that the top was veneer and the strip around the top was damaged. he ended up lightly sanding the top, removing the side piece and staining it heavily. I think it turned out great. As for painting the legs and details, I used white Annie Sloane paint. It  a chalk style paint and it took a little getting used to, the first coat dries a little streaky but after the second coat it looks great. Once the painting was done and dried for a day or so I waxed it with Minwax paste wax and it gave it a smooth sheen. We put the table upstairs in the living room for now, it doesn't seem like the "spot" for it just yet but it'll find it's home eventually. Enjoy!

Black to white conversion

We found these old black end tables at a garage sale in Tenino and paid $3 each for them. The lady told me she had planned on repainting them but never got around to it. Lucky for us she gave up! Jim started off by stripping them and then decided to tear them apart, not sure why exactly, I think he thought it would be easier to refinish them. So tearing them apart resulted in him having to make new side panels and modifications to the tops but in the end they turned out beautifully. So far he only has one done but has promised me he will work on the other one "next". He is in the middle of refinishing a coffee table though so it may be a while! I have this one next to our bed and it totally goes with the dresser we did as our first project. Now, I just need an antique iron bed frame, King size preferably.....wish me luck.

From yucky to yummy- Teal Dresser

Jim and I found this old  , maybe 70's or 80's,dresser at a garage sale in late September. The lady wanted $20 for it but a quick inspection (and smell!) made us offer her $10. It needed a couple of top drawer fixtures and had an "odd" odor, kind of like a dirty house with pets maybe. Yuck. So we took it home for the $10 offer and let it sit in the garage for a few weeks while we worked on another project. Then we slowly started working on this baby. I had found inspiration for the color on another blog, mapleandmagnolia.com, but it took alot of convincing for Jim to agree to play along. Basically we agreed that this was my project and he was just helping with it. He actually worked on other projects while I was doing this one, stopping just long enough to do my painting and "honey do" requests. I had a distressed finish in mind but I'm not quite ready to shell out $50 for Annie Sloane was just yet, so I used a Valspar antiquing stain instead. It took a couple of coats but it ended up being exactly the color I was hoping for. Once it was done, I waxed it with Minwax finishing wax and put the hardware back on. Oh, the bottom drawers hardware is all original, we just painted it with Brushed Nickle spray paint. The top drawer knobs were picked up at a local store. I really do like how it turned out, I have a vision for re-doing Morgan bedroom with this dresser and a few other items. I'll show the finished room once I get there, I'm still looking for a few more things. I hope you enjoy the dresser, let me know what you think!

http://mapleandmagnolia.com/2011/09/08/sideboard-makeover