Sweet Headboard Before and After

                                                                        

I found this adorable headboard on one of  my recent trips to Goodwill and grabbed it right away. The finish was in rough shape but I loved the curves and routed edges. I envisioned it painted off white and distressed and knew, when finished, it would be a really beautiful piece for a little girls room.

Once I got it home and started looking at the center of the headboard, I realized how pretty the grain of the wood was. The grain angles out in both directions from the center, something I haven't seen very often.  I was torn, to paint or not to paint? As much as I like painted furniture I couldn't bring myself to cover up that beautiful wood in the center. So, I sanded the middle and stained it with two coats of Minwax Dark Walnut and topped that with two coats of wipe on Minwax satin poly.

The rest of the piece is painted off white, distressed and topped with a paste wax finish.
                                

                                             
  The white really frames the beauty of the wood now!  I love the mix of paint and wood tones together to highlight a piece that has a beautiful wood grain.
                                      

                                     
I am wishing I had a little girl at home who could dream under this pretty headboard. My little girl is all grown up now so it will be finding a new home. At least I'll have pictures!

 Jodie

I am joining Miss Mustard Seed's Furniture Feature Friday

Thrifting Extravaganza

This post is for my good friend DeLynn. I am embarrassed to say I haven't posted anything new for a whole year! DeLynn said she was getting tired of seeing the same darned egg and bunny post. I said, "Hey, it's that time of year again so I am in season!" I guess this is a good time to pick up where I left off.
Even though I haven't been blogging I've still been busy. I've completed many projects, taken a electrocardiogram program, gone to Sweden, and am working on a master bedroom and closet makeover.  To get back in the swing of things I will start with what I love best, a makeover!

Last fall I got to go on a Thrifting Extravaganza, a day of fun and thrifting with a group of friends. We all piled into a van and spent the day traveling to a bunch of thrift stores around Kansas City. We had a great time and my special find that day was this cute little nightstand for the bargain price of $15.00.

I love the lines of these little French Provincial pieces and seem to be drawn to them. After a little sanding, paint and light distressing she is ready for her next life.

Speaking of French pieces, I found the prettiest china cabinet on Craig's List. It is part of my closet makeover that I plan on sharing with you soon!
I want to thank Nancy over at nancy elizabeth at home  for honoring me with the Liebster Award, for blogs with under 100 followers.You may know Nancy from her former blog, La Borda Bleu. It made my day to find her sweet message and to know that someone was enjoying my blog.
                                             
                                         Thanks for stopping by and Happy Spring!
                                                                      Jodie

Little French Finale

If you didn't see my sneak peak before, here is the little end table I found at GW the other day. I was thrilled to find just the right piece to try one of Miss Mustard Seed's classic finishes on. I've been dying to do a piece with a stained top and painted and glazed bottom. This one had such nice curves, I knew it was the perfect candidate.

 I used my little Black and Decker sander for the flat parts and did the rest by hand. I was pleasantly surprised at how easily the finish came off.

I used Minwax Dark Walnut stain for the top. The bottom is done in a creamy white followed with a little distressing and the Dark Walnut again for the glaze. I was a little nervous about using the stain as a glaze so it took me a whole day to work up the courage to actually wipe it on. I am such a chicken about things like that sometimes, after all, what is the worst that will happen?  I'm glad I went ahead because I do like the way it looks. For the top coat I used Minwax Paste wax.

Here she is all finished and ready for her close up. I love the staging part of the photo shoot, that is my kind of fun!

I think this finish is a great compromise for those who love wood but want to update a piece. You get the best of both worlds.

I will be putting her up for sale now that her face lift is done and hopefully she will find a new family to love her. I wonder if this is anywhere close to how a plastic surgeon feels after a successful procedure? Wish it were that easy with people, just sand a little, slap on some paint and varnish and you're good to go another 30 years!

I want to say a special thank you to Alison at Stuff and Nonsense for featuring my Holy Cow chair at her Fridays unfolded party. It was really exciting to see my chair chosen to be featured with some other great projects!

Jodie

I am joining in on a few parties

Miss Mustard Seed's Furniture Feature Friday

Fridays Unfolded at Stuff and Nonsense

Show and Tell Friday at Cindy's My Romantic Home

Inspiration FridayAt the Picket Fence

 ...

A Little French Find!

I've been haunting Good Will and Savers lately looking for just the right piece of furniture to try a Miss Mustard Seed paint finish on. I wanted to try one of her signature pieces with a stained top and painted and glazed bottom.  I ran into GW the other day and headed straight to the back were the furniture is. When I got to the middle of the store I spotted the perfect little piece. There were tons of people there that day for some reason and furniture there seems to go fast, so I kind of jogged the rest of the way over there and grabbed the tag. Yeah, it was mine!

 Is it just me or does your heart start racing a little when you find just what you've been looking for?

Here she is in progress. I had to give you a sneak peak before it's finished.

I also found this great chair at a garage sale awhile back and am trying to decide what to do with it. I want to reupholster it and I was thinking it might be fun to have a monogram done on the back rest of the chair.

It's in good shape except for the fabric which I think had some major sun rot.

I always seem to be drawn to interesting legs and I'm a sucker for claw and ball feet.

I'm not sure what to do for the finish on the arms and legs. I'm thinking maybe a brushed whitewash look? I'm conflicted. I would love to hear your thoughts and suggestions on a finish for the arms and legs.

                                                                 Enjoy the day!
                                                                        Jodie

Craig's List Buffet

Once I started the laundry room make over I knew exactly the kind of piece I wanted along one of the walls for storage. Usually when I am looking for something specific it can take forever to find it. I have a lot of patience and can wait a long time until I find just the right thing that fits my vision. I don't think that is always a good thing because it tends to drag some projects on way too long. Lucky for me I didn't have to wait this time. I found exactly the piece I had in mind on Craig's List. I think it was born some time in the 70's because it was sporting that tell tale yellow color of that era. It is really heavy and has ton's of great detail. I love detail! I paid $80.00 for it and thought that was a fair price considering it was in great condition and a well made piece.

Notice the bamboo trim on the doors. You just don't see things made like this anymore, that is why I like old furniture so much. Most things back then were heavy duty and made of quality materials. This baby will last forever.

Someone had tried to glaze it with flat paint to tone down the gold and didn't put a finish over it so it wasn't that hard to prepare for painting, except for the all the little details. Now I am cursing the details.

I have a new paint sprayer that I used when I redid our leather couches. Yes, you can refinish leather and now I know how but that is yet another story. Evidently, I didn't get the thing perfectly cleaned out because I couldn't get it to spray right and after an hour and a half messing around with it, I decided to just get out a brush and dig in. I think it turned out pretty cute, what do ya think? Now I am on my way to a fun laundry room!

 I just love to transform things with paint. It is like giving a piece a new lease on life.
                       
                                                           Joyfully,
                                                              Jodie
I am joining two of my favorite blogs, Cindy, over at My Romantic Home for Show and Tell Friday http://myromantichome.blogspot.com/
and Miss Mustard Seed's Furniture Feature Friday http://missmustardseed.blogspot.com/

Not So Pretty Laundry Room

Here is my dirty little secret, I have a scary laundry room! When we built our house 16 years ago, a beautiful, state of the art laundry area was not a priority for me. We considered putting a big laundry /sewing room upstairs when we built the house but decided to make the space an office so, the laundry was delegated to the basement. I never thought too much about the space and the way it looked until a few years ago when laundry rooms became showplaces, all fancy and glittery with appliance bling. Our laundry had become a dark dreary catchall. I've thought about fixing it up for awhile but didn't take action until I found the little roadside rescue table that I painted. Who knew a free table would inspire an entire room makeover. Kind of like a $1,000.00 free kitten. But I didn't spend near that much for the redo. Ok, fasten your seat belts here is the scary before.

Open shelves for storing extra canned goods, I like to be prepared. This was a good idea except for the fact the cans get coated with dryer lint, and I have enough dusting as it is.

Ugly yellow wall I painted with some undercoat paint I had left over from a faux finish, hoping to brighten up the space. An old catch- all table and my Halloween birdcage with the crow inside.

Yuck, Yuck, and more yuck. I wanted light, bright and airy.

 My first step was to finish painting the open ceiling white, a project I had started awhile back but never finished. Next I chose a color for the ugly yellow wall. Oddly enough I went with a color called Cloudy Day by Bher but it looked great in the light of the room.

We purchased a pantry cabinet from Lowe's to corral all the canned goods. Now they are safe from dryer lint. We screwed the pantry to the wall and I put up finishing trim around it to make it look built in. Then I added some baseboard.

Here is a sneak peak at the fabulous buffet I found on Craig's List that will go on this wall. I am really excited about it, the piece has so much character. I will post the after pictures of it later in the week.

                             

                                                   Joyfully,

                                                      Jodie

Roadside Rescue

My friend Karen and I walk almost every week day morning. We usually go about 3 miles sometimes more if we are feeling chatty. It is so much more fun to walk with a friend. One day we were out and about when we happened upon a pile of things someone had set out for the trash. I spotted this antique table and thought Hmmmm, that would be cute in my laundry room. We continued on with our walk, hopped in the car when we got back and drove to where we saw the table. When we got there a guy was checking out the pile, I thought for sure he had nabbed the little table but no it was still there. He even offered to help load it in my car!

              The top was in pretty rough condition so I did a combination of stripping and sanding

You can see how the stripper makes the finish bubble up on the leg below. Stripper is nasty stuff and I try to avoid using it but sometimes it is necessary to get the finish I want.

After a little work she was ready for paint. And now the finished product , ta da! I think I may do a little more sanding though. It always amazes me the things people throw away.

This little table was actually the inspiration for an entire laundry room makeover, but that is a story for another day.

Joyfully,

Jodie

Today I am joining in on Show and Tell Friday at Cindy's My Romantic Home http://myromantichome.blogspot.com/   Miss Mustard Seed's Furniture Feature Friday  http://missmustardseed.blogspot.com/