Wedding Card Dresser: Before and After

This dresser... ugh. I love it. It is my favourite piece of furniture that I have ever worked on. I cannot wait to actually use it when we get a larger house that has room for it. Anyways, here is the story on how it came to be;

My brother had this old dresser wasting away in his garage, I believe it was my mom's growing up. So when it came time to start the decor DIY for the wedding, I knew I wanted to refinish this dresser with some beautiful knobs i previously found at Marshalls and Winners. I wasn't initially sure what I was going to use it as, but I knew I needed to use it. Eventually the plan evolved and the dresser found it's place being my card box/ guest book table all in one.

DIY Kitchen Makeover

The kitchen in our house was probably the main selling feature for us when we purchased it. It is a great size, had tons of pull-out drawers (I don't think I could ever go back to door-type bottoms again in a kitchen...just, no.) and the island is HUGE.

The only pet peeve of mine...that awful 90's oak. Ok, maybe awful is a tad strong. But for someone who loves diy projects and home decorating as much as I do, they have been a pain in my side forever.

I finally nagged the fiancé to trust me to paint them while he was away on a 3 week stint for work. And I absolutely love the result. My only regret is that I didn't do them sooner.

Granted, I do have to go back and put another coat on, do some touch ups, and complete the insides.

Here is the final product:

I used a white paint in the Diamond level from Dulux Paints and a generic primer.
I switched between a roller and brush.

Really I would love to give you some magical tips...but it is just being patient and doing a detailed job.

Dirt Road Decor: Lemon Walpaper Night Stand

This is one of my new more exciting (well, for me anyways) pieces. I finally braved the world of ModPodge! Well, since 6th grade art class, that is. This piece was given to me and I can't help but feel bored of my standard new paint, new hardware upcycles. I've been adoring many of these creative ModPodge creations on some of my fav sites for a while now and decided to give it a shot. 

I picked up a can of spray adhesive and Modpodge from Wal-Mart, as well as a "trial size" can of Slicker Yellow paint. (I find the $5 trial size to be the perfect amount for these night stands). The wrapping paper was previously bought at Winners to wrap my parents Anniversary gift, so that we'll count as freeeeeee!

 

I was a tad nervous about the wrapping paper part. To be honest (lesbihonest!...sorry, J.Shore quote :S ) I painted the top drawer Yellow and almost chickened out with the idea. But well, why not! It took perfectionist me 3 applications and rip it all off's before I was totally satisfied. The spray adhesive made the paper wet, so I was getting air bubbles in it. Oh well, lessons learned.

 

I'm super happy with the result! Definately not the last project of its kind I'll be attempting.

Dirt Road Decor: $7 White Octagon End Table

This is by far my favourite piece I have done yet. And it cost a grand total of a Whopping $7.00!! The table was a $5.00 find from Goodwill and a $2.00 can of White paint from Wal-Mart, and boom! my new end table.

Yeah, so pretty before, eh? I should have just left it as is....

And check the lamp. A Gordman's find on my last Grand Forks trip. Took me over a year to find the perfect lamps. You cant see it in the pic, but there is a great pattern embroidered into the white lamp shade. It all looks super chic together!

Dirt Road Decor: Real Teal nightstand

This is a lil $10 Thrift Store find that was, for lack of a better term, ass ugly, so I needed to rescue it and use up the rest of my Real teal paint, and grad some new hardware and voila!

Dirt Road Decor: Red and White Dresser

My bedroom dresser has been painted over and over and over and over and...... well, you get the idea. My 2 year life plan involves a king-sized bed, a brand new bedroom set...and a house with a bedroom big enough for this.

Anyways, so i figured since this dresser is 324 years old and has 76 layers of paint already on it (which includes pink, purple, white, navy blue, black and grey all in my lifespan with it), what does one more layer hurt?

So, here is the result...and some fancy new drawer hardware too!

Dirt Road Decor: Mahogany Stained Night Stand.

I'm kind of a big deal. My apartment smells of rich mahogany....

No, really, it does!!

I found this night stand at the thrift store for $20 and it was in great shape. I took a chance and stained it red mahogany, not knowing if it would work out since it was mdf and not 'real wood' but the end result was exactly what I was looking for.

Dirt Road Decor: Real Teal Tray and Frame

This is one of the new projects I've been dreaming of doing for a while now, and finally booted myself to get it done.

I thought upcycling furniture and random decor pieces was this new fad I was into; but a recent trip to my parents, rummaging through the basement made me realize I've been doing this for almost a decade now. Tables, shelves, picture frames, dressers....I was one creative kid. I'm glad I'm trying to find that again. Its just so satisfying to be creative...and cheap!

So here is my adult life project #1.. and breakfast/coffee tray I got at ValueVillage about 5 years ago when I first moved to the city for University.















It was a simple project: clean, sand, paint. But the result was awesome. The pop of colour adds so much. It looks a lot better refurbished on my coffee table than it did old and ugly in my storage room.

My memory fails me on what paint brand I used, but the colour was 'Real Teal' and I am now in love with it....so in love that I used it to do a complimenting photo frame.