Well, hello there. Having a good summer? good.
I've missed you guys, let's catch up!
The biggest thing happening here in Bazeleyland is I am soon to be a home owner! My recent blog absence is due to lots of paperwork, searching, negotiating, getting repairs done, packing, packing, packing...but-yawn..I know, tedious. However, I get to move in next Friday!! If you have been reading my blog for a while you read this post where I set out a goal of updating my apartment and redecorating a little. At the time I didn't plan on moving until next year, so I was hoping to freshen up the place without spending a lot of money. As life does, things changed and an opportunity came up that allowed me to buy a place a little earlier that I thought. So much better for me, as right now is a great time to be a buyer. I am very excited about getting into my own place (and of course decorating!).
I promised you a few pictures of my updates and projects that I did around the apartment. I did little things here and there, and took the advice of this book-and did a major clean up. Last hing I did was move a few pieces of furniture around. These little things really made a difference!
Major fail.
I am soooooo close to being done packing and I did NOT take any pictures....except these. I have had this bedside table for years, I got it for a steal. I have always loved the off white color, it matches well with the dressers set I inherited. The finish was old and worn, it had a shabby chic look to it. I wanted it to be more of a glossy coat, so I set out to refinish it. This is what it looked like as is....well, except the drawer cover:
It took a long, and I mean LONG time to get all that finish off with stripper and lots of sandpaper (sidenote- did you know bees are attracted to the scent of paint stripper? Um, yeah. I spent a good amount of time hiding for dear life). Recently I discovered that they make hand held power sanders for jobs like this. BRILLIANT! Definitely going on my Christmas list for the next time I want to tackle a project like this.
Once she was all scrubbed off, she looked like this:
To recreate a finish I liked I went to Home Depot. I swear, the people who work there are geniuses. They told me about a method of getting a shiny, off white finish. Mix one part blonde varnish with one part acrylic paint. Pretty easy, huh? Three coats later she looked like this:
I love it. Looks so shiny and new, but also has that cool vintage look that I love!
So, there's my little project. I have a lot of posts in the works, what have you been up to? I would love to hear!
Later,
Michelle