WWYD? To Part With It or Not..

That is the question. 

This little rolltop desk of mine is a constant reminder to our family of the importance of faith. Yes, this one little ol' desk that I bought while living in a tiny two bedroom apartment , is a testament to the fact that resilience is buried deep within us, that hope is the last thing to die.

You see after 10 years of living in a little red 1950's ranch house, where all three of my babies were born, we were forced to sell.  It was necessary, but oh what a trial the trying to sell became. Four weeks into the big housing market crash three years ago our realtor put the sign out on the front lawn, and we prayed for a miracle.  The miracle came exactly one year later.

One whole year of trying to keep an old house in perfect condition for prospective buyers, with three little boys underfoot.  One whole year of hopes dashed time and time again.  There are no words, my friends, to adequately describe that year.

(Blurry picture of the retro kitchen we lovingly remodeled in that little red house)

But finally the much awaited moment arrived, the house was sold and we put all our possessions in a storage unit.  We thought we would surely find a new house in no time at all and so the only things that went into the two bedroom, temporary apartment we rented were our mattresses, on the floor of course, and our clothes.  Little did we know that the wait in that small apartment would stretch into thirteen whole months.

Here are two of my boys Christmas morning in the aforementioned apartment, five months into our house search. Note furniture-less living room and plain tree, devoid of  beloved ornaments and a tree skirt, that were at the time buried somewhere deep in the storage unit. (My eldest with his retainer on, just lovely!)

Around month number six, when frustration levels were mounting and despair was starting to set in I decided that for all our sakes I needed to make an attitude adjustment.  I calmly announced to the four men in my life that I would begin searching for furniture for our new home. Yes, furniture for the new home that was as of yet nowhere in the horizon. It was a leap of faith, a way of holding on to a dream. The furniture would consist of pieces I could transform with a little paint once we had a garage again .  I loaded our three small children in the mini van and  the treasure hunt began.

The first piece I bought was the small desk.  I lugged it up the stairs to our second floor walk up and immediately began searching for items to display on it. Decorating that desk top became for me a much needed creative outlet during those remaining months, it kept me sane.  The children began to look forward to seeing a new arrangement atop it every few days or so and even the mister complimented my efforts regularly.
 Here it is in all its unpainted glory on the eighth month of our apartment stay.

On month number thirteen the time came to say goodbye to that small apartment.  We had a house again!  I promptly  painted the little desk upon moving in and found a place for it between two wing chairs in the formal living area even though I knew a larger piece of furniture was what the space really needed.  I did not want to part with it. 

 

Now I have in my garage, waiting patiently, the perfect large piece for that space.  But what to do with the little desk?  Another good spot for it in the house cannot be found and it is only used nowadays to hold the countless 'treasures' the boys find at the park each day.

Butterflies and bark and other woodsy finds...

and yet to me it serves another purpose.  It serves to tell the story of a particular season in our lives, a season where clinging to faith was all we had, a season that taught me lessons I do not want to soon forget.

Have you had to part with any one piece of furniture that for you had great sentimental value?

How To Paint Particleboard / Laminate Furniture

Remember these sturdy Broyhill bookcases I got on Craigslist for our schoolroom? Well, they were hiding a little secret....

While the front and the drawers were made out of real wood, the sides, shelves and backs were made out of what I like to call the fake stuff. Yup, there was particleboard all over the place!
After seeing this inspiring image....

I decided that painting those babies white and putting them on either side of the window was just the thing to do.  But what about the fake stuff?  I knew from the start that the paint job needed to be indestructible. It needed to withstand three boys and the constant friction of books and other school items for the next 15 years. ha! Yeah, I did NOT want chipping paint and since we were dealing with particleboard (laminated wood?) I decided to do a little research.  I combined the advice of different painting experts just to be on the safe side (I was scared remember :-) I bought what I needed and took the plunge.

Here they are after eight months of daily use, nary a scratch to be seen....

I was so impressed that I recently painted our dining room table using the same process even though it is made out of solid wood.  I did not even sand it beforehand!

Before

After

Here is the scoop on how I did it: 

First I cleaned the bookcases thoroughly with a damp cloth. I then applied two coats of this primer...

 

This oil based primer is key!  It allows you to prime without sanding or 'roughing up'  the particleboard beforehand.  The odor is strong so I only use it out in the garage with the door fully opened.  I would not use it indoors, especially if you have little ones running around. To apply the two coats of  primer I used a small foam roller similar to this one..

This primer dries quickly, in about 2 hours, but I waited 12 hours between coats as a precaution.  After all the priming was done I applied one coat of Olympic's Zero-voc, white, latex paint in semigloss.  It can be found at Lowes.

After the paint was fully cured I applied two coats of Varathane Floor Finish, waiting about 12 hours between coats. It was boiling hot and bone dry here in Texas when I worked on this project, so it took only three days for the paint to cure. If you try this project in a cool or humid climate you might want to wait a bit longer for the paint to dry.

I used the brand Varathane recommended by the talented Holly from  

Life in the Fun Lane . It has not yellowed the white paint yet and it is so easy to apply! I now coat all my painted pieces with it. 

 So with just a little elbow grease the bookcases, fake stuff and all, went from this..

to this...

and best of all they have withstood the test of time amazingly well!
I am more than happy to answer any questions in the comments section below so ask away.  If you want to see more of my makeovers go here or here or even here :) Happy painting everyone!

Linking up to Miss Mustard Seed.

Sometimes Those Walls Must Come Down!

As I stepped through the front door of this house with the realtor for our initial walk through I immediately thought "Houston, we have a problem", you could see the kitchen sink from the front door! Now I don't know about you but as a homeschooling momma of three lets just say my kitchen sink is not the first thing I want people to see when they walk into our home!  Below I drew the layout of that part of the house so you can get a better idea of what I am talking about.

This is how the dining area looked on that first day we saw the house with our realtor.

As we conducted the house tour I quickly realized that we could make a wider opening to the right of the kitchen doorway since the breakfast nook was on the other side. Oh what difference it would make, I was sure of it! I loved the location of this particular house above all the others I had seen and I knew we could more or less transform the whole feel of the house with just that one simple (not so simple?;)) change.  This is what it looked like after hubby removed the old carpet and tore that section of the wall down to create the new opening.

Former entrance patched up and flooring being installed.

We decided to make the spot where the former entrance was a big slate colored chalkboard and painted all the other walls a light cream color. We also painted the dining table and chairs in Creamy a Sherwin Williams color.  To read more about how we painted them without sanding go here.
I still have to move the chandelier and hem the curtains but we are so glad to have most of it done!  Here is the after (So sorry for the glare created by the windows. I love all the light that streams through them during the day but it is not good for picture taking!)

Before

After

A better view of the wall to the left.

Before ( Looking in from the breakfast nook side, realtor picture )

After

Close up of opening

Moral of the story? Don't be afraid to tear down a wall (or two), sometimes it can make all the difference!
If you like the print on the breakfast nook wall learn how to make it here. You can also see more of our makeovers, Before and After's here and here.

I am linking up to Modern Country. Check out her blog for lots of inspiration!

Cheap Ikea Art Transformed!

Have you ever bought something even though your insides were screaming WRONG! for the space you had in mind?  I am usually a cautious shopper who thinks and rethinks every purchase but a trip to Ikea on Memorial Day (think throngs of shoppers, long lines, three boys and a Mr. who could think of a million more appealing things to do on a holiday etc.) found me at the front of the checkout line (finally!) with a cart full of Ribba frames and you guessed it, this piece of art, that I knew in my heart of hearts would be totally wrong for our home.  I stood there unsure of what to do as the cashier rung up the frames at lightning speed.  Just as he picked up the item in question I looked at the Mr., who, as if reading my doubt riddled mind, quickly mouthed in my direction "We can return it later.." and calmly proceeded to pay for the purchase. And just like that the deed was done and I became the reluctant owner of a cheap piece of art I knew not what to do with.

The nearest Ikea store is 45 min. away so it did not make sense to return it.  Since I really liked the overall size for the breakfast nook wall and the hanging hardware attached to the back was very sturdy, I decided not to throw it away and coated it with primer instead. After first coat....(I used two coats)

 I am really loving a quote by Albert Camus that really speaks to what our family has discovered while going through a difficult time in our lives (you can read more about that here).  I painted the whole board burnt yellow and used white acrylic paint for the lettering.  I first tried using a stencil but did not like the perfectly uniform look.  I wanted more of a free style so I lightly wrote out the letters myself in pencil and then painted over them with white acrylic paint.

I am by no means experienced when it comes to creating wall art so I was pleasantly surprised when it actually turned out to be something I wanted to display!

another angle...

If you want to see the print in living colah' watch the short video below.  My dear sister was visiting us from New Jersey and so the family gathered at my house for the weekend.  While reminiscing about our childhood my brother and sister decided to try a clapping game we loved as children .  Hilarious I tell you!  The print is in the background...

The primer I used was Olympic's No VOC Primer and the burnt yellow was a sample of Behr's Wild Bamboo with some brown acrylic paint I mixed in.  What items have you dramatically altered lately?
To check out our different makeovers with before and after pictures go here.

I am linking up to Boogie Board Cottage and C.R.A.F.T..  Please visit them for lots of inspiration!

Fireplace Makeover With Details and Before and After Pictures

Do you have a fireplace that is an outdated eyesore?  Here is how we updated ours without removing a single brick.

Before

 Before (realtor pic from our initial house walk through)

After

This project is a good alternative for those of you that desire to give your outdated fireplace a new look without all the mess that tearing it down brick by brick would create. My husband and I had never done a project like this before and neither one of us had any carpentry experience so if we were able to do it anyone can!

This post by The Lettered Cottage started the ideas swirling in my head. I drew some pictures and haphazardly :o) covered part of the fireplace with white cardboard so that my husband could kinda see what I wanted it to look like.

 

We ended up using..

about 10 furring strips
6' of Crown molding
6' of 3"x1" mdf
5' of 1"x 4" wood
liquid nails
6 concrete anchors
two 4' x 8' x 1/4 inch plywood luan (luan wood is a mid grade mahogany plywood)
lots of caulk
a bit of wood filler
a jig saw
a few carpenter clamps
primer
paint
and a drill
We began by attaching the furring strips to the brick facade with liquid nails (the painters tape was used to secure them to the brick while the adhesive dried)

 

Hubby also drilled two concrete anchors (pictured below) into the first and last of the furring strips for extra support.

While the adhesive dried hubby used the jigsaw to cut the 1/4 inch plywood luan facade that would be nailed onto the furring strips.

The facade he cut out was carefully nailed directly onto the furring strips.

 

The original fireplace mantle was made out of three sizes of pink brick that were stacked up on top of each other.  It was a pretty horrible sight...  

 

Creating a mantle without chiseling off the protruding brick shelf took lots of effort and I am very proud of hubby for doing such an amazing job. He started by attaching a 1"x 4" piece of wood to the bottom layer of mantel shelf bricks with two concrete anchors. He then attached a piece of crown molding to the second layer of  mantle shelf  bricks.  Lastly he attached a 3"x11" piece of mdf to the crown molding to cover the top layer of mantle shelf bricks.  The mantle that hubby ended up creating is very beautiful and was so inexpensive to make. Bingo! 

Hubby cut leftover pieces of wood into wedge shapes and used them to secure the crown molding to the mantel shelf brick. Hopefully the pictures below will help you better understand how it was all accomplished.:)

After the mantle was done we attached furring strips to the top half of the fireplace brick just like we had done to the bottom half. We cut the 1/4" inch wood luan and nailed it onto the furring strips.

 I then used wood filler on all the nail holes and caulking on all the edges.  I coated everything (except the inside of the firebox!) with Olympic's zero voc primer which provided fabulous coverage. I painted the area around the fireplace box with Olympics Flat latex Zero Voc paint in Black Magic and the rest of the fireplace in Cloud White (flat latex) a Benjamin Moore color. 

Before (on the day we moved in)

After

The inside of the firebox will be painted with black, heat resistant paint sometime before winter arrives :). You can find two more of our makeovers here and here. Please feel free to ask me any questions in the comments section and I will do my best to answer them.

Party Time! Please visit the following blogs for lots of inspiration

atthepicketfence   frenchcountrycottage thecharmofhome  houseofhepworths acreativeprincess, firefliesandjellybeans, aglimpseinside, fingerprintsonthefridge, chiconashoestringdecorating shabbynest,  mysimplehomelife, missmustardseed, addicted2decorating savvysouthernstyle.,  debbie-debbiedoos, dittledattle,

 between naps on the porch, hopestudios , The answer is chocolate

boogieboardcottage,  My Romantic Home,  Finding Fabulous for Less