Lamp Re-Vamp!

I recently used some spray paint to re-vamp a few lamp bases I purchased from the thrift shop. I love how adorable they turned out and I love even more how in-expensive they were!

 I believe the pink lamp was $4.94 and the red was $6.50.


After a little spray paint and some cute lamp shades, here are the final products!


Ta-Da! I think they turned out lovely..what do you think?! I wasn’t sure how the paint would stick, but it has stayed on really well, surprisingly!

Picture Gallery Wall

Our master bedroom has this huge blank wall that I’ve been trying to figure out what to do with.  A few weeks ago I finally decided to do a collage of pictures  to cover the blank space. I’ve been collecting the frames we had already as well as other wall hangings around the house.  I also bought a couple of cheap-o frames at the thrift store and spray painted them the colors I wanted them to be! (All of the gray & white frames you see were spray painted). This was my first attempt at spray painting picture frames & it really worked well! Overall,  I really like how it turned out. It’s a mixture of all of our favorite pictures. And by golly,  it sure is a LOT of pictures!

Here we go…

Below are frame ideas from Pinterest..

 Click here to see the burlap frame with the verse written in sharpie marker.
The marker is easy to remove & change the writing with finger-nail polish remover.

Click here to see the heart map picture frame idea. 
These hearts represent four significant places:
1.Where we met (Waco, Texas)
2. Where we got engaged (Chicago, Illinois)
3. Where we go married (Abilene, Texas)
4. Where we live now (Dallas, Texas)


Many of the pictures are from our years of dating.  If you look closely, you can see a few photos from various Baylor functions, the day of our first kiss in downtown Chicago in the snow, and even when Kyle was the coach of my sorority’s intramural soccer team my sophomore year of college.  This was before we were even dating & before we really knew each other! But, someone captured the picture of us standing next to each other in the huddle during the prayer before the game. We had no idea what was coming our way!!! 

And, of course, many of the photos are from our wedding day!


I also found one of the most helpful tips {from Pinterest} to hang these frames.  One of the most FRUSTRATING things in the entire world is making sure the nail is in the right spot when you are attempting to hang frames or art.  You know what I mean? You could end up with 42 holes in your wall after trying to hang just a few frames! Next time you decide to drill a nail into your wall, check this trick out: Using toothpaste to hang picture frames.

The lady from this blog used toothpaste, but I found that lotion worked better for me.  It wasn’t as messy and I could just wipe off the dot of lotion on the wall onto my hand instead of cleaning it off with a towel.

All you have to do is put a dot of lotion on the back of your picture frame that you want to hang. Place the lotion on the picture hook on the back of the frame, hold the frame on the wall exactly where you want it to go, & then remove the frame.
You should have a small dot of lotion on the wall that will tell you where to place the nail!


This method worked GREAT for me. I didn’t have to re-nail any of my frames!

And now I have a wall full of lovely memories to look at each morning when I wake up.

Refinished Dresser and Bedside Table

Happy Monday to YOU!

I am making it my goal to update you on many of the projects that we've been working on over here!

In January, while we were visiting my parents in Abilene, we took a trip over to Hamlin (Go Pied Pipers!) to my Grandmother's House. Grandmommy has this HUGE shed in the back that has all kinds of fun things....We found my Great Grandfather's old dental chair from when he was a dentist way back when (Based on the looks of the chair, you couldn't have paid me $ to go to the dentist, then...way too scary looking! HA!) We found tons of antique items: an old typewriter, fan, iron, tools, original Dr. Pepper crates, old tools in my Grandaddy's workshop and the list goes on & on. We also found some great pieces of furniture! I've been wanting to take this old furniture, give it a little TLC and make it new again.  Now that we have the house and I finally have a garage to work in, we brought it all back with us to the Big D and I got to work!

This is the first piece that I re-finished. It wasn't as easy as I was expecting...and, it has it's own little mistakes pieces of character...but I absolutely love the way it turned out!

And, just to give you a picture of where this little baby came from...Here are the before pictures! I actually used this dresser in my room as a little girl.  Years ago, my Grandmommy painted this dresser and bedside table.  Apparently, she was a little DIY'er herself, I think I'm turning into a mini-Marge. :)

 Not sure why it was yellow? I think it used to be an off-white color.  After years upon years of sitting in a garage, it turned yellow. Nice. HA! So, after deep cleaning every square inch. I was finally able to get going on the transformation. 

Now, I knew that it had been painted before, but I wasn't sure what type of paint was used on it before (latex? oil base? water base?), so I began sanding away.  After I sanded it, I primed it. Then, I painted it... I chose to use a spray paint because of the many detailed parts of the dresser, I didn't want drips or brush marks.

I used Rust-oleum Painter's Touch, Satin "Heirloom White."

I also used Rust-oleum's Primer.

BUUUT, if you had asked my poor little fingers-I'm pretty certain they wouldn't have agreed to using spray paint. They practically fell off after pushing down on the spray can for that long!

After I finished spray painting, I wanted to give it a nice glossy finish.  I bought Rust-oleum's Clear Gloss finish to give it a nice last coat.  However, as I began spraying, small patches of the paint began bubbling up. NOOO!!! I immediately stopped spraying. Clearly, I had done something wrong.

A few things I learned through this project:

1. I am no furniture painting expert!

2. When something goes wrong, don't freak out -

Instead, try to stay calm so you can think of a solution!

3. It's okay to spot treat the mistake & it's okay if it's not perfect...it just adds character. :)

So, to fix my mistake, I spot treated the areas that began to bubble up. I sanded them down again, re-primed & re-painted those areas.  Then, I purchased some Minwax Fast-Drying Polyurethane (clear gloss) to give it a nice glossy finish and protect it from water spots.

This stuff worked wonders & I have used it on many other pieces of furniture since. I learned through this project that some people don't like to seal painted furniture. However, I have to disagree with that theory. I like using Polyurethane to seal and protect the paint jobs I've completed because it makes it look shiny and pretty.  There are many different types (depending if you are covering oil-base or water-base paint) and you can also use it to finish a stained piece of furniture or many other things as well.

Here's my nice shiny dresser top!

I loved the hardware the dresser already had. I really wanted to use them, but they wern't in the best condition.  If you're enjoy DIY projets, you've probably heard of the blog, Young House Love.  I used their tutorial on painting hardware. You can find it here.  

They recommended using Rust-oleum's Metallic Primer & Paint-in-One

I think it turned out great!  

Can't forget about the end table.

Love this cute little thing!

Now, I'm loving the fact that I get to use the same dresser set again that I used when I was a little girl. And, it was my grandmothers, originally.

I LOVE furniture that has a story behind it!

I would love to hear your thoughts on the project! Hope I can inspire you to re-finish some of your own furniture & make it new again.  :)