I love the smell of paint in the mornings

Even though I'm still recovering from our basement flood and the Arizona weather has been 110+

I've still managed to be able to get some painting done. Here are some of my latest projects. Oh I love the smell of paint in the morning!



This was a custom piece I did for a client who wanted it for her son's nursery! Once she had it in the room and added all the accesories, it looked amazing.

This was a set I got at a local Flea Market

I painted both of these pieces in a "Cottage White" and then Painted the drawers a "French Gray" I added glass knobs from Hobby Lobby and I think they look Romantic but still a little Whimzy

 

This piece went from Drab to Fab with the addition of a little "Peacock Blue"



This Piece has amazing curves and lines. Its a great Mid-Century piece but was missing its WOW factor.

Now it won't be looked over it will be looked at!



Thanks for stopping by,

Kris





"MOM, I don't want a basement anymore"

"Wow it has a basement" that is what we were all saying when we looked at our home a little over three years ago. "Cool" my kids all said. Well, isnt it funny how opinions can change!

Exactly 3 weeks ago today my husband and I were awoke at 3am by my 8year old daughter saying that something was dripping on her. "What did she say" my husband and I both shot up out of bed. We ran down to the basement which is where 3 out of 4 of my kids bedrooms are along with a huge playroom, a bathroom and several storage rooms and we were met with about 3 inches of standing water. Not to mention the sound of running water. "Look mom" and as we looked into my daughter's room we saw that her ceiling was leaking water.

We quickly woke up the other 2 bigger kids and we ran outside to see what had happened and noticed that the entire yard and patio were flooded as well. Apperently the irrigation gate had been left open and when the neighborhood was getting irrigation during the night it came through our gate first.  

Where do you start when your entire basement is flooded, your patio is flooded and your yard is flooded? What do you do with the water? Well....My 13 yr old son and I at 3:30am ran to Wal-mart to get push brooms and the girls started trying to get everything they could off of the basement floor. When Preston and I returned from Wal-mart and saw what an incrediably HUGE task was in front of us, I stopped and prayed. I asked the Lord to help me know where to start. I was quickly reassured and it was if the Lord told me exactly what to do....I sent out an email onto our church Prayer Chain and within a few hours we had several people showing up to help. Members from our church youth group came and helped us bring everything up from the basement. We had boxes and bins to pack things into. We had water bottles, donuts, etc...What an amazing gift! I had friends show up and help with the loads of wet laundry. This... all before noon! By that night we had over 350 gallons of water pumped out of the basement and the entire basement cleaned out. The carpet and pad ripped up the old tile under the carpet up and the drywall tore down. We had fans and huge drying equipment brought in. All of this was done by friends and was done free. We didnt have flood insurance and because this was caused by "irrigation" nothing is being covered by insurance. (We have it now!!)

At several points throughout the day, I just stopped and looked around and was so overwhelmed! Not just by the magnitude of what was happening but by how blessed we were to have such a huge amount of help. I told my kids (several times) that this is why it is so important to have friends and a church family. For times like this...

While things are still fairly "tore up" and the kids are still living in my dining room, I am still so grateful for the love and support that we have been shown over these last few weeks. It is going to be a very slow process of getting the basement put back together one piece of drywall at a time. My kids are anxious to get back to the way things were and keep saying, "Mom, we don't want a basement anymore. Can't we just fill it in with dirt?" Gosh, I wish it was just that easy...

This is the room where all the water came in from. Through ceiling and down through the walls.

All of the built in cabinets are now gone :-(

We Had so much Help! What a blessing

We had just paid to have these wood floors installed into two of the bedrooms. Guess that was money NOT well spent!!

Trash to Cash Tuesday

I thought I would attempt to start a weekly post called "Trash to Cash Tuesday" hoping it will help me be a bit more consistent in my blog writing. So, once a week I will pick a project I've finished that was once a piece of trash or junky and I've managed to turn into something pretty and less junky! So here we go.....

This piece may not actually look that bad at first glance but it sure was in need of a face lift. It has really good "bones" as I like to call em'. I try really hard to only buy solid wood pieces. I always look at the drawers to see if they have "dovetail" construction.....a major plus when buying used pieces. This little beauty met all of my criteria and so in the suburban she went.....once i got it home, I noticed that the gold painted trim wasnt in fact gold "painted" trim. It was gold peel-in-stick trim....yuck!

See ya, I quickly peeled that off. One of the things that instantly drew me to this piece was its size. It wasnt one of those massive monstrous pieces that takes up an entire wall and it was also fairly narrow but yet functional.....another bonus when buying used pieces!!

So, with all the trim and hardware removed, it was time to paint this beauty. But what color? I have several cans of paint I've managed to collect over the last several months but I was bored of all those. But wait....I remembered that a few weeks ago ACE Hardware was advertising their FREE paint event. They give away one free quart of paint on a selected Saturday. Maybe, just maybe I will get lucky and it will be this Saturday....and guess what? Yep, it was THAT Saturday. So I jumped into the car and lucky for me there is an ACE not even 2 minutes from my house. I must have looked like a crazy lady running into the store...."Do you still have any of the FREE paint left?" I asked. "Ooh you just barely made it, we only have 6 cans left" OoMmGg!! The nice elderly man at the paint counter smiled as I'm sure he thought I was crazy and said, "Just pick out your color" Oh I was like a kid in a candy store. There were so many wonderful colors to choose from. I quickly spotted a wonderful color that was so unusual. Was it Blue, was it Gray....oooh be still my heart. It is called "King's Canyon" and it is wonderful! Ok, enough about the paint. I could go on and on and on about paint colors. I'm a total geek I know! Anyway, I got my free quart and came home and moved that baby into the paint station and here she is with her first coat of King's Canyon

Whenever I am painting something with my "sprayer" I try and do at least two pieces so that I don't waste the time and energy setting up the paint station for just one piece, so I was able to also paint a small end table I had picked up for $3.99 at the thrift store

After the second coat of paint had dried, It was time to "distress" them. This is where I take my sander and just lightly go over the edges and certain "key" places that a piece would normally show signs of "wear". I usually will distress around the handles or hardware and also around the bottom and drawers. Then I use a dark brown wax to "discolor" the piece. This paticular color changed so much when I applied the wax.

As I had posted in earlier in the week, I recently moved into a space at Merchant Square so I thought this piece would make a great statement in the space and also provide us lots of room to "stage" some of our other treasures. So, I loaded this baby into the car and on "move-in" day I unloaded it onto one of the carts Merchant Square provides its dealers and I stopped at the front counter to talk to the ladies (I'm a talker if you havent figured that out yet) and guess what??? Someone came by and bought that piece right off of the cart! I hadnt even had a chance to move it into the space or even mark it for that matter. WOW!! Welcome to the store huh??? So unfortunetly I dont have any really cute pictures of it all "staged" and cute in the space. But I did manage to grab a few pictures before the new owners wheeled it out to their car.

They told me it was exactly what they had been looking for and they were going to use it as a TV stand. Oh perfect! I knew when I saw this piece even with it's peel-in-stick gold trim it was special. So...lesson here?? Don't pass over something just because its ugly now, think about how pretty it could be! Thanks for stopping by.


Kris

Welcome to Merchant Square

Its been almost 6 months now that I have been sharing a "space" with my dear neighbor at Qcumberz in Phoenix. Qcumberz is a quaint little store located in the "Melrose District" of Phoenix. It has about 20 or so dealers with all sorts of things to sell from furniture plucked right off of a 50's tv show to super funky stuff I'm not sure where it came from. It has been a great experience but......I was feeling a little, "Out of place" at Qcumberz. You see, my style tends to be a bit more traditional in comparision to the other things you will find at Qcumberz. So how do you fix this problem? Well, you move.

Welcome to Merchant Square booth #58 "Vintage Barnyard". I feel incredibly blessed to have the opportunity to have a booth at Merchant Square. They don't often have open booths so when they approached Tana and I at the flea market we did in May and said they loved our "style" we were thrilled. For those of you that havent had a chance to go there, they are located in Chandler, AZ on Arizona Ave just South of Warner. You can also find them on Facebook. Tana and I decided to each keep "our" names...her being "Vintage Charm" and me being "Urban Barnyard" but for our booth we became "Vintage Barnyard". Isnt it just so cute? I love it and so far everyone else seems to really like our style too.

For right now, I am staying at Qcumberz until the month is over and then I will re-evaluate whether or not I can keep both spaces stocked. In the meantime I am one busy girl, blessed but busy. I'd love to hear if you have been down to Merchant Square.

Thanks for stopping by,

Kris

Super Chic Thrift Store Lamps

Have you ever seen a picture of something really bright and funky in a magazine or at a one of those real trendy stores and thought, "I'd love to do that" or "I'd really like to have those?" Well, I usually shy away from super "trendy" things and colors. Not because I don't love them but because I'm entirely too cheap to be constantly changing my style.

That was until I found the most amazing lamp at Target the other day. I was going through the clearance section and stumbled upon the most beautiful color of yellow lamp and coordinating shade.



This is the shade..."Where's the lamp" you ask? well, I was too cheap to buy it. It was marked down to $29.98 but I wanted two of them and the matching shades and those were $9.98 each and that would have made them $40 each and I wasnt willing to pay that much. So I left the store empty handed. But lucky for me it was Thursday and you know what Thursday is? Yep, that's right....its dollar day at Goodwill. Guess what I happen to stumble upon at Goodwill for $1.00



Yep....Not just one but two lamps




They were almost the exact same size and shape of the two at Target I had found earlier in the day. The only difference was that mine were probably 25 years old and a totally different color but I wasnt about to let that stop me. Of course if you remember I left Target empty handed, so I had to go back and get those wonderful shades. $2.00 for the lamps and $20.00 for the shades making them only $11.00 each. I guess I can afford that.....but wait is that what I really ended up paying???? NOPE! I grabbed the two shades that I needed and didnt notice until I got up to the register that they were attached together with some sort of plastic wrapping and when the cashier tried to get them apart she couldnt and said, "humm, I guess they are two for the price of one" SWEET!!! Make that two shades for $9.98 and two lamps for $2.00 making them $11.98 for TWO awesome lamps (well almost awesome).

The lamps were still pretty ugly, so I grabbed my trusty can of spray paint and went to work...



Not too shabby if I do say so myself





And here is the finished lamp with her beautiful shade!!!



I WAS totally in love with these lamps and even used them to help stage my recent buffet re-do




but apparently one of the couples that saw my buffet for sale on Craig's List loved them too and guess what? They bought them both....(and the buffet) I guess I will have to go on the search for some more awesome lamps. What have you found lately??? I'd love to hear your "Trash to Treasure" stories.

Thanks for stopping by,

Kris

I'm Contagious

Yep, you read that right. I'm contagious! Don't worry though if you have come into contact with me in the last few days, I dont have an infectious disease or some weird virus. I have officially passed on the "furniture bug" to my 13 yr old son Preston.



A few months ago when he decided he wanted a "trick" scooter, he asked if I would buy it for him. Naturally, I said "NO, you already have a scooter and you never ride it." he of course then responded with something like this...."But mom, this scooter is way better then the one I have and I promise I will use this one ALL THE TIME" and again, I responded with "NO". Generally, this back and forth doesnt work with me when my children "Have" to have something.....I advise them that they will need to save up their money and because they are not huge fans of hard manual labor, they usually forget about it and move on to something else. Not this boy, he is extremely persistant. So, what did I do you ask? Nothing! He did it all himself....

He earned $20 for watching the neighbors dog while they were on vacation and he said to me, "MOM, I want to go with you the next time you go to the thrift store and look to see if I can find a piece of furniture to re-do" Sure, I said assuming that he would forget. But sure enough, the next day when I was ready to head out "treasure hunting" he jumped in the front seat....Ready to go!

He looked around Goodwill and he spotted a coffee table. He called me over to inspect it. "What do you think mom? Do you think I could sell this?" I of course saw that it was marked $24.99 and said, "Yes, I think you could sell it, but you only have $20 and this is marked $24.99" Hmmm...."Oh, dont worry about that mom, I printed off a 20% off coupon" Wow!!! This boy has actually been paying attention to me. Sure enough, he managed to get the coffee table for $19.97. Sweet! I was so proud, my oldest son had just made his first thrift store purchase! TEAR....ok seriously, though I was pretty amazed at how much thought he had put into it.

I told him that I would paint it for him IF he did all the prep work. Taking off hardware, sanding, etc....here he is getting ready for me to paint it.







He made a great profit and believe it or not was able to buy his scooter and still put away some money for his "NEXT" flip. I think I may have created a monster. Shhh, dont tell him but it's kinda cute!! Not only did he learn that Dad & Mom arent the ATM, but he also learned that if you want something bad enough and you work hard, you will be rewarded. Its a great leason to teach your children.

Thanks for stopping by,

Kris

Before and After's for the week

Having all the kids home for summer is proving to be a challange. The constant fighting, the empty stomaches that seem to never be filled and the sound of "Mom, we're bored" running through my head....my escape from it all??? FURNITURE!!

As promised I have taken lots of "before" pictures and cant wait to show you the "afters"


Remember this piece that Jackson was helping me with?

Well here it is all finished. I love the "Barn Red" color.





See these two dressers stacked one on top of the other??



Well the top one met an unfortunate fate when the "helpers" at the thrift store were "helping" me load it into my car.....notice the clamps and gorilla glue?



But here it is all fixed and painted a very bright but super cool funky "Peacock Blue" color...just in case you are wondering, this color is one of the top 2012 colors of the year...just a little bit of info for ya ;-)





And the bottom dresser was an absolute beast!! This thing is HUGE!! But I'm absolutely in LOVE with how it turned out. What do you think?








Well, hope you enjoyed some of the before & afters of the week.
I have lots more to show you but I must pace myself. Hope you have a great week and weekend.

Kris