Face Lift

So I've decided to change the structure of my blog a bit. I've also started a website but while its under construction, I'm going to be using my blog as my "portfolio" so to speak. Check out some of my latest projects and don't forget to come by and visit Booth #58 at Merchant Square in Chandler.

 

 This Cute little desk wasn't so cute when I found it. I tightened up the legs and did a little repair to the top and painted it a great blue color and distressed it and I absolutely LOVE the way it turned out!

I've found over the last few years that I've been re-doing furniture that you really have to have an "eye" for ugly things...well, ugly things that you can make pretty again. If you are out and about looking for furniture to re-do the chances that you are going to find something that is in perfect shape are fairly slim...so if you are thinking of maybe trying to re-do a piece just make sure you are open to the "ugly ducklings". Personally that is where I find the most "reward" in finishing a project. Take a look at some of these "Beauties" I've brought back to life.

Picking the right color to paint something can also be a really "tricky" part to this whole process....but once you find a great piece sometimes you really need a great color....look at these colors!

This Dresser was in HORRIBLE shape when I found it. But I LOVED all the detail it had. With all that dramatic detail in the drawers and such, I felt it could handle a "dramatic" color.

This piece was certainly NOT a head turner. But with a little paint, I think she cleaned up real nice.

LOOK at this color!! I think I'm in LOVE....I just love the way this color makes the detail on this Mid-Century piece just POP.

I hope some of these pictures have inspired you to get out there and find some ugly stuff. Have a great day.

Love,

Kris

Busy Girl

Happy Halloween, Thanksgiving, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year......

OK, so now I've made up for all of the holidays I've missed since last posting on this silly little blog of mine. I've been a very busy girl and don't even know where to begin to bring you all up to date on what I've been doing.

You may remember me posting about our basement flood....YES, it did flood. No, it is not fixed yet and NO nothing is covered by insurance...we did managed to get everyone situated into bedrooms so my kids are no longer using my dining room as a bedroom. That is a HUGE relief but, I did have to "give up" my office/craft room for the time being so that has certainly cut down on my "crafting" but the painting side of my business is going strong.

In June I moved into a space at Merchant Square in Chandler. I was sharing this space with a dear friend of mine and it was wonderful. We both were doing so well that we decided to each get our own space. So I kept the larger one and Tana moved into a little bit smaller one just a few booths down from me. I took over this space on my own in August and have been staying very busy just trying to keep it stocked. Here are a few pics of some of the items I've recently had in the shop.

The shop is a great place to be able to display and sell all the things that I craft and paint. If you haven't been down there yet, you really need to go check it out. There are over 100 vendors and some pretty amazing things down there.







Besides being busy working on things to take down to the shop, I have also been doing a lot of custom pieces for clients and also selling quite a few pieces on Craig's List. Here are a few of my recent projects.

This blue desk has been one of my favorite projects so far. When I found this thing, it didn't have its legs attached and was in really bad shape. It was definitely a challenge but I absolutely love the way it turned out.

This sage green dresser was alot of fun to work on too. When I picked up this thing, it was the typical 1980's laminate oak...a little paint, and some fun waxing techniques and this beauty was ready for her new home. My client that bought this piece is using it as a entertainment center for her TV.

 This gray piece was definitely one of those pieces that I struggled with. Shall I say, I had buyers remorse. I purchased it along with several others all in one day and I hadn't really had a good look at it until I started to work on it....but the good news was that it was solid wood and all the drawers were dovetailed and in good working condition. So, I sanded the top down, primed and painted this beast in a great gray color and then used a oil based lacquer and made it really sleek and shiny. I also painted those purple lamps and added some really cute shades and this baby sold in only a few hours after posting it on Craig's List.....I guess the lesson learned that day was that you just never know what some people are looking for....

This blue piece was part of a set I purchased and let me just tell you, this thing was HUGE!!! Not only did it weigh a ton, it was really long and had just the most beautiful detail. I painted this in a great color I found at ACE on a "free paint Saturday" called "King's Canyon" and I love the way this one turned out. After I painted it, I used a wax technique and it completely changed the look of the paint. I love it and so did the client that I sold it to. She is using it as a "Buffet" in her dining room.

I certainly am staying busy, but then again I really don't know how NOT too stay busy. I guess if I'm not painting or crafting, I would be doing something else....I'd love to hear about any furniture make-overs you've done...drop me a comment. Have a great day...painting away!

Love,
Kris

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