Craigslist Dresser Revamp

Good morning, Wayman Family Nesters!  (at least I'm hoping for a good day!  By the time this posts, I'll be back to work after TWO WEEKS off! Yikes!  I better get back in the swing of things!  Don't get me wrong, I LOVE my students, but I'm not ready to be back!)

Today I'm going to show you a project for the nursery that the hubby and I  undertook for the nursery.  This past summer while perusing Craigslist, I found the PERFECT dresser for our little one's nursery.  I knew it was a little early to be making such purchases, but this one was just what I was looking for and a pretty good price.

Here's a before shot...

First, the hubby took all the drawers out and gave the exterior surfaces and drawer fronts a light sanding with a fine grit 150 sand paper.  Then, he primed it with an oil-based primer (original Kilz) we had tinted at Home Depot (per the instructions of our local friendly paint guy).  He sprayed all the surfaces (including inside and underneath the dresser) with the primer (the dresser smelled of smoke, so we were trying to get rid of that smell!).  He used a sprayer with his compressor for all of the painting.

Here he is hard at work!

Then the hubby sprayed 2 coats of paint (we chose Behr "Grape Creme."  I was going for a grayish-purplish color inspired from my all-time favorite nursery below:

The last thing he did was prime and paint the hardware.  Loved the beautiful original hardware!  Sorry for the bad iPhone picture, but it looks even better in person!

A big thank you to the hubby on this project!  It looks great and will be one of my favorite parts of the nursery!

What about you Wayman Family Nesters: Do you have any furniture revamps going on right now?

P.S. I'd like to wish my sweet sister a Happy Birthday today if she's reading.  Love you Rachie!

Roomspiration Blog Hop & Link Party

Today's the first day of the Roomspiration Blog Hop and Link Party!

Abode Love is kicking off the fun today with entryways.  So grab your best post (new or old) about your entry and head on over to Abode Love to link up.  I'll be linking up to my beloved striped hallway I posted about a couple of months ago.

Here's the full schedule of the Roomspiration Parties!

Happy Monday Wayman Family Nesters!

Float On: Part II

{In case you missed part 1 of Float On, check it out here.}

Just a refresher of what our empty white shelves looked like before.

And here's what they look like now!

I had so much fun pulling things from around the house to style the shelves. Most of the items were things we already owned (which is always nice on the wallet!).  Read below to see where each item came from.

Top shelf: White frame (IKEA) with cards (etsy and a beach shop years ago); green glass bottle (wine bottle with label removed with Goo Gone); shadowbox with wood and flower (Homegoods); starfish (local antique mall)

Middle shelf: large white plate (Homegoods); red books ("picked" from hubby's grandparents' house); driftwood ball (West Elm); antique clock ("picked from hubby's grandparents' house); white lace planter and plant (IKEA); mini glass bottles ("picked from hubby's grandparents' house); blue glass bottle (wine bottle with label removed with Goo Gone)

Bottom shelf: White frame (Target) with Barcelona print (from beautiful city of Barcelona); white unglazed vase and dried flowers (both from West Elm); 2 small white plates (Homegoods); gray and white striped tray (IKEA); 3 white mugs (Pottery Barn)

There they are in all of their glory!  Looking at the shelves from our couch in the living room makes me so happy.  I have had several sweet friends ask me for help decorating and organizing their homes.  If you are serious, I would love to take you up on that!  If you have either design questions or adoption questions, feel free to e-mail me.  You can find my e-mail address under the "Contact" tab.

Float On

{Feel free to listen to Modest Mouse while you read this post.  After all, it is the inspiration for the title of this post!}

Now that I've got you happy and singing...

Remember this post when I mentioned our quick stop at IKEA in Atlanta and told you about all of my of my aweseome finds?  Well, last weekend I recruited the hubby to help me hang them.  And by "help," I really mean do all the work while I continually come to him to see if he needs me to do anything.

Here's a shot of our little dining nook before.  The wall has been bare since we moved in 3 years ago.  I thought that floating shelves would be the perfect way to break up all that green. 

Excuse the terrible photo.  This is a really old photo, but it gives you an idea of what the room looked like before we put in the French doors and changed out that atrocious light fixture.

Here's a shot of the hubby hard at work.  He's giving me the "You've got to be kidding me.  You're taking pictures of me working that will end up on your blog." face.

And here's the finished product! (And proof that we did it fact take down that skanky, ugly light fixture!)

Yes, I know this rug is too small for this table, but baby steps.  A new rug is not in the budget right now.



Stay tuned for Part II of this post as I show you how I styled those bare white shelves!

Seeing Stripes: Part II

{In case you missed part 1 of Seeing Stripes, check it out here.}

After striping our lovely hallway, I decided to hang a little art on that big bare wall.  Not too much of course.  I wouldn't want to take away from my beautiful stripes.  (Yes, I like them a little too much.  I know)

Here's a shot of the hallway wall before hanging the frames.

I wanted the wall to have an ecclectic feel.  I decided to use a mixture of open frames and what I'm referring to as "granny floral art."  I bought these frames from a couple different local antique stores.  I spray painted a couple of them to fit in with the brassy tones. 

The zinc "W" is from Anthropologie.  The map was a DIY project that I made for Christopher.  More about that later.

This little mirror from a local antique mall is my favorite.  I think it totally makes the space.

Ahhh, my little striped hallway is complete, for now.  I say for now because I might add little pieces here or there as they strike my fancy.  I've got my eye on a pair of antlers from Z Gallerie, so we'll see!  For me stripes=happiness.  : )

Seeing Stripes

I love stripes.  Like seriously, I'm obsessed.  You know it's pretty bad when your students point out that you wear stripes AT LEAST three days a week.  I love middle schoolers.  They notice everything!

I have had room stripe envy for some time now.  I somehow convinved the hubby that striping our hallway was a MUST!  Being the darling that he is, he dropped everything one weekend to help me. I am just the one who comes up with these grand plans.  He is the brains behind the operation.  Since I really had NO idea of where to start, I employed him to help me!

Here are a few awesome pictures of my stripe inspiration...

I first became smitten with stripes after seeing this bathroom from Young House Love.  I love the subtle tone on tone stripes.  I guess you could say it was love at first STRIPE!

These images from Abode Love were my favorite and my main source of inspiration!  Beautiful!

After seeing those photos, I decided the hallway was the room to stripe.   Here's a before shot of the hallway when we moved in...

Yikes!  Just look at that blue carpet and wallpaper.  Not to mention the eyesore of a fireplace in the middle of the dining room.  I don't really have a great shot of the hallway once we painted it gray, so this will have to do...

Step 1: Math Skills Required: Measuring- Measure the full length of your wall and divide that number by twice the number of stripes that you want to have minus one (ex: our wall is 90″ tall and we wanted seven horizontal stripes so we divided 90 by 15 (8 x 2 = 16 – 1 = 15) to get the thickness of each stripe. Ours came out to 6 inches.  You want an odd number of stripes so that the top and bottom are both the same color.
Step 2: Make Your Mark- Use a ruler to mark off every 6minches starting from the floor and working up to the ceiling
Step 3: Tape It Off- Grab some painter’s tape (We used Frog Tape) and connect your pencil markings to create taped off stripes (once the tape is in place rub it a few times so you know that it’s flush with the wall for cleaner lines). The main thing to remember is that the tape should go outside the marks for the stripes you’ll be painting but inside the marks in the negative space that you won’t be painting. Confused?  I know, that's why I had the hubby do it!

Step 4: Roll With It- Grab a good roller, some paint, and start rolling. Apply two even,thin coats of latex paint between the tape that’s further apart to create your stripes.
Step 5: Take it Off!- This is a VERY important step. It’s crucial that you remove every strip of tape as soon as you’re done with your second coat of paint while the paint is still wet.  Waiting to remove the tape until after the paint has fully dried will cause peeling and uneven lines that are less than crisp (which would make you want to cry after all that taping). As soon as your roller is down, start pulling that tape off the wall for a clean stripe that looks seamless and sleek.

There you have it!  Easy horizontal stripes, right?  The hallway has quickly become my favorite space in the house  It makes me so happy whenever I look at it!  Oh, and if you're wondering about our paint colors, our hallway was already Sterling by Behr.  For the stripe I chose Martha Stewart Precious Metals.
What about you, Wayman Family Nesters?  Stripes: love em' or hate em'?  And if you love em', what room in your house have you striped?