Posts Tagged ‘home’

Thrifty & Chic: Christmas Details

December 21st, 2011
0 Comment

It’s been some time since I’ve done a Thrifty & Chic feature, no? As you know, I’m not a big Christmas (or any holiday) decorator. Next year will be so different, I tell myself. I’m going to go all out.

Like I’ve mentioned before, It’s so hard to invest in Christmas decorations when you don’t know where you’ll be in the next year or you have little room for storage. Despite that, I found this adorable Martha Stewart table cloth at the thrift store a couple years ago for something like $2. I like that it’s not your typical red & green decor and it seems to go with the other two Christmas decorations we own, too.

Also, I just had to mention that I planted the above succulent arrangement a few months ago & never got around to posting about it. I had the base on hand for some time & got all of the succulents from Ikea. I LOVE IKEA. My mom would be so proud that this thing has survived not only four months, but four months & a move. Chris boxed up all of our plants a week before our actual move and a few of our plants haven’t quite recovered.

How are the holidays done around your house? Have you scored any vintage/thrifted Christmas details for your home? Share links in the comments! I’d love to see!

Dresser Before & After by Guest

November 23rd, 2011
12 Comments

Until I get my studio set up at our new place, I’ll be posting mostly thrifty finds, ideas & guest posts. 

This guest post comes from Laura, my thrifting sister. Seriously, she finds the raddest things! I love this dresser she rehabbed! It’s giving me the motivation to finally finish the dresser I started to rehab 8 months ago!

• • •

Hi I’m Laura from You Are My New Dream.

Today I’d like to share with you my most recent diy undertaking. I am so proud to have finally found my much sought after mid century dresser purchased for $39 at the Salvation Army Thrift store. When I first laid eyes on this piece it looked like this:

I wasn’t feeling the sloppy burgundy paint job or the jacked up drawers. It looked pitiful in the store and none of the drawers fit right. It had already been marked down from $60. I thought to myself what a shame that the drawers are messed up. I really fell in love with the mid century shape and I could tell the dresser was solid wood construction with no veneer. I made myself at home on the floor of the thrift store and I played musical drawers until all 6 drawers fit perfectly. Then I walked ran to the register and bought it.

Now let me back up and say that I had never refinished furniture before. (There was that one time I sanded the finish off of a jenny lind bed with sandpaper and spray painted it –not recommended.) I knew what supplies were necessary because I had seen my husband do it before. This was the dresser of my dreams and I knew that there was no way I could paint over that ugliness. It would have to be stripped down to the wood and I would have to figure it out myself. So whats a girl to do? Google. A lot of googling!

I used:

  • Chemical proof gloves (trust me, paint stripper will burn your skin)
  • Goggles
  • Paint stripper (Jasco premium)
  • Small metal bucket to hold the stripper
  • Scrubby paint remover pads
  • Metal bristle mini brushes
  • A scraper
  • Mineral spirits/paint thinner
  • Drop Cloth
  • Wood putty
  • Sandpaper medium and fine grade (do not use a belt sander if you are a beginner)
  • Latex interior/exterior primer (Kilz)
  • Latex semi gloss pain (Valspar from Lowes)
  • Foam roller
  • Clear coat or lacquer to seal the deal (Rustoleum clear lacquer spray)

I put the dresser over a dropcloth & outside beneath a carport because it can be quite messy & smelly. Armored with my chemical proof gloves I used a large old paint brush to brush on a thick coat of the paint stripper. I let it sit for 10-15 minutes before trying to scrape it off.

If you’re doing this – you may have to repeat this step a few times depending on the layers of paint or varnish. You can use the scrubby stripping pads, or the bristle brushes for intricate detailed areas. DO NOT get paint stripper on your skin! It will burn horribly. If this happens wash the area with soap and warm water immediately.

Luckily I was working with a lot of straight lines -all except for the sculptural wood drawer pulls. It’s really not as difficult as it sounds! I was very apprehensive at the beginning of this project but once I started, it was surprisingly easy. After I stripped as much paint as I could, I used an old rag to wipe it down with mineral spirits(not soaked) to clean up any of the paint stripper residue. After it dried, I used medium grit sandpaper to remove the remaining paint.

From there I used fine grit sandpaper to sand the wood until it was smooth and even. I discovered two sizable gauges on the top of the dresser so I filled those areas with wood putty which I sanded after it was dry. After brushing off the dresser, I wiped it again with mineral spirits to catch any dust that was left behind. I let it sit for a day so it would dry out completely.

Then I began priming with a brush. I used two THIN coats of interior/exterior primer but a mysterious and stubborn stain kept bleeding through on the top. Thin coats are best! Sand between each coat & use Kilz for stains that bleed through. One light sanding after painting the last coat will do for helping your final paint stick.

I let it sit for about 2 days to let the primer dry thoroughly. Then I painted a thin coat of my color on. I let that dry for about 24 hours then painted another thin coat on all surfaces. I used a foam roller to give the top of the dresser a nice, even final coat. Again, I let this dry for another day or so before spraying it down with Rustoleum clear spray lacquer to protect the surface.

I am very pleased with how this project turned out. This dresser is for my 3 year old daughter Sophie and she loves the happy color. You can see more of Sophie’s room here.

59 Great Finds for the Home + H&M

November 11th, 2011
14 Comments

Until I get my studio set up at our new place, I’ll be posting mostly thrifty finds & ideas. If you’re interested in guest posting here, please email submissions (photos at least 500px wide) to melissa at melissaesplin dot com.

I’ve been a contributing guest blogger at Houzz for the last 3 monts and it’s high time I share my latest ideabooks with you!

1 • 2 • 3 • 4 • 5 

If you’re not familiar with Houzz.com, it’s a comprehensive home decor site. There you can find home tours, the latest in home designs, trends & ideabooks featuring places where you can buy fantastic home items. I contribute to the latter. I scour the web for inspiring items for the home & I’ve had so much fun doing so. Here’s a little description of the ideabooks I’ve compiled thus far:

20 Art Prints for Under $100  – having art in the home is SO important! Pat yourself on the back if you have invested in originals. If you’re on a tight budget & want to get started collecting some fantastic art, you’ll definitely want to see this ideabook. I’ve aggregated 20 prints worth purchasing, all under $100. Most are under $50. I have quite a few of these in my own home.

19 Decorative Toys – Toys don’t have to be an eye sore or ridiculously expensive. Here’s a list of 19 design-friendly, kid-friendly toys that I wouldn’t mind displaying in my home.

20 Great Big-Box Finds – With my budget, I typically look to Ikea or vintage shops to find unique, but in this ideabook you’ll find 20 fabulous design finds for the home available online or at your local big-box store.

All of my ideabooks include items that I would consider buying myself, so you’ll find that most of the items published there are affordable. I hope you take a look around (especially at the art one – many of those items are made by independent artists)!

top: H&M, leggings: Thief + Bandit kids, socks: Children’s place, shoes: H&M

Also, last night I spent about 4 hours at H&M’s pre-opening party. It was fantastic! I spent a load of money & outfitted (mostly) our family for winter. I’ll say, the best about that shopping experience was that the place was SO organized & there was a sales associate at every turn. Sadly, though, I missed out on the skirt that I planned on getting: Hot Pink Pleated Skirt. I found what I thought was my size, but it turned out it was too small! Oh curses, reverse muffin top!! Anyone near an H&M with that skirt in stock?

I’m Table Crazy

November 10th, 2011
13 Comments

Last night I officially packed up my studio. Until I get my studio set up at our new place, I’ll be posting mostly thrifty finds & ideas. If you’re interested in guest posting here, please email submissions (photos at least 500px wide) to melissa at melissaesplin dot com.

I’ve never posted a picture of our kitchen. Most of that is because I’m not a fan of the ’90s oak cabinets with brass fixtures (not my style), but the other part is because of the kitchen table. I’ve not been satisfied with any of our kitchen tables from day one. The first table we ever had was one that Chris & I refinished just before we got married. It was okay, but not worth moving to California after we finished college. We ditched the first table & upgraded to a pub-style black rubberwood table with stools. I believe we spent something like $250 for the table & 4 stools.

The second table was fine, but I wasn’t a fan of the boston finish or the random “drain” notches on the table top. It wasn’t very kid-friendly, either. It was then that we moved back to Salt Lake. We settled in our place & I absolutely didn’t like how the table was always competing with the counter tops in the kitchen/dining area. I got rid of it. I think I sold it for something like $150.

To replace the black pub table, I found a cool little vintage table for $25. Chris didn’t like it from the very beginning. It was a laminate top, so it was easier to clean up & I didn’t care so much if Penelope smacked abused the table. I bought orange chairs from Annie for $20. I’ve always liked the chairs & I think Chris likes them just fine. Finally, just before Felix was born, we got rid of the table. Sold it for $25.

We used a Lifetime folding table while we decided what we wanted to do. I found a simple & fairly cheap DIY project over at Stylizmo for making a farmhouse-style modern table. We went for it. Fail. We bought cedar planks; but turns out they hadn’t dried out so by the time we assembled, sanded & painted, the slats shrunk leaving uneven breaks between the planks & some really gross cracks in the paint. The wood was too lightweight, so the table always wobbled & it was the absolute wrong size for our dining space. Much too wide & too long. I ended up making Chris take it apart. I started sanding the top to fix it all, but ultimately decided it wasn’t worth it. I repurposed the purchased Ikea legs for my studio desk & the wood is just sitting in our garage. I’m sure I’ll find a great purpose for it somewhere.

Now we’re using a table that we found on the side of the road back in our California days. I was originally using it as a desk in my studio, but now it’s our dining table. It’s got tons of scratches & nicks. You can see a chunk taken out of the bottom left corner. I’m tempted to rehab it, but it’s a bit small for having family over.

So there you go. Table fail. We’ve now decided that we’re going to invest in a grown up table. Sometimes the saying “You get what you paid for” is so true. So what are our plans? I’m still not entirely sure, but I know this much – I’m planning on powdercoating the chair legs. I painted them white a while back & they’re looking really ratty. I’m thinking orange or yellow would look fantastic. I just have to figure out how to remove the legs (they’re attached by rivets). It’s looking like that will cost somewhere around the ballpark of $200. It’s more than I’m wanting to spend, but I know that getting them powder coated will make the color last longer & look infinitely better.

As for our future table, I’m on the fence on whether I should DIY it or not. I’ve been madly pinning potential tables to Pinterest. Angela suggested I look into For Me, For You’s DIY table with hairpin legs. It’s pretty brilliant. If we were to go that route, I’d invest money into a nice, thick piece of solid walnut or something similar. Maybe find some reclaimed wood. Chris & I have talked a lot about what we want in a table & basically we’d like the same table my in-laws have. I’ll have to take pictures sometime. It’s absolutely a stunning teak modern table surrounded by 8 white tulip chairs. Gorgeous.

I’m sort of in love with this Fresno Modern Walnut table. Aren’t those lines just spectacular? It’s out of our budget, but pretty close to what we’re looking for. Ahem, I mean I am looking for. I’m looking for a table with unique angles. Have you seen what’s at Ikea recently? Great, but BORING. Check out my tables pin board for all of my favorites.

What do you look for in a table? Do you have any suggestions on where I should go for one?

As Good As It Gets: Bedroom

November 1st, 2011
13 Comments

I never considered myself “done” decorating my bedroom (or my studio for that matter), but since we’re moving in less than a week & a half, I thought I’d at least document what it look(ed) like when it was clean. I’ve actually taken pictures of every apartment/home I’ve ever lived in since I moved off to college. I had the best decorated place in college, mostly because I have so many paintings. Too bad most of those pictures were deleted sometime about 3 years ago when we upgraded computers. *sigh* Here’s a little tour of our bedroom.

The focal point of the room is our bed, we have a nice bay window opposite of the door, so we decided to put the bed up to the window. I’m sure the bedroom wasn’t designed for the bed to be oriented this way, but I love waking up to all of the light flooding in right above my  head. We have east-facing windows, which also makes it easier to wake up in the mornings. I’m not a morning person.

  • side tables: Target, $30
  • wire basket: thrifted, $.75

The side tables were originally all black, but the tops were looking incredibly ratty. Chris sanded them & painted the tops yellow. I love the bold statement they make.

  • bed light: Ikea, $10
  • waste-basket: Ikea, $4

Chris has been playing the guitar for just about a year now. So now we have a dedicated music spot in the room. Every once in a blue moon we have family jam sessions with Chris on the guitar, Penelope on the drum & me on the synth.

  • artwork (from left to right): mine, mine, sister-in-law Brooke
  • stool: thrifted, $5
  • small bookcase: Ikea, $40

The painting on the bottom right is one that I did while Chris & I were dating – Chris was the first guy to actually take me up on the offer to come study with me at my studio space. I had fantastic studio space just underneath an amazing bell tower during college. It was well-lit & smelled of the hard work of the BFA painting students. I did this painting while Chris was studying. I love the mixtures of greys & golds.

  • book case: Ikea, $70
  • butterfly chair: hand-me-down + refashioned, $7
  • mirror: thrifted, $1.50
  • painting: mine – it’s a little gruesome, but I love this painting. It reminds me of the Dutch Vanitas paintings: life is short & sometimes bitter
  • spice of life jars: vintage, $15
  • glass art: wedding gift
  • sign painting book: heirloom
  • boxes: Ikea, $25

I have vivid memories of my mom using a large spice of life container for storing her delicious bran muffin mix for hot breakfasts during the school year. She gave me the container when they moved & Penelope promptly broke it. I was so heart broken over it, I scoured the internet for the same jar & found a set of 3 for $15! Score.

  • star: wedding gift
  • artwork: all mine – framed in college class
  • rocking chair: thrifted + refinished ages ago, $30

I love this picture of the two of us. We had to get passport photos in order to apply for visas when we were planning our Brazil trip back in 2007. We got an extra set of pictures that we didn’t know what to do with. Chris found this frame in a box somewhere & framed the photos as they were mailed to us. Love that.

The plaster death masks are something that we made together while we were dating. We originally tried to do this on our first date (and failed miserably), so I love how it serves as a reminder of our first date & how perfect we are for each other.

A home isn’t complete without wedding pictures, right? I think my hair is longer now than in the pictures. I store my earrings on a metal lunch tray on top of my dresser. It’s great to have them organized by color all out for me to look at. The dresser is high enough that Penelope doesn’t mess with them at all. To the right of the masks is a mini hand-bound book that I did several years ago. It’s got a few miniature art pieces in there & it’s bound in leather with a very faint black-on-black brocade pattern that I designed. It’s fun to flip through every once in a while.

Here’s the thrifty dresser I picked up several months ago. It’s all naked & sanded down, ready for a coat of awesome. I just can’t decide what color(s) I want to paint it. STILL! So for now, it’s nude. Penelope found my spray starch & attacked the front of it some time ago. You can see the faint watermarks from that. Crazy girl.

So there you have it. This is as good as our bedroom is gonna get, for now at least. I’ve already taken down all of the wall hangings & Chris has packed up all of the books. I’m definitely looking forward to decorating a new space. Perhaps a space with real white or grey walls? I always find it interesting & fun to see how the same furniture translates to a new space.

mobile site