A triumphant return DIY!

*trumpet fanfare!* a new blog post! will this be the start of something? ... I'm not making any promises.

but I did have to share what I think may be my first real DIY makeover!

purchased this dresser on craigslist for $30

the seller said it had been his father's growing up, and it was definitely in need of some tlc: chipping veneer, scuff marks, dust inside... but for the price, with its solid wood dovetailed drawers and tarnished brass hardware, the thing was practically begging me to take it home

I love the simple shape - no curves, legs, engraved lines... just sweet, campaign-inspired goodness.

some inspiration pulled from the internets gave me ideas and instructions, so I got down to brass tacks, er, nails and started the renovation asap!

step 1: give that craigslist find a good cleaning!  you don't know where it's been or who it's been sleeping with, so dust, dust, vacuum, and wipe away that history!

step 2: remove the brass corner details

(note: when you need to pry old nails up, make sure all the actual screwdrivers, chisels and such are nowhere to be found.  much better to just use a bike tool that folds and bends with every pry. who really needs the power of leverage, anyway?)

one tip I read online said to just tape the nails to the hardware so they couldn't get lost/misplaced during the process - a great idea and I was immediately on board ... until the end when I realized I wanted to polish all the brass anyway and had to take them out.  never lost a nail or screw though, so still a good tip!

step 3: sand away!  the veneer had a sheen to it and lots of scuffs, scratches and wear from it's past-lives, so a light sanding was in order before primer went on.

step 4: paint!!  I debated about primer, since I was going to be painting the dresser white anyway, but after some research I discovered (I'm a newbie, remember) that a coat or two of primer would allow the paint to adhere better and make for a much more lasting paint job.  if I was going to go all out and do this, I did NOT want the paint chipping off within a year or two!

I think I eventually did two coats of primer with a brush and four or five... or six (light) coats of paint with a foam roller.  I had a slight dilemma after using the brush to prime in that it left obvious brush-marks, and I was sort-of hoping for a smooth lacquer-like finish.  light sanding didn't seem to get rid of the brush-marks, and I kept getting through to veneer so I eventually accepted the texture and just rolled with it. literally.

why so many coats of paint? I don't really know. the projects lasted longer than it should have due to the fact that we live in Colorado and were experiencing an early-summer phenomena not seen in our east-coast homeland: cottonwood fluff.

this stuff's just great when you're painting, staining and refinishing your furniture in your driveway. floats on the air like bubbles. wonderful.

despite complications, work continued.

step 5: sand the sheen off those drawers!  while I wasn't too fond of the shine, I was pretty impartial when it came to the wood-tone.  I didn't hate the medium brown, but I have been leaning towards lighter, natural or weathered wood over dark stains.  I really liked the tone once I sanded the old stain off, and would have left them that way if it weren't for the uneven stain marks, so I moved on to the next step (while knowing I could always sand it all off again if I really wanted).

step 6: condition and stain.  upon application of the wood conditioner, the wood instantly returned to a honey-brown shade, so I'm pretty sure the only way I'd get light/ash-gray tones would be to poly-seal it immediately after sanding... oh well, I can love this!

step 7: polish the hardware.  I used good ol' Barkeeper's Friend, but with the notches and corners on these things, it was not quick and easy... scrub, scrub, scrub... just look at that gleam coming through on the right!

step 8: (not pictured) seal it to protect it.  I used a spray on polyurethane sealant (Varathane) that was water-based for a faster drying time.  I probably lightly sprayed the dresser 4 times and the drawers 3 ... maybe they could use another coat... but the husband was antsy for it to be done and moved in, so done it was deemed!

(another note: in your haste to see how the drawers look in the dresser once refinished, do refrain from pushing them all the way in until you've reattached the handles and pulls. designed for a flush, smooth front when closed, they are not easy to pry out. oops)

in the end, it was all so worth it and I'm very pleased with the results.  now to fill it up and style the top... as soon as i organize the rest of the room!

Motivation Needed

Today was Easter.  Work all week was slow, plus I was training a new server, plus I was so looking forward to Sunday, being off and hanging out with family, that it was really a wringer of a week.  It all finally (slowwwly, but finally!) ended at about 1:30am Sunday morning when I arrived home, packed some clothes and drove out to the hub's grandparents' for the holiday.  I may have been up until dawn in a sleeping household washing church clothes in the basement, but I'm usually up until about 5am anyway, so what's the difference?  Waking up a 10 (ok, 10:30) was not that hard!

Church was long, but my after-mass nap was awesome, and we made an Easter miracle by saving us all from caffeine-deprivation (walmart with the assist)!  Great day with family, lots of meat, creamy veggies and more candy and cake than I care to remember, thank you very much.

All that said, I have declared our day off today as THE DAY for spring cleaning the apartment.  When we first moved in, it wasn't so bad because we only moved the stuff we wanted.  But when our other lease finally ended and we had to just grab the rest and cram it in, and so our poor new apartment has come to resemble... a house of hoarders!!  THE HORROR!!!!!

WISH US LUCK!
updates to follow!!!

operation bedroom

my mission, should I choose to accept it:

make bedroom look more like this:


current state:

yeah.

step 1: tell sun to shine in more often.
winter light = not enough
step 2: find motivation to clean up all the JUNK at the foot of the bed
oh wait, step 1.5: make bed!

...........

wish me luck!

apartment evolution

It's been almost three months since we moved in, and I can only hang my head in shame at the long overdue-ness of an apartment post.
S H A M E !

The hubs and I moved into a 690sq.ft. studio apartment in September, and found it's amazing how much stuff you can accumulate even while living out of the country for a couple years! I know my parents are glad we finally took this stuff, and we were happy to gather it all up, though once again in shock (as I believe everyone is when moving) at how much stuff we actually have! I think it all multiplied in our absence!

Don't worry, we still found room to merit a couple of IKEA runs - gotta continue the international tradition: mattresses in Prague, tables in Taipei... And thanks to craigslist we picked up a few other items on the cheap :)

While it's still not completely "done," I'm beginning to feel confident enough to share a few select (read: edited, which means junk shoved off surfaces out of shot) of our studio, after months of trial-and-error rearranging.

Sequence one: living room

too empty

too full

too tabley

too linear

juuust right

now, that was (obviously) a few weeks ago, and things have been settling for a month - plant mishaps, no more halloween, art up on the walls... well here are a few up-to-date pictures to supplement:

Next time, maybe I'll clean the bedroom and kitchen for yinz guys!

we've moved!

LITERALLY!
... now, to organize ...

Blank walls?

Then check out Wall Blank! They are revamping their website and just completed a sale of prints and photos that won't be available on the new site, so I snatched some up*

Coming soon to some walls in Pittsburgh:

*I'm hoping I snatched them up; the sale lasted through Sunday and I put them in my "cart" then but didn't click to purchase and pay until Monday afternoon... the payment's gone through but the site says the prints are currently unavailable so we'll see if them being in my "cart" Sunday actually reserved them for me before the site went offline-ish! Fingers crossed!!

Our New Couch

So Jake and I bought a new couch a week ago off craigslist and I'm so anxious to someday get to use it! There are two areas where the stitching around the buttons pulled apart, which is almost a good thing - if it were not damaged Jake and Hilary probably would have switched it our for her couch we're using now, and as I'd like it to stay in good condition, our livingroom would not be a good place for it. (I'm already worried about all the food I've dropped onto our rug while eating in front of the tv, but luckily it's reversible!)


The man we bought it from was moving and said he had purchased it a few years ago at Nouveau on Belvedere Square in Baltimore for over $2k. While Jake feels like he said this with hopes of impressing us (it failed as neither of us knew of the store), I hope he was telling the truth because all the couches there are very expensive and that means we got something of good quality? The damaged spots are not too bad and hopefully an easy fix.


And the bonus is I discovered that the seat of the couch is actually a cushion, so that will make taking it for repairs SOOO much easier! I was thinking of taking just the cushion to a couple of upholstry shops and getting quotes.

Now if September would just come a bit faster and we could find the perfect apartment in which to use this sweet sofa!