A Coffee Table Joe Could Be Proud Of...

Not any Joe, ya'll, your cup of Joe!!

A mid winter trip to the city during a snowstorm in rush hour landed me another Craigslist Super Buy for a mere 15 smackaroos. Here is how this frumpalicious table looked when I first brought her home...

Kind of Blah and Boring but a hearty piece made of solid wood...I simply couldn't resist and certainly nothing a good coat of white can't fix!! Of course, since then this baby has been drifting from room to room in hopes of a decent makeover. First the family room, then the living room, then back to the family room for a party, then back to the living room where she sat undisturbed for at least 2 months. Well, the time has come. Time to rip off the braces, trade the glasses in for contacts, and tame that frizz. It is makeover day here at LBR!!

First things first...Start sanding! I use a Ryobi 5 inch orbital sander...I bought it a few months back for the door project and, though it isn't as powerful as one would hope, it gets the job done.

OK - you caught me...the first pic is from the door project but the camera was charging and you know I have patience to wait!! Anywho, I had to take to hand sanding to get the legs and sides done...

When painting it isn't necessary to sand the finish down to the wood - all you need is a good scuffing. I did the top REALLY well because I know it will be getting a lot of use and I wanted the primer to have a good hold of the wood. I may have gone a bit overboard but I was soooo in the zone!

Once she was sanded I dusted her off with a tack cloth and went to priming. I used 2 coats of Kilz Premium Primer with a few hours in between. You will notice I didn't take too much time fixing up her imperfections...wood putty is super stinky and for this piece I didn't mind showing off a bit of her past life...she is an antique, after all! Here is the first coat of primer...

and the second...

After that I waited 48 hours for the primer to cure REAL GOOD before I painted. I Waited and Waited...and waited. Have I mentioned how impatient I am...yeah, I thought so...

Since the weather was crappy outside I had to paint inside...painting inside = NO SPRAY PAINT!! I had to hand paint it which I feared would cause brush strokes but I referred back to the Painting Queen, Centsational Girl, and got me some paint conditioner as suggested. This is my first time using the stuff and I have to say I was quite impressed! Using a conditioner gave me a little more time to fudge around and touch up if my strokes weren't quite even...or if i happen to notice one of about thirty Bubba hairs that wound up on my ticky tacky paint job. It just goes with the territory...

I added a few tablespoons floetrol to my trim cup and filled it up with some leftover white semi gloss I happened to have lying around. Mix mix mix and the painting began... SIDE NOTE - there was no exact floetrol to paint ratio with the small amount I was mixing so I put in about 1-2 TBS in my trim cup...refer to instructions for larger quantities but this seemed to do the trick just fine.

First coat of paint...plus a gratuitous Bubba shot....

Second (and FINAL!!) coat of paint...

It is still a bit wet in this picture hence the moussed up "wet look" we all aspired to achieve in the 80's but I can assure you she dried like a charm. I love that you can still see the wood grain even after 2 coats of primer and 2 coats of paint!

I used then brushed on two thin layers of SafeCoat Acrylacq for added waterproofing and durability. I use the same technique when making my old office desk so I was sure it would withstand the test of wear and tear....I can not believe I still haven't posted that project!! I am, like 6 months behind on that one...ooops....

Once everything had cured up and dried I took some time to put the original hardware back on. My original intentions were to paint them another color but, for now, I am going to try them on as they are.

Give me a week or two and I'll probably be spraying them either oil rubbed bronze or maybe something a little more fun like red, yellow, or green for a little pop of color...let's see where the day takes me! One thing is for sure, whatever I do I will certainly be keeping you in the loop! Here are a few shots of her all finished up!

How bout a close up of 2 of my favorite Joe coffee table books?

The perfect spot to stop for breakfast...oh, and a cup of Joe if you'd like...

Don't worry - Ill be including the recipe for these goodies sometime this week!! Stay tuned for that because they are SUPER simple and so so delicious!!

What were you up to this weekend? Any special painting projects? Did you take advantage of the super weather and get outside? WE DID!! Feel free to leave a comment and let me know what's happening in your part of the world!

Linking up to the following: It's So Very Cheri, Thrifty Decor Chick, Keeping it Simple, Today's Creative Blog, Organize With Sandy, New Nostalgia, All Thingz Related, Hope Studios, The Thrifty Home, My Backyard Eden, DIY by Design, Tip Junkie, At Home With K, Someday Crafts, Night Owl Crafting, A Little Tipsy, Beyond The Picket Fence, The DIY Show Off, The Shabby Chic Cottage, Stuff and Nonsense, At The Picket Fence, Tales from Bloggeritaville, Fireflies and Jellybeans, Tatertots and Jello, The Shabby Nest, Home Sweet Farm, Finding Fabulous, Between Naps on the Porch, Dittle Dattle, Organize and Decorate Everything, Coastal Charm, Miss Mustard Seed, The Frugal Girls.

Bianca

Paint Supplies - Reunited And It Feels So Good....

 In the past few months I have had my gypsy pack of tools and supplies meandering about from room to room...truly, they meander. A paint brush here, trim cups there, and rollers everywhere. In honor of Spring Cleaning Month, I finally got a hold on the situation and brought the whole fam-dam-aly back together again.

We have a paint station in our basement where actual paint cans and my HUGE tub of primer are kept. Taking a look at the situation I thought it best to move the paint cans away from our furnace...flammable substance + fire not so good. They have since been relocated to a closet on the opposite side of the basement. All the other tools and paraphernalia that I use has been wrangled together and is now resting nicely beneath my office daybed.

First I took these huge under the bed bins from Ikea (As Is, of course) and put some felt sticky feet on the bottom...this way when I pull them out from under the bed the plastic wont scratch up against our wood floors:

Need a close up of that price tag?? You know how eager I am to show off these lovelies...

Next, I went about the task of gathering all things paint:

See all those rollers? We have 6...if we were more organized we wouldn't of had to keep buying them!! Hmmm...but now that we have them we have plenty to hand our friends when they come over and happen to find us mid project!!

The other bin has my boxes for spray painting small things (like our doorknobs seen here), all of our extra roller inserts in every size and finish imaginable, a leftover vent cover (remember that project?) which we may need down the line, and paint swatches galore!

And there ya have it!! Everything in it's place. Under the bed boxes are not just for your winter clothes anymore!! The bins sit nice and snug under the bed and can be pushed back to the wall so you can't even tell they are there...

OK - ya' got me...this is an old picture of our cutie foster pup, Driver, but you get the idea. Under that bed is a plethora of painting paraphernalia to scratch ones itchin' desire to paint!! :)

How is your Spring Cleaning coming along?? It used to be it would only take me a day or two, then a week, now I have devoted the entire month of April to Spring Cleaning!! Feel free to leave a comment with how your cleaning has made an impact!!

Bianca Decorah Eagles, live feed of eagles, streaming decorah eagles, iowa eagles, npr eagle project,

Perfecting Perfection...

First off - I am happy to be back after a week long bloggin' break.  I needed to take some time off to enjoy our foster pup, Driver, as well as refresh myself.  For those of you who have never had a puppy, let me tell ya', you can't get squat done with one constantly biting at your feet or mysteriously quiet in another room.  Just like a kid - when they are quiet there is definitely something going on!!  Last Wednesday we brought Driver back to be neutered and adopted out and I am happy to report he was adopted the very next day.  As hard as it was to give him up (clearly shown by the tears currently streaming down my face typing this) we are VERY happy he found his forever home so quickly.  Good bye, Driver - you will be missed...

So now that Driver has left us, I got my butt back in gear and got some work done around the house...more specifically my office.  A few weeks back we finished my office layout and I actually began using my desk.  Feel free to read all about the desk, room, and overall layout here, here, and here.  Once I started using the space I knew I would have some tweaks to do so we didn't permanently fix it to the wall nor did we fix the cabinets to the counter top...It all just sit in limbo waiting for my tweaks to happen.  This weekend I tweaked away.

First step - paint the office.  I loved Benjamin Moore's Olive Branch but it wasn't working out for me...not for the bedroom (see here) or for the office.  Much to E's dismay, I decided to paint...again.  I picked a beautiful color, drove to Sherwin Williams without a doubt in my mind and my 30% off coupon in hand, entered the store and went straight to the color cards...bad move.  All my indecision came rushing back and I left with a completely different color than anticipated.  "Reflection" seemed like a nice shade of cloudy blue with a great office name to go with it but when I got it up on my wall it looked like baby blue.  Arghhh...   I needed new paint and quick.  It turned out my 30% off coupon wasn't good till the 20th which started a rift between Sherwin Williams and I so this time I went to Home Depot - again, with paint chip in hand.  I went straight for the paint counter where the guy was already working with 2 people - unfortunately that gave me time to browse.  Again -  I picked a different color.  Why I do this to myself I have no idea.  I know I could buy the sample paints and try them out but instead I get some sick satisfaction from painting the entire room (including edging it out twice for max coverage) then hating the color.  Anywho - I came home with Behr's Gentle Rain.

Reflection

Behr's Gentle Rain

Gentle Rain seemed like a better grayish purple for me.  I got it on the wall and, guess what?!  I still wasn't happy!  Against the baby blue it looked REALLY purple...lavender, really.  $60 in paint and I was no closer to finding my color.  It isn't that either of these colors was bad - they just weren't what I was looking for.  I thought maybe I should  switch it up and go with a muted yellow or perhaps...NO - E put his foot down this time and said to work with it and so I did...but first I decided to mix the 2 colors together THEN I worked with it!!  Today my office is painted in a Reflecting Gentle Rain - custom mixed by yours truly.  It turned out fine and I am sure I will paint again later...it is just an itch I have to scratch!!  Next time I will give in and buy the samples - you heard it here first...now try to hold me to it!!

The next step was to rearrange the desk cabinets...actually - I had to build 2 new base cabinets out of other cabinets as they were a custom size Ikea did not make.  I decided to center my workspace under the top cabinets therefore leaving a 15 inch cabinet to my right and 45 inches to my left with a 30 inch opening between the 2 for my legs.  This made a lot of sense for 2 reasons.  1. Symmetry - I hated being off center from the top cabinets - the bottoms I don't mind as I will need the space to the left of my desk for sewing...it makes it easier for the fabric to be laid out and not drag on the floor.  2. I can access the cabinet doors to my immediate right and left much easier now - the hinge placement didn't work on the other configuration...

The third and final fix of the weekend - a drawer!!  I missed my old desk and the drawer it had right over my legs - all desks, in my opinion, need such a drawer. When I had done the original plan for my office I included a drawer from Ikea but it was not ideal...that method would take $90 and it turned out not to work anyway due to the drawer being too deep my legs wouldn't clear the space under it.  Then my mind got to thinking...picture tapping finger on the side of my head...

I took my old drawer from my old desk and we attached it to my new desk.  I simply removed the drawer and rollers from the old desk and measured where the holes were.  It took some finagling and we had to drill the holes twice due to an error in calculation (mine, not E's) the first time but overall it worked great and my old drawer was new again!  I just have to paint it and it will all mesh wonderfully!  Perfection.  Oh - and don't worry about my old desk...it will be a perfect table somewhere in the house - you can't event tell it is missing anything if you look at it from the other side!

Overall not too shabby of a weekend!

Next to do - hang the HUGE mirror I have been obsessing over, work out some magazine holders, and a photo wall.  Things are looking up!  What are you guys up to this week?  Any big rehab plans or small detail oriented ones?  Feel free to share in the comments section with a link back to your blog.  I would love to see some new inspiration!!

Bianca

FYI - I am linking up with some fabulous blogs this week - Please jump on over HERE to check them out!!  A special thanks and big smooch to the following blogs for being my top referring sites in March:

  

Weekend of White - Fireplace Remix Part 2!

Hey all!  

This weekend was full of fun as I conquered my To Do list (seen here) from Friday and got the lead white out.  I managed to finish both doors for the hallway, update the hardware on said doors, as well as the fireplace priming.  Since I did the priming last night I needed to wait and make sure it was fully cured before moving on to paint.  Brick, even veneer brick, has a habit of soaking up paint due to its porous nature so I wanted to make sure it was nice and dry before proceeding.  Even with just primer it looks WAY better than what it was before...lets review!

Before Tuck Pointing

After Tuck Pointing

Things were looking up!  Then yesterday they were looking upper...more up...uppity?  Whateve...

POW!

Granted this is just the primer but she is lookin' MUCH better already.  I used an oil based primer and super nappy 6 inch roller.  I don't like to use large rollers on smaller areas so I have more control.  I also took this chance to prime the last bit of paneling that for some reason was missed during Operation Tear Out the Paneling NOW!  In all our haste to get it out ASAP nobody saw the strip of paneling left under the fireplace until the molding was going in.  Attention to detail during demo is not always the first priority!!  Anywho - it is primed now and you can barely tell the difference.  Now it is time to start thinking about a mantle to tie this baby all together...let the planning begin!!

In the living room - the weekend began like this:

And Ended like this:

SWEET!  I have 2 more doors done and 6 to go!  Not exactly putting a dent in it but success is in my future - I can feel it...then again, that may be the paint fumes?  How 'bout a before and after side by side?  I don't have a pic of the closet door before with the tacky brass hardware but I have a horrible one of the during process..check it out:

Obviously we need to work on organizing the closets...

Pretty in Pink White!

And thus ends my Weekend of White.  For more how to on painting the doors and updating your hardware check out the posts here and here.  If you missed how to Tuck Point your fireplace in preps for painting check out the post here. 

I am so happy to have half of the fireplace done!  Did anyone else get a project accomplished this weekend?  Feel free to share down below.  If anyone has mantle suggestions please pass them on.  This fireplace is looking pretty week without one!

See you tomorrow!  :)

Bianca

PS - this post is on a DIY parade hosted by a couple of other blogs. If you have some projects you need to get done or are just looking for some decorating/design inspiration join the party here and here and here!