Fourth Time's a Charm

Khaki, black, turquoise, and now white: the colors that this piece of furniture has been painted. Plus, doors and new legs have been added since its original state. I love this armoire. Jeremy's dad built it custom for me when we lived in Utah. At that time, it had no doors. It has four shelves made to fit the 12 baskets/drawers that are inside. The bottom is open. I love it. It stores so much, and it stays so organized. It's been in three different houses in three different states, and now it's going back to Utah. I hope that's where it stays...along with us, of course.

This was yet one more project for Stella's room that the hubs was not excited about. So, I gave him my usual spiel about me doing it myself. Can you believe he still falls for that?! He, of course, ended up doing the majority of the work. Man, I love that guy! So, after removing the doors, sanding, priming, painting, adding taller legs, and polycrylic-ing, we have this little beauty.  Oh, how it makes me happy!

Stella's "new" white armoire, lookin' all fresh and so clean, clean. (Gotta love Outkast.)

Here is the piece before. I loved the turquoise at the time, but I was ready for a change. I have a problem called wanting to change my furniture every day. Well, actually, it's my husband's problem. I'm just fine with it.

Stella was just about as much help as I was, pretending to help and all. The only difference was that I kept my shirt on the whole time.

Sometimes we are hoosier and sand in our undies at seven in the morning in the St. Louis humidity. Gotta get 'er done! (Look at her awesome morning hair!)

How hard could it be? Yeah. Harder than I thought. I don't think I was Jeremy's favorite person at this point in time. Good thing he enlisted the hammer to help him get out some of his aggression. I wanted taller legs, because after adding the doors, a lot of the leg was hidden in the front. We were quickly reminded of how sturdy Grandpa Grant's furniture is made. These things did NOT want to come off! (I'm sure the four coats of paint inside of the joints didn't help much, either.)

And...the finished product, sanded, primed, painted, and coated with polycrylic. The end for now. 

Today is the Day

Today is the day that I am finally going to start on Stella's room. First thing on the agenda: armoire. I'm taking it from turquoise to white. The hubs is so super excited to be a part of this. He doesn't mind at all that this will be the fourth time I've changed the color of this piece. (Maybe I'm being a LITTLE bit sarcastic.) I think his exact words were, "Why? I swear if we had pets you would paint them, too." Well good news for you, Mr. Jeremy, we don't have pets, so watch yourself.

Today I need to at least get the sanding and priming done, which may be harder than it sounds with my little "helper" in tow. I've known that I wanted to change the armoire to white, but I wasn't quite sure what I wanted to do with it. At first, I found this picture and fell in love with the fabulous overlay and two tone doors.

image from Decor Pad

Next, I saw this armoire from Ballard Designs. Love the mirrors, but probably not realistic to get mirrors cut. Perhaps next time! (wink wink)

image from Ballard Designs

I came across this armoire from Crate & Barrel. I love the texture on the doors.

image from Crate & Barrel

I love all of these armoires, but none of those options made sense. I definitely didn't want to put more money into the armoire than it's worth (or more than it would cost to buy a new one)! So, then I saw this picture, and I LOVED it! I can do all of this with paint (minus turning an armoire into a chest of drawers, that is). Let me rephrase: I can TRY to do this with paint! Wish me luck!

image from Vintage Rose Brocante

[color kreyv]: Mint Green

I'm definitely lovin' me some mint green lately. I love its beachy, subtle tone. Speaking of beachy (which the autocorrect insists on changing to "be achy"), does anyone else realize that it is almost June?! How did that happen? I have to say that despite the nasty St. Louis summers, I'm glad to see it come. June means that the hubs is almost done with one more year of residency; that we are nearing a full week of vacation/trip to Chi-town and Milwaukee; and that the pool will be opening! Hooray! Let's all savor this optimism. Once the temperatures, humidity, and heat index rise, you won't see it for a while. I'm just sayin.' 

image from 2 By Fryd

image source unknown

image from Christine Bauer

Not Too Shabby

I have always wanted to design a shabby chic guest room. I know, I know, that puts me at like ten guest rooms.  So...let's just say I need to rethink some things, but for now, let's just admire my vivid imagination, shall we? I love a little shabby chic as long as it is not overdone. (Especially love those overlapping frames in the first image. Gorg. Looks like a great diy to me.) As for this imaginary house of mine, who wants to come stay in it? Rumor has it that the guest rooms are spectacular, which totally makes up for the subpar food.

image from Elle Decor

image from A Beach Cottage

image from Euro Antique Market

[color kreyv]: Pale Gray

Sometimes I feel sorry for myself that I can't paint the walls in my house. I know the hubs loves that we can't paint, and he probably does his evil laugh whenever he thinks about it. If I could paint, I would start with the master, and I would paint it a pale gray. I die over gray rooms--so beautiful, uber beautiful, in fact.

image from Arhzine

image from Apartment Therapy

image by James Swan

[kreyv of the day]

image from Cottage Living