A Little "How To" from a NON-Pro!

Okay so I thought I would share a project that I am pretty dang proud of! I successfully was able to re-finish/ distress 2 pieces of furniture!

First up was my Grandma's old China Cabinent- Yes- it was very retro/ 70s... and I had a vision.

Here is what to do:

Take the furnitures AS IS, and sand it down. Even if it looks like it doesnt need it, you have to get any sort of finish off before you paint. (Electric sander for big surfaces, sand by hand for small ridges, molding, etc)



Then, paint the furniture the color of your choice. I chose black to go in my dining room and compliment our new China!



Then, you need to let this dry for 24 hours... you do not want to try and distress if the paint is even slightly wet- wait longer rather than shorter...

The next night I went back over to sand the black paint... on areas you want distressed, hold the sander there longer so that some of the wood grain will show through. AGAIN, be very careful on sensitive corners, molding, and edges... I did ALL of that by hand so I could control how much paint came off. (I am a bit anal and a perfectionist, but with sanding/ distressing it will NEVER match or be the same...its pretty unpredictable, so just CHOOSE to go with it haha!)



THEN, the messy part. This is best w/ a team so Logan got volunteered :) I never would have thought to do this, but the exposed wood is now the original wood grain- if you want it to look pretty, you need to STAIN the exposed wood/ distressed part. To make it look consistent everywhere, stain the entire piece of furniture.

We had a stainer and a wiper... use old towels or rags...literally that can be thrown away. Pick a pretty stain color- you can go cherry wood, blonde wood, etc. The longer you let the stain sit, the darker it will get. The wood DOES soak this stuff up FAST, so paint small areas and have your teammate wipe it off almost immediately after you stain the surface.



TAH DAH!!!!!!!! This took longer than I thought... just as a warning...thought I could knock it out in 1 day, but it took me probably a total of 8 hours! BUT hey, $40 vs. $3,000.... I will take it!

Part 2 uses the SAME process. Look at this $30 piece of junk from Canton! haha... we made her look REALLY cute for our breakfast nook!



Freshly painted Big Bird yellow!



Now distressed and stained. NOTE: When staining LIGHT colors, you need to wipe thoroughly and immediately! With the black, we could get away with a lot more than the yellow! You dont want your yellow table to look brownish/ orange!



Look at my cute bfast nook now! perfect with our little stained glass lamp :)



If I can do this ladies (or gentleman too), you can!!! Its fun and insanely rewarding (not to mention, a heck of a lot cheaper!)

Shopping Withdrawal...

So I have fallen off the face of the Earth, its true... and I wish I had more time in my schedule to blog but with the new gig, its just doesnt allow it! I just got switched to Assistant Marketing Manager for Bergdorf Goodman out of NYC and I am ecstatic! I get to work for my Marketing Director who is crazy cool and hope to get a few trips up to NYC as well :) Yay for another learning curve. FYI: BG is owned by Neiman Marcus and geared towards the rich and famous... neither of what I am haha! I hope to own an overly priced (even with my discount) coffee mug from there at some point.

In other news...

- I cannot wait to post pics of our house... we had a housewarming party a few weeks ago that was a huge success- over 40 people came, thank you!!!

- I have finished a few DIY furniture projects that I want to show you as well...feeling so domestic these days. I feel like our house is 98% complete and it feels GOOD!

- And SINCE we are living on 1 income right now, I cannot do the SHOPPING anymore and my mouth has been drooling on the below items from Modcloth ALL DAY! If only I still used the AmEx... its truly hard not swiping that sucker anymore!

I hope to have a few more posts later this week.

Shout out to my sis who starts her new TEACHING job next week- she is going to be the cutest/ coolest Spanish teacher in town!

Thanks for reading :)

Current Crushes

My 5 Current Crushes:

1. Decorating our new home in Lakewood... especially my CHEAP finds from Canton! Let me paint a picture: We had 4 tables, 2 chairs, tons of decor, a door, and 3 gals shoved into Nicki's SUV... a man felt bad for us and loaded the 2 chairs on the bike racks in the back as Katy and I ducked under the door overhead for 1 hour... oh yeah did I mention it started POURING rain as we were loading up all our purchases? It made for a very stinky/ cold/ numb drive back, but totally worth it! And bonus: my chairs were SUPER clean and washed off by the rain haha :) they survived.

The below is just MY stuff... not my sister's 2 tables, Nicki's table and door... among other things! Crazy huh?

2. Hipstamatic photos- makes everything look cooler!

3. "Me" time- I am learning that I like to have some alone, Abby time, to recharge my batteries. I used to not be this way, but I kind of enjoy moments of calm collection amidst the chaotic and usually hectic work/ personal life balance.

4. COOKING... I have been soaking up the recipes lately! Never thought I would be the Betty Crocker type :) Taking a cooking class is on my future horizon...

5. Date nights with this handsome dude. Now that we are doing the 1 income approach to get out of wedding debt, we enjoy cooking dinner & running to 711 to get an ice cream treat and a Red Box :) very budget friendly!