61. Before and After: Vintage Dressers

So…yeah.  I’ve been really terrible at keeping up with this blog lately.  I blame the nice weather!  And going to the gym.  Both fabulous excuses, if you ask me.

Here’s the next post in my furniture series: a lovely makeover involving a set of vintage dressers.  Vintage Kroehler dressers!  That I found on Craigslist for $65.  (You know I’m patting myself on the back over here…)

Here’s what they looked like when we first got them home.

I sanded them and gave them a couple of coats of Behr Popped Corn, which is a nice “warm” white.  I also gave them a bit of distressing with a sanding block and a cheese knife shaped like a miniature meat cleaver.  My tools known no bounds.

Don’t they look perty?

I’d eventually like to switch out the hardware to something a little more modern, but they work for now.  Drawer pulls are expensive, and mama’s gots bills ta pay!

Happy Monday, fools.

XO,
Gabriella

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60. Before and After: Antique China Cabinet

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!  I’ll be joining the festivities later this evening, but first, a blog post.

I promised to make last week all about furniture.  I failed to keep this promise and only wrote one post.  Shame on me!  Let’s try this again.  Hopefully I’ll find the time to write up everything on my list!

Today’s before and after is a lovely antique china cabinet I found on Craigslist.  The young lady who sold it to me only wanted $35!

It’s hard to tell from the photo, but the wood was not exactly in great shape.  I decided to paint the cabinet, and decided on a deep turquoise from Behr called “Caribe”.

Source: Home Depot

Jason ended up being the one who painted this cabinet; I had a lot of projects going on at that time, and we just wanted to get them DONE.  I think he did an excellent job.

This cabinet got painted almost two years ago.  I use it for storing all my yarn and knitting accessories, and the fact that it didn’t have a handle was super annoying.  Last month, I went back to Home Depot and bought an antique-style cabinet pull, drilled a few holes in the door, and installed the handle.  Much, much better.

You’ll notice that the paint job has gotten quite a few dings.  We moved since acquiring the cabinet, and it’s moved around a bit in our new place.  Battle scars, my friends.  Battle scars.  I think they add a bit of character, so I probably won’t fix them.  I also don’t have any more of this paint, so I’m sure that also has something to do with my lack of caring.

I seriously cannot believe it took me so long to show you this cabinet!  The worst case of procrastination if I ever saw one.  Make sure to check back tomorrow, because I’ll be showing you another furniture makeover: a set of vintage dressers!

XO,
Gabriella

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59. Before and After: Vintage Desk

I’ve decided to dedicate this week to furniture.  There are actually several finished projects in my flat that I haven’t showed you!  How terrible of me.  Today, I’ll show you the newest addition to our household, a beautiful vintage desk for my husband, Jason.

My husband recently started working from home, and he was in need of a new desk.  A real desk.  Something better than the cheapo Ikea tables we had sutured together like Frankenfurniture.  I stopped by our local ReStore on Friday afternoon, and found this handsome fella.

He was a bit tired and had some broken hardware, but overall in great condition and very sturdy.  The price tag said $40, but lucky for me green tags were 20% off.  The final cost was $33.79 including tax.

I couldn’t bring this guy home that night (I had a performance with my dear friend Lex Allen), but I made a pit stop at Home Depot on the way home to pick out some paint.  I decided on “Curry Powder” for the main body and “Ethiopia” for the drawer fronts, both colors by Behr.

Source: homedepot.com

I bought a quart of the main color and a tester for the drawer fronts.  The total for paint was $19.24.  I wanted to buy new hardware while I was there, but I wasn’t able to measure the current hardware in order to purchase the correct size.

Jason and I picked up the desk on Saturday morning, along with some hardware from Home Depot.  Four new drawer pulls came out to $21.04, bringing the grand total for the desk to $74.07.  A steal, if you ask me.

I got to work as soon as we got home.  Jason helped me sand all the surfaces with medium grit sanding blocks.  After wiping off all the dust, I gave the main body of the desk three coats of paint; the drawer fronts got two coats.  I let the desk sit overnight to cure before adding the new hardware and moving it to its “permanent” position.

I really love how it turned out, don’t you?

Make sure to come back all this week to see my other furniture transformations!  I’ll also be posting tutorials for our platform bed (finally!) and a cute ottoman I built from scratch.

Happy Monday!

XO,
Gabriella

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58. Before and After: DIY Shoe Bows

Every good project needs a good back story…and this one is no different.

There is a pair of shoes from J. Crew that I absolutely adore.  Tell me they aren’t adorable?

Source: factory.jcrew.com

I’ve teetered on buying these several times.  Problem #1 – They are $98.  NINETY. EIGHT. DOLLARS.  I’ve actually paid that much for a pair of shoes before, but not for a pair of flats (I wear them out too quickly).  They aren’t even real leather!  The J. Crew Factory website has sales quite often, sometimes when these shoes are already marked down.  Even so, I’ve never seen them for cheaper than $60, and that doesn’t include the cost of shipping.  Problem #2 – Even if I was willing to pay any price for these shoes, my size is back ordered until April.  They are SUPER popular shoes!

If you’ve been reading my blog at all, you obviously already know what I decided to do: make them myself for a fraction of the cost.  Whee!

Without further ado:

DIY Shoe Bows/Clips

Materials:

patent flats in the color of your choice
matching grosgrain ribbon in 5/8″ and 1-1/2″ widths, about a yard of each
shoe clips
hot glue gun and glue sticks
scissors
measuring tape

Directions:

1. Buy a cheap pair of patent flats.  I bought mine from ebay for $20 (with free shipping!), but the exact same pair is also over at ZOOSHOO (affiliate link).  You can save 15% off orders over $50 with the code 15OFF50 through 3/31/14, and they always ship free. 🙂

2. Find matching ribbon.  I ordered mine from Ribbons and Bows Oh My.  I wasn’t sure what color would be closest, so I ordered two different shades.  For these particular shoes, the “oatmeal” color was almost a perfect match.  Sweet!

3. Cut two 8″ pieces of 1-1/2″ width ribbon.  Glue the edges to the center as shown.

4. Cut two 7″ pieces of 1-1/2″ width ribbon.  Glue the edges to the center as you did for the 8″ pieces.

5. Attach the smaller bows to the larger bows with a thin strip of glue at the center.

6. Cut two 3″ pieces of 5/8″ width ribbon.  Wrap around the center of the bows as shown, securing at the back with glue.

7. Cut two 4″ piece of 5/8″ width ribbon and tie a knot in the center of each piece.  Center the knot in the front, and wrap the remaining ribbon around to the back, securing with glue.

8.  Attach shoe clips to the back of each bow as shown.  Optional: Cover shoe clip with a small piece of ribbon to further protect shoe (especially if you plan to wear them at all without the bows).  I already had some shoe clips on hand, but they are fairly inexpensive.  I bought mine from Etsy.

9. Clip bows onto shoes, put them on your feet, and prance around the house.

I seriously love how these turned out!  I love the cost breakdown even more:

Shoes – $20.00
Ribbon – $2.90 + $3.15 shipping and handling
Glue gun and glue – $0.00 (already owned)
Shoe clips – $0.00 (already owned)
TOTAL COST = $26.05 (a savings of over 73%!)

The best part is being able to wear these shoes without the bows, too.  You could get even more wear out of these by pairing them with different colored bows; I’ve been thinking about making another set in gold glitter.  Ooo la la!

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial!

XO,
Gabriella

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