Table Makeover Nightmare

This was our kitchen's eat-in area table. The colour is kind of passé. That yellow wood was driving me crazy. It just didn't go with the space. But I repaint furniture, so why not repaint stuff I already have, right?
(That dangly black and white pompom is my cat's toy, lol!)

Even though this is a coffee table,this was my inspiration, paint wise and finish wise. I just love the dark stained top.

From Red Hen Home

So, armed with my sander and some varnish stripper, I tackled the top of this fair size table and the seats of its six chairs. It took a lot of elbow grease and time. Finally she was all prepped and ready to receive the stain. And this is what it looked like after I stained it a couple of times:

Uuuuuuuugly!! I was so disappointed. All that work and it looked really bad. For some reason the stain didn't take and suspect it's because the varnish was not completely removed. I'm not that experienced with furniture stripping and I probably used the wrong product.

This lead me to think that I don't really like staining. I'm the type of person who likes to see immediate, successful results. So I decided to enlist the help of Annie Sloan and her chalk paint. I used Coco for the top and the seats, and Old white for the spindles and the legs.

Then, I got the genius idea to paint some pictures on the table. I decided to use my Silhouette to cut a stencil with the words "Bon Appétit" framed with beautiful scrolls. Well. Apparently that wasn't such a genius idea. It took me three or four attempts to cut the stencil, because it kept getting jammed in the machine. It ate almost an entire roll of vinyl! Gaaaaah! I've used my Silhouette successfully before, but the pattern must have been too large and intricate.

Sooooo had to come up with an alternative. I had just enough vinyl to cut a plate and utensils pattern and a set of salt and pepper mill. I used the contours of the patterns as a stencil and filled it in Old White.

And this is what it looks like after applying the clear and dark waxes:

Not bad, right?

While it doesn't quite look like the original inspiration, despite all the aggravation it caused me, I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. Certainly beat the 80's yellow! And my family loves it too. My husband wanted to get rid of the table before, but now I think it will stay with us just a little while longer!

What could have been a two-day makeover if I had just painted it turned into a week and a half affair. 

Next time I'll know. Stick with what you know kiddo!

Linking up to:

My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia

Winter is back, progress at the house and a surprise in the mail!

Last week I blogged about the arrival of spring and how wonderful it was, blah, blah, blah. And yesterday, we were back to this:

Aaaaargh, my poor daffodils are going to freeze! And no, daffodils is not a euphemism for my buns...although they are freezing too.

Oh well, onward and upward, let the great spring thaw begin (again)!

There's been progress at the new-to-us house we are renovating. The official move-in date is April 18th.

We had the stuffy, cramped closets removed in the master bedroom, and behind the wall beside it was the closet to the room next to the master's, a tiny, useless bedroom. A friend of mine convinced me to turn it into a walk-in closet and I, in turn, convince hubby too. He didn't take much convincing as it makes complete sense. It is a much more efficient use of space. And we left the door to the tiny bedroom up, so it could, if need be, be turned into a nursery by future buyers (way, way, way down the line. I don't plan on moving again any time soon!). Anyhoo, here's the master bedroom with the closet removed. The door was the closet door in the tiny bedroom.

Here's a peek from the other side of the door in the tiny bedroom:

And here are the Pax closet components we bought on sale back in January for the walk-in closet, getting ready to be assembled:

Can't wait to show you the finished result!

Meanwhile, in the kitchen, the light fixture over the island is finally up:

Don't you just love the bling? It's girly, but not too girly. Just a little touch of glam!

And to brighten up that lousy snow day we had yesterday, my Silhouette SD finally arrived. :^)

You might recall I ordered it a while back, following a discount offered through the DIY yourself Showoff blog.

I don't know which one I was more excited about, the Silhouette or the box it came in, cause when you're moving, boxes are at a premium!!

Unfortunately, I'm so busy right now, what with packing, overseeing the renovating, working, etc., that I won't have time to play with it for the time being. I have also had to put my jewelry making on hold and I'm dying to get back to it, but not until we are settled in the new house.

Ciao for now!

Waiting for my Silhouette

No, not my physical silhouette, I gave up on that a long time ago! This Silhouette:

I discovered the Silhouette SD through Roeshel's fantastic blog, the DIY Showoff, when she had her giveaway and showed us all of this device's wonderful applications. I AM TOTALLY AWED BY ITS AWESOMENESS!

With it, you can make stuff like this:

And this:

And this:

And this:

And this:

And so much more!

Awesome, right?

Roeshel, who's so well connected (lol) was giving one away, but alas, I didn't win (curses!). However, again because of Roeshel being so well connected, there was a discount offered through her blog, and I took advantage of it and I'm thankful to her for the great deal. I am now awaiting my wonderful machine and I can't wait to start using it. I have a million projects and ideas and I am going to use it till one of us runs of breath and it ain't gonna be me!

For example I have only one bare wall in our new kitchen and it's a silly rounded wall where it is impossible to hang a picture or a frame. This is a perfect application for a vinyl decal. I'm thinking of putting a clever cooking related quote there. And the frosted vinyl is also ideal for windows where more privacy is needed without losing the light.

The Silhouette is also helpful for card making and scrapbooking. It's a great little multitasker!

I can't wait to show you my creations! (Ahem, provided of course that I can figure out the technology!)