A Family Treasure

Has anyone seen this at Restoration Hardware for $1,695....

...or this one from Pottery Barn for 1,299?

Using vintage (or vintage-looking) trunks as coffee tables seems to be the new "it."

My grandma reads as many home decorating magazines as I do. She called me one day and said that she saw a picture of a trunk coffee table in a magazine, and she also had a trunk in her basement. She was wondering if I wanted it.

Of. course. I. do!

When I went to her house, this is what met me:

An old, ugly, painted trunk that's lid didn't fit properly...

...with 100 year old fabric nailed to the top.

I can't even describe to you the smell this trunk was emitting....

Upon further inspection, however, I noticed the potential beauty this old trunk had.

Those are hand-cut decorative L-brackets.

I was swooning.

This was my great-grandfather Reis's trunk. I had never met him. I've heard many stories of him.

He came to the States from Russia in the early 1900's. He made this trunk, and it held everything near and dear to him on his journey.

....hey....maybe that's where I get my skills from...

;)

Do you see why I was so excited about this restoration project?

After 2 days of stripping paint, fixing the old hinges, removing rust off metal, trying to get that 100 year old musty smell out, and putting 5 (yes...5) coats of polyurethane on, I finally had my coffee table.

It goes great with the rest of the living room.

It now holds board games. The kids can just pop open the trunk and get some impromptu gaming on!

I am in love with the little details. Who knew such beauty could have been covered up by all that paint?

My grandma couldn't believe that was the same trunk. She was so proud of me for restoring her dad's trunk.

I will soon be stopping by her house to pick up a picture of her dad. She wrote all the facts about where he had lived in Russia, what year he came to the States, when he was married to my great-grandma, etc. on the back.

It's so nice to have such a functional family treasure in the house.

<3

Cost: about $15 of spray paint-stripper. I already had the polyurethane.

It might be a while until my next project post. My husband is going back to school on Thursday, and we are desperately trying to clean out the basement while we still have time at home. The finished part of the basement will be my new craft room. Yay! We have been doing small projects (like moving furniture), but nothing worth posting. I might have a furniture re-do to show you. I might do it on Saturday. I don't work, and there's no classes because of Labor Day, so as long as the weather holds up, I will get that done!

I will try to throw some recipes out there so that you don't get bored with me!

;)

Ladder Restoration

I'm first going to show you the simple restoration project that I did.

I showed you this ladder last week:

This ladder was one of the few things the old owners had left behind at our house.

I ripped off the other side, painted over the yucky yellow color, and stuck some plants on it.

Now...don't get me wrong...I'm still in love with my ladder. I believe I always will be.

However, it lacked charm.

You know...charm that only comes with something old and loved.

I decided that I needed to bring this ladder back to it's roots.

In this picture, you can:

1. See that I used to be so lazy that I didn't paint the back side of this ladder. (The part I knew no one would see).

2. The horrific yellow that they painted it.

I stripped the paint.

(Which, by the way had THREE layers. Ugh.)

I applied a dark walnut stain and put three coats of polyurethane on it.

Wala!

It really warms up the room.

It reminds me of the one from Pottery Barn.

I also got my daughter's magnets done.

She's quite the artist, hehe!

Anyways, I have a restoration project to show you in the next few days that's going to knock your socks off! I you LOVE Pottery Barn like I do, you need to stop back to see it!

Plus, it's a piece of my family history, so I'm even more excited about this project than usual!

Stick around!

Projects Coming Soon

Breathe.

Just breathe.

Sorry, I have to remind myself of that sometimes.

I just finished up one restoration project (that you will get to see soon).

I will be finishing up a magnet project that I did with my daughter tomorrow. It's for her metal board on her new desk.

Oh, not to mention that my daughter, once again, drew on her walls.

This time it was with pen, though.

Mr. Clean helped me out...

I love Magic Erasers. They work on everything (except red permanent marker, hehe).

So two projects are almost done.

Then my grandma stopped by yesterday to see if I restored something that she recently gave me.

I hadn't....

So that's what I'm doing tomorrow after work.

And did I mention that I HATE paint stripper?

My son's bed is also broken. Stupid cheap Walmart bed...

So I told him that I would make him the loft one from Knock Off Wood.

Then our eldest decided that he also wanted a loft bed....

The plans also come with a built-in desk and bookcases, but to save money, I'm just going to stick their current desks under there.

At first, I was reluctant about building them both beds, but then I realized how much space I could free up in their small bedrooms.

I've decided they will get their loft beds......some day......when I have time.

;)

Woah, Nellie!

Nellie.

That's the name of my favorite auctioneer.

I don't go garage sale shopping often.

Too much driving.

Rarely anything worth buying.

(Okay, unless your trying to find kids' clothes.)

I'm a vintage/antique freak. I learned this obsession from my mom. She hoards anything old and loved.

That's why I love auctions so much. I've been going to them since I can remember.

I'm addicted.

I have even asked hours off of work just to attend "good" auctions.

The thrill of out-bidding someone....the feeling when you "win"....the mind games you play....I love every second of it.

I share this story with you, because I'm ridiculously excited about the "prize" I walked away with today.

Oh, vintage Marquette, Michigan milk crate. I loved you since the second I saw you.

You can keep your $159, Restoration Hardware...

...and you can keep your $59, Pottery Barn.

It's going to look awesome on my bookshelves.

Though, I do love that Joni from Old Centennial Farm made hers into a planter.

Sooo....I have two restoration projects that I am currently working on. You are going to love them! Okay...well, one's kind of cool, the other will be jaw-dropping amazing!

On a completely related note, I hate paint stripper....

...just saying.

Built-In Desk

Wow, has it been an interesting few days.

I will explain after I show you my latest project:

Hailey's built-in desk.

My daughter is my youngest/final child. If anyone is the youngest, you know that you generally get last pick on everything.

When I was pregnant with my daughter, the boys moved into bigger rooms. Hailey got stuck with the smallest.

To make it fair, I gave her a second room. Her two rooms equal the size of one of the boys' rooms.

It's still a pretty small space, though.

If she is to get new furniture, I have to keep in mind how it will fit in her room.

I wanted to give her a desk. I thought this space would be perfect for a built-in.

Actually, I thought it would be a great place for a hamper, but since her dresser is in her 2nd room, it would make more sense to keep her hamper next to her dresser.

So I moved the shelf down to a desk height...

...patched the wall...

...and painted it.

I knew I wanted an extra shelf to hold supplies.

I also wanted to keep this a NO COST project.

I found this shelf in my basement.

It used to be in my living room.

But then I remodeled the living room.

You know I wouldn't just throw away a perfectly good floating shelf.

;)

So I cut the sides off the shelf to fit the space.

It got a coat of primer and a coat of white paint.

(Note: All paint used are my leftovers. I now have barely any reserve paint left =P)

Since I cut the ends off the shelf, I also cut off the hangers. But the back is hollow.

All I needed to do was make supports for it.

So I cut three pieces of 1x2's in the same lengths as the shelf's open pockets.

I predrilled holes in them.

And hung them up on the wall level with each other.

I secured it onto the supports with wood glue.

I also found hooks in my garage bins. 5 were screwed into the bottom of the shelf.

You will get to see that in a bit.

Anyways, I also had some flashing just hanging out in my garage.

(I know, I know, I hang onto everything.)

I cut it to size and nailed it onto the wall.

Now of course I couldn't keep those sharp edges there. It would need trim.

I found a perfect-sized trim next to my potting bench.

You can see a little bit of the shelf here as well. The hooks weren't in when I took this picture, though.

Anyways, I pulled up a chair from my basement. It belonged to an old desk that we no longer use.

I took the seat and back off....

...and gave it a coat of primer and a few coats of white paint.

Do you remember these ugly pots from the herb garden?

Here they are getting primed...

...to become art supply holders.

Ready for the grand reveal?

And then, after two days of hard work...dripping sweat everywhere in HOT weather...

...my daughter decided to draw all over EVERYTHING with PERMANENT MARKER!

I...was...pissed.

It was all over the walls (that took me days to paint when I was pregnant with her.)

It was all over her new shutters.

It was all over the new desk that I just spent two days making.

I didn't take any pictures of it. I went into over-drive trying to fix her artwork.

For your amusement, here's what it basically looked like:

I just got done restoring everything to its formal glory.

And do you know what's the kicker?

My daughter's had an issue with drawing on walls since she could walk and hold onto a crayon. I built this desk to give her a safe place to let out her creativity.

Ironic, no?

Needless to say, those supply buckets will not be holding any "permanent" supplies for a long time!