Master Bedroom Dresser

Since I'm on Christmas Break from school, I finally had some time to style the dresser in our master bedroom.

My dear husband bought me the mirror that's leaned against the wall. He got it at Kirklands, and I know this because I bought it and told him that it was what he was getting me for Christmas.

 
The white lacquer tray, orchid, and both of the gold vases I got from Homegoods.  The picture frame was from TJ Maxx. Clearly I still need to put pictures in it, but I was too excited not to share. The books in the tray I stole from the living room, but I got them a while ago for $1 on clearance at TJ Maxx. As you can see, they are pretty substantial hardcover books. A good find, if I do say so myself.

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Let there be light

As we have been decorating our master bedroom, I have been on the lookout for a chandelier for the space. In my head, I had imagined a chandelier like these in my inspiration pictures from Pinterest.

Source: None via Kim on Pinterest

Source: blog.urbangrace.com via Kim on Pinterest

 

Source: weheartit.com via Kim on Pinterest

As much as I would love to be able to go to an antique store and buy a crystal chandelier, that just isn't in the cards for us right now so I was thrilled when I found this one for $50 (!!!) at Home Depot online.

It was originally $99.97 It was marked down to $77.00 and I was sold. When I went to check out, I noticed the price in the cart was actually $49.99. I was so excited!

It came in a million pieces, but that's what you get for $50. Jacob put it together Saturday morning before I was even awake, but he says it was time consuming but not hard.

 

I may be obsessed. Just one more. Promise.

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Nightstand Transfomation

I have been busy working on some things around the house, but I wanted to stop in and share one of my projects that went (surprisingly!) without a hitch.

Since we are just starting out, we have a lot of hand me down furniture. I can count on one hand the number of furniture pieces that we actually bought new, so one of my goals this summer was to make all the hand me downs "go" with our house and our style.

One of the most beat up pieces of furniture that we have is a piece that Jacob used to use as a tv stand in college. It is now being used as a nightstand in our guest room (I think it's original purpose in life).

I have been dying to paint it for over a year and I got around to doing it this week.

So here is what the nightstand looked like before

It didn't match a single thing in our house and was in need of a little TLC.

I had most of the supplies in my garage since I had been planning on doing this for some time, but I believe I got everything at our local Lowes and/or Menards. For rags, I cut up one of J's nasty undershirts. (shhh! don't tell him)

I choose to paint the furniture in our guest room Rustoleum's Heirloom White and I really like how it turned out.

It was really easy and went much faster than I had anticipated.

I started off by wiping the nightstand down to make sure it was free from dirt and dust. I then took the shelf out and took off the hardware. Next I applied liquid sander and let it sit for the recommended 10-15 minutes. I choose to do liquid sander because A. it has worked for me in the past B. it's faster and C. it's much less labor intensive.

Next, came the primer. I went with the spray primer because it goes so much faster. While it dried, I went inside and watched something on my DVR. I'm sure it was housewives from somewhere or some other quality programing. Apparently whatever it was, was so thought provoking that I left my camera inside because this is the last in progress shot.

After the primer dried it was finally time to get some paint on this puppy. I know there is a small roller in the supplies picture, but I ended up using a brush to paint on 2 coats of heirloom white.

I also spray painted the knob on the drawer oil rubbed bronze.

After the paint fully dried I used a wipe on polyurethane to finish up. I let it dry for 24 hours before I brought the nightstand back in the house.

So without further ado, here's what the nightstand looks like now.

I know I should probably re-paint that lamp now.

Another item for the to-do list.

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Cheap Thrills

Hi, my name is Kim and I am addicted to Goodwill. (I'm imagining you all saying "Hi Kim" in unison)

I think the reason I love it so much is because it gives me my shopping fix without spending loads of money. Plus it's way more exciting to find "treasures" than to just buy stuff off the shelf at any old store. (Not that I don't enjoy that too.) I just think it's fun to find things that have been thrown away by someone else, that just need a little TLC.

So let's get to the good stuff. Here are some recent find:

This picture makes it look like I'm hoarding candlesticks. I may or may not be. I got each of these candlesticks for between 1.00-1.99. They will all get a fresh coat of spray paint and probably be placed in threes. I know one set is going on the guest room dresser and the other set is still moving to different spots as you read this.

 I love lamp. This is more of an after picture, but I love how these lamps turned out! I forgot to take before pictures (bad blogger), but the top lamp was shiny brass and the bottom pair were a dark wood. All it took was a can of white spray paint and a couple of minutes and I got white lamps! I got each of them for less than $5. The pair lives in our bedroom which you can see here. The single lamp found its home in the guest room.

Ok, I don't know about you, but I HATE spending money on holiday decorations. So I try to look all year long for them. I usually have a rule that I will only buy them if they are the color of the week (half-off) or its a half-off Saturday. Typing that out loud makes me realize how cheap thrifty I can be.

Birds. I don't know why I thought I needed them, but I did. I had been searching for some that I liked  everywhere (not just GW) but these 2 I couldn't pass up for $1.99. They need painted, yes, but they will look good once I'm done with them. Promise. Currently they live on the console table in our living room on a tray.

 

One of my major projects for this summer is organizing all our closets and the pantry. I figured these baskets will come in handy. 

This right here. This is probably one of the finds I am most proud of. $12.00.

If you're still with me, here's how it went down:
I looked and looked and looked for a small dresser for the guest room, but all I could find were tall chests or giant dressers. A couple of Saturdays ago, the hubby and I were running errands on a tight schedule and I saw that it was a 50% off everything sale at Goodwill. Since we were on said tight schedule, J did not want to stop, but I begged and begged and he did. I ran in while he pouted waited in the car and sure enough there were 2 dressers that fit the bill. Fate? I think so.

So when I came back out with a receipt, J was less than thrilled because he knew what that meant. It meant we got to wait in the long line to pick the dresser up around back. Of course, then the dresser didn't fit in the car.

At this point, I think J was about to make me walk home, carrying the dresser. With my good looks and charm though, I convinced him we just had to tie the trunk down and drive carefully. It worked and we are still happily married.

Now I just need to decide: paint or stain? which color? how can I get J to help? Just kidding on the last one...kinda.

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Pottery Barn Knock Off

I love Pottery Barn. Plain and simple. I wish I could buy 98.539% of their store at all times. Maybe it's a good thing that we live in in the middle of nowhere. The only time I am ever close to one is when my beloved laptop needs to visit the Apple Store. Why did they put the Apple Store right next door to Pottery Barn????  Ugh.

First world problems, I know.

Wondering where I'm going with this? Me too.

What I am trying to say, in the most roundabout way possible, is that when I took my computer in last week and walked by PB, I remembered a project I wanted to share.

So what's the next best thing to Pottery Barn? Goodwill! I kid, I kid but I do kinda love it.

During a not-so-recent trip to Goodwill I found ugly light fixture for $5.99 that I just had to have. When I brought it home J thought I had gone nuts. This was pre-blog so I don't have any before pictures (sorry!) but it looked a lot like this one, only covered in dust and GW stench:

After J stopped making fun of me, I very kindly let him know that it was nothing a little bit of paint couldn't fix. I recently discovered Rust-Oleum's metallic spray paint in Oil Rubbed Bronze and I knew it would do the trick!

So I took the whole light apart, cleaned it, went to the garage, and got my spray paint on. I did a couple of light coats and kept the paint can moving. After it dried and I put it all back together it looked like this:

Looks pretty close to this, right?

Pottery Barn $269

Great Success! (Imagine a Borat accent)

So while painting the light was a success, the next part of the story was a big fat FAIL. I had planned all along for the light to go in the entry way. J hung it up, we admired it, and I was so proud of myself that I sent my sister this picture.

Notice anything wrong? I didn't.

But my sister, who obviously is more observant, pointed out that the light hangs lower than the door. DUH! How did I not even notice that? So back down it came. At this point it was late so I put it in on our guest room floor to deal with the next day, where it lived for the past 2 months.

This past weekend we finally got around to moving it from the floor to the ceiling!

Not too shabby for $5.99 and a can of spray paint.

Penny likes it too. She says hi.

L

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