A Flurry of Frame reFinishing

I just made myself laugh a little with my title...but anyway


It's yard sale season here in Maine! 
YAY!
My sis and I went on a mini yard sale trip the other day and on our VERY first stop look at the little lovelies I found...


(sorry for the not-so-awesome pics)

Two dollars!  Jackpot!

Now, to the untrained DIY-frugal-crafty-eye,

these may have looked like some plain old junky frames. 

But oh no - not to me!  

I have been waiting to find something with great detail that I could paint white

Hello lovahs!  

I also wanted something cheap to try out my new bold aqua spray paint on.

Ugh, I'm so happy! 

And just when I was thinking I had used up my yard sale luck for the day, I found these!  

Um, this one is upside down...oopsy!

I got these bad boys for $1 at my old churches thrift shop.

No, no, not $1 each....just $1. For four! 

Now for the finished products.....

TADA

Wild what a little white spray paint can do, huh?

And the aqua....yeee!  Love!

I just used a little rub on transfer from my scrapbooking collection for this one.

And this one is my fav!  

I couldn't get a great picture as it was so cloudy today but you get the idea.

$1

Spray paint

Scrap Fabric 

and I got a new wall hanging for my kitchen.

And it's the yellow accent color we were looking for!

I'll be linking up to these awesome parties:

Kitchen Makeover (Part 2)

It's here, it's here!  

I'm BEYOND excited to share some photos of 

our 'NEW' kitchen!

Ok, it's not new at all but it looks and feels new and we are thrilled. 

Let me remind you of what it looked like just a few days ago....

And TADA.....

So much better, right?!  I feel like the countertop, which I hated before, has finally come to life.  

We spent days sanding, deglossing priming and painting.  

If I don't sand a single item for the next year, I'm pretty sure I'll be ok with it!

Here is a before and after of the glass cabinet over the stove:

We decided to remove the panes (?) from the glass which I think makes it look much cleaner and updated.

We are thinking we want to use yellow as the accent color. 

I say we because I said "Ad, what do you think of yellow?" and the response was "Huh, yellow?  Ok, sure"

I think he's really into it!  HA

I hope you all enjoyed my little kitchen makeover reveal!  

Has anyone else done a makeover recently?

I would love to see them!  

Again, I will leave you with a few fun pics I took this morning.

I hope everyone has a FABULOUS Tuesday!  

Cheers

I've been waiting to link up my kitchen makeover to Holly's amazing white party over at 504 Main!

Kitchen Makeover (Part 1)

Hey everyone! 

I'm sorry that I have been absent for the past week.  

Husband and I finally decided 

to tackle the kitchen cabinets.  

It's not that they were the 

worst 

but they certainly weren't 

the best 

and our kitchen 

looked dreary, boring, tired..blah

See what I mean

More before

I wanted to get this project done so badly I was up until 2am this morning.  I dragged myself out of bed with husband at 5:45 just so I could see his reaction! 

IT.WAS.AMAZING!

Anyway, now that I have you all on the edge of your seats just DYING to see this new kitchen.....

I will break the bad news that the reveal won't be until tomorrow.  It's dark and rainy here and is no bueno for great pics.  Also, I like the idea of everyone going, UGH! I want to see it NOW! 

(insert evil little laugh here) 

I'll leave you with a few FUN pics I took yesterday.

I'll meet you all back here bright and early tomorrow

Cheers!

The Milking Stool

In the past year or so I have taken on a few refinishing projects.  My first big project, which was also my first BLOG POST (yipee), was so much fun and very rewarding! 

I'm definitely an instant gratification type of gal - so, getting to make a new looking piece in just a few hours work totally WORKS for me. 

(I actually just laughed a little at my word play there...I know, LAME)  

My mom had purchased this old milking stool sometime last summer at a yard sale.  She had an idea of what she wanted to do with it but just couldn't seem to find the time.

Of course, I'm all "Let me do it, let me do it!!"

She finally gave in!  

YES!

She wanted:

White

Black detailing

Distressed

Easy Peasy!

I began by sanding off the old stain and poly.

In true 'Ashley' form I was too excited to keep working and completely forgot to take pictures of the priming stage.  Oopsy!  

When my mother mentioned the black detailing I didn't really think to much of it.  

That all changed when I realized that I definitely didn't own a brush tiny enough to paint these lines. 

UGH!  

I had to fill in the teeny tiny tiniest of all detailing with a tooth pick!  

What the what?!  This took hours!  

Ok, not really hours but it certainly felt like HOURS.

Please pardon my horrible camera skills.  All I have right now is the camera on my phone and it's pretty much guaranteed to never take a decent pic.

Also, don't go getting all distracted by my circa 2010 Tom Brady newspaper either!

  

I threw a couple coats of poly on over the slightly gray-white paint.

I kind of wanted to keep it!   

TADA!  All finished and I think it's looking pretty snazzy!

Since I procrastinated a bit on this project, I actually finished it on my mom's birthday and brought it to her that night.  

Um, happy birthday!  Here's your own stool back!  Haha

I'll have another redo post up soon. 

I just received the matching chest to the dresser in my first post.

  

Stay Tuned!

I'm linking up to the following AWESOME parties.....