revamp with white & gold.

There has been a lot of changes happening in our home these past few months and I'm excited to start sharing some of them! Most of it is just moving some things around, and repainting, but our biggest undertaking has been finishing off the entire upstairs of our home! It has been fun so far, and we are trying to complete it by Thanksgiving:) So we are busy working! Excited to post some in progress pictures soon.

First up on the changes list is this quick dining area update! We bought a really cool table..err..desk from Ikea when we got married and used it as a dining table for the past 4 years.  We loved it, but it was truly a desk size, and was a challenge to eat at when we had guests.  I decided to use some chairs and a table I already had in storage, and move our "desk table" to my office.  Believe it or not, I carried this old table through all of my college apartments, but somewhere along the way the chairs got separated from it:( When going through things I found some really cool almost retro chairs of my grandparents.  I decided to paint the table white to accent all of the details that were lost in the dark wood, and add some gold accents to both the chairs and table.

 

And I just love this little octopus. My cousin gave him to me as a hostess gift when we threw her a baby shower this summer. He seems to move around my house pretty frequently:)

 I also updated this piece of furniture by spray painting the handles purple. Sometimes simply upgrading the hardware on a piece can save it from paint!

I left the chairs their natural wood too, but painted the paddle shapes gold.  I love the retro feel of them, and these chairs might not always stay with this table, but for now it works!

Remember to check out my photography blog where I am posting regularly these days and follow me on instagram!

diy mirrored & stained wood coffee table.

        My husband built me one AWESOME coffee table this spring that I have been so excited to blog about! You might have noticed it when I posted some updated home photos a few months ago. This spring we invested in new living room furniture.  Our new navy blue set was much larger than our small white Ikea sofa, and the table I had upcycled to go with it was just not a practical size for the larger furniture.

       Shane designed this table on his own after I showed him some Pinterest examples of ones that I liked.  I really wanted a second level to the table so it would help serve as some practical storage. I think this is a great kid-friendly option too because it would be a great place to stash toys! For now I have a few baskets underneath where I store books, remotes & magazines.

    After the table was constructed I stained it with Minwax Dark Walnut wood stain. I kept going back and forth about whether I should put glass on the table or figure out another option.  Glass would work, and I could do a cool painting or stash photos under it.  However, with the dark color of the furniture, things really needed to be lightened up.  I had a mirror cut to fit the table exactly at local auto glass shop.   It brightened up the area so well and reflects the colors of things hanging and sitting around it! 

Old sofa and table

 

Out with the old, and spray in the new!

I was about to buy new knobs for this old piece and then decided to just revamp the old ones with some neon spray paint. I primed them with a spray paint primer to help cover the pattern and then  sprayed with the pink!

 

 

a pop of neon.

 My mom and I embarked on this chair project a few weeks ago and I have been so excited to blog about it!  I must admit that the results were pretty fantastic.  My mom's kitchen is gray, white and black and was the perfect canvas for us to experiment with some bold colors.  We both bought this neon spray paint in hopes of bringing more brightness into our homes, but not quite sure how we would use it.  The chairs were white with black cushions. We decided to spray paint them gray, and give the appearance that they had been dipped in these bright colors!  We tried multiple things to achieve this "dipped" look.  We tried painters tape and cardboard masking, but it was all too difficult to manage or it peeled off the gray paint.  SO... this idea was born.  Originally we thought saran-wrap and it probably could be done but when we saw the Press'n Seal in the drawer it was over.  We knew that the cling quality of the material would be perfect!  We then measured the same distance up on the chair and started wrapping!  We sprayed the first 2 chairs using neon spray paint and the last 2 we painted on with can colors that we already had. 

before

 And here's a peek of them in her kitchen! The spoon art is from IKEA and my dad built a frame around it that we painted pink!

oops!

Every time I find myself in a home improvement store I always browse through the paint section and see if there happens to be a can of oops! paint calling my name.  If you are unfamiliar, oops! paint is paint that was improperly mixed and is extremely discounted! I have found some of my favorite paints this way- and could be a fun way to decide on a paint color for a room.  Last week I stumbled upon this awesome gallon of paint. It was $5. Originally $40. I practiced restraint and left it at the store, walked out to the parking lot and then ran back in to purchase it.  I instantly wanted to paint everything in my path this color, but decided to start with this.  I painted the entire stool orange and then dipped the legs in this leftover pink(another bargain paint find)!

candlestick diy.

These candlesticks are a perfect example of how painting something can make such a transformation!  Remember that teal table?  I used some of the leftover paint that I had from that, and when the paint was dry I rubbed specific areas with sandpaper.