Painting Stair Risers for an Updated Look

I love the modern look of white stair risers, and I thought it would be great for my stairs. I live in a small townhouse in the city, and my stairway is a tiny closed in space.  I was hoping that by painting the risers white it would help brighten the space and make it appear a bit larger. In case you were wondering from this pic, I was also redoing the room next to my stairs, so that whole section of my house was a hot mess for a while too.

Nacho cheese walls!? What was the previous owner thinking?

 

This pic is an example of what I was looking for, plus I am crazy about the contrasting blue walls with the dark floors and white risers! I’m also obsessed with dark rich wood floors. Oh, so pretty!  *Sigh* one project at a time…

 So being the genius that I am, I stained my floors a darker color before I painted my risers. I’m not the best painter in the world, so needless to say there were many freak outs when I accidentally got white paint on my new beautiful stained floor! Ahhh! Tip, if you don’t use painters tape (which I highly recommend) keep several rags handy to quickly wipe up any paint that drips or smears.

What a huge difference! I think I accomplished my goal of making the space seem more open and not so tiny. Goodbye nacho cheese walls, you will not be missed.

Another Vanity Restoration

Here is another makeup vanity restoration I did. I forgot to take a before pic, but I still want to share it. This was my hardest restoration because this piece looked pretty rough when I purchased it. I spent a few days just filling in cracks and scratches with wood putty, and then sanding out any other damage I could. Once the hard part was done I primed, painted, and replaced the old handles with new modern ones for a beautiful finish.   

When I purchased the vanity, it did not have a bench with it. A few days later I found a small and very old bench at Goodwill. The stuffing was deteriorating and coming out of the seat every time someone sat on it, so I ripped everything off of it until I was just left with the base of the seat. I had never reupholstered anything before, but I thought “it looks so easy on when they do it on HGTV, how hard could it be?” HGTV lies. It was not easy, or cheap (FYI every week JoAnne Fabrics, Michaels, and AC Moore have discount coupons, and will match the other store’s coupons). I put the foam where I wanted it on the chair, wrapped my fabric around it and then stapled the fabric to the bottom of the chair. Finally my vanity was complete!

I have way too many shoes!

 





“Who dies on their birthday? Nobody! People are born on their birthday”

I decided to start off the New Year right and celebrate my birthday with a few skydives! To quote this hilarious video promo for Fat Cat Lager, “who dies on their birthday? Nobody. People are born on their birthday.” Sounds legit to me! Time to jump!

Usually jumping in the middle of winter is pretty brutal, but I lucked out! Weather was great…well great for January. Let’s put it this way I could still feel my hands by the time I landed. Success!

*I'm sorry there is no photo credit, but I can't remember who took these shots*



Out we go!



Is it to late to change my mind?







Happy Birthday to me!

I'm over this winter weather already. Come on summer! What is the craziest thing you’ve done to celebrate your birthday?

Glass Knobs

Last weekend I was picking up a french provincial dresser that I had purchased for restoration, when I came across an amazing looking antique sideboard. 

Of course like everything I buy, it had seen better days (the doors were actually falling off of it). However, I have never fixed up a piece like this and for $30 why not! So instead of going home with one piece I got two!

The handles were completely missing on the sideboard, and I thought glass handles would look amazing on it. I am now officially obsessed with glass handles, particularly Anthropologie’s! So many choices!

Changing the handles is a quick and easy way to completely change the look of a piece. Although, depending on how many handles you are going to need it can get a bit pricey. While I absolutely love Anthropologie’s knobs the prices range from $6-$14 each. Yikes! That can get expensive pretty quick. I might check out Home Depot and see what kind of selection they may have.

Have any good suggestions of places to check out?

DIY Pottery Barn Acorn Vase Fillers

I’m obsessed with Pottery Barn! The majority of my posts so far have been about recreating their decor and designs. I’m like Rachel from Friends when it comes to Pottery Barn, except I can’t afford it! Boo.

I love that apothecary table too!

 

My latest project is to make my own version of Pottery Barn’s acorn vase fillers. Very festive for fall. I like it! However, I’m not going to spend $15.00 for a few acorns when I have a bunch in my backyard for free!

$14.99?! Really?!

So I spent a few minutes collecting acorns and acorn tops from my backyard. I wasn’t sure how much I would need to fill a vase, so I collected an entire boxful. Next I cleaned off the dirt from the acorns and threw away the ones that were cracked or had holes in them. 

 

I baked the acorns for two to three hours at 250 degrees to kill anything and everything (weevils!) that might still be in living in the acorns. Not interested in any pets thank you. Every hour or so flip the acorns over so they don’t burn. 

Yummy!

 

The next night I flipped on the TV and went to work hot gluing my acorn tops back onto the acorns. This was time consuming, but watching White Collar hottie Matt Bomer run around chasing art thieves made time fly.

 

Next I sprayed both sides of the acorns with Krylon Satin Finish spray. This took away the dullness, and gives the acorns a shiny look.

It took a lot of acorns to fill my vase, so I put a empty toilet paper roll in the middle of the vase to help fill some space and placed the acorns around it.

Ready for fall!