An Ombre' Dresser

Remember when I gave myself a deadline to finish 3 projects that had been lingering in the garage for way too long?


Well, I'm happy to report that I finished one! The dresser is finally out of the garage and in Brook's room where it belongs.


Last week I dug out my paint swatches, spread them out across Brook's bed and chose one that matched perfectly to the pink in her bedspread. A quick trip to the paint store while the Mister gave the dresser a light sanding and a coat of primer, and we were in business!

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I painted the bottom drawer first, and then poured some paint into a paint tray and added a splash of white. A quick stir and I painted the next drawer. Another splash of white paint, stir, and repeat.

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It's not perfect, but I am pretty pleased with how it turned out! It was a good way to step outside of my comfort zone, which is white, white, and more white.

crumbsinmypurse.blogspot.com

crumbsinmypurse.blogspot.com

Kitchens Past - Our First Home

When we got married, we purchased the worst house we could find just so we could have a mortgage we could afford. We paid $300 a month, and this disaster of a kitchen became home.

It's hard to tell from the photo, but the cabinets were oddly sized, homemade ones with rusting hardware. When you opened a door, the scent of curry punched you in the nostrils. The walls were painted alternating ; lime green with yellow trim, and yellow walls with lime green trim. There were white lace curtains hung from a brass rod, and brass light fixtures filled with bugs. The countertops were chipped formica, and the tap was almost stuck shut with calcium deposits. The floor was covered with burns and black marks, and the stove was harvest gold and burnt everything we tried to cook.

When we first moved in, we painted the cabinets white, got new hardware, and painted the walls blue. We covered the countertops with some cheap black plastic "refresh your countertop" gimmicky stuff. The backsplash was covered in metal flashing to make it look like stainless steel, and we bought a floor model dented stove from Home Depot with leftover wedding money.

This is the only photo I can find of that time...you can see the painted cabinets with new hardware, and the nasty floor...but not much else.

Then we purchased new laminate countertops and installed a subway tile backsplash.

And later we added some inexpensive moulding to all of the door fronts, and bought a new sink and faucet from Ikea. I can't believe that this fresh little country kitchen used to look like this!

We put the house up for sale shortly after finishing the kitchen renovations - and it sold in 2 days, for double what we had paid for it 3 years earlier! We walked away from that home feeling very proud of what we had accomplished, and itching to do it all over again.

The White Stripe

The baby's room is almost complete!

We started by painting the walls in one of my favorite paint colors - Benjamin Moore's Revere Pewter. In this room it does take on a bit of a taupey/warm tone, but it is a soft grey.

My goal was to decorate the nursery without spending much, so after the walls were painted I hemmed and hawed for a while about what I wanted to do. I finally decided to paint a band of white around the room to add some interest. For the white, I chose Benjamin Moore's Cloud White which is another favorite I've used in the past.

I had the husband do all of the calculating, measuring, and taping. He's good at math and I am hopeless; it's just easier if I stay out of the way of any projects that use a measuring tape. After he taped off the room, I used an old gift card to burnish the painter's tape to make sure it was well adhered to the wall.

My number one tip for achieving crisp paint lines - brush away from the tape. What I mean by that is, I place my brush right onto the painter's tape and brush over the edge toward the middle of my stripe. That way paint is always being spread away from the tape edges, and not being pushed into/under it. When I am painting the top portion of the stripe, I placed my brush onto the painter's tape at the top and brushed downward; when panting the bottom of the stripe I placed my brush on the bottom strip of painter's tape and swept upward. Once all the edges have been brushed this way, I go in with a roller to finish up the middle.

After painting the second coat, I removed the tape right away while the paint was still wet. Another little tip - pull the tape toward the wet paint. When pulling the top row of tape, I pulled downward toward the wet stripe I just painted. When pulling the lower strip of tape, I pulled upward, again toward the wet paint.

We ended up with really crisp lines and no need to touch up! I was thrilled with what an impact that little quart of paint made in the room, the stripe was just what it needed.

The furniture was purchased three years ago at The Bay, when I was pregnant with Brook. We also re-used the crib bedding; I love it and it was in perfect shape, and we were trying to do this room on the cheap.

I bought some picture frames at the local grocery store for $14 each, and then filled them with images from a Winnie The Pooh paperback that was mine as a child - it was free at the gas station when my dad pumped a tank of gas, and somehow I still had it even though the cover was falling off. Normally I feel wrong tearing apart a book, but this one was really falling apart. And come on, it came from a GAS STATION in the 90's . . . I think that fact alone gives me permission to give it a new life as artwork!

I still need to add some finishing touches and organize the closet, but it's starting to look like pulled together!