Cedar Chest

I've had this cedar chest for a few years.  My aunt bought it for me for my 30th birthday I think.  I had been wanting one, and she is a master thrifter/antiquer so she found me this one.  One of the best things about it, is that it came with the original skeleton key!  I love skeleton keys, they have to be one of the coolest things ever.

Anyway, this chest has been in our master bedroom at the foot of the bed ever since.  It houses extra blankets.  Well, since I am in the midst of a master makeover, I decided to paint it blue.  The blue is the same as the stripes that I put on the wall - my oops paint that I got for $5.  You can see my stripe wall here.

After I painted the entire thing, I distressed it with a palm sander.  I wanted it to look pretty beat up.  Mission accomplished.  Then I applied one of my most favorite products - Valspar's antiquing glaze in asphaltum (black)

I may add a stencil to the top, but I'm not sure yet - I kind of like it just the way it is

This is going to make a great addition to my master bedroom makeover!

I started painting and then remembered the before photo

Awesome skeleton key - love

Check out the cute wheels, love those too

You can also see other parts of my Master Bedroom Makeover here.  Links to each post are on that page.

It's The Little Things

So I just redid (is that a real word?) a mirror I had.  Just an easy change, but it makes such a difference don't you think?

I am still working on kitchen chairs.  They are a real pain to finish up.  And I don't like the paint I used on them.  Which stinks because I paid $35 for a gallon of paint.  It was just off brand paint from a paint shop out here, but I'll never buy it again.

Anyway, here are the mirror before and afters.  Chairs are coming soon I promise.  I have one almost done, but I don't want to post any pics until I have them all finished.  They do look good with my table though!

BEFORE

All I did for this mirror was paint it a cream color.  Then I distressed it lightly and applied a minwax early american stain over the whole thing.  It definitely brightens up my brick wall which is the backside of my fireplace.

AFTER

In this first picture you can see a little of the frame wall that I put in my dining room area.  I need to fix it just a little, but as soon as I do I will post real pictures of that too.

Re-purposed old door

I got this old door (door knob included) at a flea market a couple years ago.  I had it just hanging on a wall, and I had attached some antique hooks and had vintage aprons hanging on it.  Well, it needed a change.  So I turned it into this fabulous piece of wall art instead!

I really love how this turned out.  It was already pretty beat up (which only makes it better) when I bought it, so I didn't bother distressing it anymore than it already was.   I washed it, and very lightly sanded it just to get off some rough spots.  Then I applied stain to the whole door to give it more of an aged look.  The stain also settles into the worn spots and looks really neat.  After the stain had dried I applied scrapbook paper with mod podge into the middle sections of the door.  I put on like 3 thick coats of mod podge to give it a really shiny, textured look.  Then, since we live in the woods and we have tons and tons of tree branches, I gathered some small branches, spray painted them white and then attached them to the middle sections of the door.  I also applied a very thin coat of copper glaze to the outer edges of the door and wiped it off with a cloth after applying.

I really like how this turned out.  These pics aren't very good.  I wish you could see it in person.  :)

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