{refinished craigslist chairs}

Remember our Craigslist dining room set?

It looks pretty good in that photo, but the chairs were in need of some major TLC. I already covered the seats with a fun Amy Butler fabric which helped to perk them up. My husband has been working on refinishing them and I'm happy to have a finished one to share with you...the difference is pretty amazing!

Just as a reminder, here is one of the chairs right after we bought them with the worn and dirty seat cover...

And here is one after I recovered the seat...

If you looked closely the wooden frames were really dirty and worn, especially on the top...

Are you ready for this after? I'm amazed at how beautiful the wood is!

And here is a little side-by-side comparison {the different in the finish on the legs is pretty amazing too}...

He has finished two of them and I can't wait to see the entire set looking shiny and new. Not bad for a $75 set of chairs, huh? I'm really proud of my husband because this is his first furniture refinishing job. Gotta love a man who can handle some stain and poly! :)

Hope everyone is having a great weekend. I have some entryway decorating planned for tomorrow that involves a new lamp! Have you done any decorating projects recently? Link them up!

Linking up with Thrifty Decor Chick's Before and After Party!

{dining room progress}

After lots of small peeks at our dining room over the past few months, I finally feel confident showing off pics of the entire space. While it is still a work in progress, I'm excited at the changes we have made so far.

What I'm most excited to show off is our "new" dining room set that we found on Craigslist. You probably remember my post about recovering the chairs with a fun and bold fabric. Well, I finished recovering all four of them and now they have a table to sit around!

They aren't a matching set, but we bought the chairs and table from the same Craigslist seller. For...get this...$75 for the chairs and $60 for the table! And she delivered the table. Pretty sweet deal.

We love the midcentury details...

All of the pieces still need to be refinished...you can see a few bad spots on the table top here...

But it has a really lovely grain. I'm wondering if it is teak? I'm a total wood dunce though, so if someone can educate me, please do!

So for now the table is sporting a tablecloth to keep its unfinished surface safe from toddler {or Mandy} spills. I'm actually clumsier than they are.

And during these crazy hot summer months our friend that we love to hate, Mr. AC is out in the open...

Oh what a love/hate relationship I have with him.

And the gray curtains. Not sure what to do with those. They are pretty blah now that we have some fun colors going on with the chairs and artwork.  I'm thinking once we have the walls painted something other than white, some white drapes with a fun fabric accent would add a lot of brightness to the space.

The wall opposite the fireplace has this little art gallery of sorts...

And then there is the corner to the left of the fireplace. Right now it has this sad bench and a random pillow...

Remnants from when this space was our family room. Working on some ideas for that little nook.

And of course we want to paint the walls, and I'd like all of the trim to be white. And still on the fence about painting the fireplace. Gotta remove that brass door. Lots to do. But when I look at the space now I smile, and that is a good feeling.

When we moved in it looked like this...

And now it looks like this...



I love a good before and after, even if it is still a work in progress.

{thanks for the memories}

I let go of something today that I didn't think I would ever be able to.

About seven years ago, after my Grandpa passed away and we had to move my Grandma into a nursing home, we helped my parents clean out their house. We brought home a lot of their things {a car full actually!}, but my favorite was their dining room table.

My Grandpa stripped and refinished it himself. I can just picture the care he put into every little detail of the sanding and staining. And for being over 70 years old, it is still in amazing condition.

My Dad had his childhood birthday parties around it.

For Mother's Day in 2007 it was the centerpiece of the tea party I hosted for my Mom and Mother-in-Law...

It held all of the yummy goodies at my baby shower...

I completed dozens and dozens of scrapbook pages sitting at it...



And in the past three years we have had lots of family meals with the boys around it...

 {That's my chunky hunky nephew Noah at Thanksgiving last year}

Lots of living goes on around a dining room table.

But the style didn't fit with what we want for the house anymore, and I found a lovely couple who were very excited to have it in their home. So it went to live with them today. And I shed more than a few tears. But I still have all of the wonderful memories to carry with me.

I hope that one day, their grandchildren will be as attached to it as I was.

On a happier note, we have a new table {from Craigslist!} that I can't wait to share with you. It just needs a little TLC first.

{cheap pedicure}

I performed a little pedicure of sorts on our Craigslist find china cabinet today. See...its feet were in need of a little bit of TLC...

Can't quite tell from that photo? Let me zoom in a bit for you...

Yeah...kinda scary. Including that dust bunny I just spotted. Note to self...dust underneath your furniture. {It is empty because I moved it today...keep on reading to see an after shot filled with my pretties}

Considering this piece isn't solid wood and cost us only $90, I wasn't too worried about finding a perfect way to perk up these tired feet. I figured it wasn't anything a little craft paint can't fix. So I picked up three different shades of brown at Hobby Lobby for $1 a piece, and hoped that one of them, or a mixture of the three, would match the wood tone of the feet.

And luckily two of them were close to a perfect match! So I used a bit of each color and mixed the two so it wasn't all one solid color. And here is the after...

Not too shabby, huh? And it took me all of five minutes, literally.

Cheapest.pedicure.ever. :)

And do ya see some of my yard sale find dinnerware in there? I think it is happy in its new home.

 Have you done any simple projects with a big impact this weekend? I'd love to hear about them!









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{shelved}

I've been sharing my progress the past few months on putting our new family room space together. {You can see past posts here and here.} One of the last pieces of the puzzle went up last week and while it is a small piece, I think it was exactly what the room needed.

And did I mention it cost a total of $11? You know I love a good bargain.

If you love before and afters like I do, let's take a look at the corner I'm talking about when it was our dining room. It looked like this...

I loved this whole vignette. From the artwork {from Kohl's} to the lamp to the Craigslist record player cabinet. Loved.it.

I loved the art so much in this corner that when we moved the cabinet to the new dining room space, I left it up. But it looked awfully lonely...

So I snagged a modern white floating shelf from Target, a vase from my milk glass collection, and a $1 stick of brown berries from Hobby Lobby and came up with this...

A simple display that really finishes off the corner. I love the contrast of the white against the gray walls and how the vase and berries fill in the empty space next to the artwork. Here is a wider view of that side of the room...

Please ignore Mr. Brass and Glass 80's sconce in the background. He is on the chopping block for sure. Hello odd light placement!

And just for kicks here are a few photos of the same side of the room from our inspection day a little over two years ago...

Quite a change huh?

The railing wasn't sturdy or up to code so it had to go. The half wall makes the space look so much cozier {not to mention safer!}

And here is the other side of the room before...

And after...

Projects still on my wish list for the family room:

• Replace Mr. Gold and Brass with a better sconce...maybe one like this?
• Paint the stairway walls and hallway the same shade of gray as the family room {anyone like heights? Because I am NOT a fan}
• Touch up all of the baseboards. I.am.so.lazy.

I also have one more little update regarding the opposite corner of our family room...our desk area. And it involves IKEA! Stay tuned!

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