Some Before and Afters

Well I have lived in my home for 3 years now, and we have done quite a bit to it since we moved in. I have my basics done like furniture and paint colors and drapes but I am still at work on the little bits that finish things off. I have been procrastinating a lot lately.  I will get a project done this week, but as of yet I have not done anything except clean my house. So since I dont have any current projects I thought I would post my before and afters of what my home looked like when we moved in and where we are now. I am also posting a picture of my living room (with the fireplace) to show a fellow blogger what the paint color she has chosen might look like on her walls. It is Benjamin Moore Ivoire. That is the color of my living room walls. I love it and I hope You do to. So without further adeu...

these are pics of my daughters room before we moved in and after.
Her paint color is sherwin williams Lily.

Next we have our front hallway before (narrow and flowery) and after (open and airy). I like open and airy, how about you?

our tv room had spongy blue carpet when we moved in and as with the rest of the house it got a new life with hardwoods. I also love fresh blue paint on the walls in this room

I promised Beth of The stories of AtoZ that I would show her my living room as I used the paint color in it that she is thinking of using in her kitchen so here it is. Before...

and after! I used Sherwin williams Ivoire for the paint color.

Things have changed a bit around here since these pics were taken... furniture layout and wall decor. However I am still happy with all the wall colors I chose.

I will post more before and afters soon of the rest of the house but for now that is all!

Hope everyone has a great day.

Back to reality

Just got back last night from Disney. My husband, two kids and I  all went for 9 glorious days. The weather could not have been better and the kids could not have behaved better. The weather was so nice we actually went to Typhoon Lagoon water park twice. I am bummed out to be back to the tedium of home. I feel like a family vacation was good for my soul though. I really enjoyed time with my family with no dishes or laundry or errands to do. Just good quality fun for us all! I will be back to my projects shortly. I want to work on my second dresser this week and finish my candle holders. In the mean time it is my daughter bday today so I am off to bake cake and wrap presents before she gets home. Hope everyone is doing well!

Almost New Dresser

Ok so yet again I forgot to take a before photo however I have a second dresser which is yet to be done and It has the same finish that the first had so please forgive me that it is not the exact one. So here is some back round. My parents had these dressers in our home growing up.  When they moved to arizona all their furniture (which they did not want to take with them) was divided up between the kids and I ended up with this set. It has two dressers and a full size bed. We use the bed in our spare room and I am yet to decide if I will change that but my husband and I have been sharing one of the two dresser for the past 10 years. I know it is crazy! The other day after letting the paint cure for a few days I finally put my clothing in the refinished dresser and showed my husband all the room he had in his... he was shocked at how full his drawers still were. Thats how much we had shoved in there. It was pretty ridiculous.

Any how I sanded and primed the dresser then did 3 coats of white paint. I had to make new holes for the handles as the old handles were 3 1/2 inches from hole to hole and standard handles today seem to be 3 inches. Luckily the new handles covered up the old holes.  So to make the new holes I started by making a jig- a piece of wood with holes drilled in it to match the holes from the handles. I put felt pads on the back of the jig as not to scratch my new finish.  My only problem that occurred was that I broke a drill bit one of the drawers and had to go in at another angle to reach the hole in the handle. It was very frustrating. In the end I think it is a pretty great transformation.

Dont you love the shiny new handles?

Here is the finished product. I  need to touch up one little spot as the drill bumped the drawer when the drill bit broke. Oh well no ones perfect!

I'm working on it.

So I know I have not posted in a while and I like to include photos with my posts but I am a little behind the eight ball these days.  We are heading for Disney in orlando next week and I am trying to pull things together for our trip while also completing a few tasks around the house. Today I finished painting an old dresser. It was my mom and dads dresser from the set they got when they first got married.  They are quality(really solid) but I did not like the cherry stain on them. I have painted one white and want to wait a few days for that to really dry so that I can put new hardware on it.  The other dresser will have to wait till we return. I hope to post pics early next week of the completed dresser.