A Booth & a Dresser

Hey there everyone! It has been too long. Between working full time & the day to day stresses of life, I started neglecting my blog. Shame on me!

Things have been exciting around here recently. Hubby & I became vendors at De'France Antiques and Collectibles in Fort Walton Beach! I have been over the moon. Its so exciting to be able to follow my dreams & passions.

Current Booth

Original Booth

That being said, we've had A LOT of extra DIYing going on to keep up with the demands of the booth. I'm pretty sure our neighbors think we are nuts with all of the loads of furniture coming in & out of the house.

Here is my most recent furniture makeover. This dresser was actually a gift from Micah. I loved the wood tone, & it was in very good shape, but I had to give it a little more oomph!

For this beauty, I took out the drawers & used a white spray primer to coat the body so I wouldn't have to do any sanding. Then, I simply painted 3 coats of flat white latex paint over the whole thing. Once that was dry, I used 100 grit sand paper to lightly distress the edges & raised areas. After wiping it down to remove any dust, I applied two layers of clear furniture wax {buffing in between}. I'm still planning on adding a little extra something to the recessed areas on top two drawers, but its lovely as is.

It now has found its perfect spot in our master. I am itching to get my hands on our other dresser, but its going to have to wait a bit.

So what do y'all think of my newest furniture addition?! 

Also, hubby & I would L-O-V-E it if you would go "like" our new Facebook page for our booth. Its called Southern Vintage, & I promise y'all with love it!

Coffee Table Overhaul

Today, I thought I'd give y'all a little sneak peak at our living room via the coffee table that I painted for it! 

Micah ended up being able to move out of barracks while he was at Fort Bragg last year, so when I went for a visit during my summer break, I helped him get some furniture. Knowing that anything he bought had the potential to end up in our 1st place together, I wasn't going to let him buy just anything! I found a matching coffee & end table {& a couch} listed on Craigslist all for $100. What a steal, huh?! We have since then gifted the couch away, but the tables made the trip to Florida. They originally caught my eye because of the shape & style. I wanted something with a slatted top & a bit decorative on the legs that would lend itself to shabby chic style. The oak color wasn't ideal, but I knew that was an easy fix. 

Once we got all of our stuff down here & the house set up, this was my first project to tackle. This pieces are both very solid. We aren't entirely sure what they are made of, though. The top had a thick layer of some sort of laminate on it, but it looks like real wood underneath. It's a mystery. 

My plan at 1st was to use Micah's palm sander to take off the top layer of whatever & then stain it with a satin Walnut stain/poly I purchased at Wal Mart. To say that didn't work would be a huge understatement. It took me 45 minutes to get one little board sanded. My plan changed quickly. I went back to Wally World & got some dark brown paint in a satin finish {just the cheapest interior kind they had}. 

I dragged the heavy beasts outside on top of an old sheet & gave them both a light hand sanding. I flipped them over on their tops & 1st painted the bases with Krylon Cream spray paint in a satin finish. It took 3-4 cans to get both evenly coated. After I was satisfied with the legs, I turned them right side up. Using a wide sponge brush, I painted the tops with my brown paint. 3 coats was perfect. I probably could have gotten away with 2 because the paint covered really well, but I wanted to be safe. Once that was dry, Micah & I used the stain that I had bought for the tables over the paint to deepen the color a bit & to provide a bit of protection for the paint since it had poly in it as well.

As a centerpiece, I've displayed our wedding photo book {which I made on Shutterfly}, 'K' coasters from Bed Bath & Beyond {which were a wedding gift}, & a Bean Pod candle {They are soy candles & clean burning! This was also a gift. Plus they smell ah-mazing!}. I've been looking for a tray as well, but haven't been able to find the perfect one yet. 

We use the baskets underneath the coffee table as storage for our board games {Scrabble is our FAVE.} & for movies & Micah's Xbox games. I've been toying with the idea of painting them since they don't match at all. What do y'all think about that?

The piece of pottery that hold our wedding book was also a wedding gift from my dad's cousin & was made by her daughter, Lee. Not only is is exceptionally beautiful, you can use it like a casserole dish as well! How awesome is that?! All of her pieces are handmade. Check out her Facebook page for more pictures of her work!

This was just the facelift these tables needed! I'm all about two tone furniture & contemporary shabby chic right now. The end table looks just like this, as well, but I didn't want to give too much of my big living room reveal away! The best part is this project cost under $30 & only took a few hours! Can't beat that. 

Shabby Chic Table Runner

What you need:

fabric of your choice

thread that matches your fabric 

straight pins

a measuring tape

scissors

sewing machine

I told y'all in my post about the Monogram Button Pillow that I had more plans for the fantastic curtain I bought on sale from Target... Well, here is project #2! I have been searching (with no luck) for either a table runner or place mats to go on the gorgeous table my hubby made us that coordinate with the dishes we got as wedding gifts. When I saw that curtain, with its vintage-y embroidery, I knew I wanted to make my perfect table runner instead of purchasing one. 

Since we are currently living in a temporary, fully furnished apartment (yay, Army life), none of our furniture is up here. So, I wasn't able to measure our table to get the dimensions for my runner, like most of the websites I found were suggesting. Then, I randomly found a website (which I can't find now, sorry!) that suggested 13" x 60" as a good, generic size, so that's what I went with. 

First, I cut the embroidered section off of the bottom of the curtain & cut that into two 15" sections, with a little still left over. (I decided to give myself an inch on each side so the finished product would be 13.")

Next, there came a bit of math my 2nd worst subject not my favorite thing. I measured & cut a strip of fabric for the main part of my table runner. I had to allow for the embroidered bit of fabric that I was planning on attaching to each end. All in all, I wanted it to equal 60" after it was sewed up. I also cut the width of this strip 15" like the embroidered parts. The next step was to attach the embroidered ends to the main strip of fabric. I pinned & then sewed this together. Make sure you sew both ends on the same way... I got distracted on the phone while I was pinning & had to rip out & redo one end... 

After that was done, I started pinning the edges to hem. This was a bit of a task... I was trying to manage it while fighting off a kitten who thinks fabric is REALLY fun to play with. I kind of guestimated (once again) my hems. They are a little crooked by not enough to tell unless you look really closely.

After pinning to my little heart's content, I sewed up the edges, trimmed up any leftover threads, & voila! It still needs to be pressed, but I was so excited to show y'all that I saved that final step for a little later. 

My lovely new shabby chic inspired (custom!) table runner. I love it! And, it cost me next to nothing since I used the same fabric & thread from my button pillow. What do you think?!