Craigslist Changing Table

Onto the next part of the nursery reveal...the changing table!

I found this cool changing table on Craigslist a few months back:

Well, it didn't look so nice, but I knew it had potential. We really liked the vintage-y feel that it had. So I took off the hardware and doors and got to work sanding it down. 

As far as refinishing it, we did pretty much the exact same thing as we did for the Dresser Update.  

Unfortunately, the whole thing smelled really weird. Almost like a slight smokey or musty or something nasty. Of course, we didn't notice the smell until we had it in the car on the way home (the people had it sitting outside for us to look at when we got there).

So after we primed it all, I could still smell the weird smell, which we determined must have been coming from the inside. So, we ended up using A LOT of Kilz spray paint and went ahead and sprayed the entire thing, including the inside and the back. Thankfully, that totally took care of the problem! No more nasty smells! :)

And here is our finished product:

I spray painted the hardware the same oil rubbed bronze to match the dresser.

We did add a little wooden scroll work thing to help with the vintage feel we are going for. We just used wood glue to glue it on before we did all the painting.

It looks like it was always there :-)

I am so happy with how this turned out! Our little nursery is starting to come together!

My husband and I got some maternity pictures done this past weekend and then turned out AMAZING! If anyone is looking for a great photographer in the Davenport, Iowa area, I highly recommend Erica Jessop Photography. She is great! 

Or if you are in the Northern Illinois area, you can contact me :-)

Dresser Update

Here is the first "sneak peak" if you will, at the projects that my husband and I have been diligently working on for the nursery. I know I could wait and do a nursery reveal when everything is complete, but where is the fun in that? :) So I've decided to post about things as I get them done.

So, here is the dresser that we started out with:

I had already taken most of the hardware off; I tend to forget to take pictures before I start because I just get so excited, haha :)

This old dresser came from my parent's (for free, bonus!) and is actually the same dresser I used during college. We originally got it from an auction and the finish was kind of...well weird. Someone had tried to do a faux wood grain finish, and it was interesting looking to say the least, this picture doesn't do it justice. Needless to say, it was ready for an update!

I didn't take any pictures of the process, but we did the basic furniture refinishing steps that you can find on pretty much anyone's blog these days.

First, I sanded it a bit, then sprayed it down with Kilz primer-I think we did 2 coats to cover it well. Since we chose a white crib, we decided to go with white furniture to match. We sprayed it with Krylon white, in a semi-gloss finish. I think it took at least 2 coats, we may have done 3 though. 

After that was thoroughly dry, I went to work on some glazing. This is the first time I've ever glazed and I'm SO glad I did it! We LOVE how it turned out! And glazing is actually super easy-especially since you can just wipe it off if you don't like how it looks (as long as it hasn't dried obviously). The glaze gave it just the right amount of antique look that I wanted :)

I also sealed it with 3 coats of a water based poly, just to help protect it from scratches and such.

I spray painted the brass colored hardware with an oil rubbed bronze paint (after doing a coat of Kilz, though I'm not sure if that was necessary or not, I wanted to be on the safe side!)

I seriously love it! It is going along well with our vintage inspired nursery :-)

It is amazing what some paint and glaze can do for furniture! We were a little intimidated to spray paint such a big piece of furniture, but it really turned out good! (Just be prepared to need a lot of spray paint!)
This dresser (and some other furniture for the nursery that I will be posting about in the near future) are really our first experiences with painting furniture, so if we can do it, then I know you can too! :)

Yarn Wrapped Door Wreath

Yarn Wrapped Wreath

I've been wanting to make an anytime wreath to go on our (very red) front door. I finally got around to stopping by Hobby Lobby the other day to pick up a styrofoam wreath.

I've seen yarn wrapped wreaths on blogs and on Etsy and have always thought they were super cute. So I decided to make one of my own :)

The only things I bought for this project were the wreath and the "R" which I got from Hobby Lobby and spray painted oil rubbed bronze (though it looks pretty black). Everything else was just stuff I had on hand.

I hot glued everything on the wreath including the yarn and it worked pretty well.

I used random scraps of fabric for the flowers and then glued beads, jewels and buttons on some of the flowers.

I really like how it turned out, and it would be really easy to make one for each season :) How cute would a spring one be with a little bird on a branch or a winter one with a cute little snowman? The possibilities are endless! :)

In my last post I talked about Scentsy, and I'm happy to say I got my order in this week and I am so happy with it! My living room smells like hazelnut latte :-) If you are interested, click here to go to my sister's Scentsy website.

These are a few of my favorite things!

I had a project to share this week. It was suppose to be a diy photo canvas wrap, but it was a diy FAIL. Boo. The picture itself was too thick and just looked like I bent a picture around a frame, haha. Oh well, you can't win them all right? I may try to do it again once I get a thinner papered picture :-)

I thought I would take some time to share a few of my favorite things with you guys! (and no, I'm not being paid or anything to say any of this, it's just my opinions!) :)

Scentsy!!

I have always heard people RAVE about Scentsy, but had never looked at any of it until this past weekend. I'm lucky that my sister sells Scentsy :-)

You can buy online from her website and right now through the end of August, a lot of the products are 10% off!!! You can shop the party "Christmas in August" :-)

There are so many cute warmers! What did I choose?

Charlemagne Full-Size Scentsy Warmer

Taro Plug-In Scentsy Warmer

For the scents themselves, I ordered: vanilla cream, mochadoodle and hazelnut latte.

I can't wait for my goodies to come in the mail! :-)

Here are a few other super cute ones that I liked:

How cute is that little elephant?! Perfect for children (ages 3+) or for a nursery! You put a little scent pack in the back.

You seriously need to check out all the great options on her website.

Something else I LOVE are TOMS shoes! 

If you aren't familiar with TOMS, they are a great company. For every pair of shoes you buy, they donate a pair of shoes to a child in need, One For One. Isn't that awesome!

My husband and I just got our new pairs in the mail yesterday!

I got the Metallic Tweed Classics, I love them! Perfect for fall!

Hubby got the Calculus 101 Vegan Classics

If you aren't familiar with TOMS you should check it out!