I'm alive! Livingroom Update!

Hello! It's been a few months. I am still alive though! School, work, and holiday's have taken up a majority of my time lately. Does anyone else feel this way? When things get busy, everything "fun" gets pushed to the side. Well guess who took a vacation day and isn't going to do a darn thing all day? This gal!

On the plus side, I did purchase a new camera for myself right before the holidays! I am definitely not a professional picture taker, but it is pretty amateur friendly, so the quality of all Measure&Treasure's pictures should be better now. It is a Samsung NX300. I'm in love so far!

Onto the livingroom update! It all started a few weeks ago when my husband began building a custom TV stand. Oh boy, he's hooked now. He wants to make every piece of furniture in our house! Which I am totally okay with that because he does great!

Here's the TV stand that he made:

Didn't he do a fabulous job? Unfortunately I didn't document the process (this was all him, but on the plus side these may show up in our Etsy store (handmadebythehunters) in the future!

The inspiration for this makeover all began at Home Goods. HOW HAVE I NEVER BEEN THERE?! It is the BEST! Excuse my shouting, but my husband and I were like children in a candy store there! Seriously. Where have you been all my life? Anyway, we ended up leaving with 4 pillows, curtains (96" ones for $34.99 for two!), and a pretty gold...thing. Bowl? I'm not sure what it's called? We immediately came home and painted our lovely $3.00 conduit curtain rod gold and hung those bad boys up.

Oh! I almost forgot to mention our new coffee table. That is also homemeade. It is the top of a spool cut off with conduit legs. You can tell we really love conduit.

Here are the final pictures!

Still on the to-do list is:
-Replace that lovely pink toned carpet with hardwood floors.
-Add more pictures, wall hangings, etc. It's still a little too plain for me.
-Change that chandelier. It's okay, just not our style.



Of course, the to-do list is forever changing, but as soon as the funds are available the new flooring will be at the top of our list. Ryan hates this carpet with a passion. Mainly because it has a dominant pink tone to it. Ha! Well let me know what you think!

Hope you all enjoy!

See you soon,
Kellie

French Provincial Chest of Drawers

It's been a while. Two months to be exact. I think I've actually gotten myself in over my head in projects lately. The post for today is to show you about the dresser that I refurbished, but besides that I am actually redoing my grandparents 1950's kitchen table, painting a different dresser, and I have two chairs waiting for me to start on them. I'm also trying to get my house looking decent since I've lived here for almost 5 months already and I have yet to hang anything on the walls. Does anyone else have wall hanging anxiety? Like...if you hang something, it can never be removed? Yep, that's my problem.

Before I start this, can we all just take a moment out of our day to admire how adorable my pup is? I just love him!



Ok, now that that's out of the way, here's the beaut I have to show you today!

One day last winter I was walking through Goodwill when this caught my eye. Although it came with a few gifts - living will papers, an ancient teddy bear, and a few other goodies - I had to have it. All creepy things aside, it really is a fabulous dresser. After I bought it I learned that it is called a "French Provincial Chest of Drawers" and it sells on places like Etsy for like $300+! Crazy (and awesome for them)!


Here's the before...


This was really one of the easiest projects I've ever done. I took the handles off, did a little sanding, and began painting. I used...


KILZ primer is my absolute favorite. I primer everything. It really is important for the durability of your furniture. After I primed it and let it dry, I did some very light sanding. and I spray painted it all grey. After I did 2 or 3 coats of grey (once it was solid), it was time for the glaze. Once again, a simple wipe on, wipe off method. You do little sections at a time by brushing it on and wiping it off with a rag. Lastly, I spray painted the handles a teal color to make it pop! I am also aware that the handles are on upside down from the way it was originally. I like it better this way :)









I would say the entire project took 4 or so hours, so it wasn't bad at all! Now the next step is to figure out where I want it! Unfortunately it's just sitting in my unfinished spare bedroom that is still full of boxes from moving.

Between working 6 days a week, and starting up school again in October, I really hope I will have time to keep doing all of my home projects. It really is what helps me relax sometimes! It's my "me" time. Like I said earlier, the next project is the kitchen table - it's almost finished actually, so that will be the next post.

So what do you think? Hopefully I explained it will enough. It was such a simple project that I didn't even think to take pictures during the process.

Until next time!
-Kellie

Main Bathroom Facelift

I must admit, I'm pretty excited to show off this one. Although it isn't completely finished (is it ever really?), I couldn't wait any longer.

This is what I was working with.


Here is the (almost) final product!


HUGE paint color/shower curtain inspiration came from a fellow blogger & teacher at my old high school. Here is her blog if you would like to check it out. It's the best!

Here are all the paint supplies I used...

The paint is Valspar brand that was color matched to Newburg Green by Benjamin Moore. This was a cheaper route, and since I know the paint mixer at Lowe's he was more than happy to match it for me. :)

For the mirror, I spray painted it with the Rustoleum brand Metallic paint, scuffed it up a little bit with some sand paper I had laying around, and covered it with an antique glaze by Valspar. If you would like to know how I do this process, let me know.


I'm pretty happy with the outcome!


The mason jar soap dispenser is a little DIY I will show you how to do later. It is SUPER easy, and all you need is some good ole' Bath and Body Works soap. I also dressed up our wastebasket with a little burlap and some handy dandy hot glue. Lastly, don't you just love inspirational wall art? It's my favorite.



Here is the bathroom from another angle! The adorable vase came from Goodwill for $1.00, and the greenery inside came from Michael's! All of our towels came from TJ Maxx. Oh, and I used some black paint I had lying around and threw some on the vanity. Much better than the white. :) The light fixture is, you guessed it, from Lowe's for a little less than $100.00 and with the help of my helpful husband, it was up within minutes. I love it!

As I said in the beginning, I am almost done. The last thing I am going to do is add some hooks to an old rustic piece of wood, and replace our towel hooks with that. I think it'll add some character! We also plan on adding a canister light above the shower, because although the light it beautiful it's not the brightest. It's great for the ambiance, but not for taking showers!



I hope you all like! Let me know what you want to see next!

Goodwill Lovin'

Does anyone else absolutely love Goodwill?

Saturdays are my favorite days to go. Ours puts brand new Target items out every Saturday for a fraction of the cost of what you'd pay in the store. Cue heavenly music now.

My other favorite place to look at is their furniture section. My husband actually spotted these beauts!



We were in desperate need of nightstands, and these old end tables were the perfect fit. The tables themselves cost $20.00 a piece. The picture only shows one, but we did score two of these bad boys. Best of all the removable marble top is extra durable, so it can handle my sweating sweet tea glasses at night because, who wants to use a coaster?

We used a very light grit sanding blot just to take off the years of accumulated gunk. Next we went to Lowe's and picked out an off white paint and scored some grey sampling paint off the "oops" Isle. We grabbed a few foam brushes, and with some tape and a little patience they were finished in just a few days.

So my question is, where's your favorite place to score old furniture? Goodwill, flea markets, yard sales?

Curb Appeal

Although the front of my house looked alright, when I have the option to make something black, I usually take up that opportunity. Yes, I am that person that wears black shorts, a black shirt, and black shoes at the same time...oops. It's one of my favorite "colors."

So here's an awful quality picture which is the actual before from when we moved in.


Then I started working on it a little bit...


Finally last weekend we dug in! I love it!



I painted my front door black, which I love. It makes my homemade wreaths pop (tutorial to come)! I would love to take that eyesore of a screen door off, but I can't sacrifice always keeping the front door open. With the help of my husband, the light fixtures were changed from traditional white to black rustic style lights, and aside from the few cosmetic changes such as the black and white striped rug, the flowers, etc, that was about it for the front door area.

The paint cost next to nothing, the lights were 2 for $34.99 at Menards, the two flower pots by the steps I scored for $5.00 at Lowe's (they were originally $17.98...make sure you ALWAYS check their "dead" rack), and the rug was $14.99 from Ross. The beautiful purple flowers were from our neighbor as a welcoming gift when we moved in! Super sweet, right?!

The last thing we did was add the fake hinges/handles onto the garage door. They serve no real purpose, but they sure do add character to a home! It seems like that's the "new" fad to add to garage doors these days, and luckily we scored the last one at our local Home Depot for only $18.00. We did actually see that they make fake window's with those kits, but Home Depot didn't sell them in store. We are totally considering adding that though. It looked really neat!



So we did all of these changes for less than $150.00 and that's including everything (even the four lights we changed out)! Not to shabby! Next on the to-do-list is sanding down and refinishing our kitchen table...wish me luck.

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Here Goes Nothing...

It's time to finally delete "under construction." Should I be nervous to make my first post? No. Am I? Yes. Why you may ask? This is the very basis of everything I have worked so hard to create. The countless number of hours I have spent trying to perfect the layout. The hours I have spent on Photoshop creating my banners, side bar titles, etc. That html/css, oh boy, we meet again. I have forgotten everything about you.

But anyway, here I am, and I'm happy with it...for now.

So onto the basis of what this will all be about. I started this blog for myself. It was originally my wedding website from last year, but since that's all done and over with I thought I would transition it into what I am really interested in. My husband and I just bought our second home, I am out of school for the summer, and I have plenty of projects to do, and I really want to document it all. I could have done this all on my own, but why not share it with everyone? If I could inspire one person then that is enough for me. I will be posting some DIY projects, random home things, maybe a little bit about hair or makeup, and shoot, whatever other things come to my mind.

I can't wait to start this journey, so stay tuned!