Our "New" Retro TV Stand

 When we moved to North Carolina, we had to sell a lot of our furniture because the layout of our house is so different here and the rooms are smaller. We didn't want to buy brand new furniture again, and because refinishing old furniture is "in" we decided to go that route. We found a really cool place in downtown Raleigh called Shelton's where we found a few different pieces of furniture that just needed some TLC. 

In Nashville, we had our TV mounted over our mantle. Our living room here is definitely not big enough to do that again, and I thought I wanted to find a cool old sideboard. 

But when I saw this:

I knew it would be perfect. It was pretty retro as it was, so as soon as I took it home I got to work on it. 

The top was a bit scratched up, so I filled and smoothed those out. 

Then I got to work priming.

Then it was time to paint. I chose Benjamin Moore "Gentlemen's Gray."

I painted the inside light blue to give it a little contrast and make it easier to see inside. 

Once I put everything back together, we put it in place (yes this was before Christmas last year..oops)....

And TA-DA! 

I love it. It is perfect for our living room! 

Whimsical Tree Board

Thanks for your sweet responses to my last, rather emotional post. I still have a few things I never published that I posted about when we were still in EA, and  I used my slooowww internet over there to upload pictures and I'm sharing them. And they are all things that brought me lots of joy, and I need closure. So here we go. 

I made this a really long time ago but never shared because i wasn't quite content with it and didn't think it was blog worthy. It kinda turned out how I wanted but seemed a little off. SO I never shared. How silly.

I wanted to make a unique, abstract-esque something to hang over the bed in the guest room so I bought another calligraphy board like the ones I used for my fabric panels. 

I wanted it to kind of be a collage with paper, but still have some sort of a scene. So I used different sized rectangular pieces of paper to make a sky, and then made rolling hills out of a few different patterns of green. I cut clouds out of this woodland creatures paper, and crumpled it up to give it texture. 

After I mod-podged all of that down, I painted a big tree with black, brown & gray paint. It is the tree that I didn't love, but didn't want to go back and fix it after i had finished. After the paint dried, I cut different sized circles in different patterns for leaves. I crumpled them to give them texture as well, and lightly mod-podged the on. 

I wanted to put some kind of "sleepy" quote on the bottom. I've always loved the Dixie Chick's version of "Godspeed" that it a lullaby that says, "oh my love will fly to you each night on angels' wings, godspeed, sweet dreams,"so I decided to use that line: My love will fly to you each night on angels wings. I didn't do a good job with the spacing but I think it goes pay with the whimsical look to it. 

I lined the whole board with this brown & blue paper for a finishing touch. 

And there you have it. A little whimsical tree board. 

I was really unsure about what to do with it when we left- it was too big to come back with us and I didn't know if other people there would think it was too odd to use themselves, but would never want to make someone feel like they had to say yes or no either way, and I was afraid that it would get thrown away and that would be really sad. 

But it had the perfect purpose. One of my dearest, most wonderful EAian friends who lives in a different city than we did came to visit right before we left and walked in the guest room and said, "I love that!!!! Did you make it!?" to which I said, "DO YOU WANT IT!?!?!" and she did! So we wrapped it up, tied ribbon around it so she could carry it on the plane with her, and now sweet Lydia has it at her house and hopefully thinks of me every time she looks at it :) 

So glad I decided to share. 

Guest Bed Makeover

I started this post a year and a half ago, when I actually started this project. Now that we're moving in a week, I thought it would be the appropriate time to share :) 

This is the bed that our landlord provided for the extra room in our apartment here. 

Lovely, huh? Blue pleather headboard and gold balls. Clearly we weren't having that. My original plan was to paint the balls black, take the blue headboard off, recover it, and then put it back on. But the screws were so rusted & stripped that taking the blue pleather off was impossible. 

So instead, we took the bar & balls off, and just recovered the whole thing, metal frame included. 

Thanks to Hannah's sweet staple gun skills, it worked really well

I saw this fabric at a bedding store, and absolutely loved it. Any fabric in a bedding store here is really, really tacky, so it really caught my eye. 

I had a euro & 2 standard shams made. I love them so much, that I am taking them back to America with me. 

The bedding is from Ikea (of course). 

I made the bed skirt myself with grey fabric I bought at the fabric market. Since the bed is against the wall, I only made 2 sides, and stapled them to the ply-wood bed slats. 

And that is how we transformed our guest bed from this: 

To this: 

Joyfully Transformed,

Fabric Vases {and other spring decor}

As I shared when I posted about my spring mantle last month, I made these fabric covered "vases" to put my fabric flowers that I made last year into. I saw this idea linked up on pinterest:

Source: flickr.com via Haley on Pinterest

 and decided I'd try something similar. I don't have access to lots of good vases, so I went to the supermarket and bought cheap glasses. They didn't have any tall round ones, so I went with what they did have- an octagon and a round squarish shape.  

I used the yellow fabric I used to make my fabric panels for the first one. I covered the glass with mod podge and slowly wrapped the fabric on. 

I cut out different little squares & rectangles from my scrap stash, and mod podged them around the sides.

 

I did the same thing with this blue flower pattern. 

They are quite eclectic, but I think they're fun & fit my multi-fabric theme I've got going on with my spring mantle. 

I bought a round low ball glass to make a little votive with. I wrapped & hot glued this green polka dot pattern trimmed with grosgrain ribbon on both ends. 

I thought I'd also share more decor from around the house. 

The walls in our office are a lovely spring green, making all of the decor in there quite springy. 

On my little desk I have this Ikea lamp with a little embroidered lamp shade. I actually have the big one in my office in America. I also have a few fun frames like the little birdie that Eve sent me. 

I also have these old jars that I filled with little colored rocks, and silk flowers sitting in the window sill. 

I bought these cute animal prints at IKEA last year and really love them. 

You kinda can't see them here because of the glare, but you get the idea of what it looks like. 

On the bookshelf I have my little flower bunny that Eve sent me last year.... 

and my "Friend" frame that I brought with me from America. It's a picture of me & all of my bridesmaids at my bridesmaid's luncheon. 

Over Adam's desk is this Ikea boat print. 

And hanging on the door is the beautiful wreath that Jamie made & sent to me last year. 

Isn't it so pretty? She's so talented. 

In the living room I have lots of other colorful things. 

On the plant stand I put the mosaic orbs that I made last year. 

Next to it I put this little beaded votive I made. I hot glued little colorful beads around the edge and filled it with the rest. 

On the bottom of the plant stand I put this white Ikea vase with silk orchids. 

We have trunks for side tables, that I have decorated them with lots of decor from.... you guessed it, Ikea. 

I bought these cute embroidered coasters here in EA 4 years ago on our first trip here. I brought them with me last year. I love them. 

Finally, I hung this Happy Easter banner that Marissa brought for me when she came to visit in March. 

Lots of colors with which to enjoy spring :) 

Joyfully Springy,