Rast Redo

I promise I'll stop talking about Ikea Rast hacks soon.  Or at least I'll take a little break.  But first, I've got to update you on this redo. Remember the first two Rast dressers that I tackled?  The two that were yawn-in-my-face boring?  They looked like this.

I was pleased with them at the time.  Plain was what I was going for and it's definitely what I got, so I thought they were ok.

The next Rast dresser I stenciled and I liked it a lot more than the plain, neutral ones.  It's way more fun to look at, that's for sure.  But plain was still the name of the game for the first two, so they stayed as is.

And then I made this one and ooooh wee, it became my newest favorite.  I love how the added trim pieces beefed it up a little and made it look  more like a susbtantial piece of furniture.

Oh how I suddenly wished that I had done this to the first two!  Some ideas started rolling around in my head...could I go back and beef up the first two?  Oh yes, yes I could.

One thing I knew for sure before I started tacking on trim: I did NOT want to repaint.  And I didn't want to mess up the paint job I'd already done, especially since it was already sealed with polyurethane.  So I had to get creative.  I wouldn't be able add the smaller trim to each drawer, but I could at least beef up the top and bottom.

With my dad's help, we got to work building the top and bottom pieces.  I figured it would be easier if we could build these to fit, but then take them off so I could paint them before actually attaching them.  That seemed like the easiest way to get them painted without ruining the original paint job on the base piece.

 The top was pretty much just a lid that slid right off. 

And the bottom piece was kinda like a....retainer?  Mouthpiece?  That's the only thing that's coming to me.  Basically, it slid right on the front and fit over the front of the two sides.

I gave them the same paint treatment: chocolate brown as a base followed by two coats of the cream.  I gently sanded the edges to distress them just a little.

My dad figured out a way we could screw them to the base piece of furniture from the inside so we wouldn't have any visible nail holes on the outside.  I love it when he comes through with a good idea like that. :)  In the picture below, he's got the base flipped upside down and is attaching the top from the inside.

I did wait to add the poly until the new pieces were affixed to the base.  In my mind, this helped "seal" them to the base.  Probably not really in reality, but it sounded good in my head.

Then it was just a matter of sliding the drawers back in!  They still aren't quite as cute as the original one with the trim, but it's definitely an improvement from before.

Did I mention that we're still short one bedside table?  Yea, we have one room that still doesn't have anything and the clock is ticking.  We've been hunting for something reasonably priced that we could refinish, but haven't had much luck.  It might be time to think about building something from scratch...I probably should stop wasting time redoing things that are already done!

Beach House Update

It was so nice to get to see the house in person!  The last time Doc and I were there, it was mostly just a big box of wood, so it definitely looked a lot different.

It's to the point, now, where the construction crew is locking up the house before they leave.  Since we arrived a few minutes before our builder, we couldn't get in right away.  Wasn't a big deal, though, because there was plenty outside to check out!  For one, this was the first time we'd seen our bike shed.

So what if it is just a big outside closet and we don't even have bikes to go in it yet?  I like it anyway.  Next to the bike shed is this little fenced-in area.  I'm not sure if its for garbage cans or pool equipment.  I suppose we can also use it as a "jail" for little kids that don't behave themselves.

We were pretty pumped to see the pool.  It was kinda weird looking at it from up on the ground...without water, it looked like a really deep hole!  We had to "take a dip" to see how deep it really was.

As teeny tiny as the pool is, it still has a shallow end and a deep end.  It goes from about mid-chest deep down to about eye level.  And these little steps are over in the corner of the shallow end.

These steps are on the side of the house near the pool area.  They lead into the screened in section of our porch.

Our builder arrived and we were finally able to go inside.  Just inside the front doors is the stairwell.  It will be hardwood.

To the right of the stairs is the dining room.  Not much to see in there.  That door leads out to the screened in porch that I mentioned earlier.  The paint color for the downstairs, should anyone be interested, is Tony Taupe by Sherwin Williams.

To the left of the stairs are the living room and kitchen.  I think I've already shown this shot before...the afternoon sunshine wasn't helping my pictures.  The back of the bar has been framed out in preparation for the corrugated metal that will go on.

Here's a shot from a never before seen angle in the living room.  This wall is the side of the stairwell and has both a game niche and a half bath.  The game niche will have shelves and will obviously be where we store board games, puzzles, and such.

I'm not sure that I've shown a shot of the kitchen from this viewpoint.  Straight ahead in the photo is where the stove and oven will go.  The microwave will hang over it and an ice maker will be next to it on the right.  On the side set of cabinets will be the sink, dishwasher, and fridge.

The countertops will be black granite, like this sample piece below.

Here's the downtairs bedroom.  This is where the yellow dresser, green chair, and this painting will go.

Though not the master, this bedroom does have its own private bath.  No bathtub, but it does have a two-person shower.  The picture below shows the tile we chose.

At the top of the stairs is the laundry room.

The laundry room will have full-sized stackable washer and dryer on one side, and on the other is this shelving.

Through the laundry room is also the owner's closet.  This is where we'll be able to lock up anything we don't want renters to have access to.  Our rental agent suggested we have an outlet in there so we can plug in a mini fridge.  That way we can keep condiments cool and don't have to re-buy them every time we go.  Genius.  We've already sent the request to the builder.

On one side of the upstairs are the jack-and-jill bedrooms.  They have both been painted a shade of grey (Essential Grey by Sherwin Williams).  One room will have the stenciled Rast dresser, the white chair and either the polka dot or beach scene painting from this post.

The other jack-and-jill room will have this dresser, a bench we already had, and the other painting.

The bathroom between the two rooms is also painted grey and has white cabinets.

The shower is white subway tile and will have a curtain made out of the same fabric from the white chair.

The master doesn't look much different from my last update.  It's painted Rain by Sherwin Williams.

The tile in the master bath is the same as the downstairs bath, but this bathroom has a separate tub and shower.

The door to the balcony is in the upstairs hallway.  Here's the balcony on the front part of the house.

The balcony wraps around the side of the house.  The side section of it is over the screened in porch below and is a little bit wider.

From there, you can look down and see the pool.

As I was walking around the house snapping pictures, I looked out one of the bedroom windows and spotted this on one of the neighbors' porches.

That's a hanging bed that swings like a porch swing (I'm assuming it usually has a cushion and/or pillows on it).  I may have added this to our list of things left to do...would there be anything better than a late afternoon nap on an outdoor swinging bed?

I apologize if my posts get a little beach-house heavy over the next couple of weeks.  It won't be much longer before we move in and I still have projects to finish up and share.  The exciting part is that the move-in date has been set!  Movers have been hired!  Vacation days are on the calendar!  Ready or not, we're moving in to this house soon!

All Over The Place

Usually, when I sit down to write a blog post, I have a plan and sorta know where it's gonna go.  Right now, that is not the case.  Who knows where this will end up; it may be all over the place. Last weekend, Doc and I took advantage of the extra day off (thanks, MLK, Jr.!) and jetted down to Florida.  The purpose of the trip was two-fold: 1) check on the house and 2) relax as much as possible.  After a not-so-great week, it was nice to get away for a few days.  We left early Saturday morning and, after a couple hour drive from the airport, we headed straight to the house.  We had a meeting with our builder to get updated on the progress (pics coming soon!) and then after that, we met with someone from the rental company that we'll use.  It was good getting all of that done and out of the way, but it made for a little bit of an exhausting afternoon.

We stayed at the Sandestin Resort, which is somewhere I'd never been.  We snagged a great deal on the room!  It was a great place to stay for what will hopefully be our last visit to the area without staying in our own house.  We had a great view of the beach from our room but you know what?  Our toes never touched the sand.

My husband treated me (and himself, too!) to a nice massage at the resort's spa.  Man, was it nice!  Why don't we all pamper ourselves more often?  One day, when I'm super rich and money goes on trees, maybe I'll have a reoccuring massage appointment.  I'll add that to my wish list.

One night we had sushi for dinner at the resort's sushi bar.  When it was served, I wouldn't let Doc eat any before I took a picture.

Shortly afterwards, I read a tweet that said something like "Things Girls Say: Sushi is so pretty!"  Guilty as charged.

I should thank Mr. Luther not only for the extra day off work, but also for the smashing good deals we got at the outlet mall in his honor.  I may even have to give our super savings a blogpost of their own, they were that good.

Switching gears...last night I made this cake for a coworker's birthday.  If you've ever spent 10 seconds on Pinterest, you've probably already seen it.  It's all over that site.

It was super easy.  One box of cake mix, one can of icing, 9 1/2 packages of kit-kats, and a whole bag of m&ms.  I'm sure there were no fat grams at all.

I think my coworkers like it.

That last piece sat there for about 7 seconds before someone scraped it onto their plate.  I think I may have to make another one this weekend for my dad's upcoming birthday.

I guess that's about all the randomness I've got for now.  Tomorrow marks one year since my sweet Minnie girl went to heaven.  I still miss her everyday.

Before and After: 2 Chairs

A good while back - I can't even remember when, maybe last summer? - my mom and I stopped by a second-hand furniture sale on the side of the road and scooped up these two chairs.

Pretty grody in that condition, but they had decent lines so we knew we could spruce them up.  I don't remember how much we paid for them - maybe $20-ish?  I do remember we talked the seller down from the original price, but not quite as low as we wanted.  As our typical fashion, we didn't even have a plan for them, but we bought 'em anyway!

Fast forward lottsa months and I finally got around to refinishing them.  It wasn't hard at all.  I found some spray primer in the shop, so I skipped the sanding step completely (such a rebel!) and misted them with the primer.  Then it was just a matter of slapping on paint and recovering the seats.

Oh, and obviously since I was working on them, we'd figured out their purpose.  As with every other project these days, they'd head to the beach house.  Every bedroom needs a chair for you to throw your clothes in, right?

The first one got painted green and ooooh-wee! was it a rough shade of green.  Kinda like green pea baby food or something.  This picture really doesn't show off it's nastiness.

Can I just interrupt real fast and say that I hate, hate, hate painting chairs by hand?  All those legs and spindles and slats are torture.  This would've been an ideal candidate for some spray paint, if only I'd had some in green and the weather had been nicer.  The green pea color didn't make me enjoy painting it any more, either.

I almost completely ditched the project and said to heck with it, but I decided to give it one last effort and rub some glaze on it, hoping it would tone down the green peas.  Luckily, it did.  The picture below shows off the glaze the best.

This chair, we decided, will go in the downstairs bedroom with the yellow dresser and this painting.  I used the fabric we picked for the curtains to recover the seat.  No fancy reupholstery tricks here - we just popped the seat off, added a layer of batting, wrapped it up like a present in the fabric, and staple-gunned it down.  Here's the finished product.

    

(Yes, I used the garage door as the backdrop to my photoshoot.  I was looking for a background that wouldn't be too distracting.  Our neighbors, I'm sure, think I'm totally weird.)

Here's a close-up of the fabric.

The other chair was done pretty much the same way, except minus the coat of glaze.  It got coated in glossy white paint and will go in one of the jack-and-jill bedrooms.  The fabric on the seat is the same fabric from the shower curtain my mom made for that bathroom.

    

A close-up of the fabric on this one.

Just for fun, let's go back to the before shot...

Yea, pretty sure I like them better now.

    

Which do you like better, the white or the green?

Ikea Rast Hack #3

Don't know what an Ikea Rast dresser is?  Check out my first hack here for more info.  And if you're curious, hack #2 can be found here. We cranked out the third and final hack the day after Christmas.  I didn't take pics of our step-by-step process, so this before and after should be quick.  If you need a refresher, here's what the Ikea Rast dresser looked like right out of the box.

Plain, simple, raw wood.  We used A Charming Nest's hack as our inspiration.  Hop on over to her blog if you want more details of the steps.

No point in wasting time, let's get right to the after shots!

I love it!  I used the same colors that I used for the stenciled hack since they'll both go in the jack-and-jill bedrooms at the beach house.  Instead of staining the top, I watered down my grey paint and white-washed it on.

I really like that it has a nice contrast from the white base, but that you can still see some of the wood grain too.

And I thought brushed silver knobs would go well with the light grey top.

Kinda makes me wish I could go back and add trim to the other ones now, but I'm not sure if I have time!

Which one do you like best?  I was in love with the stenciled one, but I think this one may be winning me over now.