Monday, May 28, 2012

Dining room makeover

We headed to the farm this weekend to do more work on the house and land. Our daughter finally got to go up there - she's been busy finishing up her semester. We were excited both the kids got to be there with us. Our son was coming to help me paint - thanks Jay! It sure goes a lot faster with help.
   
Anyway, Megan and I headed up early with her her truck loaded with the farmhouse table I'd found and the bench Bruce made, plus other pieces of furniture. When we got up there, she set to work digging out the fire pit Jay had started the previous time. I finished painting the trim in the living room, hung the curtains, moved the furniture back in place, added the end table and repainted brass lamp, and set out small bench from Canton and the burlap pillows.


curtains, lamp, burlap pillows, and end table added

bench from Canton - painted red - and more burlap pillows


Then we waited on the guys to get there ( they headed up after work). The kids had to have a camp fire that night in the revamped firepit and roast marshmallows. Next morning, we got to work. Here's what the dining room looked like before:

before
Priming the paneling is a pain but necessary. After that, the paint goes on pretty smoothly. Upper wall was painted Behr's "Ivory Palace" - same color as the living room. The paneling was painted a khaki color. Love the contrast!
work in progress
The finished result is lovely. I also took time to paint the bench Bruce made for the table. I had also repainted the "EAT" sign ( I still wasn't happy with it after the first repainting ) using a crackle medium then painting the letters a brighter green, red, and yellow. Love how it crackled and looks now.
crackled and painted
Finally finished painting and moved the table and bench in, hung the "EAT" sign on the wall. Cute, huh? I need more things for the wall! I do have a cute metal sign at home that I need to bring plus I'll be  on the lookout for other objects.

dining room done - Lucy approves!
Also, I still need chairs. Have some spied at a thrift store so need to go check them out a bit more carefully. They just might be the thing.

Wondering what's next? I'm thinking the kitchen. We started on it by taking out the upper cabinet over the bar ( it really opens the kitchen up! ) and I pulled off the fruity wallpaper border. The cabinets will look so much better painted. 
kitchen before. Paneling (of course) and fruit border

cabinet over bar being removed plus wallpaper border removed
That's it for now. I did some really fun coffee art (you can see it in the background in the above picture) for the kitchen and am working on some other pieces. I'll share them next time. See you around!












Thursday, May 10, 2012

Found Treasures

My twin sis and I went to Canton last weekend. It was her first time to go. We had a blast! She and my brother-in-law came up to the farm to see it and since we're only an hour away, she and I decided to check Canton out. We both found some things we were looking for - I actually found some things on my wish list for the farm. Can't wait to fix them up and place them in their spots.

Rustic, Shaker-style bench:
love this bench! So rustic.
Ice cream parlor chairs. Need to make these a seat, then I will put them on the front porch with a small table:

Got 2 of these
Thanks to my friend Mira, we now have a couch and chair in the living room. I painted the trim after I took this picture - ha.  I love how it looks with the paneling painted. What a difference it makes in the whole feel of the room. I'll be hanging curtains the next time I'm there. Oh, check out the hay fork leaning on the wall - another Canton treasure. I think I'm going to hang it on the wall behind the sofa. It's starting to feel quite homey.

Furniture in the living room -yay!
I also found a wind chime made from spoons and other castoffs. It's quite cute but I forgot to take a picture of it. It's hanging on the back porch. I enjoy shopping in Canton - if you want to go, I'll go with you! Just let me know and you can come stay with me at the farm. :o)

On another note, I took some updated pics of outside. I really need to work on the flowerbeds but I'm watching to see what is growing and blooming. Here are some shots of the front:

view from the front porch

Front of the house with huge gardenia bush on the right

view from the driveway
One of my other sisters took me to a furniture resale shop in Taylor and I found a farmhouse table! Hurray! I am going to get Bruce to make a bench to place against the wall then find chairs for the other sides. I need to take a picture of it. That means thhe dining room is next on the makeover list. Here's a before shot:

dining room
yikes, more paneling! Break out the paint! Can't you just see my "EAT" sign hanging on that wall? Can't wait to get started.

Thanks for stopping by. I hope you'll come back and check out the progress.


Tuesday, May 1, 2012

fun projects


I've been working on fun projects for the farm. They are living in my other house until I get back up to there. I'm just waiting to get to the actual point of adding these little details once all the major painting is done. Anyway, a friend gave me an old brass lamp:



I spray painted it bronze and covered the shade in, you guessed it! burlap. I added a bead fringe and wrote favorite sayings about family, friends, and nature on the shade. I think it turned out nice. What do you think?

Lit up makes the crystals sparkle. 



Next up was the miniature wire gate (it's about 14" high) that I made a little sign for. It is a board covered in yep, burlap, which I stenciled with the letter "B". I intend to put some vines on it and hang it on the front door.
Here it is with vines and berries added: 


Lastly an "EAT" sign inspired by Amanda at  http://craftsbyamanda.com/2010/11/distressed-eat-sign.html.  Here's my version:
Old fence pickets, large letters from Hobby Lobby, and fork and spoon from GoodWill.
Not sure I like the "T" in green...I think I'm going to darken it. Overall though, I like the rustic look of it. I might add a "Drink" sign to hang below it.

Darkened "T" - shows up better; it still has green showing through though. This is not the best picture but it gives you the idea:
I am also covering some pillows with burlap sacks I found in Canton.

Can't really tell but there's a moose with the word "Maine" underneath it.
Chose this because it reminded me of our New England trip.


That's it for now. My mind is busy imagining other projects for the house. I'll show them off as I create them. Thanks for stopping by!



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