Let's Paint!

The first day back to school yesterday went pretty smoothly other than the fact that Devin didn't really get any of his close friends in his classes and had rather drop dead than ride that bus with those older high school kids again.  His words: "I don't know...they were just wild and dropping the F bomb all over the place."  


Okay, okay, that was enough for me to hear.  The mornings aren't so bad with the time difference between middle and elementary schools but in the afternoon I will have a good 35 to 40 minutes after picking up Dray before getting Devin and the schools are very close and it's too far to come back home.  So looks like we'll be doing our 3rd grade reading in the car while we wait in the afternoons.   


Dracen set his alarm this morning for 6:00 and had taken a shower and was dressed and wanting breakfast by the time I got up.  You go on with your little bad 8 year old self, Dray Dray!  If this is any indication as to how our school year is going to go then I'm gonna be one happy mama.  (fingers crossed) 


In other news, I have been painting on some furniture around here like a crazy person.  It's like I was bitten by the furniture painting bug and now I have this crazy itch to constantly be making something over. I'm finding it extremely rewarding to take a a tired and worn or plain and boring piece and turn it into something I love to look at.  


This little cabinet has been in Dracen's room as a little nightstand. I believe it belonged to Charlie's grandmother and had obviously seen its better days years ago...

After painting his room last week it was really standing out as an eye sore and I had a burning itch to paint something so I took that tired old hardware off, sanded it a little, primed and painted it with some of the leftover paint I had used in Devin's room.  But of course it looked lighter over the white primer which I actually liked.  Then I freshened her (or maybe it's a him) up with a new little glass knob and spray painted the hinges with oil rubbed bronze spray paint.  Much better, I think... (and no, his whole room is not that dark...just the one wall!)

 My mother had given Charlie and me this little cabinet as a wedding gift because we had such an overflow in the kitchen at our old house.  My kitchen here is mostly white with red and black accents and I just kept seeing this cabinet black every time I looked at it...

And I know  you can't see the whole kitchen but it really goes so much better...

The following table belonged to my grandmother who died when I was four and it has been at my mother's house all these years.  It had been painted brown at one point in its life and was looking pretty sad...

Those before shots were taken in April of 2010 because that's about when I got it from my mom's garage and started trying to strip the paint.  At the time I had never painted, stained, stripped or even so much as thought about making over a piece of furniture.  I (with Charlie's help) ended up getting all the paint off the top but finally gave up on the legs and it has been sitting in the basement all this time collecting spider webs that Charlie was so kind to clean off for me before I would touch it with a ten foot pole.


I had originally thought I'd just stain the wood but that was before I found all these great do-it-yourself blogs by some amazingingly talented women and discovered Annie Sloan chalk paint which was designed specifically for painting furniture and giving it that old antique and/or distressed look.  You don't even have to sand or prime first...just start painting.  


There are really only a handful of stockist in the U.S. who sell it so I found one on the east coast and ordered a little starter kit which came with the old white paint, two waxes, a brush and a book by Annie Sloan.   


I'm so in love with this paint and how this table turned out that I ordered more in 3 other colors to use on my next victims projects around here.


She is currently residing in my bedroom...

And I can't stop looking at her...


Y'all have a great weekend!