Tag: before

Furniture, Thrift Store Finds

Before & After: Navy Dresser

Jessica Smith

I fell in love with this little beauty the moment I set eyes on it in a thrift store. I had to convince my thrift store buddy of its worth, but me, I saw the vision immediately. The lines are beautiful, the handles are awesome, but the old wood in chipping condition… not so hot.

Dresser Before

I knew when I bought this piece that I wanted to paint it navy. I thought the brassy handles would pop beautifully off of a navy facade. So I used Paint Minerals and some dark navy paint to turn this….

.

Cruddy table corner
Drawers painted and drying
Shell of the dresser

… into this!

Navy Dresser Complete

I opted to coat the whole piece in Varathane polyurethane. This isn’t typically recommended for chalk-like paints, but since this dresser will likely have stuff resting on the top I wanted it to hold up well. Now most bloggers will tell you to use polycrylic versus polyurethane when going over paint, but not me. I hate HATE hate polycrylic. I’ve ruined two projects using polycrylic and I don’t intend to ever use it again over paint. Not everyone has this same experience and maybe I’m doing something wrong, but it does not work for me. I definitely recommend using the Varathane brand of polyurethane because it dries beautifully.

Enough of my polyurethane spiel… After everything dried, I put the hardware back on. I love the result. Can’t believe I got this beauty from a thrift store for less than $10!

Home Improvement

The prettiest fireplace ever

Jessica Smith

It would be an understatement to say that I love my fireplace. It has quickly become one of my favorite things about our house — I cannot believe how well it turned out! Glen did a marvelous job of creating a simple mantel for our brick fireplace, and it is truly perfect!

I still have to paint it, which I plan on doing this weekend, but isn’t it just awesome?!?

The fireplace has come so far, and I have to say that I’m rather proud of our design choices. Remember what it looked like before? It used to be smooshed against the wall of our fourth bedroom, suffocated by paneling and surrounded by a massively round hearth . Really, it was just altogether unsightly.

Now it’s the centerpiece of the room again, as it should have been. I’d say we’ve made quite an improvement. The trim at the top looks splendid and the mantel is going to match nicely once it’s white. It’s also placed at a normal height (the old mantel was about a foot higher… weird) and extends to the edge of the brick.

It looks so charming with our wedding photos on it, too! ❤

Instead of buying a pre-fab mantel at Home Depot or Lowe’s that would have been a lot fancier, I had Glen make the mantel out of two simple wooden supports, two pieces of wood (he glued them together to form the thicker shelf), and a piece of trim. It saved me about $200, and it really does compliment the simplicity of the fireplace and the simplicity of the room.

Once I paint the mantel, the only thing left to do will be to eventually replace the doors with something more modern. The brass is rather dated, but it works for now!

We get our couch this afternoon, so check back for pictures of the room with furniture in it!