Buffet time!

I saw this a few weeks ago at my local thrift store that I love to hate. It was totally overpriced and I knew no one was going to buy it then. So, I waited. And the other day I went in and it was more than half off! Score!

I love the legs. The last buffet I did like this was gray. 

And gorgeous. But I knew this one was going to be white. It told me so.

So I primed her.

And painted her white.

I added some Anthro knobs (that I scored from Marshall's).

And now it's white and cute and sweet. 

 

Halloween Bunting

Just thought I'd share this cute little project I did using my Cricut cutter.

I love bunting. Anyone else? 

All I did was cut out a bunch of tags on some Halloween paper. And then I cut out some little houses with the letters of "trick or treat" inside each house (that's for a different project! Stay tuned.) but I used the left over letters for this project. 

I then just mod podged the letters to the tags and strung it on some jute.

I love when I can get many projects out of one!

I know you are all staring at that half painted window in the background. One thing at a time, right?!

Floors. Floors. Floors.

Thanks for all the well wishes. I think it is going to be great! You guys are fantastic. And make me feel like it was a good decision.

Enough sap. Onto some projects!

We had carpet on our main floor.

Then that darn cat, Ripley peed all over our house. (BTW - we still talk about that damn cat.) 

So we had to take the carpet up. Okay, I HAD to take the carpet up. I did it. ALL BY MYSELF. 

Just like the stairs. That went from this: 

To this:

And finally this:

I took the carpet up and moved furniture and sold some stuff and we lived with the sub-floor for just a few days. 

I cut it up in sections so that I could take it out by myself. And then the garbage collectors would not get angry with me. They were so glad I did that!

We then pulled staples and vacuumed the sub-floor. Oh, and I painted the trim in both rooms. Just getting started with that continuous project. I'm pretty sure that part is going to take forever.

We decided to go with vinyl plank flooring. We picked a special order color called "Mellow wood" it's just slightly lighter than the stairs. I love the color!  After we figured out that our rooms were slightly off square, we started cutting and measuring.

Once you get things figured out and start, it goes pretty quick. The planks just need to be measured and scored with a utility knife and then snapped apart.

Not too bad. We did both rooms in less than a day. We rolled it with a rolling pin at the time and then we will be renting a huge roller to go over the seems again.

This is the front room. That big ol' ugly leather chair will be banished to the basement. Then a nice small chair will be coming in. 

Here's the family room. And we took that couch to the basement as well. It's an awesome couch, it just sits awfully heavy in the room. The dark floors and dark couch were making it feel very dark, when the goal was to actually lighten up the house.

The flooring is Armstrong Vinyl Plank. So far I am impressed. Of course I am treating them like real wood! "Don't wear your shoes! Don't scrape your toys. Don't put furniture directly on top!" Ugh. I'm sure I'll get over that. 

Now, we just need a place to sit!

BIG NEWS. For me.

First, some housekeeping - Traci from Virginia that asked about the Mary Jane Confetti fabric, please email me (and include your email so I can email you back) I've got some fabric for you!

Thank you all for the compliments on the pumpkins and the stairs and my kids and my furniture! It means so much and I know I can't get emails out to each and every one of you, but just know that I appreciate it so much! And because of all of your encouragement and peer pressure (okay, not really) but the encouragement....I got up the courage to contact a store.

And that's the big news. White Butterfly Furniture is going to be in a STORE! That's right. Within the next few weeks local people will be able to purchase White Butterfly furniture and goods at a store called Harvest Home. It is a fantastic, amazing store with a fabulous owner (Hi Brenda!). Maybe she'll let me take some pictures and post them all over the world wide web. 

The idea is that I'll filter some pieces in throughout the next few months and then have a show with some big pieces such as the table.

And this buffet.

It's actually quite a funny story, if you are at all interested in the story behind how it came about.

I went into the store and asked the woman behind the counter where she got her furniture (which happened to be the owner), and I said I refurbished furniture and she said, "I KNOW! I KNOW YOU! I READ YOUR BLOG!" So, long story short, we both wanted my furniture in her shop and so it will be!

I'm so excited and I am so looking forward to doing some pieces for the store and expanding the client base. One of the many things I love about this store is that she keeps the prices reasonable. It is so important for me to keep the prices great so that people can afford it. And that is important to her too.

I will still be painting pieces for me to sell and I will still be posting things on the website. So don't worry. We're working together on stuff.

So there you have it. Fun stuff. Can't wait.

Painting with gray.

I heart the color gray. Or grey? Either way, I love the color.

I've done a few things in gray lately.

I did this piece for a client. That's right. A client. I'm cool now. (Hi Nancy and Tyler!)

Then when I picked up that big table the other day at Goodwill, I found this end table...

  
And a really ugly chair that I apparently forgot to photograph, but picture the following chair in gold with a red seat cushion.

It's hard to tell but, first I painted it orange. Then Krylon's pewter gray. I distressed it so that you can see the orange coming through then added a little ikea fabric with little orange dots on it. Hence the orange under the gray. 

I'm lovin' the chair!

Then this:

And now, I'll be able to get better pictures because I won't have carpet pad in them. Oh and the sub-floor. Seriously. 

Have I mentioned I love pewter gray? Are you tired of furniture transformations yet? 

Oh, and I have some exciting news. You'll just have to wait until tomorrow though...

Painting a table white.

Remember these chairs?!

Well, they had a matching table that I didn't get when I purchased the chairs. Every time I went back to Goodwill, I saw the table, and finally one day, I just got it. Hello?! Why didn't I do it right away? I have no idea. Don't ask me. Okay.

How's that for cool? It has two leaves and gets to be ginormous. Gi-nor-mous. 

I primed it. Then lightly sanded it with 180 grit sandpaper. Then I wiped the whole thing down with a wet rag and let it dry. After that I sprayed it with Rustoleum white in semi-gloss.


Two coats.

After that, I sanded it lightly again on the top. I roughed all the edges up with my palm sander. Because it's fast and I like that I can just quick do it with the palm sander and not be meticulous about it.

Then wiped it with a rag again.

I quick did a little bit of Feed and Wax over the dark areas. Which really brings out the distressing.

And wiped on some polycrylic. I said polycrylic. That's right. Don't use polyurethane on white. Just don't. You'll cry. It turns yellow. Almost immediately. Then you'll cry like I did the first time I did it and there wasn't anyone to tell me not to do it. So don't. Just like that whole up all night baby thing. No one tells you how hard it is. You know. How absolutely HARD it is not getting any sleep. 

I'm just so thrilled with the results. Ummm...I wish it fit in my house!

Hello gorgeous! I love you. I want to get my sleeping bag and snuggle up on you and never let you go. Is that so wrong?


It's for sale. Send me a message if you want it.

Guess what we're doing?

That's right. Carpet is out. New floors coming in. I'll keep you posted.

Halloween Pumpkins

Or as I like to call it, Copying.

I will be the first to admit that when I see a great idea I immediately want to copy it. Then I do. Sometimes it works out, sometimes not, anyone remember my sad little trees?

Not so good, eh?! Erin, from Lemon Tree Creations has this twine thing down! Someone was having a "craft fail" party. I should have linked that one up! Oh, the fails, they are abundant! I'm sure I'll have more this holiday season too.

But, here's one that I think turned out pretty well. So, without further adieu here is my shameless copy of my friend Kellie's (from This Blessed Nest)fantastically amazing Halloween pumpkin stairs...

I took a bazillion five dollar pumpkins purchased from Wally World taped off the stems and spray painted them white, okay, it was only nine...just nine pumpkins. 

First I primed them. Then I sprayed them white. Well...I primed most of them. I ran out of primer with two pumpkins left. Bummer. I know which ones weren't primed...do you? 

Then I got out my Cricut cutting machine. I had some Wall Pops (It's just vinyl. Almost like drawer liner, but a little thicker, you can use drawer liner too, I've done it. Works great!) from Home Depot that I hadn't used yet, so I pulled those out and cut out the letters H-A-L-L-O-W-E-E-N. Just in case you need to know how to spell it. (I don't know how many times I said it in my head and counted out the letters and the pumpkins. I'm a freak.)

This part is boring, but someone may care, I used Jack Sprat at cut depth 2 and 5 inch letters. It worked perfectly and I even have a cut out of the letters I can use somewhere else.

The wall pops are great because they can be pulled up and moved if they need to be. Easy as pie.

Here they are on the stairs. Lookin' pretty good!


Now, this isn't just like Kellie's, I mean she's fancy. Me, not so much. I can't be just like her. Although I would like her curly hair. And her cute chalkboard hall. Yes, that's right, a hall. The whole hall.

Seriously. Did I spell that right? You know how some things just don't look right....that's this word for me right now.

And now, the stairs.

I know Halloween isn't for over a month, but the boys have already been dressing up in their costumes, so I just couldn't resist putting these up.

Then, because I just can't quit, I grabbed some tea lights, the fake kind, that have that little pretend flicker....

Of course, no photo op is complete without some goofy faced kids:

Thanks for the great idea Kellie! I love how it turned out!