A Childhood Desk

When I was younger my father picked up this antique desk at a yard sale for $15.00. My sister and I loved to pretend we were school teachers, and this desk was the perfect addition to our playroom. Over the years we wrote all over it with all sorts of items, and we even had our friends sign it too.  Rob and I were able to bring it from my parents yesterday, and he started to work on getting it to look new again.

 He spray painted the base in black to enhance the original color.  Then he sanded down the desk with his belt sander and hand sanded it. Then Rob stained it a similar color to the original with Minwax's Golden Pecan. Then after allowing it to dry forever in this heat wave we are experiencing he was able to spray it down with some coats of polyurethane.  

Here is our happy girl sitting on her newly redone desk.  

Rob wanted to keep with the original look of the desk.  Rob was extremely pleased with the desk after all was said and done.  Wynn loves it too, and I am excited to see her have as much fun as I did with it.

Thanks for stopping by!


Megan

Pottery Barn Knock Off Letter Bin

I have always wanted to have a letter bin organizer in my kitchen.  Sometimes our counter becomes the catch all place for the mail and other items.  I have had my eye on a few over the years and I have always loved the one that Pottery Barn had sold. Here is the Pottery Barn version:

It's currently on sale for $44 instead of the original price of $54.  I have never been so in love to spend the original or the sale price. But, yesterday I hit up the Goodwill across the street from my office and found a similar letter bin. Here is it before I changed it up a bit:

This solid wood piece from Target (as it told me on the back) was for sale for $5.  I couldn't pass it up.  Later that night I pulled out some leftover black spray paint and gave the letter bin a fresh look.

Then I found some metallic spray paint that I forgotten that I had and sprayed the hardware with coat of that.

Here is the finished product for only $5 total cost because I used supplies that I already had. I'm excited to have this in our kitchen now, and this means that Rob has a new place to stash his stuff. ;)

Curb Appeal Makeover by Amy & Chris

Our homeowners association makes a drive by every few years.  And then notifies the homeowners of any updates that need to be made to the outside of the home. We recieved a letter stating our shutters need to be re-painted. Chris and I disagree because we think the shutters are fine, but the association will be back in 45 days to check on it. Since we have to re-paint we decided to go for a different color.  And give the outside of the home a facelift and different look. Here is what our home looked like before ( I love the red and will miss it, but was time for a change) We also decided to also re-vamp the mailbox.

Here is the after.  Amazing what paint can do!

Thanks for stopping by! Amy & Chris