I’ve seen makeovers of old buffets like this about a million times, (slight exaggeration) and they usually consist of painting and glazing, which emphasizes the ornate carved part (another exaggeration, those things are usually plastic), but here’s a fun idea. Sarah at FunCycled painted it a smoky gray, then popped off the plastic and added sleek new handles and mirrors instead! Oooh, so chic. And like 50 times easier than glazing. (Not an exaggeration. Glazing is hard!)
Yesterday was National Cheeseburger Day, I hope you all marked the occasion. I was hoping to find that today was some great National Day of Something, only because I just now realized these desk makeovers are red, white, and blue, and then I could pretend that I did it on purpose. However, today is just International Talk Like A Pirate Day, so let’s just go with that, because um … America is a nation … and go red, white, and blue, ahoy!
Representing the red is this adorable, or should I say arrrgdorable schoolhouse desk from Faye at The Shabby Cottage Home. Note the clever chalk decals and numbered drawer pulls? Cute!
Gretchen knew this desk could be salvaged, even though it looked like it had been shipwrecked on a sunny beach for ages. Check out the fading on that wood! You can still see where the handles were supposed to be! She redeemed it with a fresh coat of white paint, and now it’s a treasure! See more at Gretchen’s Garage.
Elisha shivered some timbers to add a chunky set of feet to this beast of a desk. Getting it off the floor and adding new hardware, plus lining edges with a strip of aluminum and tacks made a huge difference. Blimey! Looks amazing! (Is ‘blimey’ a pirate word? Or more like a leprechaun word? Whatever.) See more from Elisha on her blog Pneumatic Addict.
I think it’s great that grain sacks and galvanized metal and burlap are all big in the world of decor right now. I bet our pioneer ancestors would get a real kick out of that. Maybe someday our great-great grandchildren will be decorating their homes with our old plastic grocery sacks and tupperwares. But probably not. But you never know.
Hey, speaking of vintage decor, my fabulous sis-in-law Kalli is throwing another one of her Vintage Market sales this weekend. Check her out at DecorDeals on instagram if you are interested and local. They really are unbelievable. I will be there, come say hi!
And now please enjoy this lovely grain-sack-striped vintage-ified dresser from Debbie at Painted Therapy.
“I want that for my BIRTHDAY!” is what my daughter exclaimed when she saw this dollhouse makeover from Cameron at Popcorn Movie Nights. Even though she says that phrase about 50 times a day, whether it’s about a cake she saw in a magazine, or a toy on TV, or rubber bands at the store, (she’s a little odd), it’s high praise indeed. I want one for my birthday too.
Cameron grew up playing with this dollhouse, which originally belonged to her mom. She was ready to pass it down to her little girl, but first she had to repair a few things, and decided to give it a head-to-toe makeover along the way. So cute it hurts!
Cara at The Project Addict has a fun series going on her blog, “Treasures from Grandma’s Basement,” which is where she dug up this child-sized card table set. She replaced the tattered vinyl seats with laminated fabric, then freehanded a similar design on the table top. Her niece reportedly loves it, and I’ll be on the lookout for one too, because my daughter apparently needs this for her birthday.
I tell my husband all the time that I am a ‘form over function’ kind of girl. This means that he will not find a paper towel holder on our kitchen counters, I will probably hide his stacks of paperwork, and the blender has to stay out of sight even though we use it everyday. I just don’t like to look at that stuff! I would probably slipcover the fridge if I could.
That’s why the first thing I noticed about Susan’s old bathroom here wasn’t the punch-in-the-face wall color the previous owners had chosen, but those crazy towel holders! At least put them on a wall not facing the door, where they’re the first thing you see. It’s worth the extra inches of reach! The colors … the towel rings … I feel like I’m being charged by an angry bull.
But Susan soothed my troubled mind by replacing the them altogether with a lovely basketful of towels next to the tub. Oh, and the rest of the bathroom looks pretty darn amazing too. See more on Susan’s blog Living Rich on Less.
Turn away now if you are highly offended by painted pianos. Or if you are a huge fan of splintered bums. Because not only did Kammy fearlessly paint her piano a delicious shade of dusty turquoise, she also fixed up the accompanying bench from serious-seat-splinter-er to subway-art-inspired-bench-of-beauty. Get a closer look, and see if you can spot the word she accidentally stenciled on twice on her blog Kammy’s Korner.
