Better After

Time to Kick Back and Unwind

Summer is kicking my trash. All that summertime “fun in the sun” and “kick back and relax” stuff? LIES! Summer is hard! My kids are whiny and bored all the time, it’s too hot to even look outside, I haven’t managed to finish a single task I’ve started for weeks now, and the whole thing is turning my brain into a puddle of melted Slushie.

Like this, for example: I forgot to include Andrea’s fabulous desk redo in the post of fabulous desk redos of desks that were all similar to one another that I posted last week! It would have fit in so well! Did that make any sort of sense to you? No? I’m going to go stick my head in the freezer and take a nap now.

See more on her blog Dwell Repurposed.

July 9, 2011 By Lindsey @ Better After

6 In chairs/ottomans/seating

Flair for Your Chair

Curls and swirls! Here is a cute little chair redo from Suzy at Joy is at Home. My grandma used to have a vanity seat just like this, covered with a little red velvet cushion and I thought it was surely the fanciest thing that ever existed. I doubt I would have thought that if it sported a crusty Coke-themed cushion instead.

And this rigid Queen-Anne chair from Sarah was a little too fancy, or whatever word you would use to describe that ornate woodwork and intensely floral fabric. I feel like it is glaring at me. Sarah lightened it up with a playful print and distressed the frame. I love how the whole personality of it has changed. Check it out on her blog Three Boys.

And finally Hanh made over this plaid and lumpy doofus of a chair into the sleekest, chicest seat on the street. I’m salivating, truly. She also redid the cushion, but I kind of like the simplicity of it just like this. And I would sell my soul for some of that quatrefoil fabric. OK, maybe not. But I would fight you for it if there was only one bolt left in the fabric store. OK, probably not. I’m non-confrontational like that. But I sure like it!

July 8, 2011 By Lindsey @ Better After

16 In decor

Ta-ta Tacos!

Oh, how fantastically random! A taco plate makeover! I knew it was a taco plate, because it was helpfully labeled “Tacos” right on the plate. That limited its potential, don’t you think? It could have just as easily held corn on the cob or toast. But Tracy gave it a new direction in life with simple spray paint, and now it’s a proud little desk caddy, holding note cards and various office supplies!

Moral of the taco plate makeover: Don’t let labels hold you down! You don’t have to be “Tacos” just because someone said so.

July 8, 2011 By Lindsey @ Better After

12 In desks/hutches/buffets

Layered and Caked

Statia wanted some color in her very neutral living room, so she picked up this old buffet with the intention of sanding it a bit and slapping on a new coat of paint. Then she realized that it had been painted and repainted so many times in its sordid past that a complete stripdown of the layers of caked on paint was necessary. That process ended up taking a couple fun-filled months. Ew. So hats off to Statia for finishing, because I would have cried for a while and then set it on fire in the backyard. But now it looks fantastique! Don’t you love those legs?

See it on her blog Failure to Nap.

July 8, 2011 By Lindsey @ Better After

14 In bedroom

Floored by the Floor

Don’t you want to stay in this plush guest room? Look, there’s a mattress-shaped block of wood and a couple of pillows and what might be a cozy pile of cats!

Heather knew there was potential in here, so she evicted the cats (or possibly a jacket, but who can tell?) added a real bed and a less toxic paint color, but the carpet was beyond repair. So she ripped it out and painted chevrons right on the sub-floor! She says, “It actually turned out pretty amazing, and people can’t even tell that it’s the particle board.” I concur!

July 7, 2011 By Lindsey @ Better After

13 In kitchen/dining/ tables/dressers

Getting Knotty

Have I mentioned how I hate knotty wood? And have a small knotty-wood phobia? Yes, I have, many times. There isn’t a real name for this phobia, as far as I know, but there is such a thing as Xylophobia: fear of wood and Ommatophobia: fear of eyes. So I think I shall tell people I have Xylommatophobia, which will probably impress them and make me a big hit at parties. Or not.

Amanda at Home is Where Her Shoes Are obliterated the knots that were eyeing me down in her coffee table with a dark stain and a contrasting base. I can’t even see them anymore!

And just for good measure, here is a table makeover from Lizette at Just So Lovely. This one is not nearly as knotty. It looks like pine to me, but pine is prone to knots, so what the heck do I know? Just that I like it better with a deep dark stain and the charcoal chairs.