Did you guys see my guest post over at Creating my way to Success?

You didn't!?!?!?!?!

You must go see it. Now. Here's the link - LINK!

Ok, so that console is now done. Yay!

I picked up this beaut at the Salvation Army a few months ago, and knew that she was going to replace the black console that had been in this spot since we moved in. Here's the console that was there.
She wasn't a bad console. Just low and doesn't have a lot of storage. Oh and we have a white dog. Guess what shows up super well on black furniture? Yep, you guessed it. Fur and dust. blech.

So here is what the piece looked like before. :)  I don't have great before pictures, but you get the idea. The piece is a Bassett furniture number, and its HEAVY. I had to make sure to have the thing moved inside before Steve left for Vegas. I just made it.

So now that you've seen her ugly beginnings, lets take a look at her transformation, and how I'm utilizing her oh-so-amazing drawers. :)
 LOOK! They hold the DVDs so very nicely. Not that my children put the DVDs away any better than they did with the baskets, but still they're completely hidden when they are in the drawer!


 I used two different knobs on this piece, which is a first for me. The nickel knobs are from Target and the pretty ceramic knobs are from Hobby Lobby (from my trip to Nashville in June) :) I decided to paint the original backplates a nickel color to match the Target knobs, but to also make the ceramic knobs stand out.



The top is stained with one coat of Minwax Jacobean stain and I protected the whole piece with a coat of wax. The paint color is Metro Mist by Valspar and I primed the body of the piece with tinted Kilz oil-based primer. Oh then I did a light glazing with Valspar Asphaltum glaze. Love the result! Especially against the orange of the family room.


So what do you guys think? Did I do a good job? I love the character that this piece has, not to mention all the storage.

Oh do you want to see how I hooked this baby up without Steve's help?

Yep. I took pictures of how the DVD thing and the DVR cables were aligned. They helped a lot because I hooked it up right the first time! Yay me!

Stephen was quite happy with the change when he got home. The best part? Harrison can't reach the boxes anymore. Oh Yea!

See you guys tomorrow!


Linking up to:

I feel so bad. I have had a piece of furniture in my house that I forgot to show off. I refinished it a few years ago. The very first piece that I ever finished with stain and  {spray} paint. This was originally my grandmother's, but then Dad adopted it, and now she's comfortably hiding DS games and accessories along with various Wii items.

So we've all seen them. Some of us have made them, and you can do a Google search on how to make them, but I still wanted to add my $.02 to the pile. I am, of course, talking about the monkey fist knot. Originally used in sailing so that there was something substantial to grab a hold of at the end of a rope, it is now commonly used in home decorating.

Unlike some people, I don't really follow video instruction very well. Written instructions and I get along much better. So when I found this site on how to construct a monkey's fist I was ecstatic. I decided to take some  pictures along the way of the making of my knot, which was quite hard to do as one hand was constantly holding the knot for a bit. :) Oh and this was a pajama day craft.....

I know you all are probably tired of hearing about our basement, but I promise this is the last post about it {for a while}. :)

I have to be honest with you guys when I tell you that I didn't think Steve {and Evan} could get a wall of shelves and a bar built in a weekend, but they did. The finishing of the bar took the rest of the week, so here's the timeline. :)

Last week Stephen set a brutal pace for getting the basement done and in shape for this past weekend, even though I've been after him for months to help me get the basement organized and straightened up for the parties that end up down there. This last weekend was special however, because this week Steve will be celebrating his 30th birthday. Hence the mad dash to get the basement party worthy.

Now the basement if far from finished but when you see the basement before and afters and then pics of the party then you'll understand why its such a huge improvement.

I'm going to do several posts about the basement transformation because  there were just so many projects that I can't lump them all into one.

So 8 years ago, my husband and I started dating, then after a while we moved in together, and I disliked most of his furniture. So we set about buying new furniture that we both liked. Enter Barewoods Furniture. They had a mission style table set that I liked, and for 4 pieces it was $300 or so. One hitch...they were unfinished. Well even back in the day, I said I can finish it. So I did, and I hated it. Polyshades by Minwax was a new product back then, and between a combination of inexperience, conflicting advice about how stains should be applied and not doing the proper prep work I did not like the finish on the new tables. They only lasted about 8 months until I stripped them down and refinished them. I am proud to say, however; that the tables are still in use with that 2nd refinishing still looking pretty darn good. :)

I know this is an old picture but there are 2 of the tables that I refinished.