Before and After

Mom came up 2 weekends ago to help me do some "DIY." Chris was gone on a boys golf weekend, so we had a fun and very productive time together!

The first thing we worked on was a chest that Chris had from growing up.  I was inspired by a chair that mom had painted for me a few years ago- I loved the blue that she used as the cushion pillow and wanted the chest to be a similar blue. 

Here is the inspiration:

The chest before:

And after:

 

I love how the blue turned out.  It looks great in our second guest bedroom with the T-Shirt quilt bedding and matching painted chair.  I am still looking for new pulls.  I really want crystal pulls, but so far I haven't been able to find any that will work.

The next item we worked on was the coffee table. I bought this coffee table a few years ago for very cheap.  I never loved it and the cats have scratched it up with their back claws.  So, I figured if we messed it up it was no big deal!

Table before- I didn't get a great before shot and this shot makes the table look a lot better than it looked:

Table midway.... We originally thought we would just paint it a creamy white, but after we finished the second coat it was too bright/light for the room.  

 So, we bought some dark stain from Lowes and then applied it over the white and quickly rubbed it off with an old cloth.  It gave it an antique/weathered look!  Then I went around the edges with sandpaper and roughed it up a little, to give it some charm ;)  It looks so much better!

 The last project of the weekend was to recover the dining room set.  We originally bought the set from craigslist (it was a steal) and I had been wanting to recover it for months.  Going with the tealish/blue theme, we found 2 great fabrics at Printers Alley.  I really wanted to use pink as well, but Chris wasn't having it, so I compromised and bought a pink fabric to make 2 small pillows to sit on the head chairs.  Mom whipped them up for me and even added a cute little trim!

Chairs before:

A few action shots:

Chairs after- the head chairs have a fun pattern and the other chairs have a simple linen blue.

I am so happy with how all of our projects turned out! Chris was impressed when he returned from his Golf Weekend and couldn't believe we got our entire list accomplished :)