Blue Ombre Dresser with Homemade Chalk Paint

Remember way back when I asked what I should do with this dresser?

Just to refresh your memory, it's for my daughter Kayla's room.  She is dead set on having her room be blue and green and wanted the dresser painted both colors.  I'm not a huge fan of multicolored pieces of furniture, so we came up with a compromise.

I painted it an ombre blue and added some cute blue and green knobs.

I didn't want to buy a bunch of paint for this project, so I just used what I had in the garage and mixed, mixed, and mixed some more.  Achieving the right shades and differentiation in color definitely took some experimentation!

Here's just a little sample of some of the colors we tried.  To make chalk paint, I just add Plaster of Paris and a little water to the paint.  The benefit of using chalk paint is no sanding and priming and a short dry time.  It also distresses really well, but we didn't want to distress this piece.

I would love to add Kayla's room to our house tour, but it's definitely NOT in photo-worthy shape right now.  There's a huge bunk bed right in the middle of the room and sheets strung up to make a fort, not to mention all of the precious treasures she cannot bear to throw away.  Ahhh, the life of a preteen girl!  Here's just a teeny-tiny view into this blue and green room. 

I think this little brass owl is so cute.  He used to be in the living room, until Kayla adopted him as her own.

What do you think?  Are you still a fan of ombre?  I am!  And, if we get tired of it, all it takes is some paint to give it a new look.

Linked to some of my favorite DIY blogs:  Liz Marie, House of Hepworths, My Simple Home Life, Happy Hour Projects,
Elizabeth & Co, DIY Dreamer, Today's Creative Blog, Sugar Bee Crafts, Not Just a Housewife, Reasons to Skip the Housework, Primitive and Proper, Home Stories of A to Z, Savvy Southern Style, DIY by Design, Tip Junkie, Type A Decorating, , The Thrifty Home, Domestically Speaking, Primp,
A Diamond in the Stuff, Restore Interiors, The Shabby Chic Cottage,  Beyond the Picket Fence, My Simple Home Life,
Addicted 2 Decorating, Just a Girl, Remodelaholic, Miss Mustard Seed, Finding Fabulous, Tatertots and Jello, Under the Table and Dreaming, Thrifty Decor Chick, Coastal Charm, Serenity Now, Get Outta My Head Please, You are Talking Too Much, The Southern Institute  My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia, Fox Hollow Cottage Pinterest Party,  Beneath My Heart

Help Me Paint a Dresser

Are your kids opinionated?  Mine definitely have opinions on everything, from how I should cook dinner to what they want to wear.  As long as it's not harmful or too annoying to me, I generally let them do what they want (within reason and rules of course!).  It's not going to kill anybody if they wear mismatching clothes or have wild hair.

Of course they have opinions on how they want their rooms to look.  So far, I've been able to steer the younger two towards something that both of us like.  My oldest has requested a blue and green room.  I like this combo, but she wants her dresser to be a mix of blue and green.  I'm not sure how to paint this dresser without it looking too crazy.  I think I'm having a hard time figuring this out, because I'm really just a solid-color kind of girl.

She wants a bright peacock blue, like this vanity, and also a bright green.  She's a tomboy and doesn't like anything too girly.

I'm thinking something along the lines of this room for her:

Source: Uploaded by user via Suzanne on Pinterest

Will you help me figure out how to paint this dresser blue and green?

Stripes are an option.  But what kind of stripes?

Diagonal?

Source: google.ca via Suzanne on Pinterest

Only on the sides?

Source: etsy.com via Suzanne on Pinterest

Various horizontal thicknesses?

Source: designspongeonline.com via Suzanne on Pinterest

Off-center vertical?

Source: etsy.com via Suzanne on Pinterest

Thick vertical?

Source: designspongeonline.com via Suzanne on Pinterest

Or I could paint the body one color and the drawers another color...kind of like this?

Source: etsy.com via Suzanne on Pinterest

These are the exact colors she likes....I guess they don't look too carnival-ish together.


I love O'verlays, but have yet to try them.  Maybe I could do a blue base and then paint the O'verlays green?  I have to measure to see if they even fit on this dresser.

Source: thedesignpages.blogspot.com via Andréa on Pinterest

Help a girl out!  What should I do?

A Blue Vanity

My friend Rachelle wanted to surprise her daughter with some updates to her room.  So while her daughter was away at camp, Rachelle asked me to paint this old vanity and chair for her.

Look at cute little Emma in the back right.

I was excited to do this for my friend, but also a little nervous because it was the first time someone had paid me to paint something.  I hoped that they would be happy with the results.

Here's how it turned out:

The chair got some new paint and fun zebra fabric.

The vanity got the same bright blue paint and some shiny new black knobs.

I think this vanity will be perfect for a 12-year old girl.  Her mom and dad were very happy with it, but I haven't heard if she likes it yet.

Speaking of black and blue, look what else I sold this weekend.

Recognize the paint?  It's the same one I used on the vanity.  This old school desk has a chalkboard writing surface.  The little boy who got this desk was so excited to go home and use his chalk on it.  I was so excited because this has been sitting in my garage for a long time!

In unrelated news, I went up to Aspen again.  This time, I had some fun girl time catching up with some of my OLDEST friends, Robyn and Karen.  We've known each other for over twenty years and moved to Aspen together after we graduated from college.  Robyn lives in Minnesota and Karen is in Connecticut.  It was so fun to reconnect with them.  Even though we hadn't seen each other in at least six years, it was like no time had passed at all.

There's Robyn and Karen at the Maroon Bells, the "most photographed peaks in America." 

Linked here:
Beneath My Heart - Best DIY Project of June

Elizabeth & Co, DIY Dreamer, Today's Creative Blog, Sugar Bee Crafts, Not Just a Housewife, Reasons to Skip the Housework, Primitive and Proper, Home Stories of A to Z, Savvy Southern Style, DIY by Design, Tip Junkie, Type A Decorating, http://sistersstuff.blogspot.com/, The Thrifty Home, Domestically Speaking, Primp,
A Diamond in the Stuff, Restore Interiors, The Shabby Chic Cottage, Somewhat Simple, Beyond the Picket Fence, Fireflies and Jellybeans,My Simple Home Life,
Addicted 2 Decorating, Just a Girl, Remodelaholic, Miss Mustard Seed, Finding Fabulous, Tatertots and Jello, Under the Table and Dreaming, Thrifty Decor Chick, Coastal Charm, Serenity Now

Color My World Link Party!!!

Thanks to everyone who has been following the Color My World Challenge!  We've reached the final week.  This is where we invite all of YOU to link up a post sharing how you challenged yourself to try a new color in your home.

The best thing about this party is that your link will show up on all 15+ Color My World challengers blogs.  Next Tuesday, we'll all feature a few of our favorite links.  So start linking at the bottom of this post!!!

In case you missed the last few weeks, I added navy to my living room. 

This challenge forced me to finish some projects that I've had lingering for a while.  Thanks Jessamie for dreaming this whole thing up!

It also gave me a good excuse to purchase some new chairs that I've had my eye on.

After I picked navy, I realized that I cheated a little bit.  I already had some navy in my living room, but the challenge encouraged me to add more!

I already had these navy banded curtains.

And these navy chevron chairs.  Wow, that's an old picture...I almost forgot I used to have that ugly carpet!  I must have blocked it out.

I promise I will show you pictures of the entire room soon.  I had ordered a jute rug from West Elm that came with some damage.  I had to ship it back and am waiting for the replacement.  West Elm has been great to work with through this process, by the way.  As soon as the new rug arrives, I'll show you some pictures.

I also have my eye on these pillows from World Market.  I love the colors.

I would like a throw for the couch to hide the drab olive green.  This one frome Serena & Lily is cute, but at over $200, I think I'll look for something a bit less expensive.

And the room won't be complete without the elusive fiddle leaf fig tree.  This tree doesn't seem to exist anywhere near me!

I don't think I have any "finished" rooms in my house.  They are all works in progress that are continually changing.  At least the living room is now on the right path!

Show us what you've got and link up!!! 

I know you want to see what the other challengers have been up to as well.

Ange - The Blooming Hydrangea
Anna - A Newfound Treasure
Carmel - Our 5th House
Cassie - Primitive and Proper
Jadyn - Dutch.British.Love
Jessamie - Bird and Branch Redesign
Julia - Black Tag Diaries
Julia - Pawley's Island Posh
Kristy - Hyphen Interiors
Lisa - Shine Your Light
Lisa - Trapped in North Jersey
Maury - Life on Mars
Shaunna - Perfectly Imperfect
Shelley - Crazy Wonderful
Suzy - Saved by Suzy
Tiffany - Living Savvy
Tiffany - Worthwhile Domicile
Vashti & Jamie - Like me Some...

Color My World Week 4: Fabric

We are in the home stretch of the Color My World Challenge.  In case you need a little recap, here's what we've been up to in this challenge:

Week 1: Introduction and Color Choice
Week 2: Decor
Week 3:  Paint

This week we were challenged to bring our new color in via fabric.  Remember, next week (May 1st) we are having a blog hop/linky party extravaganza where you can link up a post showing how you brought a new color into your home. 

Back to the fabric.  Not wanting to sew anything, I kind of took the easy way out and ordered new chairs.

They have fabric on them...that's not cheating, right?  I actually ordered these chairs a few weeks ago from Target when they were having a buy one, get one 50% off sale.  I got both of these chairs, including shipping and tax, for about $180 total.  They remind me of the chairs pictured in this room that I like:

I was feeling guilty that I didn't DIY anything with fabric, so I whipped up this fabric-covered box too.

I used an old shoebox and some fabric scraps.  I would show you pictures of the process, but the pics are on my laptop, which is in the shop being repaired.

I basically followed this tutorial from Lori May Interiors.  I used Mod Podge and hot glue to adhere the fabric to the box...pretty simple.  I used a heavy weight, outdoor fabric, so the corners are not as crisp as I would like.  If you try this, I would recommend using a thinner, light weight fabric to reduce the bulk.

Stop by the other Color My World challengers to see how they used fabric this week and be sure to get YOUR posts ready to link up next week!

Ange - The Blooming Hydrangea
Anna - A Newfound Treasure
Carmel - Our 5th House
Cassie - Primitive and Proper
Jadyn - Dutch.British.Love
Jessamie - Bird and Branch Redesign
Julia - Black Tag Diaries
Julia - Pawley's Island Posh
Kristy - Hyphen Interiors
Lisa - Shine Your Light
Lisa - Trapped in North Jersey
Maury - Life on Mars
Shaunna - Perfectly Imperfect
Shelley - Crazy Wonderful
Suzy - Saved by Suzy
Tiffany - Living Savvy
Tiffany - Worthwhile Domicile
Vashti & Jamie - Like me Some...

Challenge: Spring Into Action!

I might be crazy, but I'm participating in another challenge.  I love these challenges because they give me motivation to finish projects that I have lingering around the house.

As you might remember, I have a project from March that didn't go quite as planned.

I tried to stencil this area and build a shelf.  This is as far as I got.

For my Spring Into Action project, I intend to repaint this niche, finish building the shelves, and maybe even do a few DIY projects to style the shelves.

Back in March, I contacted a friend who is a handyman to see how much he would charge to build the shelving.  He quoted us $400, but as soon as he said "You can totally do this yourself," I politely ushered him out the door and pulled out my measuring tape. 

I found this tutorial from Vintage Revivals that doesn't look too tricky and that I actually started on in the photo above.

courtesy of Vintage Revivals

Best of all, the shelving pictured only cost $30 to build!

I like the look of bookshelves with a colored back, similar to these:

Source: emilyaclark.blogspot.com via Suzanne on Pinterest

Hmmm, that navy might fit in nicely with the Color My World Challenge (the other challenge I'm participating in right now)!

Source: simpledwellings.blogspot.com via Suzanne on Pinterest

This series will run for the next two Thursdays.  Next week we will be sharing progress on our projects.  The week after that will be the big reveal of the (hopefully) completed project.

This little challenge was dreamed up by the creative Linda of My Crafty Home Life.  There are lots of other great bloggers participating in the challenge.  I'm looking forward to checking out their blogs to see what projects they are tackling over the next few weeks. 

Here are the participants:

Tiffany – Living Savvy

Kerry – Design du Monde

Laurie – Traditional & Modern

Cathy – Room Rx

Carrie – Hazardous Design

Lisa – A Room with A View

Sam – The Junk House

Becca – from Gardners 2 Bergers

Jean – Flower Hill Design

Nancy – Powell & Brower Home

Linda – My Crafty Home Life

Color My World Challenge!

I'm so excited that today marks the kick-off of the Color My World Challenge!  This challenge was dreamed up by Jessamie of Bird and Branch Redesign.

A group of bloggers has taken the challenge to introduce a new color into our homes.  This series will be running for the next four Tuesdays.  We'll be using our new color in decor, paint, and fabric.  The final week will be a wrap up and a HUGE blog hop where you can link up a post showing how YOU added a new color to your home too.  I really hope some of you will take the challenge and link up on May 1st...mark your calendar now.

Source: threepinkdots.com via Suzanne on Pinterest

Source: centsationalgirl.com via Suzanne on Pinterest

It was a little hard for me to choose a color.  I already have tooo so many colors in my home and was wanting to go a bit more neutral.  But, I kept coming back to NAVY.

Source: veranda.com via Suzanne on Pinterest

Source: Uploaded by user via Suzanne on Pinterest

My favorite living rooms feature not just navy, but navy paired with pink.

Source: bit.ly via Suzanne on Pinterest

Source: mypinksketchbook.blogspot.com via Suzanne on Pinterest

Or navy and coral:

Source: melissahare.blogspot.com via Suzanne on Pinterest

Source: decorpad.com via Suzanne on Pinterest

Even my favorite princess is drawn to navy and coral!

Source: applesandonions.com via Suzanne on Pinterest

What looks better with navy than some warm gold and crisp white?

Source: emilyaclark.blogspot.com via Suzanne on Pinterest

I hope you'll follow along over the next few weeks as I incorporate navy (and maybe even some pink, coral, and/or gold!) into my living room.

Some of my absolute favorite bloggers are also participating in the challenge.  Stop by and see what colors they are adding to their homes.  This challenge should be fun!
Ange - The Blooming Hydrangea
Anna - A Newfound Treasure
Carmel - Our 5th House
Cassie - Primitive and Proper
Jadyn - Dutch.British.Love
Jessamie - Bird and Branch Redesign
Julia - Black Tag Diaries
Julia - Pawley's Island Posh
Kristy - Hyphen Interiors
Lisa - Shine Your Light
Lisa - Trapped in North Jersey
Maury - Life on Mars
Shaunna - Perfectly Imperfect
Shelley - Crazy Wonderful
Suzy - Saved by Suzy
Tiffany - Living Savvy
Tiffany - Worthwhile Domicile
Vashti & Jamie - Like me Some...