Wednesday, June 8, 2011

C's Room

Remember this deskthat I painted for C that matches nothing in her room?


I am biting the bullet and redecorating her room. Here are a couple of inspiration pics:


I am using the same wall color that was used in this room. It's called Waterscape by Sherwin Williams. I am also using bright pink accents.


This pic also shows the aqua and fuschia combo that I am loving.

I purchased this fabric for curtains:


C loves this fabric, so I thought I could make a throw pillow and/or a cushion from the desk chair from it:


Here are a couple of other fabrics I might try to sneak in somewhere:



I wish I knew how to do those cute design boards real designers do. Oh well, I guess we'll have to be satisfied with this, unless someone wants to clue me in on how to make a board.

I'll post pictures as we progress. I wanted to start painting this evening, but nobody else wanted to help.
Posted by Suzy www.savedbysuzy.blogspot.com at 5:00 AM 4 comments
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Tuesday, June 7, 2011

Buffet Makeover

As I was driving home from dropping K off at school the other day, I noticed that my friend was having a garage sale. I quickly pulled over to see what she had. I immediately spied an antique buffet and saw a $10 sticker on it. I thought it must have been mismarked. But, no, the price was actually only $10. My friend moved some stuff from the top of the buffet to show me why it was only $10 - the top was rotted, moldy, and had a big hole in it. The piece had belonged to her great-aunt whose name began with the letter "V" and the doors with the inlaid "V" were very special to my friend and her great-aunt. I had never tackled such a big makeover, but for $10, I thought it was worth a shot.

Here are some before pictures:




I wasn't quite sure what to do with this beautiful beast. So, I started by trying to scrape off as much of the top as I could. I then went to Home Depot and had the nice guys there cut me a piece of wood to fit to the top and cover the damage on the buffet.

I thought about sanding and re-staining the piece because the wood was so pretty. I especially loved the "V" inlays on the side doors. I started sanding and sanding, but the wood on the drawer-fronts just was not in good enough condition to refinish. So, time to prime and paint. I chose a pale aqua, Martha Stewart's Artesian Well...so pretty! But, I still couldn't get myself to paint over those gorgeous doors. Here's mid-project:


I used wood glue to glue down the new top piece and then I stained it and thought I would leave the top and doors stained and the rest painted. Unfortunately, the top didn't look so good stained, so I painted it:


Those darn doors! So pretty, but not so pretty with the paint. So I grudgingly painted the whole thing. For the final reveal, here she is:

She needed some sparkle, so I added a little gold to the greek-key design on the drawers.


This piece took me a long time. I think it was because I didn't have a clear plan or vision of what I was going to do with her. Through trial and error, this is what I came up with and I'm pretty happy with my $10 experiment!

Linked here:




http://www.alchemyfineliving.com/blog/
Posted by Suzy www.savedbysuzy.blogspot.com at 5:00 AM 22 comments
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Monday, June 6, 2011

Weekend in Review: Firepit Redux

Remember the The Great Firepit Fiasco of 2011? When my dreams of a beautiful firepit amounted to this:

Well, we were actually able to have an outdoor fire Saturday night, although not in the pit of doom. The kids were playing outside last week when one of them ran inside and asked if I wanted a "fire box." "Yeah, sure," I replied, having no idea what she was talking about, and resumed my internet surfing. "Mom, you've gotta see the fire box. It's like a fire house!" Still not quite sure what she was refering to, I replied, "OK, go get your dad to check it out."

Big K went out with the kids and returned with this:

A rusty old "fire house." My more organized neighbors always put their trash out the night before trash day, unlike the rest of us who are frantically wheeling the cans to the curb as we hear the garbage truck coming. Apparently, the kids found this thing while rifling through the neighbor's trash. Those girls would stop at nothing to get their backyard fire!

A few coats of silver high-temp spray paint and here's what we got:

The girls were dying to try it. So, despite, the fact that it was blazing sun and 90 degrees outside, we fired it up:

And roasted marshmallows:

And enjoyed some nice family time:

Although it wasn't what I originally envisioned, it was well worth the $7.00 spent on spray paint and saved us the headache and expense of having to build something perfectly perfect.

In other news, we headed to the lake and taught this big guy how to swim!




My sweet husband also exercised his sharp negotiating skills and scored this chair and an antique rocking chair at a garage sale for me. Can't wait to "save" them!


See you tomorrow with a fun before-and-after makeover!


Posted by Suzy www.savedbysuzy.blogspot.com at 5:00 AM 5 comments
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Friday, June 3, 2011

More rug love

OK - this is the last rug post for the week. PROMISE I will bring you something new and fun next week. But, I've found a rug company that I am kind of in love with, Custom Cool Rugs. How awesome is that name??? I found this company through Shelter. If you haven't checkout out this blog, you should.

All of the rugs from Custom Cool Rugs can be completely personalized just for you. I didn't source any pricing on these rugs because I am almost positive they are out of my price range, but they are beautiful eye candy for us to enjoy nonetheless.








They also do handbags and pillows:



Oh, how I love thee Custom Cool Rugs. I wouldn't say no if you wanted to send me a sample of your adorable cushions!
Posted by Suzy www.savedbysuzy.blogspot.com at 5:00 AM 0 comments
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Thursday, June 2, 2011

Wood and Rugs

As you know, we are getting new wood floors. They are either going to be handscraped maple or bamboo. Big difference, I know. I originally went with the maple. Then, once the maple was ordered and since I'm crazy, I decided I wanted the bamboo. Long story short, floor guy is "seeing what he can do." I really don't care what we get, I just want my nasty old carpet out! Five years with three kids and two large dogs has not been kind to the white-ish carpet. I won't even show you a pic of the carpet. It's way too embarassing and you might not like me anymore. Here's the maple we chose:


I don't have a pic of the bamboo. Here's what I would really love, chevron wood floors, maybe someday:


Gorgeous, right?

Now that we're getting the wood, I need a rug. I love the color blue and geometric patterns. But, I'm a little scared to go with a bold pattern. Here are some rugs that I like.







Here are a couple that are a little more WILD but I still like:



Some of these rugs are indoor/outdoor. Do you think they would be good in our family room? Would they be comfy for the kids to play on the floor?

So help me!!! Which one do you like best?? The rest of the room is a work in progress. I have an ugly sage-green couch that has to stay because it is kid-friendly and I don't want to buy anything new right now to get immediately ruined. I try to disguise its ugliness with cute throw pillows. I have white curtains with a blue band. I also have this white buffet and chevron chairs:

Friends, family, please leave a comment and help me decide. I would be forever grateful!
Posted by Suzy www.savedbysuzy.blogspot.com at 5:00 AM 5 comments
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Wednesday, June 1, 2011

The Great Fire Pit Fiasco of 2011

My kids have been asking to go camping since at least February. Snow was still on the ground. Finally, I figured out that they really didn't care about camping, but, the little pyromaniacs just wanted a campfire to roast marshmallows (i.e. burn stuff) in.

I don't love camping, so I thought it would be great if we could have a campfire at home. My sweet husband who loves his girls so much volunteered to build a fire pit. Ohhhh, I was so excited. I had visions of this in my head:


We would look just like that cute family! I mean, we already have the same kind of dog and everything!!! We would make yummy s'mores, no one would get in a fight, we would be the perfect family and nothing would get severely burned around this beauty:

Source: hgtv.com via Amanda on Pinterest


Maybe we could even get a pool!!

Source: google.com via Erica on Pinterest


And a huge, beautiful house!

Source: houzz.com via Casey on Pinterest


Look...here we are assembling our delicious grilled dinner:


Just kidding! Here's what I got:


Basically a hole in the ground that fills up with water everytime the sprinklers come on or it rains. It did not stop the kiddos and Big K from burning lots of stuff though!

Wait till next week when I show you how we remedied this situation and made a real fire pit. See you then!
Posted by Suzy www.savedbysuzy.blogspot.com at 5:00 AM 4 comments
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