My Metallic Blue Kitchen Table Transformation

My goodness guys, you have no idea how long a journey it has been with my kitchen table.

The finished product!





It all began in a sun room, long long ago when I painted a laminate table teal and gold. It was the star of the show in that room, and I loved it with every ounce of my being.





Then I made the move over to the apartment and the table fit perfectly in my little dining nook. However, with my emerald and navy color scheme, it just wasn’t jiving too well. Look at the parade of greens! I still LOVED the color of the table, but it was wrong for the space. Tear.





After living with the many greens for months, I knew it was time to take the table from teal to navy. I know, I know, a huge jump for me.
The hunt for the perfect navy paint began. Don’t worry though, I was all sorts of confident. I scoured Pinterest looking at navy paints. I decided I want to use a Benjamin Moore paint because of the rave reviews I had heard about it being used to paint furniture. Thankfully, I also discovered that they had the ultimate navy blue paint color: Hale Navy. I looked at picture after picture of it. It seemed to be the exact navy I wanted.
I happily jaunted down the road to Benjamin Moore and got a quart of their Advanced line recommended for furniture painting.
I went home, sanded her down, and put on a coat of primer. I decided to leave the gold accents so I carefully taped around them (except on the top where I wanted them gone). Then I went in with my perfectly picked color.





Except it was all wrong. My perfect navy was reading periwinkle in my space. PERIWINKLE? No thank you! That’s not the look I was going for! I thought perhaps it just needed to darken up so I put coat after coat on the table.





This did nothing for the color; it just made me tired of painting and exasperated.
I finally peeled off the tape to reveal the gold accents – which I definitely didn’t love with the periwinkle shade.
I was exhausted at this point so I just let the table sit for a week or two. The color definitely didn’t grow on me.
I thought I would try again, scouring pinterest to see real life pictures and then this time I was going to get a sample! I picked another Benjamin Moore color and got a sample. Seven dollars later and a swipe of paint on the table, I once again knew this wasn’t the color (so much so I didn’t even take a picture or remember the name of the blue).
That’s when progress came to a screeching halt for about two months. Whatever, the table was painted, and I was tired of repainting it.
I finally felt energetic enough to start the process again when I saw this gorgeous venetian blue opaque (metallic line) at Haven Conference in the Modern Masters booth. Plus, they were happy to send me a sample with the top coating needed for the table. YES! I was able to see a sample in person and knew this was the color. Plus, metallic paint is so my jam.





So a week or so later the paint arrived at my door and my painting spirit was reignited! I decided to let go of the gold accents because that would be too much with the metallic paint.





After a quick sand and one coat of primer, I did two coats all over of the Modern Masters paint, with a quick third coat just on the top. I followed that up with two clear coats.





Hallelujah! I LOVE THE COLOR. I definitely breathed a sigh of relief when I stood back and looked at it in its final coat. It’s the deep blue I was imagining and look at that baby shine.





Phew, I am relieved that project is over….you know, until I feel like changing it up and painting it again. I don’t see that happening anytime soon.
This is definitely one of those projects that you learn along the way and try to embrace the trial and error.
Lesson Learned: You never know how paint will look in your specific space so get samples! It can look so different one room to the next based on the lighting and other colors surrounding it.
No, not every DIY project is a winner the first time, but never, never, never give up! Keep going and you will find your perfect shade of metallic blue (or whatever your perfect shade is).
Now excuse me as I am going to sit down and enjoy a meal at my beautiful metallic table.:)You know, since I’ve been eating on the couch, floor, or standing up in the kitchen as I’ve waited for paint to dry on my table for far too long.






Original article and pictures take http://www.hometalk.com/9999879/my-metallic-blue-kitchen-table-transformation site

Vermicompostin | Every Gardener Needs Worms

Personally I hated the days when I used to run off to one of the big box stores and pick up a couple bags of fertilizer. There's so much waste that comes from fertilizer production and the process uses up a large amount of petroleum. So rather than beating down mother nature with with a wooden stick I'd much rather cultivate some love (dear lord more puns). Rather than buying fertilizer I'm going to work on making more of my own and becoming much more self sufficient. So to accomplish this DIY composting I'm going to turn to vermicomposting and let my wiggly friends help me out.

Original article and pictures take http://www.hometalk.com/999802/vermicompostin-every-gardener-needs-worms site

Perennial Gardens

I cannot wait to get going in my new house with some flower/shrub beds and perennials. I did a perennial bed at my old house in Birmingham and it's been too long since I had my hands in the dirt. My new house is a blank slate waiting for some flower love and I can't wait to get to tackle some of the areas at this house too. I love flower gardens! Yes, I'm itching for spring. First thing up, is renovating my screen porch!



















































Original article and pictures take http://www.hometalk.com/999795/perennial-gardens site

Tired Old Furniture?? Change It Up Annie Sloan Chalk Paint Style

These are two pieces of furniture I've had for 8-12 years (between the 2 of them). I decided it was time for a change....so I painted them both with Annie Sloan Chalk Paint for a brand new look! Easy and much cheaper than buying new furniture.

Original article and pictures take http://www.hometalk.com/999657/tired-old-furniture-change-it-up-chalk-paint-style site

Onesie Cupcake Gift

Create an adorable crowd pleasing baby shower gift using onesies and socks, something every new Mom needs.

I used onesies, socks, cupcake liners, a box and some pretty embellishments to create this gift. It was easy to do and only took a few minutes to put together.





These onesie cupcakes look good enough to eat!





This short video shows just how easy this is to create. You can customize your gift for a boy or girl and add embellishments for a specific theme or color scheme.
This was a big hit at a baby shower this summer and the new Mom-to-be loved it!






Original article and pictures take http://www.hometalk.com/9993558/onesie-cupcake-gift site

DIY Country Porch Makeover

This summer, we finally decided that we wanted to work on the curb appeal of our country home. We built our house in 2013, and we were on a tight budget. The exterior and the porch were one of the last projects on our list!
(YES, we would love add wider stairs and railings one day, but it is NOT in our budget at this time. This is a BUDGET makeover!)

Here's how our porch looked last August. My hubby had made it functional with plywood flooring, and the posts are just the structural ones.





Here's how it looks today. With a VERY limited budget, we beefed up the porch columns and painted everything to make our porch look more appealing.





First, I painted the plywood flooring with a grey paint I had on hand and sealed it with some clear poly coating.





Then, my husband framed out the columns using 2 x4's. He made the columns measure about 1 foot square, cladded them with plywood, and then he trimmed the tops and bottoms of the columns with mitred pieces of 2 x 6's and 2 x 10's.





Finally, I painted the columns and the front trim on the porch with white primer and white outdoor paint. I still have a few spots to paint before winter hits!





All in all, this project was a lot of work, but it was definitely worth it all. I can't believe how different our home looks now! For more details and photos, please visit my blog post.












Original article and pictures take http://www.hometalk.com/9991196/diy-country-porch-makeover site

Thyme to Sow

Right now retail stores and nurseries are loaded with racks of pretty little packages of seeds...it's hard to resist filling your basket full of them! If they don't have you rows of primula's definitely will ( that's another post coming this weekend....stay tuned....)
If you plan to start seeds indoors you've most likely seen the toilet paper tubes or egg carton planters or even just the egg shells themselves being shared as nifty planting vessels. Let me warn you, after so many watering's, these paper based liners break down pretty quick and become quite unstable for transplanting...even rotting faster than your seedling can grow!
And as far as the egg shells go, you're going to have to crack them eventually so the plant can put on size, risking damage to the young roots. As darling as this method appears the truth is egg shells take years to break down in the soil....which is why they get crushed with my boot when I throw them into the compost. I have tried it all, so I know from experience.
A simple tried and true method for the virgin gardener would be to use peat pellets. They look like little brown discs the size of a Toonie...yep, I'm Canadian...eh :) I explain the easy steps below in the photo's.... For the full tutorial go to: http://www.sowanddipity.com/thyme-to-sow/













































Original article and pictures take http://www.hometalk.com/999009/thyme-to-sow site