LEATHER AND STUDS!

Recently I had a paint fest weekend where I painted 6 chairs, a small chest of drawers, a desk and refinished our kitchen table....crazy...

Here's a little guy who was never one of my favorites, I didn't like the wood finish for a start. Even though it 's a desk it's really too small for anyone to sit at comfortably so it really is a more decorative piece than useful one. 

Before

I sanded and painted it with some paint I picked up in the "mistake" aisle at Menards. I would describe the color as putty/taupe. Then I aged it by sanding the edges etc and rubbing on some dark stain. 

Let's take a closer look at the top:

Here's the before:

 Here's the after. See the added studs?

I also added studs to the front of the drawers and painted the hairdware

See that "architectural" element between the two pictures?  

Here's a close up:

Anyone know what it is? I think it's so curvy, rusty and cool!

Hope you like the desk, I think it turned out well.


Hugs, Mandy

I am linking this post to:

http://cottageinstincts.blogspot.com/

http://boogieboardcottage.blogspot.com/

http://becolorful.typepad.com/

http://athomewithk.blogspot.com

http://missmustardseed.blogspot.com/

END OF SUMMER DINING ROOM VIGNETTES

OUR LAKEHOUSE

This is our lake house up on Big Turkey lake, in La Grange county, Indiana. We built it just 3 years ago. Love it, don't love the 2 1/2 hour drive but well worth it!

Here is the view of the back patio, firepit and our Tri toon boat.

This the screened in porch which we use for eating, board games and fun times with friends and family :)

The family room and dining areas

And here is a our private sandy beach :)

With the extreme heat we have had this summer, we have  really appreciate our getaway.


Hoping you are all staying cool,


hugs,
Mandy

I have joined:

http://lbratina.blogspot.com/

ARTWORK OR CHALKBOARD??

I had a cork board on the wall in my laundry room wall with photos of family, friends, coupons, calendars etc attached to them. You can see it to the left in the above pic.

Well in order to depersonalize our home for sale, I removed it and found a piece of artwork I wasn't using and decided to transform it.

Here it is, a picture of a topiary with a couple of birdies in a bamboo frame....cute....and don't worry I did not paint over it!!

Instead the back of the picture was just a piece of wood and I painted it with ....... CHALK PAINT.......!

All I did was remove the mounting hardware, added a string and chalk, and a hook and here it is! 

For a house showing I can erase our family calendar and it will still look attractive AND if I ever decide to use the art side of the frame again I still can.... yep....I'm proud :)

I am linking up to :

http://diybydesign.blogspot.com/

http://savvysouthernstyle.blogspot.com/

http://betweennapsontheporch.blogspot.com/

http://athomewithk.blogspot.com/2011/06/terrific-under-ten-tuesday-17.html

http://lbratina.blogspot.com/

http://www.dittledattle.blogspot.com

SUMMER VIGNETTES

Before I show you the entire sun room reveal, I wanted to share a couple of smaller projects that I was able to get done in this room.

This lamp used to be a dark color and I painted the base and purchase the barrel shade to give it an updated simple look.

I filled this white bowl with a mix of decorative foam rocks purchased from Target and some green silk hydrangea flower heads, a few artificial artichokes and some shells.

The above white bowl sits inside a very cool wooden palette box I purchased from a local antique dealer. Love the print on the side.

Small photo holders were painted off-white to unify them with each other.....and the little "munchkins" are all mine - all five of them!

Reveal appearing tomorrow :)

Hope you liked the post,

Hugs, 

Mandy

ANOTHER FUN LITTLE PAINTED CHAIR!

We are done with the painting but I haven't taken pictures yet so thought I would post about one of my favorite chairs instead.

I fell in love with this little chair years ago in England. I loved the lines of it. It was obviously hand made and had a little wear but I loved the details. I have always romanticized that the chair had been lovingly made for a sweetheart or something....

Unfortunately, I don't have any before pictures...I painted it last fall before my blogging days just imagine it oak with an ugly pink chair pad...

I have to admit to having already changed the chair pad to something a little less frou frou and I'll take a pic of it for you guys...sorry I am really bad at this blogging stuff,

Have a great day,

Hugs

Mandy

I am linking this post to 

http://missmustardseed.blogspot.com/

http://becolorful.typepad.com/becolorful/

http://betweennapsontheporch.blogspot.com/

http://cottageinstincts.blogspot.com/

Frenchcountrycottage.blogspot.com

HOLLYHOCKS AND ROSES!

In between painting and all the usual craziness that goes on around here ....! I have also been working in the flower beds and thought I would share some of the blooms that are making their presence known at the moment i.e. Hollyhocks, Daylillies and Carpet roses. 

Also thought it would be fun to compare the growth of the Hollyhocks over the years! The above pic was taken in 2005 and here they are today...

Wow!!!

Hollyhocks do get a little wild and do need staking up - note the twirly rods poking up here and there,  but I love their color and whimsey.

Here are some carpet roses and lillies...

Pre weeding...!

Love the color :)

Have a great weekend,

Hugs,

Mandy

Linking to

http://frenchcountrycottage.blogspot.com/

http://becolorful.typepad.com/becolorful/

MEET THE GANG!

We built our large home for a few reasons .... but mainly to house our fairly large family!

We have 5 children. Katy and Michael, now 27 (twins), Alan, soon to be 18 and Sam and Joe, soon to be 15 (also twins).

Here they are:

This picture was taken back in 2005. Ryan, my now, son in law is sitting on the top stair. And we had not got Lola yet our second Dutch Shepherd and half sister to Tess.

Here is a more recent picture of the three youngest taken in 2009:

Anyway, when we built the home, each of the kids had their own rooms to hang out in. 

Katy's room was/is also our guest bedroom:

Michael slept in my den:

And the three boys had their rooms:

Alan's room

Joe's room

Sam's room.

You can see the double pocket doors between Sam and Joe's rooms. All these pics except for Katy's room were taken in the Spring of 2008 when we put the house on the market. 

We have changed quite a bit since then .....

I'll show you before and after pics tomorrow.

I have been painting for what seems like FOREVER the last couple of weeks....painted our kitchen, family dining and sun room....10 foot ceilings....don't you love them.....especially the many, many trips up and down the ladder!!!!

Hugs,

Mandy