Brilliant Like Fireflies: makeover

Wednesday, May 16, 2012

Alma mater Notebook Redo

As most of you know I've gone back to school. I have a BA in psychology and haven't been able to find work that I love, so I've gone back. I am now going to my Dad's alma mater, Seneca College. I am taking Early Childhood Education in the hopes of opening my own daycare. My dad was very excited that I chose to go to his school. He still had a great notebook/folder from his school days that he gave to me.

I love that I have something of his, but it was looking a little rough.

I took some baking soda and water and scrubbed it clean.

I then printed out a Tinkerbell pumpkin template from here.

I thought that nail polish might stick better to the notebook. I was very careful, trying to stay in the lines. It didn't work on all the sides, but I love how it turned out!

Now I'm all set to take notes.

Happy Crafting,
Kristin

PS: Here's where we link up.

Tuesday, April 3, 2012

Second Chance Dresser

This weekend I decided to tackle a project that I've been debating for quite a while. You see about a year and a half ago I moved to my own place in a new city to start my first real, full time job. Like most people in my position I imagine I really didn't have any furniture, but luckily I was able to grab some hand me downs from my family, including a dresser from my older sister.

I think she either got it free off the side of the road or for a couple of bucks in a garage sale, but it did the trick. The pros of the dresser were #1, it was free and #2 it was big and could hold a lot. The cons, #1 it was pretty ugly (you might not be able to see it in the picture but it is made out of this wood-looking material that doesn't have a nice finish and has a lot of chips and dents and scratches) and #2 the bottom drawer was somehow broken, making it hard to slide it and the drawer above it in completely.

My first idea was to grab this dresser from IKEA for $169, but even though it is a good price, it was still more than I was willing to spend on a dresser that I wasn't sure was big enough and that I wasn't sure I really needed.

So I decided to give my own dresser a second chance with a little makeover. So I hopped over to the Home Depot and picked up two $4.99 paint sample cans, one in CIL's Antique White and the other in Behr's Silver Hill.

The first step in my dresser makeover process was to sand down all the surfaces, and then I went over it all with a damp cloth to pick up all the dust.

The problem that it turned out I had with the bottom drawer was because the bottom of the drawer had become unstapled from the rest of it. I simply took my hammer and hammered in two finishing nails and presto, good as new!

All of the drawers got three coats of the Antique White while the dresser itself got one coat of the Antique White and two of the Silver Hill.

I'm quite happy with the result, although I would have preferred if the Silver Hill had dried a little darker/greyer and not as blue as it turned out. Overall though it is a big improvement on how it was originally, and it only cost me under $10 for the paint and about $10 for the paint brushes and sandpaper, all of which I can still use again.