First of all, I love when I find free stuff that people just throw away! My dad from time to time helps clean out houses and he sometimes forgets to look in every box before he throws it in a garbage pile, so every so often I go through that garbage and that is how I came across my owl salt and pepper shakers and now these other owls! For the longest time I have had my eye on some bookends and the owl ones always popped out to me. A little side note, I'm pretty sure my husband and I only have about 10 books (sad I know). They have a hard time standing up on their own and the owl bookends have always popped out to me when I've looked online, though I never could justify paying for them. So, as fate would have it, my patience paid off, and I found these! I liked how much detail they had, unfortunately, they did not match my decor. So I cleaned them off since they have been outside in a box for who knows how long, repaired part of the holly leaf that broke off with super glue, and got my primer and paint ready. Below are the products I used.
I did enough coats with the primer to where I could not see any of the colored paint anymore. I let that dry and then touched up some of the rough parts then used the white gloss spray paint until I got the glossy finish I wanted. This whole project only took me a day to do! *Since these owls are fine china and therefore pretty light, I may go back and fill them with some sand to make them heavier and seal the holes, but for now they seem to hold the weight just fine!
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Ocean/Beach/Aqua Theme Vanity Redo My Grandma from South Carolina was staying with my family for over a year and so we decided to redo the guest room for her with a beach like feel! I was in charge of redoing this very old vanity! It has drawers....and hardware....I just got so excited I went right to taking it apart and on to sanding before I remembered I needed a before picture and I was too lazy to put it all back together...sorry :( Also for a heads up sorry for the lack of pictures, but I will try my best to explain how I did it! The pictures may not be the best due to very poor lighting. PREP First I took the drawers out, mirror off, and hardware off and began sanding with an electric sander. This vanity was painted an antique white and for some reason was very bumpy so I had to sand A LOT to get to the smoothness I wanted. Then used a wet clean white rag and cleaned off the dust, then let it dry. Next I cleaned off the hardware to get them ready to be painted. Now, paint time.... I used a metallic spray paint to cover the gold hardware. Continued to layer the paint until I got the coverage I wanted. Once that was dry I then went over it with my Valspar antiquing glaze in grey that I had left over from the kitchen table redo. Once I got the look I wanted and let it dry, I then used a water base sealant since handles get a lot of use. Below is the after and the glaze I used. I have yet to get a paint sprayer, which would have made all of this easier...and faster.....so I used brushes. I used two different colors. For the base I used the highest gloss of Aquamarine and for the darker highlights I used a pearl Bahamian blue left over from my kitchen table redo. I did not use a sealant. After my table redo, I was told never to do that because no matter what kind you use it will always, one day, turn colors. So we will see how this holds up because my kitchen table turned colors even though I let it dry and used a water base sealer. So I started with a Primer and did 2 coats, sanding between to get a perfect smooth surface. Then I did 3 coats of the Aquamarine, sanding between coats, not sanding the last layer. Next I added some Floetrol (picture below) to the Bahamian blue. This helps the paint not dry so fast and helps prevent brush strokes showing. You can also use this in the base paint if you would like. Since I was applying the Bahamian blue like you would a glaze, I needed a way for it to not dry so fast, and that is what I came up with, and it worked perfectly! After that all dried I then decided to add the Valspar Glaze to the detail work on the vanity. I used a very tiny paint brush for this. I did a couple layers until it was dark enough for me. Once all was dry I put the drawers back in and added the hardware and BAM! What a beauty. I will have to post pictures of the whole room at some point. We were able to find a bed headboard that matches PERFECT with this hardware, and it was super cheap! Bonus! I decided not to add the mirror back on, due to it being old and needing replaced. So, once I get the mirror thing figured out, I'll post an updated picture! To add some beach-ness to it, I added vases and added sand from different beaches we have been too to hold the candles. Well, there is it! I just love how it turned out! It works perfect in this grey walled, beach themed room! Hopefully I can get some better pictures of it one day, these just don't do it justice!
For our wedding we got a LOT of plain black picture frames and had no money to put pictures in...haha. So I went on pinterest to try and find some other use for them and loved the idea of making it into a tray! List of items I used 1. Black picture frame with glass 2. Piece of fabric cut to the size of the glass So basically all I did was put it all together and this happened.... I decided to put it on my bed side table since I have a habit of leaving water and food by my bed....We all do it ok....But yeah this way I don't leave water rings on my furniture! Also its a good place to put your bobby pins when you take them out in bed and are too lazy to put them where they are actually suppose to go..... What I love about this is that when I get bored of my decor (which is more often then I'd like to admit) I can just change the fabric, which is about the size of those scrap pieces of fabric they sell for quilting I guess at the store, so not pricey, and you can paint the frame if it came down to it.
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