New Couch?!?!

After our wedding Chuckles and I decided we wanted to buy some new living room furniture. Our dogs had basically trashed our couches from laying on them all day while we are at work. We've been sort of actively searching but hadn't found anything that was exactly what I wanted so we were in limbo. 

Then I discovered this Pin on Pinterest and it changed our entire view on purchasing new furniture.

According to the above pin we could easily clean out those nasty stains in our microfiber furniture and have it back to looking fabulous! I want to make sure to make it clear, this trick has only been tried on Microfiber, not any other material so I'd highly recommend doing research before trying this on anything that is not microfiber.

If you do have microfiber furniture and it needs some cleaning like ours desperately needed then get ready for this! All you need is some white (or off white, stay away from colors) sponges, rubbing alcohol, spray bottle, and a bristle brush.

Pour your rubbing alcohol in your spray bottle, do not put anything else in there.

Now don't judge us but here are the before pictures of our loveseat, we've had these for over 4 years now and our dogs have always been allowed to lay on them, plus not crating them means that while we are off at work they are cozied up on this loveseat every day!!

Disgusting, I know!!

Then you saturate the couch with your rubbing alcohol and get to scrubbing with your sponges. I ended up doing this process twice because I didn't scrub hard enough to get out all the nasty marks.

Then you let that couch dry! It will dry fairly quickly but do let it dry all the way.

Once it's dry take your bristle brush and use it on the couch. This will remove the marks from your sponge and make the fabric look like it should.

Doesn't it look so much better already!! Here's a close up of the left couch cushion.

And the right.

I mean seriously how awesome is this trick?!?!? They still need a little bit of work but I ran out of sponges. Yes you heard me right I ran out of white sponges while working on this!! And they are disgusting....wanna see???

Disgusting right??!?!?!?!?!

But remember here is the before:

And after:

One more shot cause I am so impressed by this, this is a close up of the above couch cushion!! 

Consider my mind blown over this one!! We are so excited that we don't have to buy new furniture yet! I'd love to get my big ol' reading chair with ottoman but these couches being only a little over 4 years old are definitely not in need of replacement now!! I just need to get a bunch more white sponges and I'll be working this magic on our couch and then doing another round on our love seat!!

I am so excited!! Thank you so much to 551 East for this awesome trick to saving our furniture!!

Entryway Revamp!!

This week while I'm on VACATION I have a list of things I want to get done!! First on my list is getting some long over due painting done. Monday I was just going to prep and paint everything today but instead I got some painting done YAY!!

Take a look at our Entryway! I love our entryway...it's nice and open and it's an actual entryway instead of just walking into the living room....but I HATE the purple color. Seriously they loved dark colors in this house. So far we've gotten rid of two rooms of dark colors...one room I am hiring a painter because the ceilings are extremely high. Back to the entryway!

Check out our new entryway table. We scored this beauty off Craiglist for only $30! It reminded me of an awesome table my Sister scored as well...this is the Mother of her table :)

One more shot of this ugly purple color, which made the entryway feel and look super closed in and small.

TA DA!! We chose a Behr Paint and Primer in One, because those paints are the best! The color is called crepe! It's awesome!

And check out our entryway table now!! It's now a beautiful crisp white!!!!! We also moved our key/mail holder above the table which makes more sense with our keys right by the door. Plus it freed up some space on our breakfast bar!

I also moved our coat holder into the area by our laundry room. It's so nice to have it away from the front door, leaving even more open space!

I am so EXCITED over our entryway...this new color is AMAZING and it really makes our entryway feel so open and I don't feel like I am walking into a cave when I come home!!

Now onto the Accent Wall in the Living room and then I'll be adding a wallpaper border to our breakfast bar area, then finishing up our dining room chairs. It's going to be a busy day but I LOVE doing this type of stuff!!

Refinished Chairs = A Sore Back!!

This weekend was a very productive weekend or maybe I should say Saturday was productive! I spent all day yesterday working on refinishing three of our six dining room chairs! Unfortunately I did something horrible to my back and could not work on the other three today! But 3 out of 6 isn't bad for one day :) Here's a flashback of the dining room table we scored!!

Here's a picture of one of them, the ones I worked on don't have arms like this one but you get the idea! Check out that HIDEOUS seat cushion YUCK!!

Originally I had planned on sanding each one of these babies down but my Mom came up with the brilliant idea of only priming them. Which duh if they don't need to be sanded why not just prime them! I was really happy that these three chairs did not need to be sanded I went and bought some spray paint primer and started sprayin!

After an hour to dry I went out and painted them the AMAZING Espresso color

And TA DA, the new seat cushions! I was able to pick up some very plain brown fabric and some ribbon to match our curtains! I just used a staple gun to attach the fabric and I was super happy to be able to hot glue the ribbon and not have to sew it on! Saved me some time for sure!!

Finally the NEW AND IMPROVED chair!! I am so pleased with how the chairs turned out and the color scheme is just perfect! It's not too flashy but still incorporates the dining room colors!!

A shot of all three that I did on saturday! I couldn't be prouder of these. It took a lot of work but it's all worth it now!! 3 down 3 more to go! I am hoping to get the other 3 seat cushions covered this week and then next weeked I am hoping to get the other three chairs painted. But this time those three chairs will be done over 2 days instead of one day. My back is shot and my wrist was killing me last night!

Does anyone else like to refinish furniture? I just love it because I can control our color scheme more easily...I am very excited that all of our furniture downstairs to be the same exact color, well except the TV stand which we bought new! But it's pretty darn close!

For Now...

Chuck and I decided to take a trip to our local Wal-Mart to blow some hard earned cash on a few new decorations for the house. Some things I'd been putting off buying until we got our new dining room table.

The first thing on the list was a new table cloth to cover the table until I got it all refinished...although we both like it so much that it may stay even after the table is completed.
The next piece was the table cloths...we decided now to remove 2 of them and 2 of the chairs until we need them because it looks a a little cramped now and realistically we don't need all 6 settings on a regular basis...I was also dying to get a centerpiece for the table. And since you can never have too many candles we decided on a simple round "Bowl" with some sand and shells and three multi-height candles! Yes I said "We" Chuck just loved the idea!

And of course over the weekend I got to work in the garage and started refinishing. These chairs will take awhile because of the detail but I made some good headway before my neighbor/friend Andrea stopped by to chat :-)

I am hoping to get back out in the garage a few nights next week to work on this. I won't have time this weekend because...............Mom and I are going to a scrapbook crop on Saturday WOO HOO! I am so excited for this. I actually won a first spot through a facebook drawing so it's a sweet deal for me! I just hope we have as much fun as we do at our other annual crop!

It's HERE!!

Last night I was at my Sisters for our First Book Club meeting so I was so ANXIOUS to get home because we were getting our "New" Dining Room table :-)

Chuck was home and they were delivering so we didn't have to do anything but wait!

I was so excited when I got hom because it's BEAUTIFUL!! Granted it doesn't look super great right now but when I get through with it, it will be GORGEOUS! I am so excited for a new project to work on, not that I don't have enough already, but I really do find joy in refinishing furniture! And this will be my biggest piece so far :-)

Check out some pictures:

Honey Are We Done Yet??????

The weekend before last I painted Chuck's mancave! And it sat their empty for a week before we could move furniture around!

Well we didn't get everything that we wanted to do done but today after work I got a lot done!

I dragged up a 50 lb awkward futon mattress! This thing felt like 1000 lbs!! I also had to bring up the corner tv stand and put that heavy tv on top of it! Boy did my "guns" get a work out this afternoon!

Even after getting all the furniture moved upstairs and other furniture moved downstairs the room doesn't work the way we thought it would! So now we have to rearrange all this furniture again!! But funny how I say we, when today it was just me....I think I'll leave it to Chuck to rearrange it this time :-) Can't wait to get this room set up for now...then brand new floors and baseboards, and hopefully crown molding in May!

Color Palette Has Been Picked!!

We have finally chosen the colors for our living room!!! And I could not be happier! We get the brightness that I wanted but we also get the warmth that Chuck was looking for!!

At first we were planning on just incorporating a warm, bright orange from a painting (that I scored at a 2nd hand store for $8) but then I realized we could incorporate more than just the orange. I took apart a fall floral arrangement I made to work on bringing these fabulous colors into our living room!!


Look at how vibrant these are!
I chose to do 2 of the bigger size Hurricane vases. They were $2 a piece from Wal-Mart...what a score and I already had the marbles and flowers!

I chose 3 smaller hurricane vases, $1 a piece, and put a smaller candle in them. You can never have too many candles, at least in my mind.

Here is a shot of the 2 bigger vases and one of the smaller ones. The colors are so amazing with the dark espresso furniture. They really pop!!

And here is a shot of the whole entertainment stand. I was so happy to get rid of the pictures and the small candle holders I had as placeholders. I just wanted to make it more decorative and I love flowers and candles!

Overall I could not be happier with the way they vases turned out. Even Chuck likes them. Now to work on finishing the living room. I cannot wait to have our living room completely done.

Next steps:

Paint one accent wall

Move coffee table out of living, waiting on some help since Chuck is still down and out from his work injury.

Find new decorative pillows to match the color scheme

Find two new throw blankets to match the color scheme

Redo one candle holder to match the color scheme

And possibly find an area rug. Chuck really wants one and I'm starting to warm up to the idea, but we are now limited because we chose the colors we wanted for the living room. So wish us luck hunting for a rug that will match!

The final piece of the puzzle

I asked for it and we found it :-) Chuck and I decided to go check out television stands to get an idea of how we wanted to build ours!! Well instead of getting ideas, we found the one for us!!

We bought it and it was deliverd 4 days later!!

Here it is the first night was here!
Here it is in front of our old tv stand! Notice the DVD Holder in the left hand corner!

TA DA!! The next morning we mounted the televison on the wall, took away the DVD Holder and then centered the stand more in the center of the wall. Added a few pictures and some candles!!

Just another side view. We couldn't be happier with the way it turned out. Now just to paint the wires to match the wall and then we will paint the fireplace wall a darker shade. We've also looked at getting different candle holders and frames for the TV Stand. I want to add a little pizazz!! and bright colors!!

The only thing now to make this PERFECT...We need to take the coffee table out to the garage so that it doesn't clash with the espresso. Hopefully we can get that done soon, but until Chuck can put pressure on his leg it's staying put!!

I am so in love with our new and refinished living room furniture! The house is slowly but surely coming along!!

Brand New End Tables

Well not quite brand new...Awhile back we found 2 end tables on craiglist.com for $25.00 (http://abitofthisadashofthat.blogspot.com/2009/09/craiglist-steal-of-deal.html) And I finally got done sanding them (http://abitofthisadashofthat.blogspot.com/2010/01/exciting-day.html).

I was so excited to finally get them spray painted and moved into our Living Room!!

Here is the paint:

I highly recommend this paint when refinishing any furniture. It sprained on evenly with just one coat, and it dried within a few hours!!

All sanded down, wiped off and ready to be transformed!!! Honestly it looked so great to me as just bare wood but of course not good enough for the living room!!

After painting the bookcase outside the garage and getting spray paint on the front of our garage sidewalk I figured it was time to actually be smart about it. I took a couple old pillow cases and a sheet that was going to goodwill and put them under the tables!

And started spraying away :-)

At first I wasn't going to paint the inside and all around the drawers but after having leftover spray paint I thought why not do it the right way!!

Just waiting to dry now!!

AHHHHH It was so great to get the new knobs put on them. They were the perfect silver for the espresso color!

And the other one!!

Chuck was so happy to see these finished. And I was extremely proud of how well they turned out! Now it was time to find a TV Stand......

Another Craigslist Steal!!

With Chuck and I planning a bunch of projects on the house I am always on the lookout for AMAZING deals!! And as I was cruising Craigslist yesterday I found an ad for a bookshelf...exact height that we were looking...excited I sent off an email to the person asking to purchase it and pick it up this afternoon.

I was so happy and so suprised to find out that it was EXACTLY what we were looking for. Sure it needs a little TLC but I've got plenty of that to give.

This is the bookshelf and where it will sit. It will hold our cookbooks that are currently residing upstairs in the mancave closet and the few that we use on a regular basis sit on top of the cupboards!!

How much did we pay for this sturdy perfect height perfect shelves you may ask??? oh a mere $10.00!!! I know it's a great deal right? We couldn't even get the cheap bookcase that Walmart sells for $10.00.

Needless to say I cannot wait to move this little beauty out to the garage and sand it down and paint it!! I am thrilled with all the deals we have been discovering!

Currently we are awaiting an email back from a girl who is selling her dining room table...it looks like it's in amazing condition and it's got seating for 6...it will be so great if she emails us back and says we can pick it up this weekend!! We will figure out how to get it home once we are able to purchase...

Keep your fingers crossed for us!!! And stay tuned for the bookshelf remodel!!

NEW NIGHTSTANDS

So I am happy to say we have now bought all furniture for our bedroom that matches!!YAY! We got two new nightstands and a dresser that match the TV Stand we found at the thrift store! We haven't put together the dresser but next week on vacation we are putting it together and then rearranging the bedroom so I'll add pictures next week of the bedroom fully put together!

Here's Chuck putting together the nightstand (with help from the dogs)


Here it is all put together! And Belle is modeling for you :-)

These are so awesome because now we both have matching night stands and we have so much more room! We can easily fit our alarm clocks, glasses of water and lamps. I also can fit my book and the phone without trying to figure out how to make it fit! I am so so happy! The drawer is deep and has lots of space and now I can keep my books and magazines on the shelves and not littered all around the house!