Playing around with gray

After I finished the dining room table on Saturday, I sat my bootie down on the couch to scroll through Pinterest, drink some champagne and watch Walk the Line. Buttttt that only lasted about 20 minutes. I have so many unfinished projects in my garage, so I decided to tackle another one. 

The last time my mom visited she picked up a curvy little coffee table for $20 at Goodwill. I've found a few tables like this now; I love them because no matter how you paint them the leggy shape always helps maintain a level of sophistication. 

This funky gold-dipped one is in our living room now: 

And this one I sold to my sweet friend Caitlyn for her new apartment:

I also have one at the foot of my bed, that I REALLY wanna try and tuft. I'm thinking something like this: 

See it on Pinterest

I already bought the peg board and I have the fabric... but let's see when I actually get to that. :/

Anyyywhooo... here's what the most recent coffee table project looked like when my mom found it: 

$20? Holla!

My favorite blog is Dear Lille- she uses lots of whites, grays and natural wood palettes so I decided to play around with a gray color. I chose a Behr color called "Silver Bullet". My preference for Coors Light may or may not have led me to choose that color... ok, it did. 

I sanded the table, and then cleaned it with TSP before applying two coats of the paint + primer. Then I lightly distressed it with low grit sandpaper and steel wool. 

Even with the distressing, it didn't looke quite "aged enough". The gray paint was still too stark in contrast with the wood. So, I used Annie Sloan dark wax on it to darken it a little. 

I don't have a fancy wax brush, so I usually just cut up an old t-shirt to use as lint free rags. Sorry, Pat...

Working with wax is a little more complicated than working with glaze, just because you have less time for color correction. I apply a generous amount of wax in a circular motion using a strip of my t shirt, but I work in very small sections and only leave it on for roughly 30 seconds. 

This is what it should look like before you wipe it off: 

Looks kinda gross, I know. But your fingers will end up looking even more gross. 

Told ya!

After the wax has set for 30 seconds, wipe it off with a clean strip of your t shirt (or cheesecloth) in a linear direction. If you leave it on a light color paint longer than 30 seconds, it can make your piece just look dingy and dirty rather than aged. There's more wiggle room with darker colors, though. 

After the wax was applied to the whole table, it came out like this: 

I think the gray makes it look a little beachy. But it could be that I'm just ready for summer :)

Until next time, God Bless!

Rainy day table rehab...

Well this week was pure. chaos. Tuesday was my last day at work (yippee!), I spent all day Wednesday in San Antonio with my sweet mom after she had surgery, and Thursday and Friday I was in Houston doing MOH duties with my best friend looking for her wedding dress! Needless to say, I just wanted to come home and relax after all of that driving. The boyfriend has National Guard drill all weekend and the roomie/sis is on her way to Gulf Shores for Spring Break, so today I stayed home and did about 12 loads of laundry (I wish I was exaggerating), did some early spring cleaning and finally got to paint my dining table!

That being said...

A few weeks ago, my sister's boyfriend came in town from Abilene and when he walked in our empty kitchen he said, "Did Ravanne sell the dining table again?" In his defense, I have already sold this one...

annnnd this one...

So, I finally pulled my table out of storage the last time I went to Katy to see my parents. I intended to take it with me to school a few years ago but it was just too big for our little rent house. 

What the heck did I do before I bought that truck??

Here's the before...
(And yes it's March and my Christmas curtains are still up. Don't judge me.)

The wood finish on top is still in great shape, but the legs had the original icky finish. So, I attacked it with some white paint (go figure!). 

Now, here's the finished product: 

Can you tell I'm excited for Spring??

Did ya notice I replaced the curtains? They're WAY too short, but I had them in the garage and I figured anything would be better than those red Christmas drapes! 

I really just wanted an excuse to use my new drill! My family gave me these fun toys for my birthday :)

And did you recognize this guy in the background? I did a tutorial on how to make this crate bar cart in September! Read it here.

I also started working on this pretty French desk! I'll be posting the final product this week!

I hope everyone has a fantastic weekend and an even better week! I start my new job on Monday, so wish  me luck!

God Bless!

-Ravanne Leigh

"You're so vain- you probably think this post is about you...."

Does anyone else hear that song and immediately think of Kate Hudson's tone-deaf karaoke on "How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days"? .... Just me? Ok, nevermind.

Anyyyway, in my last post I dropped a little teaser about a vanity I rehabbed for my bestie BK. She recently moved into her own apartment for her dietetic internship and was on the hunt for some small pieces for her new digs. I had this little baby in the garage and she thought it would fit perfect in the space!

Originally, this little French Provincial number looked like this: 

... I used to carry all of my hair supplies in that pink Craftsman tool tote. Don't judge me. 

Cute, right? 

But, she wanted it to be antique white and distressed with a little brown showing through. 

Here's the catch; this piece isn't solid wood. There were a lot of French Provincial style pieces manufactured in the 60's and 70's.... that were made with laminate (read: SATAN) on top of the wood. 

So, I had to use what I call the "fake it 'til ya make it" technique. Since I couldn't get the finish to be brown (to resemble real wood), I had to go through the following steps: 

1. Sand the laminate with 240 grit sandpaper to help the paint adhere

(tip: don't ever use anything less than 220 grit on laminate. The lower the grit, the more harsh the sandpaper is. Low grit sheets will just scratch the surface and it will most likely show through your paint. YUCK!)

2. Clean ALL the sawdust with TSP (or similar cleaner)

3. Apply a primer to help bond the paint to the laminate. I typically use Zinsser Bulls Eye, but there are several other brands that work just as well like Kilz. 

4. THEN, here's the sneaky part- I painted the entire piece in two coats of brown paint. This base coat will give the effect that the piece itself is brown when we distress our top coat.

5. Then, I applied my antique white paint. It took about 3 coats to cover up the brown. 

6. Now the fun starts :) I distressed the piece, starting with the edges and working in with 3 various grits of sandpaper. On this one I used 220, 100 and 60 grit. I also used a mixture of single sheets of sandpaper and an electric palm sander. 

If you're not sure how much you want a piece distressed, just start with the edges and gradually add some chippy spots as you feel comfortable. Your distressing will NEVER look the same, so be ok with imperfections. (Isn't that the point of distressing anyway?)

Also, when you're working with different layers of paint, make sure to sand lightly. If you press too hard you risk taking off your base color (in our case, brown). 

7. After I cleaned it with another round of TSP, I slathered on two coats of Polyurethane to seal it.

I usually use Polyacrylic to seal my pieces, because it dries clear. But, the white paint I chose did not look as "antiqued" as I'd hoped so I opted of polyurethane instead as it had a tendency to dry a little yellow. 

After all of that, this is what the final result looked like: 

And the best part.....

You can close the mirror and hide all your beauty junk when you're done! 

I'm taking this beaut up to her in Wichita Falls this weekend. While I'm there we're gonna be on the lookout for a cute stool and maybe some funky drawer liner.

I hope she likes it and I can't wait to see it in its new home. 

Here we goooo!

Of course it's raining today so I can't take it in the bed of the truck.. good thing it fits in Grey Goose's backseat!

Have a great weekend everyone! God bless!

The Harris girls' nest post-Christmas....

Well this weekend I begrudgingly took down all of our Christmas decorations. Knowing this was my last weekend before my night classes started up again, I was determined to be productive. And baby was I! I managed to de-Christmas the house, fix the fence that our devil dogs tore up (again), clean the kitchen, clean and reorganize my entire room AND closet (bigger task than it sounds), go to the gym both days, go to Church AND finish up a piece of furniture for my college roomie and best frand (I'll post about that tomorrow). I have to say I was mighty proud of myself for not sitting on my bum and binge watching Netflix... because that's definitely what I wanted to do instead. 

I thought it would be fun to post pictures of me and Robynne's house post-Christmas! Especially since we just bought a new (to us) couch. Let's just say that 3 big dogs + 1 puppy + a white slipcover couch = not good. It was time for that thing to go. I was so embarrassed by the slipcover I even put it on Craigslist for free- naked!

A few months ago I posted about how different our tastes are (you can read it here). I'm very rustic  and neutral and she's more (read: A LOT MORE) colorful and funky. I'm not really sure what you would consider our combined decorating style- "broke post-grad" fits pretty well though. My boyfriend told me he saw on House Hunters that it was called "Modern Rustic"... so I guess we'll go with that for now. :)

Anywho... here goes! 

Living Room: 

Well hi there, new Ikea couch! And I spy 3 doggie noses....

She looks so peaceful... if only that were the case

Rob always finds the CUTEST pillows! Too bad the dogs would eat these for lunch... we keep them off the couch when it's just us at home

Print from http://thepaintedarrow.com/ - I LOVE all of their stuff

I am a candle junkie. My latest favorite is "Leather and Lace" by Heavenly Scents. I get mine at The Rhinestone Cowgirl boutique in Bastrop, Tx! I get the matching car fresheners too!

We love our "Ikea Hack" shelf- 3 bottles of spray paint later, an ugly black Ikea shelf turned into this pretty little gem

..... did I mention I like gold spray paint? Now I'm thinking it needs some glitter

Oh how I love Stephanie Creekmur! You should:
#1 - go download this print FOR FREE here
#2 - go to her shop and buy everything

This is my old lady, Darcy. :)

Rob found this on Craigslist! We REALLY want to try to paint the upholstery like this but we haven't gotten the guts up yet! So for now.. we'll say it's Valentines Themed? 

Ok so this cool card catalog is in the kitchen (thanks mom!). But to paint or not to paint, that is the question

My room...

(I'll post pictures of the sis's room after she cleans it....)

Sorry for the blurry iPhone pic...

So these are my "Pounds Lost" and "Pounds to lose" jars. Unfortunately there are a lot more corks in the "Pounds to lose" jar. I'll get there though! Pretty inconspicuous, huh?

I used Annie Sloan paints for this desk redo- and that chippy old chair was $15 at Goodwill!

This area needs some some SERIOUS WORK. I'm such a clutter bug.. .My plans are to simplify and do something more like the picture below... what do you think? 

And then these little diddies in my bathroom...

My mom painted that antique silver tray with chalkboard paint, so I change the message every so often.
Also, I tend to leave dead flowers in vases for months because I just hate getting rid of them! Now I've started storing the dried pedals in apothecary jars and setting them around the room instead. 

Found that groovy vintage cart at an estate sale! I was hunting for something like it after I saw this on Pinterest...


http://www.pinterest.com/pin/260505159668968595/

It's not always easy to find good stuff on a small budget, but we've learned to see the beauty in thrifty little pieces of junk! A little spray paint can go a looooong way!

Stop by tomorrow because I'll be posting a before-and-after of a little French vanity I rehabbed for miss BK!

 Thanks and God Bless :)