Artisan Lifestyle: Artisan lifestyle living room design, redesign using what you have on hand, It's amazing what a little paint can do

Sunday, June 9, 2013

Artisan lifestyle living room design, redesign using what you have on hand, It's amazing what a little paint can do

My furniture painting frenzy might be over for a little while. I painted the tables in the living room room, the rocking chair, the dining room table and chairs and the 'media' cart. I dug DD's old dresser out of the barn (I braved an army of spiders to retrieve this piece). This antique dresser was in DD's room during her teen years and it was covered with wax, fingernail polish and stickers. It had stains from years of god-knows-what being spilled on it. I thought to just throw a coat of paint on it and put it in the kitchen to hold plants up to the sun in the window. Jimmy said that it really needed to be refinished because it was such a nice piece of furniture (minus the abuse). I thought about it for 10 minutes and decided he was right. I got out the electric sander and was amazed at how fast it cleaned up. It took three days to get it sanded,stained and polyurethaned. It's beautiful and sits in a place of honor under the 1970's swag lamp. We put the cd player on it and filled the drawers with cd's. After finishing all the painting and refinishing, I made seat cushions and tablecloths for the kitchen table. I had to put away the painting and sewing mess because Jimmys Mom flew in for a visit last night. It was fun getting everything cleaned up and ready for company. We had the entire house put back together and completely clean early in the afternoon yesterday. I couldn't stop myself from wandering from room to room admiring my own handy work. I also marveled at what one can do with a can of paint, some surplus fabric and a few pieces of well made , beat up furniture. I loved digging through my fabric stash and deciding which lengths to use. At one point Jimmy suggested a trip to the fabric store to get a bigger selection. I explained to him that this whole process was about using what we have on hand. He finally agreed with me when I said that a trip to the fabric store would push the cost of my home makeover to well over the $100 price tag I allotted myself when I started.