Since we moved in we have done just a few projects. I want to call them home improvement projects, but I think that is the wrong term for them. So we have done a few projects, a few things to make the new house less empty.
We had a kitchen table that I bought off craigslist about 5 years ago. When we bought it it was perfect. It was sturdy, the right price, and the right size. But I didn't love it after 5 years. It had a hard life at our house. I decided to paint it in April, I did some research, made the paint and slapped it on.
It worked great. And then Michael decided to cut the table with scissors. The paint did not hold up well to the scissors, so I decided to paint it again. but this time I painted it another color. This one didn't work as well, so then I painted it another color. And then I put polyurethane on top to seal it. The polyurethane turned the table yellowish and did not protect it, so I sanded it all off. As you can see there was quite a bit of paint to go through. Luckily I bought Brian an electric sander for christmas. That bad boy went through everything! I sanded everything off, all the paint, the original finish, everything. Our patio was covered in a thick layer of gray dust, I look like I had aged 40 years in one day, and oh did I mention that I forgot the face mask? So yes I got a cough.
Here's the naked table. Doesn't it look better? Yes, yes it does. So since my earlier experience with the paint ended badly, I decided this time I would stain the top. I spray painted the legs (they don't get as much wear and tear) but stained the top.
This is the first round. it turns out that while I thought I had sanded everything off I didn't actually. So I had to sand again, and then the table really absorbed the stain.
See, it's like another table.
We slightly distressed the top. I knew that it would live a hard life in our house so we didn't want it to look too perfect from the get go. That and let's be honest this table is 20 years old, there are dents and imperfections. Anything too perfect would look bad. So here's the top.
We bought some chairs from Ikea to go with it, they match the stools we have at the island. It looks so much better! Granted we don't really use this table since we sit at the island, but it looks great! Finally... after months of failures, we have a success!
Ok project two, it turns out we have quite a few walls in our house and not that many things on them (well actually nothing). So we made these. These (are hard to see) are collages of our favorite instagram photos from 2014. They aren't perfect and I should have adjusted some photos. But it's a start. And hey it turns out poster prints are only $6 at Costco.
See they are pretty big, but it turns out the walls are really big (not so big, but bigger)
a close up.
We decided we needed a bit more on the walls (we have yet to put anything on the walls besides the framed collages), so Michael and I made a family balloon silhouette. The idea was possibly better than the finished product but it was fun.
I went crazy with the balloons.
eventually we will put everything on the wall.
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