Tulsa Child & Family Photography

When I’m not at my full time job, or doing shoots, or at CrossFit, or cooking…..I love to do home projects.
Very much like my photo shoots, when I see a piece of furniture that I want to re-finish, I know what the end result will be before I start.
Craigslist and antique stores are full of amazing steals. I haggle with the best of them
When Rachel from The Organic Bloom contacted me about doing a post for OB, she recommended something personal, like sharing all my crazy projects!
I have blogged some of these before with in-depth tutorials. As I get back into the swing of blogging I wanted to do a post showing my work that isn’t as detailed.
I hope you all enjoy!

PS? I REALLY love grey. Don’t judge me!

I got this 1950s pie hutch for $130 {talked down from $220} from a local antique store. I took it apart, lightly sanded the entire piece by hand, then spray painted it that gorgeous cream color. Yes, spray paint. No brush stroke marks, dries 1,000 times faster, and who doesn’t love spray painting? After the few coats dried I did some sanding to bring through the color underneath. I admittedly got wayyyy too heavy on the sanding. But David loved it and didn’t want me to change it. I also spray painted the hardware with a rubbed oil bronze spray paint so I could keep the original pieces but update them {who likes GOLD?!}. Gave the entire piece a coat of polyurethane protectant {spray paint, of course} and FINISHED! It now houses most of my newborn props+blankets.
Full post on pie hutch: http://www.belovedblog.com/2012/02/16/wood-distressing-tulsa-photographer/
I love organization. I need it. I never knew how busy life would get as I got older. I don’t even have kids. How you Moms manage to do it all is a miracle to me!! Hence my chalkboard calendar! I took the measurements of this wall to Lowe’s and had them cut plywood to fit it. I did 3 coats of magnetic primer, 2 coats of chalkboard paint, painstakingly measured out the calendar and drew it on in chalk. Then I painted over that with paint, screwed it into the wall, glued a piece of cork to the bottom for our bills, spray painted a can and hung it next to the board to hold the chalk. I made the magnetic dates with wooden circles by spray painting them red, placing numbered stickers on them, covering them in mod podge, and gluing magnets to the back.
Full post on calendar here: http://www.belovedblog.com/2012/01/23/diy-chalkboard-calendar-tulsa-photographer/
The turquoise wall was what I did when we initially moved into the house. At the time I LOVED how different it was and that it popped. I got that red (originally raw wood) table off Craigslist and painted it. The little suitcase bed is what I made for our cat, Macaroni {see in the picture below} One day I walked by the wall and realized that it was just too loud and looked…cheap. SO! Onward! I found the 3-drawer sofa table on Craigslist {listed for $75 bought for $40}. I took the pulls off, spray painted them with rubbed oil bronze spray paint, and painted the piece with Annie Sloan paint.
See my adorable Bloomies?!? I can’t get over how timeless they are!
Not much to say here! I saw this table+chair set on Craigslist {$100} and KNEW that underneath that dark glossy finish was some gorgeous wood. I sanded everything down with an orbital sander and did 6 coats of polyeurathane, using steel wool and tac cloths in between each coat. Eventually I want to paint over the black with white….but not anytime soon!
My most recent project and the biggest. I have been looking for a french provincial dresser, specifically with 9 drawers, for quite some time. The ones I have seen around Tulsa are always over $500 and I’m not willing to pay that for something I plan to completely overhaul. This one was listed for almost $300 but she sold it to me for $150. BAM!
It doesn’t look very big in this picture, but that’s a 60″ TV mounted over it. The dresser itself is 5′ long.
I sanded the hideous gloss off the top, stained it, and did a protective coat over it. Then I removed the absolutely filthy drawer pulls with the intention of washing them but the water ate the finish off them leaving me green hardware. Rubbed oil bronze spray paint to the rescue {again}! My plan, and the reasoning for wanting 9 drawers, was to turn it into a media console. The slats you see the cable box and speakers sitting on were already there when I pulled the drawers out! WIN! I was dreading having to do that myself! I used Annie Sloan paint and wax to paint and protect the piece with.
Full post on dresser here: http://www.belovedblog.com/2013/01/23/refinished-furniture-tutorial/
Isn’t this desk gorgeous?? My parents surprised me with it for my birthday last year. I debated over painting it because I love the hand detailing. But the weird leather that was glued to the drawers was coming off and it ruined the wood when I removed them. I covered the leather desk top with painters tape and used an exact-o knife to cut around the edges. I did 2-3 coats of grey spray paint and a few coats of spray poly protectant. Oh, and I tossed those gross knobs and replaced them with over sized ones. This now houses my photography packaging and miscellaneous wedding junk
I really just wanted to show you that I meant it when I said I love grey

I wanted to show some special love to my sweet little Organic Bloom frames. We have a main (read: huge) wall in our living room that remains bare. After our October wedding this fall, I plan to cover that wall in OB frames. The Organic Bloom is just down the road from my house so I’ll probably drag some of their sweet staff to my home so I can get some help planning the entire thing

I hope you have enjoyed this! After re-reading the post I realize it seems like I have a LOT of extra time on my hands!! HA!

PS- Don’t forget about the logo giveaway I’m hosting through May 19th!!

http://www.belovedblog.com/2013/05/15/logo-giveaway/

XOXO

Most of these pictures were taken with my point and shoot or my cell phone. Don’t judge me.
I’m going to start this post by shamelessly showing you what our living room looked like BEFORE…. For this, you can judge meEver since David and I bought this house (our first) last year I have made my primary focus cosmetic upgrades. I re-painted both our bathrooms, re-did the cabinets in the bathrooms and laundry room, painted the living room, dining room, entry way, staircase, kitchen, and most recently took off all our kitchen cabinets, repainted the doors+drawers+cabinets, and re-installed everything with new hardware. I’m exhausted thinking about it! HA! {PS? I recommend mass quantities of wine for a kitchen overhaul!}

One of my goals for 2013 is to post more DIY tutorials. I am constantly re-doing furniture and love sharing tips!

Anywho. Back to my previously-embarrassing living room. Now that I am finished with a good portion of the cosmetic upgrades I am shifting my focus on turning our house into a home. We are getting married in 10 months {EEEEP!!!!} and I want our sweet little home to feel welcoming…..and not so much like a college dorm.

So here you have it. The embarrassing BEFORE that was our living room for over a year! EYE SORE!

My amazing $150 Craigslist score!
Here is everything I used to re-do the dresser! This was my first time using Annie Sloan Chalk Paint. It’s a special kind of paint that bonds to any surface and eliminates the need for sanding and/or priming.
Annie Sloan Chalk Paint – Pure White
Annie Sloan Clear Soft Wax and Annie Sloan Wax Brush (that crazy looking up-right brush!)
Minwax Dark Walnut Stain
Minwax Polycrylic – Clear Satin
Rustoleum Bronze Spray Paint
Purdy sash paint brushes
tack cloths
Elmer’s Wood Filler
The black piece of equipment in the back is an electric orbital sander my Dad let me borrow :::cough::: about a year and a half ago
Other than the Annie Sloan supplies, I already had everything else. I do a LOT of projects and crafting!

The top of the dresser was pretty beat up and looked rough…. But I knew under all that beat up glossy finish that there was some gorgeous wood!
aaaaaaand I was right!! SWOON!
{please note the spray paint stains all over our garage floor. poor David had no idea what he was getting himself into when he first told me it was no big deal that I spray painted some things in there! HA!!}
After getting the top sanded and stained I did a layer of the clear wax and it looked AWFUL. You are supposed to be able to use it on painted OR raw wood as a finish. You can’t tell in this picture but it came out extremely cloudy. After a lot of sanding {and cussing.} I decided to do several {read:5} layers of the polycrylic just on the top for an even finish.
This is after my first coat of paint and one coat of poly (poly ONLY on the top). I did NO sanding to the body or drawers of the dresser. Only the top.
After several poly coats. LOVE how the dark walnut turned out. I was iffy as I had never used it before!
Our new media console!! The boards that you see the surround sound and cable box sitting on were already in the dresser. WINNING!
When I took the handles off the drawers to paint I decided to soak them since they were filthy. That ended up ruining their finish and turning them GREEN. Enter the bronze spray paint!
SOOOOO much better!! We decided to move our other TV upstairs and got a new 60″. We ran the cables behind the wall to prevent anymore dorm room resemblances! We are going to run the other cables behind the wall…I was just too impatient and wanted to take a picture so I could blog this
This picture really scales the size down. The dresser is 65″ long!

Now to start re-doing one of our spare rooms…..