Many Lives Of A China Hutch

This is my china hutch in its current state. I painted it white, Swiss Coffee to be exact. But you saw that coming, right?

It's not finished because I just got the second coat on when I left home to drive to Illinois to spend 3 weeks with the newest grand baby.

When I return home, the china hutch will get some distressing and "aged down" with a coat of Annie Sloan's (AS's) clear and dark wax...At least I hope she will!

I'm a coward when it comes to adding the aging-wax-finish to furniture.

I had to get that off my chest.

I've had the two cans of AS's clear and dark wax for about 9 months now and haven't even opened them. fail!

I bought the wooden china hutch back in 2003. I loved it for a few years.

...then I couldn't stand the raw wood any more.

She got a few coats of AS's "Old White" chalk paint about 3 years ago. I never finished it, probably because I would have had to age it. And, I already told you about my fear of failure.

A year ago, I fell for a two-tone look I saw on a piece of furniture in an antique mall -- AS's Coco with Old White. Seemed easy since it was already Old White...

I gave up. I was almost finished, and I gave up! I even painted two of the glass doors coco, but I didn't do the drawers!

I love how I was obsessed enough to decorate it anyway, even though it wasn't finished!

I wonder why I quit so close to the end? Could it be because the piece I saw in the shop was aged with clear and dark wax? I'm starting to sense a pattern here.

 

Even though I still need to age the new paint job, I started decorating it the night before I left on the trip. 



 

Some vintage glasses, tarnished silver and cloth napkins. It might seem like I'm not really planning on breaking out that dark wax...

 

 

But, this time for sure!

 

I'll age it down like crazy. Maybe I'll re-paint the glass doors with blackboard paint, add some stenciled numbers, change out the knobs, beat it up a little, then break out that dark wax baby!

 

I might need to take a waxing class, then I'll do it for sure...

 

 

Partying this week at:
 

http://debbie-debbiedoos.com
 

http://frenchcountrycottage.blogspot.com

 

http://thebrambleberrycottage.blogspot.com

 

 

 

 

Oh, Those Houses

During the weekend, we went to Frisco Texas to take some pictures of another area we saw recently while we were driving around drooling over the landscaping. 

The lovely flower beds in this housing area also have rocks mixed in with the flowers.

I was so busy looking at the flower beds, and trying to get a good picture without getting  reported for stalking, that I didn't even notice the lovely houses!

With our pictures in hand, we went down to the local rock place to price out some of the rocks to get an idea how much it will cost. From that we know we won't be able to afford any of the big ones!

They price by the pound, so I guess we'll start with the pea gravel and smaller rocks. 

I'm ready to get started, but it will have to wait for a few weeks.  I'm on my way to see our newest grandbaby again.

Rocks In Your Beds

We've been trying to figure out how to re-do our flower beds and enlarge them to get rid of some of our lawn.

Whenever we go out and about, if I'm behind the wheel, I always drive through housing areas stalking their landscaping.

Here's some houses and a new model home we saw recently with a great use of rocks in their landscaping.

The less grass the better as far as we're concerned, and I love the idea of breaking up the flower beds with rocks. What do you think of the idea?

Lazy Woman's Color Board

I've been looking for inspiration for colors to paint my walls. I like every paint color I see on other blogs...and...that's my problem!

Then, we ordered a new mattress/box springs set.

*We moved everything out of the hall and dining room (you're probably saying "huh?" right now) and that furniture ended up, in a mix, in the great room.

It was 6 a.m. on Saturday morning when we started clearing the hall and dining room out.

We were done by 7:45 am.

The delivery guy called at 8:00 a.m. to tell us they would NOT be delivering that week!

"...parts were not available, yada yada yada..."

Crashing into a chair, more than a little agitated, I noticed that the colors of blue, black, creamy white, and brown were really appealing to me.

"I think I found my colors." I said to Wild Bill.

He didn't actually say anything in reply, but I'm totally sure he was silent because he was so thrilled for me at that moment!



We had moved the old frame/box springs and all to the dining room* to store temporarily to make way for the new stuff.