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.

Maybe The Door

The Dallas newspaper recently ran an article about the town of South Lake Texas, which they claimed to be a walkable town attracting lots of empty nesters. Of course we had to go get a look-see!

                  Love at first sight? ---yes!

Affordable? ---no!

Most of the front doors on the 3-story townhouses are the type we've been pricing recently. I can tell you each of these doors alone cost between $4000 to $8000! ...Yeah, for the door.

I found myself drooling over their doors, then we walked around the town area, through the stores and had lunch at a curbside restaurant.

It would be nice to live just around the corner from so many of my favorite stores and restaurants, but we're guessing the 3-story townhouses are meant for younger legs! 

Hey, I wonder if they would miss that door?

Must Love Crappy Furniture

I've been married longer than on-line dating has been around, so I never experienced it.

One of my favorite movies, Must Love Dogs, was on TV last week. As I watched it for the 14th time, I was wondering:

"...what catchy phrase would I have used for my on-line ad had I been single when on-line dating was catching on?"

Of course...Must Love Crappy Furniture... would be an honest line for my bio, but I don't think it would've gotten me many dates!

When I posted pictures of the vintage dresser we re-purposed for Olivia's birth, I mentioned I painted the dresser (and all my other wood furniture) forest green back in the early 90's when I was a single mother trying to make ends meet.

In case you're too young to remember that stylish color back then, I found pictures! Well, sort of. 

This is an old farmhouse side table I still have, and it has been many colors in recent years. It was already vintage in the late 80's when I bought it from a farm wife who was happy to be selling the farm and moving to town. You can still see the forest green on the bottom...



Here's baby Olivia's vintage dresser when it was forest green:

A few years ago, I painted the dresser with Annie Sloan's chalk paint in "Old White". 

For Olivia's room, we used "Swiss Coffee" in Behr's paint and primer and a dark raspberry color from Lowes for the inside of the drawers.

I liked the Swiss Coffee paint color so much, when I got home I bought a quart of it for some projects I had been putting off for too long!

Wild Bill asked the other day, "...are you a fix'in to paint everything white?"

...and he said it like that was a bad thing!

Of course I had to answer yes!

He's just lucky he doesn't know that I know the "in" color this year is emerald!

Find me at these parties:

http://www.timewashed.com

http://frenchcountrycottage.blogspot.com
http://www.primpjunktion.com