[Before, as she stood in my old carriage house living room… the day I moved in.]
To be fair, that was all hand-me-down stuff above. I don’t really decorate that way. Moving on!
[The first day of the rest of her life.]
She got a good sanding…
[Getting a power-sanded facial.]
[Selected colors, Round 1. The blue was a total fail, like cotton candy—more on that later.]
[Undercoat of yellow to peek through after distressing.]
Hey, me before I started working out! That’s almost as hard to look at as the color of the sideboard.
So now you’re wondering how Round 1 turned out. The paint was a disaster, and I’d forgotten to order the Anthropologie hardware so tried to make due with a heinous Lowe’s selection. Overall, we ditched out on a cotton-candy blue sideboard with overly-masculine hardware until a year later.
The hardware was a pewter twig branch, and the knobs matched. The style was too heavy and modern for the piece. Serious sucking going on in this picture.
Seeing as how this photo was the inspiration for the piece, we were really off after the first attempt:
A year later and we were ready to give it another go. This time, we wanted to repurpose her as a table behind our couch—and sorely needed storage space. We pulled a bunch of neutral olives, greys, mushrooms and taupes from Behr. This is the final result, and while the hardware is probably better suited for her original aqua destiny in an eclectic bedroom somewhere, we’re happy!
[BTW, I painted that birdhouse a soft dove grey last night… so much better.]
Hooray! Somewhere to store my Chutes and Ladders and Candyland board games.
DIYing = married people joy.
-Carey
DIY is totally married people joy. Dorkiness we are totally a part of. So did you custom mix your paint? I really like it! Love the whimsical non-hardware too.
gorgeous! that table is perfection
It is beautiful! Love the hardware. I am going to have to check Anthropologie out. I always forget to look for hardware there.
Isn’t it awful trying to match a color you see in a magazine? I can never get it right. Right now I am obsessed with re-doing my bedroom over like Annie Braehler’s from Euro Trash. Scroll down and look at her bedroom. Is that not the perfect shade of french grey-blue? http://euro-trash.hostasaurus.com/mm5/pdf/HCJunJul08.pdf
I love her style. I would re-do my whole house with her furniture if I could afford it. Check out her inventory.
anthony and i need more photos together!! god job on the dresser! ;0)
um, i’ve been dying to do that to a standing jewelry box. it’s the generic cherry wood color but wanted to bring it to life.
any serious tips i should consider? your house looks awesome by the way 🙂
Thanks!
You know… it could be cool (and probably hard, but worth it) to reupholster the interior of a big box if it had glass top/doors. What about stenciling on it? A cool soft blue with grey stencil overlay. I get tons of inspiration from design sponge before and afters… You could paper the drawers and add some cool hardware! I’d have to see a picture… keep me posted on it!