Decor

The Free Dresser That We Transformed

December 14, 2017 Leave a Comment

This paint was gifted to me by Rustoleum. But the opinions are solely my own.

I’ve been dying to share this little DIY project with you guys. In the name of the game, we’ve been trying to update our home for free. Yep, you heard it, FREE. We found this free dresser from a friend and took it home. We didn’t realize until we got home that the base was so badly chewed by a dog. It was basically unsalvageable. Trust me, we tried.

So, we decided to blindly rip the base off, not knowing if it would fully ruin the piece. I was quite nervous because at that point, I had full painted it. But guess what? It worked and we replaced it with a basic 1X6 for a more modern look.

Here’s how the dresser looked pre-paint. It actually had really nice bones, minus the base that we sanded for over an hour and it just wouldn’t “blend”.

For this job Rust-Oleum gifted me this Milk Paint to use on my project & I’m going to give you a full rundown on what I thought of this specific paint.

I’ve used quite a few different brands of milk paint, so I feel I have a good gauge on what I’m talking about

Firstly, what is “Milk Paint?” Milk paint is a nontoxic water-based paint. It can be made from milk and lime, generally with pigments added for color. … Milk Paint is commonly sold in the powder form, which is a combination of casein and lime.

To be quite honest with you, I’m not sure if Rust-Oleum has another agent in their paint, but it didn’t crackle away like all the other brands I’ve used have done. Which made me a bit sad, because I love that look. One of the positives about this paint is it has extremely good coverage. It will cover any surface. This dresser had a gloss on it prior to painting it, and it covered it with ease. I even used it on the handles, and I only had to do two coats.

The directions on the container are super straight forward and you can use the actual container to paint out of & mix in. Super easy peasy and it made literally no mess whatsoever.

Here’s how our dresser turned out after the second coat was completed. I did give it a a little sand and distressed it. I found this paint distresses really easily and it didn’t leave scratch marks for a more authentic distressed look.

Overall I would give this paint a B. The only reason I give it a B is because I was expecting it to crackle like most other milk paints I’ve used. If it was labelled a chalk paint, I would give it an A+

Hope you guys are having the most amazing week ever & don’t forget to share this on Pinterest

Farmhouse Decorating On A Penny

October 27, 2017 2 Comments

This year has been a crazy roller coaster and in this time we have had to cut back a lot. I’ve always been one to not spend a ton, but even more so now.

I like to find deals everywhere I go – or free is best in my mind.

When we first moved into this cute rancher it was anything but a farmhouse. It was built in the early 90’s and the colours and style wasn’t mine. The good thing about a blank slate is that you can create whatever you want out of it.

When we first moved in, half of the home was painted in this sage green color. Although I love the coziness of the color. I much prefer white, cream or grey. I find when there is color on the walls it really makes me feel restricted in my decorating.

When I moved into this house, I started slowly turning all my furniture white. I love white, and since this home was so colourful, I thought it would be the perfect opportunity to start switching everything to white.

This console above was free, I bought the knobs off Amazon for 4.50 for 20 of them ( crazy, I know ) and then I painted it with Miss Mustard Seed Milk Paint to give it a really aged and beat up look.

Second, the shutters we snagged for 5 dollars each at a hardware store last year, and of course, I spray painted them black and then painted white & distressed them.

Everything else I already had.

I love different textures and shades, so I compiled a bunch of pillows I had in storage onto my sofa.

The coffee table was an old bench someone who lived here before us built. It had overgrown grass and plants all over it in the back of our back yard. We power washed it, dried it out & brought it inside. We get a ton of compliments on it even though it’s realistically a piece of crap. haha

The curtains we already had ( we made them out of drop sheet from Home depot, here ). Since moving into our home in July I really wanted to put curtains up, but the price of the curtain rods alone had me stuck. We had to purchase 5 of them.

My husband came up with this super easy solution. Brad nail wood blocks to the wall, and then screw the wood dowel polls onto that. The corbels are just there for looks. This whole entire project cost us under 30.00 & the impact of the curtains in the room is crazy. It went from cold to cozy in a day!

I have the links below to shop this blog & Thank you for stopping by today friends!

Morris Farmhouse Dining Room

March 30, 2017 3 Comments

Guys, I literally have no patience. At all. I often think that if I were to have more patience maybe I would have a better blog. But C’est la vie!

Today I’m excited to blog about my half completed dining room. We have the sideboard area completed, our Stikwood wall up, our white table set completed and now we’re just waiting on our rug to come and me to finish my DIY beaded light fixture. But for the most part, it is completed. I always find a light fixture and rug “make” the space, so it will be cool to so how it will look when completely done, but I just couldn’t wait! The sun is streaming through my windows and since our dining room is in the middle of our home, it’s often hard to photograph because of the darkness.. so I opened up the door wide and snapped away! I cannot wait to start planting & working outside when it warms up a bit.

Of course, below I will have all the sources to this room so you can replicate it. I will also tag my light fixture and rug that will complete the space.

I’ll forever be grateful for Stikwood sending this wall to us. We will mostly likely leave it in the space when we move as it easily comes off, but sadly, most boards break in two when you pull it off. Isn’t it so pretty though? Stikwood is amazing because it doesn’t put ONE hole in your wall.

Also, can we take a second to talk about these pillows? I bought the pillow cases for 14.99 for the set, and then I sewed them to fit my pillows. It literally took 10 minutes and they are one of my favourite things in this dining room! I’ll have a tutorial up for it soon!

I wanted this space to feel comfortable as we spend a lot of time in our dining room sharing meals, playing settlers with our favourite few and beyond even spending time in it, it’s one of the first spaces you see when you walk into my house. Our downstairs is an open layout and I wanted it to be the focal point.

Above is the view from my front door. It looks a lot closer than it actually is as my lens is very tight. I also wanted it to be a really white and bright space as it’s a dark space and our floors are so orange. Gotta off set them somehow!

It’s funny, I try to be more modern and had this bench painted in solid white and finally I just couldn’t take it, took it into our workshop and distressed it like mad. Now it’s totally my cup of tea and suits the space so well.

Hope y’all loved seeing a peek into our Farmhouse Dining Room. It’s been my joy to decorate our home and I love how it’s turning out. I spend so much time in our home as I work from it and so I really wanted to create a space that spoke to me and made me feel even more creative!

Below are link to shop my exact pieces, I will also be finding look a like table and console as we built those.

Love you all & thank you for all your support on the daily!

Favorite Spaces Of 2016

December 10, 2016 Leave a Comment

Today was such a magical day in that it snowed 13 inches and my precious Nana finally went to be with Jesus ( more about that in a few days once I’ve had time to process ). It was a hard day, but a special one. One I will never forget. I was up late tonight fitting in some extra cozy activities. Since we were snowed in we could only get a block over to get pizza and went next door to get coffee for the morning. We watched a Christmas movie, made hot coco and snuggled until midnight and here I am, writing a blog!

I was scrolling through all my old photos and thought it would be fun to do a roundup of all my favorite spaces of 2016.

I love to create different spaces and I want to share some of them with you. I realize not all of you have been followers for that long so it will be fun to showcase a few of my favorite spaces that I decorated.

This space was one of my favourites. I love seafoam it is one of my favourite colours. We also build that ladder in the background and I DIY’d that old vintage window and printed out botanical prints to put behind the glass. It was so bright & airy!

I miss this bed so much. It was a whitewash bed that Glen made me for my birthday but in true nature to our business, we sold it before I could really enjoy it. I’m trying really hard to not sell things I love anymore. But I just love how my plant pops agains all the white wood. I chalk painted that lamp and we made the night stands and bed.

This is one of my favourite shots EVER. Like, ever. This coffee table was made by us and I love how the black wood pops agains my pillows and the cactus plants and the mirror in the background.

This is a shot of our Vancouver Island Map. That’s where we’re from if you haven’t guessed that yet. Again, wood grain, pops of seafoam and faux plants ( gotta have my faux plants )

So pretty much everything you see besides the curtains we DIY’d or Made. Yep… The most expensive thing in this photo was the DIY Light Fixture from Home Depot. It was 160 I believe? We took the glass panels out of the fixture and I’m sure we’ve sold over 200 of them since. It’s become a hit!

Lastly, this will forever be my favourite room staging ever. I love everything except the rug. We made the TV Stand, Shutters and most of the decor is vintage or from Homesense.

Alright, sorry for that brief post. I will write more about what has been going on in our life in the next post in a few days.

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Top 6 Favourite Christmas Trees

December 5, 2016 Leave a Comment

If you haven’t gotten your Christmas tree yet, this post it totally for you. Every year we get a real tree and this year we decided to get one early ( not a real one of course, it would of died ). I believe that the 25 days of December isn’t long enough to celebrate such a joyous holiday. Especially when December 1st hits I feel like we are pulled in so many directions and the month of December flies by in the blink of an eye!

This year we purchased the Canvas Pre-Lit Glacier Blue Spruce 7 FT Christmas Tree. We got it on sale for 199.99 and it actually looks real, even up close. So we’re super happy with our purchase. But If I had my way I would of purchased a flocked Christmas tree. They give me all the heart eyes. But they aren’t really Glens Jam.

Here is our tree, half decorated because that’s how we role. We also have a two year old who has taken and moved all the decorations. She’s stashing them in her room.

So here’s is my roundup for my Top 6 Favourite Christmas Trees.

Flocked Anoka Pine Artificial Christmas Tree in Burlap Base

This tree is only 2′ x 14″ so if you don’t have a ton of space this tree is totally adorable. I am purchasing two of these for behind my sofa to go in my galvanized bins. Especially for states or provinces who don’t tend to have a white Christmas. These trees make it feel so much cozier. This adorable tree is only 60 bucks!

2. Northlight Seasonal Pre-Lit Heavily Flocked Pine Medium Artificial Christmas Tree with Multicolored Lights

I mean… come on. Not only is this tree pretty, but if your kids still win the battle on having coloured lights on the tree, this is for you. It’s So classy. It gives the illusion of a cold and snowy Christmas right in your living room! I would of loved to purchase this tree but the 500.00 price tag was a bit much for us. Although, if you plan to use this every year for years to come, it will easily pay off!

3. Northlight Seasonal Pre-Lit Heavily Flocked Pine Medium Artificial Christmas Tree with Clear Lights, 6.5′

So here it is folks. My ideal tree. I begged Glen to let me buy it and he wasn’t digging the chunky faux snow. But it’s just the coziest and prettiest thing ever. Am I right? Please someone buy this. It’s a good price too!

4. Dunhill Hinged Green Fir Christmas Tree

Not into flocked Christmas trees? I get it. Glen isn’t either as well as many many others. Hence why no local stores to me even sell flocked trees. but this Dunhill Hinged tree literally looks authentic to the eye. it has thousands of tips so you can’t even see into the tree. That’s the worst part about fake trees. If you don’t fluff the branches well enough you can see that it isn’t real.

5. Ultima 7.5′ Green Christmas Tree

I love how authentic this tree looks. It’s probably the closest to my tree out of the bunch but mine is a “blue spruce”. This tree is a lot more green. I can see this tree decked out in vintage garlands and red and white decor.

6. Flocked Utica 7.5′ Tree

and lastly this STUNNING flocked and extra narrow Christmas tree. This tree would be awesome for those that don’t have a ton of room in their place. People who live in Condos or tight spaces. The price tag is nice too!

It’s been snowing like crazy on the West Coast today so it has gotten me into an EXTRA merry spirit. This morning we trudged into the farmland to get some family photos taken in the snow with our friend, Ricci. I’m sure they will turn out great. The kids were on their best behaviour and extra cute! I can’t wait to show off those photos here on the blog soon.

I’m off to a cookie swap tonight. You heard me, I made 9.5 dozen shortbread cookies last night and oh my word, they are delicious. It’s going to be so hard to not keep making more of them as they’re to die for. My oldest son, Hudson, said that they were the best cookies he’s ever tasted. Yay, points for me!

Have an awesome Monday! I will check in with you soon with my newest tutorial on drop sheet curtains!

Oh Dear Dining Room

December 1, 2016 Leave a Comment

I have really nothing other to post this week than my Christmas spaces. It makes me so super happy to be able to go hard core on the Christmas decorations since it’s now December 1st. For the last two years we had the literally ugliest dining room ever. It was a 5×8 little cove in our kitchen and we hated eating in there. The heater was broken ( as was everything in that stupid house ) and so we never had working heat in there. It was dingy and cold because it was painted aquarium blue, which we finally changed 1.5 years after living there to a cozy ‘greige’ color. But it was so small, so our family was always so squished in it and we still somehow always ate in our living room.

Finally when we moved to our new home we saw the light at the end of the tunnel! It is all open concept and we adore it. The only problem with open concept is that you can’t over crowd it with decorations so we’re selling off a lot of our old decor.

Our space isn’t 100% completed, but this is what I’ve come up with so far. Eventually someday when we aren’t broke we would love to get new upholstered chairs, a sheepskin rug for our bench and a new buffet that Glen plans to build me when he isn’t so busy. But for now, I’m loving the space.

This isn’t our normal bench with the table. This one is on our stairs, our other bench is the exact as the table. Beachwood top and white legs. I just love love love the distressed farmhouse feel of the bench.

I’m still learning how to shoot my camera in manual mode. I literally need a tripod so so badly. Since our home is so low light ( not that you can tell in these photos ) I have to have the shutter speed at 1/5 and the ISO cranked to 800. It makes the photos look grainy and not sharp… so sad!

These dishes are from Stokes Stores and I LOVE THEM TO DEATH. I was given them for a collaboration that I did last summer and they are distressed so look vintage. They’re my favourite and super cheap. For one entire set they were 54.99

I love everything beat up with a touch of modern decor to even the rough out. That’s my jam.

Thanks for heading over to the blog today. Just thought I’d hop on & post our dining room before I start my work for the day.

Rustic Modern Bed

November 30, 2016 Leave a Comment

Lately I’ve been pondering. Well, really this whole month I’ve been in a deep self reflection mode. This year has been a tough one. Like, hard. But it’s also been full of some pretty great moments too.

No vacation, nice purchases or anything really exciting. In fact, it’s been very tight financially. We did get pregnant, have a extremely hard pregnancy and then lose our baby. We had an awful move and went through some yucky stuff with our business but in between the negative moments there were moments that shone.

I’ve really been reflecting lately how grateful I am to be able to work from home. Most people do not get this luxury. I get to stay in my pyjamas all day long, get up when I want, go to bed when I want and do what I want.

I’m crazy blessed.

Yes, this job has been pretty insanely stressful, but if you can somehow deal with that there are so many amazing perks. I get to spend time with our two year old every single day. I’ve never missed one of her firsts. She makes me laugh every single day. I get live in my pyjamas. But one of the biggest perks of working from home is that I get to stage our home. This is my job.

I finally got an upgraded lens yesterday for my early Christmas present. To be honest, I’ve been putting tin purchase off for over a year. I hate spending money on stuff I need. But it was needed, BAD.

I’ve been living with my 50 mm lens on my camera and in my new home especially it makes it so I only get 1/5th of a room in my photo as the lens if very tight ( portrait lens ).. Am I talking nonsense to you right now?

Anyways, I went upstairs to shoot some photos of our newest style of bed that we have in our “catalog”. If you live under a rock, Glen and I own The Rugged Home. We build custom furniture. Ignore that I don’t have matching lamps as we lost one in the move. Ignore that the room is pretty empty still. Ignore the fact that the room is the farthest from being completed but I’m just so happy I can get my king bed in one shot! No more iPhone photos!!

Isn’t she pretty? My brother brought me over some cut up alder branches too for our front porch so I thought I would decorate my ‘Holiday Bedroom’ with some fun pieces. I literally HAVE to have greenery or some type of living/dead object in the room. So faux boxwood wreaths and cut up alder branches. I’m kind of addicted to wreaths… I almost put one above the bed and then realized I already had two on the mirrors.

So, what do you think of our take on this bed? It was a bed that I found on Pinterest.. it was a cheap bed from Overstock that most likely wasn’t real wood. So I begged Glen to build it for my birthday in September and it turned out so pretty!

Next thing I need is a tripod because all my photos are cricked.

A quick break down of where I got things in the photo, because I know you will ask & I like to be kind to my readers

Rug: Lorena Canals ( Washable Rugs )

Black Pillows: Townsend Rowe

Dream Pillow: Urban Barn

Black Tripod Lamp: Urban Barn

Red/White/Grey Fuz Blanket: Homesense

White Duvet: Pottery Barn

Tree Pillow ( It’s actually the boys. It’s from The Land Of Nod )

Mirrors: Homesense

Boxwood Wreaths: Target

Everything was bought in 2015 minus the black mud cloth pillows ( she currently has those

Thank you so much Lorena Canals for sponsoring this post. We absolutely love our mid century washable rug. Seriously, if you have kids, these rugs are a MUST. They steam clean nice too if I must say!

DIY [ Farmhouse Distressed White ]

November 23, 2016 6 Comments

So many of you have asked over the years how I make my “Farmhouse White” look. It’s so seriously easy and literally takes under an hour to create this look. Keep in mind, you will need to varnish or wax the piece to prevent it from getting stains from water, food or scratches from decor.

So, I’m all about extra grungy decor and furniture. I know this might not be your jam, but it’s mine. It’s hard when clients come in our home to check out our furniture because my personal style is really rough, rustic, rugged and vintage. The more knots, bangs and imperfections the better. I normally beg Glen to allow me to keep his ‘screw up pieces’ because to me, they are perfect.

Keep in mind, I do have a few modern pieces mixed in with this look. I think if you were to have all grunge in your home it would look sloppy.

Okay, enough of my babbling.. lets start off with this SUPER easy tutorial.

Here’s what my X-Frame Sofa table looked like [ before I painted it. ]

It isn’t the prettiest thing ever. In fact, Glen wanted to take it do the dump. A bit of a back story on it, we built it for a client, but it had a big crack in the front so Glen decided to build another for them. We decided to keep it and we really wanted to fit it over top of the boys heater in their room, so he trimmed down the leg nearest us as you can see. It is hideous. The boys pretty much demolished this piece and then we let it sit out in the rain for a month after our move. So needless to say, it wasn’t in great condition.

Shop List:

-One Tester Container Of Paint ( I used Behr from home depot, but any paint works )

-Brush

-Used Sanding Pad

Literally, the smallest shop list ever. You want to paint one light coat on your piece and wait for it to completely dry. Once it’s dry you can start sanding it. Corners, Edges, between boards, at imperfections – wherever you want really.

As you can tell, it is very streaky. But do not worry, that wont matter once the piece is completely distressed.

I like to apply a matte varnish by Minwax or Clear Wax from Fat Paint.

I distress over all edges, even the flat areas of my pieces. I made a video for y’all, but it’s taking forever to upload, and I’m afraid it will slow down my blog. So if you have any questions, post them below and I’d be more than happy to answer them.

Here’s the completed piece and I’m so in love with it. We saved money but not taking it to the dump, and it’s a piece that I will probably use for a long time

Thanks for reading and let me know how your Farmhouse Finish turns out.

Farmhouse Living Room & Where To Buy

July 30, 2016 3 Comments

This post has been a long time coming. I feel like I’ve received hundreds of requests to have our full living room up on the blog as for so long you have seen bits and pieces of it.

We recently changed up the layout of our living room and sectioned it off a bit more and we couldn’t be more happy with it. We even had a guest say “This is by far the best your living room has looked”.

So… without further elaboration, let me show you! I will be tagging where we bought our key pieces in our living room so you can go out and purchase the same thing.

I have to start off with my most prized possession in this room, something you will probably have a good laugh at.. but it’s my 15.00 Quilt. I have this love relationship with quilts. The only thing is, I don’t know anyone who quilts. Four years ago we were garage saling and I found this giant king sized hand made quilt and the owner was selling it for 15.00. I couldn’t believe my eyes. I obviously snatched it before anyone else could and gave her 20 bucks for it. If you have any idea how much quilts go for, you will know how happy this made my heart.

This quilt has seen SO much love. I use it often to watch movies and all the kids pile under it. Or often during colder months it’s my morning coffee blanket. I have this whole ordeal in the morning where I have to get cozy, start reading my facebook updates and Glen brings me my morning coffee. This has been a tradition for probably all of our marriage. He’s my prince and we joke that he is training to be a stay-at-home-dad when my blog & oil business take off.

Our living room is seriously always changing because I work in this room. So I often get tired of the same layout, but HEY. If you’re one of those who also loves changing your decor/layout, get Command Strips. I’ve used them for so many years as we are in rentals. They basically make it so your walls stay hole-less and perfect. So, get them!

Next up is the gallery wall I just made behind our sofa. Honestly, just go into your junk cupboard, room or drawer and find odd pieces that don’t fit into your decor and then command strip them on your wall with your favorite photos.

& Sign: Target

Vintage Looking Clock: Homesense/Homegoods

Painted Rustic Antlers: Target

Morris Est Sign: Moi

Count Your Blessings Photo: Etsy

Pom Pillow: Rugs Studio

Mud Cloth Pillow: Townsend Rowe Vintage

Our Nest Pillow: Primitives By Kathy

I spend a lot of time in my living room. I work in here & it’s always important to me to love the space and have it be SUPER cozy. I love mixing modern pieces with our rustic decor.

As you can tell, we have a modern style sofa, but it was super important to us to have a big comfy couch. I mean, a living room isn’t a living room without a deep, comfy sofa.

Sofa: Annmarcos Furniture ( Rio )

Hanging Mirror: Homesense/Homegoods

Chairs: Lampsplus

Side Table: Homesense/Homegoods

Fur Blanket: Indigo

Mud Pillows: Townsend Rowe Vintage

Map: Global Gallery

Grey Shag Rug: Costco

and I don’t think I’ve ever photographed our view, but the land behind and beside us is home to cows & horses. It’s so beautiful and best yet? We don’t have to take care of them, because trust you me, it’s a ton of work!

This is our beloved media stand ( knock off Restoration Hardware that we built ) we actually ended up selling it to a client and then as the freight company came to pick it up, it was dropped and the doors and siding were damaged. So the doors don’t really function anymore, but it still looks beautiful. See tutorial here.

Lamp: Target

Diffuser: Young Living – I’m a distributor

X Lantern: Marshalls

Faux Aloe Vera Plants: Superstore

Ladder: We made it & have plans here

Lamp: Target

Magnolia Wreath: Home Hardware

The photo above our TV was made for us by a dear friend, check out “Barn Door Decor” She ships!

Pretty much everything in this photo was built by us. Plans for the plant box can be seen here.

Fiddle Leaf Fig Tree: Homesense/Homegoods

Glass Vases: Walmart 2015

Two Toned “M”: Homesense/Homegoods

Vintage Box: Heritage ( Real Deal )

Mini Fig Tree On Books: Homesense/Homegoods

Sofa Table: The Rugged Rooster

Map – handmade frame : Global Gallery

There you have it! Our entire living room in one blog and where to buy mostly everything. Our Coffee Table, ladder, Media Stand, Sofa Table and Plant Box were all built by Glen, who is amazing.

Hope you’re all enjoying your long weekend!

Decor

The Free Dresser That We Transformed

Farmhouse Decorating On A Penny

Morris Farmhouse Dining Room

Favorite Spaces Of 2016

Top 6 Favourite Christmas Trees

Oh Dear Dining Room

Rustic Modern Bed

DIY [ Farmhouse Distressed White ]

Farmhouse Living Room & Where To Buy

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