Jewelry for your furniture

Often I think it’s the little things that make a big difference when decorating – or maybe I should say little splurges. :) Things like decorative pulls and light switch covers make me smile. But they aren’t cheap, and they certainly aren’t a necessity, so I add them as I can.

One of my favorite little details are pretty knobs. You can absolutely transform the look of a piece of furniture with just new hardware. So reeehealy, when you compare buying new furniture to buying a few new knobs, that’s not really a BIG splurge, eh Dave Ramsey? Wink wink. Nudge nudge.

I showed you the fab selection of knobs and handles at my local True Value:

Excuse me while I wipe the drool…

Recently I was on a mission to find just the right knobs for my Craigslist buffet in the foyer:

I found the most beauteous glass knobs at True Value and they made a HUGE difference on this piece:

Ohhh, aren’t they lovely? It’s all like PAAAADOW…I’m all glassy and crystally and shiny and you can’t take your eyes off me, gorgeous!

All that glitter for five bucks each. Whoooohoo!

One thing to watch for when you change out hardware is how the finish looks underneath. Sometimes if knobs are installed too tightly, they will damage the wood.

The person who painted my buffet (before I bought it) put the knobs on before the paint had cured. So they were practically glued to the drawers. (I had to take a hammer to a few of them!!)

I still need to touch up the paint around some of the new knobs because of that:

The brass hardware on my other recent Craigslist purchase is actually quite beautiful:

Yes, you heard me right. I just said brass was PRETTY. It’s the antique looking brass though, not the blinding shiny stuff. :)

I found some brass polish at True Value and went after these beauties with an old tooth brush:

The old finish is on the left, the cleaned finish is on the right:

Loverly! Not all of them cleaned up that well, but I’m just chalking it all up to the beauty of an old piece.

Obviously, I’ve had a bit of a Craigslist dresser obsession lately.  :) A few weeks ago I picked up a Henredon dresser for our bedroom for only 50 smackaroos (AWWWWESOME!! I’ll show you soon!), so I was moving dressers around all over the house. The old dresser in our bedroom moved to the guest room, and the one in the guest room had no home.

It’s the one from the Bub’s nursery, and it’s just lovely:

Sniff. Sigh. Boohoo…I changed my baby on this dresser for so very long. :)

I knew I wanted to use it somewhere, and then it hit me – with the new table-turned-desk for the office, I needed storage. Why not put the dresser in there?

As it was, it just looked a little off. So I was off to True Value again, checking out their selection. I found just the knobs I was looking for, and then picked up one of these jobbies as well:

I had one of these guides years ago and have no idea where it went – I was SO glad to see they had them! Turns out my hardware screw holes were two inches across, so I none of the holes on the guide matched up. I just drilled a new hole where I needed it, which made it a little harder to keep level. (Ignore the circles – those were reminders for another project.)

Normally you could just rest the ledge of the guide on  your drawer. But I’m difficult. Always. :)

I used the original hole in the drawer as my center, and made sure the two for the new pulls were level by using a small level on top of the guide. Then I marked the spots with a pen and drilled the new holes:

And installed my purdy new pulls!:

Love love LOVE! It makes it look so much more office-y. :)

(Just imagine it without the brick wall color and the cords piled up next to it, and with molding on the wall and all new art and accessories…umkay?)

I lined the drawers with a fun green contact paper:

You know I love you when I show you where I keep my Dymo label maker.

Don’t even think about it.

:)

And would you looky there…room to grow:

It’s going to work great in the office!

Speaking of the new look, I think I found all of my paint colors for the redo at True Value as well:

With white molding, of course. :) Now, I just need to paint. My lazy summer living booty is not looking forward to that…but my fall is coming, let’s get things DONE booty is saying let’s just do it already!!

We’ll see who wins. ;)

 

*I was one of the bloggers selected by True Value to work on the DIY Squad. I have been compensated for my time commitment to the program as well as my writing about my experience. I have also been compensated for the materials needed for my DIY project. However, my opinions are entirely my own and I have not been paid to publish positive comments.*

Red, white and blue door decor!

Whew! I hope you had a FAB weekend! We had a great one!

Today we got to visit with someone our son has been dying to meet for a very long time:

;) That would be Thomas the Train. I tell. you. what. He was in heaven. Can you tell?! (That’s his smile by the way.)  ;)

Then we started out the Fourth of July week by watching the local fireworks tonight – and we are POOPED. Happy. But pooped.

I got a very easy, cheap and quick Fourth of July crafty project done today that I had to share with you – I mean, when have I NOT? :)

The seed for this one was planted by the incredibly talented ladies over at How Does She – they made this adorable flag out of 2x4’s!:

Well, it got my mind a thunkin’. I wanted to make one, but I wanted to be able to hang in on our front door, so it had to be lightweight.

To make it a bit less heavy, I gathered some slats of wood for less than a buck each and a piece of plywood for about $3 from Lowe’s:

The plywood and the slats were two feet wide, but that was going to be just a leeetle large for the front door. So I decided 16 inches wide would work perfectly:

I used my very-favorite-I-luff-you-compound-miter-saw but you could easily use  a miter box and hand saw – the wood is so thin!

Since it needed to be fairly small, I did four longer rows, then four shorter rows on top:

Because I was trying to use what I had, I decided to just use the extra pieces of wood to make up the blue corner part of the flag. I figured out the measurements by just laying it all together like a puzzle:

Then I cut those down as well, and did a quick coat of navy blue spray paint, leftover from the Bub’s room redo.

I cut out the plywood backing with my jigsaw:

You’ll notice it doesn’t have to be perfect! :)

I glued down each piece with Liquid Nails. You could use just about anything as a backing – and any glue you have on hand to put it together. Even hot glue would work great!

I loved the one big fat star idea, so I used my Silhouette cutter to make a honkin’ star in white vinyl:

I attached some navy blue ribbon to the back with staples, then put little felt protectors on the back so it won’t scratch up the door.

The result? Cauuute Fourth of July decor for under $10!:

I bought eight slats of wood but only needed six – the two I have leftover would make an adorable mini version of this flag, so I think I may have to make another!

It’s a perfect fit for the front door:

Usually the extent of our Fourth decor is just our American flag (that’s usually flying anyway) and a few flags stuck in the flowers out front:

Can we pause to admire my goooorgeous petunias?:

It has rained like we’re in the freaking Amazon here this summer, so they are growing like weeds! :)

But now we have a nice pop of red white and blue to amp it up just a bit more and I luuurve it!:

Less than ten bucks in less than an hour – can’t beat it!!

So are you a big Fourth of July decorator? Feel free to link your projects up in the comments – I’d love to see! I have another red white and blue project I’m going to try out this week – this one could get interesting!  ;)

You still have time to win a Silhouette of your very own! If you haven’t entered yet, make sure to go here before this Tuesday!! Go! Hurry!! :)

**I’m adding this to Kate’s linky party and The CSI Project!: