Top Projects of 2008 (Makeover and Craft)

Rhoda at Southern Hospitality is hosting a "Top Projects of 2008" party... This party actually started a couple of days ago, so I'm a bit late on joining in (par for the course for me!)...

Be sure to visit Rhoda's beautiful blog to see all of her favorite projects. There's also a list of all the other bloggers showing off their favorite projects (what a fun way to get some new decorating or project ideas!!) Thank you, Rhoda!

Project 1 - Fireplace Makeover

(click on any photos to enlarge)
We enclosed our old brick fireplace (and by "we," I mean my husband - but I painted it!!)...


... so that I could have the fireplace of my cottage dreams!

I love the way this project turned out! (Here is a little 'step-by-step' from the original post.)

Project 2 - "Primitive to Cottage" Furniture Makeovers

These makeover projects have actually taken place over the past couple of years, but since I just started my blog this year, I guess I can count them! When the cottage bug hit me, I decided to give all of our old dark-stained 'prim' pieces a brighter cottage look by using paint, appliques, and glass knobs.

Nana's hutch went from this:

To this:

(I call it Nana's hutch because I have all my Nana's china displayed on it - and her photo prominently displayed in the plate rack above the hutch.)

The dining room jelly cupboard went from this:


To this:

Here's my old pie safe in its original state:

I found this mirror at a junktique shop and thought it might dress up the pie safe a bit...

So I painted both pieces and then mounted the mirror to the top of the pie safe:

A very old mirror I found...

... paired with this inexpensive black CD cabinet...

... became this:

The old pine corner-TV armoire...

....after white paint, appliques, and new knobs:

(You can also see from the above makeover pictures that I finally got my hardwood floors after living for two l-o-n-g years with plywood sub-floors [that I painted white after ripping up our ancient wall-to-wall carpeting!!] And although I can't take any credit for laying the floors, what a nice project to have completed!!!)

Project 3 - New uses for old windows

They make great picture frames....

...or bulletin boards...

They can add architectural interest to yards and gardens when mounted over windowboxes...

..or just propped up against fences or arbors...

Project 4 - The 'Roswell Crater' project

After dismantling our old above ground pool, this is what our little backyard looked like:

It's still a major work-in-progress, but this past summer we began planting a garden and built a patio in/next to the old pool area...

We still have a long way to go, but it's a heck of a sight better than what it was!!

Project 5 - Photo Pumpkins

This was a fun project - transforming fake pumpkins...

...into photo pumpkins of my girls (when they were little) and my black kitties (perfect for this Halloween project!). Instructions can be found here.

Project 6 - Recycling old Christmas cards

If you love sparkle and glitter, this is the project for you! Don't throw away all those beautiful cards you received!

Instead, repurpose them into glittery ornaments or gift tags (Instructions can be found here):

I hope you enjoyed some of my favorite projects. This year we will be giving our bedroom (which hasn't been touched since the mid-80's) a major facelift!!! I'd say it's definitely about time for a makeover in there! So here's to a year full of new and exciting projects!!!

Donna

Hutch Makeover - From Prim & Proper to Shabby Cottage

This was our dining room hutch three years ago... We had so many projects going on back then, and this was one of them...


Like all of our furniture, this little hutch started out as an inexpensive piece of unfinished furniture. And, like everything else back in my prim days, it was immediately stained dark brown. (How do you like the plywood subfloors that I painted white? After ripping out our ancient wall to wall carpet, we lived with those for 2 years until we could afford hardwood floors last year. I could never do white floors again - too much work to keep clean!)


But about 3 years ago the cottage bug hit me, so this is how it looks today. I also happened to take possession of my Nana's china during that same time period...


So I refer to it as "Nana's hutch" because I have all of her old china displayed on the shelves and stored inside... I placed a favorite photo of my Nana between two dinner plates on the plate rack above the hutch (perhaps taken about the same time as she picked out this china, as she's a young woman in the photo). Below that is a 1950's photo of my mom and Nana (her mom), with my mom's crystal candy dish on the shelf right below.


The glass knobs and rose & cherub appliques really help with the "prim to cottage" transformation! (The large framed photo is my mom and dad in front of their Niagara Falls honeymoon cottage back in 1951!)


I don't know if it is 'proper' decorating or not, but I love having all the photos of Nana's side of the family mixed in with her good china, and I think she'd really like it, too!


Here's a close up of the pattern and a photo of my mom and dad from the early 80's... So thanks, Nana! I love the pattern as much as you did when you picked it out so many years ago!! I think it's just perfect for my little cottage!!

Donna

Appliques... The Finishing Touch

Over the past couple of years, I've been on a painting frenzy. I've painted most of our dark stained furniture a creamy cottage white. Since most of the pieces were originally primitive in style, they aren't very fancy. The lines, for the most part, are straight and simple. That's why I've enjoyed using appliques as "the finishing touch." It kind of dresses them up and takes them from a primitive to a "shabby cottage" style.

This is the applique that I used on the drawers of my dining room hutch and my corner TV armoire. (Yes, I am a drippy, messy painter! ha ha)

This is the applique that I used on the four cabinet doors of the corner TV armoire.

These little cherub heads were used in the three sections of my jelly cupboard door. I wish I had used the larger sized cherub heads. But once these guys are on, they are there for life!

This little flower basket applique is on the pull out door of our recycling bin.

And there are two of these cherubs on the bottom doors of my dining room hutch. (And yup - there's a couple of more drips!!)

The only major pieces of furniture in my house that are still crying for a cottage transformation are in the bedroom... Our king sized pencil post bed, nightstands, armoire, bureau, and mirror. All of those pieces were bought at an unfinished furniture store back in 1989 and promptly stained with dark brown Minwax (Jacobean)... It's hard to believe we've had that set for almost twenty years now! Actually, our whole bedroom is in a time warp straight from the 80's, so hopefully we'll tackle that project sometime in the near future. And, of course, I'll be sure to share the transformation every step of the way. Hmmm... I wonder what kind of applique would look good across the top of the mirror??

Updated note to Michele (and anyone else who would like to see the entire furniture pieces)... If you just scroll down through my past posts, you will find photos and posts of all the pieces mentioned above, with the exception of the dining room hutch. I just realized I've never posted photos of that, so I'll do that soon!

Update #2: I've purchased appliques from several places on-line (some on eBay and unfortunately I don't remember the seller's name(s) because it was years ago!!). I can, however, recommend Rachel & Pia's Cottage since I have purchased appliques from them (click on the DO IT YOURSELF tab in their shop). In addition, The Bella Cottage and Do It Yourself Chic also carry furniture appliques. All of those shops are listed in my "Favorite Shops" sidebar.

Update #3: I do use various shade of white when I paint, but for furniture, the one I keep coming back to most often is Wal Mart's "Color Place Interior Latex Semi-Gloss Wall & Trim, Country White 5435." It's a great creamy white shade rather than a bright white (although bright white is what I chose for my fireplace).

Update #4: Rachel & Pia's has the cherub head appliques, The Bella Cottage has very similar full figure cherubs, Do It Yourself Chic has some other cherubs as well as a similar flower basket applique...

Update #5: I don't use any wax... just the latex semi-gloss paint. The appliques are either white or clay colored so I paint them black or dark brown once I have applied them to the furniture; then when I paint the furniture white, I leave some of the dark basecoat showing through here and there in the crevices of the appliques or I sand away a bit of the topcoat here and there to distress the appliques..

Donna