Hellooooo Everybodyyy!! Happy spring!! I love the Spring. I love the fall, too. And the summer. And winter, I love until January 1st. That means I’ve got a whole year of love ahead of me!
So Stuart and I are about to begin medical school in July (and we will hopefully buy a house!!) but in the meantime we’re trying to make a little bit of money to live off of doing summer sales in Austin, Texas. I really do love it here, but this summer we only managed to make it into a 1 bedroom apartment and it is TIIINYYYY. We also have to furnish it ourselves except for the bed and a couch and since we’re only going to be here for a couple of months it definitely wasn’t worth it to bring what we had.
But let me tell you something about the Austin area craigslist. It. Is. AWESOME. And I’m not talking about the furniture section, although that’s pretty great. I’m talking about the FREE section! On any given day you can find some awesome stuff that people are just giving away. I can’t tell you how many beautiful pianos I’ve seen on there (If only we lived here!) and headboards and dressers and bookcases and all kinds of things that have SO much potential. The other day I saw the most beautiful round table with 4 dining chairs that someone was giving away right near where I lived. Unfortunately my husband had our car and even if I had it… it’s only a car. It literally almost killed me to see it get snatched up but I had no choice. WAAAAAAAAAHHHHH.
We did, however, borrow a work truck one time so we could pick up a wingback chair that I painted and that was awesome. Something else that’s nice about living here, though, is that we live in an apartment complex where people are moving in and out all the time. It’s a pretty big complex, so if you take a minute to check near the dumpsters (I know it sounds like dumpster diving but it isn’t. The good stuff is near the dumpsters, not in the dumpsters) you can usually find some pretty awesome furniture too. I found this pretty little baby right next to our apartment.
Not the real baby, the orange one! That baby I made myself, and she was so kind to be my Vanna White for this photo.
It was actually in pretty good shape except for a few pieces of old tape stuck on there good and a couple of minor dings. I could have washed it down and called it good, but instead I went straight to sanding.
I didn’t worry about sanding the spindles because we were using Chalk paint, and I didn’t worry about sanding it down to wood all the way because of the same reason. It was more for cleaning up the old tape and nasty that was on it and for sanding out those little dings, although they weren’t major enough to really be noticeable had I just covered them with paint.
I wiped it down after sanding with a slightly damp paper towel to take off all the sawdust and I started painting.
I used the Americana Decor chalk paint in Everlasting you can get from Home Depot (8 bucks for this teeny little bottle!) and painted the whole thing. Granted, chalk paint has great coverage so it does go a long way, but still. I wanted to give this brand a try, but I think next time I’ll stick to my homemade chalk paint.
Looking back, I also probably would have gone with a different color for the base, like more of a light grey to get that grey-ish neutral color that I love so much. This is what I had on hand, though, so I made do.
I painted it with a natural bristle brush so it would show the brush strokes, and I feel like that helped to add to the vintage look.
Next, I began adding the dark wax. It’s a cream wax, which I like because it goes on like paint. I’m not sure how a regular wax would behave but I would like to try it.
At first I began by adding it on with a brush, letting it dry for just a second, then wiping it off, but eventually I figured out that a better way was to just get a little bit on your brush and dry brush it on. The other way made it a little spotty because it would dry unevenly and it also wasted the wax that soaked into the rag. I also liked the look that the brush gave it. The main trick here though it to put on less first, and then add more if you need it. It’s harder to take it off once it’s dry than it is to put more on.
And there it is! The wax dries pretty quickly, so I was almost immediately ready to put it in the house where it belonged. The color of the wax is fine, but I maybe would have preferred something with a little cooler tone. Or like I said, making the base color be a little cooler to tone it down.
And here it is in its place. With the neutral wall color behind it it actually doesn’t look too bad, eh??
See those pretty faux flowers? I found a bouquet at hobby lobby for $6 at 50% off, and added a sprig or two of lambs ear to it for another $3 or so at 50% off. The vase was only $1.27!
Wanna know a nifty secret I learned about Hobby Lobby? They go through rotations for what they put on sale. Each week they put different sections of the store on sale, and about every 4 weeks or so it all starts over, usually at 50% off! So if you really want that pretty vase, or that wreath, just check weekly to see when it will be half off! You may even be able to ask one of the workers when it will happen. I know there are also coupons you can use to make it all even cheaper.
Thanks for tuning in, everybody! Ya’ll are the best. I’d love to know if you try this out and how it works for you! Or if you used different products. Let me know what you think!
XOXO
~ Crystel
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