Juliet's Writing Desk

-BEFORE-

Whats the problem with most teens bedrooms? Storage and function. One of my granddaughters needs a desk and a chair a couple of dressers and her full size bed, all in an average size room. In order to leave her a little room I went looking for the perfect desk and dresser in one(they are out there), took about 6 weeks of looking but finally found it! Good size dresser drawers nice sturdy design great overall piece, know to update it for a young lady. I chose a light turquoise blue for the body of the dresser, antique white wash fore the bamboo looking legs. I removed all the hardware and trim on the desk gave it a light sanding and put three coats of paint on it, then did the same for the legs. The finally step for the legs was a wash of diluted brown paint over the legs approximately three times all a matter of personal taste.

Finally to finish the desk off i decoupaged old writing paper from my local scrape booking store on the top. Followed all the directions for decoupaged, after it had time to dry (about one full day) I put three coats of water based clear coat over the entire piece for a little extra protection. and wow the desk looks really Fantastic I am supper happy and more importantly so was Juliet.

-AFTER-

Turquoise Fun!

-BEFORE-

Dumpster diving can be so much fun. Found a great retro dresser, knobs included (very rare to find knobs!) First a little cleaning to get rid of grit and grime, next a little sanding to smooth out wear and tear from it's former life, now for a splash of color! I am choosing turquoise, as it is my current go-to color for everything. Two good coats, light sanding then a third coat. Now it's time for the fun accent pieces: what color to paint the knobs? Tried several, decided on bright pink. Love the knobs, but it needed a little something extra to make it pop. Mod Podge'd great black and white print paper around the trim to finish it off. Couple coats of varnish for durability. And wow! The dresser of your dreams is complete!

-AFTER-

 

Well Thing at the store are better than expected turns out there are a lot of people who also like Trash to Treasure or Flea Market Finds or just the simple art of re purposing the things that are already around us. Still located at Willowstone Antique Marketplace 1710 Dublin Blvd. Colorado springs, but have expanded to space 165. More space means more projects cant wait for the challenge.As I have gotten back to my forgotten passion the ideas and inspiration seam to be coming faster than I can produce them. The best part though is finding inspiration all around me that's been there the whole time, just blocked by the static of everyday life. Lets all slow down a bit and appreciate the simple little things around us that help make us who we are.

Re purpose as a job

Well in theme of Art of Living, I am taking the big plunge and doing what I love! I am going to refurbish, re purpose, redo, and redesign furniture and home decor items. I am open for business at the Willowstone marketplace 1710 Dublin boulevard space 157, open 7 days a week 10am to 6pm. I am very excited about this new adventure in my life and looking forward to sharing what i love to do with everyone out there.
 Opening with some items that i have made or found over the years, white door coffee table, book shelves made from industrial vent filters, painted furniture and antiques. The book case being one of my favorite items found the vent filters at a flea market and knew they needed to be the sides of a shelving unit, found the shelves and some little legs from the hardware store and wow a fantastic piece( industrial cottage)fit for almost any decor or purpose.

 Thinking doors and windows for next blog, so many thing you can do with them, time to start my next project, good luck with yours.

So I have been working on my store   Zazzle.com/paccaktoddprints  keeping it up to date with my blog and my life. As the cold weather moves in  I find myself looking back on the warmer places I have been, so I chose photos from one of my favorite places to go and relax Taos N.M.. There is so much to see there and it always seams  peaceful weather its the pueblos or the landscape, or walking down the street looking for a place to eat. So I have created 4 color posters and 4 black and white posters at  zazzle.com/paccaktoddprints so others could also feel the peace and warmth that I feel when I am in taos. Prints and poster are a great way to change up your decor with out spending a lot of money. Need to add warmth to a room  add a set or grouping of color prints, or if you want to go a little more classic add some black and white prints or posters with a simple jet black frame.  

Hope these prints inspire you to change up your surroundings just a bit with photos from your favorite artist or maybe photos of your own travels enlarged and framed. As it gets colder we all need a little change in our surroundings to warm us up and get us going for the holidays, so create art in your life.

PARTY PLANNING!  Time for the annual pumpkin party, this years theme Enchanted Forrest. While every year has its challenges, this years it was the giant mushrooms because what says enchanted Forrest better than giant mushrooms. Cardboard concrete tubes and snow sleds where my picks for the larger of the mushrooms, economical and easy to use, sprayed tubes with adhesive and wrapped with wrapping paper, on the sleds I used adhesive shelf paper I cut into circles placed on bottom of sleds then a little spray paint in your choice of color, peal of circles and BOOM you have the top of a mushroom, put the two together and you have a mushroom. Smaller mushrooms I used cardboard tubes and cheap plastic bowls and then followed same instructions as on larger ones.

 Finishing off the party area added a stream made of plastic, a bridge constructed out of an old coffee table and scrap wood laying around. Giant cattails made from tiki torches, large dragon flies made from scrap wood and plastic, give them a paint job and BOOM dragon flies. Spread pumpkins (one for every child) all through the design add 20 or so children a sack race, cakewalk and other fun games, BOOM you have your self a pumpkin party! Don't want to leave out food and beverages for your guests, this year we made homemade mac-n-cheese and pulled pork sandwiches. Thanks to all our friends and family to help make another successful year. 

Fall Warmth

Well I have been gone alot longer than I wanted but tones of new stuff will be coming out of my absence. First on the list is warming up the house for the upcoming holiday season, and what is the easiest way to do this? Paint of course, nothing better! In my previous blog we painted the dinning room bright apple green so in the living room we chose more of a cinnamon terracotta color to coordinate with the green. Just painted one accent  wall with the color so as not to over power the room looks great if I say so myself. Using this bold tone actually has made our room look larger than before as well as warming it up. You just cant go wrong with paint it is by far the most affordable change you can do in your home, only needed one gallon for each project so approximately  20.00 dollars each gallon and at this price if the color really does turn out bad you have lots of options, including choosing a new color. So grab a brush and add a little color to your world.