I am a project-a-holic. Recently I have had several complications with my hand so I have given up crocheting, piano playing, even tedious bits of sewing make my hand flare up so my "down time" has been spent cleaning (ha, yeah right!) doing other things. I've had several large projects recently and I always forget to take before and after photos of them, simply because I'm too anxious to wait long enough for the shutter to click .. I want to get started on it and I want it finished, as soon as possible.
Well, I figured I'd take a before picture, since the before project was hideous .. :)
Recently we upgraded Aveline from a baby/toddler bed to a big girl bed, twin size. I posted pictures of her bed on facebook, along with the quilt that I made and the matching bunting.
I had two projects for Aveline's room in my head, two projects that would complete her big girl room.
One was a dollhouse shaped shelf and the other is still in my head and is the last project I will work on .. ever. As fun as projects are, I hate them. I am impatient, it's nearly too hot to spray paint outside, bugs .. ugh and since there is a community park just over my backyard fence I have to plan to paint only when I walk by the window and see that there aren't any kids outside because really, who wants to play at the park and smell spray paint the entire time.
I actually found a dollhouse shelf online at Target.com that was much cheaper than the Pottery Barn kids one that I had been drooling over, I almost bought it for her but decided I'd wait and see if I could find a project shelf on craigslist .. by project I mean something that a few cans of spray paint could fix in one afternoon. HA!
I searched for a project shelf, one that I didn't have to spend too much money on, $10 or less.
After about a month of searching craigslist and other various online selling sites, I found her.
There she was, "Black Beauty", disgustingly over painted, dried black paint dripping off of her, pumpkin orange paint underneath of the black and underneath of the pumpkin orange .. stickers..STICKERS...of horses, shoe horses, cowgirl boots, ropes..I'm not quite sure what was going on or who decided that painting over stickers was going to be awesome..it wasn't.
She was disgusting but she fit my price range and she had good bones, that's really all that matters when up-cycling furniture..good bones..and a lot of sand paper.
Basically I sanded, painted, sanded, painted, sanded and painted until she was close enough to how I envisioned her. She isn't finished yet but she is put back together and in Aveline's room until I know for sure how I am going to finish her.
I painted her white, blossom something satin white. The back walls of the shelf are silver, to add a little bit of contrast to the rest of the shelf. The roof, well, it's silver and has the most "damage" from previous owner and their "knowledge" of how to use a spray paint can..I'm actually wanting to add shingles on it but real roofing shingles are far too large so I'm going to search Hobby Lobby in the next few weeks and see if they sell shingles for doll houses or if I can find something that will look like shingles to put on the roof and as for the outer sides (the second most hideous part because of the terrible paint job(s) before I purchased it) .. I'm thinking of something fun and colorful but it's a secret .. I can't tell you! :)
Here she is before .. seriously, I didn't do anything to make it look worse. The lady told me that they created a jail cell in the upper right hand corner.
Here she is after .. just waiting for her shingled roof and her fancy new sides. :)
Now that the shelf is in Aveline's room .. I don't like it.
I don't like how it fits, I don't like it at all but Aveline is crazy about it so I guess it will stay, for a while.
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| please look past the blurry photo :) |
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| I've been collecting all sorts of vintage golden books for Aveline and the boys actually love to pick one of these to read at night instead of the many others we have. :) |
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| Her minnie boots and a quilt that her Nannie had quilted for her. |
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| Here is Aveline's big girl bed. There was a bit of a gap between the bed and her mattress so I used her bumper pad from her crib to stuff between the two and it actually fits along the headboard, back side and footboard perfectly ensuring that little Aveline is safe and cozy all night long. :) |
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| Some of the fabric swatches I used in her quilt. :) |
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| Another view of her shelf .. you can't see it very well but the back wall of the entire shelf is silver, adding just a bit of contrast to the whiteness of it all. I'm still debating about giving the entire thing shabby sanding. |
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| Eventually I'm going to get rid of this sofa and replace it with project #2 but not until I actually finish it and as of right now, I haven't even bought a single piece of the project. :) |
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| I thought this was an accurate picture of how Aveline's bed looks at the end of the day, after nap time and play time in her room. :) She's all snuggled up and ready for bed. |
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| Night Night, Baby Girl. :) We love you! |
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