Long time, No see!

Sorry for that long, unannounced hiatus... We've been busy traveling and working on projects around the house, I just haven't had a chance to jump on here and show you what we've been up to!
We traveled to GA last weekend for Easter and to celebrate my (early) birthday with my fam... We fit so many things into one weekend... It was lovely!

We took my sweet little sister's senior pictures, just in time to send out graduation invitations... I love that smirk. She was a pro.

We were even able to get a picture of the whole fam, too! With five girls between the ages of 15 and 24, it's quite a rare opportunity!

Matt and I snuck in for a little mushy-gushy-pre-2nd-anniversary shoot, too...

And Sunday was spent celebrating with family, honoring the One who could not be defeated and remembering the sweet gift of grace.
The kiddos looked especially dapper, and were therefore sentenced to a jaw-droppingly-cute-photo-sesh.

As if I ever doubted...
I am abundantly blessed!

-Lauren

The Perfect Accident

There's this little place about a mile from our house... Behold, "salvaged window heaven".

Or at least that's what I call it. You would too, promise.

I can never resist the urge to stop and pick up a couple that catch my eye.

My sister-in-law and I stopped last weekend and picked out a few favorites. I came home with the most beautiful, long and slender, buttery yellow, wavy glass window. I immediately went to work sprucing it up and chipping away at the unsalvageable, while trying to preserve as much of that buttery yellow paint as I could.

I removed the long, slender panes of glass, cleaned them till they shined, and devised a plan to properly reinforce them into their frame. (They were not well-secured before, given the age of the window.) And then... just like that...

It broke. One of the pieces of glass broke.

Miraculously, I resisted the urge to chuck the entire piece into the unassuming woods behind our house.

But then it came to me. This beautiful window didn't have to go to waste after all!

I hung my book wreath on it and called it a day...

And I love it!

I recently wallpapered this wall and didn't want to cover up the beautiful paper too much. I think this is the perfect solution!

I've got another antique window project I'll write about this weekend. I can barely wait to show you!

Lauren

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A gallery wall!

I have been "jonesing" over gallery walls throughout blogland for months... I proposed the idea once to my husband, but he was less than thrilled about having "an old grandmother's picture wall" in the house.

Apparently, I didn't explain myself very well...

here

This is not your grandmother's photo wall.

here

The final straw came when I saw Emily's gallery wall in her new home in Anchorage...

here

I gave my husband some photos to choose from and had them all printed in black and white to fit a pack of ten black frames I bought several months ago... Maybe one day I'll be brave enough to throw in some beautiful pops of color! Emily's wall showed me that there was no reason to feel intimidated by creating a gallery wall. It doesn't have to be on a grand scale. (Wallspace is prime real estate in our home as it is) It doesn't have to be funky and mismatched.  She even provided step-by-step instructions! Win!

I made the layout on my floor and took pictures of each arrangement as she suggested. I then took the paper (or cardboard) inserts from each frame and lightly taped them to the wall with painter's tape, in order to adjust accordingly. Unfortunately, I had a door chime and light switch to work around. What a shame!

I think it really turned out well and gave this little hallway a lot more interest. This wall is at the top of our stairs, next to our master bedroom door and the laundry room door, and across from our guest bedroom door. (Compact space, I told you!)

We love it! It's so nice to have a collection of family photos on display in such a convenient and interesting way.

-Lauren

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Table Top : Refinished!

I recently refinished the top of the pedestal table we inherited from Matt's parents... it has lived many lives! Here's the transformation!! (Also, check out this post, featured at Bird and Branch Redesign):

Let me start by saying, I consider myself a novice at all things crafty. "Trial and Error" is my mantra. This was definitely the case in my most recent furniture project: refinishing our dining table! Matt’s parents were so kind as to donate a dining room set to his “broke bachelor pad” fund right out of college. These pieces are gems… they were raw oak when he inherited them, and Matt took it upon himself (and a few willing friends), to paint the entire set his favorite color: BLACK. To give credit where credit is due, he did try to spiff them up a bit by rubbing a cherry red stain on the black furniture…that proceeded to come off in boatloads upon every dusting. Apparently, these boys didn’t know about poly…

Moving on… only a few short months after being married and taking 99% control of décor (he still has a Georgia Bulldogs half bath... you can’t win ‘em all, ladies), I took it upon myself to paint the table, chairs, and coordinating hutches a sweet, creamy white. “Antique Lace”, to be exact and it is lovely.

I quickly grew tired of the tabletop, though, and decided to stain it to closely match our new hardwoods. I picked out my stain, bundled up on a chilly-and-45-degree day, and went to work. (I’m a little over-eager at times!)

I started stripping the tabletop with citristrip from Lowe’s.

It really is a miracle worker. It took two coats until I got down to the poly that was on the original oak. Can’t you see it working?? Yeah… me neither.

But it does! It does!

Let me go on a tangent here by saying, with all of my previous furniture redo’s, I have always sanded by hand. I’m stubborn, have quite a collection of sandpaper in a range of grits, and honestly enjoyed the burn it gave my triceps. (Ok, that last one is an exaggeration). I sanded this thing down to the best of my ability, gave it one last coat of stripper “just in case”, and went to town with stain.


Except it wouldn’t get any darker! I waited a day in between each coat, but by the third day and third coat of stain, I was only seeing a medium walnut color. Matt finally convinced me that I needed to sand it down further than I had previously, and then dragged me to Lowe’s to bitterly and reluctantly purchase a palm sander. (Stubborn.)


Let me tell you… I LOVE this sander. Not only is it a power tool (LOVE), it’s MY power tool. And so we sanded that baby clean…

And started over. (Trial and Error, remember?)


I put 4 coats on total of the Minwax stain, and achieved the most beautiful shade of walnut. It was like magic! (Had I only done it right the first time…)

I finished it off with 5 coats of poly (you can never have too much poly), sanding lightly with 220 grit between each coat. I deliberated for quite some time on the best way to truly protect a table that will get as much wear and tear as this, and decided on tried-and-true polycrylic. Water based, water-resistant… I used semi-gloss and it delivered a beautiful sheen.

We’re so pleased!

It was quite a lot of work, but completely worth it in the end... But let's be honest... Isn't that how it always goes?


Head over to Bird and Branch Redesign to see my table featured, and get lost in all of Jessamie's beautiful projects while you're there!




-Lauren

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