Chevron Coffee Tables

This will be my first post in a long time. I've been wanting to add some pizzazz to our living room for quite some time and I knew the first step would be to re-finish the giant, broken coffee table that demanded so much attention but never delivered the "wow" factor. I decided a bold pattern would provide a focal point and act as an anchor for the rest of the rooms transformation. Chevrons are really popular right now so I decided to do them in dark brown and white. My friend Lauren came over and we decided to paint her coffee table as well, not caring one bit that we'd both have matching, sister tables.


Supplies:

1. belt sander
2. 100 grit belt for stripping
3. 250 grit belt for finishing and smoothing
4.2 quarts high-gloss, self priming  paint in different colors
5. high quality paint brushes in various sizes
6. FrogTape
7. 1 quart water-based Polyurethane in desired finish (I used satin but you can use a higher gloss if you want)
8. Martha Stewart Specialty Finish in Gold Pearl

Now, this chevron business was so much harder than I imagined it would be. Or maybe I just suck at math and measuring but be warned: This will require a fair amount of planning as far as where you chevrons will go and how wide they will be.

I started out by sanding my table with a belt sander. I originally thought the belt sander would strip the wood clean of all the previous paint and leave me with a perfectly bare table to work with. I was wrong. That may have to do with the fine grain of the sand paper we used. We probably needed a rougher grit to start. 

Next I, wiped the table down thoroughly removing any dust, then painted the whole table white, leaving the legs in their natural wood stain. This took  about 4 coats of paint before I achieved a nice, even cover.

Now it's time to map out your chevrons! I decided mine were going to be 4" thick and 12" from tip to tip. I made a grid of dots first by measuring the length and adding a dot every 4" along the very edge of the table and repeated on both edges. Then I measured the width, lining up the tape measure with the first set of 4" marks and then adding a dot at 12", then 24" then 36". Then I repeated this step throughout the length of the table. Then, to assure I was measuring properly, I drew in the lines of the chevron and  it looked pretty good!

Now you tape. Take caution when forming your peaks taking note where you will be painting and where you need to trim the tape to make perfect points. We used regular old blue painters tape but YOU should use FrogTape (its green!) because it prevents the paint from bleeding (it WILL bleed and you WILL have to go back and fix it) so use the green FrogTape! Paint a few, thin coats until you achieve full coverage ,then peel the tape off slowly

Don't forget to peel the tape off before the paint dries because it will rip the paint off the table and it will look horrible.


Wait for this to dry completely! Now you can stop here and apply your polyurethane sealer and be done with it! But I felt like I needed a bit more to make it look perfect. I had the idea when I came across this gold finish paint by Martha Stewart. I wanted to add a few more chevrons, much thinner, a bit wider and condensed into a 15" strip... here is what I came up with:

I followed the same procedure as above just adjusted my measurements. instead of 4" wide, these were only 1". The problem I ran into here was that I had to apply a lot of coats of the gold paint and it needed to dry pretty thoroughly before a new coat was applied. This means that when I went to peel the tape off, the paint ripped!! ugh! So I found a box knife and scored the edges of the tape before peeling. Then I cleaned the table, applied 4 coats of polyurethane, let dry overnight and put it in the living room to admire!

stencil + watercolor

I woke up inspired today. "Where are my watercolors!?" I ask my husband as I scramble to find them before my creativity starts leaking out of my brain. I am simultaneously reaching for an exacto-knife and construction paper, and my poor husband can hardly hand me my paints before I start furiously sketching various animal shapes onto my paper. Fast forward an hour and a half later....

 Penny couldn't be more bored with me...

here are my stencils... and yes, you have to go through all the trouble of drawing a silhouette and cutting it out.  But the rest is easy. I like that they can be perfectly imperfect. 

antelope

 Ikea frames! I love them!

 I want to make a million more! 

Camping Cuties

like I said in past blogs, I have this grandiose dream of "pretty camping". I have realized that it is going to take a few trips to get everything in order. But here is what I have so far:

 (I made the bunting in the backgroound with some napkins I found in the dollar bin at target.)

(here is another shot of the bunting with a pretty swallowtail butterfly. I had a lot of fun finding all the dishes we used on the trip. The plastic stemless wine glasses were on sale at Target for $2.50 for four! We also have a fantastic oilcloth table cloth that makes camping sanitary AND beautiful.)

(I bought these a few weeks ago at a thrift store and had this idea that I would transform them into "Camping Caddies". I cut a half inch pvc pipe to 6" and used wire to attach them to the baskets. then I decorated the pvc pipes with washi tape and Voila! Adorable little caddies.)

(This on is the Bathroom Caddy, complete with Clorox, air freshener, hand sanitizer, toilet paper, lysol disinfectant spray, and a little lantern)

 

 (This one is the "Beauty Caddy" with all the things you need on an hourly basis on a camping trip but don't want to go digging through you luggage for every time. We filled ours with a brush, baby wipes, dry shampoo, spray deodorant - we felt it was easy to apply AND every one could share it- a mirror, spray on sunscreen, an arsenal of bug sprays, and hair ties)

(here is a shot of the two baskets together. We also had one for first aid supplies and another that we used to collect drift wood and flowers in on our hikes)

cute eh?

Here's What I've Been Up To

Tool Belts.
           Face it: Busy girls need tool belts. Cute ones. They need a place for their pens, and tape measurer and calculator, tip money, receipts, recipes and whatever else a girl needs while on the job. I first started making these about a year ago when I got a job at Compass Wines here in town and I got sick of running back and forth for things like box cutters and paper clips.

I am hoping to start selling them soon. I've made a few for coworkers and I have another in progress for my sister who works with kids at a day camp. Here is what I have going on for her:

This one is made of vinyl with an oil cloth lining for durability and easy cleanup. She is super stoked to get rid of her hideous fanny pack and fill this shiny new Tooly with Band-Aids, ice packs and Goldfish crackers. Just because you spend all day chasing kids around doesn't mean you have to sacrifice fashion for functionality. These have both! The only problem is that they are taking me forever to make. Even though all the pieces are predominately geometric shapes, I find myself over thinking the project in terms of how I am going to assemble it. Ugh. I spent an entire evening making cardboard stencils of all the pieces I need for each Tooly, and still it takes me twelve freaking hours to make one. Bleh. At that rate I will have to charge $100.00 a piece! Crazy!

How a Dining Room Became Kelly's Bedroom

So since Kelly Deans moved in with us, it has been my mission to redecorate her dining room turned bedroom into a calm, relaxing space with basically zero dollars to put towards it. Ugh. No money? Really? Well, she did splurge on a duvet from CB2 for $80.00... not even that pricey, really. And then we spent five bucks on a dresser, fifteen on paint and another twelve on shelving.  Super cheap makeover!!!














SO, the biggest challenge was the dresser... ugh. It was crazy cheap so I excused it for being flimsy and broken and completely ugly. However, after a very traumatic paint stripping experience and a few coats of teal spray paint, it came out looking decent. Kelly also added a drawer lining to protect her clothing from all the splinted wood. Looks good!

The second biggest project in her room was the picture frame installation. We found a bunch of unused frames in the garage and painted them the same teal color as the dresser. Putting them on the wall would have been easy enough, however, the large open archway leading into the living room was still part way finished a whole three weeks into the construction. So now a whole two months into this project , we finally put those silly frames on the wall. I like the addition of the cheap plastic wall clock... it gives it an Alice in Wonder Land kind of vibe.




Then Kelly found these plastic letters at a thrift shop for ten cents. Not the whole alphabet so she didn't know what to do with them. But after I put her shelves up, I realized that they would make a great letter mosaic. Sweet!! That has to be the cheapest artwork of all time.





Last of all, we spray painted a pink birdcage black. I think it cost 8 bucks... it's meant to hold jewelry but I think it looks pretty just sitting there. :)