Toybox Project!

A while back I found a wooden box/chest at a garage sale for $5 and I couldn't pass it up. It was sturdy and I saw a lot of potential for it. Originally, I was going to paint it and cover the lid with batting and fabric and use it in my house to store stuff like blankets, pictures, craft supplies, etc. Then, I found out one of my good friends was pregnant and I decided it would make the perfect toy box. I was very anxious because I had to wait a long time before I started the project. Let's just say I'm a really good procrastinator and I didn't start on it until a few days before the shower when I had the thing for almost 9 months.

Here's the before:

After a little bit of cleaning, sanding, spray painting, striping, gluing on letters, and adding new rope handles, we now have this:

My original plan was to put a dark wood stain on the lid, but due to my mad procrastination skills I didn't have time for it.

FYI, my new favorite product is Frogtape. I've heard that it works miracles, but seriously...it's crazy how straight your lines will be with that stuff. There's NO BLEEDING of the paint whatsoever. Will never use a different painter's tape again.

Projects and Garage Sale Finds!

I got this idea from a fun blog that I frequent called Little Birdie Secrets (http://www.littlebirdiesecrets.blogspot.com/). You should check it out, they have tons of fun crafts and ideas. I've been looking for an old shutter for a while and I finally found one for $5 at the fair grounds flea market. I sanded it and spray painted it red, then I sanded over the top again to make it look distressed. Then I flipped it upside down and bought some fun clips and viola....I now have a fun bulletin board to hang invitations and pictures on instead of covering my fridge.

I also found this lamp at the flea market for $12. It is a huge, heavy duty lamp and I love the detail in the bottom of it. Its kind of funny because our living room wall color almost matches the color in the lamp perfectly. I'm planning on covering the lamp shade with a fun fabric, but I haven't found the fabric I like yet and i'm not so sure how to cover a lamp shade without making it look bad!

My mom found this fun candle holder at a garage sale. I matched the color of the candles to the couch pillows which are burnt orange and red.

I found this candle holder at the flea market as well! It was a great day for me at the flea market. I'm going to hang this piece in the hallway above our book shelf.