Ha-Ya!

My house was blessed with a fabulous back patio/yard.  Directly out the backdoor is a large patio surrounded by brick.  While this may seem to be a great blessing, it cut off too much of my backyard from view and access. 

The patio also featured a small bbq pit grill thingy centered on one side.  The wall to the right of the pit, (if you're looking at it from the backdoor) was loose and seemingly dangerous.  Sooooooo...

I took my hammer and large short flathead screwdriver and went to town.  The bricks came down amazingly easy.  After I pulled each brick, I carefully took off the bad mortar which was crumbly and cracked.  The cleaned bricks were then carefully stacked on the other side of the pit.  Eventually they will be used to repair the pit and the horrific plumbing mess left from a supposed pipe repair.  If you know me, and I'm assuming that if you're reading this you do know me, then you should know that taking the wall down one brick at a time didn't last.  Sooooooo...

One good shove later and the entire wall was down. Take that!  As much as I would love to claim that it was my superior strength that led me to push over an entire brick wall, you should notice that only 2 and 1/2 bricks were still connected to anything.  It scared me how easily it fell over.  With a simple trip or shove, the entire thing could have tumbled over and crushed someone or something.  Not to worry, the whole thing is down and the rest of the wall is steady and still standing, hopefully for sometime!

The lowdown on the lowboy

I was a lucky/blessed girl when I moved into my house because so many friends and family donated NICE pieces of furniture to me to help furnish my house. One of the pieces came into my house as a part of matching set for a bedroom, 2 side tables and a dresser. I already have a highboy dresser in my bedroom and don't need another, but I desperately needed storage in my living room. So, I plopped down the piece against my wall and left it there for almost a year now.

While the piece was nice and heavy, man is it HEAVY, it just wasn't my style. It took me a long time to realize that it wasn't the shape of the piece or the accents, it was the color. It was too something. So, after much perusing on Miss Mustard Seed, I decided to bite the bullet and go for it. As I mentioned this piece is super heavy, so I pulled the drawers out and put them on my super special custom painting station in my backyard. Jealous aren't you?!? After a good spray of primer and Heirloom White spray paint, I used 100 grit sandpaper to distress the edges and bring out the texture.

I then broke out my new favorite tool, toy, stuff??? Minwax Finishing Paste Wax in special dark. The finishing wax brought out the details in the furniture piece and added a soft darkening hue to the creamy paint. I was so excited about the new look that I put the drawers back in the piece, unmatching and all!

Last weekend I was able to cajole family into helping me haul the base of the lowboy outside to the carport. There I sanded and sanded and sanded to take off the old finish and reveal the wood beneath. I then hit the sides with more Heirloom White and prepped the top for staining. I chose the darkest stain I could find, since I wanted the biggest contrast between the top and base.

I have to say that I was super impressed with the results. The final look is FABULOUS and matches so well now in my living room. The texture and finish of the paint is so cool and I am so excited that it worked. The top however was another fail, but I cleverly photographed it so that it wasn't too noticeable. Eventually I will haul it back outside and redo the top, but until then, I'm going to enjoy the look it lends to my living room!

 
 

A place to rest

When sitting on my couch, your eyes are immediately drawn to the built-in shelves flanking the television. After I spent the hours refinishing them, priming them, and painting them, I placed a bunch of collectibles, books, antiques and new, and pictures up on them. While each seperate shelf looked okay in my book, altogether they looked busy and crowded. The visual weight was unbalanced and while not screamingly obvious, it nagged at me.


After much begging of one of my closest friends and a bribe of supper (which she didn't accept!) a very successful hour was spent rearranging and reweighting my shelves. Now when I sit down to watch TV, there are other places for your eye to rest and the entire room feels more balanced. SOOOOOO much better!