Preppy Classic Ikea Dresser

It's so fun when your boys are playing hide and seek and they find great places! Like trying to put their 60lb body in their bottom dresser drawer?! It was like a cartoon- the whole thing literally collapsed all around him! oy.
So... we need a new dresser! I searched on craigslist for awhile and just wasn't finding anything I liked for him and was getting a bit insane with all of his clothing all over his floor- so what to do? Off to Ikea it is:)
Yes, I know an Ikea Hack is getting to be an everyday occurrence but it is nice to pay a very decent amount and then get to personalize a piece of furniture that may or may not last very long... remember the hide and seek incident?
I picked up the Tarva Dresser- larger than his last one which is nice- and ready for whatever I wanted to do to it!
Ikea Tarva:

I was not planning on having to buy new furniture, so I wanted to be very frugal with this project and that meant paint I already had would have to work! I had some Annie Sloan Paris Grey and some Country Grey- so I mixed them together and the painted the body of it.  (oh and clearly this was after I assembled the whole thing;)

I decided I wanted some white accents- so I got to work painting the legs and base Annie Sloan Pure White and as usual couldn't leave well enough alone- so I decided to paint stripes down the center.  I used my 3M tape and very un-scientifically taped it out! (meaning I hate measuring and really just eyeballed it) I used my taping stripes trick and after I got the tape in place, I first lightly painted over the tape lines with the grey color so that the white would then not bleed through- works every time!

After my stripes were done I went on a hardware hunt! I didn't care for the wood knobs that came with it and was going for a preppy collegiate kind of look so I wanted to find some gold pulls.  Home Depot and Martha Stewart always pull through (see what I did there?).
I chose these:

they look a lot more brassy in this pic than they are.  I used two on each drawer and to make life easier I used the holes already there as the outer hole of each pull- make sense? I then used my 3M tape to make a mock up of the hole placement! This makes it so much easier because then you can just put the tape on the spot (making sure it is level) and color in the holes and then drill!

I'm pretty happy with how this puppy turned out and more importantly, my boy is happy! No more squishing clothes in his smaller dresser and strategically, I bought one that would not offer any options of hiding in it... hopefully.
You are also about to see two other of my Ikea finds- a gorgeous lamp (obsessed) and also a $40 chair to give my guy a place to hang out:) Can't beat that price!

If you search real hard, you might also see a sneak peak of the nightstands I did for him too! Those will be on here as soon as I find the perfect hardware for them:)

Hope you all have a great week!
xoxo
B

Linking to:
The Dedicated House

Spring into Coral!

I can finally say that I am ready for spring- I got my white arms into a little sun over the weekend and am feeling like I may not actually bring down planes with my reflection!
There are several spring/summer colors that are super fab right now- my fave being Coral- love it- and so fun with a million other colors- black, white, blue, turquoise (careful though 80's flashbacks), and the list goes on and on.
Lucky me got to try another Velvet Finishes color, Exotic, that is just a gorgeous shade of coral! I had a small side table just itching for a make over and this was the perfect way to bring in a pop of color.

Here is her Boring Before:

And after two coats of Exotic, her beautiful after:

And you know I can never leave well enough alone- I had bought some gold leaf for another project that didn't end up happening- so I figured why not give it a try!

I gotta be honest... wasn't such a smooth process for me- but maybe with some more practice it would get easier.
First I sprayed the adhesive on, then you wait a minute to let it get tacky, then put on the sheet of gold leaf and then I waited another minute before using a clean dry foam brush to swipe over it taking off some excess.  I loved the way the feet came out- but trying to stencil the words with it was enough to drive me to drink! I let it sit for a little bit and then sprayed the whole table with the Sealant.

I can't say enough about this paint and am excited to show you one more project in a couple weeks... here's a hint... it rhymes with... Mint! ok- it's Mint! So pretty!
Check out all of the gorgeous, saturated colors here at Velvet Finishes!

xoxo
B

Framed Sports Memorabilia

It's very cliche to do a sports theme in a little boy's room- not bad- just done over and over.  Well I have a little 7yr old who is obsessed with sports- like not just a bit- but like- he knows the rules to every sport you can could think of and some of his coaches even rely on him to direct other players in what to do on the field.  Yes, I sound braggy, but it's also just factual... the kid Loves all sports!

So in his room I wanted to do something that would grow with him and not be babyish but still represent is greatest passion! 

I decided that because he is also knowledgable in sports legends that some famous sports icons and pictures would make an awesome collage on his wall! I went to the used bookstore and for $5, I got a Sports Illustrated Greatest Moments in Sports book- it had so many amazing pics that it was hard to narrow it down!

After an Ikea trip, I came home with a white picture ledge and assorted plastic frames.  I went with their super cheap plastic frames because I wanted to do several pics on the ledge and I was hanging it right above his bed, so my paranoid side didn't want to have a bunch of heavy glass frames above him.  And truth be told you can't even tell they aren't glass- and the fact that they were super cheap helped a lot too!

So after I framed them, I messed around with the arrangement, hung the ledge and up they went!

Because we are Broncos fans, the John Elway #7 is a big fave- my Mom is smiling down on that one:)

And yes, you may be getting a sneak peak at some striped walls there too! Will share that tutorial soon enough!
I hope y'all have a great day!!
xoxo
B

Green fingers, green hair, green dresser Don't Care!

I'm a bit obsessed... and blessed that Velvet Finishes, a fabulous paint company out of Atlanta, sent me some of their gorgeous, no prime, no sand paints!

I have about 8000 projects I am imagining with all of the gorgeous colors they have and will be show casing a few more in the next couple of weeks- but let's start with this gorgeous green lady, shall we?!
She came to me pretty dinged and a dull off white- but she is dull no more! I chose the Baroque Green from Velvet Finishes and it is a gorgeous emerald, kelly green and needs to be everywhere!
It went on smooth and took a few coats as all deep colors do- but no sanding, no priming and because this was an older piece of furniture, I wanted it to look a bit uneven in places.  Perfect was not the plan, and if you can't tell, I couldn't be happier with this baby!
Here is the sad before...

Without further ado... My Green Lady...

After about 2 and a half coats of paint, I simply used gold rub and buff and a gold leaf pen on all of the pretty details- those two products are amazing!
Thank you again Velvet Finishes!

I hope everyone has an amazing weekend!
xoxo
B

Linking to:
East Coast Creative
The Dedicated House

Featured at:
Furniture Flippin'

Collections

I like things.  I don't like random things though.  I like to look at things in my home and know exactly where they came from and that they have meaning to me! Now it may be too much stuff and sometimes I do want to just get rid of everything- but your home should make you happy. period.  Forget trends- forget resale value (unless you are gonna paint the whole house black) and just go with what you love!
I have started a new Pinterest Board for displaying collections because it is such a fine line between clutter and collection- ya gotta be careful there cause that Hoarders show is serious business!
Exhibit #1... This would be a no no...

Follow along on Pinterest for fun inspiration and if you follow me on Instagram you will see lots of sneak peaks at upcoming projects! Later this week I will be showing you a gorgeous painted dresser using a new paint! Shocking, I know!


Follow Bee Mottl's board Collections on Pinterest.

Knock off Bookshelves

You gotta work with what ya got, right?  Well there is a pretty big lack of storage in our house.  But it is what it is and I needed to start utilizing the space we do have!
I had these bookcases in my office on either side of the french doors~

 I really did like them and they were nice- but they weren't maximizing the space, and clearly I was starting to just pile stuff all around them.  I wanted to display items but also have functional storage for all of my craft/ paint/ tons-o-crap stuff!
In a search for new bookshelves, I came across these from West Elm and just loved the clean look of them!

Now at $900... this was not happening!  So I took my cute pink pencil and got to measuring and drawing what I needed! Now I knew exactly what I wanted to do... but with a pretty minuscule idea of how to accomplish it.  This is a pretty common occurrence in our house so I let it marinade for awhile and finally did what I could to force myself into it- I bought the wood and then let it sit in my front hallway for two weeks until I couldn't stand it anymore!
I thought about cutting the notches with just a hand saw and then decided not to.  I asked my sweet contractor neighbor what his thoughts on it were and we both agreed that a jigsaw might work... I don't have a jigsaw.  And then finally I dug through my Power Tools kit that I won from Ryobi and settled on the reciprocating saw- grabbed some clamps- and the instruction guide and went to town!
I admit I was terrified and made sure my children were ready to call 911- but what do you know?! It was easy and awesome!!! I want to cut everything now!
Ok- enough with my endless chatter.  You will find a tutorial at the end of my braggy pictures;)

One on each side and I tried to make them a mix of memorabilia and also storage- all of the boxes are from Ikea and I LOVE them! They hold my paints that I can't leave in my garage because of the heat and all of my crafting goodies.

 Loving my craft paints stored in a little terrarium.

And some of my regular paint brushes in an antique milk glass jar.

I am in love with my knock off and it is giving me a ton more storage! I will be showing you even more of my office make- over soon!

Tutorial:
1.After measuring the space I had them in, I determined the length and width of the new inset boards I needed and had them cut at Home Depot
2. I dismantled the old shelves and spray painted the black iron sides white- first a flat primer, then a glossy white on top
3. I lightly sanded, then stained all of the pine boards with Minwax- Weathered Gray
4. Using the old wood inserts, I traced where the cut outs needed to be on the ends of each board
5. I cut out those notches with my Ryobi Reciprocating saw while the boards were clamped down to my ultra nice backyard table;)
6. Screwed the top board and bottom board into the now white metal sides
7. Stood them in place and slid in the remaining shelves
8. Stand back and ooohhh and ahhhh over your amazingness!

xoxo,

B

Linking to:
East Coast Creative

Featured At:
Knock Off Decor

Faux Card Catalog

I think we have discussed that I have the patience of an ant... yes? Well I have watched, dreamed, hoped, prayed to find an old library card catalog for about 20yrs.  Ok, not 20, but it feels like Furevvahhh!!
You see, I had a stint as a middle school librarian post babies and fell in love with all things books.  We can revisit my librarian career at a later time as you are probably now picturing me with a bun, glasses and hunch back.  I don't have a hunch back!!
Anyhoo... the only card catalogs I have found have been super duper expensive and y'all know my CFO is not having that.  So what is a girl to do? Duh! Make my own!  Now if you want to get all technical, it is not a working card catalog- but it has at least stopped my shakes for having my very own.
We have owned this Ikea Hemnes Shoe holder for about 5 years now and it was a bit beat down as we mainly used it for diapers and baby gear and such in our front hall.  I love it because it is so slim and doesn't take up too much space- but it definitely needed a make-over so it was the perfect piece to give this idea of mine a try.
Here is the before:

And here is the after! yay!

And my little extra dash of cuteness will have to be added...

I am a huge fan of mixing metals and also the old with the new- so here is a fun pic of it paired up with my more modern Target rug- lots of fun ways to style this little lady!

The tutorial is fairly simple- I removed the drawers and gave them a light sanding.   I had bought 4  12x12 thin wood scraps from Hobby Lobby ($12) that I cut into 4 6x6's.  I then used liquid nails to glue them to each drawer front.  I then did a mixture of Annie Sloan Chalk Paints- primarily Paris Grey, with a bit of French Linen and Louis Blue.  I'd love to tell you what percents exactly but I just did it until I liked it- as I was going for a grey with a ting of blue color that would play well with gold hardware.  And I was not going for perfection- just a messy paint job!
One quick coat- then another and then a coat of polyacrylic.  I used it instead of wax for time reasons and because it gets a lot of traffic and I wanted to be able to wipe it down easily.

The hardware is where my cost became challenging.  It is not cheap to get the finger pull/label holder like the antiques had.  The best I was finding was about $5 for just one- and needing 16- that wasn't gonna happen.  So after some ridiculously long searching, I found some small craft (like scrap book) ones that were $6 for 20 so I ordered those from Amazon.  But they were super small- so I found the larger label hardware at Staples and then proceeded to combine the two.  I did Gold Rub n Buff on them both and then hot glued the small one under the large one.
End Scene.

I am just gonna say it... I love it.  I am going to be entering this in the Creating With the Stars Contest so I'm keeping my fingers crossed- but if you would care to hop over and click on it there starting March 3rd- it would be awesome!

Hope you are all having an amazing day!
xoxo
B

Linking To:

East Coast Creative- Creating With the Stars!
DIY Showoff