Moving over to the dark side-Two PARA Paints Blog Crew projects

I have two half-PARA Paints Blog Crew projects to show you this week. One is half done and one is one-half PARA Paint :-)

The loft is painted, and I LOVE it! My final colour choice was PARA’s Rainy Skies. I had to repaint the baseboards (PARA’s Climb the Mast), which I got done this weekend, and now the loft is ready to be decorated – WOOT! So no final reveal pics today, but here’s a peek at the wall colour…

Orange and purple are going to be the accent colours. I went a little cushion-crazy at HomeSense last week! Still deciding which ones to keep, which ones to get more of, and which ones to bring back…

The runner-up colour for the walls was PARA’s Potion. But I had another project in mind for it. I’d started painting a coffee table with Annie Sloan’s Paris Grey and Provence, but then decided to use Potion instead of Provence. I know I took some before pics, but I can’t for the life of me find them. But the coffee table is from the same set as this end table that I Annie Sloane-i-fied last year:

And this is how it turned out:

Did you know that you can wax latex paint just as well as chalk paint? Yep, you can! I waxed the top and used a silver paint pen to highlight the groove.

I used pewter Rub N’ Buff on the pull…

And the feet…

I haven’t decided if I should sand the base to give it a distressed look or apply some dark wax or just leave it as it is. What do you think?

Thanks to PARA Paints and Bonds Decor on Bank Street for providing the paint :-)

When ombre fails, paint pumpkins

Please come visit me at my new blog, K&B Adventures By The Sea. My hubby and I are really living the coastal life now and building our dream home in Nova Scotia. Like, actually building it ourselves. Just the two of us. Really!

After three failed attempts at creating an ombre wall in my office, I’m rethinking that plan. I really want to do it, but I only have so much paint and time and patience. It’s way harder than I thought it would be, but I’m not quite ready to give up yet. I have another method to try, and I REALLY hope it works!

So no ombre walls to show you today, but I did paint some pumpkins.

And one of them has a sort of ombre effect…

I used Annie Sloan Chalk Paint in Provence, Paris Grey, and French Linen. Some got a whitewash treatment with Old White, and one got waxed – then I realized that rubbing on the wax was rubbing off the paint – DOH! – so I skipped the wax on the rest of them.

I wrapped the stems with jute twine and added some shells and shell pieces from PEI to give them a coastal vibe.

So not the ombre walls I wanted to get done on the weekend, but at least painting pumpkins is crossed off the to-do list :-)

Have you ever tried to paint an ombre wall, or anything else? If you have, I’d love to hear how you did it!

Thank you Heather at Setting for Four for featuring my pumpkins on her blog :-)

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Long weekend plans: DIY and dogs

What’s better than a long weekend? An extra-long weekend! Can I say I’m just a littl ebut excited about having the next five days off? :-) WOOT! And it’s a good thing too, ‘cause I have a lot of projects on the agenda!

For starters, I’ll be starting my next PARA Paints Blog Crew project. I’m turning a small room in the basement into a craft/painting room. Hubby has installed the ceiling and crown moulding, and now it’s ready to paint. I was originally going to do something bright and funky and graphic, but now I’m leaning towards trying something different and doing an ombre effect. Like this:

Image via P.S. - I made this…

Now I just need to decide on a colour palette. I’d love to do navy, but it’s a small room with a low ceiling and no window, so I may have to go with something lighter. I really love the colour I used on my little chair, P5168-51 Time Will Sell. I might use a series of colours from that colour chip.

I’ve picked the ceiling & trim colour for the room – white! I know, pretty exciting, eh? ;-) It’s P5216-14D Climb the Mast. It looks a bit pink in the picture, but it’s not at all. It’s a yellow-based white, so it’s slightly creamy.

So that’s project #1. I’m also planning to paint a bookcase and desk to go in the room. I’ve had the Mulholland china pattern by Kelly Wearstler in my head for a while now…

…to do a little something like this:

Image via Timmy the Weiner Dog {blog no longer exists}

I think I’ve figured out how I’m going to do it – now I just need to get it done! That’s project #2.

Project #3 is easy – upholstering seat cushions for the four stools that hubby built for the kitchen . I bought this fabric from Tonic Living – it’s called Make Waves in the Latte colourway. I love the pattern, and the colours tie the kitchen and family room wall colour.s together.

FYI, the ladies at Tonic Living are super-nice and their service is super-fast – my fabric arrived two days after I ordered it :-)

I’ve been transforming a couple more pieces of furniture with Annie Sloan Chalk Paint. The first is a side table that I gave a driftwood look to. It still needs a few touch-ups and a new pull for the door. Here’s a peek:

And this little table is taking forever – the stupid spindles are a lot more time-consuming to paint than I thought. It’s almost ready for its debut, but for now, here’s a little preview…

Besides these DIY projects, we have a lot of dog stuff going on this weekend. Jackson & Toby are going to a photo shoot on Saturday morning, and then Toby is meeting potential adopters in the afternoon.

They seem like a great couple, and they have a home that’s right on Lake Erie, so Toby Won Kenobi {that’s my nickname for him} will be able to do lots of swimming and playing on the beach. I want them to adopt me too!

I’m really going to miss Toby when he leaves for his new home – we’ve been fostering him for almost two months and he’s become a part of our family. But this will probably help with the transistion – we have a new foster dog arriving on Sunday. His name is Malcolm. When I saw this picture of him on the Catahoula Rescue Ontario Facebook page, my heart broke and I just had to help him.

Have you ever seen such a dejected dog?! Poor guy! He was scheduled to be euthanized the following day, and I just couldn’t let that happen. I told Gloria who runs Catahoula Rescue Ontario that I would foster him if she could pull him from the shelter. Luckily, we were able to rescue him just in time. I’m really looking forward to meeting him so I can finally see what he looks like – he didn’t face the camera for either of his shelter pictures. Assuming there are no glitches with the transport or issues at the border, he’ll arrive in Ottawa Saturday night and Gloria will bring him to our house on Sunday. I’ll post better pictures then :-) By the way, if there’s anything you want to know about Catahoulas or if you’d like to adopt or foster a dog, you can find all the info on the new blog. I designed it with lots of help from Heather and Tanya – thanks girls!

We’ll be having our Thanksgiving dinner on Monday with my dad and mom #2. If there’s time, I want to do a little crafting with them and paint some pumpkins for Hallowe’en…

Image via Landee See Landee Do

And finally, I need to put the finishing touches on this painting and mail it to its new owner. It’s my first official sale – thank you Janet :-)

Of course, just because I plan to do all these things doesn’t mean that I actually WILL do all these things! Come on by next week and I’ll let you know what I manage to get done!

Oh, and one more thing – I’m just $65 away from my goal of raising $500 for the Growing Our Pits For Tits campaign! Thank you Chuck, Diane, Lana, Stephanie, Vanessa, Sarah, Suzanne, Lisa, Janet, Kate, and Pam & Oded for your support! If you’d like to make a donation towards breast cancer research and awareness, click here to go to my donation page.

What are your plans for the long weekend?

Happy Thanksgiving & Happy Columbus Day!

Annie Sloan Chalk Paint table makeover

OK, so I didn’t get my little chair finished this weekend after all – but that’s because I got so into doing another furniture makeover, I ran out of time. And mojo. Once I decided to break open my new Annie Sloan Chalk Paint, I just couldn’t stop till I was done. I have to say, it’s just a little bit addictive.

This side table used to be my grandma’s. It’s well made, solid wood, and I probably shouldn’t have painted it.

But I did.

What sealed the deal for me was that the top had some damage to it.

Damage all gone :-) I used a white Sharpie paint pen to highlight the line.

To make this a totally free project, I decided to keep the existing hardware.

A little pewter Rub N’ Buff, and it looks like new.

And then I thought, why not Rub N’ Buff the feet too?

The chalk paint is easy to work with and goes on really nicely. I started off by applying two coats of Paris Grey.

And then I applied one coat of Old White. I decided to leave the top of the table grey for contrast. And I like how the grey shows through the white a bit.

When the paint was dry, I used a big brush to apply a coat of clear wax. I used a rag to wipe off the excess, and then I used 220 grit sandpaper to distress the edges and smooth the paint finish. I went down to the original wood colour in some places.

After the sanding, I applied another coat of clear wax. Some rubbing and buffing, and voila – brand new side table! The lustre on the top is just gorgeous.

It’s hard not to get dogs in the pictures when you’re doing a photo shoot in the backyard with three of them wandering around ;-)

I promise I’ll be posting my chair makeover next Monday, and I’ll show you the winning tile layout for our master bathroom on Wednesday. Thank you to Annie Sloan Chalk Paint for sending the paint and wax (and they sent a book too!)

And on another note… Thanks so much for all the happy anniversary wishes :-) Hubby and I kept things low-key – we did some tile shopping, and a little camera shopping too – WOOT! A yummy dinner at Le Kim Chi topped off a great day :-)

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