French Provincial goes shabby chic!

Feeling like a jack rabbit hopping from projects going on outside to ones inside, I had to do a double take this morning when I flipped the calendar to Day 30.  Whaaaat, June 30th already!!!  Okay, who stole June and how can I get it back?

I've been busy getting my hands dirty with Vanilla Frosting chalk paint for awesome clients as their French Provincial Furniture goes shabby chic!  I refinished two pretty side tables and a small desk for them and now I'm working on two beautiful antique chairs...but I'll share those in an upcoming post.  

French Provincial Desk

All three of these pieces were originally stained dark but had been spray painted white.  After a few coats of chalk paint, light distressing, and antiqued with dark wax these pieces all came alive!

I replaced the original hardware with pretty clear glass knobs.  To add an element of surprise I painted the sides of the drawers Sangria Red - love this color!  I lined the drawers with script paper and rubbed dark wax over it to give it a vintage appearance.  I love that it echoes old handwritten letters!

Here is what it looked like before the makeover.

French Provincial Rectangular Side Table

It received exactly the same makeover treatment as the desk...same color, same amount of distressing, and antiqued with dark wax.

I contemplated replacing the hardware to match the desk but the originals were just too pretty.  Instead I gave them a coat of chalk paint and distressed them a little.  I love how they turned out!

I lined the drawer with some vintage looking damask paper.  It's hard to see in the photo but there is French script running across the damask print which is a nice juxtaposition with the paper lining the desk drawers.

Here it is before the makeover.

FRENCH PROVINCIAL ROUND SIDE TABLE

I love this table and it took everything in me not to add a French graphic to the bottom shelf.  "Marie this ain't your table"!

A close-up of the shabby chic goodness.

Before photo...

A sneak peak at what's currently sitting on the work table...

Oh so fun - I can't wait to see the fabric my client has in store for these!

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Old Louvered Doors Repurposed Into Garden Screen

A few weeks ago I noticed my neighbor had a stack of old louvered doors sitting by their garage.  I asked what they were doing with them and learned they were heading to the dump.  Well now like they say, one person's trash is another person's treasure and I struck gold!

When Mr. Frugalista came home he asked, "why the heck is there a bunch of old bi-fold doors leaning against our tree?"  I got the ole eye roll when I said I had big plans for those doors.

Like the infamous junk drawer we have the junk pit. It's a very useful and functional pit because it houses our firewood piles, extra garbage cans for yard debris, and the list goes on. No matter how organized we try to keep it, it's still an unsightly mess that can be seen from the deck.

My neighbor's louvered doors to the rescue!  The stack of blocks under the tarp is a sneak peak at our next project.

The first order of business was removing the hinges from each set of doors.  Peak-a-boo says the photo bomber!

The next step was using a post hole auger to dig post holes (make sure you have the area flagged for utility lines before doing this step).  I forgot to take a picture...actually that's where I went inside...BORING.

The next part was a breeze, measure and screw the bi-folds in place onto the back of the posts. Sounds pretty simple enough but you should have heard the arguing back and forth about the silly knobs on the doors. Mr. Frugalista couldn't understand why for the life of me I would want the knobs exposed...their knobs for crying out loud! I on the otherhand argued that they added a decorative element to the doors and gave them character. As you can see from the picture below, I won!

...and onto the next section.

After the bi-folds were attached in all three sections.

We had to get a little creative with the last section because we only had two bi-fold doors to work with. Considering we angled this section we decided to make it look intentionally different while using the same building materials.  

The original plan was to install dense lattice between each bi-fold (which we also got from our neighbor) but the pattern was competing with the louvers.  So we went with cedar fence boards which hides the mess even more.  I have to say this choice was much easier to install, just like the bi-folds they were screwed onto the back of the posts.

Now this is where Mr. Frugalista ditched me and got outta Dodge.  I spray painted the doors a moss green.

Then I stained the posts and fence boards with a semi-transparent Natural Cedar color stain.

I wanted to install decorative fence post caps but Mr. Frugalista didn't like that idea.  So while the cat's away, the mouse did play!

I picked these cute wooden bird houses up at Michaels and played with some paint while enjoying the glorious and long awaited sunshine.

After two afternoons of elbow grease and some much needed time in the sun, no more unsightliness viewed from the deck!  So I wonder what Mr. Frugalista's going to say when he sees those bird houses...he he he.

THANK YOU TO THE FOLLOWING FOR FEATURING THIS PROJECT:

                                  

The Homestead Survival

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20 Handmade Headboards {Curated Board on Hometalk}

For those of you who follow my blog you know I have a love for all things DIY.  I love how it inspires creativity, thinking outside-of-the-box, upcycling otherwise discarded items that would end up in our landfills, and saves us a ton of money!  

So when HOMETALK so kindly approached me to curate a board featuring 20 Handmade Headboards - it was right up my alley!  You might remember that last year Mr. Frugalista and I transformed an old 5-panel door into a headboard.  I love the creative ways bloggers have designed their own unique headboards and so I'm thrilled to share twenty of them with you today.

Press HERE or the Graphic to see the full projects and links to their blogs. 

Here is a closer look at each amazing headboard...

OLD WOOD HEADBOARD

PERSONALIZED HEADBOARD

CHEVRON PATTERNED PALLET HEADBOARD

ANTIQUE WINDOWS HEADBOARD

UPHOLSTERED RALEIGH HEADBOARD

FAUX FRENCH FROM A DECAL HEADBOARD

HORSE GATE HEADBOARD

PALLET HEADBOARD

FIREPLACE MANTLE HEADBOARD

BIRCH WOOD AND VINTAGE SKIS HEADBOARD

TUFTED PLANK HEADBOARD

BARN DOOR HEADBOARD USING ANTIQUE WINDOWS AND DOORS

PIANO  HEADBOARD

LARGE FIREPLACE MANTLE HEADBOARD

RECLAIMED WOOD FENCE GATE HEADBOARD

UPHOLSTERED AND HANDPAINTED SCRIPT HEADBOARD

PAINTED SIGN HEADBOARD

WOVEN PLYWOOD HEADBOARD

TUFTED WITH LIGHTS HEADBOARD

OLD 5-PANEL DOOR HEADBOARD

I hope you enjoyed them as much as I did choosing them for the Curated Board on Hometalk!  Be sure to click on the link above to get a full view of each project.

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