A Little Lamp Revamp

Hey friends!

Thanks for being patient with us as we revamped things a bit over here!

In my effort to 'love doing laundry' I decided that my newly painted laundry room needed a little lamp!  I rescued this little lamp over a year ago from someone's goodwill box and it has been waiting for a good coat of paint ever since.

I started by taking off the shade and covering the cord and top with tape.

Then, I gave her 2 coats of spray paint... That conveniently matched my new gray cabinets... Whoop!

My color of choice...

While it was drying I started destructing my shade.

We get lots of questions about recovering lamp shades.  I have found that each shade is so different that it is almost impossible to tell you the right way to do it.  I actually started this project with one idea in mind but as I destructed the shade that plan changed.

I pulled my trim off first.

Now my liner was glued over the shade cover so I pulled it off next.  If you plan to make a new liner save  this so you have your pattern.  I did another detailed shade cover HERE.

After both layers of fabric were removed I was left with this.  I was halfway tempted to use it just like this because I love the look of that metal! Not the brass though...

This is where my plan changed and I pulled out the jute!

I bought the 4 ply jute at Hobby Lobby for $2.99 and this shade took about 1/3 roll.... That's $1 if you missed the math :-)

Pulled out old trusty and got to gluing.  I only added a drop of glue to the metal every 5-6 wraps and it held perfect.  I also kept the top and bottom metal exposed to shanty it up a bit but if yours isn't cute you can cover it too.

I did cover that ugly brass clip with one more small piece of jute across the top.  Beginning to end this took me about 5 minutes.  My paint wasn't even dry when I got done.

Here it is all put back together.

 And in her new home....

Does it make me run in there grinning about laundry?? We're getting there ;-)

I think it shows great with my sign though....

Want your own laundry sign??

Make sure to check out our Say It On The Wall giveaway HERE!  You have until Saturday to enter!

Laundry Room & A Giveaway!!

I have just a few more projects I am working on for my laundry room but I wanted to show you guys where I'm at now!

So... After priming and painting my cabinets I let everything dry overnight and used my ScotchBlue Edge Lock tape on them.

ScotchBlue recently sent me some of this awesome tape to get my opinion on it.  Many of you asked if it would work on walls as well.

Here are a few examples of the straight lines I ended up with...

I actually was super impressed with it.  I always have problems with paint bleeding under the tape but not with this stuff!  I love it!

Here's a few more pictures...

So that's it so far guys!  As I mentioned... I do have a few more projects I am working on for the wall to tie in the red just a bit more.  I will also share my how-to's on what I have done so far later this week.  

Who wants to try some of this fab painter's tape??

ScotchBlue is giving 8 more Shanty readers their own roll of

ScotchBlue Edge Lock!!

Whoop!!

All you have to do is leave me a comment on this post and you are entered.  Pretty simple!

Thanks so much for stopping by!  I am off to feed the fam!  

~Whitney

Painting My Cabinets Gray...

Hey guys!  Happy Sunday!

I wanted to share my latest project with you.

I recently had an itch to revamp my laundry room.  I decided that if I changed it up a bit it might make me fall in love with doing laundry... I'll let you know how that works out for me ;-)

Here is how my laundry room looked before this weekend.  It has looked like this for 2 years with no change at all whatsoever.  I've never even hung anything on the walls.

Here's my uppers...

And I have this long one in the center with adjustable shelving.

So there is not really anything wrong with it.  I'm just over it.  My ceilings match the wall which is fine in the rest of the house but I was wanting to brighten this room up and change that window up for sure.

I decided to go gray.

I LOVE gray cabinets.  I especially love when I see gray cabinets mixed with traditional lines and hardware.  That is my goal in here.  Today I am just showing you how I painted them.

I went with Valspar's Woodlawn Colonial Gray

My original cabinets were painted with an oil based paint.  I wanted to put a latex paint over them so I went to my local paint store and was told my a very helpful man to use THIS primer.

First, I removed all my doors, drawers and hardware and laid the doors out in the garage.  I put two coats of primer on everything.  I didn't tape off the walls or cabinets yet because I knew I would be painting the walls a different color.

I love when I find new favorite products!!  Many of you ask how I apply paint to some of my projects.  This is my first time using these and I will never paint walls, cabinets or furniture again without them.

Whizz Roller Systems

I found mine at Lowe's and it comes with a 4" tool like this.

I used 2 coats of primer on everything.  After that dried I started on my gray.  For the doors I would use an angle brush to get in all my grooves like this first.

Then, I would use my Whizz roller to cover the rest of the door.  I used the roller on my cabinets and the angle brush on the crown at the top.  It took two coats of gray to get everything smooth and I was done!  

I decided to leave that middle door off.  I filled the holes from the hardware with some wood putty, sanded it and it looked brand new.  I am going to do something fun on those shelves just because.

Remember my knobs??

Yep... They got a little revamp too!  I will show you those in my next post when I get them all on and start to get this room back together.

I hope you like them.  I love them!  It was hard, but only because I was working in such a small space and I had to keep climbing over the washer and dryer.  Ooooh... I should have taken pics of that for you guys :-)

I am so happy I asked the nice man at the paint store about my primer.  That stuff went on perfect and I didn't have to sand anything!

Let me know if you have any questions!  Have a great week and I will be back soon with an update.

~Whitney

Just a Good Ol' Revamp...

Wow...

It has been forever since I have done a big revamp.

It felt good!  I love seeing shanty turn chic :-)!!

I recently received this beautiful dresser from my in-laws.  I loved everything about it!  It has beautiful lines, WORKING drawers and perfect old hardware.  She just needed a little revamp.

I did sand the top a bit just to smooth it out a bit.  I didn't prime it first but I did use Valspar's new paint that is mixed with primer.  I notice a huge difference in this paint and the original Valspar.  It goes on so much thicker and seems very durable.

I removed all the drawers and removed the hardware.  I then painted everything with 2 coats of my perfect off-white.  It's a Ralph Lauren color that they no longer sell.  It was called Architectural Off-White and I love it!  I had Lowe's remake it off of a chip so if anyone wants the code just email me :-)

Finally, I sanded my edges up a bit and topped everything with 2 thin coats of Polycrylic.  I prefer Polycrylic to Polyurethane because it doesn't yellow over time and it's not near as strong in smell so I don't feel bad doing it inside!

Here are the results...

What do you think??  I thought the hardware was perfect so I didn't change a thing there! Doesn't a good revamp feel so good???

This dresser is going in my girls' room.  I have one bed totally finished, painted and put together.  I bought all my wood for bed number 2 today and should have it finished in a day or so!! Whoooop!

Can't wait to show you guys!!  

Make sure to check out Silhouette's great SHANTY sale they have going on through the 22nd by clicking HERE!

Happy Thursday :-)!!

~Whitney