An Officer and A Gentleman

Hello All! 

My goodness where has the summer gone?  I'm really a fall kinda gal but it's crazy how fast time moves.  My sister and my niece came for a visit mid-August and it was such good medicine!  We thrifted and talked and laughed and shopped.  Good times!  I have some great thrift finds to share but I'll get to that.  Dan and I have been working on the guest bedroom (which used to be Jenna's room when she was growing up).   While we are still working on some the design elements, I wanted to show you the old buffet that got a make over for in there.  You may recall it from the post I did about our master bedroom makeover.  It's the big ol' elephant in any room!  Yeah,  and that's what I love about it.

It's old and has seen better days.  It does seem to me that it was well-loved at some point in some one's life.   Maybe a niece inherited it from her dear old auntie and tried to replace parts of it in an effort to repair it?  Unfortunately, by the time I found it, it needed even more repairs.  I don't have the know-how or talent to pull it off and it is too costly to pay someone to do it.  At the end of the day, I wasn't restoring a family heirloom or an historically significant piece.I paid $35 for it at Salvo.  Still, I do love it and want it to be useful and used.  I wanted it to look stately and respectable.  The colors for the room are tan, navy blue and white.

This was my first try:

Pretty but more royal blue than navy.  It's Ralph Lauren, Great Harbor (...the Sherwin Williams wall color, banana cream, didn't make the cut either!).  I gave Sherwin Williams, Commodore, a try:

Closer, but still not what I wanted.  The new wall paint is SW Toque White.
Then, surprisingly, I found the right color at WalMart aptly named, "official uniform blue."
And with it's rose gold pulls that look like brass medals on dress blues, I present to you my officer and a gentleman of a buffet:

The original pulls were custom made and not a standard size.  I hoped they were brass.  No such luck. I opted to keep it though because new hardware meant a lot of patching and drilling holes...plus, hardware is pricey!  As it turned out, a good cleaning and new paint (Rustoleum Rose Gold) was the right choice:

Perfect!

This mirror is a thrift find from a couple years ago.  I haven't been sure where to hang until now!  Once the room is finished, it will hang above the buffet.

I will put the doors back on, just not yet.  The bigger vision for this room includes built-in shelving so while I wait for that, I'm enjoying displaying some of my favorite blue and white and milk glass thrift finds.

The blue and white ginger jar was a find at B-thrifty.  It was actually made into a lamp that I disassembled and found a pretty blue and white ceramic knob for the lid.

I can't wait until the room is all done!  

I'm linking up!

Elizabeth & Co:  Be inspired Features and Link Party #175

Have a great week!

Master Bedroom and a few Thrifty Finds!

Hello All!  Sorry I have been MIA.  The month of September is the busy time at work and it just got the best of me this year!  Not to mention I got food poisoning and oh my gosh, was I sick!  After more than a whole week of feeling like I was being turned inside out, I was finally on the mend. AND then I got an upper respiratory infection - GOOD GRIEF!   So, I'm pretty sure I have met my quota for sick this year!!  UGH.   I am excited to be back in the land of the living and looking forward to sharing in my favorite link-up parties!

Dan and I finished our bedroom over Labor Day weekend (and we got in a mini-thrift too).  When we bought our house in 2005, we requested hardwood floors throughout the second floor.  It was an upgrade we were willing to pay for because Dan has allergies.  Unfortunately, during the final walk-through on the morning of our closing, we discovered carpeting had been installed instead.  We were told changing it out would delay our closing so we took the monetary adjustment and ran.  "We can always add it later," we said...and *7 years* later we did ;)  Here are the "before" pics:

Builder beige walls, beige carpet, beige drapes -- I don't know why this didn't seem so incredibly bland to me before :)  I did try to punch it up a bit with the black accents:  metal bed, curtain rods, cat on the nightstand...  Oh, and let's just talk about the big elephant in the room, shall we?  Literally.  The [HUGE] gorgeous 1930s? 1940s? buffet.  That was a thrift find from SALVO for $30.  Incredible, I know.  I love it and all its large-in-charge presence.  :)  

It needs a little love but until I know exactly what I'm doing, I'm afraid to touch it for fear of ruining it.  The striations in the wood is what sold me on it --ok, and the $30 price tag ;)

This is the corner of the room and where my vintage tub chair lives.  The fixture is from Goodwill ($5) and I am hopefully going to be able to paint it and make it into a chandy for Jenna.

And now...the AFTER:

The drapes need hemming and the bench legs need painting - are rooms ever totally finished?  We added crown molding, painted a "drama" wall behind the bed (Martha Stewart (for Glidden) Magnetite), painted the rest of the walls (below the crown molding) "Pebble Grey" by Glidden and "Lamb" by Glidden above the molding, painted the ceiling bright white by Behr and the flooring came from Lumber Liquidators (a laminate for 39 cents/sq ft!).  OH, and I recovered the bench with fabric I bought at Hobby Lobby.  I bought the bench at Marshall's about 3 years ago.  Here's what it looked like:

and now:

Do you see the cute little turquoise mirror above the tub chair?  That's a thrifty find ($2, GW) that I repainted with this:

Valspar Peacock outdoor spray paint

The small mercury glass votive cup was found at the GW Outlet.  Try as I might, I cannot get a good picture of my chandy now that it's hanging :(  But here she is:

See the ceiling medallion?  THRIFTED too :)

I have a couple fave finds I want to share as well.  I found these at the GW outlet where housewares are 59 cents a pound:

Three vintage Club aqua saucepans and matching lids - Sweet!  For the record, they were FILTHY.  I didn't know if I could salvage them but for the price, I decided to take a chance.  I have a feeling that's how I was able to score them - others must have passed - but thanks to Bar Keeper's Friend and Easy Off oven cleaner (used extremely carefully so as not to eat away the gorgeous enamel) they turned out sparkling :)  And finally,  these darling Hazel Atlas dessert cups in Florentine No. 2 pattern from GW at 99 cents/each:

A few months ago, I scored a Hazel Atlas sugar bowl (here).  I love the delicate floral pattern!  I'm linking up!

Kathe With an E, You're Gonna Love It Tuesday #24
Cap Creations, Thrifty Love
Southern Hospitality, Thrifty Treasures Party
What-About.co, Showoff Friday
What-about.co, Perpetual Parades, Favorite Thrifty Finds 
Sir Thrift A lot: Thriftosaurus
The Thrifty Groove:  Thrifty Things Friday

I hope you have a great (healthy!) week.  We are working on our master bathroom now and I am really excited to share that with you soon too :)