Dining Room Table & Banquette Seating Area

Happy Thursday!  I hope everyone is finishing up their Christmas shopping and getting things wrapped. :)

Over the past few days, I have shared a hutch to wine bar makeover and a custom coffee table.  This same client needed dining room furniture.  We decided to go with the same rustic, farmhouse feel I created with the coffee table for the dining room table.

Back to this picture.  The dining room table is the second something beautiful I made with these supplies.

Rustic Farmhouse Coffee Table

A while back I shared this picture and captioned it, "The beginning of something beautiful."

DIY Coffee Bar

I have an obsession with coffee.  It could also be called an addiction.  An unhealthy dependency. Whatever.  Point is, in the mornings, I love drinking coffee.

Its not just about the need for caffeine by 8:30 am or my head will explode and I become a not so nice person.  Its about my waking up process.  My routine.

The sun is just rising and the house is quiet.  The birds aren't making tons of noise yet.  The water outside is peaceful.  It is my favorite time of day.  Just me on the couch, with my coffee and sometimes a dog or two, mentally prepping for the day and slowly waking up.

We bought a Keurig 3 years ago and I love it.  The only problem is, ours is one of the bigger models and takes up too much counter space in my small kitchen.  I decided to use my grandparents' dresser I refinished as a buffet and coffee bar in our dining area.

It has tons of storage for baking dishes and other pans I don't use often plus our nice utensils and coffee supplies.  The refrigerator is just opposite of the buffet so it is not a far reach to get the creamers out.

Many of you saw it in the dining room reveal  and saw the buffet but I didn't share any details yet.

Photo Credit: Ever & Anon

Navy & Distressed Dresser

I have a quick before and after for you today!  A few weeks ago, I bought a big, brown and ugly dresser set.  I finally have had time to work on them and decided to do the tall boy first.

Before

The Grey Pottery Barn Inspired Dresser

Y'all, this dresser started it all.  This was the beginning of Fisherman's Wife Furniture.

Painted, Distressed, Glazed Dresser & End Tables

It is ridiculously cold again.  Ugh!  I am ready to migrate farther South.  My productivity depends on the weather and not being able to get as much done as I would like, is irritating.  Plus, I like being outside, working on pieces in the driveway and be able to open the shop up but I can't do that with these ridiculous temperatures and north wind.  Yikes.  This really has been one of the coldest winters I can remember.  It hasn't let up and I think I might be going crazy from it,  Is that possible?  Going crazy from cold weather?

Even with the bad weather the past few weeks, I was able to stay on schedule with the next project.  A beautiful Ethan Allen dresser and end tables were brought to me for a face lift.  The pieces were in great condition and were pretty as is, but looked a little dated.  The client wanted them refinished to look like my grandmother's dresser that I use as a buffet.  These were perfect for this type of transformation.  The dresser and end tables have beautiful details and edges for the glaze to highlight.  I love this makeover.

Before:

A few updates.

Y'all.  Someone please tell me where January went?!  Seriously!  What happened to it?

A few weeks ago I told y'all about my deal of the year so far.  The $75 Ikea couch.  It came with a white cover that I tried to dye.  There were some problems.  I thought there might be since the fabric was older and had some stains.  Dye is cheap so I wanted to at least try.  My goal was to get a light blue color but it ended up looking like splotchy denim.  Not really the look I was going for.

So yesterday, I ventured into Houston and got a new cover at Ikea.  A little more expensive than dye but the fabric is a better quality than the basic white cover and the color is perfect.

Drexel Dresser Makeovers

Today, y'all get to the pretty makeover of the Drexel Dressers!  The Drexel china cabinet reveal was yesterday, so if you missed you can read about it here.

These dressers allowed me to have a first.  I got to paint something pink!  Pink is not my favorite color, blue is, but here lately things have been painted a blue, a neutral or with a glazed finish.  I love all of those finishes but its nice to do something different every once in a while.

The client for the dressers has twin girls and needed some big storage for clothing.  These dressers are huge so they are perfect for the job.

Drexel China Cabinet Makeover

Happy Wednesday!

Oh my, it's been cold!  This Texas girl can not handle it.  Lows in the 20s and only getting to the low 40s for a high is unbearable to me.  When I am cold my body gets tense and starts to hurt.  My friends give me a hard time for carrying a jacket with me everywhere I go, even in the summer.  I grew up in Southeast Texas (Beaumont area) and now live near Galveston and that is as far north as I can go.  My friends and I joke that we will never live north of I-10...silly Texans.  But seriously, for those of you who are enduring crazy low temps and just unbelievable wind chills, I hope y'all are staying warm and safe.

So because of my cold (illness) last week and the cold (weather) over the weekend and on Monday, I have been playing catch up the last few days trying to get some big projects finished up.  Remember a few months ago, I found 3 amazing Drexel bow front pieces.  If you don't remember, you can read about it here.  Today, I am going to show you the Drexel China Cabinet!

Updates and Some Exciting News!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

I hope everyone is having a great day!  I have many, many, many things to be thankful for every day.  Today I am especially thankful BLittle, the dogs and I get to eat lunch with my family,  my dad's fried turkey, and my mom's mini pecan pies.  I am thankful my bootcamp instructor inspired me to work out the past 3 days like a crazy lady so I can enjoy all those wonderful foods guilt free :)

Things have been really quiet on the blog the past few weeks and I apologize for that.  The weather here was super cold and rainy and when the rain stopped it stayed super cold.  This Texas girl HATES cold!  We are installing an AC/heater in the shop soon so I can stay warm while working and it will keep the temperature high enough for me to paint.  Did y'all know if its too cold, paint does some weird things?!  I am using that as my excuse for not being productive but if I am being honest, I am really just a baby when it comes to being cold.  I am looking forward to the slightly warmer temps next week and the heater in the shop.  I can't wait to show y'all some of the projects I have been working on.  Remember the Drexel, Bow Front pieces I told y'all about?!  Their new looks are in progress! So excited!

Cute Dresser Update

Its Monday again.  Already.  Wow.

A quick weekend wrap up:  Thursday evening we took the boat to a local restaurant for dinner.  The sunset was gorgeous.  The marsh looks amazing at sunset. We spent Saturday on the boat exploring and fishing but not catching.  Even though we didn't see a lot of fish, it was a beautiful day to be on the water and to take a break from work.  Sunday, a front came through and the sky turned scary while I was drinking my morning coffee.  Yikes.  The dreary day led to a lazy day after church.  I laid around, watched a movie, and of course, fit in an hour or two of work.

Quick Trip & Quick Flips

I don't usually put personal stuff on here but I only got a few pieces done last week and the trip is why. A few weeks ago my husband had to go out of town for work so I decided to go out of town for play ;)   My best friend lives in Houston and I only get to see her a few times a year but we talk on the phone 4-5 times a week.  My Sprint bill can get out of control if I am not careful.  We have known each other since 1st grade and I honestly don't know what I would do with out her.  I flew to Houston for several days to spend time with her and her family.  She has 3 kids and 1 on the way so that is a lot of spoiling I get to do!  Here are a few photos:

Rylee and me playing with the Easter stuff.

Rylee driving me around the cup-de-sac in her Caddie she got for Christmas

We went to Kaily's school to watch their Easter egg hunt.
 L to R (Rylee, Bretton, & Kaily)

Jessica & Kris took me to the Cheesecake Factory in The Woodlands for dinner because
it is one of my favorites and we don't have one in NOLA.

Jessica and me.  This is the only decent picture we got together.  

Heaven on earth.  That Oreo Extreme Cheesecake will change your life.
It is my new favorite.

When I got back from Houston I had a few quick flips to do for a friend.  She had a few old blah brown pieces that were in great shape but needed a facelift.  I do not have a before picture of the bed but I do have a before of the little dresser.  The bed matched it so just use you imagination for the bed before:

The client wanted a soft white/cream with a little distressing on the bed and an ombre look on the dresser.  I love how they turned out and I have never done an ombre dresser before so I was super excited she decided on that.  Here are the afters:

I love the final result.  So much so that I think I need to paint an ombre dresser for myself :)

Recent Before & Afters

I finally found a few good dressers!  Dressers are a popular request from clients and I am always on the hunt for them.  Last week I came across two that had great character and structure.  Neither were the right size for any of my clients so I got to be creative with them.  Here are their before & after shots.

8-Drawer Distressed Before:

My little helper in the background...she is so cute.

 8-Drawer Distressed After:

I love how it turned out.  So pretty!

9-Drawer with character Before:

9-Drawer with character After:

I love this color.  I have never used it before and with the glaze over it....perfection. Sadly, the pictures just do not capture the color correctly.  It is such a pale sweet color.

This week I also put some end tables up for sale.  These are our end tables but after moving the living room furniture around they just don't work for us anymore.  I refinished the clear coat on the tops and I freshened up the paint and they are as good as new.  They need a good home!

End Tables Before:

End Tables After:


This picture is from when we were using them.  They are perfect next to a couch!

My other helper.   He refused to look at the camera.

Pottery Barn Inspired Dresser

If you have read my posts about our living room and our bedroom,  you know that we have a Pottery Barn, coastal vibe going on.  Even though I LOVE Pottery Barn, I HATE paying for their stuff.  Especially, their furniture.  Most things are solid wood and the quality is good but the penny pincher inside always reminds me I can find a better deal.   I did buy our sea grass chairs from PB (30th birthday present to myself so I feel it was an acceptable purchase) and our living room rug is PB but I bought it on eBay for a fraction of the store price.

Here in New Orleans we have a Pottery Barn and a Restoration Hardware in our mall right next to each other.  Again, LOVE the styles and spending time in the stores drooling over the beauty of the pieces but HATE the cost.  So when I saw the 4-drawer dresser I knew I could make it have that PB/RH feel without the PB/RH price.

Here are the before pics:

Overall, it was in great shape but definitely needed some updating.  The drawers are very deep so they can hold a lot of clothes!  I used a chocolate/java colored stain (again, this is a stained piece, not painted) and distressed the edges to give it a bit of a worn look.  Also, I did paint the original hardware and was going to reuse them but when I put them back on I felt like the dresser was missing something.  I decided to update the hardware and it really brought everything together.  It is a BEAUTIFUL result and this is one of my favorite pieces.

After pics:

As always, thanks for reading and following my blog.  Have a great weekend everyone!

The Vanity and Lady in Red

Here is a little info and some pictures of my latest project.  The vanity was purchased in a bundle deal that included the Lady in Red dresser, the Antique Carved bed and a few other pieces.  The client was looking for a tall dresser and a vanity.  After searching a few days I found these pieces and went to check them out.  Once I saw them in person, I realized that the Lady in Red dresser was in worse shape than I thought.  The seller refused to separate the bundle so I brought them all home knowing it was going to be a lot of work.  The client loved the vanity and the dresser so I got started ASAP.

I started with the dresser which I initially thought was going to take forever and ended up not taking as long as I thought due to days off of teaching.  (Thank you Hurricane Isaac for the days off school work). 

Lady in Red before

Lady in Red before

Lady in Red after

Then the vanity, which I thought was going to be a fairly simple project took forever.  The vanity did have a few visible veneer problems but nothing significant...until I started working on it.  The veneer problems were worse than expected and this piece was resistant to anything I did to it.  Behind the mirror there is a stamp that read January 1939 and the casters were made of wood so I knew the piece was older and could have some hidden issues.  Between the vanity not wanting me to fix it and my regular job taking over my life, this project took way too long to finish.  She is finished now and will be delivered this week and I am on to the next project.  Its a beautiful vanity and I am so happy with the results. 

Vanity Chair before

Vanity before

Vanity after (client is still looking for handles)



Vanity after
I love the pop of red.  Its going to look great with the Lady in Red Dresser

Now I am ready for the next one.  I bought an AMAZING dresser last night.  I am in love.  I can't decide if I want to refinish it with my vision or post it as a "pick your color piece" and let a client choose.  It has a lot of potential and I can't wait to get started on it.  

Our Home - Main Living Areas

I honestly didn't know what to write about this morning and I promised myself I wouldn't go more than two days without blogging so I decided to give you a tour of our home.  It shows our love of the water and is filled with furniture I made or refinished and things we have inherited over the years.  Our style is what I call coastal casual. 

I am going to do this in several parts so I don't have one super long post and it will give me something to write about over the next few days.  I hope y'all enjoy!

Just some background on our house: We live in a rent house in New Orleans near Lake Pontchartrain.  My husband's job moved us here in January from Texas and since our time here is limited we felt renting was the best option for us.  As most of you know, renting has some great advantages but there are some huge disadvantages when trying to decorate and making it your own.  I have tried to make the least amount of nail holes as possible and I have tried to bring in color with accessories since I can't paint the walls.