I have always loved to craft. May seem lame, but I love taking the time to make something pretty, personalize it to my taste, and find it relaxing. I remember growing up and watching and helping my mom and grandma with different crafts. There's something about finishing a project and taking a step back like, "Wow, I made that"-you appreciate it so much more.
Enter Cory and I moving into our first apartment together. It just so happened that my parents were moving cross country at the same time and were generous enough to gift us some of their furniture they were not taking with them. Cory had a few pieces his family had given to him also. Together, we had enough for what we needed to fill our space.
Being the type-A person that I am, and although I was more than grateful that we didn't have to spend thousands of dollars that we don't have on new furniture, it just all seemed like a modge-podge of different pieces. I wanted our home to feel like ours. To reflect our taste and our style as a family.
So (much to Cory's excitement), we decided to re-do some of our hand-me-down furniture.
First up was barstools. This was one thing that we were going to have to buy and fast realized how dang expensive bar stools are. I mean-seriously?! You sit on them. Why must they be so expensive for something you just sit on?! We did some looking and were starting to lose hope of finding anything we could afford. That is, until one day I walked into our local Goodwill store and there they were. 3 barstools, with the exact style we had been looking for-they just needed a little TLC. And the best part--they were $3 A PIECE!!!! Ummmmm...holy guacamole Batman!! I obviously swooped them up faster than Cory has ever sprinted in his track career (Ha!).
Enter Cory and I moving into our first apartment together. It just so happened that my parents were moving cross country at the same time and were generous enough to gift us some of their furniture they were not taking with them. Cory had a few pieces his family had given to him also. Together, we had enough for what we needed to fill our space.
Being the type-A person that I am, and although I was more than grateful that we didn't have to spend thousands of dollars that we don't have on new furniture, it just all seemed like a modge-podge of different pieces. I wanted our home to feel like ours. To reflect our taste and our style as a family.
So (much to Cory's excitement), we decided to re-do some of our hand-me-down furniture.
First up was barstools. This was one thing that we were going to have to buy and fast realized how dang expensive bar stools are. I mean-seriously?! You sit on them. Why must they be so expensive for something you just sit on?! We did some looking and were starting to lose hope of finding anything we could afford. That is, until one day I walked into our local Goodwill store and there they were. 3 barstools, with the exact style we had been looking for-they just needed a little TLC. And the best part--they were $3 A PIECE!!!! Ummmmm...holy guacamole Batman!! I obviously swooped them up faster than Cory has ever sprinted in his track career (Ha!).
Here they are--in all of their $3 Goodwill, pre-makeover glory. We stained the top wood a dark walnut to match our floors, and spray painted the legs a hammered metal color.
After! They look so much better after a little TLC. This project seriously took less than two days. SO easy. And SO affordable-
(I think that was Cory's favorite part!) :)
(I think that was Cory's favorite part!) :)
Our next project was an "entertainment center" under our TV in the living room. Cory has a set of an old dresser and desk that were his Dad's, and we decided to use the dresser an the entertainment center because I had recently bought a beautiful refurbished dresser that we used in the bedroom.
Here is the "before" picture of the dresser. As you can see, it has been well loved. We decided to paint it a VERY light grey/off white. And I found the perfect mercury glass drawer pulls for $4 at TJ Maxx.
Don't mind the TV cords, we can't drill into the wall to hide them (much to my dismay). It turned out better than we had hoped, and is the perfect piece to hold all of our movies and video games. This was also super easy to complete and we knocked it out on a Saturday and was proudly placed in the living room by that Sunday evening.
Our most recent project- and most time consuming- was our dining room table. I was hesitant to do this project, because the table belonged to my step-dad's grandma, so I knew it was special that not only did he hand it down to us, but it held many memories for our family members.
After double checking that it was ok to re-finish it, we decided to stain the top of the table and the seat of the chairs very dark, and paint the legs of the table and back and legs of the chairs the same light grey/off white we used for the entertainment center. (We had some leftover, so Cory liked this idea even more because that meant one less trip to Lowe's.) :)
We LOVE the way it turned out! You may notice that one chair is different. That is because when my step-dad moved to Bismarck and was unloading the moving truck, someone stole one of the kitchen chairs. Now, why anyone would want just one kitchen chair is beyond me...so we improvised and used an old antique chair my mom had given us.
This project did not happen to be as easy as the others for a few reasons. We started it the first weekend of October (YIKES), and then it got cold so we couldn't work on it in our garage anymore. So there it sat. In our garage, half-completed, from October until last weekend. We took it over to Cory's parents and took advatage of their heated garage to finally finish it. I am LOVING having a table again and it adds so much character to the space.
We are so pleased with the few projects that we have completed, and I love that our home is filled with pieces of furniture that all have their own story, not just a set we purchased out of a magazine. :)
Next I want to do our headboard...but everytime I mention a new project I swear I see Cory cringe a little...haha.....so we will see!
That's all for today!
-Emma
We are so pleased with the few projects that we have completed, and I love that our home is filled with pieces of furniture that all have their own story, not just a set we purchased out of a magazine. :)
Next I want to do our headboard...but everytime I mention a new project I swear I see Cory cringe a little...haha.....so we will see!
That's all for today!
-Emma