STRIPPED

Yesterday I spent the day helping my sister strip an old dresser of mine. It's definitely a job for the patient, but is quite methodical. We are using citri-strip, which you can buy at any local hardware store, for it's less harsh affects. It's not quite finished, obviously. I could only help while the kids were at school yesterday so if our little town doesn't freeze over today I am hoping to pop by again and finish this lady up. The spots that did come off are giving me high hopes that this dresser can go bare. Fingers crossed! Of course if this turns into a hot mess then we will paint her up all pretty like. Either way you all will get a full reveal next week!

You can see a bit of progress on my sister's new home... here.

Making it Pretty {a bench}

As part of striving to live life more in the moment as I talked about in this post, I followed through with a simple DIY. I must say I was so inspired that I ended up doing two more that day, but they are less photo worthy. Who really wants to see an organized utensil drawer. This bench we had for years. We bought a pair at Pier 1 maybe 6 years ago on clearance to use with our then dining table. Since then they moved around spot to spot in our old house and have been recovered a dozen times. We kept one in the move and gave this one to my sister. It was in desperate need of recovering after years of use. I took it down to the original fabric. It's so ugly, but I covered them as soon as we bought them and they were cheap, but sturdy. This is also where buying classic pieces no matter the price can serve you for years.

I had this fabric from Serena and Lily in my stock pile and it went with my sister's new house perfectly.

I then took the time to recover it loving. It ended up being a fun girl time and got my creative juices flowing again. it really was so simple, but made the tired old bench look new and pretty again.

Isn't she lovely? It almost made me want to keep it. HA. Hopefully my sister will let me share it in her house soon!

Sources:

fabric: Serena and Lily | pouf {similar} | frame: Room and Board | basket: Homegoods {similar} | wall color: talc by Martha Stewart for Home Depot

Home Depot Workshop {diy}

On Thursday night I had the pleasure of hosting a DIY workshop with Home Depot. I so grateful to all those who attended. Like really grateful. It was a fun experience and the project was oh so fabulous. I made a version for myself that just may stay up year round.

Here is the link to the project. I think they said it would up till around Christmas. Obviously I did mine a tad differently. Mine was bigger and I used a higher grade plywood, used larger plug in lights and painted my letters on. The idea was still the same though. I think my total was just under $35/$40 and for a 2ft by 4ft piece that's not too shabby. Plus I used the fancy eco friendly led lights.