A Lovely Little Batch of B&A's

I seem to have misplaced a rather ginormous pile of Before & After photos of projects that I've done. I kept meaning to post them but you know what they say about the best laid intentions? Well, I'm hoping you do so you can tell me - because the only thing I know is that I can't find those darn photos.

So while you're waiting for me to find my brain where it seems to be nestled next to a plate of no-no brownies (which it totally isn't since my diet doesn't even presently allow brownies), I thought at the very least I could slap up some pictures of what I have just hanging out on my laptop.

Don't get too excited, it's not that awesome.


I got this lovely sewing table from our neighbor's garage sale for $7.00. I had wanted one SO bad that I had been praying for weeks (and I mean literally PRAYING, like on bended knee stuff, people) for one to pretty much just fall in my lap. I had also been praying to find a cheap dog crate for my Lills and she threw that baby in for free. Voila! See, things like this are proof that Jesus likes me and wants me to be happy. That, or I'm just a spoiled brat.

Just look at that thing. It's in mint condition, it came with all of it's parts AND it stood up quite wonderfully to turquoise Painters Touch. Win.

So this poor damn table. It is among the many things that I just couldn't make up my mind about (more on that subject later). I can't find it's original photo at the moment, but trust me when I say it was ugly-as-shit-brown. Like, not even close to not being atrocious. I paid $10 for it at The Habitat For Humanity Restore...or was it $5.00? Either way, it didn't cost enough to make me feel guilty for repainting it more than once to appease myself.

annnd now (ignore the non-matchy pillow situ)

Oh, and lookie, I found the yuck factor
(see, told you it was ugly)

This is a bedside table that I bought to be this unmatched matched set.When I was in my (brief) aqua and yellow stage, I painted it. Since then it's been painted again (turquoise this time) and for it's final presentation it's going white. Stay tuned. Oh yeah, Habitat for Humanity, $5.00.

PS. Eventually I WILL learn that if I just paint everything white, or aqua to begin with, I can save myself a lot of freaking hassle, not to mention time and paint, if I stop painting stuff on a whimsy mood swing. I swear I'll never learn.

I got the other-side-of-the-bed's table at a garage for...free. I was looking at it and the home owner hollers over, "If you want it, take it, I just want it gone". I didn't bother telling her that I was only staring at it because my family (and I'm sure most of yours) had the same matching set to it when I was growing up. But what the hell, I'll just spray paint it. Easy peasy.

Ta-Da

Do I ever loves me some glass knobs and pulls. And Milk Glass.


And hey, I'll throw in my "goofy lamp experiment" for good measure.

 It's for sale. But the shade is crap. Note to self: Mod Podging a lampshade doesn't work. Spray mount or bust. Man, I was SO into yellow that month, sheesh.

Alrighty peeps, I'm outta here. I have to go track down photos of things that I didn't paint yellow. I'll leave you with a photo of my pretty, pretty princess, Lilly. She matches, what, with her yellow and turquoise and all. it'd be a shame to leave her out.

Accidental wins and fails

Much of the time I arrive at serious win for myself purely by accident.

I get excited about something I see, most often online, on Etsy, a design blog...and out of my excitement I get a bit giddy, turn into a twelve year old, email someone, tell all my friends, make new ones and before long I find myself alone in my office giggling like a school girl at all of the unintentional awesome in my world. It's just how my awesome seems to roll, in giant waves of win.

Many of you know by now that I have a serious love affair with hardwood floors, and even more so, aqua and turquoise painted hardwood floors. And ceilings. But, mostly floors. I dream of someday having a little cottage with white painted open rafters and bead board ceilings and aqua floors (with maybe some chocolately brown ones thrown in for good measure).

Kind of like these ones:

image via Coastal Living

image via The Working Woman's Guide to Domestic Success

images via House of Turquoise

(you get the idea)

Many of you also know that I rent. I may love my little loft like space on the side of a hill, but it's not my own cottage, there has to be some rules. My landlord(s) are about the most tolerant people I've ever met. I pick up free furniture from CL just about every day and they never complain or threaten to kick me out if I bring any more pieces home (or if my porch sometimes looks like this):

So asking if I could paint my porch turquoise seemed pretty audacious of a request, so I really didn't want to ask it. Even though, I really, really wanted to do it. Like, kinda bad.

I guess Kaya heard my internal plea, because Saturday as we were leaving to go to the lake for the afternoon, we walked out to find her standing next to a tipped over bucket of turquoise paint:

(and crap! That reminds me I forgot to jot the color down prior to pitching the can. Doh!). She looked so proud, "Wook what I did Cwisty! I twied to fwinish but my paws are twu small". 

She dumped so much paint the only option was to paint the porch with it. Which, was kind of awesome. Of course, this solved my having to ask permission or potentially being disappointed when I am told, "Hell no, you can't paint your porch turquoise". Yay. Thanks, Kaya.

"Yowr welcome, Cwisty"

My porch before Kaya's awesome metaphoric bucket of win dumped on it:

And now:

I still have a lot of work to do, but that's for next Summer.

Now, as you'd expect, I can't just be awesome and have accidentally awesome things happen to me all of the time. I screw up, sometimes pretty bad, and sometimes pretty often. Usually though, I don't mess up anything that I can't fix with some Dry Dex or Painter's Touch, but other times...

Yeah. About that.

Pretty much anyone who has been around since Stuff Chrissa Loves is incredibly aware of my recent obsession with yellow doors and my insane need to have one of my own. I blame Tobi Fairley.

Just LOOK at this door. It'd make anyone want a yellow door. Heck, it'd make anyone want a barn door.

image via Tobi Fairley

Soooo...I decided to paint my own door yellow. I had a gallon leftover from this dandy lil' project of mine:

Now before we get too very judgy, I have to admit a few things:

1. I didn't prime first. I know, I know, I know.

2. The door wasn't dry by the time I had to rush off to see my aunt at the hospital. And then it rained.

3. I used latex paint. And. I didn't prime first. Or sand. I know, I know, I know.

 I know, I know, I know.

Guess what I'm doing this weekend ;)

What are your biggest accidental wins and fails? I'd love for you to share them so I don't feel like such a doofus.

xo, Chrissa

Okay, Okay, I'll give you a hint: A glimpse into my new living room

I have been working on how/what to do with my living room (well, all the rooms, but I'm starting there). Although I have been getting some private furniture commission work coming in (Yay!), I'm really not doing too much in the way of design jobs. And really, what do I have to show anyone in respect to my work anyway? So I thought I should start at home. Besides, after I saw this certain episode of Color Splash in which David turned this dark, ugly, nearly unfinished basement den into a "Yaht Club Themed Sensation", I've wanted to come close to the same thing.

I was just going to wait until I was completely finished to even talk about it, then post before and afters and include some inspiration photos. But you know me, I can't keep a secret very well. I get too damn excited. I was so happy with how my bedside table came out, I just HAD to blab about it. But seriously now, I'm keep the rest under wraps. Really. I mean it this time. (Hahaha...)

For lack of better photos to show you of my living room, I share these with you but keep the judgy down to a dull roar. Yes, my Christmas decorations are too busy. Yes the window treatments need an overhaul-it's on the list, and I could list 20 other flaws that I instantly see, we're going to ignore all that. The only thing you're taking away from these photos:

My couch is white
My dog is black
My kid is active
My yard is 3 acres with dirt in it
My garden is massive (which means dirt)
My house has sand dunes across the road

You do the math.

The before living room:

(You get the idea)

For those of you that aren't in the white slip cover club, you're going to want to ask me why I didn't think that white would be hard to keep clean. Well, don't do that. It's not even necessary because I already have the sane reasoning on the ready:

Because I could just take the slipcovers off and wash them! (Every other freaking day)
Because white is so pretty and refreshing! (Sure, when it's white. And even then it gets old)
Because I'm so smart and won't listen to anyone (We've hit the zinger here folks)

Then enters David Bromstad into my life.--->

Dear Lord, 

Why does David Bromstad have to be gay? I mean, first Nate Berkus, now David, can't you let me fall in love with a straight guy that loves interior design?

Lovelorn, Chrissa



Dear Chrissa, 


Hahahahahaah. You're cute.


Peaceout, God.



I totally fell in love with this one room he did. Well, okay, it wasn't a room, it was an entire lower-level den. Navy walls, white wing back chairs, mirrored coffee tables, yellow lucite chairs, navy couch, yellow flowers, ottomans and lamps. It was just crazy inspiring. After searching for days on the web, I finally got off my lazy butt and snatched up screen shots by pausing frames on Hulu. I know, so original, right? ::rolls eyes::

Don't you just love it?

I'm putting my own spin on things. Which means turquoise, duh. The table that I finished isn't even for this room, it's for my bedroom, but I'll share it anyway, you know, to keep you coming back for more.

I think there was a 110% improvement, but then again, I am hella biased because I dig this yellow in such a yoooj way.

Unlike my kid:

B: "So I've noticed a lot of yellow trim and accents lately. I take it your about to redo everything?"
Me: "Very observant. Yes, I'm redesigning my bedroom and the living room and using a lot of yellow accents. It's my new second favorite color"
B: "Yeah, I noticed, about that. Yellow is the color of the glare in a monster's eye. Which means I think it's ugly. Can you not keep using so much of it?"

Alright, that's all I got for now. I'll keep you posted.

Oh, what I wouldn't do with a lot of time and a little bit of money

Okay, so maybe not just a little bit of money...I'd need enough to buy a house, some paint and hopefully have an operating nest egg to fund all of my thrifting. In the meantime, I guess I can settle for refinishing free finds I abscond and living vicariously through the 200+ design blogs I am obsessed with.

This week I've been stuck at home pretty  much most of the time nursing the worst case of allergies ever. That, coupled with having left my cell phone charger at my cousin's house that lives a few hours north, has kept  me pretty much on the DL for days. Don't worry though, my time hasn't been idly wasted, I've been putting Blake's old toys up on eBay, doing (a little bit of) laundry and surfing blogs while I watch countless episodes of Moving Up, Designed to Sell and Color Splash (if David Bromstad wasn't gay, I would so kidnap him and keep him locked in my house until he succumbed to my feminine wiles, I'm just saying).

Today's favorites:

I love this room. I’d love it so much more with paint on the walls. Say, turquoise for instance:

image via BHG

What a perfect little breakfast nook. All that light! The turquoise French doors have me squirming in my seat.

I’d love the floor if it were blue, but what really gets me about this space is the view. I love the tree outside the window (is that a willow, cypress?). I would be so content to retreat to this space to drink tea and read a good book. 

I am terribly in love with this bed, and have been looking for an old fireplace mantle since I first saw this in print form. I found one last year at the Habaitat for Humanity ReStore, but they wanted $200 for it and I refused to allow myself to spend that.

And the letters? Love.

(Do I regret not busting out that $200 now? Yes. Yes, I do.)

Images via BHG

I totally love the idea highlighted in Coastal Living linked from The Estate of Things. I would absolutely love to use this washbin idea in a kids bath or in a garden sink corner (yes, I want an outdoor working sink in the back of my dream house by the gardening area so I can wash my hands constantly without having to go inside). - side bar, I had to correct the word "sink" in this entire post because I posted it as "sick". Freudian? 

Image via The Estate of Things

I would have never thought to use these colors together but I absolutely love it. They’re really uplifting

Image via Cote De Texas

I interrupt this blog to talk about how much I LOVE this look:

Image via Wifestyle Files

I am in LOVE with this bathroom mirror anchored by these beautiful windows with such a magnificent view. I really, really want it. Kind of bad.

Image via Wifestyle Files

I loooove the use of these mounts. The sheds make me swoon. One of them will become quite relevant in future posts:

I am in LOVE with this home office:

Image via Made By Girl

You know, the more design aspects I find and fall in love with, the more I worry that it will keep me from ever really being happy without having everything I want. I get so excited by something that catches my eye, but then with equal fervor, I WANT IT!! 

For now though, I am content working on my own home's current redesign. I hope to be "done" soon (is there ever really such a thing as done?) and I'll post photos. I've gotten several pieces refinished so I have a lot of projects to show off.

xo

Chrome and wishlists make me swoon.

I swear on all that is good and holy that Google reads my mind (which delves into how I think they're going to take over the world, but I'll not get into that now). Day after day I'm trolling along the interwebs loving this and that, coveting and wishing things were mine and besides adding a bazillion bookmarks, there's been no good way of keeping track of all this goodness.

Then last week some of the eye candy offered to me via Everythings Turquoise has me on Amazon and it's asking me, "Would you like me to add this to your wishlist?"

Why yes. Yes I would.

"Would you like to add anything and everything you see and love online to your wishlist? For like ever and ever?"

Hells yeah!

Then you get this cute little icon for your browser and anytime you see anything you love pretty much anywhere (Helllllllo Etsy!), you just click that little A)

*Please note, this feature is only presently for Chrome users. Chrome doesn't support the Farmville toolbar so you might want to consider that prior to install *winks*

Now I have this nice list of all the "I WANT! I WANT! I WANTS!"

(And added bonus? The next time someone asks me for a wishlist, I can just be all, "Amazon me, baby.")