DIY Filing Cabinet Redo

Have you ever bought a filing cabinet? 

If you have, you KNOW how incredibly expensive they can get! 

We have been using a little pitiful excuse for a filing cabinet that I bought while I was in college. it is a little two drawer, vertical cabinet that is so awesome that when I try to open the top drawer, the metal bends like a piece of card stock. Seriously it sucks. I'm sure it doesn't help that I have STUFFED it full...

I was talking to Jackie one day about wanting to get one but how expensive they are - she suggested I check a Habitat for Humanity Re-store. I did and was pleasantly surprised to find that I had a choice from three different cabinets. I'll admit, none of them LOOKED great but two of three were in good condition as far as functionality is concerned.  All I had to do was pick one.... I went with a four drawer brown vertical cabinet.... If I would have purchased one at an office supply store, I would have easily paid over $150.  I paid $20 ... yes TWENTY for one at the Re-store. 

I knew I could make it prettier with some paint and new drawer pulls. So I bought it on the spot - and let The Husband know we had one! I was VERY excited; probably more than I should admit =) Once my parents picked it up for me - THANKS MOM AND DAD! - I went about making it look nicer. Enter some pretty pretty spray paint of choice and some time...have you figured out yet that I am willing to spray paint JUST about anything?! 

Here is the before and after:

To achieve the after, we bought 2 cans of black spray paint and 1 can of 'Tiffany Blue'; I already had the metallic silver for the hardware from a previous project. 

  

I pulled out all the drawers and removed the hardware.  After wiping down the entire cabinet and all the drawers, I sprayed the body of the cabinet with the black and the drawers with the blue. Yes - it was that easy. 

After removing the drawer pulls, I realized those needed to be replaced in a bad kind of way.  I took a pull and one of the bolts with me to the home improvement store and picked out four pulls that were the same length and matching bolts. 

 

I am so happy with the way it turned out! Now we have a 'custom' filing cabinet for under $40!!!  We are so happy with it and as 'nerdy' as this may or may not sound, I can't wait to get organized and have it all set up!!! 

A Little Random on Thursday

So for some reason, when my post for yesterday went up it kind of froze my poor little bloggy =( I don't know why - I didn't have anything out of the ordinary going on in it. I just tried it again and it worked so if you have found my post today - you could also check out the post that SHOULD have gone up yesterday.

I picked out the master bathroom color yesterday at lunch. Before deciding on it, I went back to the tile department with a sample card to make sure it would look good. I was stressing with the whole beige tile and oak cabinets but it is going to look awesome! I think that has to do with the fact that it has warmer undertones as opposed to blue undertones. I was going to share the color with you but it sits on the counter at home =/ booo!!

Our tentative closing is Monday at 11 AM! I am so excited! I can't wait!!! The appraisal came back and it is all good to go =) There are SO many steps and hand changes that things make when you are buying a house. I know to some of you this isn't surprising, but let's be real here -- I haven't ever bought anything. We DID have to buy me a car a couple months ago after my accident, but we paid cash and I feel like a car is SO much smaller (not talking physically here) than a house.

I am hoping to be able to take half days all next week to work on getting stuff done. I can't wait to start showing you transformation pictures and different upgrades we do.

My husband started his new position today! I am so so excited -- no more out of town working and no more traveling. No more nights away from one another -- this is going to be BLISS!!! He will work a normal job - I think it is probably the first in his life! He has worked so so hard this past year, with the traveling and the hard, back-breaking work he of his previous position. There were most nights than not, when he would get home and be so sore he could barely move. It pained me to see him like that because there wasn't anything I could do for him. I'm so thrilled that won't be the case any longer! YAY!

A very good friend of mine is interviewing for a new job today - so if you could take a moment and send prayers for her or positive warm fuzzies or whatever it is you do, it would really be appreciated. She is such a kind and smart girl and she is a hard worker. This would be an incredible opportunity for her and her husband.

Tomorrow is Friday and we are having our 3rd Annual Halloween Bash. This year my sister is hosting it at their new house. I can't wait! We are going to play board games with a drinking twist and I hope I can convince a bunch of people to play twister =) Can you imagine -- grown people in their twenties and thirties playing drunk twister!? Sounds like fun to me!!

Two weeks ago I bought my first pair of skinny jeans. The salesgirl picked them out for me and let me just tell y'all -- I am IN LOVE! The husband even likes them. I think for Christmas, I am going to re-do my wardrobe. =) We'll see, that idea may change once we get moved in and start thinking about other things for the house that we want or need.

Alright - I think that is enough news and random-ness for a Thursday. I hope you are having a wonderful week!!

Anything new and exciting with you???

What I'm Lovin' Wednesday

Hey Fabulous! I'm so happy the week is headed into the second half already! I have a lot to get done in the next five days and I'm looking forward to having a lot of weekend time to do it. I thought I would link up for WILW (you can here) since I don't have a project to share at the moment:

I'm Lovin' that we are closing on MONDAY! I know I said we would be closing on Friday but the appraisal didn't come back until yesterday and the loan processor can't have it ready by Friday to close. That's alright -- I get an extra weekend to get stuff done and projects finished.

I'm Lovin' our new house and all our decorating ideas!

I'm Lovin' that Target had a bathroom set that proved to me that I'm not crazy and gray DOES work with tans/beiges. I have been wanting to paint the bathroom a dark gray but was concerned it wouldn't do well with the counters and tiles.  I'll share with you a picture of the bathroom and a picture of the trash can:

 
Can you tell one of the photos was taken with a camera phone?! =)

I'm Lovin' that we are less than TWO MONTHS from Christmas! I can't wait to decorate this gorgeous house and get a Christmas tree set up! Oh my gosh --- WHERE WILL WE PUT IT?! Oh the decisions!

I'm Lovin' Gallery Walls 

I started designing the wall we will use for a gallery of us =) I'm so excited to have SO much wall space at the new place. I have walls designated for weddings (ours and friends/family), family pictures, pictures of/with our friends, an 'us' wall, and then in the man-room we will have tons of pictures from all the fishing excursions and pictures of people with their biggest catch while fishing with us.

I'm Lovin' all of our friends and family and all the support they have shown/given us over the past several months trying to get this process together, the funds saved up, and finding the perfect house!

I'm Lovin' all of you for your love and support, prayers and positive thoughts. You guys are amazing!

I'm Lovin' my AMAZING and wonderful husband. Enough Said...

What are you loving this Wonderful Wednesday?!

WILW

Hello Hello!!!

The week is half over! Who is excited?! THIS GIRL! I am so happy we are already moving into the weekend! I know I know - it isn't even noon yet but hey - I can celebrate over here if I want =)

I have decorating ideas on the brain so I thought for WILW I will share my fave ideas that I hope to use in the new house!

Link up with Jamie here!

Wall Stencil

Framed Mirror -- Bedroom or bathroom

Colors and canopy

Wall Color

Gallery Wall

Yes my laundry room will have a chandelier

Love the curtains and picture trim

I have other ideas that are from my pretty little head so I can't really show you a picture of it yet =)

Where do you get your decorating ideas?
Do you have an eye for it or do you ask for someone elses help/opinion?

Lamp Re-do

Good Wednesday to you all!!! How is everyone??
Thank you for all the sweet comments on the dresser re-finish from yesterday.  I am really happy with it and I hope some of you were inspired to try your hand at a similar project!

I had this black lamp...

Sorry about the fuzzy cell phone pic =/

I bought it a couple years ago, 5 to be exact, to go on my piano. Well I no longer wanted them to be black and I thought - HEY! I need new side table lamps for the spare room. Maybe I should customize the ones I have instead of buying new ones.

I went to the store to look for the perfect color spray paint. I ended up at Lowe's because they were who had the color I wanted and was close to work at lunch lol!

I got home and took my lamp apart outside

I used tape and a plastic grocery bag to protect the lighting part of the lamp so that it will still work.

Prepared to paint:

So at this point I got so caught up in what I was doing, I didn't take any more pictures until the project was finished. I told you I forget to keep taking pictures! haha!
Here is the end product!

 

Before this project I was a little, OK A LOT intimidated by spray paint. I have always been under the impression that it was messy and hard to work with. boy was I wrong! I can't wait to paint the other one and show you how it looks in the finished room. But that will take a few more weeks!

Is spray paint your friend or enemy??

Paint and Floors

Ok SO first things first -- I didn't sleep well last night. Then as I was getting ready for work this morning, it sounded like someone was trying to break in through the walls of the house...turns out it was just the sonic boom of the shuttle re-entering the atmosphere for the last time.

THEN I went to Chick-fil-a this morning.  I felt like I needed a little pick-me-up and since I am not a coffee drinker, cokes are my go-to. I politely ordered a Dr. Pepper and drove away. As I was making my way to work, I took a big swig of Dr. Pepper....only it was SWEET TEA!!!! =( Now anyone who knows me or pays attention KNOWS that I LOATHE sweet tea! UGH! It is so disgusting to me!! I about spit it out all over my passenger seat but I begrudgingly swallowed it and 'flipped a B' haha. AS SOON as I walked into Chick-fil-a, they said:

"was your drink wrong?"

...."yes"

(why did you hand it to me if you were certain is was WRONG?! )

"we're very sorry!"

"It's Ok, it happens" (To me all the time).

UGH!!! Seriously -- I don't know why I have so many issues haha!

I FOUND MY CAMERA!!!! WOOO!! Maybe I didn't tell you BUT I misplaced my camera again after Saturday...turns out it was underneath a sweater in the front seat of my car haha =) So after turning our house upside down and frantically searching for it, I have been driving around with it right next to me - literally- all week. =) Wow sometimes I really am blonde! ha!!!

Anyways - -the reason it is so exciting that I found my camera is that I can share pictures of our paint colors and flooring choices, but not tile choices as we haven't picked that out yet. So here we go!

For the Master Bedroom:

Paint: Valspar - City Storm
Floor: Stormy Oak

For most of the house we are going with the following flooring and paint color

Paint: Valspar - Siene (The color !)

Floor: Brazilian Tigerwood

This paint and flooring will go through the most of the house. The dining room, front room, living room, hallway and all the additional bedrooms. The paint color is more brown than it appears in the picture -- I can't wait to paint a wall with it -- will be in the main part of the house, spare bedroom and craft room. I think the lighter color next to the main color will be the color of the spare bathroom.

For the Spare Bedroom:

Paint: Valspar - Siene

Flooring - American Cherry

We are going with a different floor color for the spare bedroom because the furniture in this room is a dark cherry instead of the light cherry pictured for the flooring. We feel this light flooring will create a very nice contrast. I am going to take the flooring sample and paint color to my parent's where the furniture is being stored to make sure it all looks good together.

For the 'man-cave'/office, I had J pick that color. We are going to store his fishing stuff in it and frame and hang some of his big fish catches

Paint: Valspar - Exotic Sea (middle)

Flooring -- Brazilian Tigerwood

For the craft room I am painting 3 of the walls with the Siene and painting one wall the Exotic sea.

We haven't picked out the tile for the kitchen, entry-way, bathrooms and laundry room.  We want to make sure it won't clash with the cabinets in the kitchen. We have picked out most of our lighting, but I will share that with you in a different post on a different day =)

I am very excited about all of this! The Husband is pretty excited when he isn't exhausted =/ I spoke with my friend who is a real estate agent and she told me to give my agent AT LEAST another week to obtain information regarding our contract before I start pestering her.  In reality, she will have longer than that because This time next week I will be visiting with family and getting ready for my sissy's wedding! Say a little prayer that we receive a closing date soon. I am starting to feel a little crazy in this funky limbo we are in, haha!

Happy Almost Friday!!!

DIY: Canvas Re-do

I saw a print on over at Our Humble A{Bowe}d that Amanda sells on her etsy shop.  It was love at first site.  Seriously,  I LOVE this print -- she sells it and will customize it for you.  Here is the print:

I love the whole look and feel of the print.  I contacted Amanda to see if I could use her idea.  She gave me her approval to copy the idea and share it with you all.  Thank you so much Amanda for the inspiration!!

First thing I did was try to DRAW this.  For those of you don't know me, I don't draw.  I doodle but it's not something I would EVER show to anyone! So I drew it and was really surprised with myself!!

I made a few changes for mine, of course the initials and I also added a second tree branch with some little branches growing off those main branches. 

Now I decided to get adventurous -- I was going to PAINT it.  yeah, this could get really ugly. I had a canvas already painted,...it was the first and only canvas I have ever done.  I hope to change that in the coming months...

Can you tell why I don't particularly like -- it's a little lame. =/ anyway, I had the same paint colors left over so I knew I would use those.  This way I am using only supplies that I already had. 

I painted over my original design.  When I finished, I could still see (very clearly) the original design on the canvas under the paint.  No good -- so I decided to create a texture on the canvas using a sponge 'brush'. MUCH better results.

Then it was time to transfer the drawing to the canvas.  I didn't draw it on the canvas first like I thought I would -- I free handed the design, once again, surprising myself. Here is the finished result on the wall.

 I wanted to have our wedding date on the tree but my brushes were NOT cooperating - so I skipped it =/  All in all, I am really happy with it and J really likes it. PLUS it's way cooler than what WAS there. =)

Thanks again, Amanda, for the inspiration!!