Envy my Find

"Before"

"After"

I found this little piece off craigslist a while ago! It was in really good condition and i only had to tighten up the legs on it! the drawers are so smooth and work so good! The lady i bought it from was so puzzled on why i wanted this so bad! Really? I love it!

I used Krylon "classic gray" spray paint in the glossy finish
and used kylron "white" glossy for the handles!



I first took a rag with a little soap and water and washed it down! It was a little gross/dirty!
I than started sanding it all over!

after i was finished with sanding- i wiped it down again with a rag to make sure all the dust was completly gone!

Now it was ready to be primed. I ended up using kilz spray paint! After letting it dry (which it didn't take long since we live in az) i started to re sand it to get the desk a little smooth again. (sometimes with kilz it will feel a little bumpy if you dont sand it after)

Now it was ready for the spray paint!

I followed brooks advice over at "all things thrifty" she seems to know her stuff about spray paint! Check out her tips/tricks Here

I am so glad its all done and i love the way it turned out!




what do you think?

Will be linking it up here today

Envy my Find

I was so glad when i came across this desk at a thrift store! Its been sitting in my garage for a while now! I just barley got it done. I love how it turned out!
The desk overall was in good condition. I only had to fix just minor things to it!

I painted it a cream color! and the hard-ware i spray painted a black!

Sorry the pic quality struggles in the "after" picture. I had to use my phone!
You get the idea though!!

What do you think?

If you have a project you would like us to feature, email us at envy.my.cooking@gmail.com

Also dont forget to enter the giveaway HERE

Envy my Find

I really envy these desk! I love/want them! especially the bottom one!
Your in luck because both of these are for sale! Our good friends over at Dustygemdecor have these and much more furniture for sale!
There names use to be "restoration furniture" but they recently changed it to Dustygemdecor.

They come across some great pieces of furniture and really know how to restore it again! just go check out their site HERE to see for yourself!
Go become a follower of them today and stay updated with the latest projects!

Envy my Find

When i first found this side table it was gross! Very dirty!
I wasn't going to get it until i looked at the price tag and it said $1...
I don't think i have ever gotten so excited in my life. only $1 really? So i bought it and got working on it. I sanded it and painted it white and lightly distressed it! I am still going to be glazing it as well!

Best $1 i have spent!

What do you think?

Envy my Find

For this weeks envy my find. I came across Orange Blossom.

They are selling thee cutest magnet/ chalkboard that you have ever seen!
I love all of them and want to purchase one to go in my kitchen!

Everyone needs to hop on over to ORANGE BLOSSOM to order one today!

Envy my Find

This week's "envy my find" is brought to you by me...Jenny!

My good friend Shelbie from "Lovely again" Made a version of the wall clock seen on Pottery barn s web site for me.

(picture from Potterybarn.com)

She did a really good job if you ask me! I actually like hers alot better. I love that her numbers are not as dark! And i love the border she put around it!
Now i just need to hang it and get a bigger table to put under it but that will take some time!

Shelbie is amazing at restoring furniture and bringing it back to life!
Please go check out her site HERE! Become a follower of her to stay tuned on what projects she has coming up!
She is also starting to sell these clocks. So if you would like one please contact her at

lovelyagain@yahoo.com!

I love my new big clock! Thanks Shelbie!

What do you guys think? Should i hang it or leave it how it is right now?

Envy my Find

I get a phone call one day and the hubby is all excited about a good deal on a really good pool table ($300.00) and it has real Italian slate too! To be honest all I heard was "blah blah blah" $300.00. What's a girl who has no cue (pun intended) about pool suppose to do? Great honey!!! Let's buy it!

Oh...Okay, I guess, but it's kinda of ugly honey. Oh, it's only temporary until we can afford a much nicer one (he said). Well then...Okay (I said)!

But honey, It's just so...UGLY!!! What? you want to know if I can jazz it up a little?

Well, Let's see...Yup, all I need are a few supplies, and one of these....My brother Sam and some power tools.

I started this little project with a trip to Lowe's & Home Depot. I bought 2 sizes of rope trim. The table already had trim work, but it was too boring. I put small rope trim between the old trim. Sam cut the 45 degree angles and we used a air compressor to nail it on.

The table will have lion heads and swags.

The end caps are just a little too short to fit 2 swags and the disk that will hold the lions head. So, we just cut off some of the flower on the end of the swag to make it fit. Notice the line across the table. That line indicates how far down the side rails will hang so I can properly center the swags.

The legs were just as ugly as the base so they got a larger rope trim and fun little swirly appliques on 3 sides. The forth side gets a wood disc for the lion head.

And there he is! Mr Lion head. I center him then trace around him.

Now it's time for my least favorite part. Sanding and filling in all the holes with wood filler, then repeat the sanding to get everything smooth.

No, I didn't screw up my pictures! This is how I'm going to get the lion heads onto the wooden discs. The manufacture said I could use wood glue or steam them on. I of course thought it would be fun to steam them on! I told you I was fun!!!

The manufacture stated that steaming them on was more secure than wood glue and I didn't want to take any chances since the lion heads cost $200.00.

OK, water is boiling and steaming thru the canvas. I got the canvas at Hobby Lobby in the art supply department (only cost about 3.00). The lion heads contain hide glue which gets soft when its heated.

Once the lion head is applied to freshly sanded raw wood, it bonds to the wood. So cool! I taped them just to make sure they dried in place. Working upside down is a fun all in it's own category.

One lion head on each leg, one on each end of the table, and two on each side. Ten lions total.

Swags on. Lion heads on.

Tape off. Lion heads bonded! Yeah.....

All done with the sawing, gluing, filling, measuring. This is what the table looked like before lion heads. Already a major improvement!

Just a reminder that you must mark off where the side rails go or else your appliques will not be centered when you turn over the table & put the side rails on (you wouldn't know this until the very end and that would be horrible)

Here is a view of the leg with all the appliques, rope trim, lion head, and wood filler.

Next step is primer. It never looks good, but it is a must. Especially since the table was covered with a wood laminate. Notice the spoiled chihuahua on her princess pillow.

Everything gets primed.

primered legs. I love this step because it all starts looking like a whole design instead of "parts".

Two coats of paint in your desired color. This is Sherwin Williams 6107 Nomadic Desert. I used it because it was left over from painting some of the interior walls.

Table gets two coats too.

The next steps are really fun. I love the results! All you do is mix 1/2 stain plus 1/2 Faux Glaze.

I mixed 1/4 cup glaze + 1/4 cup Black Walnut water based stain on a foam plate and painted it on. Then I got a plastic grocery store bag, waded it up and just started jabbing it until I found a pattern I liked. Do this on a trial area first. I always use scrap wood and play with finishes. If you really want to see a video of this technique go to you tube and search faux painting.

When it dries, apply one coat of polyacrylic spray (I use minwax). When that dries we can add the hang up and shading. Where almost done!

Once the glaze/stain dries and you have applied one coat of polyacrylic you can now add hang-up and some shading for depth.

use undiluted stain, in this case the Black Walnut water based stain. Apply it on the rope trim, wipe off. Then paint a thin layer around the appliques and using a cheep dry paint brush, start jabbing the stain to "smear it" or soften the look.

All highlighted and smudged up. If you try to do this without the one coat of polyacrylic between the glaze/stain step I assure you, you will regret it! Major mistake!!!! You will remove the previous step and end up with a mess! But look at it from the point of view that you get to start over and learn! :(. Do yourself a big favor! Don't skip that step :)

See how much depth you get. I also wipe some of the stain over the applique to give it hang-up. Notice how this brings out all of the detailed work on the appliques.

The lion head and swags just pop with detail once the hang-up is applied. Simply spray the last 2 coats of polyacrylic to give it a long lasting finish. I used Minwax clear gloss polyacrylic spray.

This was actually the hardest step of all. Each side rail has 3 rail sights (used by the pool player to line up his/her shot) and I had to cover them with tape. Once they are painted the only way to get the tape off is to cut it out. OMG! this sucked!!!! But once I got them all off it was easy again. All I had to do when I applied the glaze/stain was to wipe the sights clean with a damp paper towel (while the glaze was wet, so you still have to be very careful).

side rails with sights all cut out

Once the side rails, ball pockets, and felt are added the table is done!

Not too bad for an amateur! I think the table looks amazing and now we don't have to use it as a temporary table. Total cost $1000.00! (300 for the table, 200 for lion heads, 100 for swags & rope trim, 400 to have it put together, re-felted, and leveled).

Honey, I hope you like your new pool table with that Italian slate you were so glad to get! I know I love it! Who called it ugly??