An Old Armoire Gets a New Life as an American Girl Dollhouse: A Before & After

My girls (and I) have developed a little bit of an American Girl doll obsession over this past year and the accessories were starting to take over the room. It was time for a dollhouse. Only problem...these American Girl dollhouses are HUGE!! In order for these 18" dolls to have room to move around within the house each room has to be at least 2 feet deep, 2 feet wide and 2 feet tall...each room. When put together some of these doll houses are 6-8 feet wide and sometimes 6 feet tall. Not happening here. The space constraints coupled with the fact that I didn't necessarily want everything out in the open 24/7 (crazy clutter) meant that we needed a different option. After scouring Craigslist and some online yard-sale pages I discovered the perfect solution for us. A handmade solid wood armoire for $70!! Yes please! It was 2 hours away so the hubs and I spent one friday night making the 4 hour round trip to go pick this thing up...in the rain. Then I spent the next 2 days painting and waxing until my arms felt like they would fall off. However it was so worth it! Here is the finished project!

Here it is with humble beginnings. A nice solid piece of furniture but boring. I painted the entire exterior in Annie Sloan chalk paint in Old White. I made sure to paint the places that would eventually be pink as well so that there would be multiple layers of paint to peek out after distressing. The door and drawer panels were then coated with a mix of Old White and Scandinavian Pink. Then lots of distressing. Finally it was waxed with Annie Sloan clear wax. The inside got a coat of gray paint leftover from our walls. 

This little lady is actually not an American Girl but is a Gotz Little Sister doll. Gotz made Pleasant Company Dolls which were the original American Girl dolls before Mattel took over the brand. She has the exact same body as an American Girl doll just a different face mold. These sweet dolls had a short run between 2000-2001. They can sometimes be found on ebay. She fits in quite nicely with the other dolls :)

I created a bedroom bathroom space on the upper level. The canopy bed is actually from Pottery Barn Kids. The AG dolls fit perfectly in it. The chandelier is actually a locker light.

The bathtub is the retired AG bubble tub. I bought the dresser/vanity from Hobby Lobby and painted and distressed it. For now a little porcelain bowl serves as a vessel sink but I am getting an actual tiny sink with faucet to replace it.

Tutu says "hi"!

BonBon is the new French Bulldog that is a part of the new Girl of the Year, Grace's, collection.

On the lower level I created a bakery space. The girls enjoy setting up a doll restaurant and taking orders for treats! The string of heart lights are a Target Dollar Spot find ($3). The ornate overhead light is actually an upside down candle holder spray painted and then a tap light is placed inside.

This adorable counter is the retired AG sweet treats bakery counter. I love the faux marble top.  The girls have actually not seen this yet. I'll give it to Halle for her birthday tomorrow but I wanted to add it to the dollhouse for photographs. The treats are from various places. Some came with the AG counter and others are handmade from etsy shops.

Walmart sells these snack stands and they work really well with American Girl Dolls. It's made of plastic but fits in nicely with the AG items.

One last view of the entire project! The girls and I are thrilled with how it turned out. And the best part? It all closes up at the end of the day...no mess :) Hope you enjoyed our little doll house tour!!

Shabby & Sweet Cane Back Chairs: A Before & After

I picked up these gorgeous cane back chairs this past week after finding them buried in craigslist. There was no mention of the word cane in any part of the ad which is probably why they hadn't been picked up already. They were listed for $150 along with a little side table but seller said he'd do the set of chairs for $70! Steal! I loved that they still had the original blue tufted upholstery that was in really nice condition. All they needed was a little paint to give them new life.

I'm a little impatient when it comes to prepping for a project and I couldn't figure out how I was going to remove the upholstered seats easily. Part of the upholstery wrapped around the side of the chairs (you can see that in one of the after images). So what is a girl to do?! Make plastic bag slipcovers of course! All I did was tear open some plastic shopping bags and tape them over the upholstery using painters tape...and scotch tape when I ran out, lol! Both worked perfectly and came off easily without damaging the finished paint.

I had no idea how time consuming it would be to paint caning!! It took For-E-Ver! I finally resorted to using a tiny little art brush instead of my regular painting brush. It was slow going but the tiny art brush got into the cracks and crevices so much more efficiently than a regular painting brush. It was also much easier to paint around the taped edges of the upholstery because I had much more control than I did with my bulkier brush. So there's my tip...paint cane back chairs with an artist brush!

I used Annie Sloan Old White for this project because I wanted that shabby chic cottage look for these chairs. The Old White paired perfectly with the pale blue upholstery to achieve this look :) Here they are all done! What a change huh?! You'll have to excuse the indentions in the carpet. These are replacing a large oversized chair that was in this spot. We are hoping to replace the carpet with hardwoods but haven't tackled that project just yet ;)

I found my Nest pillow here.

Here is the space they now occupy in the living room. There used to be a big, bulky, oversized chair here in an awful slipcover. I've been wanting to switch it out for forever. I think these sweet chairs are much better suited in this space :)

 A close-up of the distressing. I did 3-4 coats on these chairs and finished with Annie Sloan's clear wax.

A view from above. I just love these tufted seats!

This quilt was actually a cutter quilt that I got free. It was a queen sized quilt but had rips, tears, and large holes all over it which left it un-useable. An etsy seller gave it to me as a surprise when I bought another quilt in her shop. She said she thought I could use it to create other projects. I made this little throw blanket buy cutting out a large portion that was still intact and then sewing some soft flannel to the back. It's now the perfect lap quilt and looks great draped over these chairs :) I still have sections left that would make great pillow covers!

So what do you think? I hope this will send you on a hunt for your own cane back chairs! They really are pretty and especially nice for adding seating to small spaces. The guy who sold them to me said his wife HATED these chairs and had been wanting to get rid of them for years. I wonder if she'd hate them now ;) Have a fabulous Monday!

Linking up:

The Lovely Lowboy: A Before & After

I told you yesterday that I was working on another painted furniture project and I'm really excited to share the "after" with you today! The moment I saw this lowboy dresser on craigslist I knew it would be beautiful!! Of course it needed a little TLC but it had great bones and a lot of hidden potential! I offered $30 and the seller said yes! So, here it is "before". I actually got sidetracked when I started this project and completely forgot to do my own before photos so I had to go borrow the one from the craigslist ad.

And here is the "after"....TaDa!! How adorable is this piece?! I removed the empty mirror frame for now and I do have some cool ideas and future plans to add it back but for now it makes a great storage piece for shoes and toys in the living room. Oliver quickly made himself comfortable. He tends to take over anything new in the house. He thinks he owns the place :)

I just love this two-tone combination! I used Annie Sloan Duck Egg for the drawers and Old White for the body of the dresser. I did 3 paint coats on this dresser and then some all over distressing just because I like it that way! My dad came over this past weekend and saw the empire dresser I recently shared here and the first thing he said was "Is it supposed to look all scratched up? Did you mean to do that?" LOL! "yes dad, I meant to do that!" Ha ha!!

Here's a view from above! This little detailing along the edges and down the sides is what made me fall in love with this piece when I found it!! It distresses so nicely and really gives it a character all it's own.

Sorry for the kitty photo bombs, lol! He clearly had no intention of getting out of my way while I took these photos! "Go ahead...Just try to move me from this spot!"

I decided against painting over or replacing the original hardware on this piece. I actually love them even though they are brass. They have such a great shape and patina that is so unique! I just couldn't part with them or cover them up. They were meant to stay with this dresser. So, what do you think? Not bad for $30, huh?!

I'm linking up here:

Craigslist & the Importance of Knobs

My girls share a room. It's a nice size bedroom and the girls are only 2 years apart in age so this arrangement has always worked out great. You can see a full post on their room here. However, storage for 2 growing girls has become an issue. Girls have a lot of stuff...especially in terms of clothing and accessories. There are play clothes, church clothes, dress-up/princess clothes, school clothes (the kids school requires uniform or SMOD), bedtime/pjs, and then of course you have winter/fall vs spring/summer clothes. In addition there are accessories of all kinds and let's not forget shoes!! Doing the girls' laundry has been a nightmare for  long time b/c I am constantly running into the issue of not enough space or storage. I dread doing their laundry. They have one standard size closet and one tiny dresser. When we did their room 2 years ago we added an extra row of hanging space and plastic bins in the closet to help combat the storage issue as much as we could. However it was time for an additional dresser and in order to do that the girls had to give up their reading space :( It was a necessary switch and we are so glad we did it. While the storage issue isn't entirely fixed this new dresser really helps out. The bookshelf from their reading space fit nicely into the closet where they now store toys and puzzles. There was also enough space in the closet to keep one of the plastic drawer bins which holds shoes and dolls.

Anyway, I say all this to lead into the topic of searching for a dresser. I had a very specific idea in mind so to craigslist I went. And craigslist came thru once again! I found the exact dresser I wanted...except for the fact that it was already painted by the previous owner and I had wanted one in it's original state so I could paint it myself. Plus when you find something already painted the price is typically higher since the seller has already invested time and paint into it. I waited a couple of weeks before going for this one. Seller wanted $200 but I walked away with it for $125...not too shabby. The seller had painted it with Annie Sloan Old White over Graphite (black) and then distressed it enough for bits of the black to show thru. I was not a fan of the black underneath but willing to work with it. I took my coarse sanding block and distressed it further down to the original wood and I was much happier with that. The biggest improvement however are the knobs! The piece came with ugly shiny black knobs that did nothing for it. I stopped by my favorite place for knobs, Anthropologie, and found these gorgeous vintage-inspired glass knobs! Swoon! Instant makeover!! The copper centers help bring out the warm wood tones in the distressing and along with the curvy lines this is one girly dresser. Halle LOVES it and it looks so pretty in their room!!

 

With the little bit of extra distressing to reveal the wood tones I now barely notice the black.

 

Aren't these knobs just adorable? It's amazing how such a simple thing like knobs can completely change the look of a piece of furniture. Never discount the potential of a piece of furniture based on it's ugly knobs. Simply change them.

 

Picked up this vintage planter while antique hunting with my mom two weeks ago. I have the exact same one (in brown) holding pens on my own desk. Halle likes having something just like mommy :)

The "dinglehopper" from Halle's recent mermaid party. She's a huge Ariel fan so she wanted to keep these little treasures displayed in her room along with the signed picture from Ariel herself.

 

View from the swivel mirror. Notice Oliver catching a nap in one of his favorite spots in the house.

I have another rescue project in the works so come back soon :)

Coastal Farmhouse Kitchen: A Before & After Reveal

Well, it is FINALLY finished (for the most part)!! We started this kitchen project back in late February I believe. It was supposed to take a week or two to complete...ummm...that did not happen. It actually took us 4-5 months to get all the projects completed and several of those weeks were spent without a functioning kitchen...no countertops, sink, water, dishwasher, etc. It was awful because we didn't prepare for that. That's what happens when two un-handy (is that a word?) people take on a kitchen renovation. It drags on for forever because we second guess ourselves at every step, and underestimate how much time things take and then we get stuck and have to ask, beg, PLEAD for help, lol. True story. I am just relieved that it's done (actually it was done in July) and I can now share some before and afters to all of you. I am in LOVE with the end result. Exactly how I hoped it would look :) I will share helpful links and resources that were helpful during this project throughout this post. Enjoy!


 

This is what our kitchen looked like right before we began this project. Builder Grade boring...blah. It needs some help but the cabinets were definitely workable. A little paint would make a huge difference.

We actually ended up hiring some local painters to take care of this part for us to save time and energy. Of course it costs more to hire someone to do the painting for you but for what we paid it was definitely worth it to avoid the headache. They sanded, primed and painted all the cabinets and doors. They also added beadboard to the side panels, per my request, to add a little extra character. We had to live without cabinet doors for about a week and a half. Don't judge me by the mess on the shelves, lol!

 

This is the result once the painting portion was finished. The upper cabinets were done in Almond Cream and the lowers were done in a robins egg blue called Celtic Grey, both are Behr colors. At this point we had already removed the old countertops and I had begun work on the new butcher block ones in the garage. Sanding, staining, and sealing was a labor intensive process that took about 9 days, working on them multiple times a day, both sides to prevent future warping of the wood.

 

This is what my garage looked like for a while as we worked on the kitchen makeover. We bought our butcher block countertops at IKEA. They are the oak Numerar ones. I followed some great advice and tutorials for staining and sealing butcherblock that I found here and here.

I bought my first power tool for this project, a Ryobi sander! He worked his little tail off on these countertops! The tutorials mentioned above will guide you as to which sanding papers to use...I cannot remember exactly what grit they were...220 and something else.

I used a Minwax pre-stain wood conditioner and wood finish for staining. The color was Special Walnut 224. It's gorgeous!! Then I used Waterlox the seal the butcher block. Some people use mineral oil but that requires regular maintenance and re-application. This Waterlox gives a nice sheen and after a process of multiple coats it will not need to be re-applied often...maybe for touch-ups. I've had my counters in use for 6 months and they still look great. I do use a cutting board to chop on to avoid knicks and scratches. They are holding up beautifully to everyday wear! Water has been no problem, it wipes right off.

 

This is a close-up near the end of the staining and sealing process. It took me about 9 or 10 days. Be sure to do both sides!! If you don't do the underside you risk having some warping later on. Do the underside to completion first so that once you flip to work on top side you won't have to worry about damaging it to flip again.  

This is the way the kitchen walls stayed for quite some time. We installed the counters so that we could use them but we had open holes in the wall with exposed wiring for about 4 mos before we finally got around to tiling. We chose a white ceramic subway tile. It's an inexpensive option that offers a beautiful result! We enlisted the help of some friends to get the tiles on the wall in late June. I actually became very ill (from a virus that I contracted elsewhere that eventually caused a visit to the ER) while the tiling was going on and wasn't well enough to grout them until mid July.  I'm still feeling the effects of that virus over 2 months later.

But, it was finally complete. The DH and I spent an entire day grouting (we were grout virgins and it took us forever!) and finishing up little details. I think I heard angels singing in the heavens that day, lol! Hallelujah it was done! It felt like a weight lifted from our shoulders! And we are loving it! I was kinda going for a coastal farmhouse vibe with my color choices and choice of materials and accessories.

 

 

 

My little photography assistant helping me take some "after" photos :)

This glorious apron front farmhouse sink is one of my favorite parts of the kitchen!! It is HUGE!!  This was another IKEA find and worth every penny of it's over $300 price tag...which isn't bad at all for a double-basin farmhouse sink.

A side view of my lovely sink :) Isn't she pretty?! She can hold a lot of dishes, lol!

 

 I found this adorable vintage kitchen scale on etsy and LOVE it! Fits my coastal farmhouse kitchen perfectly! Tomatoes courtesy of my mom's summer garden. Starting a garden is on my own to-do list!

A slice of watermelon anyone?! Yummo!

This part of the kitchen makeover was actually the first part I completed. I forgot to take a real "before" picture before we replaced our brass light fixture with this IKEA farm one. After replacing the fixture I painted this chalkboard wall!! It's super cool and the kids love it. The shelving is also from IKEA. Did I mention how much I love IKEA?! Loving that we have one about 90min away. But they are available online if you don't have one of their mega-stores near you. 

*Tip for achieving a well-worn chalkboard wall...after the paint is dry rub the side of a piece of chalk all over and then wipe off with a cloth...I just used paper towels. This gives it that nice "used" look!

 

Please ignore the dirty table. I forgot to wipe down the crumbs after breakfast. Just keepin' it real!

 

Most of the decorative items are vintage things I've collected from local antique stores or from the vintage section of etsy.com. I love old stuff :) Nevermind that I haven't hung my coffee mugs up yet..oops.

And here's my awesome Hunger Games basket. It's actually an old basket from a local industrial mill. It was purchased by set designers for use in the Hunger Games movie that was filmed here. I then bought it off an antique dealer who snagged it from the movie prop auction. You can see it in action in this post :) It fits in nicely in this space :)

 

I hope you have enjoyed my little kitchen tour! Feel free to email me or leave any questions in the comments section!


Supply and Resource List:

cabinet colors: Uppers- Almond Cream (Behr)
                         Lowers- Celtic Grey (Behr)
countertops: IKEA numerar
Stain: Minwax Special Walnut 224
Sealant: Waterlox
I used great advice/tutorials for staining butcher clock found here and here
Sink: IKEA Domsjo
Shelving: IKEA