Driftwood

So, I stumbled upon this amazingly awesome little shop in Jax Beach called Driftwood.  Let me tell you, I was blown away by this place.  If I were to open my own shop it would be very similar to this one!  Words can’t do this place justice, let me show you…

Here is the view you’ll get when you walk in and then here is the other side of the store…

I mean come on with that brick wall!!!  And the antiques they have are beautiful.

I need this dresser/cabinet in my life, please!  This is the most beautiful antique dresser around, it is basically the bees knees in my book.  Not to mention that it was also displaying some pretty killer antiques as well, I could have stayed in this corner for days.  And how about this guy?…

So pretty, I love antique dressers with the small key holes on each drawer.

This antique wash stand also caught my eye.  All of their antique furniture pieces are really decently priced, especially considering they are all in great shape.

I loved these bar stools. I think they are so modern, but still a simple design, just my taste.

And seriously, check out this antique dough bowl, it was huge and beautiful.

I also wanted to take home every one of these scarves!

They also had some really great dog stuff, which I found immediately.  This book almost came home with me, I was so tempted.

Stories about adored dogs, enough said.

The back area of the store is lined with tall book cases which display art and jewelry, enough to keep my eyes busy for a while.

Here is another great antique cabinet and I love the tiered stand sitting on it.

Even their bathroom was amazing.  I want that rolling cart!

So, basically I found my new favorite shop ever… Driftwood!  Let’s take one more look…

Ahhh, so dreamy.  If you live in Jax it is a shame if you don’t go check them out! Not only is their shop beautiful, but the owners are so sweet! They are located at 415 Pablo Avenue, Suite 110, Jacksonville Beach, Florida 32250.  Support your local shops people! Thanks for reading!

Feel that Air Flow

Since it hasn’t been the usually scorching 90 degrees here in Florida lately, we have been leaving our windows and doors open more often to let some fresh air in.  It is wonderful.  The back porch is completely screened, so we are able to just prop the back doors open and not worry about critters getting in or our little critters(Charlie Bean and Zack Man) getting out, it’s perfect.  However the front door did not have a screen.  Booooo!  Notice how I said DID not?  Well now it DOES! Woo hoo for more air flow!  Here is our door pre screen…

Hi cute little blue door, I love you!

In order to add a new screen door there were a few things that had to be done first.  It seemed that the door Justin purchased wasn’t quite fitting correctly.  He had to add some wood to frame out the door a bit and make it so our new screen door would fit and sit flush with our house. This was not an east task though, Justin’s dad came by to help him out. If we can’t figure something out we usually rely on Kent to make it work! Thanks Kent!

See the new wood that he added?  He also added a piece of 2 x 4 under the bottom lip of the door so there wasn’t such a large gap between the door and the ground.  Since our home is stucco Justin needed to texturize that piece so it doesn’t look so smooth and stand out against the texture in the existing frame.

See what I mean?  Oh and check out those adorable feet and nose! Char man is such a good helper.   Here’s a closer look at the texture on the 2x 4…

We also caulked all of the small creases and crevices, I sure do love caulk.  Once everything was dry it was time for some paint.   I just grabbed a quart of white outdoor paint and went to town.  Here are my finished results…

Here’s  quick before and after…

Can you see the difference?  The white trim should look a whole lot whiter, but I think the only noticable spot from the photos is one little black spot in the top left side above the window.  In person this trim is bright white and looks much cleaner than it did before, so score for me.  The other couple differences you can see are obviously the missing wreath, booooo!  We can’t hang the wreath with the screen door up because it may tear the screen and aint nobody got time for that!  Also in this before and after you can see the added 2 x 4 that is now painted white, I think it gives the bottom of the door a more finished look.   Here is a closer look at the actual door that we added…

We are lovin this screen door, it is so nice because we are able to leave it open and feel all the air flow!

When I was out, Justin sent me this picture after he installed the door…

It’s not a very clear picture, but it’s Zack enjoying the breeze.  And here they are in the back patio…

These dogs are lovin life.  Anyway back to the door.   We love it and we can change out the screen for a glass insert for the warmer months when we are running the AC and then I can put my wreath back up!

Do you leave your windows and doors open?  Are your dogs as spoiled as mine?  Probably not.  Thanks for reading!

Echo at the Beach

I recently headed down to the beach and stopped into one of my favorite beach shops, Echo at the Beach.  If you have not been before you need to check it out.  It is packed with all sorts of great art pieces, thrifted finds and beautiful clothing.

I wanted to show you some of the great things I saw there and maybe what I would do with them in my home!  I love me some window shopping.

When I first walked in I saw this blanket…

I thought it was so unique and I loved how artsy it was and still being quilt like, those two things usually don’t go hand in hand, but this was rocking it.  If this guy came home with me it would probably end up on the back of the futon in my art room as a cool throw.

I only had to turn about a foot and stumbled upon this little guy…

How sick is this mid century modern stool?  This thrifted find was only $40, I am telling you, it was very hard for me not to take this home.  I would have put it in my living room and pulled it out to be used as an ottoman whenever the time felt right.

They also had some amazing antique dressers and I think we all know how I feel about dressers by now.

Are you drooling over the one above? Don’t worry I am too.  How about this one?…

Sorry, this one was sold already! Shucks.  Don’t worry there is plenty more awesomeness to find here.  How about this awesome little side table/stool?

I want this to come home with me as well, but I don’t have a spot for it.  I think it would be cute in a child’s bathroom as a stool, or a living room as a unique little end table!

If you are a jewelry girl than you need to check out the unique pieces they have here.

I am not a bold jewelry girl, but I love girls who can pull it off.  If you are one of those girls you would love this.

They did however have some jewelry that is more my style…

Now these are my jam!  They are cuff bracelets made from leather and vintage accents.  The brown one on the bottom shelf all the way to the left with the turquoise gems was calling my name!

And you know I had to find the only dog item in the store…

I mean, come on with this dog bed!  I   am   in   LOVE!  Too bad my dogs are ginormous!

Here are their back rooms…

Don’t you wish you were there?

And lastly I thought this lantern would be amazing with a pillar candle inside, hanging out next to my fireplace!

Overall, I would have to say that Echo at the Beach is pretty outstanding.  And guess what… the are having a pre black Friday sale TODAY(Nov. 22nd) from 4pm-9pm.  Go check em out!

What Goes Where?

I left you on a cliff hanger in my art room, I know you want to know what I put in my new IKEA drawers!  Well I won’t leave you wondering any longer…

First up I pulled everything out of my closet which looked like this.

Most of my art supplies were in this guy.

and here is the madness that came out of those drawers…

Want a closer look?

Lots o’ stuff.  So basically I just got to sorting, as I went I tossed things that I no longer use and found new homes for some things that just didn’t belong.  Here is what went into the Helmer Drawers.

Paints in the top drawer, color coordinated of course(that won’t last).

Next up… more paint, exciting stuff!

Yarn and ribbon anyone?

More yarn.

And then some felt.  I’m beginning to feel like an 80 year old women or a preschool teacher with what went into these drawers.

Lastly, some random things like my hot glue gun and some other adhesives.  So there you have it, organization at it’s finest people!  Oh and of course I made labels…

The rolling cart also had a make over…

And in the words of Biggie uh, and if you don’t know, now ya know!

Something Blue

Remember our bedroom?  No?  Well here it is…

We have now had our gray duvet cover from IKEA for a little over 7 months and we still love it, but we decided to change it up a bit.  We headed over to Target and found this…

We both thought it would be perfect.  In case you haven’t noticed we are pretty big fans of the color blue, also I am loving anything with a herringbone design lately.  Lastly, it’s a quilt which is nice to have since Florida isn’t known for its low temperatures, so the lightness of a quilt is nice.  We were pretty much sold on this guy.  We however didn’t get the shams because they only had standard size and we need king.  We also grabbed some new sheets while we were at it, yup livin it up on this Target trip!  Here is what we got…

Good old gray sheets and you can’t quite tell from this photo but they also have a herringbone design.  I know what you’re thinking, “didn’t they have gray sheets?” Well yes we did, but they were not very good quality and they did not fit very well.  These were a bit pricier($60) and with that price comes much higher quality.

In the photo above the quilt looks really blue, but it has more of a teal hue to it in person…

See?  Here is everything on our bed…

I think I’m diggin it, but I definitely need some new throw pillows.  My others were a bit too blue for this tealish quilt.  I also hopped online to order the matching shams, but realized with shipping it would cost around $55 for two king shams and I thought nope! So looks like me and the sewing machine will be hanging out soon.  I’ll keep you updated on the pillow dilemma!

IKEA does it again!

My art room is in some serious need of storage!  I have a lot of art supplies and I would love to have it organized and contained neatly in one room.  I would be stoked if everything had it’s own little spot to live forever, or until I decide it needs a new home.  Right now everything is thrown into this closet… All mismatched storage thrown into a sad little closet.  Not to mention that those are the boxes that we moved into this house with! That’s right, not even unpacked, definitely rummaged through but not unpacked!  Shame on me! I needed to find some solution to this madness.  Who do you turn to when you have storage problems?  How about our friend IKEA! That’s right, take a browse through this guy…

and all of your storage problems will be solved! It’s where I found this…

It’s the Helmer Drawer Unit and it’s just $39.99.  Thought it would be perfect for holding/organizing all of my art and craft supplies, so I dumped one of these in my online shopping cart and kept browsing.  One other thing that has been on my list for this room for a while is a chair.  I have been checking craigslist from time to time and also checking out my options at local stores, but unfortunately I was having no luck.  So, what do you know, IKEA came to the rescue again when I found this…

It’s a Snille Swivel Chair which is only $19.99.   I thought it would work well for my room and I was in desperate need of a desk chair, it wasn’t love at first site but it will work!  So, I plopped this guy in my online cart also and checked out my two new IKEA items.   In a couple days these arrived…

and it was building time.  I started with the bigger lighter box which I assumed was the chair and I was correct.  Here are the contents of the first box…

Not too many pieces, always a good sign!

So I got right to work and about 5 minutes later I had this…

BAM, and I have a new chair! Next up was the Helmer Drawer Unit, which was not quite as easy.  Here is what you see when you open the box…

A few more pieces came with this one as you can see.  So here is everything laid out…

Looks like madness to me, how about you?  Basically I tried my best with building this one too, except it didn’t turn out as well as the chair.  Once I had the unit and the drawers assembled, the drawers weren’t fitting in the slots correctly and I could not figure out what I had done wrong.  In case you haven’t purchased anything from IKEA yet, I will forewarn you that their instruction manuals do not have words, just pictures.  This is great for me in most cases, except when I can’t figure out where I went wrong, at that point I need words!  So, finally I got frustrated enough and told Justin I needed some help.  Within 5 minutes he had it all fixed.  Turns out I put the walls of the unit on backwards, I had the right wall on the left side and the left wall on the right side, if that makes any sense. After all of the struggles this is what I had…

So, the verdict is that I still love IKEA very much!  Here is my art room now…

Wondering where my white rolling cart went?

There it is, just using a different wall to hang out on.

Don’t worry, I’ll be back soon to give you a breakdown of what I used the new storage for.

Happy Fall Y’all

I seriously just typed y’all, I don’t even say that word.  Florida may be rubbing off on me afterall.  Anyway, Halloween is over and it’s time to plan for the next holiday aka Thanksgiving.  Can’t wait to stuff my face and hang with family, but in the meantime I figured I would throw some fall decorations up to get us pumped up for the upcoming festivities! First off I packed up all of the Halloween decorations, except a few pumpkins that will stay to help celebrate Thanksgiving.  Once I had everything packed away I headed out to the store to get some supplies for some decorations I was thinking about putting together.  I stopped at JoAnne Fabrics and Hobby Lobby and came home with this…

Yup, got a butt load of stuff.  Everything was on sale though, I’m not that crazy, I spent about $25 for everything here.  I got the branchy thing with yellow looking berries from Hobby Lobby for $3 and it ended up here…

To be honest this may hang out here year round.  I am really diggin the way that it helps fills out this little nook area.  Here’s a view from the other side…

I heart it.  I wasn’t finished there, oh no.  I still had a couple other quick crafty projects up my sleeve, oh yes.

I previously had this glass cylinder from Justin’s work Christmas party, believe it or not.  They always have nice little centerpieces and they let every couple take one home each year.  This guy was filled with pine cones and ornaments last year.  I have seen them at craft stores for around $5 though if you’re interested in picking one up.  I also grabbed a cylinder candle from Target, that was on clearance for $4.

Lastly, I picked up some beans. Yes, beans.

Navy beans in particular, never heard of them.  I just liked them because they were white.  You can probably see where I am going with this idea now…

I poured some of the beans in the glass cylinder and then plopped the candle right on top.  I shimmied it around until it was level and centered then poured in the remaining beans.

I really wanted to try to stick with a white/tan theme for Thanksgiving this year, so I went with the white navy beans.  You could also use split peas or kidney beans or even acorns.  Anything your heart desires I guess!  Here is where this one ended up…

On the TV console.  I had one last project in mind, here are my supplies…

See the wheat looking stuff?  I picked that up at Hobby Lobby for $3 also, the ribbon and mason jars I already owned.  I started by splitting up the wheat bunch into smaller pieces.  The bunch was held together by wire, so I had to use our wire cutters to do so.

I was left with this…

All of those little extended pieces are wire, I tossed this guy right in the trash.  Next I plopped a few of the bunches into a clear mason jar.

I thought this was looking pretty good, but I didn’t care for the way the bottom of the bunches looked unfinished in the clear jar.  I then grabbed a bag of white rice we had in our pantry and just poured some right into the jar…

Much better!

I also added a burlap bow on each…

Fancy, huh?  These two went to live on the mantle…

I also put a couple creamish colored frames and a few votive candles up there as well. This project cost me $3 total because I had everything on hand except the wheat bunch. If you had to purchase everything to replicate these I would say it would run you about $10. Not bad for a quick decoration project.

I also purchased a little fall pillow that ended up in the patio…

And I had to get one more pumpkin!

And you know I have fall napkins!

Lastly, I bought a crazy scarecrow guy that ended up on the kitchen ledge along with an acorn dish filled with candy.

Do you decorate for fall?  Do tell!!!

No More Naked Hallway

The main hallway you see when you walk into our home looks like this…

Those walls look pretty naked to me.  I have been keeping my eyes peeled for good options for this wall for a while.  I knew I wanted a collection of frames.  Originally I was thinking a gallery wall, but that is a little too busy for Justin’s taste, so I needed a different idea.  I came across a couple things I was digging on pinterest…

This photo is actually from none other than my favorite blog younghouselove.  I love the idea of having a sequence of large square frames with large matting.  I also found this one that caught my eye…

Since I now had a plan in my head, I went over to Michael’s to see if I could find some square frames and I came home with these…

They are very large with a brown wood frame and white mat and they also hold an 8×10 photo. I decided to go with black and white photos and printed a few of my favorites.  This is what the hallway looks like now…

Want to see what pictures I chose…

Three of my favorites that I am more than happy to walk past each day.  Let me show you the view from the door…

I may pick up a couple more and make it a collection of 5, but I am not sure yet.  For now I am enjoying them the way they are!

Let’s Get Some Paint on Those Cabinets, Wahoo!

As you know I have been making some changes to our master bathroom.  I decided that it was time to do something about these…

I am not a fan of these 90’s style maple cabinets.  I know we are going to eventually get some sort of free standing double sink vanity that we are in love with, but why can’t we like this one a little more in the meantime?  Amiright?  I have also been dying to give painting cabinets a shot.  I have never dabbled in this type of DIY project and I don’t think I am going to get a better opportunity.  Before I could get started I went to my good friend pinterest and asked her to find me some info on painting bathroom cabinets(yes I consider pinterest a girl).  From there I found this blog,  I chose this one because she goes into detail on the steps she took to make her cabinets have professional looking results.  Also she was taking her cabinets from a similar maple wood tone to white, which was also my goal.  Here is the list I went to Lowes with: 1. sanding wedge 2. deglosser or liquid sander 3. spray primer 4. white paint 5. foam roller.  This is what I came home with 1. sanding wedge 2. liquid primer 3. white paint 4. foam roller.   Do you see that I didn’t pick up the deglosser and my spray primer became regular liquid primer?  Well the guy at the paint counter at Lowes told me that if I rolled Zinsser Bulls Eye Primer on my cabinets first I can skip the deglossing step.  I was skeptical, but Lowes employees rarely steer me in the wrong direction, so I took his advice and skipped deglossing.  Once I got home I needed to take apart my cabinets…

I unscrewed all of the doors from the hinges, then took the hinges off the cabinet frames…

I put all of the hinges and screws in a baggie and set it aside for when I needed to reassemble the cabinets, didn’t wanna lose any of those suckers.  Then I was left with this…

It was now time to get to sanding.  I used a medium grit sanding wedge…

I sanded all sides of the doors including the edges, then I sanded all of the cabinet framing. I then wiped everything down with a wet cloth to get all of the sanding debri off.  This would be where the deglosser or liquid primer would have come into play if I had decided to take that step. This is what I was left with after sanding…

I know it looks the same to me too, just a little less shiny.

Then came priming, here is the Zinsser Bulls Eye Primer, which is basically like gold according to man behind the paint counter….

Looks like gold huh?  This is also when I grabbed all of my cabinet doors and brought them out to the patio, didn’t wanna let the fumes suffocate my little Charlie bean and Zack man!

I first used a 2 inch paint brush to brush the inside crease on my cabinet doors, then I rolled the remaining area with a foam roller…

The foam roller can’t get into all of the small creases on the cabinet doors, so I have to use the brush for those areas.  But I prefer the foam roller because it leaves a more even coat with less streaking that a brush would leave.  (You know I am all about painting, so of course I need to give you my preference of painting tools.)  I painted the back of the cabinets first, I did this so once I had painted both sides, the front of the doors would be able to dry over night facing upward.  Just in case some tackiness is still occurring when I flip them to paint the front, any possible problem areas will be on the back of the doors.  Here is the complete coat of primer on the doors…

That long skinny board is the front of the single drawer we have in the bathroom.   Next up I headed inside to put a coat of primer on the cabinet frames, unfortunately this has to be done indoors considering it’s attached to the walls, darn.

As you can see before I primed the cabinets I taped off the walls and floor where it meets the cabinets.  I let this dry for about 4 hours(the can recommended 2, better safe than sorry right?).  Then it was time for the paint…

I went with Valspar Signature in Ultra White.  I painted this on the exact same way as the primer.  Here is after the second coat…

I had to do one coat of primer and 3 coats of paint in total.  It took me about 3 days to finish since I really wanted to let each coat dry thoroughly, I really didn’t want to deal with any chipping issues.  Once everything was completely dry it was time to put it all back together!

I think I did a bang up job and these cabinets are now a little easier on the eyes.  Oh and in case your wondering about the inside…

That’s all painted too.

I also picked up some new hardware from Lowes while I was there and I attached those to the cabinets after measuring where each should go.  Want some before and afters? Okay!

Before:

and now…

Before…

yes, the cabinets had black kick boards.

and now…

Before:

and now…

Before:

and now…

I’m pretty jazzed about the outcome.  I think it was a success.  It makes the whole bathroom feel different, the shade of blue on the walls even feels like it has changed a shade or two.  I am thinking some darker decorations may help balance the lightness in here.  As for painting cabinets, it is quite the job but I think it is worth it in the end.  The only suggestion I have for a project like this is to wait a day in between each coat of paint and give it another day or two before reattaching the doors to the frame.  Do you have any preferences?

How About Some More Couches? Say What?

Justin and I were not in the market for more couches necessarily, but these fell in our lap.  Our friends Krissi and Sean happened to be getting a new sectional for their home and were looking to sell their like new(I mean really really well taken care of) furniture.  They have no pets, do not smoke and are super clean, couldn’t ask for better hand me down friends!  When Krissi told me she was looking to sell her couches I threw the idea out to Justin to purchase them and he was in.  Guess what… they are the same exact couches we have in our living room, but a few shades darker!  I know we are super reckless and gutsy buying the same exact furniture we already own!  But, go with what you know works right?  We know that these couches have been holding up well with two dogs and they are comfortable!  I know what you are thinking though… Why do we need additional couches?  Well remember these two sparse rooms?

and

Ya, haven’t seen these two in a while right?   Probably because this is the only furniture they have contained since we moved in.  That futon is primarily used by the dogs!  This is where we pictured the new couches living.  So we borrowed a truck and hauled those suckers home.

That’s everything stacked up in the garage.  Did I not mention that this purchase also came with a leather ottoman, a coffee table and 6 throw pillows!  Yup, our friends are awesome.  Here are the couches…

Here are the ones we have in our living room for comparison…

Same thing different color.

After we moved things around about 10 times to see how we could arrange this furniture we came up with this set up…

Originally we were planning to put both couches in the room without the desk, but they are a little too big to fit both in one room.  Fortunately these two rooms kind of act as one since they are open to each other and are painted the same color.  We didn’t use the coffee table because it felt a little too cramped, we put the ottoman in the corner of the other room so it can be pulled out whenever we want to use it. For now it seems to be Charlie’s hang out spot when we’re not home.  Eventually I think we will mount a TV in the first room(without the desk).  We also badly need some art or decorations in here.

These rooms feel like they now have a purpose.  I also think those windows are asking for curtains, that’s now something that is on my list.  And in case you’re wondering where the futon ended up…

Back to my art room!

I think we’re doing pretty good on the furniture front, I think it’s time to start getting some art on these bare walls now.