how to dry brush {white wash}

By Karah | February 21, 2012 - 7:08 am | dry brush, free, furniture, number art, paint, tutorial, white wash

Well folks, the big a$$ tv has a new home. You’ll remember it used to live here. If you want to see how I upgraded an old dresser with some fun maps and stenciling, click here. Yes, that is in our bedroom. :/ And we had this little cutie in our living room. Wait…is that a plain, dirty piece of plywood hanging above my tv? Hmmm, odd…more on that another time. :) Why? You ask, do we have our little tv in the living room and large tv in the bedroom?? Well, we have this great outdoor space (being as we live on an island and all) and we will often move our tv outside when we are just hanging out on the roof. It is a space I have been keeping under lock and key…well not really, it IS outside. But, I have yet to share it on the blog. The outdoor space is one of the best parts of this house. No, I take that back, the outdoor space IS the best part of this house. :) But, after over 2 years of living here we find we’re not lugging the little tv outside quite as often as we used to and… really people…the house is the size of a bread box so moving the little tv into the bedroom adds an extra 12 steps when we do decide we want to take it outside. Yes, I just paced it off. :) But, clearly the big a$$ tv wasn’t going to fit on this gal. No, not the dog, the cute little Ethan Allan 4 drawer I got for….wait for it…$10. Now…where to put her, hmmmm. A decision for another day. But, I did have this, not real special, hutch. Some of our neighbors actually gave it to … continue reading →

imperfection is the new black

By Karah | February 20, 2012 - 7:08 am | crafty, dogs, furniture, gallery wall, home decor, imagine the impossibilities, imperfection, intentional imperfection, life, nature, nearly free

21 Comments

Seriously. I mean, who’s into perfect anymore? Well, I’m sure there are many out there. But not this girl. Is there really any better way to set yourself up for disappointment…than to expect perfection? For starters, I would never be living in this house. Oh, how you are imperfect…let me count the ways. But let me only point out the tile…oh the tile of which you have an abundance. But what was it that someone once said…where ever you are, I am home…or, my favorite thing about my house is who I share it with…or, as long as we’re living here together I can overlook the tile…it was something like that. ;) And it really isn’t about the structure, or even the things in it, is it?!? Oh, if it were about the perfection of the things… I would probably shudder at the sight of that silly, un-level driftwood shelf in my new one screw gallery wall every time I walked in the room. Or, I might have finished re-upholstering that chair by now…8 years later. Or, I might not have gotten disproportionately excited when I bought these hideous couches for $65 for the pair. I can’t even tell you how hard it is to find “American” sized furniture for a reasonable price on an island. As an aside, if you’re looking for perfection, definitely don’t move to a Caribbean island…I know some people who learned that lesson the hard way. Please refer back to that comment I made earlier…something about the expectation of perfection = surefire disappointment. :) Now, I have to give a shout out to the Nester for the idea of Celebrating the Imperfect with a link party. And, in contemplating her idea, I realize, that through my never-ending search for a steal deal, my need to find ways, albeit … continue reading →

mapped, dressed and done

By Karah | December 22, 2011 - 7:08 am | furniture, nearly free, upcycle

70 Comments

I did it. I finally finished the dresser. And it was really more like mapped, dressed, braided, jigsawed, sanded, painted and done. :) I explained how I got it started here. Then I got a little distracted by a little thing called Christmas (are you guys ready for it?) and went a little ornament crafting crazy. If you haven’t been keeping up (where have you been?) I put all my projects in one handy spot for you to check out here. Now, for the dresser, I’m lovin’ the upgrade. It reminds me of where we have been, where we are now and makes we wonder where we’re going next. I let the drawers sit for a bit with the maps on them. I didn’t even put them back in the dresser to use. I just used this always essential chair (more on that here) to toss organize what would be in the dresser. Apparently even if I have to step over a project 10 times a day it does nothing for my motivation to finish it. ;) One day out and about I found these letters at a local scrap booking store and had the idea to stencil on the names of the locations that each dresser represents. They didn’t have all of the letters I needed so out of a cereal box (love me some Honey Bunches of Oats) I made an O with a little help from the C I bought and an A with some M, N and W. And yes, the M and W are exactly the same but I didn’t realize it until I got them home. Bamboozled by the alphabet. Drats! I mixed together a few different colors of craft paint I had to create a subtle color that wouldn’t over power the maps. Honestly, each drawer came … continue reading →