Bringing Orange to the 20's

This was my first experience with an antique piece of furniture. This piece is, to date, my favorite. The result was great but more than that I think I love this dresser because of the time and effort that was put into it. Jessica had great vision when she chose the style and colors for the paint. When she first suggested that we go with a burnt orange color I was very skeptical that we would be able to pull it off but I was supportive.

We found this dresser at the local goodwill store for $16. Cosmetically it was really hurting. It was extremely unsturdy, the veneer was peeling off in many places, and the middle large drawer was broken and unusable. I figured that for the price it was worth a try to see if I could actually fix and restore this antique dresser.

Here are the 'Before' shots:
Beautiful old drawer pulls

Exteme damage on the bottom drawers veneer.

I felt it necessary to sand the dresser completely

Legendary Letters

For Jessica's 22nd birthday I gave her a Hawkeye hoody and some wooden letters that spelled Ethan and Noah. I thought it could be a fun project to paint them the colors of the boys crib sets and we could hang them above each crib. Jessica got way more creative than I did and she came up with some ideas of how to paint them. Before the letters went on the walls, the boys room was bare. We had one small picture on one wall and that was it. This one simple creative paint job changed the boys room from an empty cell into their own special place. They each had their own crib now and they loved it. After we finished the ones for Ethan and Noah, some of our friends asked if we would make some for them. We felt it was a nice gift to celebrate new babies being born. These were the boys crib colors that we did our best to match. We also tried to stay with the circle patterens.We used just the basic acrylic toll paints that can be purchased at Walmart or any other crafty store. The paint itself was not very expensive and the letters at walmart were about $1.70 each.

The larger but thinner circles were made just by rolling a piece of cardstock paper and dipping in the paint. The smaller solid circles were made using the cheap orange earplugs that you would find in the hunting and gun section. They are about a centimeter in diameter and worked perfect for what we wanted. The earplugs do start to swell as they get filled with paint so you need to replace them every once in a while.

This is one we did for one of our friends in Wisconsin

This one we did for my sister when she had her first baby.

The Corner Cabinet

This was our first ever DIY project we did together. Like most folks out there we spent the first couple of year of our marriage living in a basement apartment and our furniture was quite uneventful. Almost everything we had was purchased used from a thrift store or had been given to us. We found this corner cabinet at a yard sale for super cheap. It was just raw pine wood at the time we bought it and looked a little flimsy but we saw hidden potential. We just went to Walmart and purchased the cheapest dark stain we could find. I dont remember the brand or anything but I'm sure any will do. We applied the stain as though it was paint because the pine didn't have any natural wood grains we wanted to expose. Normally with a nice piece of wood and stain you put the stain on and wipe off the excess. We did not wipe any off in hopes of having full coverage of the wood. Though not entirely intentional, we stained the piece a little unevenly but the effect was great. It made it look like a more solid hard wood piece and created a faux wood grain feel. After it was complete it almost seemed too nice to go with the rest of the furniture. This one piece changed our basement college apartment and gave it a small touch of class. Sorry that I don't have any 'before' pictures of it. If you noticed, we dont put anything on the lower shelves because the boys would destroy it.

Welcome

My name is Joseph. My wife Jessica and I live in St. Joseph, MO and we have four and a half year old twin boys and a six month old little girl

Jessica has a grand gift. Everything around her becomes beautiful. Anything she puts her heart into becomes something to behold. I am not sure how she does it but I love her for it. I know that she has something very special inside of her and I am glad she chose me to be the one by her side when she lets it all out. So far I have only seen glimpses of her creativity and beautiful mind, and I want to share them with you.

Jessica has not only changed my outlook on style, fashion, furniture, home decor, etc. but has helped me to see that One Piece Changes Everything. One bright light can fill an entire room. One gorgeous furniture piece can change the mood of a room and the individuals therein. One great piece of junk can become one great treasure. One amazing wife and mother can change my world and the world of those around her.

So, without further ado, here is my first attempt at blogging and I hope our craft blog will help inspire you to do as Jessica does and create something beautiful.