Our New Patio Set

Over the past couple weeks, Craigslist has been so kind to me.  Humor me and get excited with me, won't you?

I've been scouring Craigslist for a teak patio set for a while now.  (Did you know that when properly cared for, teak is said to last for generations?  Amazing!) The wrought iron set we had was decent enough, but it only sat four, which made it difficult to host friends and eat outside.  We were always wishing for more space and seating.

Definitely not my house, but note the beautiful teak furniture!

I have an alert set up through the Craigslist app (highly recommend, btw), so I am ready to pounce at a moment's notice when a post containing one of my keywords is found (in this case, "teak").  Can you imagine my horror when I inquired about a post literally six minutes after it went live, only to learn it was no longer available?  Apparently, I was not the only one in hot pursuit of some teak.  Not one to be easily deterred, this setback only intensified my drive, and a week or so later, a set was posted for sale for super cheap.  The icing on the cake?  It was located about 8 minutes from my house!

I'll leave out all the details of how obsessive and crazy I behaved while I waited to hear back from the sellers.  Here I am rolling back up to my house with my new teak set in tow.  Holler at my sweet neighbors who loaned me their van and trailer!!!

I love love love love love it!  It even has a hidden leaf that extends the table to provide for more seating.

grainy photo taken without enough light…

I've started cleaning it, and it's amazing what a little elbow grease will do!  I love the gray look of teak as it ages, but there was quite a bit of dirt that had to go.  Check out what a difference it made:

Our new patio set has given me much-needed motivation to address the rest of our back, so hopefully some improvements will not be too far off in the future.  And while I'm not going to show you just how rough the rest of our "yard" is, I will share some pictures of some gorgeous outdoor spaces I've recently pinned.  Our back yard looks about like the opposite of these images, just in case you were wondering.

all images and their sources can be found under the "Patio & Garden" board on my Pinterest page.  

A Tale of Two Coffee Tables {Part 2}

As sad as I was to see my beloved marble-top coffee table go (read about that here), there was a part of me that thought our current living room layout would actually work best with a round coffee table.  The marble table was pretty big too, and there's not much in my California house that could be described as big…

So, round and smaller…my mission was clear.  (I'm sure you don't have to guess where I went looking.)  I eventually stumbled across this listing.

I loved the unique shape and the dimensions seemed perfect, but of course, a bright blue top and white base were not really what I had in mind.  While the easiest thing would have been to just paint it, I really felt like my room could stand a dose of good 'ol fashioned wood.  I have quite a few painted and upholstered pieces, and a pretty wood-stained piece seemed like the right addition.

I'm also nothing if not over-zealous for a daunting project that's perhaps just slightly out of my comfort zone.

Our sweet babysitter was kind enough to accompany me to go see the table.  She is one of my very favorite things about California.

I am in denial about how old I am, so I like to pretend that our babysitter, Natalie and I are peers by asking her if she wants to hang out with me and take selfies with me.

Now I have to confess, I almost backed out on the table when I saw it.  It seemed like the top was a veneer, and it had some small splits in it.  There's also something about seeing an old piece of furniture in the dark in a not so cute environment that can cause even the most visionary among us to doubt potential!  But, when the seller said she'd take 40 bucks for it, I figured it was worth a try. (Also having the vote of confidence from some DIY gurus like my friend Carson and even Jenny Komenda herself gave me an extra dose of courage!)

I was itching to get started to see what would come of this guy with a little elbow grease, so I followed the advice I read on Little Green Notebook and Little Black Door and quickly got to work.  I applied Citristrip all over the table and found that so long as I put it on thick enough, it took the paint right off the legs of the table.

The orange substance is the Citristrip product.

You can see how the stripper did its job by causing the paint to bubble up so that I could scrape it off.  

The top was another story.  Something about the wood veneer made for a surface that sucked that blue paint deep down into each and every crevice!  When I had hit a wall with Citristrip, I figured I'd pull out the big guns and go for the heavy duty stuff.  It seemed to be more effective, but it was still slow going and required multiple coats.

I used our electric sander and made progress with that too, but no matter what I did, that blue paint would not disappear.  {This is when it comes in handy to be stubborn and obsessive.  Eventually you will prevail.}

It was fascinating to see how the stripping agent literally lifted the blue out of the wood.  

I finally got that sucker down to about as raw a state as it was gonna get (We are talking weeks went by with multiple coats of the stripper!).  Sweet mercy.

I cleaned the wood with mineral spirits, gave it a final light sanding with a finer grit paper, and wiped it down.  (I also repaired a few of the cracks in the veneer with a stainable wood filler)

Finally, it was time to apply the stain!  I had only done one other stripping and staining project, so this was still pretty new to me.  I used a brush to apply the stain, but I think a cloth would have perhaps worked better.  Working with the grain of the wood, I applied the stain in manageable sections and allowed it to soak into the wood for 10-15 seconds or so before I wiped off whatever was remaining with a clean cloth.

This is the only photo I have of this process as I was nervously trying to work quickly, hoping I wouldn't mess it up!

Staining the wood felt more creative than when you simply paint furniture, and I loved seeing the wood grain take on the stain.  Once I had let the stain dry for the recommended amount of time, I applied several coats of poly in a satin finish.

Yes, it was a lot of work, but let me tell you, I LOVE my new table!  Stay tuned for the final reveal!

A Tale of Two Coffee Tables {Part I}

So, we have a new coffee table! It's very exciting, I assure you, and like nearly every other piece of furniture I own, it has a story about how it came to live in our home.  But, before I get to sharing my new pride and joy, I feel I must tell y'all the story behind our old coffee table.  (As it turns out, she's the reason we have a new one actually.)

Two years ago, when we lived in Illinois, my living room was quite spacious, and I determined that we needed a fairly large coffee table to suit the space.  As any Craigslist-obsessed person does, I diligently checked the St. Louis listings until one day I saw an ad for two marble coffee tables--one rectangular shaped table for $150 and its square-shaped mate for $100 or so.

Obviously, the price was more than fair, but it was going to be about a 45 minute drive, so I needed to do a little planning to figure out when to pick it up.  Oh, and the seller said to bring help, as it was really  heavy.  Now, when I am in this kind of situation where I really want something that is listed, but I am dependent on the seller emailing me back and wanting to pick me as their buyer (because in my head like 20 other people are also emailing them about the awesome $100 marble coffee table!), I can be a little crazy.  I try to walk that fine line between "very interested, yet level-headed buyer" and "strange obsessed person."  Sometimes I probably do a better job at walking the line than other times.

Well on this cold December night, I did what any reasonable wife would do.  I hired a babysitter to watch my kids and begged my husband to drive with me after work to pick up the heavy coffee table!  God bless that man who had to get up at 5 am the next day (I'm telling you, I remember details when it comes to my CL acquisitions.) and agreed to come on this journey with me.

He's a keeper!!

Just testing it out!  Ah, my babies!  They have grown so much since these pictures!

Once we arrived at the home of the coffee table, we realized how heavy this sucker actually was.  Literally, it was 300-400 lbs.  I kid you not.  Thankfully the seller had a dolly, but between Philip, myself and the woman selling the table, we nearly had to give up on the whole thing it was so unbelievably heavy.  Thankfully I did not have to call the whole thing a bust and somehow we managed to get it in the back of our car.  Just to give you an idea of how involved, exhausting and flat out ridiculous the whole experience of trying to move the table was--the lady ended up giving it to us for free!  I believe she said something along the lines of "If you want this table this badly, I just want you to have it for free!" I may have hugged her.

Are you seeing the kind of muscle that was required to move this thing?! Many thanks to these dear friends for their assistance :)

Let me try to wrap this up.

The coffee table was everything I could have hoped it would be and more.  I loved it in our living room.  Fast forward to a year later and my table was not so kind to my girls.

The little lady on the right lost a tooth very prematurely thanks to an unfortunate collision with the table.  The little lady on the left got a small chip in her tooth when she grazed its edge on her way down to the floor.

At this point I decided I should go ahead and hang my Mother-of-the-Year badge up and find us a different coffee table--maybe one not made of a hard stone?!  Not to worry, my marble love lives in its own little crated bed in our garage (I'm totally serious) and will hopefully be able to join our family again in a couple years.

Proof that it does have its own bed. (Again, please note the grimacing occurring.  These movers loved it when I mentioned that I got this for free.  ha.)   Surely y'all must have pictures documenting the life of your furniture too?

Check back soon for the next installment in this riveting series :)

Progress on our Hall Bath

While the kids and I were in Virginia this summer, Philip took on the task of tiling the hall bathroom floor.  This was so great for a couple reasons.  First, our floor before was white laminate that looked dingy and dirty even when it was technically clean.  Now, it looks like this:

Second, like so often occurs, this tiling project catapulted our plans for giving this little bathroom a facelift.  Now, we also have freshly painted walls and a new vanity to boot!

When we set out to freshen up this bathroom, I settled on this beautiful space as my inspiration.

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I painted the walls this color.  I found a vanity on Craigslist in San Francisco.  Naturally, I convinced my whole crew to trek down there with me a couple Friday nights ago so we could snag it.

This faucet just arrived in the mail.  I found this mirror at a local thrift store, and it's waiting to be hung. It's admittedly not consistent with my inspiration image but I've always loved it, it was $30, and I still think it'll look good. (Need to figure out what to do about the current medicine cabinet situation).  Still need to find a new light fixture to replace the granny-chic one we currently have going on.  Baseboard should go in within the next couple of days.

My current dilemna is whether or not to paint the vanity.  When we originally set out to select a vanity, I was thinking we'd settle on one of the lower grade options at Home Depot or Lowes, so I would definitely paint it.  However, the vanity we ended up getting is nicer than those, and really not offensive at all in its current state.  It's a nicer, solid wood, and the dark, espresso stain is pretty nice as is.  The thing is, nearly all the bathrooms I'm drawn to (a quick perusing of my bathroom pins told me this) include a painted vanity.  I feel like I'm leaning towards painting it (thinking this color would be a good match for my inspiration image).  What do you think?

Here are a few painted vanities for your consideration…

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Sooooo, to paint or not to paint?!

A Few Happy {House} Things

Now that Mary Graham is here and our house doesn't feel as chaotic, I'm starting to feel like myself again.  We've been working to make our home feel more like us--Philip was even able to get some small things done during his paternity leave.  I've been thinking about different things I'd like to do, projects I'd like to eventually tackle.

Here are a few things that are making my sleep-deprived state a little more bearable…

1. We ordered this table to serve as an entry table of sorts in our living room.

The lighting is terrible in the photo, and the space needs lots of help (lamps, a pair of ottomans underneath, window treatments just to name a few things :), but I'm excited about the potential!  I rarely order things straight retail, so this was a treat, and I think it's going to be just right for the space.  I was originally inspired to go this route when I saw this picture in the December/January issue of House Beautiful.

I'll be sure to snap some better photos once things are looking a little more finished.  If anyone has any good sources for reasonably priced storage ottomans I'm all ears!  I'm hoping to scope out HomeGoods this weekend.

2.  I snagged some new Euro shams for our bed on major clearance.  I found them at Lands End of all places.  I've actually been really impressed with a lot of their home items.  I spent a good two days deliberating between two different styles, finally decided on one, then of course that one was sold out.  Go figure.  Hoping I love the second runner up I ended up going with!

This was my first choice:

And this was the style I ordered.  Can't beat $9.99 per sham!

3.  A new storage piece!

This guy was a Craigslist steal and while he's no antique, I thought the shape was interesting and I like his lines.  I think a paint job will go a long way.   I can't tell you how exciting it is to have a new place to house some of the junk stuff that's been in our garage.  Living in a small house is a fun challenge for me design-wise, but it definitely requires a certain level of planning and thoughtfulness with regards to how you use the space.  The room we use as a dining room is actually relatively large, so we've been trying to figure out how to maximize the space we have and make it work for us.  I'm looking forward to storing some of the kids' toys in here as well as some desk/office type items.