Mint Desk

Hello everyone! So for the longest time I have been wanting a mint green desk. I wanted something fun and shiny so I went for it. I am new at this whole thing and I usually stain things or just paint it either white or black so this was pretty fun. 

I bought this desk because I went on a whim and decided I needed a study area. Let's just say it turned into a folding table for laundry.

This is after one coat of primer. Usually, when I do a project I sand the piece before I start messing with it. This not only was my first colorful project but  my first non-sanding project since the piece is laminate. I got brave, the internet said I could do it and of course we all know the internet does not lie (see what I did there? ha!) For the most part, not sanding it first was not that  bad, but it did get a little worse. 

 After 2 coats of the Bullseye - 1-2-3 Plus Primer.

  

The hardest part was picking the color. Everything was way too mint, too green or too blue. I finally decided to go with a $3 sample and it turned out to be the perfect color.

After very lightly sanding the primer and one layer of paint later. When I sanded the primer it started to just peel off!! I instantly regretted my decision to not sand but I just put another coat of primer on it and it turned out great. 

Excuse the bad cell phone pictures but my camera totally gave out on me. It took about 3 coats of paint to achieve the color I wanted and I am in love. I kept the hardware because I was really in love with it, all I did was paint it gold with some spray paint I bought at the dollar store. 

I sealed it with regular poly because I am not going to lie, if you even rubbed it hard enough the paint would chip a little. I have had it for about a month now and it has really held up. No chips or scratches to report and it has now been upgraded from a folding table to an over sized coffee table. 

I was so over the painting and since we were already on the fun train, I decided to do do the same for the drawers. Decoupage. Yep, you read that right. I've never done it before but after watching an episode of "Flea Market Flip" I got brave again. I went to Hobby Lobby and bought some "burlap" print paper. I needed something that I was not really going to need to match up the edges too much since it was my first time. I ended up using 10 sheets on both drawers (I messed up a lot). For it being my first time I don't think I did too bad. 

Using a foam brush I put a little bit of Mod-Podge on the drawer and then brushed a little on the back of the paper. I put the paper down on the drawer smoothed it out with an old membership card and then brushed another layer of glue on top. I just kept repeating and I also made sure to cut the pieces before I put them down. 

In the end I am very happy with the finished piece. I've been using it and putting it through a beating and it has help up good. 

Thank you for stopping by and reading. 

Unconventional Materials Table Top Re-do

Well hello there guys! I am back and happy to announce that this semester is over and finished it off with two A's and one B. Now let's celebrate. Grab some pop corn and junk food because it's going to be a long one.

So I finished this project I am about to share with you guys a couple of months ago but I just never posted it and also I wanted to see how it was going to hold up. You'll see why in a minute.

When my boyfriend and I moved from Texas to Ohio all we had as far as furniture was a blow up mattress and well that was about it. That thing served as our bed, couch and dining table. Sometimes all at once. Anyway, when I finally got around to getting us a dining room table, the process took a lot longer than I expected. All of them were huge tables, cheap little dinettes or just something weird. Then it happened, the perfect size table and chairs for the space we had. So I bought it for $70 bucks..one table, an extension leaf (which I later turned into a bench) and 5 chairs. Yeah it was a little pricey but I got tired of eating on the dang blow up mattress.

Here's what it looked like when I got it.

So there it sat for months! I am serious. Getting used to life in Ohio, school and family this thing was left forgotten. I knew exactly what I wanted to do to it, yep, you guessed it, stain the top and paint the rest. The thing is the freakin' top is LAMINATE. *begin dry heaving now*

I went on Pinterest/ Google for help and got tons of ideas:

1. Replace with an old door and put glass on top of it. Nope, couldn't find an old door for a reasonable price.

2. Replace with wooden planks of some sort. Nope, really not that handy or crafty.

3. Just paint the whole thing. Nope, I was very adamant that I was going to stain the top. That's my idea and I am sticking to it.

4. Glue paint stirrers on top of it and stain. Voila! 

4 is the lucky number but of course its never that easy. I had a paint stirrer laying around from some paint that I had bought and I set it on top of the table. Immediately I realized that I needed to go back to the drawing board. The paint stirrers were just so thick and I was going to need like a saw of some sort to cut through all of them and it was a lot more work than I was willing to do. So one day walking through Wal-Mart it hit me!!!!

POPSICLE STICKS!!!!

These little things talked to me! Look even they are happy!

See the difference in thickness ^

Technically they are made of wood too and I am just going to go ahead and say it. This takes a bit of time but it is seriously so inexpensive and to me, personally I loved the effect I got at the end.

I just started placing the popsicle sticks on the table and went from there. I started laying them down randomly, subway-ish tiled, some type of design and you name it. I finally decided to just have them going all kinds of ways. I also decided that the length of them was too  long for my taste and went ahead and measured them all to 3 inches with a regular tape measure.

I scored all of them in the box with just a regular pencil. I did not now how  many I was going to end up needing (oh you have so much to learn little one) and hours of Netflix later I had scored and cut all of them. I cut them with a big pair of scissors I found in the hardware section of Walmart for a couple of bucks. They cut very easy too.

At first I decided on this pattern and started placing them down on what I thought was the center. I did measure even though it does not look like it in the angle of the picture.

Before I started gluing I roughed it up a little with some 80 grit sand paper.

 I just started gluing and gluing and watching Netflix. I put something heavy on top of them because I did notice that the sticks started to curl up at the edges.

And as you can tell, this is where it happened. I was sitting down doing thing and wasn't even noticing that I was totally off center going all kinds of ways. I had to pop every single one of these suckers off with a screw driver and a hammer (this glue is no joke), sand down the leftover glue and start all over. *hysterically laughing and dry heaving all at the same time*

As you can see, there is trial and error in everything. Not all of the things you see on Pinterest comes out perfect the first time. Don't get discouraged.

When I regained consciousness I started over, you would thing I learned my lesson but no, I wanted the same type of pattern. But this time instead of doing "V's" I started doing "L's" hope that makes sense, don't know how else to explain it.

My sanity, one day later and another box of popsicle sticks since I had to throw away most of the ones I popped off, the table was completely covered. I just went over the middle part where it I supposed to separate but I knew I was never going to use it for that. Especially since I made that bench out of the leaf.

There was a lot of gaps between many of the sticks, so clearly not all popsicle sticks/measurements are made equal. I filled it with wood filler and it looked perfect. Since the table is oval I had some pieces that did stick out quite a bit so all I did was got a tiny little hand saw from Walmart and used that to saw off the pokey edges. I went back and sanded them to get them smooth.

 After I filled all of the gaps with wood filler, I started sanding the heck out of this thing to get it as flat and smooth as possible. I made it this far so now I kind of had to go through with it.

After all was said and done and I did enough sanding to last me a lifetime, I stained it with Minwax Jacobean (the $3 sample sizes was more than enough for this table), sanded it smooth a couple more times and put a few layers of Poly. since it was going to get a lot of use.

This little stinker is the biggest pain in my behind. I glued it the wrong way and I refuse to pop it off because I am scared I am going to mess everything up. It's right in the middle but my centerpiece covers it.

 As you can see it's pretty flat and people that have came over say its pretty darn smooth. It has held up perfectly as well.

Sorry for the crappy cell phone pic.

So if you are ever THIS bored or have no idea what to do your table top, I hope this helps. I did not even spend 100 bucks including the table itself to do this. All you need is popsicle sticks and patience. 

I hope you learned something new and enjoyed this little DIY. Hope you stop by again.  

People?

Well hello there my lovely people from the internet! This is Bere coming out of the mountain of school work she's been hiding under.
I have not been posting and yet again I feel like the worst blogger in blogging history. But I do have a good excuse...nursing school preparations are in full bloom and on top of that this current semester is putting up a darn good fight. Can someone remind me why I decided to take statistics online? So that on top of background checks, physicals blood work and basically signing my first born away (totally kidding!) I have not been able to do much of ANYTHING.
There are tons of stuff still coming up and I can't wait to get back to it. There is this desk that needs my loving touch and a whole much more stuff to share. I want to start doing a bit of weekend getaway adventures because the Mr. and I love to just get up and go when we have a free weekend. I also want to start sharing some outfit posts for the every day person like me. I have been getting asked a lot lately where I get some of the stuff I am wearing so I thought why not share it here too. What do you guys think?

I can't wait to start being more active on this. I hope yall are still here with  me and are enjoying what I have to share so far. See you soon. P.s. If you want to follow me on Instagram I am pretty active on there: @lvlybere

xoxo

Table leaf turned DIY Bench

Hello world! Greetings from the worst blogger in blogger history. I am still winding down from the holidays in Texas, moving to another apt., school and adjusting to the snow (I totally underestimated the winter in the north)

 

Anyway, sorry I went off on a tangent there. So we moved into a slightly bigger apartment and you know when you move you realize how much stuff *junk* you really have. Well that is what happened.

 

I found the extension leaf to our dining room table in the attic and it was headed straight for the trash since we were never going to use it. As I was driving it to the new place I realized we needed a bit extra seating since we were going to have people over for the Superbowl and decided I was going to make some type of bench. Keep reading to find out how I did it.

 

I did not get a picture of the underside but this is what it looked like when I started. It was a perfect size too, it was 18 in. x 38in.

 

 

I unscrewed the "lip" thing it had on the underside, you know the thing that let's it blend with the rest of the table. Also, I removed some staples it had sticking out and the plastic little pegs that stick out of the side.

 

 

 

I took a trip to Hobby Lobby armed with my 40 % off coupon and went to work. I bought 3 inch foam, 1 yard of fabric for $9.00 and 3 packs or upholstery tacks for about $1.50 each. Foam was 30 % off that day so to my surprise the $9.00 fabric was the most expensive part * start happy dance now*

 

I have never "made" a piece of upholstered furniture before but I had a general idea and went for it. I did read that some type of serrated knife works best for cutting foam so I used my big bread knife and it worked PERFECT!.

 

 

After I arranged the pieces I took them outside to spray them. The spray adhesive did not get every where and I had pretty good control over it but just in case. I sprayed the wood itself and I sprayed the  two foam pieces as well as the section where they connect. I waited until it got tacky (however long it took me to bring the pieces back inside) and then just connected the pieces.

 

 

I flipped the entire thing over on the foam side and let gravity and the weight of leaf do the rest. I don't know if this helps but remember we are just going for it. After about 5 minutes I covered the entire thing in batting and stapled my life away.

 

I made sure to pull it really tight.

 

Now since I only bought 1 yard of fabric I knew I was going to be cutting it close but I wanted it to be tight. As you can see I barely had enough at the ends but on the other two sides I had more than enough. I pulled it super tight and did a double staple line to make sure I didn't have any loose fabric showing on the bottom and to make sure it stays.

 

 

The pulling and the stapling is where the "fun" is. The second line of stapling is much easier since everything is in place already all I had to do was go over it . Keep pliers handy because trust me you are going to need them.

 

 

 

 

 

I attached the tacks with a regular hammer about half inch apart. It does not show it in the picture but I did go all around.

 

I bought 14 inch legs at Lowe's for about $4 each. Sure there are cheaper ones but there caught my eye immediately. The mounting plates are about $1.50 and they are in the same section as the legs. All you do is screw them in where you want them. It is your preference but I made the mistake of getting angled ones at first and it did not look right at all. I ended up going back and getting straight ones.

 

 

I stained the legs with some leftover Minwax stain in "Provincial." The picture does not do it justice (note to self invest in good camera) but the legs are dark but not too dark. It's perfect for our space.

 

 

I am extremely happy with how this bench turned out and it help up great for the people we had here for the game. My boyfriend and I both fit on it and it didn't break with both of us on it so yay! It didn't take a lot of money and it was a good day project.

 

 

 I hope you enjoyed my little project and thank you so much for stopping by.

 

Quick Key Holder Project

The other day I was at Wal-Mart just rolling down the isles wasting time. Don't judge me it's one of my hobbies. I was not planning to get anything to DIY I just wanted to see what I could find. I found this little key holder wood sign thing, it was $3 so I figured why not. Our keys where just being thrown in the corner of a bookshelf and seriously making me itch and home with me it went!

 

 

 

This is what the little wooden key holder looks like. You can find it in the arts and crafts section of Wal-Mart and you cant beat the $3 price.

 

 

 

 

I knew that I didn't want to paint it. I wanted to keep with the natural/rustic theme we kind of have going on (who am I kidding I am a sucker for stained wood) so I stained it with some leftover stain I had laying around from Minwax in the shade Provincial. You can get these mini cans for about $5 bucks at your home improvement store.

 

I didn't take a picture of the process *worst blogger ever* but basically what I did was got an old rag, dipped in the stain and did one coat on the wood sign front and back. Since it's in cursive there is a lot of nooks and crannies in the sign and to get to those I got a q-tip, dipped it in stain and pressed it against the spaces I could not reach with my finger. I did not sand it or seal it since it was pretty smooth already and it is just basically going to stay on the wall as a permanent fixture ha!

 

 

 

Isn't it pretty! Simple and cheap, this seriously took me like 10 minutes and just left it overnight to dry. I hope you guys liked it. Come back soon.

 

Long Road Trip Tips

Hello there world wide web! Excuse my absence but the holidays are upon us and that means family time. The thing is I am on one end of the country and our families are on the other and we wanted to spend as much time with them as possible. We had not seen them in 6 months!

The Mr. and I just did a cross country trip from Ohio to Texas and back for the Thanksgiving holiday and after being stuck in a car for about 19 hours each way, I thought I would share some things that helped us keep our sanity along the way since we drove it straight.

Enjoy!

1. Probably the most important one. Always have a buddy. We could not have done a straight 19 hours alone. When we moved up to Ohio it took us 3 days to get up here since we were in different vehicles hauling all our stuff.

2. Trivia games on your mobile device are a fun way to pass time. It keeps the passenger doing something if you are not sleepy and the driver with eyes on the road and talking to stay awake. It was also a good bonding experience for us both.

3. We found that 4 hour drive times each at a time was the magic number to switch places.

4. We have a Spotify subscription, but it does not go on for 19 hours straight so carry your favorite CD's (yes we still use them) and abuse the heck out of the "seek" button in you car. I find the constant change in stations keeps me awake.

5. If you need to pull over for gas, try to go to gas stations that are on the exit side of the intestate so you can hop on and off. It can get a little confusing going to gas stations on the opposite side and then try to find your way back across (trust me).

6. If you feel your belly button gnawing at your backbone around 10 pm -ish ....STOP... do not wait until after that because believe it or not, a lot of places are not open 24 hours. We made that mistake and found ourselves desperately looking for food for 30 min straight and we finally settled for a truck stop subway. Please do no stop at a truck stop subway.

7. Always carry napkins in your car because accidents do happen.

8. You get a 5 mile leeway before you get pulled over for speeding just f.y.I.

9. Carry some vitamin C pills and hand sanitizer, trust us this one because we are both sick right now. That is a lot of states to cover and a lot of gas station restrooms and tuck stops. Keep your immune system up my dears.

10. AAAAnd finally....................Sunflower seeds! yes people that's right. These salty little things are a life saver. Pop one at a time in your mouth and welcome to wide awake land. I tested it on this trip and it totally works, you are constantly doing something and you still have your eyes and attention on the road. My mom's boyfriend is a truck driver and gave me the tip and I owe him big time.

This is what we did to help us on our trip to and from so it might not be for everyone. It was a little exhausting but it was a lot cheaper than flying and dealing with the holiday time at the airports and having to rent a car to see all our family.

Do you have any tips for long road trips? We are going back in December and would love to hear from you. Thank you for stopping by.