Christmas Decorating 2011 - Part 1

It's that time again! Time to decorate the house for the holidays. To be honest, I both relish and dread decking my halls. I am so persnickety about how things are done that it can easily take 5-8 hours to decorate a tree, hours upon hours to hang garland on the staircase banister, by the time it's all done my entire body aches, all that primping and tweaking is just exhausting!  

This year, I am hoping to knock it all out in one weekend. As a rule I decorate the first weekend of December, and it all comes down the first weekend on January. I'll admit, it almost seems crazy to do all that work only to leave it up for a month, but the obsessive-compulsive gal in me just can't do it any other way!

Each year, Mr. Mel cringes and complains as I come home with hundreds of new ornaments, ribbons and garlands. I am the first to confess that I can go overboard on the colour themes for the trees. This year, I decided to try and just use what I already had (but let's be real here peeps, I couldn't resist the urge to pick up just a few new ornaments. Shhhhh, don't tell Mr. Mel, no one likes a tattle!)

My main floor tree is a slim 7 footer that I've had for about 8 years. I like that it's compact and densely packed, so it'll take fewer ornaments to make a big impact, but it's not pre-lit and I loath stringing lights. The colour theme I chose for this tree was turquoise, copper and brown.

500 lights, 5 hours, and 310 ornaments later and this is my completed main floor tree! Are you ready for photo overload?!

Whew! Tomorrow we'll take a little house tour and visit the upstairs tree! Thanks for visiting!

Hello My Pretties

Alrighty peeps, time for another coffee table re-do! Am I the only one who is obssessed with coffee and side tables? I won't tell you how many I have stacked in my garage, lest you think I'm a loon.

I am a fickle creature and, despite the fact that I just bought wood side tables for my living room last year, I have already decided that they were the wrong choice and it's time for a change. Our main floor living room is a space that rarely gets used, but that doesn't mean it can't look pretty. It's right next to the dining room, which is a sort of formal space, so I want the living room to have the same formal vibe. I recently sold my Urban Barn velvet sofa and replaced it with a smaller 3 seater sofa in a cream colour. It was definitely the right decison. But the room was still far too casual! 

I swore that I would never again own glass topped tables - between kitties, visits from kidlets, and husbands, they are never clean - but I really like the look so I decided that it was time to suck it up and stock up on Windex!

I just swoon over a particular style of table, something similar to what can be seen in these rooms...glass top gold-ish base.

 

I have found some new tables similar, but I can't justify the cost. And going vintage was out of the question. This pair of vintage tables was over $1200!

I picked up this set of tables for $30 off a local online classified site. The size and shape were great, but the finish was pretty horrible. An aged brassy, bronzey eyesore. Someone please tell me why this finish is on so many pieces of furniture?!  I am not totally anti-brass, I am just anti-ugly-brass.

I cleaned and lightly sanded the table, gave it a coat of primer, and two coats of a metallic brass spray paint by General Paint (no colour number or fancy name - huh). I have never used this product before and was a tad nervous about how it would turn out, but I shouldn't have been. It went on easily and dried perfectly to a nice brushed metallic finish.

I decided to get rid of the cane and wood on the bottom of the table, it felt too heavy for the look I wanted. I initially wanted to replace the cane with a piece of glass, but Mr. Mel said he preferred them without a bottom shelf. Okily dokily. I suppose these are done, then.

I popped the glass top back in and have myself a pair of glitzy new end tables!

Cost breakdown for this project:
Tables = $30
Paint and Primer = $12
Total Cost = $42

Guess What I Did This Weekend

Here's a sneak peak...

I'll have some pics up soon!

Office Cabinet

There's a huge feeling of satisfaction that comes from upcycling or making over an old, neglected piece of furniture. But the same satisfaction can come from tweaking a new piece that just wasn't right when it came home from the store.

I bought this cabinet from Jysk on clearance for $150. It had the proportions that I needed to hold our office copier/fax and printer, and had some handy dandy storage. But it was a pretty blah colour. Just lacquered pine.

Mr. Mel had the clever idea to paint the pieces before I assembled this unit...gosh he's a smarty pants.

Mr. Mel gave them a light sanding (that's right, folks, I put him to work),  then I primed and painted with the same gallon of mistint paint I used on the cubby desk. Mr. Mel was itching to help, so I volunteered him to put it all together!

I replaced the hardware with a couple of knobs I had from an old dresser.

A quick update for a stock piece of furniture, and now she's all ready for business!

Cost breakdown for this project:
$150 for cabinet 
$0 for primer and paint
$0 for cabinet hardware
Total cost = $150

Cubby Desk

** I apologize in advance for the craptastic photo quality...we're having camera issues over at the White City Project **

Our home office project is well under way, but one item was holding things up. I searched high and low for a small desk to fit in our 39" alcove to no avail.

A second workspace was a must for this space and the alcove seemed the perfect place to tuck one away. I wanted to do this room on a relatively small budget so it limited my options to buy new but, no matter how hard I looked, I just couldn't find anything used that would fit.

I finally decided to just build in a worktop and I found a great photo of just what I was thinking of.

I started by drawing up a sketch with your measurements. Don't skip this step or bad things will happen. Bad, baaaad things. Not that I would know from experience, of course. It's just what I've been told ::whistling::  Once you have a drawing, it'll actually be easier to improvise a bit, if you're so inclined wink wink 

The height of my desk will be 30", including a 1/2" thick MDF desktop and 24" deep. I mounted 2x4 lumber to the walls at 29 1/2". I painted these the same colour as my walls before I moved on. I didn't bother filling the screw holes because no one will see them anyway.

Then I mounted a 1x4 apron to the ends of the 2x4s across the front of the desk.

Here's my favourite part! I bought two 4" corner blocks and two fancy shmancy polyurethane corbels from Rona and mounted them on each end of the desk using brad nails. These are purely decorative so don't need any heavy duty fasteners. I filled in the space between the blocks with another piece of 1x4 so the profile of the apron would be even. I used liquid nails on the tops of the wall mounts to attach the 1/2" MDF top.

After filling and sanding all of the visible nail/screw holes, I gave the entire desk a prime and coat of a greeny-taupe colour mistint I had kicking around my paint stash, followed by a few coats of Varethane to protect it.

I used a hole saw (one of the most rad drill attachments ever, in my humble opinion) to make a cut for a desk grommet that I bought from a local office supply store to keep my cords organized.

I am thrilled with how this desk turned out! And I was so tickled when Mr. Mel saw it and said simply, "Honey, I love that desk". Awwww, thanks, hun.

Before anyone feels it necessary to point it out, I am well aware that there are a few gaps around the desktop. Geez Louise, nothing is ever square! But in the end, all I needed was a spot for me to plop down and do some bloggin' so I am not concerned with the little imperfections of it. If I had it to do over again, I would have made my own cuts of the desktop (not have the hardware store do it) to ensure a perfect fit. Ya live, ya learn.

Cost breakdown for this project:
$53 for corbels and decorative blocks
$39 for lumber and MDF (I had to buy an entire sheet of MDF so I have a bunch leftover)
$3 for desk grommet
$0 for paint
Total cost = $95