First Bonfire

We started tackling some cleanup around the outside of our property. I say started because let's be real, this will be a never ending project! We had to remove a ton of bushes by the patio due to them causing foundation problems. 

 

Luckily we have some very good friends who helped us tackle this. Here's how I helped out:

 

And then there was this....

 

Just a mess of so many trees and bushes but it blocked the beautiful view of our pond! So down it came!

And up in flames it went providing our first bonfire! It's been so wet here that it didn't burst into a mega fire (thank goodness)!

 

 This area will become our smaller casual fire pit, but it's gonna take another round of cleanup and one more fire to get it down to the ground before we can make it beautiful with chairs, rocks, and tree stumps (which we saved from the clean up)!  But you can already see the pond and I'm probably totally wrong but feel like we burned up any ticks that may have been hanging around! 

Painted Fabric Settee

I've always wanted to paint a fabric piece and finally did! I scored this amazing settee from my friend for only $50!

 

I read lots of different tutorials for painting on fabric. I decided to use 1 part latex paint, 1 part fabric medium, and 2 parts water. I used the same color paint for the wood so that made it easy to not have to tape anything off or use my artist brush. 

 

The mixture is pretty watery so I sprayed the fabric lightly with a water bottle so the paint didn't drip. After the first coat was dry I used a sanding block to sand all the fabric. This helped soften it up a bit. I applied 2 more coats of paint. 

 

Here she is finished! Now is it as soft as the original velour? Definitely not but I knew that would be the case. But it's also not hard and scratchy either.  I considered keeping the original fabric and just painting the trim but I knew it wouldn't give me the overall look I was after! 

 

I decided to leave the trim piece of fabric with only 1 coat of paint so I did use my artist brush to paint up close next to it. 

 

I think she'll be perfect in the sunroom! What do y'all think? 

I Love Projects.

Yes, for real, I love them. I need them. I am one of those people that hate being bored. So I accomplished a little project for myself today!! I forgot to take a before picture of the chair, dang it. But it was dark wood with a mustard yellow cushion seat! 

 

I dry brushed it in gray, distressed it, and sealed it with wax. For the seat, I had a leftover gray curtain so to me that was free fabric! I laid it down first to cover the yellow seat and cut another random lace curtain I had (I don't seriously have a bunch of random curtains but when you own a shop, you do have a bit of random things lying around) and placed it over the gray. 

 

I'm more practical than patient so I just sorta folded over the fabric and go to town with my staple gun. A true upholster would definitely not approve but I think it turned out great. It's going in my office as my desk chair and I just love how it turned out! 

 

 

Beautiful Buffet

I was lucky to get to transform this buffet for a client. Here's the before picture:

 

I sanded the top down to the raw to give it a new color and finish:

 

There is something stunning about raw wood. Or maybe just stunning to me since I was happy to get the old finish all off! My arm is still vibrating from my hand sander! And here's the finished product:

 

I used our gel stain in warm walnut that we sell at The Rusted Rooster. That stuff is magic!! The rest was painted in Sherwin Williams antique white to match my client's kitchen island. She only wanted it lightly distressed and she's going to add some chunky turquoise wood knobs!! I did seal the top with a poly at client request as it's going to get some love. The rest was lightly waxed with my favorite paste wax by minwax. 

I could have dragged it outside in the 103 heat and styled it all pretty for you but y'all know I keep it real. Ain't nobody got time for that! 

Here's a look at the beautiful new top:

 

Thanks for stopping by,

Lis 

Blog Redo.

So I originally started this blog back in December of 2012 before I opened the brick and mortar which is currently The Rusted Rooster. I had big plans of posting all kinds of things about the shop on it. But then I quickly realized that between owning the shop, making and painting all the items for the shop, participating in markets, personal house projects, customer house projects, custom orders, oh and being a mom to a teenager and a toddler tornado, the blog was the last thing to get any love. Fast forward 3 1/2 years and I deleted any previous posts and I'm starting over. I've always believed that a blog creates a sense of personal relationship and connects us-even if it's just through a DIY project. So speaking of projects, we've just purchased a 1974 brick ranch and some land in the country. It's a dream come true!  I cannot wait to share my projects with you. And you can expect some honest, no hype, good ole fashioned, beer-drinkin' projects that if I can do, you can do! I'm all about keeping it real and not making life seem more glamorous than it really is just for social media. Nope. Just honest, hard working, budget friendly projects that I hope will inspire you! Let the journey begin!!