Pinterest is a slippery slope

I saw a thing on Pinterest where this girl put a glitter top on her desk. I thought it would be a perfect way to liven up this $20 desk I got to use as a sewing table. The immediate fix to the desk was to paint it white but I wanted to do something more to liven it up. The idea of a golden, shimmery work surface was appealing. Plus I love glitter.

I followed all her directions- varnish poured straight on, sprinkle glitter. Let dry and then re-varnish to create a smooth top. I didn't follow them exactly though because my glitter job was very splotchy. So I just did more glitter. 3 layers to be exact but who's counting!?!

2 finishing coats of varnish later and I'm going to need more varnish. At this point my plan is to just keep layering on more varnish until the surface is smooth. Not level, just smooth. Because this is a sewing table and I don't want to snag my fabric. I'm betting 2 more layers at least. If I'm lucky this weekend project will be finished in 7 days. If I'm unlucky then I will just have to scrap it all and rearrange my craft room. I can tell you now though, my table is now $20 plus $10 in glitter plus $18 in varnish. Everyone who sees it will be forced to declare its beauty.

Lesson learned: beware of Pinterest and glitter.

Dining Room Bistro Set

This isn't a chalk paint post per se. But I did use chalk paint again (at least my way).

I needed a table and chair set for my dining room/craft room. I found a pretty drop leaf for $20 at an antique store and 2 chairs for $40 at another. I chose an ivory and green color combo and decided to focus more on design than on distress.

Table Before:

I chose to do a diamond pattern on the top. First I painted the whole table ivory, then used a 4-ft level to pencil in my lines. I taped off the stripes going one direction, did 2 coats of green, then repeated for the other direction.

It took about 4 hours total to paint the table. I finished up with some tiny green dots along the skirt, and a bit of green on a section of the legs.

Finished Table:

Chairs Before:

I chose to go mostly green on the chairs to balance the white of the table. I spray-painted the seats cream (as best matched to my ivory color as possible) and then taped them off so I could paint the rest. The chairs each took 2 coats to cover and about 5 hours total. All those round surfaces are a pain to paint! I finished up by painted the flower detail on the chair backs ivory. The chairs got minor distressing with some sanding and wood stain- just enough to make painting imperfections look intentional.

Finished Chairs:

The Whole Set:

Everying got a good wax coat and is currently in use in my dining/craft room!

Special note- I used cheap Walmart paint on this project (2 quarts plus the spray paint cost less than $15). While I could make the paint look right by adding the plaster, it still didn't cover as well as the Valspar from Lowe's. Since this furniture set is going to get lots of wear and tear, I didn't worry too much about it. It did make 2 coats an absolute necessity though.

Meet Chalk Paint

So as many of those in the DIY world know- chalk paint is now THE thing. It creates an adorable matte finish, applies without priming, and distresses beautifully. It also costs $30 and up for a quart. Similar to chalk paint is milk paint. Milk paint does basically the exact same thing except it comes in powder form that you then mix with water yourself. The downside to milk paint is that it can be hard to find. With both you are somewhat limited on colors unless you're really comfortable mixing, shading, and tinting the paint yourself. That is not something I'm comfortable with so I did more research. After lots of web browsing, I figured out my own chalk paint solution. I mix plaster of paris with regular paint, voila!

Here's the table at the start. It was an old sewing machine table that had been retro-fitted with an empty cabinet instead. In my home it will be used to hold my fish tank. It's the perfect size for my 10-gallon tank and the cabinet lets me hold all my fish supplies neatly out of sight. I found this table at an antique store in southeast Missouri for about $30.

The details on the table coordinate well with my existing furniture

I chose a teal-blue shade that matches my sofas. The table is sitting across the room from them so it creates a nice balance of color in my living room. For the paint mix, I did a 1/3:2/3 ratio of plaster of paris to paint combo. I filled my cup about 1/3 full with the plaster powder then mixed in water with a fork until I had a smooth but thick liquid. Then I added about twice that amount of paint and stirred again to make sure there were no lumps. The paint goes on very thick and covers nicely with one coat. Since I was working in the hot sun, it also dried very fast.


I purchased a quart of Valspar from Lowe's for about $15. Since I know I'll use the color again, I wasn't worried about spending the money. Ideally I would be using paint I already had on hand so my only cost would be the $6 on plaster.

The next step was adding another color so that it wasn't just the dark wood showing on the distressed parts. I grabbed the sample pot of paint from the kitchen remodel (a pale yellow) and brushed it on the spots I would be sanding. I didn't bother mixing this with the plaster since very little would be seen in the end.

After another coat of the blue paint/plaster mixture, I was ready for sanding. I did very light sanding since my style doesn't lean towards heavy distressing. I simply roughed up the edges and prominent features of the piece. The idea was to highlight and bring attention to the pretty lines and details on the table.

To add an aged look, I rubbed some wood stain on the edges and in corners. This was the scariest part for me but I practiced on the back until I was comfortable with amounts and types of strokes.

Next I repeated the whole process with an end table I had on hand. The end table isn't at noticable in my living room since the color blends into my sofa. This is really what I wanted though because the table it very small next to my couch. Instead of a dark blob in the corner, it is simply an invisible vessal for holding a lamp and some puzzles. Mission accomplished!

The two finished products!

Conquering the Popular Ladder

Shelf that is.....don't you love it when I fool you with my title?!? :)

The Ladder Shelf, oh so chic, oh so popular, and oh so expensive!

My sister and I are both in love with these shelves but they can cost an arm and a leg (at least by our budget definitions).  Here's one from Target, that's a bargain at $90. I don't want to spend that much money on the shelf, as much as I might love it. Furniture is not normally my budget breaker (that would be scrapbook supplies). I checked out the building plans for one (Sig helped of course) but it was going to be labor intensive and I wasn't going to be saving a ton of money.

Then in my blogging explorations, I found this blog and she had a post about a ladder shelf! Of course hers is super cool because it's made from a real ladder. Check it out and start reading her blog (if you're not already), she's got lots of cool tips and projects!

Pretty Handy Girl

In the meantime, if you see an old ladder out somewhere, give me a holler. I know how I'll use it!