Ethan Allen Clearance Sale and Blog Block Party

Many of you probably already know that Ethan Allen is one of my favorite furniture stores.

Starting today, Ethan Allen is having a clearance sale of discontinued floor samples.  I don't know the last time they had such a sale.   I went into my local Ethan Allen yesterday to get the full scoop.  Ethan Allen is introducing many new lines of furniture in the next few months, so they are selling the floor models of all the collections they are discontinuing.  According to the salesperson, they are discontinuing many lines.

If you are in the market for furniture it may be worth checking out your local Ethan Allen this weekend.


<center><a href="http://www.diybydesign.blogspot.com"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-WfgTPGxh2W1GMvL7AlG3aiyYWGr8mcrwON1_Zy46OnnCP4tT_7JrLty8cWtfhmnoAdwhsQ5ETMwLzPmWQR-J6EUIB4UD51aS0NVporoP97TwSy0naCq88LzoStF_qM021WapGbpDEA/" /></a></center><br /><br/>Don't forget about the Blog Block Party starting on June 20th.  Get all of your summer projects ready to link up to this awesome week-long party.  If you haven't already, please grab the button above and post it somewhere on your blog.  The more the merrier!!  Have a great weekend.-Judy

Decorating Boxes

I bought a new pair of shoes...of course I had to do something with the box.

I found this very pretty contact paper at Target.  This is a quick and simple project to beautify any box you have in the house.

I rolled out the contact paper and laid the lid on top of the back side of the paper.  I then left enough to wrap around the edges and cut the contact paper.

In order to wrap the edges neatly, I cut the paper to each corner.

I wrapped from one side to the other and then folded over the final side.

After I was done with the lid, I repeated the same steps for the bottom of the box.

How simple is that?

Perfect for my daughter to keep some stuff in.

-Judy

Swing into Spring - It's a Party - #19

Welcome to this week's Swing into Spring party.  Last week's party was filled with awesome ideas and inspiration.  Here are this week's features:

I just love these His and Hers nightstands.  Charming Decor scored these awesome nightstands from Goodwill for $5.99 each.  What a transformation.

This bench really caught my eye.  I'm in love with the fabric.  Making it Homey transformed an old bench into this beauty.

I just love these napkin pillows created by A Thrifted Market.  Isn't the fabric beautiful?

Peanut Butter Plaza transformed this beautiful french chest using chalk paint in Paris Grey and Old White.  I just love it.  Makes me want to run out and buy a can of Paris Grey paint.

Look at these gorgeous chairs.  I love the color of the chair and the fabric choice that 551 East Furniture Design created.


If you were featured, please grab an "I've Been Featured" button (you can now find my buttons by clicking on the buttons tab right under my header).  Now let's get started with this week's party.  I can't wait to see what you have been up to.  Link up anything you have been working on...home decor, sewing, crafts, organizing, baking, recipes etc.     I will keep this link open through Friday.





<a border="0" href="http://www.diybydesign.blogspot.com" target="_blank"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigJQ57UTTqP5H3ArJ4thAR7igkiq-H0DDqAFEPsF2LEEpbjH1V23WLACxNrrAJ-rl_ihObi7VRgtkVATLnOiXb94vFCFyE0hgeEzKWc5xlCrCAq-G59ysA1KWMwE4tk3dg_eaayqN5zU-K/s128/None.jpg" /></a>

A few rules:

1.  Please become a follower.  

2.  Please grab my party button above and display it either on your sidebar or somewhere in your post.  This way word can spread about the party.  The more people at the party, the more fun we will have.

3.  Please enter the link to your actual post, not just a link to your main blog page.

4. Please visit others who have linked up.   Everyone works hard on their projects and blogs...let's show each other some love by visiting each other.  Let's have some fun and hopefully make a few new friends along the way.

Ok...Let's Party

-Judy

Another Chalk Paint Project

After my first experience with chalk paint on my craigslist chair makeover, I couldn't wait to paint something else.

Since my downstairs bathroom is next on my list for a room makeover, I thought I would start with a cabinet I have in there.

This cabinet was bought ten years ago from Bed and Bath and is made of laminate.  It was not expensive at all and was a "put together" cabinet.  Lately it was starting to show it's age.

I started by moving the cabinet into the middle of the bathroom.  Rather than lugging it all the way upstairs and through the house to the garage, I figured I would just bring an old sheet downstairs and paint it right in the bathroom.  The chalk paint really has little to no odor so it's not a big deal to paint inside.

For now I only have two colors of chalk paint...duck egg and old white.  I debated back and forth about whether I would paint it old white or duck egg blue.  In the end I decided to go for the duck egg blue with some old white accents.

I had some concerns with the fact that the cabinet is not real wood.  However, the chalk paint didn't seem to mind.  It went on just as smoothly as it did when I painted the real wood chair...and it only needed one coat.  Pretty awesome.

The unpainted areas are behind the drawers.  No need to waste paint there.

After painting it the duck egg, I added a coat of clear wax using a wax brush I purchased when I bought the paints.  Then I added a light coat of dark wax over the clear wax using a rag.  I feel like I have more control over the dark wax with a rag.  It was a little too dark for me, so I just used my rag and applied a coat of the clear wax which seemed to lighten the darkness. BTW...if you're wondering what that wire and eyelet screw are that you see in the photo...it is how I anchor this cabinet to the wall.  The cabinet sits caddy corner and I loop picture hanging wire through the back of the cabinet (behind the top drawer) and secure it to the wall.

Once I finished the painting and the waxing it was time to update the hardware.  My goal for this project was to make it "no cost".  I already had the paint...now I needed to search the house for knobs.

The three knobs on the drawers were extra knobs that came with my daughter's nightstand that we bought from Target's shabby chic line.  The larger knob on the door is an extra knob from our kitchen.

Here is a close-up photo of the two different knobs. I may add a little white paint to the one on the right (an extra from my kitchen) to have it look more like the smaller knobs.

Here is the finished cabinet.  To be honest, at first I wasn't really sure I loved it, but it's definitely growing on me.  If nothing else, it certainly is inspiring me to get this bathroom makeover underway.  I must do something with those walls...and fast.

I really can't wait to hear what you think.  

Also, don't forget that my Swing into Spring party opens tonight at 8pm EST.  Hope to see you all there.

-Judy

Big News

I have been sitting on some exciting news for a while now.

When Heather and Vanessa from At The Picket Fence asked me a few weeks ago if I would like to participate in a Blog Block Party, my answer was an absolute YES!  What a great idea.   

Summer is just around the corner.  What better way to kick off my favorite season of the year than with an awesome Blog Block Party.  That's right 12 Blogs, 6 Days, 1 giant party.  As my kids would say...coolio!

So start getting those summer projects ready.  There will be many themes including Paint projects, Food, Fashion, Outdoor Decorating, Gardening, Summer Activities...you name it, it will be at this party.  This is a party you won't want to miss.

I am so honored to be in the company of all of the amazing blogs hosting.  The party I am hosting will be on Wednesday June 22nd and the theme will be Outdoor Cooking and Dining.  The Blog Block Party will be in lieu of my regular weekly Swing into Spring party that week.   I can't wait to share some cool outdoor cooking and dining with you...remember, we just put in an outdoor kitchen with a pizza oven.  I have some really fun recipes and ideas to share with you. 

Each days' links will connect with the next for one HUGE LINK PARTY!  And to top it all off there will be a fabulous giveaway for each theme!  That's 13 GIVEAWAYS!!  

Winners will be drawn at random from all of our link guests and announced Saturday evening! 

This is going to be AWESOME!

Please grab a PARTY BUTTON either below or from my button tab. It would be super if you would help get the word out by posting the Blogger Block Party button somewhere on your blog.  Also, feel free to share the party announcement on your Facebook Pages and Twitter streams!

<center><a href="http://www.diybydesign.blogspot.com"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-WfgTPGxh2W1GMvL7AlG3aiyYWGr8mcrwON1_Zy46OnnCP4tT_7JrLty8cWtfhmnoAdwhsQ5ETMwLzPmWQR-J6EUIB4UD51aS0NVporoP97TwSy0naCq88LzoStF_qM021WapGbpDEA/" /></a></center><br /><br/>

So, get to work on those SUMMER PROJECTS and get ready to join me and my blogging friends for the first ever

BLOGGER BLOCK PARTY!!

Can't wait to see you there!!

-Judy

Truly Trash to Treasure

Okay...it happened.  It was bound to happen.  I mean, you can't be a blogger and read all about everyone else finding treasures and not find yourself looking.  What am I talking about, you ask?  Well yesterday, while driving my kids to school, I saw a potential treasure in someone's trash.  Yes, that's right, the trash.  Someone was throwing out outdoor furniture.   I wanted to stop right there and then and pick it up, but my kids were beyond mortified and begged me to just keep driving.  However, after I dropped my kids off, I just had to go back and luckily, the chairs were still there...so I jumped out and threw them into the back of my vehicle.

I have to tell you that before blogging, I would have never even noticed these on the side of the road, much less stopped and taken them.  Now, not only did they catch my eye, but I knew for sure that I could breathe new life into them.  Once home I unloaded them to assess their quality.  In my haste of retrieving them from the garbage (trust me...I was in and out of there in seconds), I didn't even realize there were also four seat cushions as well.

Upon closer inspection, the only thing really wrong with these chairs was a little paint peeling on the arms.  The rest of the chair was in perfect condition and a very decent quality.

I started my makeover by scraping the chairs down with a wire brush.  They cleaned up pretty easily.

Once I got the majority of the peeling paint off, I used 220 grit sandpaper to smooth out the arms of the chairs.

I had left over spray paint from my chiminea project.   I sprayed both chairs...just like new.

Like I said, there were also four cushions with the chairs.  All of them were in very good shape...just a little drab looking.  I popped over to JoAnn's and bought a yard of outdoor fabric which was 40% off.   Since there were only two chairs, I only needed two of the cushions.  I will save the others in our shed for a future use.

I folded a piece of fabric around the cushion.  I then sewed the two sides.

This formed a large pocket for me to slip the pillow cushion into.

For the ties, I covered them in a strip of the new fabric and attached it with fabric glue.

I opened a small section of the seam on the pillow cushion to slip the newly covered ties through.

Then I folded and glued the end of the new fabric cover.

I love how it adds a pop of color to the chair and picks up the color in the planter behind it.

I love the new sitting area.  I just love that I saved these from being thrown into a garbage truck.

By the way, when my kids got home I showed them what I had done and they were super impressed.  However, they did make a point of saying that they were so happy they weren't in the car when "I went to the dark side".

Have a great weekend!!

-Judy

How to Clean Your Patio Umbrella

We have owned our outdoor patio umbrella for almost ten years.  It wasn't looking so good anymore.  It was covered with green mold and mildew from years of being outside.

First thing I did was remove the fabric from the umbrella.  Yep...you can remove the fabric.  The posts of the umbrella slip into pockets of fabric underneath the umbrella.  I simply unscrewed the top of the umbrella and then slipped off the fabric.

Then I filled an old garbage can with a solution of one cup of bleach to each gallon of water.

Then we submerged the umbrella fabric in the solution.  After it soaked for fifteen minutes, my husband took a scrub brush and scrubbed off the dirtiest parts.

Then, while it was wet, we put the umbrella back together.  It's important that you put it back together while it's wet...otherwise it will shrink when it dries and it will no longer fit on the spokes of the umbrella.  Once it was back together, we hosed off the umbrella to get any traces of bleach off.

While we had the bleach and water solution available, we also scrubbed all of the outdoor furniture to remove all of the green on it as well.

The furniture and the umbrella look like new.  My kids actually thought we bought a new umbrella.   So if you have an umbrella that's looking dingy and dirty, try cleaning it using this method.  I couldn't believe how well it worked.

Don't forget there's still time to join my Swing into Spring party.  The link stays open through Friday.

-Judy