Saturday, April 25, 2015

The metamorphosis of a nightstand.

I'm usually searching for ways to not spend full price on anything. 

Call me frugal, or even call me CHEAP, you'll be right either way.  (And remember, Grace and my newest obsession with the Flea Market Flip show has got my juices flowing!)

For awhile I've been searching for a nightstand for Grace's room.

For awhile we had a wire, (and very cute) clothes hamper from Target, turned upside down, and she used that as her nightstand.

It was fine, but not great. 

Since we recently painted her room a cement gray color, and her bedding and curtains are aqua with white and orange mixed in, I decided to go "shopping" in our own home for a nightstand to go with this color scheme.

Evan had a great nightstand that was oak that I had gotten at a garage sale when the kids were young, and he needed storage space by his bed for stuffed animals, etc.

He has used it for YEARS, and it matches his oak bedroom suite.

I did, however have an old school desk with no chair attached in the living room that I was using as a side table.  It worked perfectly beside his bed, still had the open desk for storage of his comics, and even gave him more room on top.

That freed up the oak nightstand he was using, for a project for Grace's room.

Here is what the nightstand looked like before, minus the white handles.



Definitely well worn, definitely workable.

I had seen these great pictures on Pinterest (of course), of furniture with graduated colors of drawers.  I KNEW this is what I wanted to do.


I already had two cans of aqua spray paint in two different shades, so I just got more, in two other shades of aqua.

I was a little hesitant, however because we had painted the rest of Grace's furniture black last summer.  This piece would stick out slightly because it was going to be aqua, with no black on it.  I went ahead with it anyway, and this was the result.



I loved it, thought it was great, so I took it up to her room for her to have the last say.

Since it sat by her bed, and was very close to her all black desk, it really did kinda STICK OUT unfortunately.

Grace suggested I paint the outside black and leave the drawers the different colors of aqua.

Of course SHE suggested it, I was doing the work! (LOL.)

So I did.  I used the same black paint we had painted her other furniture, which happened to be a shade that was both black and a little gray.

So, this morning I brought up from the basement, the newest version of the nightstand.  The Metamorphosis was now complete.



It's still cute.  Maybe not my favorite, but it matches the rest of the furniture much better.

Now, we just have to finish putting up the white lights above her bed, etc. 

Grace is definitely my child.  We change her room up color-wise about every couple years, and we rearrange it every couple of months. 

That's ok.  I like doing it, and she's got a great eye for design herself. 

Thursday, April 16, 2015

Everyone needs a little Getaway!

We don't typically go very far for Spring Break, much to our kid's dismay.

It's expensive, we have usually just gotten our 4-H pigs, and it's sometimes hard to find someone to do chores while we're gone.

I'm sure the kids will get invited to go places with their friends as they get a little older, and that's fine, but for now, we take small weekends as they come.

For the last 3 days of spring break this year we headed to our stomping grounds of Chicago.

We've been heading there every year since the kids were in strollers, so we know our way around pretty well now.

We take the train from the airport not far away from home, then stay downtown, and spend the weekend walking to wherever we need to go, then taking the train to the White Sox game.


Grace and I do a little shopping while the guys watch cable TV in the room (since we don't have cable at home.)


We have a good time, and I usually like the stores she picks, but this is often the reality...she's snap chatting someone while we're together!



We eat a lot of good food...

We head to the game...






And we enjoy the city...



Grace and I even found a new favorite show on TV...Flea Market Flip.  It's AWESOME.  Too bad we can't get it at home!



Brent is always FAR MORE READY to come home than the rest of us. 

We did have a great 3 days there though.  The weather was perfect for everything we did, and we love getting away to the "big city" every once in awhile.