Childs Play: An Easy Update

Picture this: Your slowly but surely designing and decorating your living room. It's starting to come together, things are happening and you're feeling pretty good. 

But- you have kids who like to play in said living room and their toys have taken up permanent residence. You don't have an extra play room to keep all their things in, the living room is where the family spends the most time so the living room is where the toys end up. And I think we all know kids toys kind of stand out in adult decor- not the most beautiful.

The Culprit

Sound familiar? Its the issue I've been having. I've been wanting to do something about Con-Man's toy box for a while now. It needs to stay in the room so we have a place to store his toys but the bright red and blue kind of clash with my neutral color scheme. 

In addition to the red toy box I bought this Fleur De Lis basket at Ross (love that place!) for a little bit of extra storage. Clearly the two do not mix.

(I love Fleur De Lis!)

Solution: I went to my local hardware store and picked up some of this Krylon Spray paint specially made for plastic and spray painted the heck out of his toy box.

Now, I did discuss this change with The Con-Man just in case he had an issue with his red toy box being painted white. He was cool with it and seemed excited about the whole thing. 

After 3 cans of spray paint and some drying time the toy box was finished.

Both together:

Much better in my opinion and Con-Man doesn't seem to miss his big red monstrosity so far. Let's hope he doesn't ask me to paint it back to red later down the road!

What do you do about your children's toys in your home? Would you take the liberty of changing up some of their things to fit your decor?

Cute Cafe Chair Update

Some people don't have the time, energy, creativity, whatever- to see the beauty in an old piece of furniture. Lucky for me some of these people live near me! Remember last week when I posted about finding some furniture road kill outside a storage facility? Well I've finished the first makeover from that find.


This poor little chair had good bones but was sadly neglected.

I started by unscrewing the seat cushion, removing the old fabric using a flat head screw driver, and cleaning up the frame to prep it for paint. (Terrible Blogger that I am I forgot to take pictures of most of this process!) It was mainly dusty and dirty with some rust that I had to scrub off. I read that some people use CLR to clean t=rust off, but mine chair came clean with sand paper pretty easily.

I couldn't figure out how to take off the seat back, so when spray painting I just covered it with tape and paper. I used Rustoleum Heirloom White to give the frame a new life. Then using some fabric leftover from another project I reupholstered the cushions, adding some batting to the seat for a more comfortable sit. 

Basically measure out your fabric or trace the old fabric as a template. Then staple at the center of each side making sure each side is even and the fabric is taught (tawt?). Then move to the corners and work your way in finishing off each side with staples. Cut off any excess for a clean finish. (For a better tutorial on this process check out this post here!) 

For the back of the chair I reused the same cardboard cutout and wrapped my fabric around it, using a light dusting of spray adhesive to keep in in place. Then nailed it back on with upholstery tacks

Then screw the seat back on and your finished!

I think it turned out totally cute! Don't you love giving new life to old furniture?

A Tisket A Tasket-

An Easter Basket for Con-Man! 


I went out to buy an Easter Basket for The Con-Man, but everything was either really girly looking (where were all the boy baskets!) or had large stuffed animals on them; which is fine but I wanted something simple for him. So I had to take matters into my own hands.


I bought a basket at Micheals (40% off!) for $5. And using some leftover fabric from when I made Con-Man's crib bedding I got to work.

I measured the depth of the basket and cut out a long fabric strip, then cut out a circle for the bottom.

I pinned them together and sewed the strip and circle together, then sewed up the side.

After it was all sewn up I hand sewed it into the basket.

Then done! Now Con-Man has a cute Easter Basket he can use every year. :D 

I put it by the fireplace (that's where the Easter Bunny comes right?!). I can't wait for Con-Man to see it. I saw some at the store with a bow, but I wasn't sure if I should but one on Con's basket or not. What do you think? Bow or no bow?

He likes it!

Linking here

Easy Update: Jewelry for Your Furniture

I have an old dresser that was given to us by my grandmother- inlaw. She graciously gave it to us when we got married and had zero furniture. It's so old and cool! It lives in our living room and houses our DVD's.

The wood is beautiful and in great shape.

It has a marble top.

Check out that dovetail joinery!

I really love it. But I felt bad for it because when she gave it to us it was missing a drawer pull. And during our last move another one fell off. Despite glueing it back on it has fallen off once again.

So I thought I'd give our dresser a little TLC with a simple update- some new Drawer Pulls! Of course this was an excuse to make the trek over Fancy Drawer Pull Heaven (AKA Anthropologie).

There are a ton of awesome drawer pulls there! I spent some time sorting through them trying to decide which color and style to go with. And trying to not fall in love with the $8 or even $12 (!>@#!) ones.

Green to match the curtains?

Blue to match the accent color in my new rug?

A mix of both?

I finally decided on these guys. They are kind of antique-y looking like my old dresser and had both the colors I was looking for.

I  unscrewed the old ones and put the new ones on. Quick, easy, and I think it looks great!

Hooray for easy updates! Have you done a quick update that makes a big difference?