Over the River and Through the Woods

Over Spring break I went with my Dad and brother to visit my Grandpa, and I never really saw the unique pieces my Grandma had put into the decor of their basement until this past visit. I felt inspired, and decided to take pictures of some of my favorite things. Sorry for the bad quality... morning darkness, wood paneling, and bad lighting don't really go together that well. :)

-Rachel :)

Fresh Coat

This here is a project I did months ago, but have procrastinated on posting about. It's taken me WAY too long to share this project that I'm super proud of, so here it is:

Over 4 years ago, on a wonderful trip to Ikea, I decided to pick up one of these little drawer systems (the one in the middle). It was only fifth grade, and I decided it would be best used as drawers for my Build-A-Bear clothes (I had a whole area in my room set up for my build-a-bears; I was setting up room designs pretty early...even if it were for bears...). I felt like it needed to be painted to match the decor of the bear's room, so I decided on a purple. What purple may you ask?... BARNEY PURPLE. I know, not one of my proudest moments. After switching bedrooms and updating my room decor, this sucker stuck out like a sour thumb (no pun intended). Looking at this darn thing was really starting to bug me. So I had a master plan...FINALLY PAINT IT!

I wanted to do a cool design on it to make it a little more hip so I decided to do tree branches stretching across it. My first plan was to sketch it all out and get a feel for what I wanted it to look like. Then I went right to painting!

When painting, I sorta tried to follow the sketch I had made, but after a while, I sorta did it free handed. I first painted the fronts of the drawers with a coat of black paint, then did the branches in white. After that, I went and painted the base of the drawers black. I'm not the best painter in the world, but I'm super proud of the results. It has a natural look to it that I like and it shows that it was done by hand. So here's the official before & after picture...

I have to say, I absolutely love the turn out of it. Now, I have re-invented the function of it as well. For a while it was used as a jewelry/make-up system, but I switched that stuff out for my school journals, random papers, mail, and old receipts. It now sits on my bookcase and I love the way it looks sitting there.

So there you have it: that's my little project I completed a while back. Hopefully I will be repainting something again soon...so much fun!

-Rachel :)