happy friday lovelies!  i spent most of last weekend making over our last-on-the-to-do-list back porch, and i’m to share with you the before and after’s!  with some serious thriftiness and diy projects, i was able to do the entire makeover for under $300.  there are lots of little projects that i’ll be sharing with you over the next few weeks, but here is the big picture of our back porch makeover:

before

after

before

after

this table, fan, tic tac toe game and vase were all thrifted, for under $20!

so, this is pretty much where you’ll find me this weekend! do you have any plans for the weekend?

wrap up: {back porch} {before and after makeovers} {deck} {diy} {living} {makever} {outdoor} {thrift}

hi dearies!  friday already, huh?  did you have a good week?  i sure enjoyed being back and think that i’m finally getting back in the swing of things!  i’m off to charlotte for a wedding tomorrow then meeting up with the hub for a night together in charleston. i haven’t been in years, so i’m really excited!  and, i have a confession to make.  i finally broke and though i had tried to not get involved, it happened.  last week i started reading twilight.  yup, that’s right, and now i can’t sleep because i can’t get my head out of these books!  i’m on page 176 of eclipse already, and my obsession is in full gear.  yes, i feel like i’m back in highschool, but boy am i loving it! ;)

onto what’s we’re really going to talk about today, a before and after project!

believe it or not, in our last house i used this table as-is for about a year.  under the tv it sat in it’s raw state.  but when we moved, i got the motivation to fix ‘er up!

now, isn’t that better?  here’s what i did:

i painted all the wood with a high gloss ultra white paint (standard at the hardwood store) with a brush, and let it fully dry. then i used one of my favorite gadgets from ikea, attached it to the insides of the table and then clipped the curtain to it (fabric is also from ikea).  within an afternoon, this gal had made a complete turn around!

wrap up: {before and after makeovers} {diy} {project} {table}

you’ve probably gathered by now that i’ve got a thing for 1) old frames, 2) white paint & 3) diy projects.  whelp- this one combines all three!  i’ve got old frames all over my house, and i’m estimating that i didn’t spend more than $15 on all of them put together.  it’s amazing what you’ll find if you just do a little thrifting!

i used valspar spray paint (found at most hardware stores) to turn these ol’ frames into some of my favorite pieces around the house.

here’s the how to:

1) give your frames a good cleaning (i used simple green and a dry cloth), and let dry.

2) most frames will benefit greatly if you use a primer like this one (half way down, #65054), which helps the top coat stick better, cover better and go on smoothly.

3) after the primer has dried, spray paint with a high gloss white paint (i used valspar gloss in white).  let dry completely (only takes a few hours!) and your ready to start displaying them.

wrap up: {before and after makeovers} {diy} {frames} {project} {thrift} {white paint}

happy monday dear ones!  we’re kicking off this week with one of my before and after projects- then make sure to check back later today for some sweet cyber monday deals!

i found this poor pitiful chair sitting in the corner of one of my favorite thrift stores.  so, i paid $5 for her and brought her home!  after a nice coat of primer and a fresh coat of yellow paint- below is what she had in store for me!

i couldn’t tell it at first, but i when i started to remove that drab burgundy cover- i found a whopping 9 covers that previous owners had just stapled on top of each other.  and, they were all really gross.  so one by one, i got down to the wooden board.  i replaced their ‘cushion’ with some batting of mine and simply stapled the cover to the underside.  after i got all the covers off- it only took me about 10 minutes to actually recover it!  now it sits in my sewing room and is perfect at my machine.  so bright and cheerful!

wrap up: {before and after makeovers} {chair} {cushion} {diy} {paint} {recover}