Red, White and Blue I Love You!

I made this red, white and blue flag out of scraps to hang outside for the summer. Summer holidays are all about patriotism and I just love a good flag waving tradition!

 I wanted it to be rustic and tattered so I tore all the red and white strips from my scrap bag. A scrap using project is always good for me, I love the fact it was gonna be trash and I rescued it!

I am also a collector of yardsticks and rulers, so I made a sleeve to hang it just big enough for a piece of a yard stick.   You could use a dowel or even twine fed through the sleeve.  I had assistance from Mr. Nini for attaching it semi permanently to our porch railing.

 I attached the fabric strips by putting a wide hem in the blue fabric's opposite end and cut slits in it, fed them from the back, tied a big knot in the top on the front side to give it that rustic look I like so much!!

It's perfect to leave out all summer long and it can be thrown out when it's faded and worn. It took no more than an hour to make and cost nothing!

Happy Summer and Happy Independence Day!! Go make something!

Nini~

A Bureau Reborn

My trusty 15 year old Ikea dresser finally bit the dust.  The drawers are just falling apart no matter how many times I've tightened them with my trusty Ikea tool (you know which one I mean, I think there's only one!).  And so began my hunt for a new bureau.

Because I wanted something with "beachy" details and a "shabby chic" finish that had "tons" of personality, I figured I would need to add the details and finish to a bureau that already had personality.  Lucky for me, my brother just happened to be redoing his bedroom and was getting rid of this huge black dresser:

                                                                       

Once the bureau was found I chose a paint and color.  I decided to go with Chalk Paint by Annie Sloan since I wanted a distressed look.  I chose "Louis Blue" for the dresser as I felt it was the most "beachy".  This was my first time working with this amazing paint!!!

The paint is pretty thick and covered the dresser and drawers in one coat.  It dried relatively quickly and allowed me to perfect the shabby chic look I wanted.  It is an excellent paint and is worth every penny!

All previously black surfaces were covered with chalk paint and left to dry.  I returned to the dresser armed with sand paper to scratch up and distress to my hearts content! Check it out:

When it was distressed to my liking I sealed it with Minwax Paste Finishing Wax.  

And now for the matter of the hardware.  The old drawer pulls were way too modern for my beach inspired look.  I found some handles that I love at Anthropologie.  You can see them here.  However, I didn't want to spend $60-$70 plus shipping on drawer pulls.  So I made my own!:

I bought the handles and rope at Lowe's.  Armed with my glue gun, I wrapped and glued the rope around the handles to match the Anthropologie ones.  The best part: the total for my drawer pulls came to $21! Much cheaper and I'm so happy with the way they came out!

All finished, my reborn bureau looks like this:

And I love it!  Now if it could just walk itself to NYC, that would be truly amazing!

Wishing you big waves and an artful day!

~C