Feeling knobby

I decided to get creative last weekend and up-cycle my chest of drawers that has been left unpainted for years in my bedroom. You know how certain pieces of furniture just sort of blend in after a while and you tend to forget they're actually not something you'd ever purchase anymore? Well, this was one of those a-ha moments. I realized I never really liked "Chester" unpainted, and what is so hard about painting? Nothing.

Unfortunately, I didn't get a photo of what Chester looked like before. I realized it halfway into painting, and there was no going back. But I managed to find one on Google that looked similar. Ah, the joys of the internet. You can find just about anything.

This is what "Chester" looked like.

I knew I wanted to paint it white, so choosing paint colors was a piece of cake. My goal was to have it mesh easily with my bedroom and continue to match other surroundings in future homes.

Commence to sanding, priming, and painting! The bulk of it took two afternoons - not too shabby. I unscrewed all the drawer pulls, and painted those as well, however I had planned ahead of time to switch those babies out for some vintage knobs. You know, to make it aesthetically pleasing. 

After painting, it was WHITE. So I sanded the finished piece one more time - sanding down the edges and areas where with time, it would naturally get roughed up. I was going for a shabby-chic rustic look for Chester. While sanding was good for some areas, I needed something a bit more abrasive to really make it look used. I took a kitchen knife to it and scratched away at the paint in choice areas.

After the paint job

If you look closely, you will see some scratches and wearing away at the corners and edges. I tried to make it look natural, but there's just something off about scratching away at your paint that, the day before, you meticulously applied.


Can I interject here and say how amazingly therapeutic painting is? I really need to do more painting and more home projects because it felt so relaxing to work on something from start to finish. Plus, I was on my porch with the sunshine on my back, listening to music, with the Fall weather all around me. Perfection.

Pleased with the amount of vintage touches I put on ol' Chester, I moved onto the knobs. I will tell a secret. I did not purchase these at thrift or antique stores here and there. While I would love to have that kind of a mind where I plan months in advance and keep my eyes peeled on accents that I will use in the future, I do not have that kind of mentality. And I wanted knobs on Chester asap so I could actually USE him.

World Market to the rescue! They have an unbelievably cute collection of knobs, drawer pulls, wall hangers, etc. The options are seriously endless, which is why I bought a bunch and just installed them all together. Who needs to match when you're going for vintage?!

It took me a good while to pick out all my chosen knobs to use. I chose 9 different selections. The two white ones you see in the middle were just too pretty to just get one. Can you tell I love white? With 10 knobs in total, my purchase came to around $35.

Pretty knobs all in a row

I chose the bigger ones to be installed on the drawers that carried the most weight. My sweater drawer got the two biggest knobs, whereas my lingerie drawer received the smaller, more dainty knobs. You get the gist.

Check it out - strategic knob placment right there

Super easy to install these guys. They even came with their own washers and screws. I would recommend some pliers to tighten them in place, but it took no time at all. The hardest part was deciding where to place each knob. Seriously.

The finished product!

Until the next project! I have a feeling it, too, will involve paint

Feedspot feeds the soul

A few months ago I discovered a little thing called Feedspot. It's an RSS site that compiles content on a daily basis from websites you like. Great tool for busy people who don't have time to just surf the internet during the day. Feedspot sends you a daily digest email of fresh content that you know you're going to be interested in. A daily dose of inspiration for me!

Here's what the Feedspot dashboard looks like:

I'm especially drawn to Contemporist. Every day it seems they have content that is utterly mesmerizing. It's a mix of a little bit of travel, a little bit of architecture, a little bit of design, and a little bit of fashion. So if I continually post about pretty things I find on Contemporist, you'll know why. Here's what they featured today:

Corset Wall Tiles by Arbutus+Denman

When I read "corset" I had something completely different in my mind. I love how it takes your eyes a moment to get used to the layering of the tiles. And it's no wonder - these tiles are deceiving in that they're actually 3D. The spacing and structure are meticulous. I can imagine it took quite a while to design these little guys. Clever.

While the design aspect is original and takes your breath away, I'm not sure it I could have it in my living space. I get dizzy so easily - one caveat of getting older I suppose - so I don't think my equilibrium would like this too much on a daily basis. Can you imagine? Getting dizzy over breakfast. Then there may actually BE spilt milk.

You can check out more at Arbutus+Denman.

New Post

New post new post new post!

Some things have changed to this here blog. Pretty much the whole point of this blog is now different. But change is good. If you read my last post (which was admittedly, over a year ago), you will see that I was over the conceited wedding blog direction - no offense wedding bloggers - and needed a new purpose.

Because I'm lazy and didn't want to create an entirely new blog, I decided to keep the structure of this one and just change the name. Which may have totally screwed me in SEO or link building or all that mumbo jumbo, but whatever. There are other updates too, like the content. Less wedding stuff, more random stuff. You see, the concept of this "new" blog is still very much a work in progress. I will warn you, posts may be sporadic and/or random. Few and far between, haphazardly written, or just plain boring. I'm rolling with the flow my friends. I'm on a new chapter of my life where I'm going to investigate anything that seems interesting in life. Which may not be interesting to you. For example, book binding. At 6:20 this morning, I was on YouTube watching a tutorial video on Bookbinding for Beginners. You can watch the video here:

Thanks Alysiswriting for making this video and entertaining me at 6 AM.

Yep, stuff like this.

Turning a New Leaf

For over a year now, I have been blogging to you about my wedding inspirations, ideas, my own wedding details and projects, and I have loved every minute of it! It has been so much fun to share my ideas with you about my wedding and weddings in general! While I love sharing Put A Ring On It with the world, you may have noticed that my posts have started becoming few and far between. Weeks will go by when I'll suddenly remember, "Oh no! I need to blog — it's been so long!"

The truth is, my mind just isn't thinking about all things weddings as I was a year ago, or 6 months ago for that matter! For so long it was all I was thinking — what flavors should we make our cake? Where should we seat our guests? What accessories should I wear? We have to get the invitations out! What kind of ceremony music to have played? Please see last post. But ever since October 14, 2011, my mind has strayed...and can you blame me? I'm a newlywed! I am experiencing all the pleasures of being one! It was so relieving to be done with wedding planning, that I hate to say that Put A Ring On It suffered!

And so, recently I have been deliberating whether or not to start a new kind of blog — one that caters to weddings, however one that isn't so centrally focused on my own. I don't know if it's just me being shy or too concerned about what others think, but posting about my wedding when it happened 7 months ago, seems a bit self-absorbed or trite. And I certainly don't want to come across as that! I understand that blogs in general are very self-centric and a bit of a desire to talk about oneself and get oneself heard, but I believe it can be done in a tasteful manner — one that is classy and not annoyingly selfish!

A blogger I follow — religiously so I'm afraid of — Holly Becker of Decor8 has inspired me to switch things up a bit and follow what my heart is telling me. Yes, I know that sounds obvious, but so often we get stuck in ruts and it takes an outside influence — whether it's an article, a person, a song, a movie, a fellow blogger — to wake us up. This awakening is so important, because if we stay stuck in the same old routines for too long, before you know it, years will have passed! Be willing to shake things up in your life and you will definitely reap the benefits! How could you not? It's creating change, which in effect produces a more interesting and wise YOU!

I read something the other day that was really true and can be very comparable to our own lives and how we live them. I was reading about interior decorating — from HomeMint — a new Home Decor line by, of all people, Justin Timberlake and designer Estee Stanley. It was elaborating on interior decorating and how we must embrace change in our living space. They stressed the importance of rearranging our furniture, our wall art, and our decor every once in a while in order to live in a space that's refreshing, inspiring, and transformative. Change is good — a little scary, sometimes, but good!

I'm just spinning off ideas here. Perhaps I should feature other people's weddings on my blog as well as my own inspirations from other bloggers, designers, wedding planners, florists, photographers, etc. Even interior decorating ideas and projects that translate seamlessly into weddings! I've been on an interior decorating kick for a while now, and I truly believe it has so much to do with having an eye for detail and what works as far as weddings go too!

In fact, I'm taking a class at AB Tech this summer about Interior Design and Decorating that I hope to learn a lot from! I will have to dish all about it when the class begins in July!