weekend recap

It was a busy weekend here in The Nut Shell. I'm pretty sure I've done some serious damage to my brain cells from all the paint and fumes I inhaled (I've since bought a face mask for my DIY projects). Completed projects include:

- 4 of 7 chairs painted
- Table top and leaflet stripped {might do a tutorial in the near future}
- Antique store chair primed and painted
- Lamp re-do
- Fall decor updated
- Mini-project: painted pumpkin
- Bookcase

First things first. The chairs (if you missed the original post, visit it here).



I have three more of the double-x back chairs to go. The cushions don't sit perfectly on them, but oh well. I'm learning there's a few oddities with those chairs.

The table is coming right along. I didn't work on it at all today because my little hands and arms hurt from the actual stripping of the paint. I'm hoping tomorrow to get it all wiped down with the mineral spirits, get every thing taken apart and maybe even sanded in preparation for paint and primer.



My antique store chair is coming along as well. But honestly, I'm having the damnedest time trying to figure out a way to reupholster the back. I was trying to use this tutorial from Centsational Girl, but the chair she worked on had a square back--much easier to trace a skeleton for than the curved oval back on my chair. So for right now, it's back to the drawing board. (Don't mind the white center--I didn't see the point in painting it if it was just going to be covered or removed.)



And while I actually worked on this last weekend, I think she's too pretty not to post. I bought this lamp along with my chairs for a mere $12. Shade and all. It's a very heavy lamp and could do some serious damage if I decided to clock a burglar over the head with it. ;) It was a strange color--somewhere between ivory and brown (bone?) with white stripes/streaks in the crevices. A quick coat of primer and two coats of Rustoleum Heirloom White took it from dated to de-lovely!



Now that Thanksgiving is just a few weeks away, I've been converting all of my Halloween decor into Fall decor (yes, I make decorations do double duty--it's best if I don't accumulate a lot of "stuff").



I have to point out my super adorable lanterns. I bought them at Cost Plus World Market for about $7, as knock-offs to some $40 Pottery Barn ones. They've been sitting empty because I didn't know what to do with them. A couple Wednesdays ago when I was out with my mom, I picked up two bags of cinnamon scented pine cones from Michael's for about $2 each. I went to sleep one night not knowing what to do with either until (seriously) the solution came to me in a dream. I just filled up my lanterns with the pine cones and added some silk fall leaves. I even have a larger lantern filled up for the table once it's finished. Okay, okay, maybe I'm not the first person to fill lanterns up with pine cones and faux leaves, but it was a light bulb moment for me!

Moving on...

I also did a small paint job on a pumpkin I picked up on clearance. I love white pumpkins, and I love the foam rubber ones that come out every year now. I have several small ones, but took the opportunity of the after-Halloween sale to buy my first large one. I just didn't like the (very crooked) lines that were painted on it. So, primer + Heirloom White = :)



And last but not least, I finally got my big bookcase. We made a trip down to Ikea over the weekend to get it. Really loving everything about it except...



...it's not big enough! We still have MORE books that need shelving. So sometime after Thanksgiving we'll go back for another one.

If you're wondering about the quality of the Ikea Markör bookcases, I can happily say it's pretty solid! The shelves are nice and thick (no bowing) and the whole unit is nicely put together. It seems like the only piece of particle board is the backing (which doesn't bother me).

As you can see, we've been keeping very busy! And I haven't even gone into the bit about our couch--we'll save that for tomorrow. I'm really hoping by the end of this week that the dinning room project will be done. I feel like I'm suffering from DIY overload and I'm dangerously close to just stopping before any of my projects get finished! So it may be Wednesday before I pick up another can of paint. My sanding block however...

I'm linking up to:
- The DIY Show Off's Surprise Party
- Reinvented's Trash to Treasure Tuesday
- Funky Junk's Saturday Night Special!