Tea and Crumpets Apron

I love Anthro's Tea and Crumpets apron. So much so that I based last year's Easter dresses on its beautiful and timeless style. This is an apron that I recently made as a wedding gift. I'll admit that I was tempted to keep it for myself. But I know it went to a good home, so I was content giving it away.

I think the first real thing I sewed was an apron... they truly are the perfect "first sewing project" for those wanting to learn basic sewing. They introduce gathering, pockets, ruffles, and piecing patterns all on a basic level. If you'd like to sew this apron, you can easily adapt my ruffle apron tutorial (link) to add the tuxedo ruffles. Happy sewing!

♥♥♥♥♥

Cedar Chest Bench Seat

Introducing my grandmother's cedar chest. It's old and worn, but smells oh-so-heavenly every time I open it. I decided to move it into my sewing space to pull double duty as extra craft storage and a bench seat. So I sewed a new cushion and two pillows to doll it up.

Have you heard Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zero's song Home? It makes me so happy every time I listen to it :) These pillows have a similar effect... one says home and the neighboring pillow has my state appliqued on it. Oh for the love of cuteness!

And I embroidered a tiny ♥heart♥ where Boise is:

♥♥♥♥♥

Custom Built Desk

Has anyone else been inspired by Ana White's building plans website? She's a DIY goddess. Never in a million years did I think I'd be capable of building furniture. Yet, Ana is an inspiration to DIY women across the world, with the message:

I'm not a trained carpenter.

I am a mom.
I am a girly girl.
I am what my brothers would call a chicken.

But I build furniture.

I use saws.

I use nailers.

Guess what? It's really not that difficult.

And if I can do it, so can you.

-Ana White

Doesn't she rock?! My first project was a toy shelf, which turned out slightly lopsided with caulk-filled gaps in it, but it's functional. Lessons learned: 1) MDF sucks to work with and 2) it's important to square your project.

My second project was a shorter version of the same shelf, with the intention of using as a shoe shelf. Not perfect, but there were definitely less gaps and I did remember to square my project this time so it didn't look like something out of a Dr. Seuss book.

My next building attempt was a copycat of Pottery Barn's Bedford desk system. I took everything I learned from my first builds, drew up the plans and built it in my head a hundred times before even buying the lumber (No nasty MDF this time). I was pretty dang meticulous and it really paid off. I invested in a new drill, which is my new little best friend. I took Ana's advice and purchased some clamps to act as extra sets of hands. And I relied heavily on this sander as well to make sure all my pieces were perfect. I'm not going to brag about the cheapo circular saw that I used, because it's mediocre to say the least and will be replaced with a more reliable saw someday.

Cost to built was around $200 (not including the paint). The hardware is probably half the cost. (Drawer pulls from Pottery Barn.)

Paint is Benjamin Moore's Satin Impervo (oil-based) in White Dove. This was back in May before I discovered Ace Cabinet and Trim paint that I used to paint my kitchen cabinets. The Impervo is nice, but it's oil based which equals looooooooooooong dry time and stiiiiiiiiiiiiiinky. Highly recommend the Ace paint:

I used heavy duty ball bearing drawer slides for my file cabinet drawers (great drawer slides but there's not a lot of room for error, so beware).

I made my cabinets extra deep to fit our beast of a computer tower. If I had bought the PB desk, ours wouldn't have fit:

♥ Thank you, Ana! ♥

White Kitchen Cabinets

Unfortunately, "update my blog more frequently" didn't make it on my New Year's resolution list. However, I would like to share a few 2011 projects that I completed, which guarantee you a few descent blog posts this month.

First up is my most dramatic and favorite... painted kitchen cabinets. Oh my... it's been seven months since the transformation, and I must say that I'm still giddy over the results.

We started out with orangey oak cabinets. Fortunately, the previous owners did a fabulous job putting in granite countertops and changing out the cabinet hardware. My husband wanted to refinish the cabinets in a darker color, and when I told him I wanted to paint them white, I got a "hell no" response. Long story short, I bought the paint and did it all by myself. I love my husband, but I just knew I was right about this one... better to ask for forgiveness than permission, right? Don't worry, we're still happily married, and he does love the white :)

Here's the before:


Here are all the drawers and cabinet doors, hardware removed:


And the lovely after pics:



Details:
De-glossed cabinets with TSP
Primer: oil based is best (two coats)
Paint: Ace Cabinet, Door and Trim Enamel (two coats). This stuff is AWESOME. Self-leveling, can be tinted in ANY color, even black (I tinted it Benjamin Moore's White Dove), and it's WATER cleanup!
Method of application: brush and foam roller
Wall Color: Benjamin Moore Gray Wisp

And, no, my kitchen is not always this clean. Stay tuned for the next post!