Furniture Frenzy!

The last couple of weeks have been pretty hectic with the Geigers!  Road Rules, the summer mission trip for middle school students, came and went like a blur during the second week in June.  When I got back, the next week I went with Jonnie on his business trip to Stone Mountain, which was hilarious because that's where we are both from (so I got to spend some good time with my mom and dad!).  In between, we somehow managed to shoot three weddings for The Guestbox (the wedding video business I work for on the side, check it out) and get a couple of those videos edited.  Whew!

Also somehow in the midst of those couple weeks I thought it would be fun and stress-relieving to add in a couple of furniture projects... not sure about my logic on that one but it was nice to take my mind of some of the busyness (by making myself more busy?).  Nonetheless I have two more furniture projects complete to share that I am just thrilled about!

The first one is an entertainment unit we found on Craigslist for $50.  I forgot to take the before picture before I took the doors off the thing... so picture this with doors:

You can't really see, but the top is pretty scratched up and the little side cabinets are actually CD racks on rollers on the inside.  We were able to remove the racks and the tracks for them and voila!  Extra cabinet space.

I wanted to do a cheery color to go in my living room which has lots of browns in addition to some teal and burnt orange.  I went with Behr "Gulf Winds" which is a match for Annie Sloan "Provence."  Again I used Mallory's technique of adding baking soda to the paint to give it the Annie Sloan Chalk Paint feel.

I've found that the trial size of the Behr paint is enough for one of the projects which is awesome because that is cheap!   The only material cost of these projects now that I've bought paintbrushes, wax, cheesecloth, etc is for the paint (less than $3) and a new sanding block (less than $4), so the total for the project supplies is about $7!  Not too shabby!

Here's how it turned out after painting, sanding, distressing, waxing, and spray painting the knobs in the hammered metal paint:

Cute!  So we bring it inside, set it in our living room and realize... the TV that we want to put on it has to easily weigh several hundred pounds.  The thing is mammoth.  I mean unliftable.  So Jonnie called over our good friend Matt and together they somehow managed to lift the thing onto its new home!

So there she is in the corner, supporting the weight of the heaviest TV on the planet.  If you look closely you can see our antenna to the left (that's right folks, antenna).  I have board games in the skinny cabinets and all of our router stuff in the glass cabinet part (as well as our printer which had no home before now).  I wish I had a before picture of the TV on a coffee table with the mess of wires and madness beneath it.  This is muuuch better!  But I have GOT to do something to cover the plug next to the fireplace!!!  I have been racking my brain to think of something.  A basket?  A treasure chest?  A plant?  A margarita machine?

More pictures to come of the other project!

Furniture Refinishing - Take One!

My friend Mallory is really crafty and inspired me to try my hand at furniture refinishing!  So last weekend I ventured out into the world of Craigslist and stumbled upon a buffet for $25.  When I contacted the seller, she said it was "all wood" and "antique."  Sounds great right?  So Jonnie and I hopped in the truck and headed over to Smyrna to pick up our first Craigslist purchase.  I have to admit we both were a little skeptical and hoping we were not going to be kidnapped, but we did indeed survive our encounter.

This is what it looked like from the Craigslist picture:

When we got there, she had taken out all the drawers for "easy moving."  After inspecting it, we realized it was definitely not real wood... and the back of the thing was a piece of cardboard stapled on.  Although it wasn't what I had in mind, I decided it would be a good "starter piece" and we hauled it to the truck.  It wasn't until then that we discovered... half of the drawers didn't fit into their homes.  Nowww we see why she had them taken out...

Because I am incredibly impatient and couldn't wait for Mallory's help and advice, I went ahead and googled "refinishing furniture" and decided to paint it black, since my dining room table is black.  I went to Home Depot, got all my supplies, sanded the buffet, primed it, painted it, painted it again... and hated it.  Darn my impatience!  Here's what it looked like:

It wasn't SO bad, but it was just boring.  And the imperfections were really obvious.  At this point I had Mallory over to rescue me.  Apparently she had a method of painting that involved no pre-sanding, no priming, little dry time, and awesome results.  Hmm.  Should have waited!  But we decided the black would look cool under the new color (Behr Cathedral - a match for Annie Sloan Aubusson Blue).  So she helped me and it turned out super cute!  Here is the finished product:

So that's it!  I'll post more details about the painting process if it's successful with my next project.  I think it turned out cute and adds a fun pop of color to my black dining room!

Maybe I'll be crafty after all!

I'm back!

After a staggering two year break from blogging (where DOES the time go?!), I got inspired and now I'm baaaack!  I just completed my first DIY home improvement project, and I decided that the blogosphere is in need of just one more person blogging about that type of thing.  I'd also like to share awesome recipes as I discover them as well as musings from our hectic yet ridiculously blessed life.

Jonnie and I have now been married for two and a half years!  Again, where does the time go??  It is really fun to read the last posts on this blog and remember what it was like during that first year of marriage.  I'd love to share on this blog the lessons we've learned and continue to learn as we grow with each other.  But more on that later!

We've since moved out of apartment life and into a rental home!  Still one bathroom... but we mastered the art of sharing in our one bed/one bath apartment the first two years of marriage.  But now we have so much more space, actual ROOMS as opposed to the combination kitchen, dining room, living room, laundry room we previously had.  We used to joke that it was like that place out west where you can stand in one spot and be in 4 states at once.   We are loving our house, and since we decided we just might stay here another couple years, I'm getting into decorating frugally and do-it-yourselfy.  It is laughable that I think I have time for these projects - I am currently a full-time youth director and also doing a part-time video shooting and editing for my unbelievably talented friend and wedding business mogul (that's right).  But I have found that these home improvement projects are really fun, soothing, and something to take my mind off of stresses such as the 42 middle school students I am taking on a 6 day road trip this weekend... more on that later as well.

So here goes nothing... back in the blog world!  Let's keep it up this time.  I'll share pictures of my first project that I just completed soon!