The Beast is in the house!

This has been the longest project ever thanks to some very uncooperative weather, but I'm so relieved to finally say: The beast is in the house! Hoorah! So, for anyone who cares how it turned out, here she is-

Apparently I'm a horrible photographer, or this just isn't what you would call "heavy distressing" because you can hardly tell it's distressed unless you look at it close up. 

I pretty much love it. Wyatt and The Fin can't reach the tv- you know what that means?? NO MORE FINGERPRINTS ON THE TV!!!!! And... the drawers are childlockable. I'm superpsyched about this. This was my life before:

 Always open and a mess, thanks to this guy:

Our old tv stand was see-through, which I disliked, and Wyatt the great houdini kid could get into every type of child lock we tried on this thing. I'm pretty excited that I will be able to hide our dvds and equipment and that Wyatt won't be able to make such a mess. I'm also pretty excited that something this ugly:

could turn out this attractive:

YEA!!! 

Oh, and for those of you that inquired on facecrack- I don't know if I'm doing it right, but I've just been sanding the furniture down to get rid of the varnish (there is also varnish remover chemical for the more difficult finishes), prime it with a white primer (I used a rusty brown primer for the green tables), paint with the desired color, distress, and apply a satin polycoat.  

Progress, people.

C'mon. Be excited with me. Although we started the new year by spending the entire day at home (this is something we NEVER do. NEVER.) and didn't even bother to get dressed (although I did my hair because I still want my husband to be attracted to me) progress was made, people.  I've been looking for an alternative to our current media stand for a while now. It sits low enough that the kiddos can touch the tv- or rather bang on it, hit it, wipe their messy hands on it AND Wyatt can open the doors (which are unlockable- we've tried several different methods) and throw all the dvds around the room and rip the dvd player out as well.

 See?? This mess isn't our fault. It's his:

Sure, he looks all sweet and innocent. Not true.
Fun stuff. So, I was thinking a dresser would provide good storage and get the tv up a bit higher. I looked and looked and looked, and finally found something I LOVE. It's BIG, but not too deep. Has interesting details. Is super heavy sturdy. AND CHEAP AFFORDABLE! Yea, for affordable! :)

I lovingly refer to it as "The Beast". I don't know how we're going to get it in the house because we could barely get it in the garage. Just. Barely. Seriously, it clears the threshold by like 5 inches. Not an issue, though, because I had plans to turn this thing around and get it in place by Christmas. Merry Christmas to me! But.... It's been cold here lately. Or raining. Or cold and raining. Either way, cold or rain is a no-no for painting, so progress was thwarted. My big plans of finishing the dresser purchase to house the media in the living room BEFORE Christmas were a fail. BUT, yesterday it was a beautiful 68 degrees and not raining. YEA!! Today is another story. It's rainy wet, so can't do anything more, but at least I got somewhere. Wanna see?? Okay, here it is:

Are you super jealous of my organized, clutter free workspace?? Yeah, I'm awesome like that. Totally professional in every endeavor. So, it looks white in the pictures, but it's actually ivory like the coffee table.

It needs another coat of paint. A solution to the handle problem: one of them was broken beyond repair and I can't find another like it. Anywhere. Distressing and a poly finish. Then it will be done. Can I get a "woot woot"??? Weather please cooperate. Thanks :)

No, I didn't forget my password!

I'm just super lame and lazy and I haven't done too much of anything lately other than chase my crazy kids around :D But, I'm feeling a productive streak coming on again, and it started with finishing my coffee table- yea! Woot, woot! Woot, woot! Yeah, that's right. It's been about 3.5 years since we've had a coffee table, so even my husband was excited about me finishing this project. I don't know why it's been so long, I just couldn't ever commit. Remember I took the big plunge a while back and bought a hideous set of two end tables and a coffee table?? How could you forget? It was the last post I made. A loooong time ago. So, maybe you did forget. Anyhow- here she is before:

And here she is now:

Yea for coffee tables! I decided to go with a creamy off white and some distressing, which you can't really see all that much in the photos, but it's there. I purchased a buffet/dresser thing yesterday, so that will be coming up soon in the same color to house the tv- I'm super excited!!
Okay, that's it. Have a great day :)

An end to the end tables. Finally.

A couple weeks ago I purchased some really ugly end tables and a coffee table off of craigslist. I'd been looking at garage sales, which I'm new at and I feel really really awkward doing. So really we just drive around looking for people that have furniture outside, and none of them do and then we cry a little and go home. I gave this up pretty quickly and stuck to looking at bookoo.com and craigslist. Anyhow, here they are:

Yes. Hideous. You're just jealous. Of course a couple days after I purchased this set, I got an email from the company that does estate sales and they had a set that I liked better AND it was cheaper! D'oh!! I was a little sad and lost momentum, but I finally got around to finishing them. They are done, finished, in the house. Yea!! We have tables!! We've never had end tables. I just couldn't a) commit or b) dish out the cash for something I really liked.  We haven't had a coffee table for 4 years, either, so that's in the works too- on the agenda for this weekend.

I know, the top pull on this one is a little cock-eyed. Didn't notice before I took the picture. Oops :/  I sanded them down, primed them with a brown primer, painted them an olivey green, did a little distressing and a poly coat. The pulls were an old set of bronzy looking things that I spray painted black.  I'm pretty pleased :) That is all.