DIY: Zinc table

I know, I know...as I said in this post, it really never ends around my house. As many of you guessed, we started a re haul on the family room last week. I am waiting on one fabulous piece of furniture to arrive and once it does I will share the full reveal with you. Do I dare say that my downstairs is now 100% complete? I am over the moon happy with the changes we've made and the way it all came together (spent very little money) was such fun.

While we had the family room torn apart over the weekend my friend Laurie popped in to check on my progress. I see her design-savvy wheels spinning the minute she walks in and checks everything out. At 7:30 in the morning we were moving furniture from room to room as quietly as we possibly could.

The console table that used to be in front of the window in my family room is now in the dining room. The thinner, sleek table fits better here. To be honest, I never loved the color and texture of the plaster job that I did on this table and I felt it would be too much shabby, chippy paint going on in the dining room.

We snatched two of these sweet industrial end tables for the family room this weekend {from World Market, here}, which inspired me to expand the look into my dining room.
Why not make the console table look like a zinc table? I used my zinc pots as a guide and rummaged through my paint supply. A few years ago my mom sent me home with a few faux paint kits after cleaning out her garage. I pulled out a pewter paint kit that she gave me and put it to the test.
I was immediately giddy with the results. I did this inside the house the other night and it took all of 45 minutes (after allowing the first coat to dry for one hour). I didn't even sand the plaster paint, I just sprayed on step 1, brushed on step 2 an hour later, and wiped off in spots.





Before and after. The color before was a bit too light and sweet for my taste. The zinc-ified version is much more rich and works well with my industrial mirror.

**UPDATE~ I added a coat of clear gloss poly on the table last evening just to give it a more shiny, metal appearance.
This is what I used. You can probably find this at most hardware stores but I did find it online here, in case you're interested.

This finish on this planter from Restoration Hardware was the look I was going for, rather than the shinier chests and furniture pieces they are currently selling.

I've always loved this zinc counter top in the Texas hill country home that Ginger Barber designed {post here}.

A new bench was added to the dining room this weekend as well.

Our new bench is sturdy and long (but still fits underneath table) so we can fit quite a few people. I immediately thought of my French dough bowl when I saw the color of the bench and wanted to bring more wood tones into the room. It's a cleaner look than the skirted bench was, especially combined with all the skirted chairs at the table. Too many skirts at one table makes the man of our house very nervous. ☺

It's the Provence Bench from World Market {here}.

Here's a shot of the server/chest in the family room. While it's a bit taller, it doesn't block the window nearly as much as the long console table did and it gives some height to the room. I keep all of my table linens inside and trust me, I really don't have anywhere else to keep them so this baby has to stay for awhile.

Just a reminder of what my table looked like a few, short months ago.

Let me know if you have any questions about the zinc paint technique and you can check out another method over at Freckled Laundry, here.

Pretty

Just a few of my favorite images via Pinterest.

Source: brabournefarm.blogspot.com via Tricia on Pinterest

Source: french-country-decor-guide.com via Tricia on Pinterest

Source: stinemos.blogspot.com via Tricia on Pinterest

Source: prettystuff.tumblr.com via Tricia on Pinterest

Source: brabournefarm.blogspot.com via Tricia on Pinterest

Source: stinemos.blogspot.com via Tricia on Pinterest

Source: ramblingrenovators.blogspot.com via Tricia on Pinterest

I hope you all enjoyed the Easter holiday weekend.
Happy Monday!

It never ends....

...we were up until midnight last night working on the living room. You know I love to tease you with sneak peeks.

Out with the old~ YAY!! ☺

Happy Easter weekend to you and your peeps.

Source: easter.tipjunkie.com via Tricia on Pinterest

Source: maryruffle.tumblr.com via Tricia on Pinterest

xo~
T

Back to basics

Spring cleaning the house, the blog and the mind.

I've made the rounds throughout my home for the past few weeks. Emptying closets and purging junk. It's almost like a shedding of the skin of sorts.

Rather than show you the piles of clothing and toys awaiting donation, I'll share a few more updates on the home front with you. These two grain sack ottomans are what possessed me to drive all the way back out to Round Top for a second spree. I had to have them and they were a steal! I'm happy with them halfway under the console table in the family room. I moved the wicker chairs from the dining room in here for now as well, but they won't stay here permanently.

This funny light that belonged to my grandmother now has a home in our powder bath. I have a thing about lighting. I much prefer to have small lamps lit all over the house versus turning on the main lighting in rooms. I made a long cord cover using leftover tan muslin fabric.

The chalkboard wall has gotten a bit out of control. Time to erase and start clean again.

With my latest obsessive organizational phase I also felt the need to get back to a neutral blog header. Of course I included some of the old/new stuff in the house, but I wanted to use a picture that I used in my original blog header (almost exactly 2 years ago) which is my sweet girly girl's footprints in the sand. That picture to me captures our family journey of growing and bonding while seeking adventures in far away places together. Finally, a photo of a chippy window (a beautiful memory) from our trip to Lake Como in 2009 to attend our dear friend's wedding.

As for the mind, I'm attending a conference for work in downtown Houston all week so my mind is pretty focused on the career ~ not much down time.

I hope you're all having a great start to the week and I look forward to catching up on your blogs in a few days. I'm still happily addicted to your blogs even 2 years later!

xo~

T

Bienvenue dans ma chambre soleil

The long awaited {by moi at least!!} sun room reveal.

My teeny tiny hint to you was {here} last week. My faux Mora~ish clock Monique, has moved from the family room into the sun room to join her long lost cousin, the Swedish day bed {don't worry, I haven't completely lost it and named the daybed as well, but if I did I would choose Desiree}. The evolution of the sun room. I can't even bring myself to show you the before pictures again, it's much too painful. The long and the short of it is this, three years ago this room was a 'catch all' room. Think barbie house, dollhouse, large wicker baskets for toys, treadmill, game table, tv, 2 large chairs and ottoman, AND stained beige carpet~ eek! Until we ripped out the carpet, painted the concrete floors and de-junked it just a bit {here}, the partially empty sun room sat patiently awaiting a new purpose since December {here}. I'm more than pleased to introduce you to Desiree. ☺ I first showed you a picture of this daybed in my Round Top Fever post here. As you know, I took a big pick up truck to Round Top in hopes of finding a settee for the sun room. There wasn't a settee in sight and I was just about to give up my search and order something from Wisteria online. Our last stop was The Arbors tents in Round Top. I wouldn't have considered a daybed at all but the way she had this displayed, up against a large buffet with the pillows aligning the back to lean on, sold me. Knowing that whatever piece of furniture we went with would back to the brick wall anyway, I realized the daybed would work for us. I also liked the dimensions of this daybed much better than some of the larger ones I've seen elsewhere. This is just a twin size and not too deep at all, so perfect for 3 people to sit comfortably and lean back against the down pillows while sipping wine and visiting. I've tested this with some good friends in the past week and it works beautifully!

We sat and chatted with the lovely owner of Jackson Hill Antiques for a bit before finalizing the deal. Although I didn't have an ottoman in my original plans for this room I couldn't pass this up. The ottoman is a new/reproduction piece and we worked a deal for the daybed, ottoman and 3 French script down filled pillows~ SOLD. A nice French cowboy from a neighboring booth helped me load it into my big truck and back to Houston we drove, praying for no rain. My grandmother's mirror hangs just above our new daybed. The frame, cushion and bolster pillows were recently redone in a heavy linen, creme colored fabric. The cushion is very hard and sturdy so I made my own cushion for extra comfort and to protect the creme linen from our furry, 4-legged family member who so frequently has muddy paws. I bought a 2" foam cushion from Jo Ann's and stuffed some filler inside then inserted into my tan and white linen fabric (if you're sick of seeing this fabric in my house you'll be glad to know that I removed the curtain from my front console table and used it for this cushion. I'll share that update with you later). You can see the reflection of our antique screen shielding the treadmill in the mirror. The view of our backyard while lounging in sun room. The chairs that I re~purposed {here} are now being used regularly. The quilted pillow on the right was something I picked up {from this fab store} last summer in Paris and just now put it to use. Looking at our lovely porte cochere and garage on the left. My little piece of the union jack trend with the small pillow I picked up in Warrenton. The side wall houses a small wine rack with the seltzer bottles that I picked up in Round Top and you remember the trash to treasure bulletin board that I worked on last spring {here}. We can lounge here and watch tv, have an adult conversation, play games with friends or just relax and read while looking out over the back yard. I left this picture in the smaller format so you can see the full view, with the tv and treadmill squished in the far corner. This is where I can sneak and watch something other than the Disney Channel all by myself. It's a combination of some of my DIY stuff, family pieces handed down, and some antiques and reproductions recently purchased. The eclectic, neutral mish mash that has become my whole house.

xo~

T