Office Chair Makeover

Working on the website, I have been in our office a lot. While at the computer, I have realized that our cute, gold office chairs are not the most comfortable things in the world. They were fine for recreational computer use, but not for constant work use. I wanted to find an alternative, but cute office chairs can be so expensive. Not wanting to pay hundreds, I put it off. That is, until I was strolling through Target yesterday and stumbled upon a find:

Target Room Essentials Grey Linen Office Chair

I liked the grey upholstery, but it was still lacking a little something to work in our office. You probably guessed it...gold! Being only $69.99, I thought I'd give this baby a whirl and spray paint the legs gold. It was extremely simple and I love how it turned out.

As always, I use my favorite gold spray paint:

Rust-Oleum Metallic Gold

Only two pieces to spray paint!

I love how it turned out and it matches the other gold accents in our office:

Photos via me

Had to get a picture in with Teddy (he's extremely furry at the moment)! Now we can work on the computer a little more comfortably - good ergonomic thinking! I love what a can of $4 spray paint can do.

Lots of Love,

IKEA Hack - Bar Cart

A couple weeks ago I told you all about the utility cart I purchased at IKEA. Well this weekend, I finally got around to the redo! In case you missed the last post or don't remember what the basic cart looks like, here it is:

BYGEL Utility Cart - IKEA

It doesn't look bad or anything, I just wanted to give it some more character. I decided to stay simple and just go with the gold and white look. I figured I could then add some color with the items I put on the cart and I could change it up for different parties. Honestly, all you have to do is spray paint everything that is silver, including your screws. Don't forget, my go to spray paint for gold is Rust-Oleum Metallic Gold. I dressed it up fun to show on the blog, don't feel like you have to go all out for everyday...unless you want to! Always fun to have a little corner of party in your house.

Tada...

It has a nice drawer for storage - great place for extra cocktail napkins, koozies and straws! I also had some fun plastic silverware to put in there.

I found the cute liquor candies while in Florida at their World Market - if you live in a state where you can buy liquor at a grocery store, you should be able to find them.

It's amazing what a can of $3 spray paint can do! In total, this bar cart cost me less than $35 to make. Plus, the good new is that IKEA now has regular shipping rates. If you aren't near an IKEA or you get anxiety going there, you can order online and shipping looks to be around $10 (at least to my address). Leaves you with money to go buy cute wine and liquor to stock the cart with - Dustin just loved going on that liquor run...not!

Lots of Love,

End Table Makeover

Last week I stumbled upon some fun, little end tables at Invio, a great furniture consignment store. If you follow them on Facebook, they post pictures of the new arrivals at their store. The minute I saw these, I knew I had to go buy them, so I could spice them up. They originally came from Target, which is funny because if I had seen these at Target, I might not have thought to give them a makeover. That's the great thing about finding second hand furniture, it inspires you to make it work!

Before:

I had to decide what color would work best. I wanted something fun and colorful, but it needed to match the living room. The room is blues, grays and greens. Staring at the spray paint for a while, I finally decided to go with a turquoise, icy blue. The other tables in the room are a similar color, so I thought it would be a good match up. I also wanted to spray paint the hardware on the pieces so they were a bright gold, plus I hated that the screws weren't matching the original copper color - made them stand out.

My big lesson from this project: If you have a product you trust, do not change it up. I went with a different brand of spray paint because I liked the color. It was awful and runny. Waste of money and time. Luckily, when I went out to Home Depot, they had the brand I trusted and a perfect color.

Below are the colors I used and the handy spray gun that I finally invested (big $3) in. Sorry I didn't take a pretty picture before using them. 

Rust-Oleum - Metallic was used on the hardware, blue on the piece and lacquer was to make it shiny.

Make sure to remove the hardware before spraying the piece.

I sprayed the hardware with metallic gold and it looks so much better!

After:

I love how they turned out! They are a fun pop of color and I love the gold accents. If you love how they turned out and want to make one of your own, there is still one left at Invio!

Lots of Love,

Emerald Ball Table

Today I was able to help out a great organization's charity ball. The Emerald Ball is an event benefiting the Gerard House and the Via Christi Cancer Institute. At the ball, they have people volunteer to decorate the tables and I was excited to help out. Check out the fun gold and emerald table I put together:

Photos via me

The amazing place mats and napkin rings are available at The Plaid Giraffe. They also donated the gorgeous flower arrangement. The gold animals are from my Gold Animal post and for my place card, I used a knife to cut a slit into the back. That made it possible to slip the card it. Fun alternative to a name tent. The emerald votive holders are from Dandurand Drugs. The gold lanterns are the usual ones that I love to use from Z Gallerie. I love the rich colors and how the table turned out. I hope the guests sitting at it agree!

Lots of Love,

Gold Animal Stampede

I am decorating a table for this weekend's Emerald Ball and I decided to try one of my favorite Pinterest ideas: spray painting plastic animals! You all know how much fun I've had spraying painting things gold and that fun continued tonight. After work I ran by the Dollar Tree to find some plastic animals. Luckily, I found a few! Major score at only a $1 each. I unfortunately couldn't find the elephant at mine, but I ended up finding one at Michael's and was able to use a 40% off coupon to make it $4. They have a really wide variety of plastic animals and figurines if you are needing something specific.

All you need for this project is your plastic animals, gold spray paint and your protective gear (paint clothes, rubber gloves, plastic sheet, etc.)

This project turns a plastic toy animal into a classy fun home accessory in only two minutes!

Rust-Oleum Metallic Gold is the best gold spray paint!

Photos via me

I can't wait to use them on the table this weekend and I will post pictures of everything together. I'm then excited to use these beauties in my house - randomly set them around for fun!

Here are some fun ideas I spotted on Etsy for golden figurines...

Make them into name place cards!

Love the idea of making them pushpins!

Now get out there and start spraying things gold!

Lots of Love,

I Love Gold!

Dustin and I need long breaks from work more often because we are busting through projects! My new favorite spray paint color is metallic gold. If spray painting didn't hurt my fingers so much, I would spray paint all my furniture gold! Okay, maybe that is extreme, but I am loving this look. I took some old chairs that Dustin's grandma gave us - his grandparents are always helping us find cool antique furniture - and decided they needed a new chic look for our office:

Images via me

Talk about a transformation and for only $4! That is how much the can of spray paint cost. Speaking of spray paint, I finally found a gold spray paint that I like:

Image via me - purchased paint at Home Depot

Since I was already planning on using gold, my mom had me help her with an idea she found for her mantel:

Image via Traditional Home

She loves the look of the gold pine cones on a mantel with the garland for Christmas. We had some big pine cones, so I sprayed away. They turned out perfect!

Before:

After:

Images via me

I think those will look great on her mantel and I will make sure to post a picture when we get done decorating. I'm even going to keep some for our house! Hopefully all this talk of gold gets you into the holiday mood and you can think of something that could use a little gold character!

On another note, my rock star husband has been busting his you know what on our office:
First I came home to our chalkboard wall finished and our fun light hung up:

Then while I was outside spray painting, he got all the carpet ripped out:

It is turning out better than we imagined! I can't wait to get our new carpet in (hopefully tomorrow and hopefully we don't glue ourselves to the floor!).

I will keep all of you posted and thanks again for being awesome motivation!

Lots of Love,