RH Style Bathroom Vanity Knock-Off for under $200

Earlier this year, I decided that our tired old builder grade bathroom vanity needed a little makeover.  I neglected to photograph tired old vanity for before and after purposes.  Sometimes I get so excited about taking on  a new project that my documenting ends up a little lacking.  I am working on that though and have already made a lot of improvements in that department.   I set out searching dozens of online retailers to find the perfect blend of modern-farmhouse vanity that I was imagining in my mind.  I wanted something with some contemporary elements but also a little bit of a rustic vibe. Then I stumbled upon the Hutton Vanity at Restoration Hardware.

Hutton Powder Vanity from RH

This was very close to what I wanted but I couldn't justify the near $1800 price tag for a 30" vanity with the selected finishes.  Still, this was similar to what I had in mind so I asked my very handy hubby if we could somehow fabricate something like this.  We set out looking for 28-33 inch cabinet that we could convert into a vanity in true Chip and Joanna style.  There was something really exciting about re-purposing an old cabinet into a beautiful one-of-a-kind vanity. 

We tried two or three thrift stores when we stumbled upon this little beauty!   I knew as soon as I laid eyes on this charming little cabinet that it would be perfect for the job. We measured it and it was exactly 30" wide.    The best part...we only paid $69 to make her our own!  

I purchased some General Finishes Gray Gel stain from Amazon and went to work.  I had previously used General Finishes Gel Paint in Java to stain our basement bar and I loved how easy it was to apply and how beautiful the finish is.  No matter your skill level with painting or staining furniture, this stuff is foolproof. 

I would recommend using some gardening or  heavy-duty gloves though because it is very difficult to get off your skin and eats right though thin latex gloves.  I learned this the hard way when we stained our basement bar.  This stain can be applied with a bristle or foam brush.  You can wipe off excess to get the desired result that you are looking for.  There are also a lot of great tutorials on how to use  General Finishes Gel Stain on Youtube.  I watched several videos myself to get an idea on how best to apply this stain.  

My hubby cut a hole for the sink using the template that came with the Anna Farmhouse Sink from Lowes  It was around $100 and it is the perfect sink to use if you find a charming old cabinet that you want to convert to a vanity.  

We topped it off with some brass colored hardware which seems to be making a big comeback these days.  I contemplated but couldn't bring myself to add a brass faucet.  It still seems too recent that I was replacing the brass faucets in all our bathrooms.  We couldn't be happier with the finished result and I love that we worked on it together!  So head out to your local thrift store to find an old cabinet, grab some gel paint and an inexpensive farmhouse sink and you too can have your own one-of-a-kind bathroom vanity to enjoy!  Please let me know if you end up making one of these yourself.  I would love to share the pictures on my blog!  Thanks so much for stopping by and checking out my tutorial!!!  

Sláinte!

Maureen

Valentine's Day Chalk Sign

 

I love making chalk signs so much that as a Christmas present, my daughter cut out a dozen pieces of plywood and painted them with chalk paint so I could make a sign for all the different seasons, holidays or months.  Well here is my first sign for 2019!  If you like chalk signs as well then you will be excited to learn that they are not hard to make at all!  In fact, I am going to walk you through the steps to make your very own chalk sign. 

First go to a thrift store and find yourself a nice non-glass framed print. Now buy some chalk paint and paint your picture with chalk paint.  I used black chalk paint from Rustoleum.  You can find this at your local big box store or if you are a Prime lover like me, you can also find it on Amazon. 

Rustoleum Chalk Paint

While you are allowing the chalk paint 24 hours to dry, decide what you want to put on your sign.  I made my Valentine's sign using the font Magnolia Sky.   There are lots of great fonts for chalk signs but Magnolia Sky is definitely one of my favorite.  You can download the font here.  A quick internet search for chalk signs will literally bring up a million results that can give you some great ideas.  I knew I wanted to do a Valentine's sign but I also wanted to incorporate a pretty heart wreath so I needed to make my text small enough so that I would have enough room for my design.  My sign was originally going to say "Be My Valentine" but then (after trial and error) that the wreath wouldn't fit so I decided to go with "Be Mine" instead.

I printed the desired text on my home computer and then cut it out in word blocks.  After you have cut out your word block, take a piece of regular chalk, lay it on it's side and rub it back and forth on the back of your word block.  You want to provide enough chalk on the back side that when you trace the outline of the word, it leaves a chalk outline that you can fill in later.

After you have generously coated the back of your text with chalk, place it on your sign in the desired spot and then trace the outline of it with a pencil.  You will need to go over it several times so that you have a good outline to fill in with chalk maker.  Don't worry about it being perfect because a little Q-tip dabbed in water can clean up a multitude of messes.  

Now fill your text in with chalk paint and once again, go around the letters with a dampened Q-tip to make it extra crisp and neat.  I use the Bistro Chalk Marker and you can find that here

When it came to the wreath, I actually used an oval platter to draw a semi-circle shape and free-handed the little hearts.  They were not perfect which I think adds to the character and charm of the sign.  The great thing about chalk paint is it is very forgiving if you make a mistake.  I little water and  Q-tip and you can fix any little imperfections. 

Well there you have it!  Hopefully I will be sharing a Saint Patrick's Day Sign next month!  In the meantime, Happy Valentine's Day and I hope you enjoyed the post!  If you ended up making a chalk sign from this tutorial, I would love for you to share it!

Sláinte

Bathroom Makeover for under $500

We are loving the bathroom makeover that we recently completed.  It happened by accident more or less when a pretty chandelier that I purchased for another room ended up being too small for the space.  I just loved the sparkly little fixture and knew that I needed to find a space for it somewhere in our home.  I finally decided that it was the perfect size for our powder room so I enlisted the help of my very talented hubby to install the light fixture in the space.  We already had a vanity light above the mirror in our powder bath but it was installed by the previous home owners and it never really reflected my own personal style. Hubby removed the dated fixture, patched the sheet-rock, ran wiring through the ceiling and made a new home for my beautiful chandelier!  I love that man! 

Because I very often get so excited about a project that I neglect to properly document the  progress with photographs, please forgive the fact that I only have this one photo of what it looked like before the makeover.  Notice the faux paint on the wall and know that it was quite the thing ten years ago.  I  knew that it needed updating but I was waiting for the inspiration to come and after the chandelier was installed, I finally had the inspiration and vision of how I wanted to transform the space.  This pretty little fixture came from Overstock and was a bargain at less than $150.  

Benita Antique Copper 4-light Metal Globe Crystal Chandelier

Once the sheet rock was patched and sanded we gave the walls a fresh coat of paint and also re-painted the bead board with a crisper, cleaner white.  I went with 50% Edgecomb Gray by Benjamin Moore on the walls which is such a beautiful, neutral color that I am now asking myself what other walls I can beautify with it's presence!  It's also a great ceiling color if you want something a little softer than a stark white.  I had originally planned to stencil the room but after it was painted, I just really enjoyed the crisp clean look of the space. The shelf and basket were items that I already owned but the pretty mercury glass vase was thrift store find for only $5.   I added some stems left over from a wreath project that I did a few months back.  I love combining different textures and materials and I think the weathered wood frame pairs beautifully with the glass vase.  In that pretty little frame is a photograph of my daughters sitting in the bluebonnets back when we lived in Texas.  Here's a shout out to any of my Texas friends who might be reading this. 

Well, after the walls and chandelier had been refreshed, I looked at our tired old vanity and knew that it could use an update as well.  I scoured the internet for a beautiful rustic yet elegant vanity and could not find exactly what I was looking for.  I happened upon this vanity from Restoration Hardware that was close to what I had in mind but I could not justify the $2295 price tag for a single vanity. 

Hutton Vanity from Restoration Hardware

When online searches for my perfect vanity came up blank, we resorted to searching local thrift stores for something that we could transform into what we had in mind.  When I say we hit the jackpot, I really mean we hit the jackpot.  We found a pretty little solid wood cabinet at the Salvation Army and we paid a whopping $59 dollars to make her our own.  We took her home and in true Charlie Brown style, we turned her into the gem that she was destined to be.  I used General Finishes Gel Stain in Java at first but then did a complete 180 and decided to go with a weathered gray finish.  To achieve this effect I mixed some General Finishes gray gel stain with a bit of the General Finishes Java Gel stain and I came up with a warm weathered gray tone.   To see more detail about that transformation, click here

Once the vanity was painted, hubby installed the farmhouse sink that we purchased from Lowes for the very attractive price of only $99.  It got great reviews and many of the reviewers had used it to convert a cabinet into a bathroom vanity just like we were attempting to do.  The sink comes with a template that shows you the exact size of the space that you need to cut out for the sink. 

Ana Farmhouse Vanity Sink

Delta Haywood Faucet

We chose the Delta Haywood Faucet for the vanity and got a great day on that on Amazon for $83.29.  It is a very versatile looking faucet that would pair well with a variety of design styles from farmhouse to contemporary.  We mixed a bunch of different metals for this makeover because although I loved the idea of brass euro handles, I wasn't ready to embrace brass towel bars, faucets or other accents. It's only been a few years since we updated all the brass in our Master Bathroom.   I think it's okay to mix metals and everything doesn't always have to be matchy-matchy. 

For the hardware we went with these Brass Euro Bars and I couldn't be happier with how they complimented our little thrift store cabinet.  They were also from Amazon and were a bargain at only $10.67 for both. 

Brass Euro Bar

The cup pull came from Home Depot and has a slight Industrial Vibe to it.  It was the perfect finishing touch as it covered the holes left by the old hardware that we removed.  The price tag for that shiny piece of metal was $6.48.

Bedford Cup Pull in Brass

So the total price tag for this makeover including paint was $417.23.  That is less than a fourth of the price of the Restoration Hardware vanity alone.  Thanks for checking out my blog and allowing me to share my bathroom makeover with you.  I hope this post inspires you and gives you the confidence to tackle that one project that has been in the back of your mind. If you found my blog through an online search, be sure to check me out on Instagram.  I can be found under the handle @centsavvylady  Have a great week!  

Fabulous Frugal Farmhouse Find!

It seems like most if not all retailers have jumped on the farmhouse bandwagon these days.  Everyone from Target to Pier One has some type of Magnolia line influenced by the highly successful Fixer Upper series.  I love Joanna's style and it seems like much of the rest of the country does as well. When shopping for some farmhouse style pillows recently, I went to some of my usual favorite haunts and I found two pillows that were so similar, I could hardly believe that the cost of one pillow was literally ten times the cost of its similar counterpart despite that the quality of both pillows was quite comparable.

Exhibit A is the Magnolia Home Joslin Oversized pillow from Pier 1 that you can find right here .  This is a 22" pillow that gets 4.6 stars out of 5 from online reviewers.  Most reviews say that the pillow is beautiful but some reviewers complain that the pillow is stiff and itchy.   I personally thought that the price tag was a little on the spendy side at $89 for a single pillow so I passed.

On my way home, I stopped at Hobby Lobby and while most people know that Hobby Lobby has fabulous home decor, wall art, and seasonal items, I don't think that everyone is  aware of the tiny section of the store where the pillow covers are located.  What's better than that is that Hobby Lobby frequently offers half-off sales on their pillow covers and they just happen to have one of those sales going on right now!  The regular price of this pillow $17.99 which is still reasonable compared to the the Pier1 pillow but at half off, it's a downright bargain!  If you don't happen to catch these pillows on sale, you can always download a 40% off any one item to your phone from the Hobby Lobby Website.   You can imagine which pillow I decided to go home with #nobrainer!  Although this pillow is 18" square and not 22" like the pillow from Pier1, it is still more than adequate in size and it very soft and not at all stiff or scratchy. 

Natural and White Pillow Cover from Hobby Lobby

So here are the Hobby Lobby pillows resting nicely on my sofa.  I love that the covers are removable and I can throw them in the wash.  The Christmas decorations are still up so don't judge!  These really are great pillows and a perfect neutral color to coordinate with most any decor.  Hobby Lobby has an even greater selection of pillow covers online and if you subscribe to their mailing list, they will let you know when they have free shipping promotions.  So there you have it!  I hope you find these pillows to be as wonderful as I have.  I will continue to share great finds like these when I happen upon them!

Till then, have a great New Year and I would love to learn if any of you have tried these pillows out yourselves!

Sláinte

Maureen

Dress up your light fixture with crystal garland!

We recently installed a beautiful light fixture in our dining room.  I fell in love with this light fixture immediately and it adds such a "wow" factor to the space.  We also installed Stikwood in the tray ceiling which is an incredible product made out of reclaimed wood.  Well, the wood chandelier against the wood ceiling just did not have enough contrast so I decided to add just a tiny bit of sparkle to give the chandelier a "pop", against the wood ceiling.  You can read more about that project here. 

Here is a before shot of our beautiful chandelier!  This is also before we installed the Stikwood ceiling and before we lightened the space with a cool gray-blue paint color. You can see that the chandelier is beautiful and could certainly stand alone without any embellishment.  At the same time, what girl does not love a little bit of sparkle?  I knew that I had to add a little bit of glam to this fixture but at the same time, I did not want to overdo it. 

I ordered some crystal garland from Amazon here and I attached the garland with eyelet hooks.  In order to secure the eyelet hooks to the fixture, I made a tiny hole on each arm of the chandelier with a push pin.  Then I attached the eyelet hook to the fixture using the hole from the push pin.  I then draped the crystal beads from arm to arm until I had gone all the way around the fixture.  After I was satisfied with the garland placement, I added Crystal Beads to accentuate the garland. 

This was really a very easy and also very inexpensive project.  The payoff was huge!  This once understated chandelier now just commands attention and delivers such a statement!  I love how it turned out and I really did get a great deal on this fixture.  The fixture can be found at Overstock and Amazon and it is still available here

Thanks for visiting my blog and I hope you are having a wonderful week!  Be sure to post comments or pictures if you decide to use this tutorial for a light fixture that you having laying around!  

Rustic Christmas Tablescape!

I have often wondered why I love creating beautiful tablescapes.  It just makes me happy to make the table look pretty!  I love napkins rings and chargers oh and napkins too.  I have quite a collection of all of the above.  Probably my favorite tablescape to create is a Christmas tablescape.  I love mixing rustic and shiny elements.  Throw in some black and white buffalo check and you have a table that is both beautiful and inviting.  Although I love my tables to look pretty, first and foremost, they have to feel inviting. You don't want your guests to feel like they can't touch anything. 

This year my tablescape features some aged copper metal chargers, a rustic birch candle holder, some mercury glass mini trees and some glittery garland with pinecones.  I painted and distressed the napkin rings and you will find that tutorial right below this post.  It took no time at all to put this together.  The plates are part of the Filigree Collection from Pfaltzgraff.  I like to keep the plates simple and add interest with the napkin rings, table centerpiece or napkins themselves.

I hope that you all will be spending quality time with the people you love this Christmas!   If you live in the Atlanta area, we always have room for one more at our house!

Merry Christmas Everyone!

DIY Farmhouse Napkin Rings

I love when I get to set the table for big gatherings of family and friends.  My happy place is to have a houseful of people that I can feed and visit with.  I hate to admit it but I have several sets of napkins and napkin rings and I change them out according to the holiday and formality of the occasion.    Although I have an assortment of various and holiday specific napkin rings, I was really craving a napkin ring that was versatile enough to pair with a variety of tablescapes.

I came across some unfinished napkin rings on eBay and decided to paint and distress them to give them a Farmhouse style rustic look.  If you have shopped for napkin rings lately, you'll find that you can spend anywhere from $3 to $15 each on a napkin ring depending on where you shop.  I purchased 25 of these napkin rings for less than $22.  

Unfinished Napkin Rings from eBay

I started out by painting the Napkin Rings with some Krylon Metallic Spray Paint.  Since this was one of my first attempts at paint distressing, I only applied one coat of brass metallic paint.  In hindsight, I would apply a second coat of metallic paint as it doesn't touch much sanding at all before you are down to the bare wood.  A second coat of metallic, ensures you have more gold left underneath after a light coat of sanding.  Allow the spray paint to dry for three or four hours between coats.  After the metallic paint was dry, I painted over the top with a creamy chalk paint.  Since I was so excited to get this project done, I didn't photograph painting the top coat with chalk paint but I used Waverly Chalk Plaster Paint in Matte Finish. 

I applied the chalk paint with a small foam brush and when it was dry, I lightly sanded around the napkin ring in a non-uniform fashion.  I just wanted to lightly distress the rings to create a rustic farmhouse look.  This was a super easy project and my total cost was less than $2 per ring.  

After I finished the napkin rings, I added a tiny little spray of greenery for a pop of festive color.  I love how these look on my Christmas Table scape which is part Rustic with a little Glam thrown in!

Thanks for stopping by and please share any photos if you decide to make some of these yourself.  There is no limit to how creative you can get with these unfinished wooden rings!

Sláinte!