Putting Together an Entry Table

Recently a large portion of our home got a fresh coat of paint. We’ve all heard it before, but honestly, it’s true; Paint changes everything. And since the walls looked so fresh and clean, I procrastinated a bit to put things back together once the paint was dry. After all, I spackled all of the holes. Why make new ones?

But then the bare walls got boring. So, hello hammer.

First up was to put an entry table space together. There’s not usually a spot on the wall that says, “Put your entry table here. X” We’re lucky enough to have a large entry area, so I took a couple of things into consideration. First, I made sure that the front door had enough space to swing completely open. We have a constant parade of furniture in and out of the front door, so I needed to make sure that nothing would be in the way. Next, I have this  thing  obsession about symmetry, so I had to make sure that the table would be centered in the space.

Once I had the spot where I wanted my table, I could start hanging things on the wall above it. TI knew that I was using this mason jar lamp, so I checked was to make sure the “Family” sign was hung high enough that the lamp wouldn’t block it. Of course, I used my level to make sure it was!


Ignore the stool. I’m a shorty.

By the way, if you haven’t heard of this trick to hang pictures using tape, you should really try it. Tape in between the hold of your picture. Then use the tape on the wall to measure the distance between your nails.

The entry in our house is two stories, so the scale of this arrangement was important to me. I didn’t want to make anything too low or small and have it seem puny in the space. I added another picture to heighten the display. It goes with my “family” theme that I have going on. There are four of us and there are four birds. Awwww, so cute!

Finally, I set some items on the tabletop to complete the look: a tray to place keys and sunglasses on, a lamp to provide a little light at night, and some other decorative items.

 
I recently created a different display on the table to use for one of my Etsy listings. I think this turned out beautiful and functional. I love functional. This reclaimed window frame organizer is currently for sale in my Etsy shop.
 
I got this perfect “Family” sign from Amazon. The quote is exactly what I was looking for.

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XOXO,
Abby

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Christmas Scenes in Glass Canister Jars

Hi All!

I wanted to share an easy Christmas decoration idea with you — Glass canister jars with Christmas scenes inside of them. These were simple and affordable to put together.


I bought all of my supplies at Walmart. Walmart zaps the life out of me, but it is the absolute cheapest place to buy everything you need for this project. I bought three glass canisters. The largest 2 gallon size is $9.97 and the smallest is $4.97. If you bought these at a big box craft store they would be twice as expensive, even with a coupon.

You’ll also need:

  • some Epsom salts, which you can find in the pharmacy or garden department.
  • Bottle brush Christmas trees, which you can find in the Christmas department with the village stuff. Trust me — the best price was at Walmart. $7 or $8 for a large pack, I think. Hobby Lobby & Michaels both scalped me for a lot more when I bought some there.
  • Toy cars or trucks
  • twine


Pour some Epsom salts into the bottom. Settle some trees wherever you like them. Take some of the smaller trees and attach them to the trucks with some twine. I didn’t glue anything down so that I could reuse it. If you don’t have any trees that are small enough, use some wire cutters to cut the tops off of some bigger trees to the size that you need.


My kids love looking at this!

Merry Christmas!
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How to Paint Your Doorknobs

I’m so glad I painted our doorknobs! If you’ve been following The Great Door Painting Project (here and here), then you know that this has been an enormous transformation. The good news is that painting the doorknobs was the easiest part. Even if you aren’t painting your doors, painting your doorknobs is an easy way to update your home.

This is a job that even a beginner can do. There will be two screws on one side of the doorknob. Unscrew them and twist each side of the doorknob in opposite directions while pulling apart.

Find away to support your doorknobs before you paint them. I used a block of Styrofoam and set it inside of a cardboard box. I have seen some other methods, which I pinned onto my Pinterest board on doors. Don’t forget to paint the heads of your screws!

This is my favorite spray paint for hardware. Rust-Oleum makes several different metal finishes in their line of “Forged Hammered Paint & Primer in One.” I have used this to paint the hardware and hinges on furniture as well. It doesn’t scream “I’m spray-painted! I’m cheap!” My favorite part of this spray paint is that it gives a slight texture and variation in color. You can order it from Amazon.com and have it delivered right to your door(knobs). hee, hee!
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I recommend using this is short bursts to give the most natural finish. The more coats you use, the more variation in color and texture you will achieve. Just like I mentioned when you paint doors, your painted doorknobs will need several days to dry rock hard. Even if they are dry to the touch, wait before you reinstall them. I felt like mine were completely hard after 4 days.

Super easy. Give it a try!
XOXO,
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How to Fill-In the Gaps on Your Christmas Tree

 

I’ve had years when we had 4 live trees in the house. One year we had a tree that was 12 feet tall. We’ve had themed trees decorated only in peppermint ornaments. Once we even had a white and blue police themed tree with flashing blue running lights. We’ve gone to tree farms and cut them down. We’ve had artificial, table top, large real, and just plain ridiculous. All in the same year.

But the past few years when we get out all of the bins of Christmas decorations, all I can think about is how long it’s going to take me to put it all away when the Christmas season is over. Lame, yes. Maybe even a bit on the scrooge-y side. Hey, don’t judge.

This year we picked up a tree from Home Depot. It took less than 2 minutes to pick it out. Here was my check list: Tree? Yes. Green? Yes. Will it fit in our tree stand? (Oh, honey, that is another story for another time.) Yes. Perfect.

However, you know when you go some big box store to get a tree, the branches are all tied up in mesh. They cut open the mesh, and you can all “ooooh” when the branches spring down. But in reality it takes a few hours for the branches to “fall.” As it turns out, our tree is a little uneven this year with some gaps in it. But you know, no one is actually driving their Christmas tree back up to Home Depot and asking to exchange it. Wait a minute, are you? :-/

Should I have taken more than 2 minutes to pick it out? Yes, probably. Is it a big deal? Not for me. Can I fix it? Yep.

Should you find yourself in a similar situation, head on over to your local craft store. In the floral department you will find all kinds of floral stems. You are going to want to look in the section with long stems. Stay away from the short floral picks for this project.

Find something that will make your tree wonderful and fabulous. Don’t try to match the branches. Find something feathery or glittery or totally unexpected. I went with gold because I have mostly gold ornaments. I also wanted something with texture similar to pine needles.

You can fill in the holes by simply poking the stems into the tree. I also evened out our tree (it was a bit lopsided as well) by pulling some of the stems further out on one side, and pushing them further in on the other side.

And just because I love my new Shiny Brite by Christopher Radko ornaments from Home Goods:

 
Our tree isn’t perfect. It isn’t huge. But once you put lights and ornaments on it, any tree becomes magical.
 
 

XOXO,
Abby

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Painted Black Doors


I couldn’t decide to pull the trigger on painting the doors in our house black. I’m not really into doing anything trendy. Read: All of you who painted chevron stripes on your walls will be repainting in a year or two. But the more that I saw pictures of doors painted black, the more I decided that it was something that could actually last a while. When I decided to go ahead and do it, my thought was, “It’s paint. We can always paint them back to white.”

I did a lot of research before I started. Check out my whole Pinterest board on doors, and you can see some of the blogs that I read on how to paint a door. One of the blogs I read said something like, “This was so easy that I decided to go ahead and paint all of the basement doors, too.” Yeah, in that case, I’m in!

Y’all. I’m all about telling you when things are easy. I’m all about empowering you to do projects. But I’m not going to lie, this was no cake walk. I may or may not said a few curse words in my head  the whole time a few times. I don’t know for sure, but I’d be willing to bet that if you hired a bunch of painters to come to your home, and they needed to also paint a few of your doors from white to black, that they’d make the new guy that they all hate paint the doors.

So I may have once thought, “It’s paint. We can always paint them back to white.” But make no mistake, I will move before I paint those doors back to white. I originally thought I’d do one blog post on the whole thing, but I’m going to break it up into three: 1. Before & After pictures so you can decide if you want to do it, too. 2. What I did while painting the doors, that you might want to try. 3. How I painted the doorknobs from gold to antiqued pewter.

Here’s a before and after of the hallway. The walls are Revere Pewter by Benjamin Moore. The color I used for the doors is Black Suede by Behr.


and here’s a before and after of the front door:


I’d love some feedback! Please leave me a comment below and let me know what you think. I’ll be posting soon with the how to’s and what-nots.

XOXO,
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Distressed White China Cabinet with Homemade "Chalk" Paint

Deadlines. Due dates. Time Frames. I work well under pressure. I know this about myself, so I’ve given myself unmovable deadlines to make sure I get stuff done.

This fall I didn’t participate in any antique fairs. The kids’ sports schedules and Ken’s work schedule were a little chaotic, and I didn’t think that fairs were going to be doable this season. However I had a lot of inventory to get rid of. So I decided to throw a “Yard Market”, which is just fancy-talk for yard sale but with some above average inventory that you don’t usually find at yard sales.

I advertised and my reason for doing that was because once I told the world I was having a “Yard Market,” then I had to do it. All was going well and smoothly, but I had one large piece that I still hadn’t tackled yet. I needed some help from Ken for this one.

This china cabinet belonged to a family member that had tried a few times to sell it. As it was, it was average. As you can see it was dated 90’s oak, which isn’t in demand at all right now. I asked them if they would trust me to paint it and sell it for them, rather than just giving it away.

It was an enormous job, from the inside out. Everything from the light fixture to the hardware got a new look. The glass even got some attention. There is no way I could’ve done this piece as quickly as I did without Ken’s help. We pulled an all-nighter!

As fate would have it, a friend from college was looking for a distressed white china cabinet. So this actually sold before the Yard Market even started. (Win-Win!) Here’s a picture of it in her home:

Hope you love it!
XOXO,
Abby

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Wait for it…Wait for it…

Once upon a time I painted my dining room three times in a weekend. Two of those times were in the same day. One of those colors was lilac. I make mistakes.

Enter: A chifferobe. This chifferobe started out in a cherry finish. And, well, no one wants cherry furniture right now. So since Ken and I were newbies to refinishing furniture, we sanded it. I can’t believe we did, but yes, we sanded it. Entirely. It took a lot of time. And then (embarrassingly) we used a vinegar barn wood stain on it. It was horrible.

After that the pig needed some lipstick, so we painted it white and put it in our antique booth. And there it sat. And sat. It got lots of compliments. And there it sat some more.

So we brought it home and put it in the garage. And one day I decided to slap some antiquing glaze on it, which was also horrible. It was so bad that it might as well have been cherry finish again. I cursed the chifferobe and spat on it (in my head) and turned my back on its ugliness for months.

Then last week I had a thought: Gray. And then I had another thought: Flat Spray Paint. Valspar sells some fantastic colors of flat spray paint at Lowe’s. So I picked up three cans and brought them home to introduce them to the chifferobe. But…gray is relative, apparently. And this wasn’t my idea of “gray” as much as “bluish ugly concrete primer color.”

So glad I quickly realized that the gray spray paint wasn’t the color I was looking for.

So, doing what I do best I went to Home Depot and picked out a nice shade of gray and mixed up a batch of “chalk” paint. And even though there was nothing wrong with the long mirror, I took it out. (hold the hate mail) I replaced it with some natural linen fabric.


We added a knob to the door after this picture was taken.

And now finally, finally, I love it. So I’m going to do what I do with all of my favorite pieces. I’m going to keep it (because I love it). At least for a few months until I decide that I love a paycheck more. And then I’m going to let one of you love it.

Mistakes are okay. They aren’t sins. They’re learning opportunities. I’ve made so, so many mistakes in my life. But I’ve also learned so, so much. I’m thankful for my learning opportunities.

Ephesians 4:22-24                
To put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.

XOXO,
Abby

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A chair, Me, and God

It’s raining today. It’s a typical Atlanta day in October, overcast and somewhere in between warm and cool. But the humidity envelopes you when you’re outside, so, for the most part, it’s basically warm.

Today I take my project outside despite the rain. I have a chair that I’ve painted gray with some spray paint. I’m going to finish it with some antiquing glaze. I take the chair onto my little front porch, and together my chair and I are protected from getting wet.

 

Since I’m outside in the humidity, it’s going to take longer to dry and finish once I put my glaze on. But it’s so peaceful. Amidst the steady rain, the birds are still singing and leaves are cascading from the tulip poplar in my front yard. I am away from the computer, iPad, and phone. I am away from the multi-tasking. It’s just me and the chair.

It looks so much better with glaze. More finished. More natural and “relaxed”. Less “freshly painted.” Less sterile.

While I am adding the glaze, I am thinking. I’m currently running a giveaway on my Facebook page, and Ken (my husband) and I were discussing a trend that I noticed. Every time I post something related to God people “unlike” my page. (The book I’m giving away has God in the title.) This makes me sad, and it makes me want to tell you part of my story.

For years I prayed. I prayed for a lot of things, but something that I prayed louder, and longer, and harder for was this: Please God, point me in the right direction. Lead me down the path I should go. I’m not always good at picking up on small clues, God. So please make it obvious.

For years God’s answer was “not right now.” About a year ago I was lucky enough to have God shout loud and clear. While “working” on the blog, searching for antiques, and repurposing I had a moment that with every fiber of my being, without a shadow of doubt in my mind, that THIS…this “Belle & Beau Antiquarian” is exactly what God wants me to do. In that moment I was 100% sure that I was doing the thing that God had planned for me. This is the path I should go down.

I can’t say that since that moment I have experienced 100% easy success. I wish I could say since that moment that I have not doubted that I was on the right path. I have doubted. I have wanted to quit. I have experienced failure time and time again, in small ways and big ways. I have had many months where I did not break even. I have had months where I overspent and then spent months paying for it. I have had months where I have neglected the blog. But I always return to that moment of 100% conviction. Despite failures, I have had successes. People read this blog. A lot of people. People are interested in what I do. I have an opportunity. This is what God wants me to do. Now, I need to make sure that I do it HOW he wants me to.

So like this chair that still needed a finishing touch, I still need some finishing touches, too. It’s hard not to take “unlikes” personally. But if you are “unliking” my page because I “like” God, then go ahead. The unlikes are certainly something that I will put in my “success” column.

“Commit your work to the Lord, and your plans will be established.”
Proverbs 16:3

Hope you “like” the chair.

XOXO,
Abby

P.S. Um, there’s a fabulous giveaway going on. You should really enter it!

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The Gospel Truth

Have you ever unintentionally collected something? One minute you have one extra casserole dish/figurine/pound and the next you have twenty? (Hey, I know I’m not the only person to have unintentionally collected twenty pounds at some point!!)


I have unintentionally collected antique and vintage hymnals. I mean to say, I didn’t set out to collect them. The collection just sort of happened a long the way. Now here I sit with a stack of hymnals from the Bible Belt (that’s the South, y’all) in varying conditions.

I love the ones that are falling apart at the seams. There’s only way to get like that — by being used. Unfortunately some have no life left in them as a song book, but I just can’t bare to throw them away. (I might surprise you that I am the total opposite of a “hoarder.”) I haven’t had a plan for using them before, but this past Sunday at church I was completely inspired. The words to “Holy, Holy, Holy” are truly beautiful, and I was inspired by the verse, “Early in the morning, our song shall rise to Thee.”


I decided to use one of the hymnals that had seen better days to create something new.


XOXO,
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Mason Jar Lamp: Fall Re-Mix

I love making something that can be used in many different ways. Remember this guy?

 
Well, I pretty much got tired of the lamp shade. And I got sick of the corks. Truth be told, I probably won’t drink enough wine in my entire life to even get it half-full. (The craziest it usually gets around here is chocolate milk, folks.)
 
I love the lamp itself too much to sell it (collaborative groan from the masses), but I wanted to change it up. So it now sits on my mantle with a new brown shade ($5, Walmart) and some colorful autumn glass thingies. This was a super quick change! Remember, the top screws off.
 

 
 
By the way, I want to thank everyone for visiting and for your support. I now have well over 25,000 views in less than and year, and that makes me feel reeeeeealllll special. 😉
 
 
XOXO,
Abby

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