Blog Absence...

If you peruse my blog at all, you will have noticed I haven't posted in a while.  I have been so busy !  I can't complain though because I love what I'm doing and feel so fortunate to be doing it!  I tell everyone that I have always liked to paint.  The instant gratification of painting something and seeing it transform is wonderful.  I even like painting walls...I know people call me crazy.  But to see the change in either a wall, a piece of furniture, anything, in such a short amount of time is so refreshing!
So I have to show you what I've been up to with my Pleasant Pickin's refinished furniture.  These are just a few things I've been working on...make sure to visit my Pleasant Pickin's Facebook Page to see more!
And how true is this message...

Did some custom work for an interior designer...

Another table custom done

I love the detail

Just finished a beautiful Dining Set with 6 chairs (thanks for all your help Mark)

Sold this wonderful Shaker style desk and piano stool

This little 1950's mauve desk sold for a child's room

The "Old White" dresser also sold for a child's room

Redid this little chair, I love the back details! 

The "Duck Egg Blue" armoire sold as a loft cupboard

From Grandma's House to Our Home

My husband Mark amazes me.  We have wanted a harvest table for a while now, so he found some old pine and built one!  We just got it in the house today.  The pine is 3 inches thick, and what makes this table special is that the legs are made from pillars off of the front of his late grandmothers house.  We had used the pillars at our previous house in our landscaping, but when we sold the house that was one of the things that we were taking with us!  We love the table and the special meaning it has for us.

Pillars in the garden at our other house.

The wood before we started 

Figuring out what we wanted

Incorporating the pillars 

Before waxing...we didn't want a really shiny finish so we just waxed it for protection.

Love that Mark left some of the chippy paint on the pillars

Love the colour! 

It's perfect for our room!

Can't wait to use it!

Changes

I'm still playing with what I want my blog to look like , so if you see changes to my Blog it's just me trying to find the right look!

The Turquoise Door

The house we moved to is on 2 acres and it came with a shed.  Now it wasn't "oh good there is a shed", we didn't know whether to tear it down or burn it.  But Mark saw the potential in it and just had to fix it up right away.  His words were, "I can't look at that thing all winter long".  So we moved in March and by July, even though we still had renovating to do in the house, we were renovating the shed as well.  See for yourself the before and afters....

We have beautiful sunsets in the backyard, but that shed!!

View from our kitchen, but again the unsightly shed. Mark couldn't take it any longer...

Time to get the pick up and start the demo

No words needed

I don't have pictures,but we dug out the front to pour a cement porch, filled in the huge doorway, added leaded glass windows, sanded and painted the siding. We added an overhang, put in the columns and beams and re-shingled. WOW...you will notice in the next pictures I'm not in any of them, (I'm always the photographer) but believe me, I threw Mark every bundle of shingles that went on that roof! And painted, etc. etc...

Mark was great, I'm afraid of standing on a roof...

Finished with my turquoise door...we love it and have had coffee in the sun already this spring.
What do you think?
I'm hoping soon this will be my Pleasant Pickin's workshop...

My Little Blue Dresser

I love creating "colourful" out of something drab.  Nothing is better than brightening up your space with beautiful colour.  Here is my latest before and after...

It was a sad little dresser...found on Kijiji

But it was all wood and had potential...

Sorry, I keep forgetting to take pictures as I'm working on the pieces...Look at this beautiful Aubusson Blue paint by Annie Sloan.  Love the colour!!

Added a little stenciling for interest and added some legs to make it more substantial.
We also added some molding to the side of the drawers as they were damaged a bit.

Lined the drawers with pretty paper

And she was done.
SOLD to a really nice girl who will enjoy it!

Filling the house

When we moved last year, we didn't downsize like we had planned.
The house had been up for sale for a day, we walked through it that night and bought it.  Love at first sight and we could see the potential it had.  Mark and I built the last house together when we merged our two families together (7 of us all together).  It was a new house and a totally different style.
The house we bought was built in 1959 and I just felt it needed some "not so new" pieces in it.  I loved the pulls on this dresser, (and no not because they were painted gold)...just big old round, wooden pulls.  It's one of the first pieces I finished and it sits in our family room now.
Here is the before and after...

How I bought it

Starting to paint with chalk paint

Love the little details

Finished

New Adventures

I've always considered myself a creative type person. I took art all through school, went into floral design, love photography and now my new passion is creating found treasures and furniture into pieces you will love. Both my husband and myself love renovating and making what is old into something new and repurposed. Hope you enjoy my blog, the journey we have had in the past year and the new adventures yet to come with Pleasant Pickins... 

Dresser turned Vanity

Last year Mark and I bought a house built in 1959.  We love renovating and believe me we had a lot to do.  I've come to realize how much I love transforming pieces of furniture into something new and fresh.  Many of my posts will be "before and after" posts and the fun we have had in the past year of renovating and making this house our own.
We definitely had to redo the main bathroom upstairs.  As you can see from the before pic, it had orange carpet!

Once we tore out the 500 lb tub, the tiles that had 1/2" cement behind them and took out that horrible orange carpet we were ready to go!  

My favourite part of redoing this bathroom was choosing a new(old) vanity.  I will show you the rest in pictures...Dresser turned Vanity

The perfect vanity found on Kijjiji

Primed

Painted

Added glass knobs

I'm in love with my distressed, aged and varethaned washroom vanity!

We reconfigured this space and it works perfectly for us!