The Basement Ramblings

 Happy Spring!  This week it got cold, rainy and windy outside.  But not INSIDE my house... Amy gave me these tulips for my birthday.  They are REAL.  You can see the bulbs.  And in the fall, I can plant them.  Isn't that a smart gift?

 Last Sunday we had a little party for my birthday and Aunt Marie's over at Kris and Barbi's.  Aunt Marie is 89 now.  And still driving herself down to St. George for the winters!  Wow!

I bought some new clothes with my birthday money... and this red clock, which reminds me of Amy because she loves clocks, and a bunch of chalk paint.  Which I used to:

...paint the bedroom set I didn't want to sand and stain.  I am a little shocked by the darkness, but Kwint LOVES it.  The color is called "Semi Sweet".  I used a new-to-me brand called "Rethunk Junk".  Don't tell Annie Sloan, but I actually like it better than hers.

AND..... Sometimes I do weird things.  Like paint the old furniture that was rotting in the unfinished basement.

Why would I do such a thing?  I am still asking myself that question.  The main answer to that is, I want to start a blog about furniture makeovers.  I love it so much that I kind of want to start a painting business and redo everyone else's furniture, since I am officially out of things to paint at my house.  I love how I have made old hand me down "junk" into something unique and "ours".  I would love to do it for others. I decided to practice with different paints and primers on the old junk.

I have always hated going down in the basement.  It is dark and cold and surrounded by insulation, raw wood, and pipes sticking out everywhere. I thought, "If I make the old junk cute and decorate it, I can pretend the basement is finished and maybe I will like it enough to hang out there and it can be my craft room."

I needed a workshop, because it is too cold outside and Kwint is not loving the medley of paint spills I have decorated our garage floor with.  Eventually, I want to build a workshop in the back side yard where I can do furniture, but for now, I decided to section off a chunk of the basement for painting. I have a good heater and two big windows for ventilation.  So, welcome to my workshop!

I was so excited to start painting that I neglected to take "Before" pictures, so bear with me and imagine these pieces old and dark with brass hardware.

 This piece, I now love.  I HATED this armoire!  It had big, heavy decorative doors which I removed and threw away in the same breath.  I was going to chuck the whole thing but one day while perusing Pinterest I discovered the lovely idea to paint a dresser white with turquoise "ombre" drawers.  I was desperate to try it.  It became the "media center" in our basement, where the kids can watch movies while I paint this summer.  Now I feel pretty tempted to ombre Kaeleb's dresser with Navy fading up to light blue.  Not sure how he will feel about it yet... not that I ever ask first...

 This is Grandmas Ruth Kemp's table and chairs.  She gave it to us when we moved to Ivins, when, at the same time, she and Vic moved into a care center in Kaysville. They both passed away shortly thereafter and the table is a family treasure.  I painted it black a few years ago but I used a spray varnish on top of spray paint, which ended up peeling and it looked AWFUL.   This time I used chalk paint and it better stick!!  I have had great success with chalk paint so far, so my fingers are crossed.  The color is "Cotton".  The chairs I spray painted, and they are already chipping, so I will have to repaint them eventually with chalk paint.  I just hate painting the spindles with a brush.  Super annoying.  But, the colors make me happy.  The kids sat here and did their homework while I painted one night.  I have visions of them nicely playing board games in this nook. Ha!  It will be chaos like everything else.

 This little stool belonged to Kwint's Great-Grandma Lettie, who died when he was a baby.  We love it, because she was so dear to his mom. 

 This bed frame was Kwint's Grandpa DeVon's.  It has been many colors, most recently, green.  His parents gave it us when we moved into our Green Valley house.  It was Kaeleb's bed there. It is our guest bed now.  My mom and Gary have slept here a few times.  An unfinished basement is not much of a luxury guest room, but it is a bed, at least.  They are leaving on another mission in May, so no one will be using it, but I redecorated it so I would like to look at it while I sew.  I need to take a close up shot of the duvet, since you can't really see the details.  I made it from a set of sheets from Walmart.  It has little circles in turquoise, navy, and lime.

The nightstands were honey oak.  We made them one summer when Kris was home from med school.  Bailee was a baby, and we had no kids yet.  We made them for our bedroom in the Clearfield Condo.  I really love the lamps.  Amy bought the same ones for Addy's room and I got jealous, so I went and got some for myself.  I felt sort of guilty about making actual purchases on an unfinished basement.  Not guilty enough to take them back though.

Across the room is my sewing desk.  I used regular latex paint and primer on that one.  I definitely prefer chalk paint.  It just goes on more smoothly.  My favorite thing is the chair.  It was a cheap task chair from Walmart and was all black.  I spray painted the frame and reupholstered the seat back and cushion in this cute turquoise chevron fabric.

I also spray painted the ladder teal.  Like I said, I do weird things.

On Friday we babysat the Starks kids while they went to the temple, so Addy was the first guest to use the media center.  She watched a little bit of Brave and then we all watched Frozen. Well, actually, they sword-fought and used the banana chair as a slide while Frozen played in the background. Brennan gave Addy his old tickle me Elmo.  Look how happy it made her!!