DIY Marble Top Dresser

This poor dresser. It's had so many makeovers in its few short years. I originally wanted the white one but our store didn't have one at the time and after driving over an hour I wasn't leaving without one. I decided I'd just get the dark one and I'd paint it later.

Eventually, I did end up painting it when we did our Phase 1 makeover in the rental house, I also sanded down the top and stained it..

And then I decided to paint it darker, Valspar Ocean Storm, when we moved into this house.

Now, I wanted something more like this.

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Gorgeous right? I'm totally loving the brass too but that might be something for the next house but for now I just wanted to focus on the marble top. I always planned to frame our mirror out to match the wood top but never got around to it and since painting it grey, the color seemed so off. Having this bright white mirror and the dark [way too dark] wood with the dark grey felt like too stark of a contrast. I didnt want something too permanent, like paint, because I'm not sure if I'll change my mind in the near future. Enter contact paper. Everyone's been using this stuff to cover their counters or table tops etc. There's so many great projects out there so I figured I take a whack at it.

Originally I bought two rolls from Lowes [$5.98 each] and I had planned to cover the laundry room counter with it, but it had too many corners and curves and I couldn't get it right so i gave up and painted them instead and put the rolls aside for someday. Today is that someday.

This is a fairly straight forward project. You cut the piece to fit, making sure you have enough hanging over to wrap around the front.

**My roll wasn't wide enough to cover in one strip so I did have to put a second strip on the back. If you have to do this too then I highly, highly recommend doing the back strip first [not like me] so you don't have to peel up the front once its stuck down as that causes wrinkles! Learn from my mistakes kids!

Then you just use a credit card to smooth it down.

Tuck the sides under,  then wrap the corner down and tuck the front under so that it looks like a present.

this is the back side, you can see some wrinkles from me having to pull up the front to put the back pieces in, again, do this part FIRST so you don't end up with this problem 

SO easy!

Before and after:

---Jackie

DIY Chalk Painted Bench

I purchased this bench from AFW [not available anymore] back when we were doing updates on our room and I totally love it! Its the only bench I could find that was the right length to fit the foot of our bed. It was also the perfect height for our older pup, Soko, to jump up and reach the bed. Plus, at less than $120 it was one of the cheapest benches I found.

The only issue I had was that the rug I purchased [this one from Target] was very matchy matchy with it. They are both basically the same color.

Replacing the rug seemed like a waste because there's nowhere else for this one to go so I thought about recovering the bench instead, but I couldn't find the same type of woven fabric in the color I wanted. Also, if I recovered it I'd never be able to recreate the awesome piping around the edges. In the end, I decided that I was just going to paint it. I figured if it didn't work out I could always recover it, right? I searched Pinterest for a tutorial but pretty much they all said the same thing: get chalk paint, water it down, paint the piece, wax it, done. I figured that seemed easy enough.

I went to JoAnns for my supplies. I ended up getting FolkArt Chalk Paint in xxx, FolkArt clear wax and a set of brushes. After a 40% off coupon my total came to $37.00 ish. So, yes, it would have been cheaper to cover it, but I wouldn't have been able to keep the texture or the piping, couldn't find a material I liked AND I have lots of leftover paint for another project, so for me this route made sense.

Back to the project. All I did was remove the seat from the frame...

Then I added paint to a bowl...

added about 50% water...

and started painting.

Since I went from a light color to a dark color it only took two coats [and it still probably could use another] but if you were covering a pattern or going from dark to light you might need several more coats.

look at that texture!

I let that dry overnight and then I ran over it with a fine grit sanding block to soften it up. Its still a little stiff but that doesn't bother me at all.

What do ya think of it now? Definitely goes a lot better with the room don't ya think?

---jackie

Favorites: 6 Instagrams I Love

@chrislovesjulia 

@theheartandhaven

@jaci.daily

@jennasuedesign

@studiomcgee

@halfway_wholeistic

What are your favorite Instagrams? I'm always looking for new people to follow, add me @JHeglandHome 

DIY Dog Potty

We have, what I think is, a huge yard. Its about an 1/8 of an acre and its ALL dirt. We had the option to finish it when we bought the house but we thought we could take it on and make it amazing ourselves. We didn't really account for the a few things though, like the fact that other projects were more appealing, landscape is expensive and the dirt would turn to mud in the rain/snow and the dogs would have nowhere to potty without tracking a huge mess through the house. We needed a solution to the dog issue quickly with all the rain we got this spring. Wiping their feet 20x a day got annoying quick. So, we bought this cheap fake grass carpet stuff from Lowes and used stakes to hold it in place as a makeshift grassy area.

We thought we were so smart. Turns out that this stuff is not good for urine. Who would've thought? Insert defeated face here. Really, I am so embarrassed that we ever did it, it looked terrible and smelled worse! We left it that way for a while because we really had no other solution until the rain let up and the ground dried. Then, summer came and the weeds got taller than me and we had to deal with that first #HOAproblems, then we went on vacation and then.... well, life. I'm out of excuses now though. It's November and my pups need a place to do their business that's functional AND pretty. After doing some research we found a tutorial online to create this cute little space.

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[We followed the instructions almost exactly, the only thing we changed was that we only added 20 bags of  pea gravel instead of 24. We felt that the coverage was great with 20 and there was no need to add 4 more.]

First, Zack took one of the 2x6 and cut it in half [5ft] and nailed it all together in a box shape.

On the other 5ft side we notched out 2 holes for drainage. 

Then we laid down strips of this mesh [found in the screen section at Lowes] and wrapped it up around the sides and stapled it in

Next, we added 12 bags of river rock.

Another layer of screen went over the river rock. We didn't staple this one in, I laid it down and held it in place...

...while Zack poured a bag of the pea gravel on the corners to hold it in place.

Once the second layer of mesh was completely covering the river rock we poured the remaining pea gravel on top and used a rake to even it all out.

Easy peasy! Now the dogs have a place to do their business [that's not all over my yard!] that also doesn't require me to wash their paws off every time they come in.

It didn't take long for them to catch on at all. We just pointed to it and said our command "go potty" and when they went we praised them. Occasionally, they will try to leave the potty area and we just say firmly "no". We snap and point to the potty area and say the command again, "go potty." Works well for our pups.

In terms of placement, we chose to put it next to the porch so Salem and Soko don't have to run through any dirt during bad weather to get to it AND there's a spigot right on the house next to it which makes for easy rinse downs. Win win!

Eventually, the side of the house will be turned into a permanent dog run, but until we get around to grading it [its got a bit of a hill] this will do! It was a cheap [only $200 total] project that serves a functional purpose until we can do it the way we really want.

Christmas Home Tour

Yes, I am one of those people. The ones that put their Christmas stuff up on November 1st. That's me and I am not ashamed! I mean, we spend all this time and money on this stuff and then we put it up for what? 30 days? Nope. Not me. I start my fall decor on September 1 and then Christmas stuff November 1, that way I can enjoy the changes for a good 60 days each before I take them down and pack them away for the next year. So, if you're a late Christmas-er than maybe this post isnt for you, yet, but if you're an early bird then.....hey girl!

Without further ado, here's our Christmas home tour!

--Jackie