Dining Room Set

This is the dining room set I purchased along with the coffee table last week. One thing that really drew me to it was the surface of the dining table. I like the rustic quality of the planks versus a large, smooth surface.

I used a cream colored paint that has an ever so slight hint of greeny-grey.

There are four chairs, but I wanted to mix it up with the bench in there so 2 are on either side of an armoire also in the room.

The surface of the table was the only area I distressed so that the planks would still be visible.

The bench just so happens to fit perfectly on one side.

High-ho Captain!

We picked this captain's bench last night and immediately I was in love! (Sean was not quite as smitten). It has that perfect "Martha" quality, so I was drawn to a dark grey from the get go. I have it at the front door, but it's new home is actually going to be in the dining room once I move a few things around and share that dining set I did last week~



My pillows from Katie at Sa-Sea Boutique look good on everything, but they really seem at home on the bench!

Edited to add:

Hehe these pictures are in full color, I just love shades of white, grey and black. Looking at them I can definitely see why you would have thought they were in grey-scale.

Continuing on the topic of Slipcovers...

I have yet to sew up a set of covers for the blue wing back chairs I picked up in April. Fast forward to June when I am leisurely browsing through Style at Home magazine and see an amazing store bought cover. On closer inspection it is only $99 per cover and after flipping to the resources page I am thrilled to discover it is sold at SEARS!!! I am thinking "this is it, how much easier can it be?". Oh how wrong I was...



I have literally stalked the Sears website weekly for months now, made numerous trips to multiple locations and called customer service countless times only to conclude that they pretty much consider hunter green to be the height of slipcover fashion. After another failed attempt at tracking even 1 down yet again this morning I considered my cause to be a lost one. It occured to me tonight that I ought to write both the magazine and Sears a nice little letter about the stress, hassel and frustration I have endured all in the name of these darn slipcovers so I whipped open the laptop and headed over to the Sears page to secure an email to send my scathing review to when on a whim I check the slipcover page and low and behold what do I see?
You guessed it (and they were even a little cheaper, at $89)! I think I ripped my credit card out of my wallet so fast that I may have melted down the numbers. 45 seconds later I was completely checked out and I am now patiently waiting just a little longer to see if these babies look as good in person as they do in a magazine.
Here's to hoping!

edited to address a couple comments:
Ok, I did a little searching and could not find them on the Sears US site either. The magazine that featured them is Canadian and they are only on the Canadian site right now. I am thinking I could not find them before not because they were sold out, but because they are a brand new style.
Here is the link to the Canadian listing, which may give you some info for trying to track one down in the US. If anyone solves this crazy mystery please share!

Thank You Rebecca!!!

On Thursday our friend Rebecca came bearing gifts. If you are a reader of her blog you already know about her amazing feather-working skills, but I was completely blown away when she brought Wren a gorgeous headband and a matching clip for myself! They really are 100 times more beautiful in person, with tons of tiny little details. I am going to hassel her until she finally gives in and starts selling them to local baby boutiques for all us Mom's of bald-headed babies out there. Plus, it's a perfectly good excuse to make Wren vogue it up for the camera, right?? (I swear this baby is going to grow up thinking she is Cindy Crawford or something with the amount of pictures we do around here...)

Thanks again Rebecca!!

A new coffee table and teeth

I bought this coffee table along with a matching dining room suite (pics of that to come tomorrow) this past week. They are definitely very "rustic" in feel but I really do like their chunky legs, and the really cool wood work on the top.



To give this one a bit more of a beachy-feel I first primed and painted it white, then applied the grey-ish blue paint and distressed back down to show the white coming through. This is similar in color to a piece Rebecca and I worked on yesterday which I am sure she will be sharing asap on her blog.

Another thing I LOVED was that this table had a drawer! I switched the knob to a hanging pull.

Close up of the distressing:

On a completely different front, Wren has sprouted her second tooth! She is pretty proud to now have a complete set and definitely lets us all know it. Exhibit A:

Exhibit B:

And just because:

Have a great Friday!

Slipcover Conundrum: Solved

Instead of just responding to the couple comments below I thought it was high time we discussed slipcovers! I get a lot of emails from readers who are looking to update furniture in a fast and affordable way with slipcovers, and besides those two great qualities slipcovers also offer quick and easy cleaning. While much of our slipcovered furniture comes from Ikea (cheap+great looks=no brainer!), not all does. The sofa in our living room (pictured in the post below) was actually a custom piece we had made for our first house. Not surprisingly, the actual color of the sofa is white but the slipcover was surprisingly a later addition.

Here are my tips to slipcovers:

1. Go custom with store bought.

Huh??? Let me explain. To buy enough fabric alone to cover a sofa you are looking at atleast $100 or more. Plus you still have all the work of planning and sewing one. I am not nearly that adept of a seemstress, but I do know how to use a needle and thread. I found that sofa cover in a clearance bin for $30 at Bed Bath & Beyond. It was a great khaki color, however I did not see the lovely, huge, purple mystery stain right in the middle until I got it home. That explained the price... But I threw it in the wash with some bleach and it came out a perfect cream color, mystery stain was gone. But it was stilll slouchy and baggy, so I pinned it in a few areas around the arms and sides, stitched it up with some upholstery thread and I had an instant custom slipcover. No sewing machine needed!

2. Pillows are your friends.

Pillow backed sofas are your friends! But if your sofa doesn't have a multiple pillow back and just one or two big ones I would highly recommend finding pillows to match your new slipcover and use those over the cover instead of using the one(s) that came with the sofa. This aleviates the issue of constantly re-tucking in your covers and gives you a much more finished look.

3. Covers that tie at the arms fit best!

Avoid covers like these:

And look for ones like this:

This also helps to tighten the front piece along the bottom, accentuates the arms better, and makes for easy re-application after a washing.

I hope these tips help anyone looking to cover something, especially those who wanted an option to the slouchy store bought covers!

Curtain Call

Back in April I bought 2 sets of canvas drapes from Ikea for the family room. At $39 per set I thought that was the mother of all deals for window coverings, so imagine my delight when I scanned the 2010 Ikea catalog last week and saw them with an ever better everyday price: $29!
Definitely in the budget.

I had bought some window coverings previously for the living room, but I have felt lately like they are just a smidge too white, and a little too sheer.
Case in point:


So I swapped them out yesterday with the new ones and Voila! instant improvement:

ps: you can see a little bit of my wallpaper project taking shape to the right...

Another steal of a deal I just couldn't resist recently was a trip to a rural library near our cabin. Rural libraries are amazing! They have a pretty great collection of older books, and like many city libraries they have an ongoing book sale to sell old books to raise money for new books. Over the years I have found this to be the easiest and cheapest way to get your hands on neat, old books. Well this library in particular REALLY wanted to get rid of some books. They sell reusable shopping bags for $4, and for an extra $1 you can fill the bag with as many books as you like! That's crazy talk to a book lover like me, so of course filled it, I did!

About 85% of the books on the table came from that sale.
My favorite find was a book called "Queen of Hearts". It is about Marie Antoinette and is filled with lovely prints. Perhaps I will scan them and do something fun later on...

REALLY tacky cabinet

I took a bit of a risk on this one. The ad said "intricate old armoire", no picture. But the price was right, so Sean picked it up on his way home from work a few weeks ago calling me on the way to say I would LOVE it. Right he was!

Yes, there was plenty of the usual ugliness: bad hardware, too much details on the doors, hideous stain... but it also had cute doors and a good shape.


So I chipped off a few things I thought were "over the top". When I chip things off, I don't know why but I sometimes keep them. Like the crazy curly-cues on this dining room cabinet:



But in this case it served me well! Because after all was done I thought the top drawer was just a little too plain, so I added one of the old curly-cues and painted it up.

(the wall paper behind the cabinet is left over from a BIG project I have been working on for weeks now, and can't wait to share)


I really picture this piece in a little girls bedroom for some reason, hence the styling, but it would be perfect for any bedroom corner, or even a kitchen.

Guest Blogger

Today I was a guest blogger over on The Nest ! Click here to read about my project. This was fun and easy, and with all that old hardware I rip off everything it was cheap too!

8 Months Old

It is getting harder and harder to get clear pictures of Wren because she is always on the go! (and I prefer not to use flash). Yesterday she turned 8 months old. She weighs in at 16 pounds (a far cry from the 4 pound, 9 ounces she weighed when we brought her home!) and while she may be small, she sure thinks she is a big girl! She crawls, stands, LOVES to walk and of course her favorite toys are not toys at all, they are dogs. She finally has some hair, and while it is really getting longer it is still soooo fine that you can barely make it out in pictures and I think it may even be a little red!

If you have not seen baby ruffles around you have to take a look! They are like baby legs, but are ruffled for girls and go over their feet too, which I really like. Oh yeah, and they come in the most elusive baby clothing color: black!

Painting the Roses White

I am soooo super excited to share my friend Rebecca's new blog, Painting the Roses White!!! I am so happy that she finally took the plunge. Not only does she have the cutest pets, but her home is gorgeous and she is amazingly crafty (can you believe those feathered napkin rings?)!

Welcome to the blogosphere Rebecca!!!

80's dresser

Wow, I was just through with my second coat of paint on this guy when it dawned on me "You didn't take a before shot!!!". I can't believe I forgot, because you would hardly believe just how hideous it was. I once again had a lot of decorative drawer fronts to chip and chisel off which was the most time consuming part.


I stripped the top and "stained" it to look like aged, greyed wood which is one of my favorite looks right now whether it is with wicker baskets or furniture.

It kind of reminds of something that belongs in a lab, but I LOVE it! LOL

What does it say

about your state of mind when you can hardly remember what day of the week it is? Thank goodness the health clinic called to remind us about Wren's shots tomorrow otherwise lord knows we would have definitely forgot! I can't believe how fast the days fly by and how many go between each blog post. I have sooo many things to show and share, can you believe that finding the time to even take a picture of them is getting hard? Talk about hectic. I am really excited though because Sean is helping me set up my very own studio in one half of our garage. We have A LOT of things to move/toss in order to make it work, but I will be happy to have a space to keep all my paint and tools instead of waiting on the weather to do it in the yard and then dragging it all out there.

Hmmm, besides that we have been busy keeping up with all of Wren's playgroups and playdates, helping my parents throw a big bash last Saturday, oh and did I mention that my sister asked me on Saturday to be her maid of honor (Hi Torri & Braeden!)?!

I have made a vow to break out the camera and catch you all up this week!

And the winner is...

LISA from http://ryandlisa.blogspot.com/

Congratulations Lisa!!! Let me know which Lisa Leonard piece you would like and I take it from there~

Thanks to everyone who entered!!!

Library Hutch: Take 2

I have had such an overwhelming response to my original library inspired hutch and since it is about to go to a new home I thought I would do a similar makeover on a slightly smaller dresser. This dresser is a little more of a cream color, and the handles are different but still have that "library-flair", so it is still unique and definitely one of a kind!
I found this vintage steel basket ($5.99) and these 2 milk glass compotes ($2.99 each) at a thrift store recently and they are pretty much my favorite things right now!

Hopefully I will have a little more blogging time again soon, I know I have not been the model blogger! Thanks so much to all my blog-friends for all your support and enthusiasm with all my projects these days, I really appreciate all your comments and suggestions!

Ta Da!

What do you get when you take 1 seven month old baby,1 husband, 2 dogs, several clients, a pile of furniture in your garage, 1 magazine article written (and another in progress), a partially finished renovation, 1 day a week spent consulting and 10 minutes of blogging each day? A lady with no concept of whether she is coming or going! But amidst all of this I opened up Microsoft Publisher for the first time on Sunday night and thought to myself: "heck, how hard can it be to build one of those website thing-y s?". So excuse me if a few links are not in alignment or one or two spelling errors can be found because this may just be my first website, and I may just like it how it is. Quirks and all.

Anyways, without any further adieu welcome to whiteberryreinvented

Almost ready!

I was hoping today would be the official launch of Whiteberryreinvented.com, but alas due to forces outside my control I was not meant to be. Hopefully tomorrow or the next day at the latest will allow me enough time to sort things out and share my latest project as well~

Until then don't forget to enter our giveaway!

Lisa Leonard

If you haven't heard of Lisa Leonard, you have no idea what you have been missing. Her fresh and unique jewelery is not only beautiful and whimsical, but affordable and customizable (the perfect gift, right?)! I am completely in love with her Family Tree necklace, Laundry Line necklace, actually ALL of them are too cute to choose from~ Definitely stop by Lisa's site and check out her blog!

Lisa was kind enough to give away a necklace (of your choice!) to 1 lucky winner! To enter just leave a comment here by 8pm pacific time on August 15th. The winner will be listed here the next day.

Good luck!

Today I had an absolute blast out shopping with my new thrifting buddy (and first customer!) Rebecca. We hit the thrift stores, then stopped in at one of my favorite stores for some inspiration and finally HomeGoods. First off we found Rebecca an amazing dresser that she is going to refinish, and after getting inspired at the tres expensive store we got a bunch of identical accessories at HomeGoods.

Since our "taste" isn't all that common in our area we pretty much had the pick of the clearance crop. So much so that we carted around 3 carts FILLED to the brims! Oh yeah, and we had our sanity and ability to hold down a husband questioned on 2 seperate occasions when people saw what was in our carts (not even kidding on that one, but it was a ton of laughs for the two of us since we thought we struck gold!).

Here are a few of my goodies from our adventures:

weathered wood tiered stand, $19



I got 2 of these trellises, amazing at only $11!


These tin finials were originally brown so I "aged" them up a tad with some cream paint, $15 & $18.



Various vintage books I snagged over the last few days (yes, I do read all the books I display!).