Hey there friends! Honest talk - It's been a juggling act over here as I've taken some time away to brainstorm some ideas for the upcoming months.

One thing that's been on my radar and "wish list" is to start connecting with you on Facebook LIVE. It's unlike anything else to be able to answer your questions and interact with you in real time, and I miss doing this since stepping away from Periscope!

You can find me HERE!

I recently hopped on LIVE to paint a console table and even share my positive and negative experiences with lash extensions after sharing about my reaction on Instagram.

This is where I will be spending more time and branching out into various topics.

I love having fun with painting projects and sharing beauty or style tips and more, but I also love diving into tougher topics we may be struggling with as women like motivation, goal setting, faith, perfectionism, etc.

With that said, we're going to start going through the book Uninvited by Lysa TerKeurst, and I'm officially inviting you to join! Ironic I know, but I'm excited!

I strive to live by the mantra that we are Better Together and I pray that this new direction will help us to connect better and create a strong, supportive, encouraging, and FUN community!

Thank for joining!

xo,

Anneke

CLICK TO SEE FACEBOOK LIVE VIDEOS

Thrifted Nightstand Makeover with FAT paint

December 8, 2015DIY, Furniture MakeoverAnneke McConnell

First off, thank you for the social love and comments on my last post - family and life balance is a major passion of mine, so making that video was a special labor of love for my kiddos. They LOVED it!!

As for today's post, you know I love a good makeover on a piece of furniture - who doesn't right? For myself, painting is a form of therapy of sorts. I can have a glass of wine, music playing, and contemplate the things of life while working away....usually in the evenings or while the kiddos are in school (but replace the wine with espresso).

The scene from today's makeover was a little different because I decided to begin the makeover process on Periscope, which was super fun by the way. I love helping you see and learn how easy it can be to create your own masterpiece.....like in your dining room in very cramped quarters ;-) (That's my ring light by the way, just to help periscope viewers see better!)

In my excitement to get the makeover started, this is the only before photos I have. Sorry guys, but I think you get the idea.

This is what I call a "nap time makeover". It's a smaller more manageable piece of furniture, and easy to paint and dry quickly, seal, distress, etc. And yes, for this makeover (and a few others lately), I set up shop in our dining room nook. This works ok with chalk like paint or milk paint, because it's not messy, takes very few supplies, and dries quickly. With the colder weather here in Seattle this time of year, I prefer to avoid working in our garage if at all possible. Otherwise I just set up a space heater.

Fat Paint company chalk like paint nightstand makeover

Today's makeover is featuring The FAT Paint Company, who sent me some of their paint to give a try. Overall, I give it a thumbs up from the paint to the beeswax polish. They have a really great color palette to choose from and of course you can create custom colors by mixing 2 or more colors together. I still have a couple more products to try out so I'll keep you posted!

Fat Paint Co. Chalk Style Paint Nightstand Makeover

All I did was clean the nightstand - did I tell you this was only $5 at our local Goodwill thrift store??? Score! Ok, here was the process:

I removed the existing hardware and cleaned the nightstand.
I painted about three layers of FAT Paint Warm White with a brush. I currently use a Purdy or Wooster brush for most projects.
Let the paint dry for at least 30 minutes between coats. I tried to rush it and ran into the paint coming off of the nightstand because it wasn't ready for a 2nd coat. This is easy to fix with some light sanding and blending, but a bit of a pain. So be patient! It's not that long compared to other paint and prep options out there.
I applied two coats of beeswax polish.
I let it cure for a few days.
I installed new hardware and voila! A new nightstand for our kiddo's bedroom.

What do you think??? I hope this helps take the intimidation out of painting furniture. It's fun! And it's probably about the same cost as my Starbucks coffee drink and the time I take to drink it.

clock / chair / pillow / blanket

On another note, I opened up an online furniture painting class in October and will probably be opening one up again early next year or so. If learning more about how to paint furniture is of interest to you, click below to stay in the loop and learn my tips, tricks and techniques!

Learn More

xo,

Anneke

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@a nnekemcconnell

@coastalcollectivestyle

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DIY $15 Coastal Cabinet Makeover

October 23, 2015Home Blog Posts, Furniture MakeoverAnneke McConnell

What a FUN week it's been here on the water. The kitchen makeover is moving along and this week's topic in the Make It Happen Series proved to be a good refresher for myself! I love chatting with you on Instagram and Facebook, but please always feel free to interact here on the blog where conversations and questions can easily be referred back to. :-)

And for earlybird seasonal planners, the first round of Holiday Home picks are now up! Go HERE to check it out! I'm pretty smitten with a variety of fun items like faux fur pom ornaments, reindeer treat containers, and seashell garlands. Yes, yes, and yes!

Ok, so today's furniture makeover has really solved a problem in our home that we don't have an office. No office, no mudroom, few closets - we need all the storage we can get. Now, I do have a little office nook in our upper living room that I've been working on, but I have yet to blog about. Soon, and I can't wait! My husband and I tend to use our newly refinished dining table downstairs anyhow to do work during the day, and we really needed our printer to be downstairs and easily accessible.

It's a tough balance in our little beach house to gain storage space without feeling like there are cabinets coming out at you from every wall available, so I've been pretty selective about what to bring into our home lately. I want solutions that are going to last.

When I saw this cabinet at Goodwill for about $15, I jumped on it! It appeared to be clean, solid, a good fit style wise, and just about the right dimensions. Score!! Here is the AFTER.

Goodwill Cabinet Makeover with Chalk Paint.jpg

It sits against the wall next to our table, so it works well in the space, and will provide additional storage - possibly for games, arts and crafts, or table linens. We'll see!

I absolutely LOVE how it turned out and how EASY it was to get this look!

Here's the breakdown:

I painted a solid white base using Vintage Market and Design paint in Dove. This is, in my opinion, a white with a bit of a grey, cool undertone to it....just what I was looking for. There are great furniture painting brushes out there like these or this single brush, but I still tend to paint with my Purdy or Zibra brush.
Next I dry brushed the blue-green color Ocean Spray by Fat Paint Company.
Next I dry brushed another layer of the VMD paint in Dove.
Next I distressed all of the edges by hand with fine grit sand paper.
I sealed the piece VMD Matte Finishing Creme.
Last of all, I spray the existing hardware in Rustoleum's Metallic Gold.

****Do you want to learn more about painting your own furniture? Click here to learn more!