doing it myself...

Hello world, it's me Juneanne!

So, I moved into a new apartment about two months ago.  This is my 5th place in 6 years (oh, the life of a city dweller!) As any apartment renter knows, the less you bring into your new place, the easier it is to move (duh!).  Well, with that mantra in mind, I got rid of my television stand, which posed a problem, since I-had-nowhere-to-put-my-tv-on.  

I had no idea what I wanted for a tv stand, but I knew I needed one stat and I didn't want to break the bank either...

One morning when I was walking to my local coffee shop, I stumbled upon a kickass credenza at my favorite store, Brownstone.  The credenza was quite dated and a pukey brown wood tone color, BUT, it was only $20 and I was in desperate need of a television stand (because I hastily threw away my old one).

So about 25 minutes and a latte later, I decided to buy it.  Again, it was only twenty dollars (so, not really a lose-lose situation...)  

I did scads of research on how to paint furniture, and finally found a great tutorial on The Everygirl http://theeverygirl.com/feature/furniture-rehab-with-centsational-girl/. The task seemed a little daunting, and since I am no stranger to Pinterest/diy mishaps i.e. the glitter wall that was an EPIC fail (note: Ehlmer's glue + glitter do not = awesome glitter wall.  At least not for me). Hence the reason why I decided against documenting  any of this particular diy project.

Now that I had my actual furniture piece, I had an idea of how to paint it, no idea what color I wanted to use, and no idea of how long it would take me to pull it together so that we could resume being diligent consumers of the cable.

I left it up to the Pinterest universe to guide me.  Do I go bold with a bright color? Pink? Red? Orange?  Or do I choose a neutral? Black? White? Greige? Maybe a jewel tone... Emerald, Sapphire, or Teal?  Acutely aware that my husband would not be happy if he had to miss another syndicated rerun of Family Guy, I decided to stick with the blue/green family.

Here were my final candidates...



Option 1: 

http://www.brittanymakes.com

Option 2: 
                           
http://mycolortopia.com/blog/bedrooms/atlanta-designers-find-inspiration-for-design-and-doing-good

Option 3:

                                             
http://www.deringhall.com/features/articles/creating-a-scene-cameron-diazs-manhattan-apartment/


I chose option 2.

Now onto painting this bad boy...

What you'll need:

Primer -- I didn't use it, because my credenza wasn't in too bad of shape -- and to be honest with you, I had no idea how this would turn out (I am still scarred by the glitter wall)

Paint -- I used Behr Premium Ultra Paint & Primer in Majestic Blue semi-gloss.  Because spraypaint is illegal in the city of Chicago, and therefore almost impossible to buy.  In hindsight, it would have probably been a million times quicker and easier, but a trip to suburbs would have pushed my husband's precarious tv-deprived state into uncharted waters.

Acrylic paint --  for the trim and hardware, and honestly, because that's what I had already

Screwdriver -- to get the doors and hardware off

Paint brush --  a good-quality, angled paint brush that wouldn't shed nor leave too bad of brush strokes.  Also, a fine tipped paint brush to do the trim and hardware.

Foam roller -- to smooth out the brushstrokes.

And this is what I ended up with!  All in all, not too shabby...

Now that the glitter wall is behind me and I have my DIY-confidence back, stay tuned for more!