New Life To An Antique Dresser

I love living in a small town... The people, the atmosphere, and of course side walk sales and antique shops :) This past weekend Senoia had a side walk sale. I found the lovely piece pictured below at Cidney's Alley for $50! What a steal if you ask me. I immediately saw the potential in this dresser as soon as I laid eyes on it. I knew right then that I wanted to try the Annie Sloan Chalk Paint technique to it. For those of you who have no clue what I am speaking of, you can find out more information here. This paint will forever change your view on painting furniture. Personally, I love the dull look to the paint and how easily you can distress it after painting. Also, there is NO need to pre sand your furniture before painting!! This saves tons of time and a sore arm ;) The color chalk paint I used for the dresser below is called Duck Egg. It is a beautiful blue/grey color. I purchased the paint from Twist on Main in downtown Senoia. I loved the way this dresser turned out that I painted the tall dresser in my room to match and distressed it and added new knobs. Sorry there is not a before photo of the dresser, but it was dark brown in color with silver knobs. Enjoy the photos below!

Dresser before, and of course an adorable little munchkin ;)

Close up on detail before, check out the ugly stenciled flower

Duck Egg Paint Chip

Close up on the detail after two coats of chalk paint

Finished dresser

Dresser in place in my room. Love it!!

My tall dresser after one coat of paint and a little sand paper action! Knobs purchased at Hobby Lobby (yes, I am aware I am missing two knobs in the middle, I purchased all of them and had to order more! )

There's A First For Everything!

I just returned home from an experience that I will likely hold onto for the rest of my life. I was asked by my husband's cousin (who is the man when it comes to all things photography and directing), to help out his stylist for a Taylor Made and Adidas shoot at Reynolds Plantation. Of course I jumped at this opportunity. It has been several years since I helped him out the first time. We stayed at the beautiful Reynolds Plantation at Lake Occone. My three days there were spent assisting the oh so fabulous stylist, Emily Sistrunk. We dressed the 5 pro golfers for their shoots and made sure they were looking perfect. The golfers we spent our three days with were Sergio Garcia, Dustin Johnson, Justin Rose, Jason Day and Jessica Korda.  We all had such a fabulous time! I cannot thank Chris enough for letting me tag along for this amazing shoot! I will post some photos soon :)

Wine? Yes, Please!

Im probably not the only person out there that loves wine, right!? This next DIY project involves my love for all things wine. You can either save all your wine bottles after consuming them, or score big at a yard sale like I did ;) 

My yard sale find. Entire bin of about 30 old wine bottles of various sizes only $5 total!!  All they needed was a good cleaning.

All you need to do is find long candle sticks (you may have to shave down the bottoms a bit like I did), and put then in the bottle. Light the candle and let it burn for a few minutes, and voila!

Another photo of my wine bottle candle holders, not completely finished with all of the bottles but wanted to get a picture up to share :)

 A few wine bottle DIY photos that I found on Pinterest. Such great ideas, and the list goes way beyond these photos of all the things you can make with old wine bottles!

My fashion DO's

I have been known to enjoy shopping from time to time, just ask the man who pays for all of it ;) I love fashion and I am constantly looking at my favorite bloggers sites to see how they are wearing certain pieces to change things up a bit. Pinterest has certainly influenced by fashion eye with fabulous new pieces that I have since added to my own wardrobe. Below are just a few photos of my fav pieces this year! Maybe this will influence your style also!

Arm candy.....YUM! The more the merrier!

Geometric Bib necklace 

Blazers

Sheer blouses

Tall light colored boots

Chambray shirts!

Colored jeans and leopard prints

Smokey eyes and pink lips

Fedora and side braid

Flannel shirts and faux fur vests!!

More fur vests. I have this one :)

Relaxed curl and feathers

Hunter wellies :)

Leopard flats

That lip color

Maxi dresses

Maxi skirts!

Nail bling, only one one nail.

Nude lipstick

Raybans

Stripes

Chambray and tribal

Frayed tops

Olive surplus vests

Chalkboard LOVE

Hi, my name is Mallory and I am addicted to chalkboard walls.... Yes I know, silly right? When I was younger I always loved to draw on walls. I guess its a fascination of every child's though right? Well below I have posted some eye candy for those of you who have not jumped on the chalkboard wall bandwagon. The last photo is the chalkboard wall I painted in my breakfast room... Enjoy!

Love that they painted the door also!

Fantastic kids room

Wish I had a curved entry way like this one, this is just fabulous!

No caption needed... Love the wine bottle racks in the middle of the wall

Going to paint a stripe like this around my little man's wall in his room. 

Here is my chalkboard wall that I painted in my breakfast room. This was taken when I was in the process of painting the breakfast area and kitchen this lovely grey color. I simply purchased one small can of chalkboard paint at Home Depot, painted three coats and framed out the section I painted so that it looks like I hung an actual chalkboard on the wall. This has been such a great addition to our kitchen. We write reminders, love letters, grocery lists and of course our little man LOVES writing on the wall :)

Just to see you smile...

Hope everyone had a fantastic day. A fellow co-worker told me about this video at work the other day, and it is too funny not to share. Prepare to laugh :) More DIY and projects to come soon!

My "All The Things I Love" Wall...

I think everyone should have a wall like this. I draw inspiration from it and continue to add to it any chance I get. This wall is located right when you walk into my house on the left. It is a compilation of everything I love, from quotes I adore to paintings I recreated. I hope to continue to add more to this wall as I find more items that I love. Hopefully this wall will inspire some to create their own! It makes me smile everytime I walk in... The antique bench I found for $65 at Wendy's Antiques in downtown Senoia, GA, I am obsessed with it! The green color  in person is lovely.

My wall. If you want to know what anything says or looks like up close, let me know and I will add more photos! The runner is from Walmart believe it or not! Great find, only available online. The brand is called Safavieh Dhurries. The blue color is fabulous in person and really brightens up the space!

Here is one painting that I recreated. I got the idea from Made By Girl's Blog you can go to Here. She has the most beautiful paintings that she sells. Her company is called Cocoa and Hearts, you can go to it Here.

Burlap Wreath DIY

I am obsessed with everything burlap! Seriously, you should see my house at Christmas time! I use burlap for everything from putting it on my Christmas tree as garland, to using it on my mantel and even wrapping gifts! It adds so much texture and detail to anything you want to create. There are many tutorials out there for making your own burlap garland wreath, so there is not right or wrong way to do it. I believe my way is one of the simplest you can do though. I started with a wire coat hanger. Yes, those ugly wire hangers that we all have tons of but refuse to use them even if they are the only coat hangers left...those wire hangers... All you need to do it take apart the hanger and re-bend it into a circle. It does not have to be perfect because the garland is very forgiving. I had my burlap garland left over from last year, but I purchased it at Michaels for about $6 per roll. You get a lot of garland for your money also. I used 4 rolls for my wreath. The amount you use depends on the size of the wreath you want. After shaping the hanger into a circle, start by weaving the garland in and out, sort of in a fan shape (like how you make a fan out of a piece of paper that you fold back and forth, if this makes any sense). Keep doing this until you cover the entire hanger with garland. Twist the two ends of the wire hanger together (i used pliers for this part) so that the garland does not come off. Tie a small piece of garland, or ribbon to the top of the wreath and hang! Voila! This wreath took me about 3 minutes to make and cost about $10 (Michaels coupons included).

My burlap garland wreath on my front door

Moss Covered Letters

There are several ways to make your own customized moss covered letter. I chose a more difficult way to make it because I already had the below styrofoam board and did not want to go out an purchase a letter. Plus the thickness of the styrofoam was perfect since I wanted a more "chunky" letter "B" and I wanted a larger letter than I have previously seen on other blogs and websites. These letters are available for purchase on Etsy for about $70! I only spent about $20! The styrofoam was purchased at Walmart for about $7. The sheet moss was purchased from Michaels for $6 per package and I had a 50% off coupon for one regular priced item. I used 2 1/2 packages of moss for my letter. You will also need a glue gun and about an hour of your time :) I would love to see your finished moss covered letter!

Styrofoam for the letter. I simply drew out my letter "B" and cut it out using a serrated knife.

Sheet Moss

After Moss application