Thess Socety Blog

B E F O R E (CRAIG'S LIST PHOTO) As you all know, I change paint colours like I change my clothes... When I picked up this 1980s hutch for a song on Craig's List, I had no idea what a painting odyssey I was about to embark upon! My poor dining room has been remade many times over until I finally had all the right furniture and colour scheme I wanted for my cottage style 1930s bungalow.  Scroll down to see all the different looks this old hutch has been given! Read more »

Well I was all set to share this project several weeks ago except that I wound up not liking the makeover I gave my wardrobe (what else is new??!). But I'm getting ahead of myself... My home office has been in need of an overhaul ever since I settled on cottage style decor for this house.  For some time it's been that room where I dump all the things I can't use in other rooms because I'm not ready to part with any of it - do you have one of those??  But this year I've been really good at getting rid of stuff that I no longer use or need.  That being said, Izzy decided to sample the arm on my living room armchair and since I can't fix what she did, that chair is now in the office as well. Read more »

I'm so happy with my newly redecorated dining room! The black and white scheme makes the wood furniture the focal point which is what I wanted.  Now this space fits my cottage decor beautifully and is a look I am happy with. I began accumulating furniture for the dining room when I first moved in. The furniture I had already was minimal and not really my taste - without a huge budget, I took my time choosing the right pieces for the right prices by buying second hand furniture. Read more »

I like having easy access to things and a stepladder is a must in my house. This past week I picked up the Ikea Bekvam stepladder because it is the perfect height and it comes with a handy hook for hanging the stepladder. I want this stepladder hung in my kitchen where it is nice and handy, but if it's going to be on display all the time I want it to be cute... Read more »

The room is really coming together! I still have one more chair to paint, but 5 are done and I replaced the Craig's List chandelier with one I bought from Lowes. I ordered it online on a Saturday and it was in my hands by Tuesday - gotta like that!! Do you want to see the room so far?? Read more »

Another year, another dining room makeover! This time, though, I am getting the look I truly want! INSPIRATION ROOM Last week I scored 4 matching Windsor chairs on Craig's List and found one solid oak Windsor chair in great shape at the dump.  Now my dining room furniture is exactly the style I want it to be.  Time to give all the mismatched furniture a makeover to get my dream dining room! Read more »

Thanks to my new puppy, I haven't had any time to work on new projects... Sigh. My blog anniversary is the beginning of March so this week I thought I'd share my all-time faves from the past 5 years (I can't believe it's been 5 years already!!!). Enjoy! Click on the Images for More Details! Shutters for the Laundry Room Read more »

It's no secret, I love vintage furniture.  I have several Ikea pieces purchased long ago and I've been changing up the look of those pieces with trim and paint.  During my bedroom redecorating project, I began a makeover of my Ikea Leksvik dresser. I like the look of the dresser but I was ready for a change.  And I changed it 7 times!  Take a look at all the different looks this dresser went through before I decided what to keep. Read more »

I have an old style, hand made night stand that I didn't terribly like much but it did the job. Then I got my "princess-and-the-pea" extremely high king-sized bed and this old style night table was much lower than the top of the mattress. Why are mattresses so huge these days anyway??? I made over the night stand several years ago, stenciling the top with a Fleur-de-lis pattern that I liked but with my new cottage style look I decided to take the time to fix up this night table once and for all. BEFORE Read more »

Guess what I found on Craig's List?! An antique iron bed - I am in HEAVEN!!!  It is a 3/4 sized bed so it fits beautifully into my somewhat tiny guest room.   Of course, a makeover of my guest bedroom was now in order. I am thrilled at how inviting this room has become. I no longer have that ugly futon as a guest bed.  I love that this iron bed is from the era of the house and that everything fell into place effortlessly.   I really do think this house whispers design choices to me.  And I have been unusually successful this year at finding antiques at incredibly low prices.  I think the house is behind it.  I've also been hearing murmurings that it wants to be called "Ashcroft Cottage" instead of "Ashtree Cottage".   Sheesh.   Maybe I need more sleep... Take a look at my antique iron bed: Read more »

Once upon a time there was a little antique washstand. Somebody thought it looked better without the mirror, so they removed it. Then somebody thought it would look nice painted green. Then painted yellow. Years passed and the cabinet was sold. To me. Whoop! Here's what this piece looked like when I bought it (please note, this is not my home) Read more »

I have TOO MUCH STUFF! Are you feeling the same way lately? Sometimes I wonder if this need to purge and edit is related to the position of the stars and moon, everyone I talk to seems to be feeling this way. I had this huge old office desk in my kind of tiny home office which is made even smaller by the HUGE wardrobe I refuse to part with that is stored in here as well.  Soooo I took the desk apart and reused the desk top for my pretty new washstand project, took one side of the drawers to the dump and repurposed the other side of drawers as a stand alone filing cabinet (project still in progress). I found a sweet little console table type computer desk for sale online and scooped it for $30. This is what it looked like when I bought it: And this is what it looks like now: Read more »

I have wanted a vintage washstand with a towel bar for a long, long time. Unfortunately, this type of cabinet doesn't seem to ever come up for sale in my part of the world so my challenge began! How am I going to recreate this look?? I think I did pretty well!   My main goal this year is to clear out my workshop of as much of the hoarded materials as I can.  I am tired of clutter!  I began to assemble a pile of components that I could use for this project. Read more »

Another day, another dining room makeover!  After I scored my new linen drapes a few weeks back, the one thing in my dining room that stuck out like a sore thumb was the colour I painted my hutch last year...   Although I love the way the hutch turned out, that shade of grey/green just did NOT work with the wall colour. It also didn't fit with the rest of my decor, so guess what?  I painted it again!!  In aqua.  I have an awful lot of  aqua paint on hand... Read more »

Welcome to my quest to turn my Ikea Stranda wardrobe into a cool, vintage looking piece of furniture. I've painted and repainted and tried all sorts of looks on this piece, but nothing really spoke to my heart until this latest makeover. I began with this bare basic Ikea Stranda wardrobe, bought many years ago because it was solid wood and unfinished so it wasn't terribly expensive. Read more »

I love shelves!  In my small kitchen, I don't have enough cupboards so I use whatever I can find to add extra storage.  I've built a tiny pantry cabinet, added a sideboard for extra counterspace and storage and now I've found a free hutch top that I hung on the wall.  I LOVE it!!! Check out my latest project and the tutorial! Read more »

Hello, it's me again. You know, the obsessive compulsive can't leave well enough alone blogger? I upcycled this cube shelving unit some time ago.  It went from basic cube to a console table with legs and drawers.  It worked well but since I'm in the middle of making over all the furniture in my home office, I decided to change this piece up a bit. Here's the before & after of the last makeover: Read more »

I had a black sofa table. I loved it when I bought it, I liked the black and the style of the table. Nowadays I'm not as fond of black as I once was and I really wanted to give my table a fresh new look.  Out came the paint cans! I used good 'ol latex paint in Behr Almond Cream and a tiny bit of paint from my tube of acrylic Raw Umber for this project.  I'm thrilled with the new look! Read more »