paint | The Nest Nook

This week I started to realize how empty my shelves can feel when the house is clean. Don’t get me wrong, it’s refreshing not to have chtochtkes everywhere. But, my style, if I had to label it, would be playful eclectic, and that doesn’t exactly sing when everything looks to clean to touch. So, during my three days off, and some since, I started looking for some fun new stuff.

And, fun new stuff I found! (and at a great price!!!)

This cheese cloche, and I have plans to spice it up for decor. Honestly, I’m not putting food on something I got at the thrift store that is made of wood and therefore can’t wash it thouroughly.

I never buy print art, almost ever. I always paint it myself or use found art (maps, menus, mixed media, etc…) But these sunflowers now make me smile every morning.

I bought this Van Gogh ‘Sunflowers’ print for a scrappy $5. I’d been eyeing it at my favorite place ever, Peddler’s Mall, for $25 for MONTHS. I was not paying that, even though the frame was awesome. When the price fell, I snatched it up instantly. Sadly, I don’t have a before picture; it was gold and green. I painted the smaller gold inlay and the green strip black to match the other frames in the room. I’m not usually a fan of gold things, but I thought it looked so good, I just had to keep some of it’s original character. It has matting in almost a bulap type canvas, which just adds to the texture.

I also found this tiny bird watercolor at Goodwill for $1.25, and this little mirror, painted the frames black and created this little vinette. Just trust me, the mirror was UGLY–a sort of brown, fake woven-basket look. Now they looking positively darling.

This money tree plant was $1.25 for several bunches. I’m not sure where they will end up, but for now they are filling my previously empty vase in the bathroom.

I got two of these old-lady frames (.25 cents each), but a yellow coat of paint and a piece of scrapbook paper later, and one of them is now functioning as an adorable tray for my perfumes and such in the bathroom.

I am really proud of this little guy. He is the cheapest vintage crate I have ever bought at $9. The last one I bought was an outrageous $45…I’m a little ashamed, but it was worth it. It is heavy duty and is reinforced with metal strips, so it can hold anything. From the side, this one still has some Washington Apple label showing, and the color is lovely and dark but not stained or smelly.

I’m really excited about this find, even though it’s not vintage, or probably even used. This 4 bowl, 4 glass breakfast set was still in the Peir 1 box it came in and was a measly $8.50. The bowls are bright yellow and look like grapefruit slices inside and out. The textured finish is awesome! And you just can’t beat a set of matching OJ glasses. (I gave these to my friend Sarah as an extra little wedding gift. It seemed appropriate since the yellow matched her wedding colors perfectly.)

I got two of these weird silverplate bowls for $1.25 each. They are slightly different, which makes me love them even more. One is already holding bananas in the kitchen…but I have a feeling these babies will move around a lot.

Yesterday was the end of the three-week fiasco that was our staircase project. We happily cleaned up all the sawdust and wood chips littering the floor, finally leading to the big reveal!

A couple of months ago, while my father-in-law Richard was in town, I randomly got the urge to pull up the edge of the carpeting on the stairs…you know, just to see what was under there. We found solid 2” pine treads, and more staples than I could imagine. We had replaced the carpet with vinyl planks in the closet upstairs to make way for the cat’s litter box (because, really, litter on carpet–eew). We knew the installers had gone a little overboard, but we were not prepared for this project.

There were staples not even holding anything down–just there for fun I guess. We counted over 300 staples per step, and we kept finding them even after we started the painting. Vice-grips temporarily became my best friend, after stabbing myself in the gut with the regular pliers out too many times while pulling too hard on the most stubborn of staples. Derek’s weapon of choice was a very small flathead and a mallet; he preferred “digging” out the staples.

Of course, his method led to a lot more wood filling, which took several days. Fill and sand, fill and sand, scrape and clean and fill and sand. After a little research, we settled on the cheaper Dewalt rotary sander and a 25 pack of 120 grit sandpaper rounds from Gator (?). We also bought some 220 grit, but didn’t end up needing them.

Most useful tool was an angle stabilizer attatchment that we bought for our rotary Dremmel. We used it in conjunction

with a sanding/grinding bit to bevel the rough edges a little. This was especially necessary on the ends of the stairs that stuck out past the wall on the bottom 5 steps. Not safe at all for folk passing by, and certainly not attractive.

With the carpet up, padding and most of the staples removed, we could finally start considering our options for decor. The treads were solid woods, but certainly not decorative. After weighing the cost and labor factor, we decided it just wasn’t the safest option to try replacing the treads with oak. And hiring help is, of course, always out of reach. My father-in-law had a professional look at his stairs, and they quoted him $6,000 for removal and refinishing. Crazy!

After the filling, sanding, and beveling, I started thinking about the paint. And, let me tell you, the deck and floor paint from Valspar, alongside my Purdy 2′ short handle brush, made for a smooth and professional finish. After 3 coats of paint on the treads, stringer, and the banister, it was time for the color! With all clean white, we first tried a special combination of decopaged paper on the risers, but the divides between the sheets of paper didn’t look as professional as the paint.

I reverted to one of my favorite standby’s, a green and white contact paper from Target (it once featured as a back splash of color in my first apartment kitchen). This turned out to be the perfect solution! I can always remove it if I want a change, and it will be easy to repair any rips or stains in the future. And I have to say…it looks SO SO much better than the carpet!!