Years ago, a hot new interior decor trend took the market by storm. Chalk paint seemed to be a cure all for all of our drab, outdated furniture pieces and made even the most inexperienced home DIYer feel like they were worthy of their own HGTV show.
I have to admit that I was one of those people and when I initially picked up this beautiful vintage piece from Goodwill for $70. I decided the best way to fix it up, get rid of the smoky odor and cover up the slight blemishes without completely sanding down and refinishing was, you betcha: chalk paint.
Also like a lot of people, I realized soon after that I strongly disliked the finish but the thought of stripping, sanding and refinishing the piece was too daunting for me to do anything about. Until today when I had a random burst of energy and ended up finishing half the project in less than an hour. That wasn’t so hard, was it??
This brings me to my next point and what I really brought you here to talk about, do you know what else I was guilty of not knowing much about and largely ignoring because I thought it was way too hard for me to do anything about?
Systemic racism.
If you’re like me, you may have not been aware just how bad racism has been in America for our entire lives. Slavery ended, people marched on Washington for civil rights, MLK is a household name. But there has been a lot of media fanfare around ending racism without a whole lot of actual action and black and brown people still suffer each and every day.
I thought for the longest time in my life that just being “not racist” was enough. But in the fight for equality, you’re either for or against, there is no neutral party.
Essentially, if you take WWII & the Holocaust as a similar metaphor, you couldn’t just “not be a nazi” or “not like Hitler” if you were living in Germany or any of the surrounding countries that the nazis had invaded and held power over. if you weren’t actively resisting the nazis, you were complicit with the atrocities that were committed, plain and simple.
Thus, when we talk about modern day racism, police brutality and straight up murder of black and brown people by the hands of the police, complacency is just about as guilty as being on the side of the oppressor. You may have heard the term “white silence=violence” and that’s because when non-black people stand by and watch things happen but say “that’s not my fight” or “oh how awful” but don’t decry it publicly or take action against it, it is this “neutrality” that is actually a form of racism in and of itself.
Now, if you are reading this, you can no longer feign ignorance to the plight of black and brown people in America. You can no longer stand idly by while people are dying and suffering at the hands of people put in charge of a system that was formed out of racist leaders and policymakers and continues to be managed by them.
Here are some great resources for you to read to find out more about what people are doing in response to the recent murder of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery and the countless black lives lost at the hands of police:
How to be an ally to the BLM movement
White Activists Can Change Culture
If you’re afraid of Covid-19, or you can’t march or physically make a change, here is an extensive list of places you can donate. I know you got a stimulus check and you’ve been ordering things on Amazon that you don’t really need so what better way to help the cause by setting up a recurring monthly donation or even a one time donation. Even $5 helps, so if you can buy things on Amazon that make Jeff Bezos become an actual trillionaire, you can divert. those funds to people who actually deserve it.
115 Ways to donate & support people of color
Lastly, money TALKS. Marching and conversations with your sphere of influence as well as your government representatives and policymakers is priceless. However, we all know that in our capitalist society it’s that paper that does the most. I’ll be posting about some amazing black owned businesses with CUTE AF stuff in the near future so look out for that!
Now that you’re done signing petitions, making donations, marching and having those tough conversations, I’ll give you a little breakdown of what I did for this piece!
Literally picked up a can of paint stripper at Lowes (which btw. has a black CEO and is 1000x better than Home Depot so shop accordingly!). I grabbed a brush I use for paint that I already had and poured a little bit directly onto the drawers. This stuff is THICK. With the consistency of shampoo so I didn’t worry about spills. Either way I took these outside and did them on the concrete slab. I highly recommend putting a plastic tarp down and having a plastic bag or disposable cup to toss the scrapings into afterwards.
The can says to wait 15 minutes after applying the stripper but literally as I was painting with the brush it started to come up. So after just a few minutes i took my scraper and began scraping off the paint along the wood grain. It’s very important to go along the grain and not against so you don’t scratch the piece or chip it.
After I removed it all I wiped off the excess with a damp, soapy cloth. Now if you remember, the pieces still smelled smoky from previous owners and the smell definitely started to come back with the wood exposed. So I sanded them all down, wiped with a damp cloth and then used my UV light for 30 minutes (locked in the bathroom with no houseplants or living creatures around).
Afterwards I took my magical furniture polish/restorer and just wiped those babies down until they were deep and shiny. A lot of times the pieces I pick up look old and sad because they need some love. It’s amazing what you can do with a quick cleaning and a little moisture for some vintage wood pieces!
I also found the very same dresser being sold online for $1500 which is one of my favorite bits of information when researching a piece I thrifted!
I realize I still have to do the the legs of the piece but that will be another day. I also took this opportunity to go through the drawers and organize/throw out anything that I didn’t need.
As featured on Apartment Therapy!
What you might not know about my current place is that I almost signed a lease elsewhere before begrudingly deciding it was worth my effort to visit this place even if it was 99% probably not where I wanted to live based off of the photos online.
What happened when I walked in, however, was the old world charm and the exact location - steps from the downtown walking mall - all reeled me in immediately and I said to the property manager as i walked through the yellow walls “I think this is the place”.
When I signed the lease I didn’t end up moving for another 2+ weeks but as soon as I did I immediately painted as many of the rooms I was immediately using in Valspars creme fraiche to freshen things up a bit but keep that warmth and coziness. I knew the living room was going to be the place I spent most of my time between working from the couch, entertaining friends or watching netflix.
After painting everything white, I changed out the light fixture which was an old ceiling fan from the 90s and installed a fun one I picked up at Lowes. I wanted to get settled quickly so while I typically love the thrill of hunting for things slowly and intentionally, because I had a specific vision I found most of the initial items from Ikea (glass shelves, pink couch, storage boxes). Then I found some other accessories and things like pillow covers, rugs etc from a mixture of things I had an online.
Halloween of 2017 I was planning a night in with wine and creepy makeovers with 2 of my favorite spooky chicks, Kir and Cece. We ended up inviting a few other gals we knew and loved and decided to decorate and order in some pizza while watching scary movies. Still to date one of my favorite supper clubs since I made the girls watch The Exorcism of Jane Doe and nothing quite fills my heart with wicked joy like scaring the people I love.
Fast forward almost a year and supper club had become a regular occurence. We began to meet up once a month where I would host and decorate and everyone would bring a dish to share. While the group itself has evolved over the months, the same general concept of gathering for drinks and light hors d’oeuvres/snacks, followed by dinner and then some sort of activity which often includes a movie, card game or sometimes just drinking.
One of my favorite supper clubs to date was our Southern Comfort theme which was inspired by the heat and humidity of August as well as a fabulous English china set I found at a thrift store. It was a lovely mix of vintage pieces, new and a few heirlooms. My grandmothers butter dish and my mothers silverware also made a debut and seemed to be a fitting part of the overall cozy, warm, welcoming nostalgic ambience.
Krysta photographed everything beautifully, of course, and captured all of the special little details. We had a spectacular menu put together by the girls, kicking thing off with Amanda, who has, of course been crowned our salad queen.
~Menu~
Amanda - Watermelon-Feta Salad
Cece- Mac n Cheesies & Hand lettering place cards
Krysta - Fried Pickles & photos!
Soleil - Cornbread & Collard Greens
Rachel - Sauteed balsamic Green Beans -
Janessa - Fried Chicken & buttermilk biscuits
Soleil - Apple Crisp & Vanilla Ice Cream with homemade caramel sauce -
Alex - brownies
Sarah Pete - Mint Juleps & Jam+moonshine favors
I decorated in true southern style with some magnolia blooms from the backyard and trimmed some of the limelight hydrangea which nestled perfectly in their wicker basket as the centerpiece to the table. For cocktail hour we mixed in more fab sunflowers that Janessa picked up!
Cece of course hand-lettered our place cards which tucked in between the seagrass chargers and the blue & white china I snagged from Homegoods with a few sprigs of Magnolia leaves to tie it together.
Candlelight was necessary when the sun went down and we enjoyed it’s warm flickering from a few tapers and pillars scattered across the table. Sarah Pete also brought everyone a mini jam and moonshine jar for each persons place setting and as a favor!
a Trip to Bali in January
I found this gorgeous mid century modern Willett cherry dresser at the thrift store the other day for $155. When I first moved I thought I could skirt by without a dresser and got this fabulous idea in my head that I would magically become a minimalist, which, I’m sorry Marie Kondo - I am not. Soon I realized I needed a dresser and spent many hours online between the typical cheap furniture sites defiantly trying to save the most amount of money since I thought I shouldn’t need one in the first place. When I saw this one it was love at first site. The charm of it drew me towards it and even as I circled other pieces, I always came back. Now she sits beautifully in my bedroom and stores all the clothes I knew deep down I would never really get rid of. Icing on the cake was getting it home and finding the exact same piece for anywhere from $800-900! I swear I get high on a good deal!
PORTUGAL
Found this gorgeous 3ft on antique mirror for $40 while taking a quick work break to peruse FB marketplace. I had been searching for a mirror to go over my bed for the longest time but everything was either too large, too small, the lines were too harsh or it was just too expensive. This fit the bill incredibly well and I think she looks pretty happy in her new home, don’t you think?
Paris, France
PUERTO RICO
sauces
Florida
Portugal
St Kitts Island
$35 for the green guy, $20 for Florence the orange crush beauty and my favorite place to sip coffee, ruminate on house projects or debate the merits of ice cream for breakfast.
Puerto Rico
Reno/Refresh
Canmore
Spain
