My furniture posts are quickly becoming fewer and farther between.  We don’t have a heated garage, and so living in Alaska, that greatly inhibits how much of the prep work I can do on furniture pieces that need a substantial makeover.  I tried stripping a night stand about a month ago in the 40 degree weather, and instead of the …

I don’t know if it’s just in Alaska or everywhere, but furniture at thrift stores usually is not such an incredible steal anymore.  Like they caught on to the DIYers and want to make them pay more for putting extensive blood, sweat and tears into a broken down piece of furniture.  For that reason, I don’t find a lot of furniture …

I’ve gotten some questions from friends and readers about reupholstery.  Usually, if one person is asking, there are more in the crowd who have the same question, but for many reasons won’t voice it (I’m usually the latter person).  So I wanted to take a moment to answer some questions if you’re thinking about digging into a very fun way …

I am always on the lookout for French style furniture to makeover.  In particular French chairs or settees.  I have also come to discover, I enjoy reupholstering even more than painting.  I’ve been looking for a pair of French chairs for over two years, but, I’m telling you, in Alaska they are very hard to come by (for $100 a pair or …

When I married my husband eleven years ago, I moved into the house he had been living in for the two years prior.  It was his grandmother’s guest house, and it is our joke, that she furnished and decorated it with all the leftover stuff she no longer liked.  It was like a living museum of the 70s.  A brown furry …

(This is the story of the first chair I painted and reupholstered two years ago.  Because, well, we all have to start somewhere, and why not share with you the beginnings of the process?) Once upon a time there was a chair. It was used, abused, and forsaken. Renters had little respect for anything in the house, including this little …

When my first baby was born almost nine years ago, my husband and I had nearly no money.  I wasn’t craigslist or garage sale savvy at the time, and so we bought a little sleigh style dresser at WalMart.  It lasted until the boys were old enough to start using it, and then of course, it just fell apart.  Then …

I’m always on the look out for a great mirror.  The heavy old ones, wrapped in pure wood.  I’ve found they’re pretty hard to come by, and if you do, they’re around $100.  And it’s not that I couldn’t scrape up $100, it just doesn’t seem worth it to me for a mirror. So I stopped by my favorite thrift …

Summer’s winding down here, school starts next week.  I am always sad to get  my kids back to school.  But we have a had an incredible summer as a family, camping, hiking, BBQs, and warming up (we had a record breaking summer here, and it was quite nice).  As we’re winding down and getting ready to be back in a …

Several years ago, my mom was at a mutual friend’s house and heard they were getting rid of their dining room table.  She told me right away, as it could extend a long ways, it had two leaves, and could sit maybe 10-12 people around it.  At the current time we had a little military drop leaf table, which was solid …