Month: August 2011

Worse for Wear: Dining Table

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As much as we love our kids, we don’t love the scratches, scuffs, dings, dents, stains and other blemishes they leave around our house and on our furniture.  To keep it real and show how items in our house have held up (or haven’t) to two rowdy boys, we’re starting a new series, Worse for Wear.  You know how fashion bloggers have “What I Wore Wednesdays”?  Consider Worse for Wear the home owner equivalent.

I thought the best place to start is our DIY welded steel and marble-topped dining table, our most popular post.

A year ago, the freshly spray painted legs looked like this:

Here are the legs as of yesterday:

And now, for a closer look:

I don’t know how they did it, but the boys have slowly chipped the paint.  Fortunately, we had anticipated this, so it should be easy enough to lift the marble top off, sand and repaint. 

Luckily, the marble top is still as perfect today as it was a year ago.  No scratches or stains.  And, the chairs look great thanks to the perfectly imperfect dented factory finish.  Overall, we’re very pleased with the durability of our new dining set. 

How about you?  Which furniture pieces have held up the best?  The worst?  Which did you expect to get trashed, but didn’t?  Who causes the most damage in your family?  Kids?  Dogs?  Husbands?

Simple Solution: Shelf Life

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When we last left off with the theater room entertainment saga, we had just installed the sliding doors, going from this:

To this:

But, we still didn’t have shelves to store the toys.  You see, we didn’t know exactly how much space the sliding cabinets took up before installation, so shelves had to wait.

 

Then, Ben cut two pieces of plywood to length and depth, minus 3/4 inches.   Why subtract 3/4 of an inch?  To leave room for two strips of 3/4 inch thick by 1 1/2 inch tall MDF to finish off the front shelf face.  Ben simply nailed the thin strips to the front, puttied the nail holes and seam and left the shelves to dry.  Then, I sanded the putty down for a smooth surface and used a spray primer (because I’m lazy and we had it on hand) to cover the board evenly.  In an un-Amanda fit of craze attempt to branch out and add a fun splash of color, I applied two coats of Rustoleums Lagoon blue spray paint to each shelf.

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However , I neglected the undersides, end and back edges.  Because A, I ran out of paint.  B, the undersides are not visible unless you’re two feet tall.  And C, I’m lazy.

We’ve just doubled our usable storage by getting toys and blankets off the bottom shelf.  As a bonus, the dark paint won’t show scratches and scuffs as easily as white.

What do you think of the added color splash?  How do you add color to your home?  Pillows?  Art?  Paint?  Have a storage problem you could solve or have solved with additional shelves?

MN Thrifting

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A trip to Minnesota wouldn’t be complete with out a thrift store stop.  Between our December trip and now, a new thrift store has opened up near my parent’s home.  Curious, we stopped in one day, just to take a peek.  Obviously, thrifting is hit or miss, but I was pleasantly pleased with how many large furniture pieces they had.  Sadly, I couldn’t take anything home with me.  But, I had a good time browsing.  Kitchenwares are always abundant.  I loved this gold striped bowl.

Silver rimmed stem ware could also double as pretty candle holders.

These green ceramic canisters are cute, functional and cheap.  The large was $3 and the small only $2.00.

I spotted this $25 mid-century modern end table for my sister.  She’s been on a MCM kick for her new home.  She loved it, so we took it before someone else could.

Of course, we saw some junk, too.  Really, when was this creepy girl lamp ever acceptable?  I’d think your kid wouldn’t be able to sleep because of the distant stare.

Oh, look.  Another cat figurine.

I’m actually kinda undecided on this brass knight head.  With a coat of spray paint, and in the right setting, like a geeky man’s office, I think this could look cool.  Sort of how the bright Buddha head statues are all over.

What do you think of Sir Knight?  Are poppy painted knight busts the next big design trend?  Or flop?  Probably neither.

Advertise with Our Humble A{Bowe}d

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We shared our first post in May 2010 to document the progress on our house.  Since then, we’ve added nearly 400 posts.  We like to share one new post five days a week.  Though we’re still small, our fan base is growing each day.  We’re honored to have been featured on Apartment Therapy, Young House Love, IHeart Organizing and more.  Now, we’re Fresh Faces!

Your sidebar ad is visible on every page, exposing your shop to our readers.  Each month, we have about 50,000 page views.  In addition to your ad, we’ll also thank you for supporting this blog in a post, like this one, each month.

For only $15 PayPal payment per month, you can reserve your own 150 by 150 pixel ad slot.

If you’d like to run any sales or promotions for Our Humble A{Bowe}d readers, we’re happy to spread the good news, both on our sidebar and in each thank you post.

Ready?  Set?  Go!  Send us an e-mail at ourhumbleabowed@gmail.com to get started.

Gimme a Giveaway: Gadanke

Published on by Our Humble Abode34 Comments
Recently, a fellow Montanan, Katie, contacted me to see if we could team up to host a giveaway of one of her fantastic journals.  After checking out her products, I happily agreed.
Gadanke is committed to celebrating your story by documenting who you are, what you crave and believe.  Handmade journaling products at Gadanke are filled with creative writing prompts and tidbits to make you think (and laugh!).  These baby books, prayer journals, travel books, and diaries make your writing process more meaningful and fun!  Plus they’re totally eco-savvy with 100% recycled papers.

The Goods: One $25 gift certificate to Gadanke

To Enter: Subscribe to follow Our Humble A{Bowe}d, if you’re not already.  To subscribe, click the “Sign Me Up!” button under “Be the first to know.”  Once you’ve subscribed, leave a comment, which can (but doesn’t have to) include our Just for Fun question.

Just for Fun: Tell us which journal you’d like and why you’d choose that one.  Giving it as a gift?  To remember your travels?  To share with your baby 20 years from now?

For additional entries:

1.  Follow Gadanke on Twitter.  Then, leave a separate comment telling us so.
2.  Like Gadanke on Facebook.  Be sure to leave another comment for an additional entry.
3.  Subscribing to Gadanke’s blog, again, leave another comment.

Contest Closes: Thursday, August 11th at 11:59 pm, central time.

Number of Winners: One!

Ships: Anywhere in the U.S.

Other Info: We will select the winner using random.org and announce on Friday, August 12th.  Good luck!!

All  images found via the Gadanke website.