Thursday, February 10, 2011

Friendship and a Guest Room Transformation

Hi!  I'm Ashley at Woodard Gang (soon to be a new name!)  
I'm excited and a bit nervous to be posting on Tracey's wonderful blog!
You see...I've gone back and forth with blogging for a long time, 
until recently when Tracey has encouraged me to just do it!  Little
did I know I would be asked to guest post for her...nothing like
jumping right in!! 

So I hope you enjoy a little story about how we met and 
then my Guest Room Transformation that Tracey & I did together.
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About a year ago, I met Tracey in the mall at the store, A Children's Place.
I was wearing a Lisa Leonard necklace, which got us to talking about
blogs.  Come to find out, we had a lot in common!  We both had blogs,
we both lived basically in the same town and most importantly, both were
believers.  Now tell me that isn't a God thing!  I don't believe it was just a 
random thing, a coincidence, or luck at all...I believe God knew we were
supposed to meet that day, in that store and what followed was the 
beginning of a new friendship that has been such a blessing to me...and what
a fun story to tell!   

One of the things Tracey and I have been working on is getting my guest
room looking pretty...and the timing was perfect as my sister will be staying
in it tomorrow!  I had one piece of furniture that needed some repurposing
MAJOR LOVE!
The picture quality is terrible (my Nikon is on the fritz), but here is the before...
And here is the step by step process of what we did...

Primed with Kilz and painted it a Cottage White by Behr.
Then we sanded randomly all over to give it a distressed look.

This part was all Tracey!  She used the foam brush and black, brown and gray paint to make it even appear more aged and rustic.  It's a lot like glazing, but it gives more of an appearance of worn wood instead of an all over aged look like glazing does.  After watching for a while, I decided to give it a whirl...I learned you really can't mess up and when you do, you can just wipe off and start over.  
That's my kind of mess!


We went out searching for just the right knobs.
Wondering what in the world this rope has to do with it?!


Tracey came up with the idea of making "rope" handles!
LOVE.IT!!!  All you do is make knots on the inside to secure
the rope and I quickly learned that Tracey is the "master knot maker"!
I don't have a good picture, but the two knobs you will see
are just cheapo wood knobs that were covered in burlap
fabric that I had laying around...CUTE!

And here she is all done and beautified!  The baskets were $9.99 each
at TJ Maxx, the plant from our local farmer's market and the fabulous
glass jar...just $12.99 at TJ Maxx (sense a theme?)

 This is a view from the door...the hutch is just to your left in the corner.  
YES...I put BABY in the corner!  I couldn't resist!!

IN.LOVE.WITH.THE.LAMPS!
Great find at yet again...TJ Maxx!

A few things still yet to do...
A custom headboard, drapes and a throw for the end of the bed!

I'll be sure to blog about those hopefully soon!  Thanks for reading and as Tracey would say...
Love and Transformations!

Ashley 

8 comments:

  1. I love it. What a great idea with the rope handles!

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  2. It was so great to meet you Ashley! I think your transformation turned out great - just love those rope pulls!

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  3. the rope handles...the lamps are my FAVORITE!

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  4. I LOVE the story of how you met!!!! It is totally a GOD thing. A Providential relationship (we're doing and Andy Stanley Bible study) the hutch looks amazing and I am wanting some of those lamps!!!! What a great find. TJ Maxx is NOT close enough to my house.....maybe that's a good thing!

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  5. So great. Those handles are a great idea! I also love the baskets. The room looks great! I'm sure your sister will love it!! =)

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  6. I've been buying stuff to decorate my house for about 2 yrs. Please come show me how. (Free stay @ the beach) lol

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  7. Such a beautifulp piece, love the handles

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  8. Such a beautifulp piece, love the handles

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