un petit projet de peinture

Last week I went to Village des Valeurs (Value Village) in search of some cheap furniture, and while I didn't find quite what I was looking for, I did stumble upon a quirky little sketch on wood and a large, 80's framed mirror. Undeterred by its ugly brown frame, I took that baby home and made it my new project.



Here she is before I got my hands on her. Glorious 80's wood veneer and rounded corners! Can't top that.

I wanted the mirror to match the two Ikea peices that are currently in the bedroom. After some scouring on the internet, someone said they did a color match to the white Hemnes collection and paired it to Benjamin Moore Acadia White (OC-38). I took their word for it and hopped over to Rona to pick up all the painting supplies. $50 later (yikes! makes up for the cheap mirror I guess) I'm out the door and eager to start.

Per some random instructions on WikiHow or something, I first taped underneath the frame (I am a notoriously messy painter) before lightly sanding the veneer. I wasn't sure exactly what "lightly sand" meant so I just kinda made my way around the frame without going too deep into the grain. After nearly passing out from trying to blow all the dust away, I wiped it down with a cloth and began to prime. And prime. It must have taken three coats before I stopped seeing the brown underneath. My brushes were cheap too so I think that may have been a factor. I sanded a few times between coats, and after reluctantly waiting 20ish hours for the primer to dry, I started to paint!

I probably should have let the paint dry longer than I did, but I was too excited to hang it up. After drilling a nasty hole in the wall and inserting the spacer and screw, I carefully hung the mirror. As soon I let the wire bear the full weight of the mirror, the wire snapped in half! It was back to Rona for me... this time to buy new hanging wire.



Finally finished and safely hung! The white paint gives this mirror's dated frame a fresh new update and blends in nicely with the clean lines of my existing bedroom collection. A successful first project!

progress so far

Things are slowly, slowly coming together here. They were kind of on a standstill as I had to leave Montreal for two weeks to finish up school and take a Canadian lifeguarding course. But now I'm back and here to stay!

Onto the goodies... Just before I left we had gotten some new furniture but I hadn't had time to take photos, so!



Still on the hunt for that perfect couch. We found a few strong contenders but they were a bit out of our price range, which has been pretty disappointing. This is our fabulous coffee table that we're pretty excited about. The side facing the chairs has a drawer for storing remotes and all that.



Our bathroom has made a pretty dramatic transformation. We ordered the etagere from Target and snuck it across the border, shhh! I brought the shower curtain from home and I absolutely adore it but Y. thinks it's awful and way too girly. I'm still fighting to keep it up!







And the bedroom. The more I look at those curtains the more I dislike them. I think the loops at the top cheapen it. I'd like to find something with grommets and maybe a fun print too. Draperies are, however, quite expensive! :( Still missing a duvet cover, bedside tables, wall paint, and a mirror above the dresser. Recently I've been intrigued by the idea of bamboo night tables like this one flanking the bed, but I'm not sure if it would work with the clean lines of the bed frame, and it seems they're hard to find. We shall see!



And finally, the dining room. We are missing some chairs as they are currently filling in for our couch. They do not make the most comfortable seating, especially after watching a movie! It seems we've decided on a pale yellow for the walls here with a white base starting from the window sill. I'd like to get a strong window treatment to really add some interest into this tiny dining room.

That's it for now! Tomorrow I'm off to the flea markets to see if I can't find any cute little tables or accent chairs. Wish me luck!

xoxo,
Megan