Meet Aggie, The Step Back Hutch Transformation

Trash To Treasure

Miss Aggie

I found this less than to be desired solid wood hutch at one of my favorite thrift stores "Restore"

Hubby and I went a few weeks ago looking for some furniture that I could refinish, then sell to use the profits towards my son Jared's health care expenses.  You can read the story here overcoming-lifes-struggles

Look at this original hardware......

It was all rusty and needed some serious help.  But oh my, you can't buy hinges that look like this with the rope detail.

Look at the date on these pull knobs...... 1967.......

I was not even in Kindergarten yet.

So Hubby and I took this girl home, took her apart and stripped the paint off the two shelves and I stained them a warm walnut.

we removed the ugly, Uh, bulky corner round molding.

After starting this project,  I thought self, you have bitten off more than you can chew.

Honestly, when I saw her in all her solid wood dirty glory standing in the restore isle, with her quirky curves, along with her 1960's contact paper on the shelving, I was smitten, I saw beauty......

I knew what she could become after her transformation.

Mr. Color It Simple said you see something in this ugly duckling.    REALLY?????

I said REALLY!!!!!  I know she will be a one-of-a-kind unique show stopper........

WE can transform her in to a beautiful loved vintage piece.

He agreed ...............so off we went

This piece had not been factory made, it had been hand made which excited me even more.

After all the cleaning and boy this piece was disgusting she was sanded and painted.

I painted her a beautiful shade of Marlboro blue From Valspar.

That would be the color on the bottom shelf above.  It was not what I had in my vision but it was a start. 

We painters know it is all about the layers.

Being that this marlboro blue was to baby bluish for my vision, I dry brushed her entire body with another shade of blue-grey.

Now we are getting somewhere........


After that step I distressed then glazed her with a warm walnut, then waxed to finish her off

 ..........now it was time for the details.

Yes details all wrapped up and topped off like a beautiful bow on that special gift. 

If you noticed the walnut stained rope molding above, I added this to her sides to set her off.

At this point she is beaming with pride.

 However, she needed some more jewelry.......

 A Necklace? that's it a Necklace........ she was adorned with two wooden stained embellishments in the center of her curvy shelving. 

Last but not least she was screaming for some designer fabric.

Aggie wanted to feel oh so elegant and shabby all at the same time.

 Instead of painting the back piece of wood, I covered her in a beautiful cream and black printed French Typography print.

Now she was ready for staging.

Standing tall in all her glory, ready for her runway debut on Etsy for the world to see.

Even down to the pretty embellishment that were added to grace her two doors.

A little sanding her hinges and some brushed oil broze spray paint she looked polished.

A ton of hard work and love went into Aggie's transformation.

I love Aggie, she turned out beautiful.

Aggie is up for SALE, Now she is waiting for someone to love her as much as we do and take her to her new home.

You can find her in Etsy at my shop "The Distressed Nest"

So what do you think?


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Until next time,

She's about To POP....A Baby Shower For Ashley & Aaron

Caution warning: this post is picture heavy..... view at your own risk :)

I am going to be a Nonna' a second time!!

My son Aaron and his wife Ashley are expecting any day now the arrival of our newest member of the family Sophie Ella!

......................We are waiting with excited anticipation for her birth.

We celebrated with a baby shower for the proud parents to be at my home.

I helped host with Ashley's sister-in-law, Cecily this fun party.......My job was to do the decorating, my favorite part.....can you say fun, fun......

I worked for weeks planning and putting together the decor......I was so pleased how it all turned out.

The first thing I did was make a cute sign for the mommy and daddy out of some left over pallets

.........yes my favorite thing to use.  Then I gave it to them take it home for the baby room.

They really loved it.

See the baby with the cute little headband?

Yeah the one holding the bottle.......

I found a picture on the internet printed, traced onto a piece of wood then had Mr. DIY cut it out for me.

 I painted her and made a cute flower out of a paper towel.

I then took a hair tie and hot glued it on....... cut a notch in the wood and stretched it around for a finishing touch.

The other flowers you see on the sign I made out of paper towels and glued them on to fancy it up a bit.

I found a pot that we were not using wrapped some burlap around it filled it with dirt and stuck in the sign.

 Love....... love how it turned out!!


~~~~~~

I had to have center pieces for the tables, of course....I mean every table needs a pretty center piece......

............Hummm what to do.

I got an idea to make table center pieces out of four..... 5ft boards.

........I needed (4) centerpieces for the guest tables

What I did was find some scrap 5ft boards in my wood project pile.....

I measured the distance I wanted to place each of my handmade flowers .......then  had Mr. DIY drill holes in the board.

 I painted the boards white.

 I made these cute flowers out of paper egg cartons........ painted them pink, white, yellow and aqua.

 I found some wooden dowels at Walmart to use for the stems, painted them green, tied some string and burlap around the base of the flower . Too cute!

I bought some moss from the dollar store and hot glued it down on the board.......

............WA LA....... I had 4 table centerpieces all for $2.99 the cost of the wooden dowels and moss

CHA.... CHING!!

This is my son Aaron (daddy) sporting one of the gifts from the shower...he is such a ham!!!

Here is Ashley (mommy) opening gifts with Sophie's big sister Kinley.

Beautiful Ashley

Aaron & Ashley

can you say POP ART!!!!!!!

I had an old frame that I took off the kitchen wall that was just outdated.....

Goodbye wall art you have done your due diligence over the years but you had to go.........

I took out the print.... painted the frame added some chicken wire and hung to display this cute pop art!

I found this adorable curtain, pink and white check at Goodwill, hung it on a piece of wood for the rod and tied it up with some gray fabric for a window effect.

I made two burlap banners for the shower. One with Sophie's name given to Ashley to hang in Sophie's room after the shower.

I glued them to the twine but added the stained clothespins for a little whimsy.

One with Baby!!

I took some night time shots of the decor

I just love the lighting of the night light.....

Mommy and Daddy signs were made for the parents for special seating!

I used Gimp a free photo editing program to make these, gimp is much like photoshop....... except free!!

Here I used a ladder to display some fun decor......

I covered the ladder with a curtain I bought at Goodwill.

The Party was held poolside so the guest could take advantage of the pool for a little cooling off.

I created a baby wreath  for the door out of an old grapevine wreath I had lying around.  I stuffed pink napkins in the top half and added a baby elephant toy to the bottom.

Now, let's talk FOOD......A shower is not complete with out yummy treats!!

Look at all that food.  A big thanks and shout out to Ashley's beautiful mom and her adorable sister-in-law Cecily for all their hard work to cater in all this scrumptious food.

Ashley's parents own a restaurant and catering business so they really know how to do it up right.

 ......and A Baby girl shower would not be complete without a pink lemonade sherbet punch.

 Below I made these cute little flags toppers for the cupcakes.....

some were out of fabric, others were out of pink and yellow card-stock cut with decorative crafting scissors....attached to toothpicks with some hot glue.

An about to pop party needed some yummy marshmallow pops.

Dipped in pink chocolate covered in hot pink sprinkles...... stuck on popsicle sticks!

Can you say YUMMMMMM

..................These are like chips you can't have just ONE.

The center piece here I made from a flower vase turned upside down.....I had a glass bowl, a thrift find from Goodwill......it was carefully hot glued to the vase.

A flower was made and painted pink out of a paper bag.  I had some fake pearls that I wrapped around the vase with a pretty broach clipped to the pearls and centered on the flower.

After filling the glass bowl with water I just had to have a pink color so I took some pink craft paint and added a blob and mixed it together to get this beautiful pink color.

I picked some gardenia flowers and tiny roses from my back yard and floated them in the ever so pink water.

I added a candle holder inside for some height.

And wrapped some twine around the candle for some whimsy texture.

Another centerpiece for the mommy and daddy table made from a cute white rod iron stand made out of a girl with pigtails.  I forgot to take a picture of this before I added the little pink dress over it.

 some whimsy material ripped and tied to a pink clothes hanger

Look at the tissue paper pom pom I made for the center of the gazebo , while draping pink tulle for a grand effect.

This was the special place for mommy and daddy to relax and enjoy the shower.

A thrift find from goodwill....a pier one import piece (woot, love this) made a beautiful center piece for the food table.

Filled with pink roses plus handmade/silk flowers it turned out beautiful.

So their you have it.......  We had a popping good time

Thanks for sharing this event with me.

Ashley as of today is having contractions but still not at the hospital.

She is due on June 16th.

Come on Baby Sophie we want to love on you and welcome you into our family.


Until next time,


Linking up to funkyjunkinteriors, addicted2decorating, itsoverflowing, my1929charmer.com, ishouldbemoppingthefloor