DIY + HANDMADE + VINTAGE

Mini truck-garden tutorial.

Published on June 11, 2015March 30, 2019 by Kelly Whitman2 Comments

I remember it like it was yesterday. Dad would park the van in their driveway in Minnesota, us 3 kids would jump out as fast as we could, and run down the sidewalk on the hill that was graced with beautiful flower and rock gardens all the way to Grandma and Grandpas door.

Grandma and Grandpa always kept a neat and tidy yard. It always made me so happy as a child to run around their yard and to follow the gorgeous garden paths, which at a young age felt like secret paths winding around the back of their house. Whenever we would go to visit their house on the lake, we spent lots of time fishing in the boat, jumping off the end of the dock, and always always helping Grandma with some sort of chore. She made sure her gardens were always kept up, and on occasion she would have me and maybe a few others, take all of the small rocks that lined the border of one garden alongside of the deck, remove them from their place, and hand wash them one by one and put them back in place. I loved it.

Grandma and Grandpas gardens have inspired me in life in so many ways. I have taken my own kids to pick out flat rocks from Lake Superior, so they can paint on them, to put in our flower gardens- just like Grandma used to let me pick out a rock from her garden to paint on.

After owning our little hobby farm for 2 years now, I am finally putting in the time, and effort to create that sort of a space that I know Grandma would have loved. That space that you can walk through and feel peace, sit and watch the birds in, look at and feel inspired. I however, will not be taking my rocks out and washing them on occasion.

This time around, I decided to make several small gardens, inside of rusty trucks that I have had laying around for a long time. This was a fun project that was perfect for my 2 kids to help me with! Read below to see how I turned rusty old trucks into art in the garden!

Mini truck-garden tutorial

What you need;
-Rusty toy trucks (if you can’t find trucks- that’s okay! Other items will work too, like rusty buckets, wheelbarrows, etc)
-Potting soil
-Small gravel or rocks
-Window screening -if desired
– Plants of choice (Succulents make perfect contenders for truck gardens)
-Fairy garden supplies -available at most local garden centers & stores

What to do;
1.) Gather all of your supplies. If your truck has small holes, or rusted out areas in the part of the truck that you will be placing the plants, that is perfect! If they have too big of holes, you can choose to cut window screening and lay it across the hole, but if the truck has no holes in it, you will have to get out the drill and drill a few small drainage holes in the area you will be planting.

2.) Take the gravel you scooped from your driveway , like I did. Or small rocks and place them in the bottom area of the truck in a thin layer.

3.) Take a few handfuls of potting soil and place it in the truck and mix it together well with the gravel.

4.) Carefully place your plants where you would like them. You may have to shake off some of the dirt that came with the plant in order to get it to fit right. Feel free to mix some of that in with the potting soil already in the truck too. Succulents work great for mini truck gardens and are very low maintenance.

5.) If you found some net fairy garden items, place one or two in each truck for added charm. (P.S. No trucks were harmed in the making of these gardens. They all returned to their normal truck state after summer)

6.) Enjoy your new mini truck garden!

Small bathroom makeover.

Published on February 28, 2015March 30, 2019 by Kelly Whitman1 Comment

“Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.” ~ Matthew 17:20

This winter I had the opportunity to do a paint makeover in my small bathroom with the help of Pittsburgh Paints.

I am an adventurous soul, who is always inspired by nature everywhere I go. I collect things on my travels. Things like rocks, shells, maps, travel brochures, coffee mugs, blankets & of course plenty of photographs. Items that I can look back back upon and gain a feeling and memory from. This bathroom makeover is a perfect example of who I am as a person. I hope through even just a simple blog post on the internet, that you can see and feel a little bit about who I am through my decorating style.

Nature and my travels is what inspired this small bathroom makeover. I try to use as many nature themed colors in my home as possible and love bringing the outdoors in.

For this paint makeover, I chose the Pittsburgh Paints color, ‘Baby’s breath’ for the walls, and an accent color of ‘Lettuce Alone’ on the large built in cupboards, I also chose bright white for the ceiling, trim, bathtub tiles and vanity cupboard, all in satin finish, They are soothing, refreshing colors and I think they work really well together!

I was very pleased with the high quality of Pittsburgh Paints Grand Distinction Paint. After sanding down the walls, that constantly cut my children’s hands, I was able to cover them with just 2 coats of paint. Pittsburgh Paints line of Grand Distinction paint, has a built in primer, which allows better coverage, and much easier application than any paint I have used prior to this.

If you are interested in learning more about Pittsburgh Paints, take a stroll on over to Menards and check out their Simple Projects Great Results display. It consists of project cards that have paint color ideas for a variety of small rooms in your home, along with accessory suggestions that are also available at Menards.

I was amazed at how much of a difference a paint color can make in a small room! Take a look for yourself below at the before and after photos! Get ready to say goodbye to the dark green ceiling !

BEFORE:

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AFTER:

I hope you enjoyed viewing my latest paint transformation ! Thanks again to Pittsburgh Paints and the Eau Claire Menards for making this makeover possible!

Green 6 drawer dresser.

Published on October 8, 2014March 30, 2019 by Kelly WhitmanLeave a comment

I had a vision for this dresser the second I spotted it at a thrift store. There is something so neat to me about taking a vision and making it a reality! I just love before & afters!

Dresser Before:

Dresser After:

Red license plate dresser.

Published on May 27, 2014March 30, 2019 by Kelly Whitman1 Comment

“Go and make interesting mistakes, make amazing mistakes, make glorious and fantastic mistakes. Break rules. Leave the world more interesting for your being here. Make. Good. Art.” ~Neil Gaiman

I love being an artist. It is my passion. I love the feelings that come along with creating and transforming a piece of furniture. It gives me such satisfaction to take something old, worn, and broken and restoring it and giving it a brand new life and a new purpose.

Last week I got an idea for this brown dresser and marched forward with the vision and the details came to me as I went along. Here is the before image of the dresser;

Before. Red license plate dresser by Endless Acres Farmtiques

How I transformed this dresser:

Sanded and painted red.
Applied a thin layer of Minwax stain + poly.
Removed drawer pulls and filled in holes with wood filler.
Attached rusty license plates to each drawer, for character.

Dresser after:

I hope you enjoyed this transformation!

TV Stand dresser.

Published on March 18, 2014March 30, 2019 by Kelly WhitmanLeave a comment

‘ The art of living is always to make a good thing out of a bad thing.’

~ E.F. Schmacher

Art to me is about vision. It is about seeing potential in something that others may not see. It is about taking something and changing it, making it unique , making it your own. It is about expanding your eyes to see beyond the norm and the usual. Today’s project is just that.
It is about how I took a normal little white dresser and made it into something different, and gave it a new life as a TV stand.

Here is the dresser as it was before:

Here is a list of what I did to the dresser to make it into a tv stand;

Sanded, and painted entire piece, including sides and insides of the drawers in Sherwin Williams ‘Light French Grey’ paint.
Removed the top drawer and added in old cedar fence boards using small finishing nails, to make a shelf.
Drilled small hole into back wall of dresser to allow cords to go through if used as a TV stand.
Replaced original hardware with yardsticks for drawer pulls. The yard sticks have been stained lightly.

Here is the dresser after;

Thanks for viewing my latest project! If you like what you see here on the blog, you can follow along with me on Facebook!

~Kelly

9 drawer dresser.

Published on March 11, 2014March 30, 2019 by Kelly Whitman5 Comments

“As soon as I saw you, I knew an adventure was going to happen.“

~ Winnie The Pooh

My son just turned 10 last week. I am trying my hardest to not let his age make me feel sad about the fact that I am losing my ‘baby’ boy. It is a hard transition when they go from sweet little boy who follows mommy everywhere to becoming so independent and not needing their mommy as much any more. I miss those pounding little fists on the bathroom door every time I take a shower, I miss the tugging of the pant legs when I am needed for something, I miss the sweet calls of ‘Mommy come play with me’ from the other room. But I am also thankful to God that my son is a healthy, adventurous boy who has been with me for 10 wonderful years. He has now grown into someone who loves the Lord, enjoys a good conversation about anything that involves facts, loves getting dirty in the mud, and is one of the greatest travel buddies I’ve ever had.

Lately he has been really interested in my projects, and has been asking me what I will be working on next when I am in between projects. He has enjoyed going with me searching for my next project and I can see a huge change in him that has happened recently, where he is really understanding and appreciating the work and love I put into my furniture makeovers. As a mother, it is such a great feeling to have a son that wants to learn from you and also looks up to you. And now I also see, that even though he is getting older, he still does need me, just in different ways. This morning before school, he hugged me and said “Mom, thanks for making my new dresser and my other desk too, I really like them both.” Ahh, talk about melting a mothers heart!

I have slowly been working on getting his room together and out of all of the rooms in the house, his is still my favorite, and the closest to being ‘complete’ . Last year, I worked on making over an old desk from a thrift store for his room, and this year I have been in search of a long dresser with plenty of drawers for his clothes & toys. I was lucky enough to have a friend donate a dresser to me over the weekend and once I saw it, I knew it was exactly what I had been looking for , for my little mans room!

This is what the dresser looked like before;

I let my son pick out the colors and theme for the dresser. Below is a list of the changes that I made;

Stained the top of the dresser & legs with 3 coats of Minwax Polyshades in Classic Black.
Painted dresser & drawers in red satin paint.
Stained over the entire dresser & drawers with Minwax Poly-shades in Classic Black (which is stain + polyurethane) to give it a dirty/aged look as my son requested.
Lined the drawers with ripped out pages from a 1973 issue of Popular Science Magazine.

I decided to use the original copper pulls that were on the dresser, I just love the patina that they have and their simple, straight lines.

I completed this dresser in a day and today I am planning on setting it up in my sons bedroom to surprise him with the complete product when he gets home from school

I hope you have enjoyed my latest furniture makeover, and that you leave feeling inspired to take on a project at your house too!

Thanks for reading,

~Kelly

Pretty in pink vanity.

Published on March 1, 2014March 30, 2019 by Kelly Whitman2 Comments

Let your smile change the world, but don’t let the world change your smile.

My sweet darling 5 year old daughter is one of my greatest joys. For several months she has been asking me for a pink dresser. I’m happy to say that I finally found her a beautiful wood vanity that was in need of a major revival.

Below you will find the steps I took to transform this beat up brown vanity into a beautiful pretty in pink vanity for my daughter.

Sanded down entire piece, including drawers. Wiped off debris and dust with tack clothes.

Applied 3 layers of pink paint to entire piece, including the drawer sides and one top coat of clear Minwax water based polyurethane in Satin finish to add extra protection.

Lined drawers with old story book pages, using Mod Podge .
Taped off sides of drawers to add a 3″ turquoise strip sides of drawers.

Drilled new holes for new hardware. This time, the drawer pulls covered up the old holes, so no wood filler was needed.

I finished this project in 2 days time, and had it all set up in my daughters room for her to see when she got home from school today. She was so excited , she even started jumping up and down. Success! 🙂

Here are the after photos, enjoy!

I am really happy with how this vanity turned out, and even happier that my daughter loves it! Her room is finally starting to look like a bedroom!

Thanks for reading, I hope you all have a wonderful night and weekend!

~Kelly

Rope Dresser.

Published on February 25, 2014March 30, 2019 by Kelly WhitmanLeave a comment

Today I woke up with a huge burst of motivation. So I ran with it. I completed 5 somewhat simple furniture transformations between 8am and 4pm. All of today’s projects were completely spontaneous, I just wandered around the house and basement looking for items to re-do and had them all out at once, jumping from one project to the other as paint dried and continued on like that for the whole day.

This dresser was purchased several years ago, it was originally a light brown, but was in bad condition, I had painted a quick coat of white paint over it last year, and it has been sitting in my daughters room ever since. Today it was begging me to give it a new look, so I did!

I sanded down the entire dresser, drilled new holes in the drawers to fit the rope pulls, and painted in relaxing a grey-blue.

Below are the before & after photos, enjoy!

Dresser Before;

Dresser After;

If you enjoy what you see here on the blog, you can also follow my DIY adventures on Facebook!
Thanks for reading,

~Kelly

Mid-Century Modern Desk.

Published on February 14, 2014March 30, 2019 by Kelly WhitmanLeave a comment

“Laugh at yourself, but don’t ever aim your doubt at yourself. Be bold. When you embark for strange places, don’t leave any of yourself safely on shore. Have the nerve to go into unexplored territory.” -Alan Alda

When I started my DIY business and blog, I said a prayer, mostly giving it all to the Lord, asking for his blessing on it, and to help me to continue to praise him in my projects and to guide my hands as I work. I feel since I ‘gave my business over to God’ that he has blessed it greatly. Just like in my photography business, where I pray before each photo shoot or adventure, before I start a project… I pray. By doing this I feel that it allows me to focus on him and that I am working for him in all things I do in my life, whether at home, or on a project for someone else.

As I transform pieces of furniture and work on projects, I also continue to feel Gods presence and a peaceful feeling in my heart, that this is what I am meant to be doing. I hope a lot of you see the passion , love and labor that goes into my projects and that each piece is a unique piece of heart.

This week on Tuesday, I went searching for a new project, and found a new ‘victim’ within 10 minutes of looking! It was a blond colored straight lined wood desk that was begging for my attention across the thrift room floor, by showing off its retro style legs while the rest of the desk was hidden among some chairs. Here it is once I cleared it out. It needed some work, but I knew I was up for the challenge.

Below is a list of how I revived this regular desk into a beautiful bold desk;

Sanded entire desk
Repaired back of desk with small finishing nails
Spray painted feet of desk with Rust Oleum’s hammered spray paint
Stained the top and the drawers of the desk and the legs of the desk with Minwax Stain + Polyurethane, Satin, in ‘Antique Walnut’ .
Primed & Painted the rest of the desk in ‘Sunstroke’ yellow.
Lightly stained over the yellow with ‘Antique Walnut’ by Minwax.
Cleaned & lined the drawers with Iowa, Minnesota, and Wisconsin maps.
Drilled larger holes for new pulls. & added new pulls.
Personalized the back with an inspiring quote + signature .
Below are after photos of this bold desk makeover, enjoy!

Thanks for reading about my latest furniture revival project, if you enjoy my posts and projects, feel free to follow me on Facebook to see even more projects, ideas, tutorials and lots of inspiration.

~Kelly

Tranquil Dresser.

Published on February 12, 2014March 30, 2019 by Kelly WhitmanLeave a comment

“The more tranquil a man becomes, the greater is his success, his influence, his power for good. Calmness of mind is one of the beautiful jewels of wisdom.” ~ James Allen

I love being by the waters edge. If you know me well, you know that I am always going, always working on something, driving the back roads, or getting my hands dirty on some project. There are a few things in life that will slow me down, and bring a sense of peace to my mind, and water is one of them. I could waste an entire day laying by a lake, or walking beside a creek. There is something so serene and calming to my heart when I am around water in nature, in some ways it makes me feel so connected to God , and I love that feeling of contentment and tranquility in my heart.

My love for water, especially Lake Superior, has formed my love for shades of blues and greens, whether its on vintage cars, or in decor in my home, like this tranquil dresser transformation I worked on yesterday.

The color is called ‘Dinner Mint’ but I really think it deserves a better name, like ‘Beach Glass’ or ‘By the Sea’ , but unfortunately I don’t name paints, I just use them. 😉

For this project, I did the following:

Sanded, primed and painted the dresser
Lightly stained the dresser
Added a coat of polyurethane
Spray painted the original dresser pulls in a hammered oil rubbed bronze spray paint from Rust-Oleum.

Dresser before:

Dresser After:

I hope you enjoyed my latest furniture revival project! To see more of my creations and keep up with my latest DIY Adventures, you can also follow me on Facebook!

Thanks for reading,

~Kelly

Potato Bin End Tables.

Published on February 6, 2014March 30, 2019 by Kelly Whitman6 Comments

Have you ever had an ah-ha moment?! As an artist and entrepreneur, I find myself getting several… every single day. How do I know which ones to take seriously and which ones to let go?! That is the hard part. This can sometimes be overwhelming for many artists and entrepreneurs, but that is where focus and vision come into play. If I gave in to every single idea I had, I would either be A.) completely broke B.) completely tired or C.) go completely insane. I don’t want to be any 3 of those! I want to continue to love what I do. So, if I get an idea and I can’t make it happen right away, I will write it down in a notebook and sometimes, the idea never travels further than between the lines on a white piece of paper, but for me, that is enough, and I have come to be okay with that, for most ideas. Sometimes I will come back to an idea 1 year later and make it happen as well. Then sometimes, there is an idea , or an ah-ha moment like I mentioned above, that I see so clearly in my head, that I have to jump up at that exact moment and make it happen. These potato bin end tables, are one of those ideas.

I have had these old wood potato bins for about a year, they have traveled to two different homes with me as I’ve moved, and have been used in about 6 different rooms for different purposes, like shoe boxes in the porch, stacked 2 high for shelving in my daughters room, set next to each other to make a bench, put together for a coffee table in the basement, or filled with toys. None of those ideas, although neat, felt like they were how the bins were to be given a new life. They were meant for something more.

I took the bins and jumped into a project the day after the idea was visualized in my head.

I stripped the old paint off of the back side of the bins, which would now be the top part of the end tables.

Once most of the paint was stripped, I sanded down the tops so they were smooth.

I painted the bins in a beautiful green, called ‘Preppy Green’ (the same green I also recently used on a desk makeover ) ,

Next, I used a brown stain + polyurethane from Minwax , called Minwax Polyshades in Espresso brown to lightly go over every side of the bins. This worked great as the stain stuck in all of the imperfections of the bin, showing off their age and history and giving them a more antique look. I stained the new tops of the bins with 2 coats of the same stain to give them a unified look and make them be viewable as actual end tables, not just potato bins, and for a bit of sophistication.

I am completely happy with how they turned out, and even more ecstatic that the vision I saw so clearly in my head, is now in my living room and I can look at them every day, knowing I DID IT and I brought my vision to life!

Below are the after photos, I hope you like them as much as I do!

Thanks for reading, for more inspiration from Anchored Way, visit me over on Facebook!

~Kelly

Green desk.

Published on February 5, 2014March 30, 2019 by Kelly Whitman9 Comments

I alone cannot change the world, but I can cast a stone across the waters to create many ripples. ~ Mother Teresa

I love living life spontaneously. I have met more people, found more beautiful places, and lived a more joyful life by being free spirited and able to go with the flow. On Sunday my family and I ventured over to St Paul, Minnesota for dinner and on the way I decided last minute that I wanted to swing into a thrift store to look at furniture, because I had that ‘ I really need to work on something’ feeling! I came across this white desk buried amongst other random items, and as soon as I saw it, it was love at first sight, I instantly saw what I would do with it when my eyes came across it in the thrift store.

As silly as it sounds, I had a hard time falling asleep that night because I was so excited to get my hands on this desk and dig into a new project! I woke up early yesterday and started on it, and finished by midnight! This was the first big furniture revival project I have completed in one day, start to finish, which left me feeling really accomplished, motivated for the next project ..and really tired!

I decided to give this desk a whole different feel that the original white and gold , and make it more masculine vs. feminine. By doing that I was stepping myself outside of my comfort zone, of my typical ‘painting curvy pieces with feminine colors’ and also giving myself a little challenge, to see if I could pull it off!

What I did;

– Sanded

– 2 coats of ‘Preppy Green’ Paint

– 2 soft layers of black stain + polyurethane

– Drilled holes for pulls & added different drawer pulls, originally off of antique dresser

-Map lined drawers

-1963 rustic Wisconsin Farm license plate bolted into the side of the desk

-Signed on the back + a quote (my own extra little touch I place on my furniture pieces)

-Black chair is painted with Rustoleum metallic accents paint with a light layer of black stain + polyurethane.

Here are the results from a long day of reviving this beautiful old desk! :

I hope you enjoyed my latest furniture transformation project!

Thanks for reading,

~Kelly

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Purple nursery dresser.

Published on November 9, 2013March 30, 2019 by Kelly WhitmanLeave a comment

Over the Summer I had a potential client come to me with a request to find and makeover a dresser for their (soon to be) bundle of joy that would be arriving sometime in September of this year.

We worked together searching online and in stores to find just the perfect dresser that would fit their needs and style. She found a wonderful piece on Craigslist, dropped it off at my house- and I got to work!

Here are the before and after photos from the makeover I did, enjoy!

Dresser Before;

Dresser After;

After priming, painting, drilling holes & adding new hardware, and lining the drawers- this dresser was all set for a sweet newborns’ nursery!

Thanks for reading,

~Kelly

Tire planters.

Published on November 9, 2013March 30, 2019 by Kelly WhitmanLeave a comment

Project Cost; (My cost = $0.00 with re=use of old tires and Menards Rebate $ for the flowers) Average cost = Under $20.00 or cost of plants.

Project Level; Medium

Project Supplies; Old tires, dirt/soil, flowers, drill/ drill bit.

Steps:

1.) Choose you tires and clean them if desired. If you do not have any old tires laying around, check Craigslist or Freecycle , there are always people wanting to throw out old tires without having to pay fees.

2.) Decide which way you want the tire to be facing and stand it upright. Placing the tire slightly between your legs to hold it in place, drill several holes into the sunken parts of the tire tread. I placed about 15 smaller holes into the bottom of each tire, using a 9/16 size drill bit.