Unthawing

So, that Punxsutawney Phil said that spring is coming and I mostly did not believe him.  As much as I adore groundhogs, they're also widely known for deceit and trickery.  This winter has seemed never-endingly dark and frigid... and I grew up in Michigan where the best thing that has happened in years was a commercial starring Eminem...

That's a sure sign that it's time to change the state's tourism slogan to "Poor Michigan".  *moment of silence for our Mother Land*

Combining the cold weather plus the fact the only daylight I see is through an attorney's window across the way at work, I have felt less than motivated to do anything house-related and have substituted that drive with an amazing ability to fall asleep almost instantly, even while sitting up.  However, spring does appear to be around the corner as I have noticed a slight lengthening in the amount of daylight and we've had beautiful 60ish weather the past two days.  Along with that, I'm starting to feel re-inspired to tackle some projects.  I haven't felt inspired enough to actually do anything yet, but enough to start planning...

Upcoming Project 1:  MARKOR Update

We bought this now discontinued sideboard/buffet from IKEA about two or three years ago and it currently lives in our basement as the basis of our little wine bar area.

It's very similar to some of the buffets that Pottery Barn sells, but since this one runs at $1,400, you can see why we went the IKEA route.  Unfortunately, ours has more of a country look to it, which is perfectly fine, but not exactly what we're going for.


Pottery Barn's wallet-busting version.

My plan is to paint the thing a charcoal gray to modernize it and balance out the orange and white brightness of our basement.  The current pulls are pretty dull, so maybe we'll pop those off and replace them with something shiny or give spray painting a try.  Who knows?  Either way, I think it'll give new life to a currently boring piece.

Upcoming Project 2: Hexa-Gon' Crazy!

A few months ago I was hard at work killing time reading posts on Design*Sponge and came across this neat idea to convert an end table to a pet bed...  It would serve a dual purpose of providing an end table for our upstairs living room (which we need anyway) and a nice place for any of our sons to rest and/or hide from the other sons.  Now, you might think it would be hard to locate such an interestingly shaped side table with a similar cabinet base, but as luck would have it, I remembered my parents had three such end tables.  Luckily, they were also looking to pare down their furniture and graciously let us have this guy:

The plan for our hexa-friend is to remove the top (if possible...) and Mod Podge a piece of decorative paper on it... probably from Paper Source, like these:

Or maybe I'll be super brave and pick something more bold and exciting... who knows?  Once I pick that, I plan on painting the table a creamy white, maybe the same color we used for our board and batten in the basement.  I'd like to choose an accent color, too, to pull out the detail of the scrolling carved bits on the side.  Then of course, I plan on sewing a little pouf to go inside for our boys to lounge on.  Who am I kidding?  They'll probably never use it, but we'll still have an awesome end table.  At least I hope it'll turn out awesome...

So, those are the two projects I have swishing around in my head, forming a delicious wine out of my mind grapes (30 Rock reference... I'm not completely crazy).  I do have a three-day weekend coming up and it's not going to be too cold to do some sanding... maybe I'll actually accomplish something.

Happy President's Day weekend!  Sorry not all of you get the day off, but I'm sure glad I do.  :)