Organize your home in 30 days

I recently lead a group of nearly 150 friends & family as we organized our home.  Each day in the month of June we tackled a different area of our home and shared our successes and challenges with each other. It was a great support system and kept me accountable!

The tasks were sometimes time consuming and took a lot of planning and effort but the end results were worth it!

If you want to organize your home too just follow these daily challenges.

Good luck!

If you follow along we would love to see your successes and ideas on organizing.  Please share tips and before & after photos to refreshinglychic@gmail.com or on our Facebook page!

Statement chairs!

I’ve always been obsessed with chairs!

I remember buying my first accent chair for our home long before Tyler & I were married … or had a home.  It “lived” at my parents house until we purchased our first house nearly a year later.  We still have that Kravet chair and I love it.  Although reupholstering it is on my To Do list.

(Don’t you love the beautiful baby gear that accessorized our living room a few years ago?)

Recently I came across a Home Décor Resource Guide on One Kings Lane.  They have great articles and information on design and I love browsing their designer chairs!

I found this upholstered accent chair on their website. Isn’t it great?!

It reminds me of the chair I refinished and had reupholstered for the girls’ bedroom!

Another of my favorite chairs is this wood arm chair I refinished last year. 

Painting it coral was a risk (and outside my comfort zone!) but I love the pop of color it adds to our home office.

I have always loved French chairs.  Who doesn’t?  I found a set of four vintage painted wood French chairs with the original mohair on Craigslist for $75!  This was probably 6 years ago and I still think it was my best Craigslist find!  These chairs “travel” around our house because you can use them anywhere.  They make a great desk chair, accent chair or dining chair.

What item are you obsessed with in your home?

Refreshingly Chic: giving

Giving is very important to me and our family.

Being thoughtful, caring and loving others simply makes the world a better place.

In our personal lives we try to be generous. 

This doesn’t always mean financially.  Let’s be honest.  I am a stay at home mom who designs and refinishes furniture on the side to help support our family. 

We try to find other ways to give.  We volunteer at church, at school, we bake local firefighters cookies, we attempt random acts of kindness. 

We teach our girls to treat our friends and family with love and respect.

Last year I wanted to find a way to use my business as a way to give.

My idea is simple, but I need your help.

HOW YOU CAN HELP

Do you have an old dresser sitting in your garage that you had the intention of refinishing 4 years ago?

Is your old childhood chest of drawers in your attic collecting dust?

Are you preparing for a garage sale and have an old desk you’re hoping to get $15 for?

If you have a piece of furniture that you don’t need, please consider donating it to Refreshingly Chic.

HOW REFRESHINGLY CHIC GIVES

It’s simple.  I will refinish each piece of furniture donated to Refreshingly Chic to sell.

100% of the sale from the furniture will be donated to a family in need, charity or organization.

I will donate my time and supplies to transform furniture as I with all my projects.

WHAT NEXT?

Please email me photos of the furniture you are considering donating to RefreshinglyChic@gmail.com so I can schedule these projects. 

As with all my projects, please remember that I can do minimal repairs to furniture.  If you have a piece with missing legs, cracked and peeling veneer or major structural issues they may not be right for this project.

DO YOU ALSO REFINISH FURNITURE?

If you want to join in our cause we would love additional help!  I know our fans are generous.  My goal is to refinish all of the donated furniture myself.  If we get an incredible amount of response I would love others to help refinish furniture donated to Refreshingly Chic.

If you aren’t local but feel moved to give we would love for you to share our idea.  Your fans can donate furniture to your business and you can help support our selected charities and families.

OUR FIRST FAMILY IN NEED

I feel very led to help Ginger Harris Curtis and her family.

 

Here is her story taken from Caring Bridge:

Ginger is a 33 year old devoted wife and mother. She and her husband, Eric, are the most amazing parents to their 5 children: Tyler(13), Madison(10), Lily(8), Avery(3) and Asher(7 months). On Thursday, October 17, 2013 a sonogram revealed that Ginger has a malignant mass in her breast. An MRI determined the cancer is in both breasts and lymph nodes.

For those of you that know and love Ginger, you know that her family has walked this journey before in 2011 when Avery was diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukemia at 5 months old. Their family was surrounded with God's love and faithfulness that got them through those months of Avery's treatment. Her life is a testimony of God's healing power! Today, Avery is a healthy, happy and beautiful 3 year old. She is also the proud big sister to little brother, Asher James, Eric and Ginger's 5th child, born in March of 2013.

You can read more about Ginger, donate financially or if you’re local you can sign up to provide meals for their family here:

http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/gingerharriscurtis

As you can imagine, they are in need of prayers, good thoughts and generous support.

My goal is to donate to the Curtis’ family in the next few months.  Hopefully they can use the donation for meals, medical bills or other expenses they will have.

OTHER WAYS TO HELP

If you don’t have furniture to donate but would like to give to the Curtis family, please consider donating online or purchasing a gift card for a meal for the family.  The following are suggestions:

Outback, From Across the Pond, Chipotle, Chili's, Cotton Patch, Wildwood Grill, Mi Dia, Fireside Pies, Fresco's, McAlister's, Palios, Red Brick Pizza, Pei Wei, Carabba's, Red Hot and Blue, BJ's, Olive Garden, and My Fit Foods.

Please contact me if you would like to send gift cards to me to add to our donation.

Sharing their story, this post and the completed furniture to donate is another way to give!  Help us reach as many people as we can so we can support this family.

THANK YOU!!

If you have a charity, know a family in need or organization you would like to see us support, please email me at refreshinglychic@gmail.com

Chandelier makeover

Since we have our new home office (seen here) complete, we are turning our dining room back into a dining room!  Thanks to a few garage sale and Craigslist finds, we have a dining table & chairs.  Both need a little work but you couldn’t beat the prices!

Next on the list was a chandelier.

I found this chandelier on Craigslist for $40.

It had great shape but needed a bit of work to fit the style of our room.

First I hung it on our garage and sanded the arms and body of the chandelier.  A simple light sanding to scuff the existing finish will help the new paint adhere.

 

Then I cleaned the chandelier and taped off the tops of the candle holders to ensure paint didn’t get in the light sockets.  We replaced our candle holders so it was okay to get over spray on them since we tossed them when the painting was complete.

 

In the instance where we were missing a candle holder I just taped off the exposed wiring and light socket.

Don’t forget to also sand, prep and paint your canopy and chain.

I used a ziplock bag to hold the extra wires and taped them to my fancy wire hanger which held my chandelier in the garage.  This will keep it out of the way while you’re painting.

If you are painting directly onto metal I suggest priming with a metal primer.  Since our chandelier had previously been painted I simply used a metallic Valspar spray paint.  It covered very well and sprayed evenly, producing a great finish.

I was able to spray two coats and get full coverage on my chandelier.

 

I ordered white candle covers with faux wax dripping online for $1 per cover, plus shipping. Once those arrived in the mail Tyler hung the chandelier and we were done!

Stay tuned to see the rest of our dining room transformation!