Month: September 2017

Old into New: My Latest Refinishing Project

On By Bethany DattoloIn homemaking and decor1 Comment

About a month ago I decided to take on a “little” project (I use that term loosely) of refinishing my kitchen table and chairs. What better time to do that than when you’re 8 months pregnant and about to start another school year as a homeschool mom? I had honestly been meaning to do it all summer but couldn’t seem to get around to it until the end of August. It definitely stunk that it was our first week of school and we didn’t have use of our kitchen table, but it was the first week in a long time that no rain was in the forecast, so you do what you have to do! Here are some notes from my journey and some things I learned along the way…

IMG_20170826_114449495My collection of DIY finishing or refinishing projects include a bookshelf, a toy box, kitchen cabinets, bathroom cabinets, and a couple dressers. This table and chair set was definitely the most difficult and I don’t know if was all the spindles in the chairs, or the fact that I was 8 months pregnant. But it was probably a combination of both. 😉

THE PLAN: I wanted to create a “farmhouse” looking table–something leaning on the white and distressed side, but since we bought this house 3 years ago and I wanted to refinish our table all along, I couldn’t quite picture it perfectly in my mind. Then, as if out of the blue (or thanks to pregnancy brain or hormones or something) it came to me: I wanted a light gray table with white legs. And I wanted it distressed. And I also didn’t want to spend too much money on paint or supplies. So that was the plan.

IMG_20170830_145932487THE “HOW”: Did I really want to take the time and effort to try to fully strip the table and chairs? Nope! Never mind the fact that being pregnant meant being careful of chemicals and fumes, but chalk paint is the new trend in the paint world and I’m a sucker for trying new trends! (Check out one of my summertime posts about trying a new coffee trend!) Chalk paint is used on pieces to create a “chalky” appearance, can be distressed pretty easily, and best of all can go right over any finish without needing to strip the piece down first! And here’s an even more fun product: chalk paint powder! (Something a friend pointed out to me!) This is a powder mix that you can add to any paint to turn it into chalk paint. Bingo. Found my winner and my “how.” Now I could use the light gray and white paint I had in the basement and save a little $! The popular brand of chalk paint powder can be found on Amazon (hello, 2 day shipping!), but I also found a slightly cheaper brand (do I sound like a cheap-skate yet? I do love a bargain!), so I went with that instead. Did it make a difference? I guess I won’t know until or if I try the popular brand someday!

IMG_1686HOW IT WENT: I started with white and painted the table legs and the chair legs and spindles first. Right away, I could tell that the coverage was pretty good and I’d only need two coats. 🙂

The light gray I chose was the same that I have on my kitchen and bathroom walls. It IS pretty light, but it looked WHITE on the table outside. I was hoping that it was just the bright sunshine making it appear that way. Even though the color wasn’t as dark as I wanted, I kept going, hoping it would look better inside, like my walls and trim contrast that you can actually see in my house.

Time to distress! After a little research, I discovered that the best and easiest way to distress chalk paint would simply be with water and some elbow grease! I used a microfiber cloth and some wet sandpaper sponges (the cloth didn’t give me quite the drastic look I was going for). It was a little tough going, but I ended up being pretty happy with the results. If I had more energy at the time, I might have kept going and distressed the table more than I did, but at that point, I was ready to get the project done!

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I like the distressed look along the edges of the table leaves!

FINISHING: The problem I had when thinking about using chalk paint was that it would have a matte finish, which I figured would be difficult to keep clean. Three kids (almost four) and a white/gray table equals messiness and fingerprints! So I wanted to polyurethane the table so I would have a shiny finish that I could wipe clean and would also “seal” in the distress marks and prevent any more paint from chipping down the line. This was the disappointing part of the project. Not only was it difficult to get an even coverage that wasn’t too thick and didn’t drip, but I found that the “clear” polyurethane turned out to not be as “clear” as I thought. It dried with a yellowish tint, which made the gray of the table and chairs lose any look of actual gray, it just looked white and the actual white, ended up looking off-white. This bummed me out, but there wasn’t much I could do about it. It was probably my own fault for being a little careless with the polyurethane, but oh well.

Our “happy accident!”

The table itself is very old and was passed to my grandparents from their parents and from my grandparents to us. It wasn’t perfect to begin with in our house, and it’s certainly not perfect now. But Randy and I agree that any imperfections that came out of this project have added to its character. One “happy accident” was that the sun crackled some of the white paint on the chairs as they were drying and gave them a unique look that we LOVE! This probably won’t be our “forever” table, but it definitely brightens up our kitchen, looks more like it “belongs” in there now, and is serving us well for meals and homeschooling! Another fun and learning project behind me!

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Starting Up the Homeschool Year

On By Bethany DattoloIn Family Fun, homeschool & learningLeave a comment

Starting up the school year as a homeschool mom can be exciting and stressful, just like for any other teacher. This year for me, it’s definitely been an even mix of both! Generally, I find the stress to be in the choosing of curricula and setting up the “plan” for the day-to-day scheduling. But once that’s settled, excitement sets in and I can’t wait to start! But sometimes, plans don’t go according to, ahem, “plan.” Here are some things I have to keep in mind when starting the school year, and they might be helpful to you, too!

  • Your schooling doesn’t have to look like anyone else’s! (Nor should it!) It’s so easy to play the compare game on social media these days and sometimes we get discouraged if our school room (or kitchen table) doesn’t look as nice as those in other people’s pictures, or our kids don’t seem as excited to start as someone else’s. But not only is it unhealthy to constantly compare ourselves to other people, it’s sinful. If you are heeding God’s call on your family to homeschool, your only focus needs to be on how HE wants YOU to raise and educate YOUR kids. I have to remind myself of this almost daily. Getting ideas from others is one thing, but thinking we need to do everything just like someone else is different.
I’m not the best with doing science experiments. I usually like to wait until Daddy is home and then we do a whole bunch at once! Here we are experimenting with water. It was actually fun! (For me, I mean, I knew it would be for them already.) 😉
  • Let go of the “ideal.” Here’s my confession: today was the first day I did school with BOTH my 1st grader and preschooler. (We started 1st grade last week.) And the day itself was THE WORST. The school portion of the day wasn’t bad, but other factors led to the day being a “write-off.” The 20-month old has still taken 2 naps a day up until this point and picked today of all days to refuse the morning nap. I knew it was coming, I just didn’t know when. Time to hash out a plan to keep her entertained during school (which I have plenty of resources for and I’ll be sharing in another post), I just wasn’t prepared for this today. During the off-school hours, kids were generally off the wall, a little disobedient, I was 36-week-pregnant-with-number-four-all-time-exhausted, I broke a dish filled with dip while pulling something out of the fridge, and even quiet time didn’t go smoothly. So the epic “first day of school” certainly wasn’t ideal, but when that happens, you absolutely cannot let it get you down! Life is messy. (But, you’d never know it if I just posted the pictures from our school time and never mentioned anything about the rest of the day. So, see, that’s another reason not to compare–you’re probably not even comparing your life to the true account of another’s!)
For Noah’s preschool year, we’re doing 1-week “units” that I’m pulling together from a bunch of different sources. Our first unit is on colors. He already knows them, but I like to start with something that’s reinforcing and not brand new. And we got to have this yummy snack of “rainbow” fruit with homemade whipped cream! We mixed our primary colors to make the secondary ones. It was fun AND delicious!
  • Curriculum is not “one size fits all.” If you have found an all-inclusive curriculum that meets all the needs of your family and you LOVE it, yay you!!! Honestly, our curriculum comes pretty close! Next year we’ll have to start supplementing in a few subjects but My Father’s World gives great suggestions for all supplements. (Click on the link to check our curriculum out!) This is our 3rd year using this curriculum and we absolutely love it! I realize not everyone has that experience, and that’s okay, too! And even if you’ve settled on a great curriculum, you don’t have to use it as is. I have to be flexible with our scheduling since I work part-time so I don’t always follow the curriculum’s outline exactly. Plus, my experience as a public school teacher gave me great supplemental ideas that I use all the time! I consider myself lucky that my oldest is mature and “advanced” enough that I could do kindergarten with her at age 4, no problem, and she loved it! That meant that I started first grade with her last year when she was 5, and could spread it over 2 years. So this year is technically our second year of 1st grade, but age-wise, she’s “officially” first grade! Taking first grade at a slower pace has meant being able to supplement with more fun activities, field trips, and make time for the toddler and baby on the way!
We ALL got into our colorful snack! So yummy!
  • Don’t be afraid to try something different! Homeschool parents can feel a lot of pressure to do things perfectly because the world’s eyes are on us for not doing things “conventionally” or not “leaving our child’s education to the ‘experts’.” This kind of pressure sometimes leads me to overthink my choices for fear of messing up and looking like I failed my kids. But I can tell you, even public school teachers have plans that fail! Lessons, and even whole units, don’t always go according to plan, so we have to adjust. Don’t be afraid to look into new curricula, supplemental materials, or to just reach out to other homeschool moms for support and ideas. I thought I was “set” this year for our curriculum, but I now find myself researching another curriculum to supplement what we’re already doing. It never ends! But I’m learning to follow my instincts and try new things when necessary.

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