makes me happy.

As I've mentioned a couple times, there has been lots of rearranging, re-organizing and re-decorating around here as of late.
I've been wanting to post these photos of a few pieces that I distressed to use in our bedroom for a while now but, I'm not really into giving detailed DIY instructions.

In large part it's because each piece required a different technique to achieve the look I desired.
The vanity above, for example, came home from The Goodwill with a layer of grey paint on top of a layer of white paint.

The wood it's self was so old that once stripped and sanded it had the perfect rustic look I was going for.

With this dresser, on the other hand, the paint sanded off quite easily but,

I was left with this new, peachy coloured wood underneath. Not exactly what I hoping for.

So I busted out some dark stain, applied...

and then did some more sanding.

The third piece, from my sister's basement, came to me coated (no, seriously - COATED) in some sort of heavy duty paint...

that required a chemical stripper for removal. And that's when I got to dress like this!
Yeah - I'm cool.
There was also some stain and sanding involved in this puppy.

My point here, is that if I went into this project thinking there was only one RIGHT way to achieve the final result - I would have ended up a very frustrated girl.

Just as every human strives to bring more peace, love, compassion, and joy into their lives while following their own unique path...

so to, did each one of my pieces want to fill it's
shabby chic destination.
I just had to be open to the different paths needed to get them there.