Weekend Project: Mini Map Chest

Today is the last day of our school's Spring Break, where did this week go?! I did get to enjoy my last day off work and managed to get a few projects done that I wanted to share. 

The first one is this before and after of a sweet little chest of drawers I rescued (see before pic). She was a little roughed up and covered in mud, but I knew she had potential. I am right on the bandwagon with the current old-school globe craze, and thought it would be cute to incorporate the trend when I saw an old atlas in my dad's truck.

First, I sanded the piece with medium grit sandpaper & gave it a good cleaning. Then, I used a primer for a base coat (even though I was using chalk paint, I wanted to be on the safe side). After letting it dry overnight, I used my homemade chalk paint recipe to give it two coats today. Mix together these ingredients for a super simple recipe that has given me great results so far:

• 1 cup latex paint (I chose a gray by Sherwin Williams that was left over from choosing colors for our house)
• 1/3 cup plaster of paris (get out all the clumps first)
• 1/3 cup water

I used an angled Purdy brush and the paint spread really well. I decided not to distress this piece too much, I liked how it looked after the second coat of paint. So I just let it dry and then used a spray Poly to seal it. 

Next, I cut apart some pages of my dad's Atlas that he graciously let me tear out (after I reasoned that he would probably not be driving around California or Connecticut in the near future, especially without MapQuest) and Mod-Podged them to the top of the chest/nightstand/mini-dresser...I'm not sure what you'd call it exactly.

 I thought it turned out really cool! Hubby and I are currently debating wether to keep or sell it.

Another little craft that I did today was giving this little $2 clearance vase from Wal-Mart (spy it in the cart...what would you call that, mauve?) a makeover. I have been coveting this vase from Anthropologie for months, but couldn't quite justify its' $28 price tag. When I saw this little treasure in the clearance isle, I already knew just what to do with it!

A couple of coats of acrylic paint later (still need to seal it), this is what I came up with: 

$28 vs. $3

I'm thinking these wastebaskets would make cute pendant lights...

Between coats, I was able to sneak away to a flea market in a nearby town. We are thinking about setting up there next weekend, so I wanted to scope it out. Here are my flea market finds of the day:

1. Ceramic pumpkin $0.25- I always like to grab cute seasonal decor that can be used for staging for future markets.

2. Horse bookends- I was seriously about to order some very similar to this for $50, glad I came across these for $2!

3. I know they look funny but I have a plan for using them in our master bedroom...stay tuned!