Just in Time for Winter: Sun Porch Additions

One of the paint projects we tackled during our paint-athon, was painting this dry sink that had been giving to me by my mother.  I used Glidden's Truly Olive on the piece.  (It's the same paint I used on our DIY dining room chalkboard.).

Here is the before:

It's the best before I have thanks to...you guessed it...the camera card tragedy of 2011.  Just note the hardware and the water damaged top (left front).  The water damage occurred after the branches I used in my Halloween display dropped a few leaves onto the dry sink while they were being stored in the garage last fall.  The leaves sat and sat and started to destroy the top of the dry sink.  Staining the piece was not an option because the wood had large cracks in it and the water damage was deep in the surface of the wood.  I would have loved to stain the piece with a dark espresso stain, but instead chose a green color that we had on hand already and that seemed to work with the floral rug we have in the room as well.

Here is the after:

I updated the hardware using fairly simple oil rubbed bronze pulls from Menards.  They cost about $3 each.  I used a couple coats of Minwax polyacrylic finish in satin to protect the top.  The changes definitely updated the look of the piece and most importantly covered the water stained and cracked top of the unit.

Since we had the polyacrylic and paint on hand already, the dry sink update cost about $15 for new pulls.  Not too bad!  The picture frame resting on top of the unit is an IKEA Ribba frame that we had up at our old house.  I had a recent 16 inch x 20 inch picture printed at Sam's Club for $5.96.  I absolutely love that picture!!

I also picked up some of these string lights from Target on clearance (of course) for $6.48 per package.

And here's the infamous clock that I posted about here:

Bill and I were planning on getting the clock and lights up this year, but time has slipped away and you know what, it's cold out!!  Our sun porch is a three seasons room, so it will turn into a huge walk in refrigerator/freezer in the very near future.  Rather than rush to hang up a clock and lights for a pretty blog picture, we're going to wait until the spring to hang them...you know, when we'll actually be able to enjoy them!

This room has come a long way already.  As a reminder, here was the way the room looked this past May:

And some more recent shots:

With the lights and clock in place next spring, we may never leave our sun porch next spring:).  Or if we do leave, at least we'll know what time it is:)!