Ikea, all the way

**IMPMORTANT** This post was written in April 2012. Please see my favorite IKEA picks in their 2013 collection here!

Hello friends! It has been a few days since I've posted and I hope you all had a fabulous weekend! Thanks to my brother coming over and watching the twins for several hours, Husband and I, (and our littlest one, Mason), got to take a trip to Ikea! We have had great luck at Ikea in the past, so when our deck was finished last fall we thought we'd check there for deck furniture. Of course, it was the end of the season so they didn't have anything in stock, but we really liked what they had offered! About a month ago I called to ask when they would be getting their first shipment of outdoor furniture and they told me first week in April, so we marked our calendar and made a day of it this past Saturday.

What I love about the ourdoor furniture at Ikea is that you can mix and match things to make your own set that matches your style. We had looked extensively for sets elsewhere but just decided that a matchy-matchy set was not so 'us'. We wanted something simple, colorful, casual and low maintenance.

We used the Falster table with the Falster armchairs on the ends, and 4 yellow Roxo chairs along the sides. Remember my love of gray and yellow from this post? It's still a favorite :) We love that the chairs don't take up a lot of space, they're stackable, and easy to wipe clean. We have already enjoyed a couple evenings out here since Saturday!

This striped yellow rug is another purchase from Saturday - $3.50! They had a variety of colors including red, olive, and navy!

Another score were these three prints that finally complete an empty wall in our Dining Room. We have lived here for over a year and a half but I had not yet found anything for that wall that was 'just right'. When I saw these I knew they would be the finishing touch I'd been keeping an eye out for.

And I have to throw this in; my sweeties all dressed up for Easter on Sunday.:)

I hope you are having a great week so far and thank you for stopping by!

~Chelsea

Our beautiful sale day!

Hello friends! Well, this past Saturday was another Chelsea's Garage on-site sale and the weather couldn't have been more perfect - quite a contrast to the snow we got on our February sale day! The Garage looked great and even featured a couple pieces I hadn't even posted here, (the Cottage Chic Dining table and the Sweet Dreams Headboard, see photos below). The day started with a lot of sweet friends coming by to say hi and take a look...I feel so blessed to have such supportive and encouraging friends and family, let me tell ya! Then slowly, but surely, a lot of new faces started coming in. Some saw the Chelsea's Garage sign from the road, (best Christmas present ever! Thanks, Mom:) ), others had heard about it from a friend, (amen!). So, the word is slowly spreading which I am really grateful for; that's what my little furniture refinishing business depends on!

Here are some photos of the morning, right after I finished setting up:

Tulips instead of snow this time:)

Cottage Chic Dining table debut!

I will always have a few goodies out. Always.:)

Sweet Dreams Headboard debut!

All three of these china cabinet doors sold; the middle one to one home and the two on the sides to another. It was such a joy to see others so interested and taken by something that was so out of the box. Thanks to Husband for rigging them up to be hung on the morning of the sale!

I saw a handful of pieces leave the Garage and go on to new homes on Saturday, but since I've had each piece listed individually on craigslist, the responses have been pouring in and I've had daily appointments set up with folks interested in seeing/purchasing. A handful of pieces remain but the garage is starting to look spacious again....time to start furniture hunting all over!

Thank you so much for following the buzz in the Garage! If you saw anything in the photos that you're curious about, click on 'Shop' and you'll see an entire album of pieces with full descriptions and prices listed under the first photo of each piece.

Also, I have a small collection of decorative items I'd like to be able to give away soon, so if you're a regular here, please become a member, (Garage Guest), so you'll be elligible for some free cute things, (even if you're a friend or family member)!

~Chelsea

A newfound love in 'Duck Egg'

Hey there! I've been starting to get some technique questions and was thinking about addressing all of them in one post sometime soon, but one popular one that I thought I would bring up today is how do I pick my paint color/decide what color to paint which pieces? Here's the thing: I am definitely not a person who collects sample after sample of various shades of the same color. I usually go to the paint store with a specific color in mind and scan the rainbow of swatches until I see it. Perhaps it's because I always have 3 little ones in tow and do not have the time to stand there and compare, but I rarely pick up any more swatches once I've found 'The One'. Colors that catch my eye tend to be very earthy; in fact, here are some of the paint names in the Garage: Coral Reef, Sandstone, Duck Egg, Bayou, Pebble Beach, Cumberland Fog, and Spring Mint. At the moment the Garage is full of over a dozen pieces all ready for this Saturday's sale, and I have each of the above colors represented somewhere in the collection. I absolutely love how the entire group of pieces look together! So many shades of gray, tan, cream, aqua, green, blue..it looks like a cohesive group simply because they're all very earthy tones. I love how you can mix and match natural colors in the home. You don't look outside and think the trees clash with the grass and the sky....so if you have earthy colors in your home, you can really do anything you want! And 'earthy' doesn't have to mean dull or lacking bright colors... Why not have an aqua end table with coral throw pillows and a foggy gray coffee table? Nature works so well inside the home! I know not everyone has the same taste, and thank goodness for that! I love walking into homes and seeing how people show their own personality and individuality through their decor and use of color.

Ok, enough chit chat, (and if you have any questions at all please do not hesitate to contact me)! One of my new favorite colors to use is Annie Sloan's 'Duck Egg' chalk paint. Such a FUN color! It's saturated enough that you could use it year round, mixing it up with golds, dark greens, burnt orange and eggplant purples in the fall and winter, or lighter peaches, corals, grays and tans in the spring and summer.

 Here is a beautiful side table with dental wood trim, fresh from it's 'Duck Egg' makeover:

(29.5d x 22w x 23.5h)

~available for sale~

Here is a chunky wooden chair which had originally been painted forest green on the backrest and legs. I just painted right over the green in 'Duck Egg' and then distressed it enough to see some hits of green here and there on the piece:

(17.5w x 17.25d x 37h)

~available for sale~

The last piece before the sale on Saturday is a cute little headboard that is in the Garage drying from it's fresh coat of....you guessed it, Duck Egg :)

If you are interested in coming by on Saturday contact me and I will send you the address. I hope you have a fantastic finish to your week!

~Chelsea