Hey there!  If you are new to my blog, welcome I am so glad your came to visit.  I hope you find my tips and ideas for decorating on a budget helpful.  One way to decorate your home would be shopping at Thrift stores, Goodwill stores or the Habitat Restore.  I love stopping in regularly to see what they have new lurking on the shelves.  I am joining a group of talented bloggers that also love to thrift store shop.  I will share their blog links at the bottom of my page.  Hosting this great blog hop is Tara Stilettos and Shiplap and Emily LeCultivateur.

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If you are following me lately you know I am working on two different projects, both for our daughter, Kristin.  One is the baby shower for our first grandbaby and the second, working on the nursery and bathroom project.  I shared several DIY SHOWER DECORATIONS last week, today I want to share what I found at the thrift store the other day.  I found this cute little rocking horse décor piece.  It will look so cute in the baby’s room on a shelf.

It is solid wood and so stinkin’ cute. I had to pick it up.  For the cost I just had to.

Of course I am not going to keep it the way I found him.  What I want to do is strip him down to the bare wood and stain him a lighter color.  Before I start I need to cover up the yarn so it won’t get damaged.  Using cardboard, painters tape and a plastic sandwich bag to protect it all.

I removed the eyes.

To remove all the brownness on him  I painted stripper all over the horse and let it sit.

I used a putty knife and started scrapping the paint stain whatever it is.

After two coats of stripper and sanding him down I still couldn’t get the orange color to disappear.

After the stripping and sanding the stain got on to the yarn so I decided to remove it all.

Now the yarn was removed, I decided to give it one more coat of stripper.  Still orange! 🙁

Well a DIYer always has a Plan A, Plan B and sometimes a Plan C. 🙂

I decided to paint the horse instead.  I painted the entire horse with primer.  The orange color bled right through. UGH!!!

I decided to use a sealer and paint the horse to see if that will keep the orange from bleeding through.  Didn’t think that would work because it even turned my sponge orange.  What the heck?!?!?!

 

That did the trick…. I gave the horse one more coat of primer and two coats of white paint.   I wanted to give it a little flare and paint the rocking part a metallic gold.  I have been using this same can of gold for the shower decorations.

Letting it dry.

I am happy so far.

I took the eyes and painted them gold.

 

While letting the paint dry I focused on the hair and tail.  Here is the steps I used to make the tail fit into the little drilled hole.

• Taking out the only white yarn I had on hand I cut the length for the tail
• I applied some hot glue to the middle to keep the bundle of yarn together

Now making the tip of the tail to fit into the little hole on the horse.

• I folded the yarn and kept on applying hot glue to the top pinching it together to form a point.
• Cut the point off

Filled the hole with glue and twisted the tail in until it was secure.

Took the end of the tail and cut it even.

Using wood glue I applied the eyes and peg back onto the horse.

The mane was a little harder.  I am sure this wasn’t the easier way or correct way, but it worked out fine.

• I cut about 70 pieces of yarn
• stitched through each piece to bring them together
• folded it over a ruler
• applied hot glue to form a place to stick into the grove and pinch to form a smooth line

I added hot glue to the grove used my scissors to poke the yarn into the grove.  It was easier than I thought.  I trimmed off the mane even.

 

What do you think?  A little more time than I thought since Plan A didn’t work.  If what I know now I would of just painted it in the beginning and saved myself a lot of time. ha!

Before

After

This will go up on a shelf in the nursery.  Can’t wait to get started in the room.  We are almost done in the bathroom.  It is coming along so nicely.

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Stay strong and Blessed ♥

Don’t forget to check out my friends and what they found thrifting.

Jessica B Simmons

LeCultivateur

This Full Life

Sweet Southern Grace

Stilettos and Shiplap