Touring Through Blogland

Date
Jul, 21, 2014
Tour Through Blogland

Oh hey friends! I’m so excited to be a part of this little tour through blogland and show you what goes on behind the scenes at Brepurposed. Katie from View From the Fridge invited me along and I’ll pass it on to a couple more bloggers at the end of my post. It’s a great way for you guys to get to know me and other bloggers better and take a glimpse into one anothers lives. So come on in and stay a while!

Tour Through Blogland

I’ll be honest, I was hesitant at first when Katie asked me to do this. I was nervous about showing pictures of our apartment because let me tell you, it is nothing glamorous. The hubbers and I rent a small two bedroom apartment that we didn’t plan on being in for too long. It’s our first place together and most of the stuff we brought into it was either from college, our parents or random purchases. Cheap & free = good. Old & mismatched = not so good.

At the end of the day, this is our home and I’m sharing it with the person I love. I’m sure everyone can relate and has worse stories than we do about their first place as a married couple. As much as I can’t wait to own a home I’m grateful we have a roof over our heads and a big porch to work on 😉

Speaking of porches…this is where the magic happens!

Tour Through Blogland

Except in the winter. Then the magic happens on the kitchen floor. Here’s our little entryway.

Tour Through Blogland

Now onto the beautiful poo colored walls.

Tour Through Blogland

And don’t forget the gorgeous checkered wall paper in the kitchen 🙂

Tour Through BloglandThat’s all you get 😉 A little peek inside our apartment. Taking pictures inside is hard without a lot of natural light as I’m sure most of you know!

Ok now onto the questions!

:: QUESTION 1 ::
What am I working on?

Tour Through Blogland

These are all the current pieces I have in the works. From left to right:

Red Antique Humidor :: I got this a while ago but am struggling with what to do to it. I could keep it red and clean it up and redo the inside or repaint it. Or stain it? Gah, so many options! What do you think?

Small End Table :: I got this piece pretty recently and will probably just paint it and add some new hardware 🙂

Mini Mid Century Modern Table :: I love this little guy and have some two tone ideas for it.

High Blue Table :: I painted this using a homemade chalk paint and am working on a fun treatment for the drawer. Come back on Wednesday to see the finished result!

Buffet :: I’m redoing this piece for my friend as a wedding present. She’s getting married in August so I should probably get started soon huh? She wants it to be pretty neutral so I think I’ll be staining the top and painting the bottom a white or cream.

And lastly, I’m super excited to be a Darby Designer. If you haven’t heard of Darby Smart you need to check them out. They are a DIY crafting startup, where designers launch simple projects based on the latest fashion and home trends. Those projects then get turned into kits that you can purchase and create the same look!

Darby Smart

I applied to be a designer and got accepted! Woop woop! What happens then is that they give you a $50 credit to purchase any of the supplies on their website that you want. Free = fabulous. I just got mine in the mail last week and can’t wait to start on it! I’m making a printable, so keep your eye out for it 🙂

:: QUESTION 2 ::
How does my work differ from those in my genre?

Being in the furniture painting/repurposing genre can be a bit intimidating. There are SO many amazing and talented people out there that it’s hard to stand out. In the beginning I started out with pretty basic stuff. Simply painting something white and not really having any idea what I was doing.

Once I really got into the blogging scene I started to get inspired and am starting to find my style. I try and make my pieces stand out by adding that little something extra that someone else wouldn’t have thought of. Whether it’s my choice of hardware, adding fabric or trying out a new paint technique. I have been blown away by all the support I’ve gotten from my friends, family and followers that it inspires me to keep creating and challenging myself to “paint outside of the box”.

Tour Through Blogland

:: QUESTION 3 ::
Why do I write/create what I do?

I’ve always been a creative person and I can thank my parents for that. My Mom amazes me with her ability to quilt, sew, scrapbook, paint…the list goes on. My Dad is the handiest man I know and my love for wood work and DIY definitely comes from him. For our wedding last summer, I made pretty much everything and I didn’t realize how much I enjoyed it until after it was all over and I had nothing left to craft!

Tour Through Blogland

That’s when I first started dabbling in ‘brepurposing’ and I fell in love. I love graphic design too, which was my day job, but the type of work I was doing wasn’t exciting me. This was the perfect outlet to be creative on both platforms and the perfect hobby that hopefully some day I can call my job 🙂

:: QUESTION 4 ::
How does your writing/creative process work?

What creative process? Seriously, I wish I could tell you I’m super organized and write everything down when I have an idea and have posts scheduled weeks in advance. Not the case. At all. Here’s a little run down of how things do actually work for me:

I go thrifting and/or stalk craigslist and stuff my car full of goodies and unload them all onto our porch (the hubs loves this part). If I’m lucky, an idea will come to me when I first see a piece, but usually they hang out for a while before I decide what I want to do. My ideas tend to come to me after browsing Pinterest or other blogs or simply when I’m just going about my day and have an “ah ha” moment. I’ve been grateful that I haven’t hit too much of block yet. I still consider myself to be quite new at this and thankfully there are so many different paints and techniques that I still want to try.

Photographing my pieces has become one of my favorite parts of the process. I love styling and staging my furniture, especially with my new backdrop. I seriously get so excited when I upload my photos and see the end result! My only problem is that I take WAY too many photos and it gets a tad overwhelming to only pick 3-4. Oh well 🙂

I really should work on writing my posts in advance but even if I have a schedule in my head of what I’m going to post each day, I seem to never write that post until the night before. Procrastination at it’s finest right here. I’m starting to at least make a little archive of printables, so I have those for my Friday’s Fab Freebie.


I hope you enjoyed that little peek inside Brepurposed and had fun getting to know me a little better! This blogging journey has opened so many doors for me and challenged me above and beyond what I thought I was capable of. I have to give a big shout out to my hubbers for supporting me in all of this and putting up with our crowded porch and craft covered kitchen table. He helps in more ways than one and some of my projects wouldn’t have been possible without him. He keeps me grounded and reminds me every day not to take things too seriously and I love him for that.

Tour Through Blogland

And then there’s Oakley: or as we like to call him him, stinky boy. He supports me by photobombing all my photo shoots 🙂 And stealing pieces of sand paper, or nails or wood. He’s just lucky he’s so handsome and puts up with my force snuggles.

Tour Through Blogland


And now it’s time to pass this along to two other bloggers. I thought it would be fun to introduce you to some other Bre’s out there. They are both fabulous and I’m just thankful that they didn’t think of my blog name first 😉

Bree from bumblebreeblog

Bumblebree Blog

Bumblebree Blog

 Bre from Average But Inspired

Average But Inspired

Average But Inspired

Make sure you check out these fabulous ladies and come back next Monday for their Tour through Blogland!

brepurposed

29 Comments

  1. Reply

    k lorene

    July 28, 2014

    Ooo… I have a small buffet almost identical to yours!

    That’s for the little tour! Super refreshing and I’m excited to see what those projects turn into!!

    • Reply

      brepurposed

      July 29, 2014

      Thanks so much! I’m glad you stopped by 🙂

  2. Reply

    Tara

    July 23, 2014

    Loved learning more about you, Bre! Can’t wait to see what you decide to do with that red table 🙂

    • Reply

      brepurposed

      July 23, 2014

      Thanks Tara!! I’m torn about that little guy. It might be a while before you see any transformation haha

  3. Reply

    Katie Stahl

    July 23, 2014

    What a fun post, Bre!! We’re on vacation, and I’m just getting to read this now. Your front porch is fabulous … What a great place to work! Can’t wait to see all your upcoming projects! Oh, and by the way, Oakley is ADORABLE! It’s also awesome that you found two more ‘Bre’s to give a tour next week! Thanks for the tour and for participating! Hope you’re having a great week!
    XO,
    Katie

    • Reply

      brepurposed

      July 23, 2014

      Thank you Katie! I’m so glad you passed it on to me! I’ll give Oakley your compliments 😉 Glad you enjoyed it and hope you’re having a great vacation! xo

  4. Reply

    writingmonique

    July 22, 2014

    Loved this post and the tour! The photos are amazing!

    • Reply

      brepurposed

      July 22, 2014

      Thank you so much!

  5. Reply

    Bre @ Average But Inspired

    July 22, 2014

    Hi, Bre! I loved your tour! Your front porch is amazing and such a great space to work on projects! So much nicer than my dirty and crowded garage. 🙂 Thanks for passing the baton along to me – I hope my post is nearly as interesting as yours! xo Bre

    • Reply

      brepurposed

      July 22, 2014

      Thanks Bre, I’m glad you enjoyed it! Don’t be fooled by the photo. Usually the porch is a huge mess haha. You’re post is going to be amazing and I can’t wait to read it!

  6. Reply

    Kristi

    July 22, 2014

    This was SO much fun!!! I am in absolute {LOVE} with your charming front porch – what a beautiful space to work on your projects! Can’t wait to see what you’ve got in store for all of those fabulous pieces!!!

    • Reply

      brepurposed

      July 22, 2014

      I’m glad you enjoyed it Kristi! Our porch is my happy place haha. I don’t know what I would do without it. Can’t wait to read yours!

  7. Reply

    Amy @ Homey Oh My!

    July 21, 2014

    I guffawed at now onto the poo colored walls. You CRACK me up. I would have called them caramel or toffee, but your sense of humor is clearly sharper than mine.
    I am so so so jealous of your porch. That’s the biggest thing I wish my apartment had, not only to decorate, but for the SPACE TO WORK! I’d want to hoard furniture finds on it, too.
    This was a great read. Really enjoyed seeing this look behind it all. And Oakley is so handsome.

    • Reply

      brepurposed

      July 22, 2014

      haha just being honest 😉 and I don’t know what I would do without our porch. It’s been the perfect work space for me! So glad you enjoyed my little tour 🙂

  8. Reply

    Christina

    July 21, 2014

    I’m cracking up right now because dogs support blogs just like toddlers do! Haha! And you’re lucky you don’t live near me, because I might just sneak on your porch and steal that midcentury end table! Drooling. Now. 🙂

    • Reply

      brepurposed

      July 22, 2014

      haha yes I can imagine your little one does similar things as Oakley! I better bring that guy inside in case someone else is thinking the same thing as you! 😉

  9. Reply

    http://seekinglavenderlane.blogspot.com

    July 21, 2014

    Such a great tour…and I absolutely love your front porch! I too rented for quite a while in a space much much smaller and it’s so hard to express your creativity when you’re a renter. Your furniture is awesome and I am so glad I got to learn a little bit more about you today. Also never heard of Darby Smart so I’m going to have to head over to check what that is all about!

    Deb
    @Seeking Lavender Lane

    • Reply

      brepurposed

      July 22, 2014

      Thank you so much Deb! It’s been a struggle renting but I’m making it work 🙂 Definitely check out Darby Smart, it’s an awesome company!

  10. Reply

    howdothejonesdoit

    July 21, 2014

    You did so well on your blog tour! I too was hesitant when asked … my turn is next week … keeping my fingers crossed it will be half as good as yours!

    • Reply

      brepurposed

      July 22, 2014

      Thank you so much! I can’t wait to read yours, I know it will be great 🙂

  11. Reply

    Nicole B.

    July 21, 2014

    Bre, I love your tour! It’s so cool to get the inside scoop on bloggers creative processes. Everyone is so different! Also, I’m in love with that front porch!!! And your entryway is adorable 🙂

    • Reply

      brepurposed

      July 21, 2014

      Aw thanks Nicole! Thank goodness for our porch, otherwise I’d be in trouble! haha. Can’t wait to read your tour! 🙂

  12. Reply

    ericasooter

    July 21, 2014

    Loved your tour! I totally get the frustration of living in a rented space and not being able to do much, but you have totally made your space your own (even with the poo brown walls 😉 ) and all your projects are fabulous!

    • Reply

      brepurposed

      July 21, 2014

      Thanks Erica! Things could be a lot worse haha. I think I can live with my poo brown walls for a little while longer 😉

  13. Reply

    Sarah @ Little Red Brick House

    July 21, 2014

    You are so adorable, Bre! I loved learning a little more about you and your creative process. It’s great to find other people who share that same passion for creating.And you certainly do an amazing job at bringing your ideas to life. Love your work!

    • Reply

      brepurposed

      July 21, 2014

      Aw thank you so much Sarah! I appreciate your kind words! 🙂

  14. Reply

    sevanderkooy

    July 21, 2014

    Thanks for sharing a peek behind the scenes, I love learning about my favorite bloggers.

    • Reply

      brepurposed

      July 21, 2014

      Of course! I’m so glad you came by and took the ‘tour’! 🙂

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Hi, I’m Bre! Follow along as we renovate our current home and share modern DIY ideas.
 

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