“Thrift Store SCORE!”

May 25, 2012 16 Comments

Before I reveal our latest “Thrift Store SCORE!” I need to bring you up to speed on a little swap out we did with our master bedroom bed, specifically with the linens. We L-O-V-E our yellow and grey quilt, but we’ve had it on the bed for about a year now and it was time for a change. Don’t worry if you are “Team Quilt” though – It will definitely make a return as the seasons (and my moods) change.

First, to find a replacement…After getting a soft and luxurious down comforter from our wedding gift registry, we decided to go with a duvet cover. It just so happened that we had scheduled a trip to Ikea right before jetting off to our honeymoon (there was one only minutes away from our airport), so I made sure to make a pit stop in their bedding section. There were so many to choose from, but we ended up going with Ransby, a subtle pattern of grey leaves and vines on a white background. For less than $30 for the set, it was too good (and pretty) a deal to pass up.

Soon after returning from our trip, I dressed the bed and stepped back hoping to be wowed. The pattern and cushy down comforter were perfect, but the rest of the space was a bit lacking. You see, after posting a number of pieces of furniture for sale, I managed to pass my existing nightstand off to a friend. I was happy to give it a new home, but sad to be left with nothing to set my book on.

As you can see to the right of the bed (my side), I was literally living out of a box. So I knew it was time to replace what I had sold.

The reason I got rid of the original table was because of its traditional style – It was a perfect piece for me several years ago when I embraced the fully eclectic look (i.e. college era hand-me-downs), but now that I am working on a forever home and have the means to be picky with the furniture we add, I wanted to go with something I knew both John and I would love. What might that be? I envisioned something from the 1970′s with spindly legs, one of those two-tiered pieces with a drawer.

So, with renewed motivation, we headed out to our favorite estate shop downtown, which tends to have about 30 of just this type of nightstand to choose from. Of course, there were slim pickin’s the one day we set out for our new-to-us nightstand, but we lucked out after uncovering the perfect one.

Yes, it’s a bit worse for wear between the piece of flapping vinyl off the side and the layers of dust and cobwebs, but the lines were right, the shape was right and even the hardware was right. I adore the simple look of the round drawer pull – A circle of dark wood surrounding a thin metal pin. It even had a drawer! We were made for each other…

After a quick wipe down with furniture polish, it looked good as new. It really is in great shape considering how old it probably is. Other than the dislodged vinyl strip, there are no major dings or scratches and it is sturdy as can be. Oh and the price? Unfortunately, I headed to the check out counter just as the owner of the store (who is notorious for not backing down on price) came up to the register. I was hoping to spend $15 on this bad boy, but instead I was asked to pay $30. Not the BEST deal I’ve ever gotten, but I loved it and didn’t care. Besides, I made $30 on the sale of my old nightstand, so we can just call it even.

After situating it beside the bed (along with another piece of furniture to be discussed in a moment), the room finally started looking more complete. Luna the kitty also decided to grace us with her modeling abilities this morning…

The two tiers gives me plenty of room for my favorite antique lamp, our little family bell, a stack of books and a cup for water. Really, I could fit a whole lot more on the table, but for now I’m enjoying the uncluttered look. And no, I still haven’t fixed the broken vinyl yet…But it’s nothing a little wood glue can’t fix once I have a spare moment.

But about that OTHER new bed-side table…As you can see peeking around the bottom of the bed in the photo below, I also added a bench that my dad built. It used to live in the living room under the front window for the kitties (and sometimes the not-so-little dog) to people watch from, but since rearranging that room, it got displaced. I actually love it at the foot of the bed since it’s a great spot to stack excess pillows or slip on a pair of shoes in the morning.

Isn’t my dad so freaking talented? Such a beautiful, simple, classic piece of furniture…

Both new pieces add a ton of storage and fit our style perfectly. I’m so lucky that we were able to find just the right thing for our home. Have you guys snagged any great thrift store pieces lately?

P.S. You may have noticed a new blog header – Again, after a year with the original one I thought it was time for a change. I decided to go with something short, sweet, to-the-point and streamlined. Hope you like it! Who knows how long it will stick around. I tend to look at my blog design in the same way I do my house – I like change and I like to swap out and tweak things until it’s juuuuuuust right. Keeps life interesting…

Hope you have a great Memorial Day weekend!

Filed Under: Bedroom, Furry kiddos/pets, Our Influences, Product Search, Thrift Store Tell All Tagged With: , , , , ,

Pinspiration Monday: Faux tile backsplash

May 21, 2012 14 Comments

It has actually taken me two weeks to muster up the emotional courage to tell you about this project. As you can probably gather, it didn’t go quite as planned. In fact, I am now strong enough to admit that it was a complete and utter disaster. But not ALL of our grand ideas will work out, right?

So here’s the story (plus an incredible amount of photos to document the horrors – Hope you have a big cup of coffee handy!)…

After redoing our kitchen cabinets, I was dying for some kind of backsplash. I would have loved to tile, but the expense and the work deterred me from ordering anything. So instead, I scoured Pinterest for ideas. I came up inspiration like a solid accent paint color, decoupaging take-out menus beneath the cabinets and even adhering metal tile to the wall.

Source: BHG

Source: One Brooklyn Modern

Source: Casa de Valentina

But the one below was the one that stole my heart. It could have been because of the similarities to our own kitchen – cabinet/appliance arrangement, dark brown cabinets, long brushed nickel hardware – but it was also that gorgeous pastel backsplash.

In order to recreate the look of the shiny rows of thin tile without actually ordering any, I decided to use a combo of high gloss paint and extra-thin masking tape. My “faux tile” would theoretically give me the look with about half the work and a fraction of the expense.

Source: Unknown

So here is the room as it stood before leaping head first into the project – We are still loving our brown cabinets but really needed something between the cabinets and countertops to break up all of that brown and beige.

First I rolled on two thin coats of primer – The same can we used on the cabinets at the beginning of the year. In my head, I thought that the under-layer of white showing between my faux tiles would look like grout.

The nature of primer to be a little uneven in look would (again, in theory) mimic the uneven texture of mixed grout.

Time for the masking – This part ended up taking a looooooooong time, but my sister thankfully offered to help as she was visiting that weekend. It was all a matter of keeping the lines straight and also measuring equal distances between rows.

We decided to start the taping by going horizontally since it would take the most time versus the shorter strips that would go vertically. We started right under the cabinets and then measured a ruler’s-width down before starting a new line of tape.

Once we finished the entire length of the backsplash, we stepped back and took stock of things. Seeing the long green lines of tape actually really appealed to me – I began to second guess the vertical strips altogether. The look of the unhindered stripes read super “mod” to me and I actually favored the look. So out went the idea of vertical strips to create faux tiles and in came the idea of mod stripes. My thought was that I could always paint white lines over the top coat if I decided that I wanted the tile look afterall.

Time for the top coat…I bought a quart of pale, minty blue paint from Lowe’s in high gloss finish to really make it pop on the wall. Even though I was no longer trying to replicate the look of smooth glass tile, I didn’t mind the idea of a high gloss stripe, so we went with it.

Two coats later (at about 9:30 p.m.  at night – sorry for the awful lighting) and we were DONE. I already loved how the color was breaking up all of the brown surfaces. Before letting the paint dry, since I’ve heard the paint can come right off with it after it dries, I started removing the tape to reveal the undercoat of white.

This my friends is where things all went to hell.

…

…

…

Oh man, it was so so hard for me to even snap these photos for you guys. At that point, I could hardly breathe from sobbing and the shock of it all. We had been working on this project pretty much all day, sucking up an entire Saturday. I think it was even harder to accept because I had dragged my sister into it as well.

To tell you the truth, I have no idea what happened. But as you can see, when I started peeling the tape back (slowly and gently, I might add) the primer and the wet top coat started coming off in strips with it. I suppose there are two possibilities: (#1) the primer SUCKS and didn’t stick to the wall correctly, or (#2) the masking tape I used was way to strong. Either way, after the initial gasp upon seeing the ruined paint job, it turned into a full on melt down as I continued to remove both the tape and my beautiful painted stripes.

Somehow, through my tears, I was able to remove the rest of the tape and repaint the entire backsplash. The only thing I could come up with was to go with a solid color paint job and call it done – At least for the moment.

In the end and after recovering from the hysteria of the failure, I actually really love the way it turned out. Sure, there’s nothing “tiled” or “striped” about it, but at least all of those brown surfaces have something cool and funky to bump up against. I adore the color.

There are still a few areas we need to damage control, such as the uneven edges at the ends, but I’m giving myself a little distance before working on it. I think I’ll pick up a couple pieces of decorative molding to cover the lines and be done with it. Thoughts?

Oh, and before I go, I wanted to show you a little detail – As you can see in the photos below, you can still make out the stripes left by the masking tape lines. Sort of makes for an interesting texture I guess. While I wish that those lines could have been white, it is what it is and I don’t HATE it.

The fresh mint color looks a bit retro sitting next to our brand new orange stand mixer (a gift from our wedding) – I am absolutely loving that color combo and might even try introducing a little more orange into the space just to keep it going.

So while I would still whole-heartedly call this a failure because it’s anything BUT what I had envisioned, we still managed to give the backsplash area a little pop. If you check out the “Before” and “After” photos below, you can see what a difference that mint color made.

Glad to finally get that off my chest after weeks of holding it in…

So spill the beans – What do you guys think? Have any idea what might have happened? I’m dying to solve the mystery…

Filed Under: DIY Projects, Inspiring, Kitchen, Kitchen Overhaul, Our Influences Tagged With: , , , , ,

Pinspiration Monday: Painted wood

May 14, 2012 6 Comments

There’s a first time for everything. Instead of being inspired by one Pinterest image for today’s “Pinspiration Monday,” I am combining two images to customize a fun and crafty centerpiece for our dining room table.

The first kick in the pants came when I saw these curvy, colorful wooden candlesticks. I really love color, but I actually hoped (in my head) to find a pair of plain raw wood pieces to adorn our table. I love the shapely lines but think our kitchen is pretty good on pops of color (what with our plate wall and newly painted cabinets).

Source: Casa Sugar

Source: Photobucket

As luck would have it, I found these two beauties at a local estate store for only $2. They fit my curvy criteria and were the raw wood I had been hoping for. I thought they looked quite lovely against the chocolate brown wall and, although their shape is fun and eye-catching, they don’t necessarily steal the show from the plate art.

But we weren’t done yet…You see, I also was inspired by the Pinterest images below of painted wood. The idea is to paint pops of saturated color on top of wood, but still leave the grain a bit of room to shine.

Source: Swoon

Source: Unknown…

So I decided to paint the candlesticks, but only partially. Where to begin though? Do I start halfway up the candlesticks and paint little colorful rings and leave it at that? Or maybe paint an entire half of the candlesticks? In the end, John suggested stripes on the flat base and I was sold.

For the colors, I went with the two trendy colors of the season – Mint and pale coral. I also decided to incorporate more of my metallic gold craft paint (as seen here and here). As you can see below, the gold is pretty subtle, but that allows the mint and coral to really shine.

I tried eyeballing my lines at first with a steady hand, but eventually caved and broke out the masking tape to ensure nice and straight edges.

While I adore the colors and the idea of stripes on the candlesticks, I did run into one painful issue…You may have already noticed, but my stripes look pretty wonky and fat towards the actual “stick” portion of my thrifted candle holders. When you see the stripes head-on, the part that runs into the elevated stick ends up giving the optical illusion of a curve when the lines are actually straight.

Here they are all finished on the table top – You can easily see that annoying optical illusion of bulbous stripes towards the center.

Although those lines look anything but straight, when seen from above, they really are pretty spot on.

Not sure just how much that optical illusion is going to bug me…I may lightly sand down the edges of the paint so that the ridges won’t show and just paint up the stick about halfway with new color to cover it up. I’d love your thoughts and opinions on whether I should keep it as is or experiment and tweak just a little bit more until just right.

Help!

Filed Under: DIY Projects, Inspiring, Kitchen, Product Search, Thrift Store Tell All, Weekly Pinspiration Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

Another cord/outlet domination

May 11, 2012 17 Comments

If you are anything like me, you hate cords. Like, REALLY hate them. They clutter the look of a space and turn what could be a quiet, pretty vignette into a tangled mess. But sometimes the placement of outlets makes visible cordage an unavoidable necessity. You’ve seen me tackle one problem area here (back in the early days of DG-DIY and bad photography skills), by taping the cord string along the back of a table’s leg to mask it. That one worked like a charm, but we had one other area that couldn’t be helped without some rewiring and drywall patching.

Until we feel brave enough to do some permanent rearranging with the outlet placements, our current television/cable outlet situation in the living room was giving me a massive headache.

I had managed to hide the mess of cables behind the record shelf, but those outlet plates were still screaming for attention.

My temporary solution for the issue was to stack books in front of them – About 100 pounds of books, to be exact. I took a leisurely stroll through the house one afternoon, rounding up all of the biggest and heaviest art books that I owned. I had a bunch and they stacked up nicely (literally and figuratively), but there was still something about it that didn’t look quite right.

I still don’t know how West Elm makes their stacks of art books look so unintentional and home-y…

Not only was the look a bit off, but you could still catch a glimpse of the outlets behind the spines, making the purpose of the arrangement painfully obvious. So I redistributed the stack back into the bookshelves throughout the house and started back at square one. My dream was to find some kind of vintage laundry basket, something tall but relatively thin, to put in front of the outlets. Something like that would serve double duty, covering the nasty imperfection and also acting as throw blanket storage.

As a back up, I also kept my eye out for things like large vessels or a vintage speaker with a woven front ala the ’60s or ’70s – I figured both could work in the event that my laundry basket idea (a) took too long to come to fruition, or (2) failed completely.

Fast forward about a month and a half and a miracle occurred. A family friend (who also happens to have been our fabulous wedding planner) hosted a yard sale at her house – As an event planner, and this being only a few weeks before our wedding, I decided we’d go check out what she was offering in case any of it could be useful at our event. Not only did we find tons of fun stuff for the reception, but we also stumbled upon the perfect solution for my “ugly outlet situation.”

Is that hamper not exactly what I had described in my vision??? In fact, I think it’s even better than perfect – I couldn’t have hoped for a vintage style laundry basket with more style and character. Check out that neat cross weave in the wicker and the buckled belt closure! And just as I’d longed for, it has a great big opening for blankets galore!!

I try to limit my use of exclamation points on this blog, but this find definitely deserves a few…It’s one of those times when patience and waiting for just the right piece really does pay off.

Cbeck out the new yard-saled hamper below taking care of our ugly outlet situation in style. You may also notice a furniture shift…I decided to switch things up in the living room, turning the sofa at an angle and pulling our new yellow chair out into the open edge of the space. I think it opens the room to more flow and certainly better conversation. Seems far more welcoming to me.

Here’s the photo of it again before rearranging, so that you don’t need to scroll back up to the top for reference/comparison.

…And now again with the new arrangement:

So what do you think? Do you guys have any other creative solutions for hiding ugly cords and outlets? I could still use all the help I can get…

Have a great weekend!

Filed Under: Living Room, Simple Fixes, Thrift Store Tell All Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Chevron jewelry box

April 25, 2012 12 Comments

Hope your week is going well! I am feeling surprisingly chipper and excited about the weekend’s big event – With only three days until our wedding, there’s really nothing more that I can do. Projects are wrapped up, my planner is coming over this evening to check out all of the many DIY projects we’ve put together and now I can finally breathe knowing that I’ve done the absolute best I can.

I told John that the one time I will probably break down and cry during the big day is when I see our reception space filled with all of the things I’ve created with the help of my family and friends. I’m sure seeing everything finally pulled together, knowing that it was all thanks to dedicated creativity and effort on our part will be very emotional. (Not to say that our wedding ceremony won’t be FAR more emotional, but I have a feeling we will be so focused on saying the lines correctly that we won’t have time to cry. But I’m sure that could all change in the moment. We’ll see!)

Today, I am back to share a non-wedding-related project (I know, crazy – right?). After using Martha Stewart’s metallic craft paint on my frames, I decided that I couldn’t stop there. With a recent affinity for fashion and accessories, I decided to amp up my table-top jewelry display starting with this little wooden box that I use for my rings and stud earrings.

The piece came from a craft store and was originally raw, unfinished wood. After bringing it home I quickly took care of the plain wood situation by painting it a creamy pale green (although, based on today’s trends of color dipping, I probably would have painted it only partially green and left part of the raw wood showing, sort of like this  - Maybe next time). It turned out nicely but a couple of years later and I was ready for a little upgrade.

So, using Martha’s gold paint once again, I added a fun chevron pattern to my little green jewelry box.

To get the pattern right, I unrolled a long piece of masking tape and stuck it to the edge of my ruler. Then, using scissors, I cut a slit in the tape every inch – That way, I could remove the tape from the ruler and could carefully and accurately cut out multiple little pieces of tape in 1-inch lengths.

Then I simply smoothed the tape against the box, making a zigzag pattern by alternating the direction of the strips. I just kind of eye-balled it and used the width of the tape as a “ruler” of sorts for where to start the next one. I wasn’t going to worry about perfection with this project. It was at this point (twenty minutes into the project with only the amount of taping seen below complete) that I realized I would need to switch up my method or else I’d be there all night. So instead of using 1-inch lengths of tape, I removed what I had started and began again with 2-inch lengths. It still gave me the chevron pattern I wanted, but with a quicker completion time.

Just had to share my line of tape strips…Although tedious at times, you get a sort of system down and pretty soon I was barely paying attention, instead focusing on the Friends marathon on TV.

An hour and a half or so later, my little jewelry box was looking ziggy zaggy and ready for some gold paint.

Using a small foam paint brush, I lightly painted the box with one coat of the craft paint. I let it dry for about twenty minutes before putting on a second coat. If you want a solid finish with none of the undercoat showing through, you may want to put on a third coat. My particular box has always looked a little shabby chic, so the idea of a little undercoat showing through seemed fitting – I liked the idea of a washed look, so two coats did the trick for me.

Here is my newly styled jewelry box, sparkling it up in our master bathroom. I love how you can see the subtle sheen in the metallic finish towards the bottom of the box pictured below. It is just enough of a pattern to give it some much-needed personality, but not enough to make it scream in our soft green, peaceful space.

For a grand total of about $1, I’d say this was a DIY well done. What do you think?

Filed Under: DIY Projects, Our Influences, Simple Fixes, How-To, Bathroom Tagged With: , , , , ,

Pinspiration Monday: Wooden hangers

April 23, 2012 16 Comments

I have really been into fashion lately…Not sure when my focus shifted from home style to clothing and accessories, but I can’t deny my love of a great outfit any longer. Now, I wake up every morning motivated to craft a colorful, cohesive ensemble down to the bracelet. It’s fun to mix and match patterns, colors and metals to make a balanced and sophisticated look – In fact, it’s really not much different than styling a shelf or arranging fabrics in a living space. The same principles still count here, just in clothes.

Obviously, a new love and longing for style means a little shopping was in order. I’ve bought a good amount of new clothes in the last month, but to keep myself on track I kept a list of must-have essentials with me and have kept to it like it was the law. So now I am rewarded with a closet of thought out pieces – Here’s my latest (and, as promised to my bank account, my LAST) big haul, this time from Target and T.J. Maxx.

One of the most affordable ways I’ve been able to feed my new need for fashion and style in my closet (beyond sticking to a list when shopping) is to work on making the most of what I already have. In the past month I have spent long periods of time in my closet getting rid of things I no longer fit into or that no longer fit into my style. Shout out to our local consignment shop though (Salvaged), I don’t donate clothes anymore – I bag them up and take them straight to consignment. So far, I’ve made over $100 – Pretty fabulous when I think about how I was just going to take everything to Goodwill for zero profit…

Another thing I decided to do was find ways to amp up the display in my closet, right on down to the hangers…After seeing these two Pinterest images of clothing hung on natural wood hangers and how it gave it a high-end boutique look, I knew I had to upgrade.

Source: The Everygirl

 

Source: barefoot contessa

My closet as it was, came dominated by plastic hangers. Now, I do think that plastic is a big upgrade from plain wire hangers, which tend to bend…But I could envision just how much better and more cohesive the space would look with matching wooden hangers.

Have you guys seen on Pinterest or heard this tip from a friend? Essentially, to make the most of your clothing, you turn all of the hangers backwards and then, as you wear something, you turn the hanger right-ways. That way at the end of the season, you’ll know what clothes you didn’t utilize by seeing their hangers still turned backwards – Time to get rid of them. I attempted this at one point (as you can see in the photo above and below), but eventually gave up. I have a pretty good handle on what piece make me feel good and what don’t. It was just about finding the motivation to actually get rid of things that I’d been holding onto for years.

My motivation? Upgrading the hangers. I eventually found my collection on Ebay for about $50 shipped for 80 wooden hangers (with pant bar in the middle). I knew that 80 wouldn’t be enough for the amount of clothes I had, but figured it would be that motivator for purging that I was looking for – Only the best and most important pieces would get hung back up in the closet, while the rest would get consigned.

First things to get lovingly hung on their new boutique hangers? The three pieces I bought for myself at T.J. Maxx. I could already get the sense that the new wooden hangers made them feel straight out of a fancy designer clothing store – In my own home, no less! Exciting news for a girl like me…

I spent about two hours in my closet that afternoon, making sure to choose wisely as to what stayed and what would be bagged up for consignment. With each new hanger put into place on the bar, the whole feel of the wardrobe started to shift from cheap to luxurious. It really is amazing how wooden hangers can do that to your clothes. As I purged and rehung, I started a new pile of plastic hangers – They eventually made their way into the box that the wooden hangers came in. SO MANY HANGERS!! I plan on donating them to a thrift store soon.

And now to show off the new look – Again, I just love how things look more high-end after the hanger upgrade. No more light “click click” of plastic hangers when I go to pick out an outfit. I’m loving the more substantial wooden ones.

Unfortunately, despite letting go of what felt like a TON of clothes and half of my wardrobe, I still ran out of wooden hangers. I just couldn’t muster the will to get rid of the last bit of dresses to make it even. I resolved to get some more hangers later on to remedy the mismatched situation.

UPDATE:  I went out to Target over the weekend for wooden hanger supplements hoping to buy no more than 10, but left with a value pack of 24 hangers for only $14. They don’t match the Ebay hangers perfectly, but they certainly do the trick, and I doubt anyone would notice the inconsistency other than me.

So what tricks do you all have up your sleeves (pun intended) for making the most of your closet space and wardrobe? How do you “dress things up”?

Filed Under: Simple Fixes, Product Search, Product Review, Inspiring, Weekly Pinspiration, Bedroom Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

Pinspiration Monday: Golden corners

April 16, 2012 8 Comments

Welcome to a new week! I am feeling super motivated and energetic right now – Probably because of a productive weekend full of knocking off wedding projects and taking care of a few things around the house that have been neglected. It feels good to come home and know that my closet is organized, I have a few new pretty things to look at on the walls, the laundry has been done and the new window treatment hardware I bought ages ago has finally been installed.

::happy sigh:: Literally.

A big “Thank you!” to my amazing fiance for his patience and help in getting all of that accomplished with me! He’s such a good sport…We even managed to sneak in a Red Box movie last night – Anyone seen “Ides of March” yet? Pretty good flick.

Today, I am sharing one of the long-awaited craft projects that I completed over the weekend – It all started with this inspiration image, snagged from Pinterest:

Source: A Thoughtful Place

As subtle as it seems, I was instantly drawn to the idea of metallic gold corners on black frames. I am all about brass and warm-toned  metals at the moment, so I just knew I had to give it a shot. If you follow the link above, you’ll see that Courtney actually used metallic spray-painted masking tape to achieve the look of gold corners without the permanence of painting directly on the surface. A genius idea for those who aren’t sure they want to commit, but I was sure about the look and decided to go for it, all in.

This is the set of frames I chose to update:

They look nice on their own, but just “nice.” In my head, I imagined that new lux gold corners would really bring some added sophistication to the frames and the art itself.

Supplies:

  • Gold paint (I got Martha Stewart brand multi-surface craft paint)
  • Masking tape
  • Small foam paint brush
  • Sand paper

First, I taped off my corners. The glass (or in this case, plastic) inside my frames is glued to the inside, so I couldn’t simply remove it and just tape the frame. I had to tape both the edges of where my gold corners would end up and the plastic surface as well. To make my corners  even, I used a ruler and measured/placed them two inches in length from the outside edge.

After all of the taping was finished, I took some medium grit sandpaper and roughed up the taped-off corners. This step helped with giving the paint something to “grab” onto. I highly recommend this step – I thought maybe I could get away with not sanding and went ahead and painted three out of four corners on one of my frames, but ended up having to give them an extra coat of paint in the end. So sand, sand, sand for best results!

Time for the paint – I brushed on a thin coat of the metallic paint between the masking tape and then allowed for 30 to 45 minutes of dry time between. I had the TV on in the background for my multiple coats to keep me occupied. I didn’t end up counting, but I think it took about four or five layers of paint for the corners to look good and gold – It probably depends on the material of your frame (wood vs. metal vs. plastic). When you can’t see the color of your frame through the paint, you are good to go.

Here’s a quick photo progression of the first couple of coats:

From this close up below, you might be able to see some scratches from sanding the surface of the frame through the paint. Don’t worry if you can see this – After you get a few coats of paint on and it dries, the texture will even out to a smooth finish.

And now for the final reveal of the gold-on-black frame collection:

I think the new golden corners add so much interest, more than I could have even anticipated. The frames originally cost me about $10 apiece and the gold paint, only $1.99. For a total of about $11 each, this project really transformed the look of the collection – Of course, it’s just my opinion, but I think they look much more expensive now. So excited about the end result!

To try to convince you further, here’s a little side-by-side action of the frame before, and then after with newly-painted corners. I think the gold really pulls out the warm tones of the print too (speaking of, these photos came from Honeytree Etsy shop).

In fact, I love the collection so much more now, that I plan on beefing up the area. If you can’t tell, they are hung in our master bedroom – We recently received the shelf pointed out below as a generous wedding gift. I think I’d like to center the leaning shelf on the wall and then stack the prints, two each, on either side of the shelf. Of course, I’ll layer in all sorts of brass animals and bowls, etc. to carry that new gold tone throughout. Can’t wait to get that project styled and ready to share – Stay tuned.

Source: Crate and Barrel

Hope you all have a great beginning to your week…

Filed Under: DIY Projects, Simple Fixes, Inspiring, Weekly Pinspiration, Gifts, How-To, Bedroom Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

In bloom

April 11, 2012 11 Comments

Now that the weather is holding steady at a comfortable temperature (well, except for this cold front which had me hurrying through a 50-something degree morning), it’s time for some outdoor projects around the house. I have been itching to whip our back deck into shape, but just haven’t budgeted enough for it. I’m also a little lacking when it comes to outdoor decor vision…But I’m not giving up yet.

Today, I wanted to rehash a very simple outdoor in-celebration-of-spring update that we recently made to the patch of grass and vegetation in front of our townhome. Meet our cheerful planter, Mr. Frog (boy am I creative at naming our inanimate objects, as also seen here).

His big gaping mouth is actually quite pretty when spilling over with blooms. Sort of reminds me of the cartoon fish in the “Kiss the Girl” segment of “The Little Mermaid” – You know, the ones that open their mouths to reveal a school of tiny singing and dancing fish inside? Well we don’t have any schools of theatrical fish for you, but we do have some lovely flowers to show off.

John and I picked up these two pots of pansies at the grocery store for under $10, planning to fill Mr. Frog’s wide-open jaws with them.

Time for the rest of the supplies:

  • Potting soil
  • Gardening gloves
  • Trowel

For some, properly filling a planter isn’t rocket science – But I actually had quite a time with it. So much so that my mother, who was coming over to help with wedding crafts at the time, had to take the project on for me as I stood over her shoulder trying to get the steps down mentally for the future. From what I could gather, this is what you need to do:

  1. Fill your planter with potting soil, and a lot of it – The more soil the better.
  2. Use your hands to shift some of the soil to the back and/or sides of the planter to make room for your flowers.
  3. Remove flowers from their temporary containers (if they came in plastic pots, just squeeze the sides a few times all the way around, tip over and they should come out intact).
  4. Nestle the flowers+roots into the space dug out of your potting soil and gently push down into the space. It’s okay to be kind of rough with the roots to make them fit since they’ll grow back to adjust to their new space.
  5. Fill in with more potting soil around the flowers and water according to the tag’s instructions.

After admiring Mr. Frog and his new blooms, we trekked out front to situate him amongst his live-in green neighbors. As you can see, our bushes are a little worse for wear – They seem awfully threadbare to me. We are just coming out of winter, but do you guys have any suggestions for weak-looking bushes? Are they worth keeping? We have landscapers come out and take care of our lawn and plants every few weeks, so I’m quietly hoping that they will do something about it…

On a happy note, isn’t Mr. Frog looking oh-so-happy with his new flowers greeting passers-by and visitors?

Any tips for sprucing up an outdoor space would be vastly appreciated. I think everyone has a certain aspect of their home that they just don’t know where to begin – This is mine. It’s possibly the only project list that I would happily outsource to a willing professional or friend. Help!

P.S. In an effort to purge some things from the house, I’ve decided to sell a few pieces of furniture. I wanted to throw out the offer to our locals (or willing near-locals who don’t mind traveling) first before Craig’s listing things or taking them to a consignement shop. Here is the short list in case anyone’s interested:

Two mid-century office chairs: $50 for the pair

Retro queen bed frame (mattress/box spring not included): $150

Grass cloth/wooden arm chair (pillow not included): $45

(If anyone is interested in the upholstered vanity bench, let me know – I might be persuaded to part with that too)

Solid wood nightstand with drawer and lower shelf, recently revamped: $50

If you are interested, email me at DreamGreenDIY@gmail.com (or if a friend of ours, just shoot me a text or Facebook message).

Hope you have a great Wednesday!

Filed Under: DIY Projects, Simple Fixes, How-To, Curb Appeal Tagged With: , , , , ,

Pinspiration Monday: Wedding sign

April 9, 2012 4 Comments

Only 19 days to go until the big day!!

With our wedding right around the corner, I am in “go” mode with all of the little details we still need to get done. There are a few more crafts that I want to finish up before April 28th, but luckily I was able to wrap up a few and call them DONE over the weekend. Today’s post will focus on a reclaimed pallet wood sign that I had my dad build for me. I’ve seen sweet little rustic wedding signs all over Pinterest when searching DIY wedding crafts, and knew that I just had to try it out for myself.

Source: Unknown

Source: True Connection (via Etsy)

Source: Southern Weddings

Sometime last year, John and I managed to snag some weathered pallet wood with big plans to use it in a neat way. Search “pallet wood” on Pinterest and you are bound to see miles-worth of scrollable projects using this inexpensive, pre-distressed wood. Unfortunately, no one aptly explained just how difficult it is to use. I don’t know if it was just our pallets or what, but the wood was nearly impossible to dismantle from the structure and kept breaking/splintering apart. We managed to save one slab of wood before John and I both gave up and took the rest of the pallet to the dump.

With that one little piece of wood in hand, I finally decided that it would be perfect for a weathered, rustic wedding sign – One with a little arrow to direct guests to the reception venue. So I asked my dad to cut the piece of wood in half and attach it to a stake, which is exactly what he did:

Alas, I forgot to mention that I actually wanted the weathered, darker side to be the front of the sign rather than the brighter, fresh-looking side. Here’s the sign flipped around so that you can see the more rustic edge on the back. You can probably notice the darker, almost gray coloration from sitting in the sun and rain for who knows how long. Love those rusty nail heads peeking through too.

So I bit the bullet and decided to flip the wood slats. I did mess up my dad’s beautifully calculated drill holes by flipping the wood around, but it’s still nice and steady in the end. Sorry dad!

Next, I needed to figure out what to write on the sign…I would have loved to put something like “Waller/Williams Wedding” or something descriptive, but I didn’t really have that much room. The wooden slat, once cut in half to create a rectangular sign big enough for writing, was only about a foot and a half across – Not a huge amount of space, and definitely not enough for a long cutesy phrase. So I opted for short and sweet and decided to write one single word across the sign: Wedding.

Not wanting to risk ruining the sign with a typo or botched design, I grabbed some black paint and a sheet of extra paper to practice. I painted the word both in print and in cursive and then asked the opinion of my sister who was in town for Easter. She immediately voted for print, so print it was.

I went slowly during this phase and did my best to take in the entire space visually while painting the words. I wanted to be sure I had enough room, so I just kept looking beyond the letter I was painting to envision the entire word on the sign. Somehow, I managed to fit the whole word and it seems pretty centered too.

Beneath the word, I painted on a simple arrow pointing to the left. My sister and I debated about which way to point the arrow since I’m not entirely sure where this sign will go, but my gut was telling me to make it go to the left so that’s where it went.

After painting another layer of white paint over each word and the arrow for a nice saturated color, we were all done.

I can’t wait to be able to share photos of all of these little crafts I’ve done once they are all situated and in-place at the wedding. Between this project, this project, this project and today’s post, I know it’s a little difficult to see how it will all come together, so I’ll definitely share the wedding photos once we get them back. Then you can truly see my vision.

Hope everyone enjoyed a lovely Easter weekend!

Filed Under: DIY Projects, Inspiring, Our Wedding, Simple Fixes, Weekly Pinspiration Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

How to fix a leaning candle

April 4, 2012 4 Comments

Like any gal, I’m a fan of candle-lit dinners. Stricking a match on two tapered candles at our dining room table can easily turn a normal meal into a special one, and we are all about making cheap meals at home seem like a date night out in this economy. We always have a little collection of them acting as a centerpiece at our kitchen table, but they were recently upgraded to the two lovely brass ones seen below – They came from my parents’ house after mom read my “Love of brass” post (seen here).

Heralding from one of my family’s top vacation spots, Colonial Williamsburg, these lovely candle holders elevate the entire look of the space. Even though they are a taaaaaaad traditional for our tastes, I think the rest of the vintage-mod room (plate wall, modern table and rug) balance them out.

But we had one small problem…

One of the tapered candle sticks I squeezed into the new brass holder just wouldn’t stand upright. When we were growing up, I remember my mom used to remedy this issue with a wad of plastic wrap twisted around the very base of the candle. It seemed to work for her, but I’ve never been able to get it just so. Instead, I devised my own little trick.

The only supply required for this project is a roll of masking tape – I think I used a fairly thin roll, maybe ½ an inch thick.

To begin, you stick the end of the tape to the bottom of the candle stick and get to wrapping. Once it’s started, you can pretty much stick your hand through the roll and wheel it quickly around and around the candle stick – The tape will unwind from the spool while simultaneously winding right onto the candle.

After you’ve gotten it to the right thickness, break the tape – You might need to play around with it based on how much wiggle room you have within the candle holder. Below you’ll see the bit of extra width added to the candle stick from the tape. I actually ended up putting too much on and the candle wouldn’t go into the new brass holder at all…But I just unwound a few lengths until it fit snugly.

No more lean! I suppose, more than a looks thing, a leaning/loose candle could also pose a fire hazard – So I guess I killed two birds with one stone.

Oh, and in case you were wondering, you won’t have to worry about seeing the tape as long as you use one with a thin width. The candle with the wrapping on it is the one to the right in the photo below – No tape to be seen, even from an aerial view!

I think this calls for a fancy date night candle-lit dinner at home! Anyone have a good recipe to try out? Send us some links!!

Before I leave you…I was able to snap this quick photo of Rocky the dog who was keeping me company during my candle project. Isn’t he a doll??

Hope you have a great Wednesday!!

Filed Under: DIY Projects, How-To, Kitchen, Simple Fixes Tagged With: , , , , ,
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