All in the details…

May 23, 2012 6 Comments

Now that my mind is no longer consumed by our wedding, I’ve had a lot of time to think about other parts of my life. As you now know (down to the last painful detail), I’m focusing a lot of my mental energy on coming up with ways to balance the facets of my life (husband, blog, career, me-time). But I think another big part of brainstorming and restructuring is meditation – i.e. sitting back and NOT thinking. Sometimes my most creative ideas have come to me in moments of complete and utter relaxation. In fact, my best time for constructive thought is in bed as I’m falling asleep – Although this also has its drawbacks as I’ve been known to forget my “genius” ideas come morning…

The point is, a few positive changes I could be making to my life have “come to me” recently in moments of quiet reflection and I am excited to put them into play. One such change (or really ADDITION) happens to deal with the blog and I’m unveiling it to the world today!

Welcome to the newest feature on DreamGreenDIY: All in the details.

After getting an exciting response from last week’s “My top 20 most inspiring spaces” post, I decided to continue focusing on those spaces (and then some). I’ll be breaking down the elements of each room that work and why. It’ll give all of us a chance to really analyze what makes good design good and maybe help us hone in on what we can do in our own spaces to take it up a notch.

I hope that you guys will be part of this new feature by commenting away with your own thoughts on what makes these details work.

Source

First up, we have this gorgeous mid-century mod space complete with vintage details, pops of color and a great mix of textures.

THE COUCH

This couch could very well be the thing that makes this room such an inspiration for me. The shape is a perfect blend of 1970′s mod with contemporary textiles and finishes. If you want your living space to feel modern, the quickest way to get the look is with a sofa devoid of curves. Sure, curvaceous seating can read as modern with a good balance of sharp accessories and art, but getting it “just so” takes time. The sleek look of this sofa is contemporary to a “T.” And we can’t talk about the couch without mentioning the color. Coral is one of the “it” colors this season, but it’s also a great take on a neutral – At least it CAN be, when done like this. It’s pale and soft so as not to punch you in the face when you lay eyes on it, but against white walls it still serves as a great pop of a focal point.

THE ART

This is another one of those things that can be a bit tricky to get right. A vintage art gallery wall (when done well) is a great way to give an eclectic feel to a room. The idea is to collect mismatched prints and paintings and stagger them on a wall, as though thrown together. It can tone down a potentially formal space and is a great way to put that pile of unhung art in your closet to good use.

TABLETOP BOOKS

You guys know I love decorating with books (as seen here and here and probably a dozen other places I’m forgetting at the moment). I think it’s safe to say that we all have books lying around our houses, so why not put them to good use? They add color, like in this case, but don’t end up crowding a surface since they still offer a landing pad for things like your coffee mug of favorite owl trinket. Here, the stack of books is topped with an equally functional box, great for stowing away a remote or pack of playing cards.

THE TEXTURES

This space is a great study in mixing textures. From the heather finish on the couch and high pile shag rug, to the woven throw and fur accent pillow…It just goes to show that there’s nothing scary about mixing texture – If you are afraid to go bold blending colors, try mixing up the textures (in a single color) instead. All rooms need a little dimension and you can easily create it with texture.

Feel free to weigh in with your own thoughts in the comments section and take a look at all of my inspiring spaces here.

Filed Under: All in the details, How-To, Inspiring, Living Room, Our Influences 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: , , , , ,

My top 20 most inspiring spaces

May 16, 2012 10 Comments

Whether we mean to or not, our homes are influenced by something. Could be taken from a favorite television show or maybe the magazines you flip through, but it’s inevitable that bits and pieces of visual fluff will infiltrate your psyche and affect the way you structure your home. This isn’t rocket science and I know I’ve talked about it upteen times, both here on DreamGreenDIY and in my guest posting for Breathe Magazine. Yet, even though this information is nothing new to you, I think it’s a good exercise to look back on the most recent influences if, for no other reason, to see how tastes and tendencies have changed.

In honor of the eye candy I’ve saved up over the past year as an obsessed a faithful member of Pinterest, I am sharing with you all today my top 20 inspiring spaces. In no particular order, I invite you to feast your eyes on the looks, rooms and interiors that get my heart pumping and my planning mind working in overtime. I’d love to hear your take on my style and how you might characterize it (ala Emily Henderson – “Tuscan Modern,” “Southern Romance Meets Scottish Country Charm,” “Modern Urban Beach,” etc.).

Prepare to drool.

Source: decor8

Source: Mint

Source: Breakfast at Toast

Source: Kireei

Source:  Glitter Guide

Source: we <3 it

Source: BHG

Source: Schoolhouse Electric & Supply Co.

Source: Design Sponge

Source: HGTV

Source: M Street

Source: Yellow Brick Home

Source: The Marion House Book

Source: Style by Emily Henderson

Source: The Borrowed Abode

 

Source: Decorology

Source: Flickr

Source: The Inspired Room

 

Source: Unknown

 

Source: Style by Emily Henderson

If I were to give myself a style diagnostic based on those images, I think I’d call my style “Mid-century Eclectic.” What do you think?

For more on spaces that inspire me, click here for my full “Inspirational Spaces/Colors” board on Pinterest.  And feel free to share links to your own inspirational spaces (your own or someone elses) in the comments section. Let’s share our room daydreams…

Filed Under: Inspiring, 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: , , , , , , , ,

Pinspiration Monday (a day late): DIY Paper Bunting Flag

May 9, 2012 6 Comments

This is the story of a very tired girl…She was a week and a half away from her wedding day, scrambling to get the last few projects out of the way. “I’d love to have a beautiful, whimsical bunting flag to hang as decoration, but where oh where am I going to find the time to cut and sew multiple little fabric flags??!” she lamented to herself. It was a terrible, terrible predicament to be in. But hark! What’s this?! A knight in shining armor that went by the name of “Pinterest” galloped to the rescue and saved the poor tired bride from expending her last little bit of energy on one final project!! The solution was presented and the day was saved…The end.

Source: A Subtle Revelry 

The magical solution? Instead of wasting hours and hours on cutting, hemming, sewing and stringing a dozen little triangles of fabric to a line, I was inspired to simplify into paper triangles. Eliminating the need to sew was the biggest time-saver and it gave me the motivation I needed to knock this last little project off of my mental to-do list. (I do apologize for the quality of the photos in this post…I started the project late in the afternoon of a rainy day, so there was little natural light to speak of)

Supplies:

  • Scrapbooking paper
  • Twine
  • Hot glue gun and glue stick refills
  • Wooden clothespins
  • A pen
  • Ruler
  • Scissors

First of all, I needed a template – A thick paper triangle to use as my guide for all of the little triangle “flags” I would cut out. I didn’t have any thick cardstock on hand, but I did have the back of my scrapbook paper book, which just so happened to be made of thick cardboard.

To make my flag template, I used the ruler as a straightedge and just eye-balled it. The top of the flag was shorter than the two sides. It’s not exactly perfect, but I didn’t really need it to be – You all know by now that organic is A-OK by my standards.

Then it was just a matter of cutting out my flags. I used this scrapbooking paper scrap that I had on hand as a guinea pig of sorts, just to see if the project would actually work. I  flipped the scrapbook paper over, used the pen to draw around the template and then cut it out. To my glee, it worked like a charm.

Now to cut out a dozen or so more…I wanted the bunting line to be as colorful as possible, so I didn’t bother trying to find pages that necessarily matched. I wanted vibrancy, pattern and texture – I think I managed to achieve that with my selection. Goodness gracious, I LOVE scrapbooking paper!

Fast forward twenty-five minutes or so, and we were all done with the flag portion of the project.

Next, I needed to attach them to some kind of a string. To continue the organic, garden-y feel of the piece, I used plain natural twine. To attach the paper flags, I flipped the flags over, ran a thin line of hot glue at the top and gently settled the twine into the gooey adhesive.

Using the ruler to measure out approximately an inch, I grabbed my next paper flag and ran another line of hot glue at the top and attached that to the twine – And so on and so forth…

Flipping the string over and seeing all of the pretty colors and patterns work with one another down the line, I started to get really giddy…

But I wasn’t done yet. To finish off the bunting, I took a cue from my Pinspiration image and clipped a wooden clothespin to the center of each paper flag – It obviously serves more of a decorative purpose since the hot glue is what actually holds the flag to the line, but again, it’s that little styling that gives it the casual look I was going for.

Sorry to make you guys wait for the actual “After” photo of the line decorating the reception venue, but I’ll be sure to update you once we get the wedding photos back from our (AMAZING) photographer. Stay tuned!

Filed Under: DIY Projects, How-To, Seasonal/Holiday, Wedding, Weekly Pinspiration Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Guest Post: Keep things balanced

May 2, 2012 Leave a Comment

Good morning! Hope you are enjoying a wonderful week. Who knows what we are up to at this moment…Could be lounging on beach chairs by the pool, or maybe even floating over to the swim-up bar for a drink. Heck, we MIGHT even be sprawled out on one of the canopy beds on our private beach, ordering margaritas! Whatever the case, I am missing you guys and the blog…Luckily, I know you are in capable hands. Today, Lisa of SpareFoot Storage Finder is spilling the beans on keeping your home organized and beautiful this season.

Top Three Ways to De-Clutter Your Home

You can own a lot of attractive things, but those things won’t look good if you’re home is cluttered. De-cluttering isn’t always incredibly simple, though, especially if you’ve let things pile up in your home for a while. If your clutter situation is a little out of control, don’t worry. There are things you can do to salvage your home from disorganization and chaos. Here are some tips to help you organize your living space and minimize what you own:

Let Go

You don’t need two blenders in case one of them breaks, and you don’t need a pirate costume you wore on Halloween when you were a senior in college. If you’re holding on to things you simply don’t need or won’t use in the near future, consider letting those things go. Go through each of the rooms of your home and make piles of everything you want to keep and everything you don’t need. Donate what you won’t need any time soon to a good cause, give it to your sister, or find a way to recycle it.

Stow Away

Your living space simply may not be big enough for you to showcase all of your favorite paintings, furniture and decorations. However, you may not want to get rid of these things. If this is the case, turn to your closets and garage and try to store what you can there. If you have a bunch of antique furniture you don’t want to part with, consider storing the furniture in a self-storage unit until you move into a bigger place. There’s no reason for everything you own to be on display, especially if the space in your home is limited. So, stow what you can away and out of sight.

Keep Things Balanced

Having four coffee tables and one sofa in your living room doesn’t quite create the kind of balance you probably want in your home. Assess each of your rooms and look for things that disrupt the balance of the rooms. We’re talking about extra things that just don’t quite “fit.” Once you identify the things that do disrupt the balance of the rooms in your home (such as the three extra coffee tables in your living room), take those things out. Put them in another room of your home, store them in your closets or garage or get rid of them.

Clearing out clutter requires physical effort and time, and it also requires mental and emotional effort. For a de-cluttering project to be successful, you have to get rid of things that might have sentimental value, and you have to commit to living a more simplistic, minimalistic lifestyle (if you want things to stay de-cluttered). Change isn’t always easy, but you’ll be surprised by how much the energy of your home is affected when you clear out the clutter. Chances are, you won’t ever want to go back to having a disorganized, cluttered home again.

Lisa is a guest blogger who writes about getting the most out of a small living space, home organization, and storage units, including storage units in Colorado Springs and storage units in McAllen.

Check back on Friday for our final guest poster, Jessi of Bee Rooted (gushed about here for her invaluable help with my own diet routine) – She’ll be sharing her top three tips for incorporating healthy eating into your busy lifestyle. 

(Photo credit for “Just let it go”: here; garage storage: here; balanced living room: here)

Filed Under: Bathroom, Bedroom, DIY Projects, How-To, Inspiring, Kitchen, Living Room, Simple Fixes Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Pinspiration Monday (Guest Post): DIY burlap-wrapped candle holder

April 30, 2012 8 Comments

Good morning and happy Monday to you! John and I are catching a plane to our tropical honeymoon destination as you read this – Wish me luck as this is my first time flying and I’m sure my nerves are a bit frayed…Can’t wait to share all of the wild stories, which I’m sure we are bound to fill up on. In the meantime, we have Amanda of Bullfrogs and Bulldogs here today to share a precious DIY craft with you. Enjoy!

Hello! I’m Amanda from over at Bullfrogs and Bulldogs and I am so excited to be guest posting today while Carrie is off on her HONEYMOON! A big congrats to you two, Carrie and John!

I’d love for you to stop by my place and say “hi” sometime! You can find me here or on facebook, twitter and pinterest as well!

Despite our mutual love of budget friendly decorating and thrift store hunting, Carrie and I actually have something else in common. She just got married and I am on my way to the alter in just about two weeks! So, in the spirit of love, today I’m here to share my super easy (and super inexpensive) DIY Burlap Love Votive Candle Holder inspired by something I saw on Pinterest a few weeks ago.

Source: Gilt Groupe

Instead of the numbers, which I may have to do down the road, I decided to stencil the word “L.O.V.E” because well, right now there is a lot of celebrating of just that very thing going around!

So here you have it! Enjoy!

How to make burlap love votive candle holders for yourself:

1. Find any votive candle holder that suits your fancy.

2. Get enough burlap (there are so many colors to choose from!) to cover the votive. Cut the burlap to fit your needs.

3. Use foam glue or some kind of clear glue to prime the edges of the burlap from fringing. I just used a paintbrush and literally painted it around the whole parameter.

4. Once I knew the look I wanted, I used masking tape as my stencil and created the lines and the lettering. Using a foam brush, I dabbed the paint on where it needed to go.

And viola! Here is the finished product!

I hope you are having the best time on your honeymoon, Carrie and John!

Amanda is the blogger behind Bullfrogs & Bulldogs, a personal account of her transition from living in the city to living a more sustainable life with her fiance on the family vineyard and farm.  Amanda’s blog is full of storytelling, beautiful photos of the farm and its many furry friends, vegan/gluten-free recipes and DIY projects – All elements that keep me coming back from more! Bullfrogs and Bulldogs can be found here, here, here, and here.

Stay tuned Wednesday for a guest post from Lisa of SpareFoot Storage Finder – She’ll be sharing her tips on achieving an organized, balanced home.

Filed Under: DIY Projects, Gifts, Gluten-Free Lifestyle, How-To, Inspiring, Our Wedding, Weekly Pinspiration Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

One Word: Wedding

April 27, 2012 14 Comments

Good gracious!! Tomorrow I am getting married…Like any girl, I have been waiting for this day, dreaming about this day and praying for this day ever since I was little.

Life has thrown me some major curve balls along my journey to this moment, but I wouldn’t change it for the world. I’m the kind of person who has no regrets – Everything that has happened to me, good or bad has led me to this fate. I am marrying my very best friend tomorrow and, if that’s the culmination of my choices over my 26 years of life, then I’m happy to accept it all…I can’t wait!!

Although we will be jet setting to the tropics for a week-long honeymoon next week, I have made sure to line up some fun features via guest bloggers – You’ll get an adorable tutorial for fun burlap-wrapped candle holders, tips on organizing your home and ways to kick the excuses and get on track with a healthy diet (as long as my remote publication works as it should, that is – Not sure if we’ll have internet access to double check…). I hope that you enjoy them.

See you in a week!!

  1. Source
  2. Source
  3. Source
  4. Source
  5. Source
  6. Source
  7. Source
  8. Source
  9. Source
  10. Source
  11. Source
  12. Source
Filed Under: Inspiring, One Word, Our Influences, Our Wedding, Weekly Pinspiration 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: , , , , , , , , ,
« Older Posts
Copyright © 2012 DreamGreenDIY.