What have I been doing (Decorating edition)... dots and M in the living room!!!

I have had a couple people ask me if I made this "picture" or if I bought this... and of course, I made it!!  And I will tell you how... I took pictures at each step, but for some reasons only the first couple pictures showed up... I have no idea where the other pictures are!!!

The board is a wooden plaque with rounded edges that is sold by Uppercase Living.  It is a raw wood plaque and I picked up my best friend Oil Rubbed Bronze spray paint and spray painted that plaque and a wooden "M" that I bought at Hobby Lobby a long time ago.  While those were drying I took my Stampin' Up! 1-3/4" circle punch and punched out 10 circles of about 10 different designs of scrapbook paper.  Then I took my second best friend spray adhesive and started applying circles to the plaque.  I tried not to have any of the same design right next to each other...

After I let the circles dry, I used my "durable steel construction" straight edge and an exacto knife to cut the excess edges off...

Now here is where the pictures disappear so you have to use your imagination... I liked the way it looked with one layer of circles, but there was a lot of the oil rubbed bronze color coming out between the circles so the "M" having the same color didn't really pop.  So I decided to put another layer of circles covering the little triangles in between the circles (does that even make sense?!?!)

After I finished applying a whole lot of circles, I let the spray adhesive dry, then trimmed the excess edges again, then I applied a layer of matte Mod Podge over the circles.  After it dried, I used E6000 adhesive to apply the wooden "M".  

I LOVE it!!!!

Candlestick-y things...

So my neighbor used to be a consultant for Southern Living at Home.  She recently decided to end her consultant-ship (is that a word?), and was selling off all her inventory on hand at rock-bottom prices, so I bought a few things from her like two of these candlestick-y things...

 

 So, when I got them from my neighbor, I really liked the color, but then I placed them in my living room and I decided I didn't really like the color anymore.  So, I decided to spray paint them!!  The glass "jar" part is permanently attached to to the base.  Step 1: tape off the glass so no paint gets on it...

 Next: Cover the top of the glass with wax paper and tape it down securely so paint won't get inside the "jar".

The next step is to sand off all the current paint and rough up the base so the spray paint will stick to it... in this picture you can see the difference... the one on the left has been sanded, the one on the right has not yet been sanded...

The next step is to spraypaint... my only question was, "what color?"  I debated for a long time and then because our living room is a pretty dark grayish-green and our furniture is chocolate brown, and we have a white fireplace and white trim and white blinds...

So I decided to paint them white to bring some of the white off the walls into the center of the room...

 I used Rustoleum White Satin and a Rustoleum Matte Clear coat.

I decided to fill it with some orange-y pebbles that I had stored in my guestroom closet until last week!!  I will probably also get some candles to go in there too, but I didn't have any of those laying around...

 Here's what they look like on the coffee table in front of the love seat!  I LUVVVV them!!!

A Quick Decorating Project...

I realized that I have never blogged about re-painting the main floor 1/2 bath.  About ummmm... 8 years ago I think, I found the directions for this beautiful faux finish.  I used a dark green, a light green, a white and a metallic copper paint sponged on the entire wall.  It sounds weird and this picture does not do it

 justice, but it was really pretty.  The room is pretty small with no windows, so very dark (that's why the picture is so bad).  Because the room is so dark and the overall tone of the paint was so dark, the room seemed TINY!!!

So I decided to paint it a soft grey color, and it turned out so pretty!!!  And the room looks HUGE now!!  Here is a picture of the wall color.  The shelves there are a CD stand that I bought 8 years ago at Pier 1.  It used to be silver, but I spray painted it oil rubbed bronze so it would pop a bit against the grey color.  The silver just blended in.  I got this idea to use the CD stand for shelves from a friend and neighbor!  The shelves are the perfect size for toilet paper rolls and rolled towels and a vase on top!!

Ok, so now to the art project.  When cleaning out my cabinets for the cabinet refinishing project, I found this little basket thingy.  I think it was a wedding gift that came with a casserole dish.  I found it in the cabinet above the fridge, I don't think I have EVER used it for anything before so I decided it would work perfectly as a little decorative "tray" to sit on the back of the toilet in the 1/2 bathroom.

So, I spray painted it with the same oil rubbed bronze spray paint that I painted the CD shelves.  I did 2 coats of the bronze and then a coat of a clear matte finish layer, and here's what we ended up with...

I love the way it turned out.  I haven't quite decided what to fill it with, but right now it has 2 rolled towels that I had previously.  I haven't quite decided what color scheme I'm going to go with...

Although I did find this color scheme on Pinterest, and I love it so I think I'm going to use this for the 1/2 bath, but you know it's always up for discussion.

Source: http://design-seeds.com/index.php/home/entry/feathered-brights2

I figure the walls are the top color and the oil rubbed bronze is pretty close to the bottom color and the old towels I have are pretty close to the 2nd color, so we are already over halfway there!!!

I'd love to hear what you think about this color combination...

What I've been doing lately...

Well I think in the last 2 days, I have had 4 different people ask me if I was ever going to blog again!  I was pleasantly surprised (and happy!).  I didn't realize that anyone really cared all that much about what kinds of crafty things I've been doing and what kinds of books I've been reading, but I guess there are a few who do, so I'll come back!!!

Ok, so what have I been doing??  Ok this little "story" has many steps that all inter-relate so I will try to keep it brief!!  We used to store all our luggage under our master bed, but it was really crowded under there, and our bed is really tall so when you walked in the room you could see some of the stuff under the bed and no matter how nicely and neatly organized the luggage was, it still just looked junky, so I started looking for a new place to put all the luggage.  I came up with the guestroom closet.  Perfect!!!  Right?!?!?!

Well the guestroom and it's closet were completely full of supplies for different projects that I am either in the middle of or planning to do (the husband calls it my staging area!).  So in order to get the luggage into the closet, I had to clean out the guestroom.  This whole process took about a week!  I took about 4 rubbermaids full of stuff to Goodwill (mostly old kids clothes, etc.).  Then I had to find a place for all my project supplies, so the only room currently not really being used in our house was the dining room, so I moved everything from the guestroom to the dining room.  This took about a week!!

So here are the pictures for this fun project...  The first is the current view under our bed... it's empty and clean!!!

 This is the picture of our guestroom closet... see all the luggage??

 And I really can't believe I am showing you this picture, but this is the current state of my dining room table, with all my projects in process and waiting to start on just hanging out on the table!!

Alright, let's move on to books!!  I just finished reading this book...

 It was fabulous as all of Adriana Trigiani's books are... I highly recommend them if you are looking for something medium to read (by medium I mean, not light and fluffy chick lit, and not dark deep thriller).

The 7 year old and I are reading this book together...

I absolutely LOVE Beverly Cleary.  I think she's a fabulous author, and the 7 year old seems to like this one too.  I read the pages on the left and he reads the pages on the right!!

So what else have I been up to... a little bit of this (although not as much as I should do)...

 quite a bit of this...

 and this...

 a bit of this, although the 7 year old says I don't know how to build with K'nex very well, so maybe I should just let him do it!!

 and yes, I have renewed my relationship with this guy...

While cleaning out the guestroom closet, I found this guy that I had made when I was still a consultant for Uppercase Living...

 so I hung him up here (this would be the boys' bathroom...

And lastly, I finally got my kitchen put back in order, and I've had a ton of people asking to see pictures of the completed project so here you go...

I love it!  I think it's beautiful!  So that's what I've been up to lately!  I will try not to make it so long before I post again!!  Thanks for reading!!

What have I been doing... (Decorating/Home Improvement edition)...

So, I know all my faithful blog readers have been waiting with great anticipation to know what the big project is that I'm working on that requires many layers of spray paint.  We built our house 10 years ago and when we did that, everyone put in brass doorknobs and accessories.  Like those in the picture below... and they are ugly (in my opinion).  We priced out how much it would be to get all new door fixtures and with over 22 doors it was going to cost a lot!!  So I decided to spray paint them all!!!  It's actually a really easy process, there's just a lot of waiting time in between each layer and you have to completely take the entire door off the frame!!

Here are the steps to spray painting your doorknobs.
1.) Gather your supplies... screwdriver, hammer, sanding paper or pads, primer, paint, clear coat (optional), styrofoam, dowels boxes.  I am using the Rust-oleum Oil Rubbed Bronze paint with clean metal primer in white.

 2.) Remover the door from the frame, and remove all the hardware from the door.  If you've never removed a doorknob before, you may want to google "removing doorknob" because it can be a tiny bit tricky.  You also need to clean all the hardware after removing it from the door.  I usually have a bucket of soapy water and just toss each piece in as I remove it.  Let each piece dry completely.

 3.) You need to fully sand every area of each piece of hardware.  I use 150 grit sand paper or sanding pads.  You don't need to fully scratch off all the brass, you just need to rough up the surface so the spray paint will adhere.  You can see in this picture the difference between the sanded and the unsanded (sanded knob and hinge are on the left, unsanded on the right).

 4.) Now this is where technique can differ.  I usually save some styrofoam from packaging boxes and put all the screws upright in the styrofoam.  I also put dowels in and "hang" the doorknobs on the dowels, so if you do have any drips they will drip right off instead of staying on the knob.  I put on one coat of primer, follow the directions letting it dry then flip the hinges over and turn the knobs and put on a coat of primer onto the areas that didn't make the first pass through.

 5.) After the primer has dried (follow the directions on the spray paint), complete the same process with the your main paint color.  I usually do 2 total coats of the color so for 1 hinge it would be coat 1 side A, then coat 1 side B, then coat 2 side A, then coat 2 side B, being sure to let the paint dry as directed on the directions for the spray paint.

 6.) AFter this step, you can also add a clear coat if you want, on my first knob that I completed, I did put on the clear coat, but it dulled the colored finish so I don't think I'm going to put on the clear coat anymore.  Once everything is all dried, just reattach all the hardware back to the door and here's what you will end up with...

As promised... (Decorating edition)...

As promised yesterday, here is a picture of the Ballard Designs-inspired artwork on my dining room  wall... the wall is huge so I will definitely be adding some more things...

Hope you like it!!  I had several people say they were going to give this project a try... definitely email me, text me, call me if you have any questions and when you are finished, send me a picture!!!!

What have I been doing... (Decorating edition)...

So I actually finished this project about a week ago, but with everything we have had going on I haven't been able to post it.  So I am completely obsessed with Pinterest (if you are not a member, just send me an email or a comment and I will send you an invite!!)

So here is the picture that I originally pinned on Pinterest (from the Knock Off Decor Blog).  

The original artwork is from Ballard Designs although you can't find the original picture online, but I saw this and thought, I can so do that myself.  So here's what I did...

1.) Bought a canvas from Hobby Lobby

2.) Paint around the edges of the canvas with a chocolate brown acrylic paint.

3.) Went to Home Depot (several times) and helped myself to some free paint chips.  I picked colors that I liked that I knew would coordinate together as well as coordinate with the wall color in my dining room.

4.) Cut all the paint chips into 3"x3" squares... use algebra to figure out how many squares you need (or just cut a whole lot a couple times until you have enough).

5.) Lay out your squares on your canvas as you like.  I just randomly set them down and made sure that no 2 adjoining squares were the exact same color.  I tried to space out the really deep colors randomly.

6.) Pick up your squares (trying really hard to keep them in order).  Using a spray adhesive, spray the back of 5-6 squares and adhere them to the canvas using a credit card (or your pampered chef pan scraper) to smooth the squares.  

**  Here is where I differed a bit from the Knock Off Decor art... I didn't want mine completely lined up exactly so I kind of made mine a little wonky (on purpose)! 

7.) After all of your squares are adhered, slap on a layer of Mod Podge (I used matte finish).  You want to be sure to put a thick layer on and be sure there are brush strokes throughout your layer.

8.) Complete step 7 twice more (that's right 3 layers of Mod Podge).  I did my first layer with vertical brush strokes, the second layer with horizontal, and the last layer with vertical brush strokes again.  Be sure the Mod Podge completely dries between each layer before you put on the next layer.

9.) Once the third layer of Mod Podge is completely dry, apply a layer of wood stain over all the squares, then remove with a soft cloth.  The darker the stain, the better... I used dark walnut.  

10.) Once the first layer of stain is dry, repeat step 9.

11.) Once the final layer of stain is dry and you are happy with the brown streaks throughout, apply one last layer of Mod Podge.  

12.) Hang up where you like!!

Here is my finished picture... and for some reason the photo of it hanging on my dining room wall won't upload, and it is too dark to take a picture right now.  I will post a picture tomorrow morning of how the artwork looks hanging in the dining room... I love it!!!!  I hope it inspires you!!

What I have done... (Home Improvement Edition)...

As promised a while ago, I mentioned I was shaving down the doors for the rooms I tiled.  I am finally almost finished.  It really shouldn't have taken this long, but it's a boring project so I kept putting it off!!  I know you don't really want to see pictures of me shaving down doors so here is only one...

 Now I will show you my finished tiling projects... The first one is the boys' bathroom.  This one had linoleum to begin with and it now has ceramic tile...

 The second one is the master bathroom which originally had carpet... ooohhh gross!!  Carpet never belongs in a bathroom (especially in a house with the majority of boys) in my opinion.

 And the last is the dining room.  It originally had carpet, which I don't like in a dining room either.  Sorry about the poor quality of the picture.  It's had to get good lighting in there and the white grid-like thing is the under-rug anti-slipping thing.  I rolled it and the carpet up and it fell right as I was taking the pictures.  The green squares are glass tiles so there were 3 different sizes/types of tile in this room.

Enjoy! and I will be back with several more posts today!!!

What I have done today... Ongoing DIY Home Improvement Project

So if you followed my old blog, you know that I went a little tiling crazy a few months ago.  I tiled the master bathroom, the boys' bathroom and the dining room.  I love tiling!

So in the boys' bathroom and the master bathroom, there are 3 doors that now won't shut because the tile/rug is taller than what the vinyl/rug were.  So my ongoing project (which is in no way a fun one!!) is to "shave" down the bottom of the doors so all doors will be fully functioning!!!

I'm almost done with the first one... it's taking a lot longer than I thought it would!

I will post pictures of all the tile jobs and the doors when I get them all finished!

What have I done today (11/11/11)... DIY project edition

Ok, so I technically finished this yesterday but didn't have a chance to blog about it... so here it goes...

I bought this bowl somewhere (can't remember where) about a year ago on clearance for $.99.  It is a black metal bowl and I like the roundness of the edges in my very straight line living room.  This bowl has been sitting empty for about a year now, so I decided it was time to do something about it!

So I went looking for something to put in my pretty little bowl and came up with nothing!  I found some hemp/jute balls that would have looked great but since the bowl is pretty big in size I would have had to buy 2 packages of them for a total of $42... what?!?!?!?

So I went to Hobby Lobby and bought a 2 bags of assorted size styrofoam balls... $1.99 each (with a coupon), a skein of jute from Home Depot for $2.67, Mod Podge (that I owned previously from Hobby Lobby), and a foam applicator ($.10 at Michael's with a coupon).  I did end up using some brown spray paint that I had laying around, but more about that in a second.

So all you do is saturate a spot on the styrofoam ball with Mod Podge and start slowly winding the jute around the ball, very EASY but very Time Consuming and very very STICKY!!  Just keep adding ModPodge and jute until the ball is covered.

So I did that small one in the picture first, then did one of the big balls (hee hee... yes I have the sense of humor of a 5 grade boy!!)  Because of the size and the slightly uneven shape of the styrofoam, there ended up being some gaps in between some of the lines of jute which showed through white and looked a little weird.

I grabbed some old brown spray paint I had sitting in my dining room (isn't that where you store your old paint?) and put a light layer of brown paint on the remaining styrofoam balls and then proceeded to cover them with jute so on the other big balls (hee hee) where there are the small gaps the brown shows through.  So here is the finished project...

I LOVE the way it looks!!  Leave a comment and let me know what you think!!!