Fantastic Basket

I used a natural color basket and painted it with Rust-Oleum satin moss green spray paint and then used a brown glaze to deepen the green color.  I painted a little frame in Espresso brown and added my favorite number which is 2.  I glued the frame to the basket several times because it just didn’t want to stay.  I think hot glue finally worked.  I have stuff in the bottom of the basket that isn’t cute like my husband’s glasses, pens, coupons, etc.  On top is the good stuff.  I have twine from the dollar store and upholstery piping that I didn’t use on my chair I recently reupholstered.  I rolled the piping into balls and I love the look of it.  I use the twine often so it is handy as well as decorative.  

 

 

 

Thanks for stopping by.

Decorating Rocks…literally

I have a wonderful friend that has a home in Long Island, New York.  I mentioned that I liked the rocks from the movie Something’s Gotta Give where Diane Keaton collects the white rocks off the beach, but never the black ones.  I loved the look of the rocks so she sent me some.  I had a little frame looking shadow box that would work perfectly to display my treasure.  It was dark wood so I painted it cream and then used a dry brush with burnt umber acrylic paint on the edges instead of sanding for a distressed look and I glazed it.  I also glazed the pot next to it for an antique look.  I used my favorite Folkart Plaid antiquing polish.  I found where it can be ordered if anyone is interested.  You can order it here:

http://www.hofcraft.com/plaidfolkartantiquingpolish.htm

I also tried to apply my new skills I learned at Donna’s Funky Junk Interiors

She is doing a series on how to take better photos.  The first lesson was to keep your camera still.  So here are my photos of my rocks while staying rock solid still.  I hope you enjoy.

 

 

 

 

Aren’t these rocks so pretty?  I love them.  She threw in a couple of black ones!

 

 

Here is a close up of the dry brushing with acrylic paint on the edges.

I think the photos look better.  I can’t wait to learn more.  This is shades of white that I think I got right. I am thinking of tackling a paint job on my potting bench in honor of spring.

Thanks for looking.

My Priceless Project This Week

Friday was my father in law’s 80th birthday.  We celebrated with a party for him today.  It was a lot of work, but the tears of joy in his eyes were worth it all.  Here he is with me, my son and husband. 

The Chair

I have been inspired.  I have always wanted to learn to reupholster.  I have read many blogs about it and I was ready to give it a try.  I grabbed the first chair I saw on Craigslist for $20. Our thrift stores are not so great.  They seem really high priced.  I am not so sure it was an awesome deal.  My husband went to pick it up for me at an orphanage. People donate things for them to sell.  He said he heard the lady in charge of selling the chair yelling yah whooooo as he walked away with my “bargain”.  He could hear her through the closed door. He thinks she was dancing too.  I am so grateful that not only did he pick it up for me, but  he also helped me remove most of the staples.  He has strong hands.  It is a tough job.  He used a screwdriver that he filed thinner on the end so it could slide under the staples and then he used pliers to pull out the ones that stayed stuck. 

So here is the “bargain” chair and here is my nice husband helping me out.

Doesn’t he look so happy!?!?!

So apparently the upholstery fabric  isn’t the original.  The lovely maroon was professionally done.  A cat did some handy work on the front of the chair by the legs. 

Here is the original fabric.

 

 

So I was feeling intimidated and scared.  Just look at it.  Doesn’t it scare you too?  I bought a drop cloth to use for the fabric because I didn’t want to invest much into my experiment.  I don’t think I would use it again.  It is kinda scratchy.  So the chair sat and sat and sat for 2 months.  Taunting me.  Making me feel like I  should list it back on Craigslist for free.  I couldn’t stand looking at it anymore and I had a little time off during Spring break. We had another blizzard in Texas.  So it was time to tackle the chair. I did it!  It isn’t beautiful, but it looks better than it did.  I am very proud of myself.  I learned a lot and I can now say that I know how to reupholster.  Here she is.

I don’t really have room for it so we are going to try it in my son’s room.  It sits in front of his armoire that has his television and video games in it.

 

I am regretting using the taupe cording.  I should have used off white.  My husband likes it.  It is staying for now.  My hands are very sore and tired.  I am not touching this chair for a long time.

Here are some other views.

I think I am the most proud of sewing the cushion cover.  I can whip up a pillow, but sewing a perfect fit for a cushion is not easy and takes a lot of thought.  I can’t even explain how I did it.  I just know I did.  Here is a close up.

And just to see what it would look like with a different throw pillow….

Thanks for sharing my proud moment with me. 

Linking up at

Making it for Monday @ Cottage Instinct

Motivate me Monday @ Keeping it Simple

Metamorphosis Monday @ Between Naps on the Porch

Just Something I Whipped Up @ The Girl Creative

DIY Day @ A Soft Place to Land

Trash To Treasure Tuesday @ Reinvented

Get Your Craft On @ Today’s Creative Blog

Show and Share Day @ Just a Girl

Whatever goes Wednesday @ Someday Crafts

Strut Your Stuff @ Somewhat Simple

Transformation Thursday @ The Shabby Chic Cottage

A Few of My Favorite Things Party

Feature Yourself Friday @ Fingerprints on the Fridge

Show and Tell @ The Romantic Home

Saturday Night Special @ Funky Junk Interiors

Weekend Wrap Up Party @ Tatertots and Jello

Best DIY Projects of March @ Beneath My Heart

My Chair was featured at:

Inspire My Saturday

Keeping it Simple

My fight with white.

I have loved all the white decorating in so many blogs.  Maybe everyone’s blog is  going white or so it seems.  I thought I would jump on the bandwagon. I learned  I had to jump right back off.  I tried to paint some things white a couple of weeks ago and ended up spending my limited free time repainting or replacing it all.  I just couldn’t  make it work for me.  The good news is I changed up some things that did work.  I covered some more books.  They are red and I like them, but I wanted a change.  If I want to change them back I don’t have to repaint!  I just have to uncover them.

Here is the before.

And the after.

I used some brown packaging paper and some cute bird stamps and a little acrylic brown paint to age them up a bit.

I messed up on one of the books and tried to take a short cut and just add a new strip of paper to the binding which you can tell in the photos, but not so much in person.  All of my little frames in the entertainment center got painted about 5 times last weekend.  First white, then aged white, then green ,the aged green then taupe with some gold highlights to make them back like they were before I started.  Some are green but they were painted from before  and looked ok.  Here is the whole entertainment center with our huge silver television (can you paint a television. ???) My husband was watching a movie when I took this photo.

One of my frames just couldn’t be fixed so I made a little wreath out of some boxwood greenery and a grapevine wreath to replace it.  I love it.

 

I also tried to paint a mirror and an art frame.  I could never fix those either so I had to go shopping.  I found a frame on clearance from one store and a mirror for half off at Hobby Lobby that have the same tone.  They go with the cherry wood tone on my furniture (that I almost painted but didn’t….so glad about that).

Here is my new art frame and I changed out the lamp shade.  It was a golden color.  I like the brown much better.  You can see the gold tone here and get instructions for covering books.

I almost forgot that I also painted 2 buffet lamps about 5 or 6 times during my white trial and error.  They had to be replaced too.  I decided to go with one table lamp instead.  Here is the new lamp and the new mirror.  I love adding  fuzzy trim to lamps.  It makes the shade more interesting.

Looks like 2 lamps because my floor lamp is reflecting in the mirror.  So I am sticking with the cherry tones and browns.  I guess I thought since I could make white work in my new guestroom that you can see here, that I could make it work anywhere.  Nope I can’t do it.

I wonder if I should be afraid of the chair I am trying to reupholster because it is white???  If it turns out ok,  it is going in my son’s room and it will have some navy blue accents to it.  I hope I can show you soon. 

Linking up to

Saturday night special at Funky Junk Interiors

Weekend wrap up party at Tater Tots and Jello

Not One But Two Bedroom Makeovers.

I redid my room several years ago, before I found blog world.  The room was a big transformation so I wanted to share about it.  I only have one before photo and I wish I had more, but the one photo shows how badly the room needed a change.  The walls were a dirty white flat paint when we bought the house.  In the before photo I had already painted the room a wheat color.  The furniture I had was pine in a box build it yourself from Sam’s Warehouse.  I had it before I got married and at the time whitewashing was a big thing.  So I built it and whitewashed it.  Then I moved and my new master bedroom was bigger and my furniture in a box was looking more like the children’s furniture and not like grown up furniture.  I tried painting it espresso brown.  It helped, but it was still not right. So I splurged and bought new furniture which meant new everything else also needed to happen. I painted my old furniture in a box navy blue and it made great “new” furniture for my son’s room.  I will take you through the changes.  We will start with the before master bedroom photo.

The curtains were from 1970 and I only had one pine nightstand so the little round table on the other side just didn’t look right with cords hanging off the back.  The not so young and hip comforter contrasted badly with the wheat walls.  The cheap faux wood headboard was not working.  It was white and I tried to paint it espresso brown and wheat.  The good news is all of my old furniture looks  awesome in my son’s room. That helped me justify the expense of my new furniture.  I am so good at justifying it is ridiculous.  I think it looks like Pottery Barn furniture with the navy blue paint.  Here is the armoire and his bedroom makeover.

Here is my improved master bedroom.

The cornice board above the bed was the old one.  I recovered it in a black and tan gingham print.  I wasn’t sure if I would like it or not so I sat it up on the brackets one night without screwing it into place so I could look at if for awhile and decide…..big mistake!  Apparently your home vibrates at night and that heavy wood cornice board fell right on my face while I was sleeping.  It didn’t hurt me as badly as it could have but you could tell I had an accident.  When it hit, I was dreaming a brick came through the windshield of my car and hit me in the face.  Weird huh?  The old  comforter is hidden away in my $60 duvet cover.   I needed some pillows to match the black accents so I sewed some king size cases to match the cornice board that yes I did decide to keep even though it assaulted me.  I also made the red floral print pillows.  I saw some Ralph Lauren pricey pillows and tried to copy them.  Worked for me.  A trick to keeping the cost even lower is I used plain red fabric on the back.  You can buy a lot less of the decorative fabric this way.   I used the old drapery hooks and put my new curtain rings on them so my curtains easily slide back and forth.  Works like a charm.  Here they are closed.

The old trunk was my mom’s and the little black chair to the left is trash to treasure.  It was missing a seat and my husband nailed some fence pickets on it to make a seat.  Amazing what a can of spray paint can do to make it all look like it goes together.

This is my favorite wall. I painted everything espresso brown with a rust color accent  so it would  go together.  I have a collection of bottles on the shelf.  Some were my mom’s and my son bought me the tall one for my birthday years ago.  I made the “stained” glass out of plexi glass and stain glass paint.  The bottom black and white photo is my son.  Gerber use to do a Gerber baby photo if you sent them a photo of your baby they would send you back a Gerber baby print.  Of course you had to pay for it, but I love it.  The top baby photo is my husband.  He had the strangest shape head for a baby.  Thank goodness he has a full head of hair at 43 and it seems to be holding on.

I really love my furniture.  It is distressed black with brown aged tops.  This armoire is my favorite piece.  The tv sits inside the left, but it still has plenty of drawer space on the right.  Perfect. The chair on the left was my mom’s.  Someday it will get reupholstered.  I keep thinking the arms might be wood underneath the fabric.  If so, maybe I can reupholster it  myself.  I made a valance that is clipped on with curtain clips to mimic the cornice board on the window above the bed. 

This is the dresser that goes with the set.  Nothing special to talk about here other than lots of drawer space and it doesn’t look like it came from a Pottery Barn kids catalog.

Thanks for looking at my room transformations.  I hope you think they turned out as well as I do.

Linking to:

Saturday Night Special @ Funky Junk Interiors

Furniture Feature Friday @ Mustard Seed Creations

Share your story Fridays @ Remodelaholics Anonymous

Make if for Monday @ Cottage Instincts

Motivate Me Monday @ Keeping it Simple

Something I Whipped Up @ The Girl Creative

Metamorphosis Monday @ Between Naps on the Porch

I made it without my husband @ Shanty2Chic

Do It Yourself Day @ A Soft Place To Land