Shared Boy/Girl Room

When sweet little number 3 came along, I wanted her to be in her own room.   I wanted to put the kids who where on the same sleep scheduled in the same room.  That way there would be less waking me up!  And I felt little Ruby Lou would be safer if she didn’t have a loving sibling trying to give her an extra blanket or stuffed animal.  So, my only solution was to put the two oldest in the same room.    How do I decorate a boy/girl room without it being too masculine or too famine?!   I decided I would start with fabric and go from there.  After a fabric hunt I found my base for the room colors.  (Which are the drapes)   My mom and dad sent down my old bed frames from Washington and I painted them a color from the drapes.  And I went from there…

Here are some pictures.  I will post more info on the art and other tidbits around the room later.  I am doing the reveal first hahaha….

My friend (who has a super cute house and blog, click HERE for The Rooster and The Hen) gave me the idea to paint the beds this teal color, pulled from the drapery fabric.

To see how I painted the beds Click HERE

-The room looked like this before-

-At first I tried to go this route-

It just wasn’t working for me.

So I changed it up!

I took some pictures of my midgets to put up in their room.  Bought the shelves from Ikea and painted them yellow.  And made some art to put up.  They helped me make the “Every freckle on my face is where it’s supposed to be.” quote art work.  And they had a blast.  I’ll post pictures of that later

(Quote from and India Arie song.  Love her songs!)

Now don’t worry, these are not really hanging from the rope.  I have earthquake wall hooks on the back, these babes are not going any where!  Safety first!!

I made these out silhouettes of plywood and paint that I had in the garage.  I watered down my paint and sanded after I painted to give these a distressed look.  I added the rope and make the “faux” mustard yellow wall hooks.   Pretty dang cute I think!

I put up these picture boards, I had them laying around the house.  I want to have lots of pictures around my house

and I knew my kids would think this was super cool.  It is up pretty high so they can’t reach the tacks.  

I have been seeing all those cute “Read” signs on Pinterest and wanted to do one similar.

But, I didn’t want it to seem like I was demanding someone to read, lol, so I added the “we love 2” part.

The heart is from the top of a cardboard box near the letters at  Hobby Lobby.

By the way!  I do not recommend these Ikea spice racks for book shelves.  The books fall off all the time.

The “animal cage” as we like to call it was built by little ol’ me!

I didn’t know what to do with all the stuffed animals my kids have.   I had them pick out some to donate, I was sneaky and got rid of a few, but they still had so many.

So I thought up the idea for this bin.  I measured they space under the books and made this one morning while my kids where at school.   I will share that tutorial soon too.

I love it!  And it cost me about $8 or less.

I thought a lot about bedding for this room.  That was probably the hardest part.  I looked everywhere!  I bought a few different things, tried them and sent them back.  I ended up going with these from the Land of Nod.  They were both on sale for about $25 bucks each.   It was my husbands idea to do a blue and a pink.  I love how it all came together.

How I Paint Furniture

This post has been moved to my new blog.

Building a Rad Sand Box Tutorial

This post has been moved to my new blog – Pocketful of Paint

Building an Ottoman

I keep seeing all these cute ottomans in adorable fabrics and I WANT THEM!  So, I decided, “Hey! I can do that!  I am soo crafty with my bad self, how hard can it be?!”  Well my fine friends.  It is NOT THAT HARD! YOOOU CAAN DOOO IT TOO!

Here’s how I made this fun little one for my front entry way.  I am planning on a much larger one for my living room in the near future.  So stay tuned for that bad boy.  I already bought the fabric and am super excited.

I bought this round wood piece of wood at Lowes for about $7.  Home Depots are different, not as good for this type of project and are MUCH more expensive (FYI).

I measured to the center and drilled a whole first, because I knew I wanted to add a big button in the middle later on.

I bought this foam from Home Depot, they have it at random times through the year.  It is $20 for a huge piece.  You could make a few ottomans with the size it is.  It is 3inches.  This stuff is much more pricey at JoAnn’s or any other craft store, so this is a good deal.   Great for seat cushions on a bench or something too.

I traced a circle and cut out the foam with my ceramic knife.  Any smooth super sharp knife or razor blade will work. Then I used a permanent spray adhesive to attach my foam to my board.  I also cut two different layers of quilt batting and sprayed that on too.

I glue it all down and then cut my fabric circle.

I did not glue the top fabric.  I used my staple gun, pulling my fabric tight! and stapling it all the way around.  I tried to make sure that the pleats of my fabric where only on the bottom and wouldn’t show around the sides.  This would be much easier if it was square, but it worked out.

I have an electric staple gun and one that uses an air compressor, I used both.  But the electric one would have been fine.

After that I put my button on, this was tricky because I didn’t have a very long needle.  You will need a really long needle! You can read here to see more about putting buttons on furniture.  CLICK HERE TO GO TO BUTTON TUTORIAL

After my button was on nice and tight, I cut and glued a cover over all my staples and ugliness underneath.  You can buy this black chair under cover stuff from JoAnn’s or any craft store.  I can’t remember what it is called at the moment, but it will be in the upholstery section.

I then drilled holes for my freshly painted high gloss blue legs.  So cute! And screwed them in to the bottom.

I hot glued down the cover fabric and waalaa! Done!

This would be rad with a cowhide too.  Oh the possibilities!

GO ON NOW!

AND!!!

Foaming Hand Soap

I used to buy the foam hand soap from Bath and Body Works till I vowed to try to be better at budgeting my moolaa.  Now this is what I do.  I bought a few of these Dial hand soaps from Walmart and I refill them about every 2 weeks.  We seem to go through a lot of hand soap now that I have two little people running a muck.

We just use the bulk bottle of hand soap whether is from Costco or Walmart- where ever the best deal is or I am

You can use any brand of bottled of hand soap as long as it has the foaming dispenser top.

We fill the bottle about a 1/4 to 1/3 full of the soap, then add hot water to the rest of the bottle.  It needs to be hot to mix with the soap.  Sometimes we add a dot of food coloring for the kids bathroom and let them choose the color.

So easy! So much less money running out my door…or down my sink.

Gray and Yellow FREE Prints

Gray and Yellow are super popular lately.  They are everywhere from baby rooms, living rooms, teen rooms, and weddings.

Everybody is loving the yellow and gray!

As seen in these beautiful room pictures I found on Pinterest …. of course. 😉

Picture from Google images.

Picture from My Revelment

From Tis So Sweet Blog

From Desire to Inspire

From Apartment Therapy

Two of my good friends are redoing rooms in their homes with this gray and yellow theme.  I always LOVE to help a friend decorate and asked if I could create some prints for them.

One friend is redoing her daughters room who is a teenager.  These are prints she wanted and a few variations for you to choose from too.

PLEASE NOTE:  The links to print these will take you to BOX.NET where you can download each image to your computer then print on your own.  I recommend printing at Costco, cuz it’s easy.  But please make sure you upload in “full resolution” and click “DO NOT AUTO CORRECT”

These are all 8×10’s

Have fun!

click HERE for print

click HERE for print

click HERE for print

click HERE for print

click HERE for print

click HERE for print

click HERE for print

click HERE for print

My other friend asked if I would make some airplane prints for her soon-to-be little boys nursery.  Since I can’t be at her shower I was more than happy to do it.

These are all 10×8’s

click HERE for print

click HERE for print

click HERE for print

click HERE for print

Note! I am not sure why the colors are showing up different on this one.  It should print fine.

click HERE for print

click HERE for print

click HERE for print

click HERE for print

Have fun decorating!

Jute Piping=Much Better!

Okay, so here is the first before picture!

I bought these chairs at an estate sale in San Diego about 4 years ago.  And they looked liked this till about 6 months ago.

I took them apart and used the fabric as a pattern.

Then I made yellow piping and the chairs looked like this….

Then my sister came to visit and told me they made her hungry for Mexican food.

Soooo!

Now the chairs look like this!

I did a flat braided jute around the top and a pre-made jute piping around the bottom.

I bought both of the different jutes at Walmart.  And, yes I hot glued it on.  That IS what the pro’s do just so ya know.  Some lady laughed when I told her I used hot glue….go talk to your local upholster if you are unsure what to do in any part of the process of redoing your chairs.  They are usually more than happy to share some trade secrets and help you out.

I think it looks MUCH BETTER!

Making my house feel more like home!

Does This Make YOU Hungry?

I tried really hard to find a color for piping that would help my chairs pop.  I decided on a mustard yellow…. it’s not popping the way I was hoping.  ALL that work of making piping! Ugh…

I asked my sister, who was visiting over Christmas, what she thought.  I was trying to convince myself to just finish them and not change the pipping.

When! She said, “Kinda makes me hungry for Mexican food.”

Uh…. haha, not what what I was hoping to hear, but TRUTH people! Dang it!

So!! Stay tuned for Monday when I reveal the final changes!

Making a Table- The Process

I really really wanted a new dinning room table when we moved.  But, a few things kept taking priority over buying a new table.  Espeacially since the tables I liked where around 1500 to 3000 bucks.  hmmm…. Dev (the hubs) wasn’t really feeling that.  So for my b-day he told me he would make one before Thanksgiving.

Uh… he has never made a table before!  What to do… Thinking thinking.  I started to cut out pictures and read blogs about what I wanted.  Then like a present the Lowes project magazine came in the mail with instructions on how to build a table.  It didn’t look to hard.

We went and bought all the wood a week later.

This table from Crate and Barrel is one I have had my eye on for years.  We modeled our table after it.

I told Dev that if we were going to build our own table I wanted to do it for under $100.  And! I wanted it to fit 10 people.  He liked my challenge.

We bought pine 2×6 x8 boards for the top

2×4 for the ends of the top and the frame

4×4’s for the legs

We did a few things differently than the Lowe’s directions.  But, it helped to have an idea of how to start.  Mostly we used the directions for the frame (which I’ll share below).  We wanted the table top to be seamless.  So instead of the Lowe’s way, we changed it up a bit.  We started by trimming up the sides of the 2×6’s to make them flat.  2×6’s from the store are slightly curved.

After cutting those we used a biscuit joiner to cut into the sides of the wood.  We put biscuits and wood glue between the boards and clamped them together, adding one  board at a time.  The table was large so we used pipe clamps to hold it all together.

We planed the ends then put the end board on using a router to cut a tongue and groove joint.  Then glued it and clamped it again with the pipe clamps.

We then used our hand planer to smooth/even out the top.  After that was done we used 100 grit sand paper on the electric sander to smooth it out more.  Ideally you would want to use a planer and run each board through it before starting to put the top together.  OR! You could put the top all together and find a cabinet maker who would let you run the entire piece through one of their large industrial planers.

While the glue was hardening we picked out stains.  I wanted a beachy farm house table feel.  So we decided to do a gray stain with a white wash over the top.

Here is a link to the Lowe’s table directions that we used for the frame. Click HERE

We flipped the top upside down and started building the frame right on to it.

We used a pocket hole jig to join the top to the frame.

We changed the placement of the legs and moved ours to the edge of the table top,  and secured them with lag screws.  We inset only the apron piece.

Then we flipped it back over and filled some of the knots and holes with stainable wood filler.

You should probably use gloves here….oops

After that was dry we sanded the entire piece with 220 grit sand paper.

Before staining the table, we prepped it with Minwax Pre-Stain Wood Conditioner.  This helps a lot!!  It helps you get an even stain, avoiding ugly blotches.

I then stained it with a weathered oak stain.

After that was dry I went over it with a white wash.

To finish the table we applied 4 coats of a water based polyurethane.

We built a solid table for under $100 dollars in less than a week.  AND! It seats 10 people.

We already have plans to build another one! Ha, I know, we are crazy.  But, we had a ton of fun doing this project together.  I love my man.

This table might be for sale soon, if you want it let me know

The next table will have turned legs, with a darker stained top and painted legs.  I am excited to do it again  Stay tuned for that one sometime in January 2012!

Please leave me some comment love!

DIY Beachy Wood Starburst Mirror

I saw this mirror in a store I love here in Utah, but it was $395.00.  I just don’t have that kind of cash right now.   I showed the picture to the hubs and he said that “You could totally make that.”  “I”, “Me, Lynn” “BY MYSELF” could totally make it.  Uhh… what?!  He said he would give me tips, but I was pretty much on my own with this one.  OK.  Hear me ROAR ladies.  That’s right, I used the saw, the man tools, and I got crafty with MY BAD SELF!

My sister in-law and I decided we would both make one of our selves.  SO! Here is how we recreated this beauty.

We started by collecting wood that looked reclaimed, like the wood on the frame.  We took some wood out of a friends yard, a few pieces off a really old looking pallet, and went to the Re-store to buy a few left over molding and other wood boards.  I also bought a 4ft pieces of cedar from Home Depot.  We started by cutting the wood boards between 6-9 inches long.  We cut the tops at angles between 20 and 45 degrees.  We then cut, using the chop saw, and angle from the top to the bottom of the wood.

We each laid out the pieces to see how we wanted it to be.

We first cut out all the pieces that would be “kissing”.  There are six sets of the ones that face each other,  “kiss”.   And then just like a puzzle we pieced them together to be the overall size we each wanted.

After this we numbered them on the back side.  Then transferred them into my laundry room for painting/distressing.

We used multiple painting techniques to give them each some character.  We used 220 and 100 sandpaper to rough some of the paint up.  We did a crackle finish on two, with silver underneath and blue on top.  And I’ll talk about that more towards the end of the post.  But, we had a fun time play with different techniques.

After it was dry I started to put it together by glue the sides of each piece together.

I clamped a few of them together to help make a stronger hold.

After it was all nice and glued.  I added a few small pieces of thin wood to the back for added support.

Okay, maybe more than just a few….

This is going above my bed.  I wanted to make it strong  I am sure there is a better way to do this, but this is the best thing I could think of.

I then placed some heavy books and stuff on top of it till it was dry.

When it was dry and nice and strong I flipped it over to add the mirror.  I had a left over mirror from my gallery wall.   I took one of them down from the wall.  Cuz  the one next to the M, it made it look like “MOO” and it was driving me nuts.

So I had the mirror and it was wrapped in jute.  Great for the look I was going for.

I would have glued or nailed the mirror on, but I decided instead to use some heavy duty Velcro.  That might seem weird, but it works great.  And if it breaks or I need to remove it for some reason, I can easily take it off.

I added some picture hanger hooks and wire to the back and I AM DONE!

I love the look  It totally goes with my “beachy barn look”  I need to find a better name for that…. any suggestions?

Here it is all done hanging above my bed!

It’s not a perfectly shaped as the one I saw in the store, but I like it this way.

Oh! And by the way.  This starburst mirror did not cost me  $395, it cost me about $10!!!

Here is the crackle I mentioned above.  I wanted the metallics to be subtle.

Mostly we painted, sanded, painted more, sanded more. It was all an experiment.

On both the white above I paint a few different colors, let it dry, then sanded with 220 sand paper.  That was already white then I started.  The blue one, I painted blue then sanded, then added a navy blue glaze, then sanded again.  I white washed the thin one next to the blue one.  A few I left natural.  Mostly the cedar ones.

I just added the blue to this already white board then sanded with 220.

Some we dinged up with a hammer or nails.

We also added a little gold leaf to others. You can’t see it very well in the pictures.

This was a fun project.  Now I need to work on that pillow situation 😉

Always a project at my house

Always getting crafty with my bad self!

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