inexpensive kitchen backsplash idea!

So, after fixing up a house on the side with L...aka detailed painting in the nooks and crannies of the house...I rarely want to do any work on our house. Ever.  I have one week of freedom (kind of) left before school starts and runs my life again.  Boy have I taken advantage of that!  Touch up paint throughout the house: check, fix holes in the wall: check, kitchen backsplash: check, clean: check....is it messy already? major check.  oops!

Anyway, so our budget doesn't exactly have room for a pretty tiled backsplash...but we do have room for some craft paint and stencils!  Off to Michael's I went in search of some inspiration for crafting....and I walked out with some Martha Stewart stencils and Folk Art paint in Champagne, meowza!  I also remembered while purchasing my lovely champagne colored paint a post from Young House Love.  This post from YHL was of little miss Clara's closet makeover....it involved a potato and paint - Sherry and John = creative!

On to the kitchen!

Unfortunately I don't have a before close up of the kitchen backsplash.  We used Benjamin Moore's Azores on the wall and Wedgewood Grey throughout the rest of the kitchen.

The secret weapon.

The final result - an iridescent sunburst stencil on the wall for a little extra something.  Love it!

You can see the stencil prints from certain angles..you can barely even see the stenciling on the left side of the wall, but they're there...I promise!

 The project was an hour labor of love...put on the Pandora and paint away! I did not measure the spacing between the stenciling, just eyeballed everything and used scotch tape to keep the stencil in position.

Now all we need is a dishwasher....hmmm! :)

Stencils and s'mores,

Recycle!

Earlier this year I went garage sale hunting with a good buddy and the two big finds of the day: girl scout cookies and a wooden crate for $1.50....who can beat cookies and a $1.50 find?

cookie monster!

The coveted wooden crate!

Time to do some work!  We were in need of a recycling bin for our cans that we take back to the store (hello there 10 cent refund - directly into the vacation jar! woot woot!)  I had been hunting for a crate for awhile...there were some awesome vintage finds (old crates for cherries, soda, etc) but they were 15 bucks a piece and I couldn't really see the point when I knew I wanted the bin to say recycle.  Alas, my crate and I were united.  I used stencil letters and chalk to outline where I wanted it to say recycle.  **In hindsight, I probably should've had the word recycle going on a diagonal rather than horizontal, but oh well!**

One letter left to go! (:

Fill in the chalk lettering with your choice of paint - I used Dazzling Metallics Elegant Finish in Crystal Green (green only seemed fitting for the project!) from Michael's.  This is a really quick project - perfect for a rainy afternoon :)

In all her glory...full to the brim.

You could certainly use this idea for more than recycling - you could have a towel crate, or even store toilet paper in your bathroom; if you have kids - each kid could decorate their own bin and keep the crate by the front door as the drop box for backpacks, shoes, hats, etc; or could store magazines and books in a crate, DVDs...anything you want really! Sky is the limit :) What would you use a wooden bin for?

Happy recycling :)

quick spruce up!

I've been searching for a new desk and then I realized I really don't have the extra money for a new one (boo hiss!)  So I went off in search of a project...meet Ethan.  My old desk from when I was a kid that was still (amazingly) in my parents garage.

Ethan.

 I really wanted to refinish the entire thing, but I was feeling antsy...I have that problem quite a bit! So I settled on refinishing the hardware.  Enter, spray paint.  Ah, my love of spray paint!  I used Peacock House, Mediterranean, Baby Blue, Pewter Grey and Aged Copper.  All lovely colors alone, but even better when layered together.  I also used a dry paint brush to add some textured to make them look aged.  I really like that each piece of hardware is different as each one was spray painted in a different way.  Just gives it a nice touch :)  Enjoy!

The final product:

Ethan 2.0 in all his glory!

Hardware close up

Hardware close up # 2

Thanks for stopping by!  Get out and enjoy that sunshine....while spray painting some needs-to-be-updated-hardware ;)

makeover of a garage sale find!

A few weeks back, I was riding in the car with my pops and drove by a massive garage sale...this resulted in giddy excitement.  Sadly, pops had a meeting he needed to get to and we couldn't stop.  As soon as I had access to a car I headed over to this treasure trove.  The fruits of my labor resulted in these beauts:



2 dollars a piece...jackpot!

I was in need of some chairs to go with the back porch table....in fact the porch hasn't been used once this summer, depressing? I think yes.  I meandered over to Joann Fabrics and Crafts in search of some lovely fabric for my new found friends.  I ended up with a gorgeous outdoor blue and white patterned fabric.  Outdoor fabric is typically a pretty penny compared to indoor fabrics - good news though, Joann's usually has coupons out for around 40% off...use 'em!

The pending project sat in my garage for about a week...or maybe two? until I finally got down to business.  I hit up my favorite homestore ever, Lowe's, to buy some Valspar gloss spray paint in white.  It took just shy of four cans to complete the painting of the chairs - I would suggest just purchasing paint in a can as it would probably be a better bang for your buck...I was just feeling lazy ;)

The final product turned out a little something like this:

care to take a seat?

baby got back.

finished product.

I suggest sanding any project you're about to work on (assuming it's wood!) and depending on the color you're wanting to paint the project you may or may not want to prime.  Since I painted the chairs white, I didn't prime these puppies, just did several coats of paint. 

For reupholstering the chair, I'm definitely not an expert.  I traced the pattern of the seat onto the back of the fabric leaving enough room to have an ample amount of fabric for stapling.  It is entirely up to you on whether or not you would like to replace the foam padding (craft stores will have this!) I get a little excited when I do projects and I didn't replace the padding...it would've been an extra trip into town and I just wanted to get down to business - plan ahead!  Once you've sorted your foam and fabric begin to staple the fabric cut out onto the backside of the seat.  I'm still trying to figure out the best way to staple corners so if anyone out there has some tips, I'd LOVE to hear from you!!  Make any tweaks necessary and then you're ready to re-attach the seat to your newly painted chair!

Garage sale season = love.  Happy hunting!

the made just for you touch

My lovely friend C got married a few weeks ago (big congrats to you two!) I found a gift off of their registry, but I really wanted to add a little extra something for a personal touch.  So I decided to make the couple a throw pillow...nothing too big, nothing terribly time consuming and something either can make use of. 

It started when I viewed an idea for using doilies, fabric paint and a canvas tote as seen on the blog Under the Sycamore: http://ashleyannphotography.com/blog/2009/11/21/diy-doily-canvas-bag/



super cute, right?

Ashley Ann's tutorial is wonderful so please feel free to review the how-to from the link above!

Instead of using the tote, I purchased white canvas-like fabric (sidenote: I made the mistake of purchasing fabric that was too thin and see-through the first time around....so I had to do the project twice--practice makes perfect, right?) to create an envelope pillow case.  TheCraftyGemini has an excellent tutorial on how to make an envelope pillow case, you can find the link here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FhZnHhbcN-Q

1. Stenciled the front of the pillow case using different sized doilies and different colors of fabric paint.  I did not use spray adhesive, however I would recommend it.

2. Let the front piece of fabric dry while you complete the "envelope" portion of the pillow case, or backside.  Iron and sew the raw edges of the envelope of the pillow case.

3. Once the fabric is dry sew the front and back pieces of fabric together per the YouTube tutorial.

4. Find a font that you like for an initial or message on the back of the pillow case. Print out the initial and/or message, date, etc.

5.  The fabric is semi see through so just place the printed piece of paper underneath the fabric - pin in place using push pins and paint away!  Please note: Complete this portion AFTER you've sewn the two pieces of fabric together to ensure everything is centered and the way you want it to look!

There you have it, a handmade gift that your loved ones can't find in a store!

Enjoy!