A sorta chalkboard sign

Hi there!  I'm so excited to share this project today!  I finally tried my hand at making a chalkboard-ish sign, and I couldn't be happier with how it turned out.  I've been needing something substantial to put on the wall next to our bed for a while, so I thought a hand-painted sign might fit the bill nicely. As I've worked on the main living spaces of our home, our master bedroom has been sadly neglected.  I've been needing to work in there for a while, but since pretty much no one but our family ever sees it it always gets shunted to the back of the decorating line.  No more, I say!  This chalkboard sign is stage one of project "Make Our Bedroom Look Less Crappy" (no, I probably won't continue calling it that).  Here's how the headboard wall looked before this project:

Pretty uninspired, huh?  I love the side tables and the lamps that I made to go on them, but they really get lost in the vacuum of those blank walls.  Oh, and I'm not even going to show you the other side of the room.  Total. Disaster.  That's for another time, people.

Since the sign was going in our room, I decided to make it a little mushy and use it as my Valentine's Day present for Stephen.  I went with a quote from my all time favorite book, Wuthering Heights.  Funnily enough, he kinda hates that book and thinks it's way too depressing.  Whatever, I'm making the sign so I get to choose!  I've seen other signs with this particular quote, but Jennifer from Dear Lillie's is definitely my favorite.  So, without further ado (sorry for all the lead in!), here's the sign:

Isn't she perdy?  I love her!  I'll get to the book page pieces in a minute, but first let me tell you about how I made the sign.  Be warned: there has to be an easier way to make one of these, but you're on MY blog so you get to see my way :)  If you're looking for easy, go with someone else's tutorial.  Seriously, you'll thank me.

To start I grabbed a 24 inch square piece of precut 1/2 inch plywood from Lowe's.  I didn't want a square sign, so I had them cut it down to 20x24 for me.  Once I got it home I chose the smoother side and sanded it to within an inch of my hand's life.  I used some 80 grit sandpaper first and finished it off with some 220, just to give myself the smoothest surface I could.  I'm calling this a "chalkboard-ish" sign since I didn't really use chalkboard paint, but rather just some dark charcoal grey flat latex.  Since I have no plans to alter the design in the future, though, that part doesn't really matter.  Here's what it looked like after 2 coats of the paint

Holy wood grain, Batman!  That's what happens when you use the cheapest plywood you can find.  For under $5, though, I was willing to find a solution.  After this coat dried completely, I applied one more coat going against the grain and that made a very big difference.  Another quick sanding with the 220 grit sandpaper and the wood grain was really reduced.  Another way to have (properly) gotten rid of the grain would have been to sand more initially and use primer.  But who has time for proper?  Not this girl!

The next part was absolutely the most painful.  I don't have any sort of stencil-making or overhead projector type device, so I had to do it the very slow and old fashioned way: with an X-acto knife.  Ugh.

 

That's right.  I had to trace every letter with a blade to create my "stencils" for the lettering.  I had simply printed the lettering out on plain computer paper in the fonts I wanted.  This would have been infinitely easier if I had access to a projector and could have just traced the projected lettering.  But...I don't, so I had to suck it up.  I have to admit that it worked out just fine (even if my hand was absolutely killing me after all that cutting!).  After making the stencils, I arranged the words how I wanted them and taped them to the prepared board.

 

Once I had them arranged to my liking, I simply traced inside the letters with a pencil.  After that was done I went back with a fine paintbrush and painted in the lettering with some Pure White AS Chalk Paint.

I love how the imperfections in my painting just add to the handmade feel of the sign.  Embrace the imperfections, tell people you did them on purpose, and you'll be like a real life artist!  It really looks hand-lettered, don't you think?  I'm totally sold on this technique.  I definitely see more chalkboard art in our home's near future.

After I finished the sign and hung it on the wall in our room, I felt like it needed a bit more heft.  Enter the ever-versatile vintage book page.  I really can't say enough about how wonderfully easy book pages are for making simple, high impact decorations for your home.  Seriously!  That vine and little bunch of leaves took maybe 20 minutes to make, but they make such a huge difference in how the sign looks in the room.

I love the depth and texture they add to the sign, too.  The leaves in the corner are hot glued to a small scrap of cardboard that I used a little Command strip to stick to the bottom corner of the sign itself.  The vine and rosette up above the sign are just leaves that I glued successively onto an L-shaped piece of cardboard, starting from the outer edges and working my way in towards the center.  (I had intended to use more Command strips to stick the vine to the wall, but it kept falling down so I ended up nailing it up there.)  I decided that the middle looked a little wonky without anything in there, so I made that little flower at the last minute.

The center of the flower is just some crumpled up scraps, but I think they look just right.

So there you have it!  A chalkboard-ish sign with some pretty book page embellishments that really help our bedroom look much less sad.  Here's a (totally un-prettified) picture of how the room looks now:

So much better already!  I had 2 very persistent photo bombers running around that morning, so there was no way I was going to be able to make the bed AND get a picture.  Clearly, I just went for the picture :)  I'll do a post about the picture on the other side of the bed soon, but for now I need to head to bed!  Thanks for stopping by, and please let me know if you make a sign of your own!

** I'm submitting this project to the Creating with the Stars contest!  Woo hoo!**

Spring Entry 2013!

Good morning!  Hope you had a great weekend and ate lots of unhealthy snacky food during the game yesterday.  I know I did.

So, is it spring yet?  No, but I just can't contain myself on the decorating front.  We've had some freakishly warm weather this winter, so all the azaleas are already in full bloom, despite its being only February 4.  That makes it not entirely my fault, right?  Just say yes and we'll move on.  Thank you.

I'm really excited about how my entry table turned out this spring!  It's such a fun little area to style.  I used lots of paper and mossy greens this year, which I'm really loving.

I kept a couple elements for the Christmas display (which I completely forgot to photograph!  Oops!), but mostly this is all new for spring.  Up on the window I kept my brown paper bag flower and added a super simple garland of book page pinwheels.

Aren't those pinwheels fun?  They're from one of my old thrifted books, and took about 2 minutes to make.  Confession: they were all twirly and didn't hang quite how I wanted them to, so I used a little sticky tack on the bottom of each to anchor them to the window.  When gravity doesn't work in your favor, just out smart it, I say!

The center section of the table is probably my favorite.

It's a very simple vignette, but I think all the elements play off each other beautifully.  I got that tray for 50 cents a few months ago, and just carefully taped off the pretty detailing on the edges before hitting it with some chalkboard spray paint.  So easy and pretty!  I've had that little stone vase/candle holder for years and years and just love how it looks with the little mossy ball nestled into it.  Moss is one of my favorite decorating elements at the moment.  It has such amazing color and texture, and can be used almost anywhere.  Oh, and isn't that little jello mold peaking out from behind the book so cute?  I bought a handful of those at a little antique store in Tennessee last summer and have been propping them up allover the house since then.

The left side of the table houses my big chunk of driftwood along with a couple other treasures.

The mercury glass candle holder (its mate is on the other end of the table) is from PB several years ago, and I still love it.  To go under my chunky glass cheese dome, I made a little nest of spanish mossy stuff (that's its technical name), plunked another little moss ball into it.  By the way, I got a 6 pack of those preserved moss balls from Michael's (with a coupon) for about $3.  Lastly over here, that little stained glass art piece is another awesome thrift store find.  It has a couple chips, but I still think it's wonderful!

Finally, the right side of the table has my little mushroom terrarium with a beautiful sky blue metal birdcage I got in college (I think).

I put a fern frond in the birdcage to give it some extra color, and also to tie it visually to the little creamer (another recent Etsy find) standing next to it.  It's almost a perfect match to the teacup and saucer sitting on my window shelf.  (Oh, and all that greenery is fake.  Shh, don't tell!)

Isn't that gold pattern on the white bone china stunning?  That combination makes my heart flutter a little bit. 

Well, there you have it!  My entryway, all dolled up for spring!  Hope you like it, and I hope you have a wonderful Monday!

A quick window shelf

Hello there!  I hope your Christmas and New Year's were both wonderful.  I was so swamped with burlap stocking orders on Etsy that this is the first chance I've had to write a blog post since back in September!  Whew, I was busy!  I made well over 200 stockings from Sept-Dec.

Anyway, today I'm showing you a fun, super quick project I worked on back in the fall.  It's styled for springtime in these pictures, though!  I just can't wait until real springtime to put up my spring stuff.  This is Florida after all, so I think I'm entitled to a little early decorating (no matter how much it makes my husband roll his eyes, thank you very much).

To make this shelf I just used an old window I found at our Habitat ReStore and attached a piece of 1x4 with a couple metal brackets from Lowes (I think they're something like $3 for a 4 pack).  The wood came from a neighbor's scrap pile and I think the window cost $10, so this project cost about $11.50 total, since I'll be able to use the other pair of brackets for something else.  On a side note, $10 is more than I'd usually pay for an old window, but this one was in really nice shape and had a pretty little piece of original hardware so I just couldn't resist.  Here's the finished product:

How cute is that?  The thing that actually took the longest was the whitewash I did on the window itself.  It was unpainted wood when I bought it, and it was in pretty sad shape, so I gave it a quick wash with some white primer (I like the chalkiness that gives the finish), and that was that.  The board is painted Annie Sloan's Pure White and I didn't seal it all, just gave it a quick sanding with some fine sandpaper to smooth it.  Miraculously, the board was actually the exact size I needed, so I didn't even have to cut it!  Ha!  I just drilled pilot holes into the window frame and 1x4 and attached them using the brackets.  

If you decide to do this project yourself, I have 2 suggestions: be sure to put the bracket near the outside edge of the window frame in order to avoid drilling into (and breaking) the glass.  Also, I wanted my shelf to be as low as possible on the frame so I attached my brackets to the top of the shelf, rather than mounting them underneath.  This works just fine for my purposes, but if you do that be sure not to put anything too heavy on the shelf.  Gravity is not on your side when you mount them this way, so it's theoretically possible for the screws to strip out if too much weight was put on the shelf.  Mine's purely for display, though, so I'm not worried at all!  Here's a close-up of one of the brackets: 

You may notice that my little birdy has a new home in a nest in the teacup now.  I did that after taking the first batch of pictures.  Oh well!  He's a part of one of my favorite Etsy purchases ever.  Red Hot Pottery makes these precious birds in either this turquoise (which I adore) or in black, and they come in sets of 5.

Ok, I can't resist including a few more quick pictures!

That little frog is actually a vintage magnifying glass I found on Etsy (of course), and oh my goodness, I can't even tell you how much I love him!  He's just the cutest thing!  The book page ornaments hanging from the twigs are actually from my Christmas decorating, but I just couldn't bring myself to take them down.  They're not too Christmasy, right?

For the bunting I just looped little scraps of fabric over a piece of twine.  Ridiculously easy and so pretty!  I attached it to the top of the window with clear pushpins, which you can just see in this picture:

So there it is!  A super quick project that provides major charm and much needed decorating space.  Much needed for me, anyway, since I don't have a mantle!  I'm off to pick up my sweet Lily from school now.  Have a fabulous weekend!

**I'm linking this post up with Thrifty Decor Chick's February Before & After Party!

Toy-car-box-turned-dollhouse, or How I Went Completely Overboard

Whew!  It's been almost a month since my last post, and I've been crazy busy since then.  I have lots of projects to share, but today in honor of my sweet girl's 5th birthday(!!) I thought I'd show you what I made for her.

Last month, our son turned 2 and my wonderful sister sent him a really cool set of wooden cars and street signs.  If you're a momma, you're probably familiar with the Melissa and Doug brand of wooden toys.  They hold up so well, aren't made of plastic, and come in nice storage boxes.  Score!  Well, these particular cars are compatible with the train set we already have, so I decided to just through them in with those so we didn't have yet another toy box lying around.  I tossed the wooden box the cars came in on top of the pile of cardboard debris from James's present-stravaganza and forgot about it.  That is, until my husband pulled it out and told me I should make something with it.  Ugh.  I had thought that in passing, too, but had decided against it.  Stephen so rarely suggests that I make something (I imagine he avoids doing so at all costs, just so I don't start another project that ends up taking up more space in the garage while I work on it), that I felt compelled to take another look at the box.  Here's a look at it in its original state:

Melissa and Doug vehicles and traffic signs

The sections of the box sort of reminded me of a dollhouse and are actually the perfect size to hold the little peg dolls I made Lily for her last birthday.  So, after a bit of planning, I dove right in with my paints and went WAAAAAY overboard on this project.  Once I got started, I just couldn't stop and ended up making the box into a cute little cottage that makes me a little jealous of the dolls that get to live there.

I spent 3 evenings painting that sucker, and I'm really happy with how it turned out!  Ready for a room-by-room tour?  Mmmmkay! 

Let's start in the entryway.  Every home needs good storage solutions, so I added a peg rail around the walls for purses, coats, scarves, etc.  You know, whatever the busy peg doll brings home after a fun day of play.  I want this foyer to be MINE.  In real life.  I love the transom and the lantern!  Next lets visit the living room.

A stone fireplace?  Yes, please.  I had fun doing that little pink French chair, too.  I had trouble deciding what to put over the mantel (made from reclaimed wood, of course), but in the end I went with a nice painting in a gold frame.  On to the kitchen!

This is definitely the room of which I'm most envious.  I so wish I had white cabinets, butcher block counter tops and an apron front sink!  Aren't those open shelves sweet, too?  The cobalt glasses are actually inspired by some we own, and the big orange pitcher is just like one my aunt gave me this summer (thanks, Aunt Lecia!).

The bedrooms are pretty simple.  Oh, and every house needs at least one pennant banner, so this little cottage got one in the kids' bedroom.  James gets very excited every time he sees it and shouts, "Flags!"

I really, really love tall wainscoting in bathrooms, so this little house got some.  Also, I think every room that can possible have one should have a live plant.  Last up on the tour is the top floor, which includes the attic and the playroom.

What cottage is complete with a cobwebby attic?  None, I say!  Lily squealed with delight when she saw the little mouse heading into his mouse hole, she actually suggested I add the spider to the web.  Oh, and yes, that ornate old wardrobe does, in fact, lead to Narnia.

Last but not least, the playroom!  I think I like this room best, actually.  I made a set of hot air balloons for my kids' real bedroom and James kept asking why the kids' room in this dollhouse didn't have any, so I added some up here.  Both Lily and James love to draw on our easel, so this play room got one of those, too. 

So there you have it!  My completely out of control dollhouse project.  I'm certainly no expert painter, but I have lots of fun doing things like this.  Lily loves her peg dolls, so it was really fun to be able to make them a special place to live.  Hooray for saving this box from the trash!  Thanks, honey, for an excellent save.  Here's on last shot:

Hope you've had a wonderful few weeks, and I'll be back again soon!  First, though, I'm off to make some birthday cake! :)

A quick chalkboard and a pretty calendar

Hi there!  Happy Wednesday, friends!

Today I'm sharing a project I did a while back but never shared.  I'd been wanting a message board for my kitchen for quite some time, but couldn't find just the right thing.  Plus I'd always prefer to make something myself, rather than purchase it!

Enter (yet again) the Habitat for Humanity thrift store!  This place is truly a bonanza of awesomeness.  On this particular day I found a huge old cabinet door that they sold me for $1.  I haven't measure it, but it's at least 24x42 inches.  To make my chalkboard I simply taped off the edges and spray-painted the center with chalkboard paint.

Oh, yes, we're having leftovers tonight.  And yes, I'm psyched about it.  Anyway, I used a soft green paint sample that I had from a previous project for the frame.  Isn't that great?!  The little hook and drawer pull are where I (usually) keep a rag and the chalk pieces, respectively.  They were actually bright 'n' brassy when I bought them (that finish was a whole dollar cheaper), so I just sprayed them with some leftover chalkboard paint.  Much, much better than supa 80's golden chic!  Sorry the picture is so crummy, but this part of my kitchen doesn't get very good lighting.

This is a very quick and easy project, with majorly useful results!  I try to write each night's menu on there before my husband gets home so he isn't constantly wondering what/if I'm feeding him that night.  Plus, that eliminates him asking out loud with the result that I answer him and the kiddos demand to eat [insert dinner items here] IMMEDIATELY or they will almost certainly perish from starvation.

The other thing I wanted to show you today is the little set-up I came up with for my wall calendar, and it's actually immediately adjacent to the chalkboard.  I bought this little calendar on Etsy (of course), and I LOVE IT.  Once the year is over, I can cut off the calendar part and have 12 gorgeous food illustrations ready for framing!  Yay :)

The calendar itself is pretty small (7.5x11 inches), so it definitely needed a support team to give it its proper oomph on my wall.  I found a great (if ugly) frame at yet another thrift store for, you guessed it, $1.  I just dry-brushed over the ugly wood with some white primer and it came out great.

I thought the little book page bunting on top was a fun touch, too.  So that's my little kitchen command center, complete with calendar and chalkboard!  I love them both, and they're both totally functional and pretty.  A great combo, if I do say so myself!

Crafty bucket storage

Happy Friday!  Hope your week has been tremendous.

I just have a quick little project to share today.  I saw this fabulous idea on Pinterest and decided I just had to do in Lily's room.

                                                                            Source: shanty-2-chic.com via Anna on Pinterest

I didn't have any wall hooks like that lying around, so I decided to just use nails and a piece of scrap lumber to make my version.  The only thing I bought for this project was the 3 buckets, which were $1 each at Target.  Since I liked the color already, I didn't even need to bother with spray paint.  Score!

One of our neighbors down the street is constantly throwing out fairly sizable stacks of scrap wood, and I've been eyeing those stacks for months.  I finally broke down a few weeks ago and walked right on down the street with my kids' wagon and filled 'er up with lumber.  No shame!  Stephen watched me through his office window and was very perplexed about what in the world I was doing with the wagon sans children.  Well, that dumpster diving excursion paid off, honey!  Be happy that I'm so resourceful (and that I embrace your cheapness philosophy).

I had originally planned to just paint the wood white and leave it at that, but here's what I ended up with.

Isn't that great?!  I totally love how it turned out!  The buckets were just such a sweet yellow, and I thought a charcoal grey chevron stripe would really set them off.  What do you think?  I just used painters tape to create the stripes, then mixed up some of my acrylics till I found the right shade of grey.

I love them, and so do Lily and James.  Project grand total: $3.  Stephen's just pleased that I finally finished one of my Pinterest-inspired projects! :)

Shower curtain rescue

So here's the situation: I have an extremely ugly shower stall in my master bathroom.  The tile color is fine (I actually like it), but it's suffering from a distinct lack of upkeep.  As in, don't get too close or the rust and dry rot may eat you alive.  I have scrubbed that place to within an inch of my fingers' lives, but it just won't clean up.  40 years of neglect by an endless rotation of tenants will do that, I guess.

Shudder.  Sorry to subject you to that.  But take heart, I've found a sorta fix!  Sarah over at Thrifty Decor Chick did a post on her own bathroom and she included a picture of the super cool curtain she put in front of her own less-than-awesome shower stall.  Hallelujah!  I can cover up all that nastiness with a nice ruffly curtain and no one (other than anyone who's read this post...) need ever know what's behind it!  Woo hoo!

Lots of the bloggers I love have used canvas drop cloths to great effect for all sorts of decorating projects, so I thought I'd try my hand with one of those.  I now know why so many people use drop cloths: they're awesome!  After you wash it, the canvas takes on a wonderful, nubby texture, and the color is a really nice taupe.  It ruffles beautifully, too.    Here's the result:

When I went to Target to try to get a curtain rod I discovered they actually make stall-sized shower curtain rods.  Who knew?  I wanted to use drapery clip rings to hang the curtain so I could avoid punching holes into it, but the rings I bought were way too small to slide along the curtain rod.  My solution?

I just took double lengths of jute twine and sewed them to the back of the curtain, then knotted the ends over the curtain rod.  Pretty easy, huh?  It actually looks prettier than the clip rings did!  The loops of twine slide beautifully along the curtain rod, so even my husband likes it.  When I first proposed this idea, he was less than pleased with the idea of the extra 1.00000078 seconds it would have taken to get into the shower in the morning after pulling the curtain aside.  Lame-o.   Here it is pulled back!

I LOVE this project!  It turned out beautifully, and completely covers up all the grodiness I can't clean off that shower.  Have a great day, friends!