Category Archives: Fun DIY Projects

DIY projects

A New Welcome Sign For Spring!

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Hello everyone!  Are you ready for spring?  I know I am! I finally got around to finishing up a project that I’ve been dreaming about for the last few months.

Some time around Christmas I picked this up at a thrift store for $1.00

I bought it with the intent to transform it somehow, I just didn’t know how.  Then my sweet friends, Joe and Denise, gave me this:

It’s a homemade coat rack that they were given several years ago.   They didn’t have a place for it and weren’t quite sure what to do with it, so they gave it to me.  I had visions of making a welcome sign holder using something similar, so I got to work. (I had already removed the hardware when I took the picture)

First I painted over the “wicked” sign.

I had a very curious little helper

Next  I painted the coat rack black.  Sorry, I forgot to take a picture, but I’m sure you can imagine how that happened.  I put the hardware back on one side and connected some leftover chain I had from a hanging basket to the back of the sign.

Next I took some vinyl lettering I had gotten at a local craft store and applied it to the front.

I tied a burlap bow around the top and put it all together:

I  wish I had some beautiful flowers blooming in pots, but it’s still a little early for that.  I can tell Spring is getting close though, and I can’t wait!

Thanks for coming by!

Building Up The Fireplace……

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Hello everyone!  I’m excited to share a little makeover I did on my fireplace today.  It’s something I’ve been thinking about for about a year now, and finally just got around to getting it done.  My fireplace has gone through several evolutions in the year and a half that we have lived here.

Lets go waaaaayy back.  This is what it looked like when we moved in:

It wasn’t bad, just nothing special. Then, I decided it needed a little pizzaz, so that is when I did my trellis stencilling on the wall. You can read about that here.

(Sorry about the bad picture)

Next, I decided that the tile inlay needed an update because the tile appeared pink in certain lighting.  Here’s a close up:

So I painted it black.  You can read about that here. So here it is with the trellis stencil, and the black brick inlay:

Well…………I’m not one to keep things the same for very long, so I came up with a new idea.  I decided to build it all the way up to the ceiling, with the hopes that it would look like a floor to ceiling, built-in fireplace.

And here it is:

Here’s the awesome part-it took me about 3 hours to do and only cost around $20!

So you’re probably wondering how I pulled that off, so here’s how it happened.  Before we did our remodel we had french doors leading to an office/dining room.  Here is a before picture:

You can read about our entire remodel here.  That room looks like this now:

So do you see the molding that was above the french doors that we removed? It was on both sides:

It just so happens that the molding from above the door was the exact length I needed for the fireplace.  We tacked it up where the wall meets the ceiling and had four pieces of MDF cut to make the side pieces.  We just measured what we needed at Home Depot and had them cut it there.  We never even had to get our saws out! Then I finished it up by caulking the gaps and giving it a fresh coat of paint.

I think I love how it turned out!

Thanks for coming by!

Angie’s Fabulous Fur Office Chair Makeover!

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Hello everyone!  I haven’t posted in a while, but I have a fun project to share today!  My fabulous friend Angie had a couple of office chairs that had seen better days….

And the other one…

She does a lot of work from home, and knew they needed an update.  She had been drooling over images like this:

And this:

And she was inspired by the chairs that I did about a year ago:

You can see the full tutorial on my chairs here.

So we talked and decided that we needed to glam out her chairs.

She wanted fur, but not all fur is created equal…..The fur you find at Joannes, or Hobby Lobby, well, it sheds, and that doesn’t make for a very functional chair.  I told her she needed Mongolian fur, a fur you can pretty much only special order.  My hubs has big time lint anxiety when it comes to his scrubs, so I can assure you, this fur doesn’t shed.

So Angie ordered her fur.  She ordered a dark brown, and a camel color.  Because she likes a little bling like me, we decided that the chairs needed to be sprayed in some metallic colors.

Here is our first chair done in dark brown fur with a gold metallic, hammered finish base:

Quite a change, right?

And here is the second chair, done in the camel color with a bronze metallic base:

And here are the two together:

I think they turned out great!

Thanks for coming by!

A Dollar Store Valentine Craft!

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Hello everyone!  I haven’t posted in a while because I’ve been extremely busy with some projects I’m working on.  I can’t wait to share those with you!  This week I managed to fit in a small Valentine craft that cost me next to nothing.

I started with these materials:

Two candle holders from the dollar store, two washed pickle jars with lids, a package of drawer knobs, about a yard and a half of ribbon, and some candy hearts.

I spray painted the candle holders, knobs, and pickle jar lids a satin black, then using a bonding glue by Loctite, I glued it together and ended up with this:

 

 It was super easy and soooo cheap!  The knobs cost a $1.97 for a package of two, candle holders were $1.00 each, pickle jars were free (we eat a lot of pickles) the ribbon was $2.00, and I already had the glue and spray paint.  That is less than $3.00 each.  Kinda fun, right?

Thanks for coming by!

Add Character With Black Doors!

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Hello everyone!  I’m finally getting around to doing another blog post! I’ve been staying busy with several different  projects that I’m working on, but I just can’t seem to find the time to blog about them!  You may remember that about a year ago I painted a few of my interior doors black.  You can read about that post here.  Well, a year later, I am getting around to painting all of the rest of them.

I absolutely love how it looks!  It adds so much character to an otherwise boring “builder grade” door.  An added benefit is that the black door disguises fingerprints and other flaws.  I took a couple of before pictures, and a ton of after pictures.

Before:

After:

 Before:

After:

I painted these “Onyx” by Gliddon, in a semigloss. I use a small foam roller for the majority of the door, then a brush to get into the trickier places.   Each door takes about an hour to paint front and back.  You want to always paint with the grain, and do two coats.  After the paint has completely dried, and you have some natural light, you will need to go back and do a little touch up.  I didn’t take the doors off the hinges to paint them.  I just taped off the hardware and used plenty of drop cloths to protect the floor underneath.  Here are a few more photos:

So far I have only painted the doors downstairs.  That’s 9 doors! I am hoping to tackle the 7 doors upstairs this week.

So what do you think?  White or black?  I’m sold on black.  Thanks for coming by!

DIY Coffee Table Turned Tufted Ottoman!

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Hello everybody.  I am soooo excited to share this project with you!  I spent the last two days turning this:

into this:

 This project was so simple, seriously, anyone can do it.  I have never upholstered anything in my life, so I kinda just learned as I went.

I salvaged the coffee table about ten years ago from someone who was throwing it out.  I liked it at first, but then I decided it wasn’t really my style.  It has sat in my garage ever since.  This past weekend my family and I spent the weekend with my in-laws and my fabulous mother-in-law gave me the zebra fabric.  She had it left over from another project and thought that I would like it.  Immediately I knew I needed to make the tufted ottoman that I had been dreaming up in my head for years.

I got all of my supplies from Wal-Mart.  After doing a little research, I discovered that foam is extremely expensive.  I started wracking my brain about things I could use instead of upholstery foam.  I decided on this:

A full size foam mattress topper that is 1.5″ thick and high loft batting also in full size.  I figured I could double up both to cover the coffee table.  That would give me 3″ of foam, and two pretty thick layers of batting.  The foam topper was $29.97, which was a steal, considering 1″ thick foam was close to $60.00 a yard at Joann fabric.  The batting was $7.97.  I also picked up three packages of button cover kits, at $1.67 each, upholstery thread, and a large upholstery needle.

Since I was doing tufting, I needed to cover the buttons in matching fabric.  It’s really simple to do.  Here are my covered buttons

The first thing I did was spray paint the bottom and the legs of the ottoman black.  I always do a first coat with $.99 cent spray paint, followed by a top coat of higher quality paint.  I used some that I had left over from another project.

At this point I got so excited that I forgot to take pictures, so the next few steps I’ll just have to explain.  I measured and marked where I wanted my tufts, then drilled holes from the top down with a 3/8 drill bit.  Next I cut my foam to fit the top of the table.

I took a bamboo skewer thing and poked it through each hole from the bottom and marked the foam where the holes were.  Next is a super important step if you want deep tufting.  You have to cut out a circle in the foam where each hole is so that the button will settle down lower.  Does that make sense?

I only did this on the top layer of foam. Next I covered it with two layers of batting, leaving enough to hang on each side.

 The next step was the tufting.  I poked the needle up through the hole from the bottom until it went through all of the layers.  Then, I threaded on the button and went back down the hole and pulled it tight.  The tighter you pull it, the tighter the tuft will be.  While you are holding it tight, staple the thread with a staple gun.  Do a switchback, and staple again.  You should do about five switchbacks, then pound in all of your staples with a hammer.  This is what the under side looked like when I was done

I cut the thread too short on some of my tufts, so I wasn’t able to do five switchbacks.  It still felt pretty secure with the staples, so I didn’t go back and do them again.  At this point my fingers were pretty sore, and I just wanted to be done!  When I was all done tufting I stapled the batting and the fabric tight around the edges, cutting and tucking as I went to have a nice edge.  Here is the finished product

I LOVE IT!!!  It turned out even better than I expected, and it was sooo easy!  Here are a few more photos:

So what do ya think?  Pretty good for a project that cost around $40.00!  Thanks for coming by!

 

A Fall Front Porch and a Monogrammed Pumpkin

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Hello everyone!  Today I want to share my fall front porch with you.  My family and I went to the pumpkin patch last weekend so I just got it all put together.  We got one HUGE pumpkin, two medium pumpkins, and a wacky looking green pumpkin with a weird growth.  I grew some white pumpkins in my garden this year, but evidently planted them too late, because only one is big enough to justify picking this early.  I salvaged the cornstalks out of a neighbor’s trash pile, and the Chicago Bears pumpkin is a fake that my husband carved several years ago.

I decided to monogram the big pumpkin using thumbtacks.  I bought them at the dollar store and they came in a package of 100.  I just sketched a simple monogram from an image I got off the computer.  It took me about 20 minutes to do and was super easy.

I usually fill my pots with mums and kale, but my summer flowers still looked so pretty I didn’t want to part with them!

I do have one urn with three different colors of mums that actually came back from last year.  Some have already started blooming and some haven’t yet.

 

 I love how it looks all lit up at night!

Thanks for coming by!

Super Fun and Easy Halloween Project!

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Hello everyone!  I am back from a long break from blogville, and as excited as ever about some new projects I’ve been working on!  The summer is such a busy time for my family, so I decided to take a break from blogging and just enjoy our time together.  Now that the kids are back in school and the season is changing, I’m finding all sorts of new inspiration!

I decided on this fun little project because I already had so many of the items on hand that I would need.  Here is a picture of what I started with:

An old ugly plastic flower-pot, an outdated pair of heels, a sunbleached and well used pool noodle, a can of black spray paint, and some purple and black striped tights from Wal-mart.  I wish I would have taken more pictures while I was putting it all together, but it really is so simple, that I didn’t need to

First I spray painted the pot black with Krylon spray paint for plastic.

I stuffed the ends of the tights with plastic Wal-Mart bags to fill the area where the feet would be.  Next I cut the pool noodle in half and stuffed it into the tights to make the legs.  I put the shoes on the feet and propped it upside down inside the pot.  I used more empty plastic Wal-Mart bags as stuffing to keep the legs centered and upright.

I grabbed an old witches broom that I’ve had for years and stuffed it into the back .  Once it was all propped and secure, I added some spanish moss from the dollar store to the top.

  I hot glued a couple of ribbons that I had to the pot to add a little flair, and there you have it!

I added the yellow rubber bands to hold the shoes on tight.  I thought about wrapping them with a black ribbon, but I didn’t have any that seemed right.  Then it hit me!  Black tulle.  So here is the finished project:

Because I used so many things I already had, my only purchase was the spanish moss for $1.00, the tights for $2.97, and the spray paint for $3.50.  For $7.47 I couldn’t be happier!

I have more fun projects to share with you in the next couple of days.  Thanks for coming by!

Linking up to:

http://debbie-debbiedoos.com/time-to-party-again-newbie-party.html

A Super Quick Table Makeover

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Hello everyone!  I have been neglecting this blog far too much lately.  I have a ton of things to blog about, just haven’t sat down to do it.  Yard projects seem to be my priority lately with summer quickly approaching.  Today I wanted to show you a quick makeover I did on a table I picked up from Craigslist last year for $20.00.

When we moved into this house a year ago, I wasn’t used to having a separate dining room.  The small dinette set that I had found a place off our kitchen, and the dining room sat empty.  With all of the expenses that come with purchasing a new home, a new dining set was not on the budget.  In an attempt to fill the space, I hastily snatched up a wood table from Craigslist.  Nothing about this table sings to me….I’m not overly found of the oval shape, the drop leaves, or the fact that it has YEARS of deep scratches, stains, and filth.  But….it was solid wood, the right size for the space and only $20.00, so it was the right choice at the time.  I always figured I would refinish it in some way and resell it when I found one I loved.  I didn’t really take any before pictures, but here it is in some of the photos that I took of the old dining room:

 The first thing I did was take it outside and give it a good sanding.  I mostly only sanded the top.  The top had deep grooves and scratches.  This is the table during the sanding process.  The white part is what I’ve already sanded.

I started with 60 sandpaper, then used 100, and finished up with 150.  I sanded the underside and legs really lightly with 150.  They didn’t really have scratches or anything, my objective was to remove the shiny finish so that the new paint would adhere to it.  I spent probably about an hour and half sanding.  It really didn’t take long.

The part that took the longest was probably trying to get rid of all of the fine dust from sanding.  You need to remove all of it before attempting to paint.  I wish I had taken better pictures of the painting part, but it’s pretty self-explanatory.  I covered the entire table with a super light coat of $.99 black satin spray paint from Wal-Mart.  It took about 4 cans to get a light coating on the entire table.  I did this because I’m cheap thrifty.  The cheap spray paint acted as a primer.  Next I went over it with Krylon black paint in a satin finish.  Krylon goes on really well and covers really nicely.  I just used super light coats over and over until the entire thing was covered.  I could have only used Krylon, but Krylon is close to $5.00 a can, so the cheap stuff cut down on the amount of coats I needed to use.  When the table had dried completely I applied three coats of wipe-on polyurethane to protect it.  I LOVE wipe on poly!  It is so easy to use and dries really evenly.  So here are a few pictures of the finished product:

 I still don’t love that table, but I think with the new black finish I can get by with it a while longer.  I don’t really have chairs for it either, but at least it fills the space for now, and for approx. $20.00 in paint, that is good enough for me.  Do you have a table that needs a quick, easy makeover?  It’s may be easier than you think.  I spent a total of about 4 hours on this, and worked on it outside while my kids played and rode their bikes. I like it so much better now!

I have some super fun things coming up to show you.  I purchased some really funky?! cool chairs from a distant family member’s estate in Washington, and my parents just brought them out here this past weekend.  Although they need a makeover desperately, I think I love them.  I can’t wait to share what I have in mind for them!  Please stay tuned!

Thanks for coming by,

 

Some Remodel Progress….

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Hello everyone!  I hope you had a fantastic Easter weekend!  We sure did!  We celebrated my son’s 4th birthday, Easter and the kickoff of soccer season.  We intended to take a break from our remodel, but my hubs wasn’t having it.  He’s ready for it to be over!

We finally made a decision on flooring in our master, and although it wasn’t tile like I originally planned, I think I’m much happier with our choice.  After some research we chose to go with natural bamboo and it turned out fantastic!  It is so warm and spa like.  (More details on that later.)

Our master bathroom has two parts.  It has a closed off toilet/shower part and a vanity and tub part that is open to our room.  The builder actually put carpet in the tub/vanity area and that just grosses me out!  It looked terrible.  We are recarpeting our master and there is no way I’m putting carpet back into the bathroom, so we had to make a decision on flooring. At some point I need to come up with a way to close off the bathroom to our bedroom.  Maybe a curtain?  Sliding barn door (I’m loving the looks of those!) Hmmm…I’ll tackle that at a later date.  For now I just want to get this remodel done!

This is our bathroom with its disgusting dingy carpet:

The pictures actually makes it look better than it is.

So this weekend my husband tore it all out and started to lay the bamboo.

 He got all the floor laid, but we still need to caulk and paint the base trim. Stay tuned for the final reveal…

We got a little further on our dining room too!  I had no idea how much work it would be to prep, caulk,and sand all of that trim!

Even with tenting it off, there was no containing the dust.  My hubs keeps informing me that dusting at this point is like shoveling snow while it’s still snowing, so for now it will just keep driving me nuts.

We had drywall to repair:

And a ceiling to repair and remud:

For this part we called in a professional.  There are just some things that you’re better off not doing yourself. So there it is.  I can’t wait to show you the completed project!  We are getting there!  Thanks for all of your comments and opinions about refinishing the stairs.  I think I’ve made a decision and I’ll post about that sometime soon.  It won’t be long now!  Thanks for coming by!

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