Sarah's bedroom makeover

There's something about a room makeover that's really exciting.  All the dreaming, thinking, creating, wondering.  What does one do with a blank canvas?   Well, Sarah wanted something bright and pretty and uncluttered, with only a few of her favorite things in it.  That's a great start! 

Here's where we started:  a tribute to Audrey Hepburn, two Jack Vettriano prints, album covers of her favorite musicals.  Those are the highlights.  A red accent wall with yellow gold on the other three walls.  A really good looking room, I have to admit.  She enjoyed it for eight years. 

We moved everything out of the bedroom and took everything off the walls.  This is when the FUN began.  We needed inspiration.  A few hours on Pinterest and a few trips to several local stores gave us some direction.  A road trip to IKEA in Chicago proved to be our true inspiration. 
IKEA has so much to buy look at. Three hours later, we had lots of good diy ideas and two purchases: a new duvet and cases in gray and white and pretty white tone on tone panels for the window.  Simple.   Very good choice.  We can go anywhere with this print.   Sarah decided on the classic and popular gray and yellow color scheme.  I concurred.   The duvet print is on the left.  We stopped at a fabric store to see what options we had for pillows.  (Do you know the price of decorative pillow these days?)   The gray in the middle is for the headboard and the leafy yellow/gray print is the first choice for sham covers.   A really lovely start!

We wanted to situate the bed under the window, so it would be the first thing one sees when entering the room - the focal point.  This means, however, we can't use the headboard that comes with the bedframe.  So, we thought it would be fun to make a headboard...a floating headboard.

I found a piece of plywood that was the right size (! how often does that happen?)  I had some left over random pieces of quilt batting that we used to cover the board with a staple gun.  I was glad Sarah liked to do this part. 

We covered it with the silvery gray material and stapled it all again.   

Looking pretty good!  We used four 2x2 deck spindles on hand to attach it to the wall.  We grouped all four together and did some measurements so they are centered.  We screwed the top and bottom one to the headboard and the middle two to the wall.  Then we put the headboard on the wall and screwed the top 2x2 on the headboard to the top 2x2 on the wall.  We did the same with the bottom.  Worked like a charm!  It provides a little space away from the wall which we like and everything is hidden.  A floating headboard...done!

Next, pillows!  Shams and other kinds.  We found lots of fabric that we couldn't live without. 

From this...

...to this!!  

Lots of cutting, pinning, ironing, and sewing in the next few days.  But so worth it!  Look at Sarah's bed.  Isn't it beautiful!  We love it! 

We had a lofty thought after shopping at TJ Max one day.  They had a pretty tone-on-tone wallpaper on their walls (notice it the next time you shop there).  We thought the same look would seal the deal with the walls.  Something subtle and pretty.  We found a stencil at Wisconsin Craft Mart and bought a quart of saffron yellow paint (two shades darker than the wall paint) in preparation. 

Well, we were LUCKY one day when we showed a friend (thanks, Tasha) the room and shared with her our plans for the stencil and she gave us another idea she saw a friend do (thanks, Nicole).  Instead of stencilling the whole wall, why not just do a couple of pieces of wood and hang them up for art.  I had thrifted from St. Vinny three square canvasses one day for a future project.  Well, that project just arrived. 

Three coats of saffron yellow paint later they were prepped for stenciling. 

We purchased charcoal gray and metallic gray acrylic paint from the local World of Variety for the stencilling.  We used both colors on each stencil to create some visual movement.  We REALLY liked this project.  It was time consuming and kinda puttsy (but remember, I like puttsy). 

We stenciled two canvasses like this.  The third canvas was used for a quote.  Hmmm, what profound words to use?  There are soooooo many good ones.  Sarah and I were listening to music one crafting day and we heard a song from the musical GIGI.  (It might be available on netflix for your immense enjoyment.)  There is a line in that song that Sarah picked out for her quote: "Oh, what miracle has made you the way you are."  Isn't it sweet!?  So, that's what went on the third canvas.  Of course, I made the stencils with my CRICUT. 

Here they are on her wall...pretty spectacular!  (Sorry for the glare.)

As you might know by now, Sarah loves musicals.  We found an old record player at a garage sale so she could play these old albums.  We scout for them at thrift stores whenever we can.  She has a nice collection of albums and we listen to them pretty often.  Anyway, she wanted to promenently place the records and the player in her room.  We had a nice naked wood stand that was perfect for this

display.  We primed and painted it white to match the other furniture pieces in her room. 

 

Look how awesome it looks! 

And finally, the dresser.  The only piece of furniture to return to the room.  It's IKEA.  We put up the shelving for books instead of one on the floor.  The sign on the top shelf says:

Life does not have to be perfect to be wonderful! 

How true. 

So, there you have it.  A month or two later, it's finished.  It was really fun to do with Sarah.  I loved our time together.  Sarah loves how bright it is and simple to clean and manage.  It was fun to do and so worth it. 

I hope you have the time and energy this summer to makeover a room that is ready for a new look.  Sometimes it's just a good cleaning and simplifying, clearing out clutter and sorting through books and knacks.  Sometimes, it's just a new color on the walls or new pillows. 

I'm inspired now to repaint my living room and give it a new, fresh update.  I'll let you know how that goes. 

Happy summer!! 

 

Rustic wooden tray/planter

I was a bit restless this past weekend and went wondering around my house waiting for inspiration to hit.  I have several potential projects stashed in the garage, so I took a stroll out there.  I found a footstool in desperate need of a remake.  It's been there for awhile and looked somewhat forlorn so I chose it.  Here's a before picture of the footstool as I'm ripping off the bottom cover and eventually all the sides, top and guts.

Pretty good bones.  Except for the nail holes and glue everywhere. 

The feet are in great shape with only a few knicks here and there.  

Here are the layers and layers that came off, along with about a gazillion upholstery nails.  If I had the right tools it would've been quick(er) work.  I was happy to have the demolition mostly over without any blisters.  We'll see how long that lasts.   

I removed the legs and will use them on a different remake.  The wooden frame is so rustic that the two finishes didn't work together.  No biggy.  I was hoping the sanding would remove more of the dried on glue, but there was alot of it left.  It was at least smooth to the touch which is good enough.   I actually flipped the stool over, so the bottom is now the top.  That gave me a flat bottom to nail on the 1/4 inch plywood.  

I glued pieces of twine on the top of each board on the rounded sections to cover up the old glue add some interest and I drilled holes in the sides to wrap smaller twine to reinforce the big twine on top. 

Isn't this a cute look?  I like it alot, I gotta say. 

This is a view from the side.  

This is just a picture of the twine I used and wood glue.  I don't know if that's the right kind of glue to use for this project, but it's what was on hand.  Isn't that how it goes sometimes? 

I can hear the wise words of Tim Gunn right about now.  "Make it work." 

I drilled two more holes on the sides for twine handles for easy moving. 

 Looks even cuter now, me thinks!

This is the inside where I tied the knots for the handles. 

I put it outside on the deck for now.  I will probably find the perfect spot for it in a few days.  It's really rustic looking.  Maybe I'll fill it with impatiens or pansys planted in terra cotta pots.  It would be fabulous as a tray on stacked pallets, too.  I might end up painting it. 

Who knows?  Whatever it ends up being is okay with me. 

 I hope there will be more days like this one, remaking a piece of junky old furniture into something that's unique and functional again. 

In my book, nothing much beats that!  

Corks Galore!

My last visit to Emily's house brought a new project for her home.  I brought with me a big bag of corks (that my sister, Sandy, rounded up from the local winery) to do something with.   Emily's been collecting them.  Her friends have been collecting them for her.  So, I added my bag to hers and we were swimming in corks. 

We decided to make a word sign for the space above her kitchen cabinets.  This is where she has been displaying her empty wine bottles.  She had quite a collection (!)  We sorted and saved only her favorite wine bottles.  The cork sign would be placed among these.  The word we chose - ENJOY. 

We played around with different sizes, different looks and it came down to these two:

 Then we had to find the board in her very limited wood pile.  Not much to choose from, but we found a piece of plywood that would work.  I guess one has to live in one place for a while to be worthy of a decent wood pile.  I have one, but it could be better.  You can bet I try hard to bring home free, random scrap pieces of wood to my garage for future use.  Some of my findings are in my sister's attic for safe keeping (and hiding). 

We thought the natural color of the plywood would blend in too much with the wall color, so we painted it brown.  Again, not a stock pile of paints to choose from.  We used one of those little bottles that cost .99.   We used it all.   Emily will have to deal. 

We watched the paint dry, cuz we were so eager to begin gluing the corks to the wood.  A bit tedious, but we were ready for tedious work to see this project on the wall.  Of course, tedious work is always more fun with a glass of wine.  We had to taste Emily's new favorite wine (again). 

Emily even picked out her favorite corks!  Who can remember which cork came from which wine?  Evidently, some names make their corks recognizable and save-worthy.  She especially liked the corks with the house on them.  We also liked using the corks from red wines that have colored the corks red, pink, or purple.  Makes sense, but not something I noticed before.  Only when one is looking at hundreds of corks does one see the difference in their color and shape.

We eye-balled the placement for each letter.  We both have pretty good eye-balling skills.  A ruler or string would've been a good idea, but we were on a roll, in the zone, having a good time. 

Who neede extras steps!

Here's the final project in place.  It looks pretty good!  Adds a little corky fun to her home. 

She has enough corks left for some other fun project.  I'll be seeing her again in July.  Who knows what will come of them.  I'll let you know whatever it is.   In the meantime...enjoy!  

more fun with wood

Happy April!  A couple of weeks have passed since my last post.  But, I'm still on the same fettish...wooden signs.  Sarah's BELOVED sign came together so quickly and was so much fun that it felt like I struck gold or something.  So, I've been experimenting on more wooden signs.  Three to be exact.  Two were gifts and one was for me.  So, let's get started, shall we?

This first one is skinny.  It was a confirmation present for Kaitlin.   She asked me to be her sponsor, so I wanted to make her something personal.  We spent a week together at a Young Life camp last July and our theme for the week was 'be free'.  So I decided to make her a sign with these words:  BE REAL, BE FREE, BE BOLD.  Again, cut on my cricut and mod podged onto the painted wood.  I added a scripture verse to the other side too...I somehow forgot to take a picture of that. 

Here it is on my entrance table.  It looks nice there, and made me realize I need to make me one just for this space.   That project will be for another day. 

The second wooden sign is for my niece, Claire, for her 20th birthday.  She saw Sarah's sign and requested one for herself.  She provided me with two of her favorite scripture verses and let me choose which one to use.  Here is Claire's sign.

I found a little piece of 1/4 plywood that had two good sides.  I liked both of her verses so I used both of them, one on each side.  (I forgot to take a picture of the back, again.  Should I be worried that a pattern is developing here?)  This side says, "...and his banner over me is love" from Song of Songs.  I cut out the letters on my cricut (no kidding) and used the stencil this time.  Purple is Claire's favorite color, so that was an easy choice.   There was some space on the bottom to add flowers. 

I tried something different as an effect.  I watered down a little bit of the purple color and painted the whole sign again.  The water took off some of the stenciling and washed it out.  I had to restencil some of the letters, but left most of them washed out.  It has a really different look to it.  More artsy than I really am.   I gotta say, it's fun to take risks sometimes.  Happy Birthday, Claire!

And here's the third sign, for me and my house. 

I changed the mantel to our fireplace in our downstairs family room.  Moved a framed lighthouse picture to a different wall and relocated a wooden sailboat to the mantel.  I needed something behind the sailboat to accentuate it, so why not make something?  Yes, sirree, I'm right on it. 

Now, I know this looks like a piece of wood, but it's actually thick cardboard.  Perfect size and pretty sturdy too.  I painted it to look like the ocean.  Then I experimented...a wrote out a poem really big in cursive letters (the poem is about sailing that Sarah wrote when she was young.)   I liked the idea, but the execution left me uninspired. 

I stenciled on some other words in a different size.  I liked this too, but not right yet. 

So, I repainted the whole front to cover up all these words and while I was waiting for the paint to dry, I remembered I saw something I liked on Pinterest - a wooden board with just the word BEACH painted on it. It was simple and it had impact. So that's what I ended up doing. I cut out 6" letters: SAILING and stenciled them on. I liked the results.

The final test was what it looked like with the sailboat.  I hung it above the mantel...and loved the final look!  What do you think?

Finally Beloved

Doesn't it feel great when you have a project on your mind for awhile and it finally comes to be?!  Well, it happened this weekend to me. 

Sarah's been home for spring break and we've tackled a few things, but nothing major.  When I asked her if she wanted to help make her sign...her nod was quick and sure.  So, off we went to gather all the supplies.  It came together so easily, too.  That's definately a sign that says we were ready for this diy project.  (The board we used was free on Craigslist.  I picked it up in the fall - one can never have too much wood on hand, me thinks.  I hauled it to my sister's attic for safe keeping until that special day when I would need a piece of wood exactly this size and shape.  That day came in early February and it's been leaning up against a wall in my entry since then - that's how long I've been thinking about this project.)  We had everything we needed on hand.  I like it when that happens!  

I saw this idea on Pinterest and loved it!  The fact that this verse is one of Sarah's favorites make it even better.   

Here's the board getting primed.  We set it up on paper cups so we could paint the edges easily. 

While the paint was drying, we picked out lots of fun colors from my pile of cardstock and got busy cutting out all these words.  This would take a long time if I didn't have a CRICUT.  (btw, I wouldn't even attempt this project if I had to cut out every letter by hand...yea, that would be too much.  One could use stickers or chip board, if one had enough of these things.)   We could've stenciled the verse on like the rest of the letters, but we decided that we wanted the verse to stand out a bit, so we used the letters for the verse.  I know, I know...lots of gluing ahead.   
 

We wanted a little color to the background, so we painted on greens, blues and purples mixed with alot of white paint, so nothing would overwhelm the words.  We let it dry and decided it was pretty, but it looked like an easter egg.  So, we scrapped that and started anew.  Sarah thought shades of brown would be nice, so we tried that next.  It turned out to be exactly right!

Then we tied a string from the top to the bottom on the righthand side of the board about 3 inches from the edge to use as our guide; the words would be right justified.  We glued on the first line and determined where the next line would be and used a string for this too...a plumb line to make our words as straight as possible.  (Yea, I see a few crooked letters too; we decided it's all part of the plan...)

We continued the careful and time consuming work of gluing down each letter.  We hit our stride, though, and it went surprisingly fast.  (You can see the string we used for guidelines in this pic.)   

   

Some of the cardstock colors are cool colors and some are warm colors.  It's hard to see all the words in these pictures, but it looks great on the board.   We decided that we didn't want to stencil on any of the words, (like the inspiring original), so we left it just like this.  We used mod podge to cover all the words and make everything stick for sure.   

It was finished; all total it took about 4 hours.  Not bad for a weekend project.  We're planning to hang it in Sarah's apartment - in the kitchen above her table.

It's a great reminder to start out each day on a positive note. 

"Finally, beloved, whatever is true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable;  

if anything is excellent or praiseworthy, think on such things." 

Philippians 4:8