Getting Graphic in the Green Room – Accent Wall Style!

I decided way back some time last year that the green room was in need of a little makeover, (more details on that to follow, so stay tuned) and what better way to get started in that direction than to do an accent wall?!

Ahh, the beloved accent wall - a new one pops up on my Pinterest feed at least three times a week, and it seems as though everyone in blogland is doing one… and well … now so am I!

Check it out:

I thought long and hard about how to accent this wall for a very, very long time – going from thoughts of a solid contrasting color, to stripes, to something stenciled, to finally deciding on something grahic, abstract and super colorful.  Even though this little project was a long time a coming, I am glad that I deliberated over it for as long as I did, making sure that it was something that I would absolutely love and that reflects me.

Here’s a quick little pictorial rundown of my day-to-day progress: (I am currently working on a more detailed how-to that’ll even include a little step-by-step video, so again, stay tuned for that!)

And finally, after making a few more tweaks, I called this turkey done!

My inspiration for this project came primarily from the painting below by my super talented and bestie, Devon Nowlin:

and also from this image that I came across on Etsy:

As an added bonus, I completed this project just in the nick of time to submit toward the self-imposed  “Pinterest Challenge” that the ladies over at YoungHouseLove and BowerPower cooked up to get folks to stop pinning and start doing their pinned projects (more on that here). So you can click on the button below to get in on this big ol’ pinterest-project-share-fest and check out lots of other fabulous DIY projects that the great people of blogland are doing and showing off:

Here are some of the accent walls that I have pinned along the way that have inspired me to create an accent wall of my own:

click pic for source

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Thanks for looking!!!!!

Dresser Drawers Turned Wall Shelves Phase 2 – Decoration & Styling

Here it is folks! The winter edition of the unofficial Pinterest Challenge, as created by Katie B. from the blog Bower Power and explained in further detail right here on Young House Love.  For this “challenge,” which is basically a self-imposed challenge to get some of those Pinterest projects that we all have tons of pinned, and turn them into things we’ve actually DONE!

So without further adieu, I share with you the dresser drawers turned wall shelves that I decorated and styled up for this challenge:

When I left off on the installation process of these shelves, they looked like this:

Getting them all prettied and decked up was a fairly simple project.  I just used some decorative wrapping paper, from World Market, cut to size and then adhered the paper to the “backs” (technically the drawer bottoms) of the shelves using double-stick tape:

So much prettier and happier looking than the dull, brown backgrounds, don’t you think!?

And as far as “styling” the shelves, I just grabbed some books, bookends, and other little knickknacks I had on other shelves around the house and quickly arranged them to have some photos for this challenge post.

Feel free to checkout tons of other really great Pinterest projects by clicking on the ”Pinterest Challenge” picture below and scrolling to the very bottom of the post:

And you can click right here to check out the inspiration photos that I have pinned to my Pinterest board for this project:)

Thanks for looking!!!

Dresser Drawers Turned Wall Shelves Phase 1- Installation

As a continuation of my self-imposed Pinterest challenge (more on that here) I have gotten the installation phase of my drawer shelves complete:

This is one of those projects that I would file under “upcycling” or “restyling” as they are known in DIY blogland - where you take something that you found or have lying around the house that you don’t use or don’t LOVE in its current state, and upcycle it into something awesome that you do love. These projects also tend to be budget friendly - I snatched these drawers for free from an old retired dresser of my little cousin’s that was getting tossed.

The process was fairly simple.  After spotting a blank area on one of the walls in the den that could house a little project like this, I first put a quick couple coats of paint on the drawer fronts (paint color left over from the blue room - Behr’s ”Caribe”) :

Then I cut out paper templates to the size of each drawer and arranged them on the wall several times until I came up with a configuration that I  liked:

After that, it was basically just predrilling and drilling holes into the drawers and into the wall (using wall anchors) and getting them up one at a time until they were all mounted:

And that was pretty much it!

Below are some inspiration photos for this project that I have pinned here:

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Pretty inventive and lovely, don’t you think?

In phase 2, I plan on decking out the shelf backings (technically the drawer bottoms) with some pretty fabric or decorative paper, and then decorating and styling the shelves with some lovely tchotchkes aka thrift store finds, so stay tuned for that

Thanks for looking!

Jumping on the Dipped Leg Bandwagon …

… well sort of.

If you read any diy or interior design blogs, then you know what the term “dipped legs” means. It’s one of the biggest trends that can be found all over the blogosphere right now as seen here, here, here, and all over here.

So I decided to hop on that bandwagon and render my own adaptation (hence the “sort of” above) of the whole dipped leg movement that’s currently taking place:

This was a fairly easy little project that I completed over the course of three days, mostly due to the need of so much drying time. First, I snagged the wooden console table from my bedroom (was using it as a vanity in there, but moved all my hair and make-up goods into the master bathroom) and gave it a good wipe down and light sanding:

Then I measured and marked where I wanted the “dipped” area of paint to go and taped things off, also taping around the surface area that would be painted white:

After that, using the same quart of paint from the door Olive and I recently painted, I mixed a little white paint into the blue-green paint to, one, extend the life of the paint, and two, lighten it up a bit:

And then a-painting I went:

This took more coats of paint than I had anticipated. The wood bled through the first three coats, so I ended up applying four coats of paint in the end. If I’d have thought of it, I would have primed it instead of having to paint it over and over again so many times – eh, you live and learn, right? Then after letting things thoroughly dry, I applied four very thin and even coats of satin polyurethane with a foam brush, allowing each coat to thoroughly dry in between applications yet again, and BAM! That was it:

And now on to putting this table to use, any guesses at what we’ll be using it for…

Thanks for looking!

LINKED TO:

http://www.younghouselove.com/2012/10/fall-pinterest-challenge-getting-board/

and

http://www.bowerpowerblog.com/2012/10/pinterest-challenge-is-for-succas/

Related articles

• Rearrange furniture, change paint to boost a room (newscover.co.uk)

Tissue Paper Flower Pom-Pom for Above Olive’s Bed

Pinterest, oh how I love thee and thy ways you maketh my dreams of completing a diy-to-do list into an infinite wayward pipe dream. I’m pretty sure we all have a countless number of pins on all of our virtual pin-boards, but do we actually ever get around to “doing” that which we are “pinning”? One of my favorite blogs (Young House Love) has created a self-imposed challenge for its readers called “The Pinterest Challenge: Stop Pinning and Start Doing!” You can read more about the most recent of those challenges and check out tons of DIY projects right here.

Alas, I have finally gotten around to making my version of this (originally found here) lovely over-the-bed tissue paper pom-pom (canopy?) for Olive’s room:

I’ll spare you all the how-to-make-a-tissue-paper-pom-pom details here, but if you’re interested in seeing how I made each flower/pom-pom you can follow this link for an AMAZING tutorial.

We started with some paper lanterns that we already had hanging around the house and some tissue paper in a variety of complementary colors bought from Party City, which I found to have the most variety to choose from as compared to Target and even Michael’s:

As usual, Olive helped:

We started out by hanging the paper lanterns first and then incorporated the pom-poms after finding some balance with the lanterns, using paper ribbon and the existing hook from the hula hoop canopy the was previously hanging over her bed:

THANKS FOR LOOKING!!!

LINKED TO:

http://www.younghouselove.com/2012/10/fall-pinterest-challenge-getting-board/

http://www.uglyducklinghouse.com/2012/10/pinterest-challenge-ampersanity-link.html

and

http://www.ourfifthhouse.com/2012/10/pinterest-challenge-fall-edition-little.html

 

Pet Silhouette Wall Art

As late as I am at getting on the whole silhouette bandwagon, I was bound and determined to get this little project done and finally scratch it of the ol’ to-do list, and since I already had wallpaper out from this project, I thought now was as good a time as any to whip out this little task and call ‘er done!  I decided to go with a pet silhouette, although others like deer mount silhouettes and portrait silhouettes have caught my eye as well (see more silhouette Pinspiration here).

I started out by selecting a few sheets of wallpaper samples that I liked and a couple of trays I had lying around that I thought would work well with the silhouette cutout:

Then, by taping plain printer paper directly onto the computer screen, I traced an image of Bitsy in two sections (my screen wasn’t large enough nor was the 8 1/2 x 11 sized paper I was using) to create a template in the shape I was looking for – Bitsy shaped, of course:

After tracing her image, I taped the two pieces of paper together adjoining the top half of her body to her bottom half, and then placed it on top of the various sheets of wallpaper I had selected from earlier to decide which one I liked best. After positioning the traced image on top of my choice wallpaper in the just-right-place, I taped it in place so I could cut it with an exacto knife without it shifting:

Then lastly, I sprayed the back of my wallpaper cutout with spray adhesive and affixed it onto the tray with the wood-toned center:

And Voila!  A ctue-as-a-button-chihuahua pet silhouette! I love it   :0 )

Enryway Closet – Pretty Patchwork Wallpaper and Paint

The entryway closet has gotten a bit of an organization overhaul over the past couple of weeks, but in the midst of all my efforts at making things more functional, I got the hankering to apply some visually appealing components in there as well. Que the wallpaper and paint!

This was one of those I’m-feeling-kinda-crazy-creative-and-want-to-do-something-about-it-right-now moments that serendipitously worked out alongside the other closet projects I had going on without me even having to buy anything or leave the house to get it done.  I already had all the supplies on hand, all I needed was to get to a-movin’ and a-shakin’! So I grabbed a variety of “scrap” paints (leftover paint samples from the green room and $3.00 oops paint from Lowes) to mix a pale shade of green, and then got to painting:

I painted the lower section of the back of the closet wall with the green paint I just mixed, then painted the 2×4 running across the back of the closet, just above that lower section, coral (leftover paint from this closet painting project). It was at that moment that I recalled one of my inspiration (or should I say Pinspiration) photos to figure out just what to do with the upper section of the closet – patchwork wallpaper!

click pic for source via Pinterest

So I gathered the pile of wallpaper samples I had lying around that have yet to be put to use, taped and measured out an area on the kitchen floor the same size as the space within the closet that the wallpaper samples would be going, and then laid out my samples, shifting them around until I came up with a nice, eye-pleasing layout that I was happy with:

Then I got to gluing them on the wall one-by-one (I used Scotch brand ultra-hold spray adhesive) until the entire upper section of the closet was covered:

And after adding a few accessories, like a mirror, Mr. Rhino, and a three-tier shelf, we were left with this pretty little drop-off zone that I couldn’t be happier to step into every evening when I get home from work and every morning on the way out the door:

It makes me smile!

LINKED TO:

DIY Tire Swing

We made a tire swing this past Sunday and Olive has already been enjoing it!

Click HERE for a quick tutorial and all the “how we did it” details

THANKS FOR LOOKING!

Fireplace Painted!

This was hands-down one of the most tedious and time-consuming paint projects I have taken on in this house to date, yet will most likely prove to be one of the most rewarding.  It wasn’t a quick little paint job like my bedroom closet or the laundry room like I first had in mind.  Well actually, I think I may have known deep down inside that it would be a bit of a feat, that’s probably why it has taken me this long to finally get the job done, even though it was one of the very first things I absolutely knew I wanted to do upon moving in almost two years ago.  All the deep grooves around every single brick had to be hand-painted with a 1-inch brush since the roller just couldn’t get deep enough in there to get them covered, even when using the “extra-rough texture” roller.  So yeah, wrist-cramp anyone?  But I’m not complaining, I am more than thrilled with the results!

As I mentioned in this post, the fireplace, located centrally within the house in the kitchen, was a very dark, “energy-sucking doo doo brown” I believe is exactly how I worded it.  Here’s how the fireplace looked before:

You can see how all the Christmas decorations just blend into the dark, brown backdrop, creating a muddled arrangement instead of a bright and poppy one.  I first toyed with the idea of painting the fireplace red since I intend to paint the kitchen walls robins-egg blue, and I really love a pale blue and red color combination, but decided against it since red is also quite energy-sucking and wouldn’t adapt as well with the changing seasons and correlating decorum the way a more neutral white would.  Also, my eyes and my heart just kept going back to all of the white brick fireplaces I’ve seen and imagined, and have absolutely swooned over.  So white (off-white, Behr’s “Creamy White” to be exact) it went, not without first getting a good cleaning with the assistance of my best little helper of course:

… and also getting a coat of primer to make sure the white paint didn’t just get absorbed right into the underlying brown paint:

Here’s a close-in detailed shot to show you just how deep the grooves around the bricks really are:

And here it is after two days of about ten man-hours later in all of its whitewashed glory:

Not the greatest after/final reveal photograph, but it was late when I finally got it done and was eager to get this posted.  Olive and I have already gotten it all dressed and gussied up for the upcoming Halloween festivities, and I am more than enamored with how much more light and airy the room feels from making this one simple change!

Linked to:

Closet Painting (With the Kids)

Last week I made some headway painting the den, (two walls got painted to be exact) which might make you think that the next logical thing for me to paint would be the remaining walls in the den, but nope, not the story here.  I opted to first paint the closet in my bedroom instead.  Why, you ask?  Well because, like I explained in the previous post, we were very eager to get the television set up in the den, (we were having tv withdrawals, seriously, Olive watched nearly 2 hours of SpongeBob on Sunday – should I be admitting to allowing her to do that?) and in order to get that done I would need to move the long dresser from my bedroom into the den for use as a media console.  But even before doing this I would need to make ready the closet for all it’s newly incoming garb formerly housed within the confines of the dresser.  See how this is all starting to tie in together?

So just like any other normal person would decide to do, I went on ahead and threw some paint on the interior closet walls before moving all the new stuff in, not without the help of my two children assistants of course – it was actually their idea of a good time on a Saturday night… and admittedly mine too:

I just used some previously mixed peachy-pink paint (more on the here) mixed with some additional pink and some white paint to try to get it as closely matched to the paint swatch that I liked.  I really liked the “Peach A La Mode” color, but ended up with something closer to the “Peach Crayon” color swatch below:

Note: the colors shown here are not true to life, pretty much at all, but they do show the closeness of the mixed paint to the color of the paint swatches, both of which are Glidden.

I am pleased with the results, and there’s always something extra rewarding about using supplies you already have on hand.  The color is sort of iridescent too, which you can see a little better in this pic below:

So we chugged away for about an hour or so and got it to near completion:

Then on Sunday, I finished up painting the top and touched things up.  You may have noticed in the picture above that the back wall inside the built-in cubbies was left unpainted.  That’s because I had the grand idea of painting those areas coral (Valspar’s “Tropical Pomegranate” to be exact) with leftover paint from the entryway credenza that I painted back in June.  Which left things looking like this:

As for the shelf that sits just above the clothing rod… that got a little facelift as well:

I wrapped it with wrapping paper that I bought specifically to line the drawers of the entryway credenza (the coral paint color ties in well with the coral flowers on the paper) with the use of spray adhesive to keep it in place:

After putting the shelf back in place, we ended up with a beautifully painted, peachy-pink, clothing-ready closet:

Ahh, just peachy isn’t it? It puts a smile on my face and gives me the warm-and-fuzzies every time I walk past it

But then I look over at the big ol’ mess on my bed and that brings me back down to realty:

Now I’ve got some organizing to do!!

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