DIY – Paint Dipped Holiday Pinecones

No grocery post this week. Partially because I’ll be at my parents house for the holiday, and partially because I’ve been fighting off a terrible cold. Just when I think I’m getting better, it takes a turn for the worse. I ended up taking Friday off of work, and I slept away most of the weekend. Ugh…I just want to feel better already. So instead of my grocery challenge update this week, I have an easy little DIY that I did a few weeks ago.

These would be great on a holiday table, mantle, or use them for place cards by tucking a little piece of paper with your guest’s name into the top.

Last year I purchased a bag of Cinnamon Pinecones during the holidays. I love the scent so much that I left them out all year. I’ve used them in a variety of crafts and they work with a rustic decor year round. You can just spritz them with a little cinnamon oil when they need to be refreshed.

You don’t need the cinnamon scented ones for this project. Use whatever pinecones you can find outside. If necessary, let them dry out for a few days. If you think there are any little bugs in there, toss them in a plastic bag, and store them in the freezer overnight.

 

Next, grab some paint. I used some bronze, gold, and silver paint that I already had, so the project ended up being free. Golden is my favorite brand of paint for shimmery metallic finishes. They are an ‘art’ paint, not craft paint, so they are more expensive.

 

Paint the outer third of each scale. I also painted the outer ‘pointy’ edge so that the scales appeared ‘dipped’ in paint. I found it easiest to work from the bottom up.

 

 

I finished all three pinecones in about 20 minutes. It was easy and so versatile. How fun would these be painted with fluorescent paint and used for a spring mantle! You could also attach a string or ornament hanger and use them to decorate your tree.

 

 

If you want a little sheen, you could spray the finished pinecone with an acrylic sealer.

Refreshing A Feature Art Wall

Happy Thursday! I hope everyone’s week is going well.

 

Even though I moved inland 2 years ago, it still amazes me how quickly the weather can change out here. When I lived in Orange County, weather was mild. Now I live an hour inland, and today we went from 100 degrees, hot and sunny to a severe thunderstorm warning. A cloud has literally unzipped over my house. I love the rain so I don’t mind much, but the wind has been causing a bit of havoc and I’ve never heard thunder this loud. Before I realized that the storm had hit, wind caused my blinds to knock over a vase, shattering glass all over my kitchen and living room. Needless to say we’re stuck indoors so it was time to tackle a project that’s been on my list for a while.

[We’re also intermittently losing power so I’m not sure when this post will go up, but hopefully it does post on Thursday. If not, then ummm…HAPPY FRIDAY!]

Months ago I bought a set of numbered art prints from the same person who created the calendar I used in the Letterpress Journal. The artist was doing a deal where you got one print free if you bought two. Since I wanted the the set of three anyway, I went for it. The prints came from France, and with shipping, I think they cost me about $120. Certainly not cheap, but I loved them so much, it was well worth every cent.

 

After spending quite a bit of time staring at blank walls around the house, I decided this little alcove would be the perfect place. This oil painting is pretty, but it just wasn’t working for me.

However, the space is perfect for displaying art since it has a built in lighting. Just imagine I swapped out that ugly yellow lighting for  a pretty chandelier in the near future.

Before I show you the after shots, let’s take a side step. My first job was at Aaron Brothers (an art supply and framing store) as a sales person. I worked there throughout high school and college and over time transitioned to certified framer and later to a key holder. Looking back it has been my favorite job to date, but that’s not really the point. The point is that I cannot bring myself to pay for framing since I know how to do it myself. I’m referring to the matting in particular which can get ridiculously expensive.

Tip: I also know that their penny sales are always in January and July, so if you need multiple frames, pick them up during that sale where you can get the 2nd frame for just a penny. In addition to the three fames for this project, I picked up three more for other projects, and the grand total was just under $100. 6 large frames for $16 each is a great deal when they all were marked at about $40+ each before the sale.

To mat them myself I picked up a 2 full size mat boards, in Ash, from their framing department for $28. For less than $30 I was able to mat all three prints and I’m left with enough scrap for quite a few more prints.

Tip: You can have their framing department cut down the boards to any size you want, usually for free. I had them cut me 3 pieces of 20×28 from the 2 boards which saved me time (and space since full size boards would be a tight fit in my little car). In most cases they will cut them down for you for free; however, if they do charge you, it shouldn’t be anymore than $.25 a cut which is still a good deal.

Tip: ALWAYS take the scrap/extra, if they don’t give it to you, ask for it. If you’re paying for the whole board, you should get the whole board, regardless of what they cut for you. Unless it’s just sliver sized pieces, you can use them for a variety of things at home.

I didn’t take any pictures of the matting process, but if anyone thinks it would be helpful, I’d be happy to write up a tutorial. I have the Logan Model 301-S Compact Mat Cutter at home, which is a good model to do small scale matting. It’s inexpensive and easy to use.

Tip: Clamp the mat cutter to the table using inexpensive hardware store clamps to keep it from shifting while you are cutting. If you have a very steady hand you can buy a Hand Held Mat Cutter and use a ruler to cut the mat. Unfortunately, my hand isn’t steady enough to use this method, but others have success with it.

Once the art was matted and framed, the last step was to get it up on the wall. Turns out that wall is really tall and my ladder is not, so it took a little creative thinking to get up high enough, but it worked. I won’t show you what I rigged up, since it was a ‘don’t try this at home kids’ trick, and I don’t want to give my mom a heart attack.

*I fixed the wrinkling you see in the below picture.

So much better than the oil painting.

Next up, I plan to paint the wall behind the art a shade of grey and replace the recessed canned lighting with a pendant or chandelier. 

 

 

*Mat Cutter links are affiliates.

DIY Dark Wood Laundry Drying Rack

A few months back I bought a carved wood hook (from HomeGoods, surprise surprise) that I thought was perfect for the laundry room. I loved the dark wood next to the painting, but it had limited functionality. I could only hand a few things on it, and I need more space to air dry some delicate items.

It also kept falling off the wall, but that was really more my fault than the hooks.

I still think it’s beautiful so it’s being moved somewhere else in the house (not sure where yet).

So down came the hook and I started brainstorming other options. l thought of grouping some single hooks in some sort of pattern on the wall, or a shelf that could at least provide some additional ‘counter’ space.

Then I saw the genius DIY post over at Centsational Girl for a dryer rack and the light bulb went on above my head. Actually it more like I swiped the light bulb that formed over her head (but whatever). That would be perfect to replace the wobbly hooks and add some additional functionality to the laundry room.

I picked up a 2’ x 2’ piece of plywood which fit the space perfectly, no need to cut it down. I also picked up 2 pieces of 1 x 3 boards and some 3/8 inch dowels.

I followed the steps in Kate’s post with the exception of the finish, and I used chain instead of brackets for the sides. It took a few days to build and stain the entire piece since I worked on it in small chunks of time in between work and other projects, but it could be easily built in an afternoon.

Drilling the dowel holes was the fun part. Who ever thought I’d have such fun with power tools.

I used Rustoleum Kona for the finish, which is essentially the ORB of the stain world. To create the darker finish color, I didn’t wipe off the stain. I apply it in thin even coats and let it dry. I then applied a few thin coats of Satin Poly to protect it since damp clothes will be laying directly on the wood. 

Just like Kate, I used a sash lock on the top to secure the piece when not in use. The knobs are from some old IKEA furniture which I’m thinking of painting a light aqua color, but for now the dark iron color works well.

I LOVE this thing! Especially since it was fairly inexpensive. All the supplies cost me less than $20 since i had the stain, knobs, and tools already.

It almost blends into the wall as a piece of art which is yet another reason why it ROCKS.

DIY Dark Wood Spice Rack

While wandering the Crate and Barrel outlet a few weeks ago, I found the perfect little spice jars. They run about $2 each, which is more than I originally wanted to spend, but I love them. They have a tight seal, are easy to access, and look so pretty lined up on the counter.

Source

However, as much as I like them next to the stove for easy access, I quickly realized I needed another way to organize them. It looked messy when I grouped them on the counter.

Stacking them was an option, but they aren’t designed to be stacked…

..so they would often look like this.

Needless to say, I needed another storage option. After playing around with some scrap wood in the garage, I came up with this.

It was incredibly simple to build and I had everything on hand so it didn’t cost a penny. It even provides enough room to add another 4 spice jars under the first level.

The entire rack was made up of 4 pieces. Each side was a piece of wood cut into an ‘L’ shape. I believe it was cut out of a piece of scrap 1 x 6 wood. The shelves are cut from scrap 1 x 3 boards. There is nothing magic about the measurements. I lucked out that the 1 x 3 perfectly fit the spice jars and I knew I wanted 5 jars per shelf. This design is easy enough to adapt to any space/jar size that I plan on building a second spice rack to fit in a kitchen cabinet to hold additional spices that aren’t used everyday.

I used simple brad nails to build the rack and sanded the whole thing lightly to take away sharp edges. I chose to stain the piece very dark to compliment the dark flecks in the granite. I used Rustoleum Kona, layered on a thicker than usual coat and left to dry for 2 days. Usually you would apply stain and wipe it off shortly after application; however, in this case, I just let the stain dry like paint. It ended up being perfectly dark and dried with a slight shine.

The finished product ended up being a huge success and I’ve already had several compliments on it. It’s an added bonus that it was free; although if you did have to buy the supplies, it would still be fairly inexpensive.

DIY Nail Polish Storage

I’m a little obsessed lately with nail polish. I’ve always like a good manicure (which I do myself), but growing up an avid nail biter meant my nails always looked awful. However, last year, I took a month to battle my bad habit, and things are still doing well. Now that I have longer nails, it’s much more fun to keep them polished.

However, breaking the nail biting habit is costing me a fortune! I love polish now. 

My collection before was housed in a plastic shoe box. It quickly outgrew the lid and was starting to spill over the sides. Not only was this messy, but it was awful when the only polish I wanted just happen to be on the bottom of the box (which was always).

So in an effort to organize my linen closet, I used some scrap wood to build some nail polish storage boxes. The structure was as basic as it gets, and to make them quickly, I only used nails to hold everything together.

I built 3 basic boxes, like the above, and one slightly special box that holds tools.The tool box was split into two compartments, one side for tools and the other for clear polishes and treatments (i.e cuticle oil, base coats, top coats, etc). I reach for this box most often since I keep all the files in there so I made the front a bit lower to make it easier to identify and remove from the shelf.

Since I used scrap wood, some of the boards were bowed and knotted. Each box needed quite a bit of wood filler. I set the nails and filled all the seams.

After a heavy coat of wood filler, I spent a day sanding them. As you can see in the picture above, many of the seams were very uneven. This didn’t really bother me since I was making these out of scraps for free, but it required a lot of sanding to clean them up.

After wiping them free of dust, I applied 2 coats spray primer and 2 coats of white satin spray paint. Since it’s likely that polish may leak, I also applied several thin coats of Satin Poly. It won’t help if a whole bottle spills and dries in the box, but it will help me clean up a quick leak. I also like the sheen of satin poly on a project like this.

There is a 4th box, but it was still drying when I took these pictures.

The last step was to add some label holders. I purchased 2 packages of chrome label holders from Staples, Martha Stewart collection. Unfortunately I can’t find a link to the product online, but I found plenty of them in store. They come is a brushed chrome color and I used my magic ORB spray paint to darken them. They attached with double stick tape, so there is no hardware to deal with.

…and ORGANIZE!

I split the boxes into color families to make it easy to find any polish. I have a Red/Pink box, a Blue/Purple box, the Tools box, and an Other box.

They easily stack in the linen cabinet and actually look pretty nice. I also like that there is space to add more boxes in case my collection continues to grow.

 

Project Cost Breakdown (for all boxes):

Wood/Nails (Already Owned/Scrap Wood) = $0

White Spray Paint, Spray Primer, Spray Satin Poly (Already Owned) = $0

Labels (Martha Stewart @ Staples) = $8 (I think they were about $4 a package and I bought 2)

ORB Spray Paint for Labels (Already Owned) = $0

Total Project Cost: $8

2 Year Home Anniversary – A Look Back

Alright, first things first. Who’s making a Golf Cake for Father’s Day?

It’s been the most popular post on the blog lately, so I suspect there are quite a few golf enthusiasts out there that will be eating cake this weekend. Great additions would be a sand pit (made with brown sugar), or a flag (using a skewer, cut in half). I’d love to see those cakes if anyone does it! I may just do a special post to share your golf cake pictures so feel free to leave links in the comments or email me pictures.

 

Okay, now back to the point of today’s post. The 5th of this month was the 2 year anniversary of when I purchased my first home. I didn’t start the blog until a year later so there are a bunch of projects that I never originally blogged about; although, I have been trying to share finished projects in order to catch up. I thought it would be fun to look back at some of the before and after pictures from the past two years.

 

Front Door Entry

There haven’t been any major changes to the front door with the exception of decorating and I changed out the handle/deadbolt when I moved in. This is my favorite picture from the Autumn setup. The star was found at HomeGoods and I built the Front Door Post myself. In the past year I’ve also created the Halloween Sign, Yarn Wrapped Fall Sign, Valentine Cork Heart, and most recently the Hand painted Welcome Sign.

 

Backyard

The backyard has been a bit of a challenge since it is completely paved. I have a dog and I desperately needed some grass so the main goal was to find a way to grow grass on concrete.

BAM…Yes. I. Did.

The grass planters work very well and would continually grow grass year round if my dog didn’t enjoy killing it so much. I’m tempted to swap out the real grass for a synthetic grass this summer.

Vertical planters went up along one wall to add some height and extra gardening space.

…and I built a potting bench for the wall.

Oh, and I can’t forget the BBQ…still love that green!

 

First Floor Bathroom

This is one of the rooms that I did before starting the blog. I had all the accessories with me from my previous apartment so I knew that I wanted a Hawaiian themed room somewhere in the house.

I ended up using a refreshing Bamboo color on walls which really brightens up such a small room.

French Doors

Oh, those doors! I though I was stuck with broken blinds until I found inspiration online to paint them!

This project made a huge impact and I’ve since covered several other windows in my house with the privacy film.

Dining Room

This room is still in progress since I’m currently using a small card table as my dining table.

For under $100 I added moulding and I LOVE it.

I get quite a few questions about that bar. It is a knock off of the Pottery Barn Bar and my dad built it for me. You can see more about the bar, here.

 

Garage

I’ve shared all my Garage woes on the blog so this is probably not new to you. Over the past few months I’ve made a ton of progress. Remember when…

…and now with all the shelving, it’s actually functional. I’ve since added a temporary workbench in the open area that I’ve been using for painting projects.

 

Fireplace

Another project that was well documented on the blog, and probably my favorite project to date. I was SO intimidated by this project that I kept pushing it down the list. I didn’t think I could really do it on my own.

I started off by painting the fireplace screen, and that gave me some motivation to keep going.

Little by little, I started chipping aware at the tile.

Before I knew it, the finishing touches were in place.

 

Powder Room

This is a small powder room near the living room and kitchen. The room has no natural light which made it difficult to get the wall color right.

I ended up a peachy beige and decorated with that lovely orchid and rustic boxes. The garden lantern on the floor holds extra toilet paper rolls.

I replaced the standard oval mirror with a larger version that I scored at HomeGoods for $49 and the Moroccan urn works as a trash can.

 

Kitchen/Ledge

I don’t think I’ve actually share the Kitchen as a whole on the blog before. I’ll show a little more in another post, but we did make one change to that half wall shortly after moving in.

An added ledge. Such a simple addition and it made a huge functional difference to the kitchen.

 

Office

This one shouldn’t be new to you since I just shared it the other day, but here’s a quick before…

…and in progress (right now)…it will all be changing soon.

Spare Bedroom

Another room that’s current in progress (and actually making substantial progress lately!). Before…

…and in progress…

 

Third Floor Spare Bathroom

Another all white bathroom. A blessing since I wanted to decorate each room myself, but it was so bland when I moved in.

Yes another room that I think I painted 3 times before settling on the green. First it was pink, then it was blue, then I scored with the ‘army’-ish green.

(yes, those curtains need to be hemmed)

 

Laundry Room

The laundry room is the room that you look into when you come up to the third floor, so I wanted it to look good. Who wants to stare at an ugly room every time you come upstairs?

A grey blue on the walls and sea grass baskets gave it the perfect style. Oh, and clearance art…can’t hate that!

On the wall leading in to the laundry room I have the DIY Chalkboard Thermostat Frame.

“Laundry Today or Naked Tomorrow”

So True!

 

There are a few other rooms that I haven’t shown you, like the Kitchen, Living Room, and the Master Bed/Bath. I’ll make sure to share those in the future. I’m also going to be updating the Home Tour page soon which will add some, much needed, organization to the site.

 

Have a GREAT Weekend!

DIY: Hand Painted Welcome Sign

Good Morning, Happy Wednesday! I’m officially counting down to a very exciting weekend, so I’m happy we’ve finally hit midweek.

Since it’s May, I suppose it’s time to finally take down the Valentine theme door decorations. The cork heart was lovely, but I think it’s time for something a little less seasonal. I did do a little window shopping and couldn’t find any premade signs that I liked so I decided to make my own with a a piece of scrap wood and some paint. 

I used a piece of scrap wood from the potting bench project, and painted it the same color used on the bench. It was a great neutral brown/grey that would compliment the post at the front door. Once it was dry, I used the interior circle of a canning jar lid, and a pencil, to draw a pattern onto the painted wood. The design looks complex; however, it’s really just two layers of side by side circles.

I wanted the pattern to blend into the background, so I used the same base color and lightened it with a little white paint. Then I used a small brush and painted over the pencil lines.

I free hand painted the word ‘Welcome’ then used a few stamps to add a bit more texture. Using a VERY light touch, I stamped a few designs onto the board using black ink. This worked as a template, and I then used a dotting tool and some aqua paint to cover the stamped designs.

A few screw eyes and some yarn made a perfect hanger.

The wording is a little shaky, but I really love the how the sign turned out. It’s a good blend of neutral and fun, definitely something I could leave up through Spring and Summer. If you happen to have one of those fancy Silhouette cutting tools, then you could use it to create some amazing vinyl lettering.

Since I owned the wood and paint, this project ended up being FREE. I knew there was another reason why I loved it.

DIY: Vertical Gardening

I cannot tell you how great it felt to wake up this morning and know I didn’t have to work. I woke up without an alarm clock, took my mom’s beagles out for a short walk then took Baxter out for a really long walk. I think he’s feeling a little jealous lately since I’ve been paying so much attention to the beagles. Nothing a little walk couldn’t fix. In fact the relaxation continued right up until work exploded and I was sucked back in. Ugh. All I wanted was one little day, but whatever.

While out walking the dogs, I toyed around with the idea of starting a dog walking business. Can I make a living doing that?

I’m avoiding my work computer for a moment and finally wanted to share a very cool outdoor project with you. When I moved in to this house, the entire backyard was paved with exception of a little space next to the side fences.  I planted a few things that require little attention, but it just looked so…blah!

I wanted to bring some height to this side of the yard, but didn’t have enough space to plant any trees. I was also hoping to find a solution that would give me space for herbs/veggies. So I bought some rebar and a few pots…

I purchased a 6 foot piece of 1/2” rebar for about $8. I pushed it into the ground about a foot so the end piece would stand about 5 feet tall.

Using a rubber mallet, I pounded a small upside down pot into the ground to help stabilize the bar. Packing the dirt around that bottom pot made the whole piece very sturdy.

Then it was just the matter of threading and filling the pots up the bar. I used a few azalea pots on the bottom and smaller pots on top.

I found out quickly that you need to fill the pots as you go, if you stack them empty, they will collapse into each other as you add more.

Once I built the entire tower, I started adding plants. I figure some of these will die simply because it takes a little practice to figure out the right watering for the placement/sun/pot type. So far, they’re doing pretty well, but I’ll be swapping a few out shortly.

 

In fact, I was so pleased with the outcome, I built a second tower along the same wall. The rebar shows on the first one at the top, so I hope to find a plant that will grow over it, but I was able to push the second bar further into the ground, so it is hidden in the top pot.

Now I just need to wrangle those wandering rosemary plants and clean things up a little. Oh, and buy some more pots, because I have one more spot that could use a pot tower as well. This area will be eventually blocked by the outdoor seating so the tower will be great for adding some height behind the chairs.

Project Cost Breakdown (per tower):

6 foot piece of 1/2” rebar (Lowes) = $8

4 Azalea Pots (Lowes) = $9 

5 Small Pots (Lowes) = $8

1 Bag of Potting Soil (Lowes) = $5

Total Project Cost: $30

DIY: Portion Control Plates

A few weeks back I was browsing through Open Sky and came across this portion control plate. I actually really liked the idea for those times when I needed a little extra attention to my eating. However, they were charging $30 for 2 plates, plus whatever shipping happen to be that day. So I would probably be looking at about $40, and I just can’t justify paying $20 a plate.

Portion Control Glass Plate (OpenSky)

*This picture is from Opensky and it’s wrong since they placed the protein in the large section. I’m not sure how this got past someone, because I don’t know of a diet where that would be an acceptable vegetable serving.

The point is to use the frosted lines as a guide and fill half your plate with vegetables, a quarter of the plate with starch and the last quarter with a protein. Only I made my own for the cost of the plate since I already owned some etching cream.

Step 1:

Collect your supplies.

• Simple Glass Plate
• Armour Etch
• Paint Brush
• Painter Tape
• Gloves/Eye Protection (The Armour Etch can cause burns so take proper precautions and be safe)

*Please be safe when using this product. I would not recommend letting kids use this product, this is definitely an adult project for safety reasons.

Step 2:

Using the painters tape, tape off the plate. Be sure to press down all edges of the tape to keep the Armour Etch seeping under the tape.

Step 3:

Apple a liberal layer of the etching cream and set aside. I let it set for about 20 minutes before taking the next step.

Step 4:

Carefully remove the tape and wash off the etching cream using lukewarm water. I wore a pair of dishwashing gloves for this step since I didn’t want to get the etching cream on my hands.

Let it dry and you’re done.

I haven’t used etching cream much, but it’s not difficult. I did get some on my hands and didn’t have any negative reaction, but I still think it’s incredibly important to wear gloves just in case. Since the etching is on the bottom of the glass, the top is food safe. I read somewhere the glass will still be dishwasher and microwave safe, but it doesn’t state this on the bottle.

Not bad for a $3 knock off of a $20 plate.

I tried it out last night and loved it. Yes, if you’re great at portion control you won’t need a plate with lines, but for those times when I need a little extra help the lines are a good guide. I think this will come in handy.

(Macadamia Nut Crusted Mahi Mahi, Brown Rice, Sautéed Brussel Sprouts and Spinach) It was delicious!

 

Project Cost Breakdown:

Clear Glass Plate (World Market) = $3

Armor Etch (Already Owned) = $0 (Hobby Lobby sells this and with their 40% off coupon it would cost about $5 for a small bottle) 

Painters Tape/Brush/Gloves (Already Owned) = $0

Total Project Cost: $3

DIY: Chalkboard Plant Markers

I’ve been spending a lot of time in the yard lately, working on the garden and adding some vertical planters. I’ve finally gotten to a point where I have lots of different plants and I needed some way to distinguish between them. For the plants I bought at a nursery, I try to keep the tags with the plant. But I’ve been doing a lot of planting from seed and I needed a way to mark those as well.

…and I have this can of chalkboard paint lying around…

So I stopped past Michaels the other day and picked up some simple, wide style popsicle sticks. With the 40% coupon I scored a package of 75 for less than $2.

Step 1:

Collect your supplies.

• Chalkboard Paint
• Painters Tape
• Wide Style Popsicle Sticks
• Foam Paint Brushes (don’t use the type shown in the picture)
• A large piece of cardboard
• Chalk

Step 2:

Roll a small piece of painters tape and stick it to the back of each popsicle stick.

Adhere the sticks to the cardboard. Taping the popsicle sticks to the board make it easier to paint them and keeps your hands clean. Less mess overall.

Step 3:

Paint one side of the sticks with two coats of chalkboard paint.

Step 4:

Once the first side is dry, flip them over and repeat the process.

The thin, cheap wood absorbs the paint quickly meaning your new chalkboard plant makers were done in no time.

Step 5:

Use chalk to add the plant names and you’re set to go.

Project Cost Breakdown:

Popsicle Sticks (Michael’s) = $2

Chalkboard Paint/Foam Brush/Painters Tape (already owned) = $0

Cardboard (already owned) = $0

Chalk (Already Owned) = $0

Total Project Cost: $2