Making It Work with a Bit of Paint

I've been needing something new to put above my accent table in the kitchen that I purchased at Pier 1 a couple of months ago. I recently had a canvas painting of some fruit, but I'm really trying to phase out that theme in my kitchen (it's a little outdated!).



During a recent trip to HomeGoods with my sister-in-law, I noticed this cool metal leaf motif in the clearance aisle. Only $8! The problem: it's a rusty red color. The wall I wanted to hang it on is red as well and wouldn't really pop the way I wanted it to. So, what to do? Paint it of course!



I purchased a can of Rustoleum flat white spray paint and put one coat on the entire metal motif.

When it was all dry, I decided to take some sand paper and give it a rustic feel. I lightly sanded sporadically over the  entire wall hanging, heavier in some spots to really expose the original rust color. I absolutely love the final look!





Final costs: $8 for the metal leaf wall decor and $4 for the Rustoleum white spray paint. $12 for decor that fits my style!

Making it Work with a Bit of

Cool Craft: Scrabble Name Tiles

While wandering around the DIY blog world last week, I found these awesome Scrabble tile boards from Shanks - Est. 2009. I thought I would give this project a whirl!



So above is Shanks' version, and here's mine!



First step was to track down my supplies. I headed to the nearby Michael's and picked up some 12x12 inch wooden tiles for $1.99 a piece. They had a border around the edges,  but I figured I could flip the boards over and use the back as my clean surface. Plus I really loved them cause they had an awesome wood grain pattern that made them look like actual Scrabble tiles! I decided to pre-treat them with a clear coat of polyurethane to give them a little bit of a shine and hard coating.

Next I found some sticky back chalkboard paper in a roll. I've never used this stuff before, but thought it was worth a shot for $5 a roll.



Now to get down to business! I looked up Scrabble tiles online to make sure I got the right point value matched with the right letter. I then printed them out on normal printer paper. I cut the letters and numbers out with scissors, then used those as my template for the chalk board paper. Yes, I'm sure there was an easier way, but I couldn't find my exacto knife anywhere! So alas, scissors and tracing will have to do!


When all of the letters were cut out, I peeled the back label off and stuck them to the boards. They're repositionable so it's pretty easy not to screw this part up! I just made sure to press it down hard when I was happy with the position to lock it into place.

Final costs: $6 total for the 3 tiles and $5 for the chalkboard paper (which I probably used only 5% of the entire roll!). Not too shabby of a project for $11. Well here's the finished piece again!

If you want some of these cool tiles for your home, visit Shanks - Est. 2009 or you can buy them from her Etsy page by clicking here.

Back to Black: Reupholstered Chair for Great Room

Yes, I know. I've been on a bit of a revamped chair kick recently! While at St. Vincent De Paul last week, I spotted this lovely chair. It caught my eye with the cool bevels in the wood...and the ugly fabric of course! I decided to purchase the chair to refurbish for my Great Room. Thought it would be a lovely piece to add next to my fireplace and at only $10 it was hard to pass up!

So here's the before and after! Here's how I transformed this chair for less:

First stop, Hancock Fabrics. I love to check out the remnants section. At $4 a yard, you can't go wrong! So my Great Room features deep colors that can be found in most rooms of my house: deep reds, tans, olive green, and black. My match the decor, I opted for a traditional and posh pattern with those colors. I purchased one yard knowing that would be more than enough!

Next, I took apart the chair seat from the base. Just 4 screws held the chair together.



I washed the chair to get rid of all dust and grime. Then I primed with Zinsser 123 Bull's Eye white paint. I did two coats, allowing dry time in between each coat.



While waiting for the paint to dry, I decided to work on the seat cover. I first removed the old seat cover and all staples. I reused the padding underneath, just straightened out and made sure it was in good enough condition.



I measured, making sure the pattern was completely centered on the seat. I stapled into place, and often flipped the chair seat over to make sure everything was staying aligned and perfectly in place.



When the primer had set, I painted the chair base in Krylon's flat black spray paint. Normally I really don't like using Krylon. Yes, it's cheap, but I feel like I have to do more coats than Rustoleum which actually costs more in the long run. I finished  with a thin coat of Minwax polyurethane.

So again, here's the before and after!

Final costs for this project: $10 for the chair from St. Vincent De Paul, $4 for the yard of fabric from Hancock Fabrics, $4.50 for the Zinsser primer, $7 for the two cans of Krylon flat black spray paint. I had some Minwax already on hand so final cost was right around $25!

Faux Finish Wallpaper in the Master Suite

About three years ago I wanted to wallpaper my hall bathroom, but I was very nervous since I had never wallpapered anything in my life. I was very lucky to bring wandering through the aisles at Lowe’s and happened to find Paper Illusion, a wallpaper that you tear and overlap. The sales man swore there was no way we could mess it up so we decided to give it a whirl.

Hall Bathroo

We picked out the shade Tuscan Red. My house has a red theme throughout, so this color fit in perfectly! It was extremely easy to use. The Paper Illusion comes in a roll large roll like normal wallpaper with a pre-treated glue back side. All we had to do was tear the wallpaper into random sized pieces, dip in water for a couple of seconds, stick it to the wall, smooth it out with a flat edge and wipe away the access glue.

It took me about 4 hours to finish my entire hall bath. The time consuming part was tearing the paper. I didn’t know at the time, but it really doesn’t matter what size you tear the pieces into really; it’s the homeowner’s preference. I ended up doing mostly 8x8” pieces with some smaller ones to fill in the gaps. I also tried to make sure that I covered all of the flat edges from the side of the paper with the torn edges (it makes a cooler effect).

The cost was $39 per roll and I needed two rolls to complete the hall bath (I do have leftovers as well). I also bought a new shower curtain on clearance from JC Penney’s for $19.99. I love completely changing the feeling of a room for less than $100!

So the wallpaper in the hall bath worked out so perfectly that this year I decided to re-vamp my master bathroom and also one accent wall in my master bedroom using this product. This time we chose Marble Earth and I LOVE it...mainly because it adds texture to my bland walls, plus I can switch out my bedspread and bath accessories to anything in the future and it will match!

This project took a little longer to finish, split between a couple of days. Probably around 10 hours total since there was a lot of weird angles in the bathroom.While the wallpaper is no longer in stock at Lowe’s, you can check outwww.wallpaperillusions.com for all of their products and colors. They actually have quite an assortment, plus some nice before & after shots.

The price was $39 per roll for this round as well and I needed two rolls for the bathroom and two for my master bedroom wall (I have some leftovers too just in case). Not too bad to completely transform a bedroom and bathroom for $160!

The current red accessories in my master bath are completely yack. At the time I purchased them, I wanted something red to match my bedspread, but I am just NOT digging it these days. Once I find a new comforter, I’ll get some modern accessories for my fab new bathroom. Until then, these will just have to do!

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Reupholstered Desk Chair for the Kiddo

As seen in last week’s blog here, I finished transforming an old wooden desk into an art station for my three year old daughter. While I love the way the finished desk looks, I really needed a new chair to make it functional.

Note: yeah, I just couldn’t help myself to move it into my kiddo’s bedroom. It’s just adorable!

While roaming through the aisles of my recent favorite store (Goodwill), I found a wooden spindled chair with an old leather upholstered seat for $9. I thought it would be perfect to transform this chair since I would be able to change out the seat cover fabric with something modern to match her new bedroom.

So here’s the before, and after!

OK, here’s how the transformation took place:

The chair was actually in pretty good condition when I purchased it. While it was covered in some grime (probably used as a kitchen chair in its previous life), it was nothing that a little soap & water and sanding couldn’t fix.

I first took the leather upholstered seat off the chair base. The seat was attached with a couple of screws underneath the chair base, plus adhered with a hot glue around the seat rim.

Once the seat was fully removed, I clean the entire chair with soap and water, then lightly sanded with a light grade sand paper. I rewashed the chair base when I was complete with the sanding to make sure all of the dust was removed.

The empty seat base was the nastiest. There were old crumbs and dirt wedged into the nooks, but luckily some good ol’ scrubbing and disinfecting took care of the job.

I primed the entire chair with Zinnser Bull’s Eye 123 spray paint primer. I absolutely love this primer and suggest it for almost any project! It goes on smoothly and has wonderful coverage, especially when dealing with odd shaped like spindles.

I covered some of the chair base with two coats of primer since I knew it would get a lot of wear and tear, especially from a three year old!

Next I lightly sanded the primed chair to get the smoothest surface for my final coat. I chose Valspar’s semi gloss off white spray paint to cover the base of the chair. I used two coats and left it to dry overnight.

Now time to work on the upholstered seat! The current leather that covers the seat is actually placed quite well. I was afraid to take it off and lose some of the curvature of the current padding underneath so I decided to just upholster with my new fabric over the leather.

I chose a green geometric fabric from JoAnn Fabrics to cover the seat that has some accents of cream and pink. This perfectly goes with my daughter’s desk and either play room or bedroom, depending on where I finally decide to keep the desk! I purchased one yard on sale for $2.99.

To begin, I laid the fabric upside down on a flat surface and aligned the chair seat on top upside down as well. I played around with the placement until I had it perfectly centered. With the geometric pattern, it was easy; I just made sure the center of the chair had a row of the circles going straight down the middle.

I measured the new fabric for cutting, making sure I had enough to overlap and secure into place.

Starting with the straightest side of the chair seat, I folded over the fabric and used my staple fun to secure starting from the center and making my way out to the edges. I had to make sure the fabric was smooth and tight, often flipping over the chair seat to check my progress.

I repeated with the opposite side of the chair seat, firmly pulling as I went but making sure my pattern was staying centered.

To work with the rounded edges, I made sure that any folds in the fabric happened underneath the chair seat where no one would see it. Often I made tiny folds and stapled into place to make sure I had the smoothest cover possible.

I continued along the sides, pulling firmly along the way. I ran my hammer over all the staples when I was finished making sure everything was tightly secure, then trimmed all access fabric.

I decided to pre-treat the newly covered chair seats with some Scotchgard Fabric Upholserty Protectant that I purchased some time ago from the local hardware store for about $8. I use this on my dining room chairs and thought it would work perfectly on this desk chair.

Once the chair seat was dry, I screwed it back onto the chair base. There were only 5 screws and they were mostly towards the center of the chair, so I added some hot glue around the edges to make sure it was 100% secure.

And here is the transformation! I decided to put the desk in my daughter’s bedroom afterall, and I have to say... it goes perfectly with her room!

Final costs: $9 for the chair, $3 for the fabric, $4.50 for the Zinsser primer, $3.50 for the Rustoleum semi gloss white spray paint. $20 total! Not to shabby for something totally unique.

Refurbished Heart Shelf for My Little Lady

I spotted this country style heart shelf from Goodwill the other day for $6. While it’s not really my style, I thought a little paint could really transform this into a nice little accent piece for my daughter’s bedroom.

The shelf was in great condition for only $6. I really didn’t have to do any sanding since the surface was smooth and the wood was untreated. I just wiped off all the debris with a wet washcloth to prepare for my primer. This time I chose Zinsser Bulls Eye 123 Primer which works great for all surfaces.

Once the primer was dry, I painted the heart shelf with two coats of Rustoleum semi gloss white spray paint. Since the shelf had so many niches, I found the spray paint was the smoothest coverage.



I love the way the white pops, but I thought adding some fabric behind the shelves would really set it off from her light blue walls.



While shopping at WalMart, I noticed they sell quarter singles, 18x22 inch pieces of fabric normally used for quilting. I thought this would be perfect since each quarter single is only $1.30. I picked up three colors, pink, olive green and blue.

I had to iron the fabric since it came folded and I didn’t want to see any creases behind the shelves.



Next I measured the space between the shelves so I could cut the fabric to fit. I added 2 inches to each side so I had plenty of room to attach to the wooden frame.

I used a staple gun to adhere the fabric, starting in one corner, then attached the opposite corner. Once the four corners were secure, I stapled all the way around the frame. I followed this suit with each shelf.



I finally got all of the fabric in place and secure. I flipped over the heart shelf and voilà! Beautiful smooth colored shelf liners that really pop from the painted white shelf!



I added a couple of my daughter’s trinkets for now until I find some little photo frames to show off some of her pictures through the years. I’m happy for now tough.



Final costs: $6 for the shelf from Goodwill, $4.50 for the Zinsser white spray paint primer, $3.50 for Rustoleum semi gloss white spray paint, $4 for the three fabric quarter singles. My total was $17 to transform the country heart shelf to a bright and colorful shelf for my daughter’s bedroom! Not too shabby.



But alas, I was shopping at JoAnn’s Fabric over Memorial Day and spotted this modern pattern for $2.99 a yard that perfectly goes with my daughter’s room. So I ripped off the old fabric and stapled on the new stuff! It only took me 10 minutes to fully change out and get back up on the wall. Man, I love the fact that I can change the heart shelf fabric backing out as often and easily as I change my mind :)

Transforming an Every Day Lamp Shade

When I was researching stencils to complete my daughter’s bedroom wall (seen here), I came across a couple of articles online about using small stencils for ordinary lamp shades from the DIY blog Two Girls Being Crafty. I thought this was a perfect idea for my great room’s lamp, since the shade is white and kinda blends in with the stairwell behind leading to the lower level.



I figured I could completely transform the lamp shade by adding a damask wall stencil and some tasseled trim. First stop, Hancock Fabrics to find the trim.

My great room is mostly red, with a couple of accents of olive green, black and tan so I decided to work off that color scheme to complete my transformation.

First thing was to clean the lamp shade with a damp cloth to get rid of all dust or debris. Then I got all of my supplies in place: fabric paint from Michaels ($1.39 for the small bottle of gold and $2.39 for the large bottle of green on sale), blue painter’s tape to hold the stencil in place, stencil brushes that I had in my paint closet and the damask wall stencil from Michaels for $10.

To prepare, I taped the small damask wall stencil in place with blue painter’s tape. There was a seam on the back of the lamp shade so I used that as my guide for spacing the stenciling evenly. I then mixed the fabric paints, two parts gold and one part olive green. As seen below, I only had an Elmo paper plate to use as my mixing palette. Oh well, whatever works!

I applied the mixed paint with a stencil sponge that I had purchased in the past from Michaels art supply store. I slowly peeled up the stencil to make sure the paint covered all of the areas evenly.



I painted the back of the shade first directly up the seam, followed by the front and sides to space the stencil evenly. The paint dried quite quickly and wasn’t applied too heavily so I was able to tape down the next stencil immediately.

Isn’t she purdy? This project isn’t even close to complete yet and I’m totally in love already.

Next step, the trim along the top of the lamp shade. I found this rope cord from Hancock Fabric for $2.39 a yard. I used my hot glue gun to wrap it around the top of the shade.

I then glued on the gold tassel trim to the bottom of the lamp shade. I purchased this from Hancock Fabric as well. It was originally $11.99 a yard, but I got it on sale for 50% off. I purchased two yards for the bottom of the lamp shade.



The last piece to complete the lamp shade was a deep red large tassel from Hancock Fabric that I got on sale for $4.19.



Again, here’s the before and after transformation.



So total costs for this project: $14 for the paint and stencil from Michaels and about $20 from Hancock Fabric for the two trims and tassel. So less than $35 for the entire project. Yeah, I kinda think that I could have bought a new lamp shade for $35, but at least I can say it’s an Erin original :) And it kept me busy on a Saturday night.





Photos on my end table were taken by J’Lynn Photography in St. Louis. She’s amazing! Check out her website at www.jlynnphotoart.com.