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had a canvas painting of some fruit, but I'm really trying to phase out that theme in my kitchen (it's a little outdated!).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!

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.

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.

Bachelorette Party at the Wineries

The best part of living in St. Louis is that you’re only a couple of minutes away from wine country, and this is definitely the time of year to enjoy it!

So my sister had a bachelorette party this past weekend for one of her college friends at a winery and asked me to help her make some personalized wine glasses for the event!



There were 18 total girls that were going to the party so we purchased some medium sized glasses from the nearby Dollar Store.

I then went to Michaels for the supplies. Since the wedding colors are navy blue and green, I chose scroll patterned ribbon to decorate the stems of the glasses and scored 4 total spools for $4.



I cut the ribbon into 6 inch sections, one of each color. Then I tied them into smaller bows around the stems.

Next I used fabric paint from Michaels ($1 for each bottle) to decorate the base of the wine glass with polka dots in navy and lime green. I used Scribbles fabric paint since it’s waterproof and shouldn’t budge with the condensation from the wine.


 Once the paint was dry, we placed silver stickers to spell out the names of the girls on the wine glasses, including Bridesmaid or Maid of Honor tags. We rotated capital and lowercase letters to give it some character.



On the opposite side of the names, we used silver wedding bell stickers and hearts. On the bride’s wine glass, we also included the date of her wedding.



Total cost of the project was $23 for the paint, stickers, and ribbon from Michael’s, plus $18 for the wine glasses. Pretty cute for around $40!

 

Damask Stencil Wall for Daughters Bedroom

Just recently I redecorated my daughter’s bedroom from its prior hot pink princess look and feel to a more serene setting with shades of blue, green and rose.

As blogged here, I’ve finished most of the redesign, I now just have a couple of finishing touches.



First task on my list, the accent wall that just seemed a little bland. With a little bit of internet searching, I decided to stencil the back light blue wall with a silver damask to spruce it up a bit.

I ordered one from Cutting Edge Stencils, a source I found online, and chose the Verde Damask. This stencil measures 17 inches wide and 22 inches tall, just the perfect size to cover her 10x10ft back wall.



I bought some silver acrylic paint from Michaels on clearance for $2.99 and watered it down a bit to it would have a translucent effect. I purchased a large sponge brush from Lowe’s (only $6) to apply the paint. You can actually use a roller brush, but I just felt like I had more control with something handheld.



I practiced my technique on a sample board first which I highly suggest to get your color combination right and to get comfortable with the stencil. Once I was content with my sample board, I started with the left hand side of the wall, about 2/3 of the way up (I decided on this strategy since I knew I had shadow boxes that would be placed on the wall at a certain height). I taped the stencil with blue painter’s tape and applied my first coat with a stencil sponge.



I peeled up the stencil every so often just to check that I was using the right pressure. I wanted a subtle effect, but needed to make sure it was even across the stencil.

When I was finished with the first round, I let it dry for a couple of minutes then I slowly peeled up the painter’s tape. The stencil has built in guides to lay the next piece so you can’t mess up the alignment.



The whole process when very smoothly! It only took me about 4 hours to complete the entire room, but mostly because this was my first time stenciling and I was going quite slow to make sure I wouldn’t mess up! I let the paint dry for 2 hours then moved back the furniture. It looks great! And I love how the light reflects off the metallic silver from the window and ceiling lights.



So the total cost of this project: $46 for the wall stencil from Cutting Edge Stencils with shipping (get 20% off when you use the promo code SPRING), $6 for the paint and $6 for the paintbrush. Under $60 total!