Tuesday, September 25, 2012

And it begins...


Have you stopped off at The Concrete Cottage?  It's my little Sis' blog.  She is my inspiration all the time.  I CASE so many of her things.  Well, now she's gone and done it.  She got me started on chalk paint.  She loves Annie Sloan's brand.  I, however, cannot afford Annie Sloan's Chalk Paint.  So I did some research and found a recipe for some.  I tried it out and it worked wonders!!!  I love it.  So...inspiration #1.

Then, this week she posted some of the cabinets she's working on.  She's putting them in her laundry room to make it a laundry/craft room.  Inspiration #2!!!!

I have wanted to change my cabinets for several years now.  It's an expensive process and I can't put that much money up front right now.  But...I can use some chalk paint that I've already made up and all it costs me is time and effort...so here's the start.




 
Here's all the before shots...well, not a close up, but you get the picture...love the pun!!!


And the first coat goes on...!!!
 
This will be a long process.  I will update as I go along, but it'll take a while.  Just think, in a year (hopefully less) I can look back and say..."Remember when..."!!!
 
 
Jennifer


Sunday, September 23, 2012

Repurposing and a Wall Coat Hanger

 
FALL!!!
 
It's my favorite season of the year!  But it also means something else...winter is just around the corner.  It seems like I barely get time between the heat of Summer and the cold of Winter to get those spectacular days of open window weather...and then the coats come out.
 
I have 3 kids...you all knew that right?  But did you know that they're pre teens to teens.  And add to that Winter weather and the need for jackets/coats.  Do you know what happens in my house?  Yep, coats everywhere.
 
I have this lovely spot right behind my door.  It begs for something to fill the space.  Why do I call it lovely?  Because it's got MAYBE ten inches of space and gets very little visibility.  How in the world do you decorate a low visibility, tiny space?
 
When we moved in to this house the family before us left a wooden, very dated coat hanger.  It had 4 hooks, was wood with a lovely mirror heart in the middle.  Ok, it was NOT pretty, but it was useful.  My kids filled that thing every winter.  (It's 3 kids...how do we have 12 dozen coats for 3 kids?????)  But when we painted the hallway we took the hanger down and low and behold it was broken on the back side.  Since it was SOOOO beautiful...I threw that thing away as fast as I could!!!  It's been 3 years and I have yet to replace it...that is till this FIRST DAY OF FALL!!!
 
Anticipation of a nice cold Winter!!!
 
But this is about repurposing right?
 
Ok, so for months I've been pinning things to Pinterest.  I have so many lovely things I'd love to make for my house.  I'm drawn especially to old wood...cheap wood...the kind like you get when you see a sign that says "FREE PALLETS"!!!  Now that makes a Pinner HAPPY!  I made a stop and found this one pallet that was in great shape: thick wood, not overly aged, good structure...the kind you NEVER find.  But there was only one. You bet I got it.  Problem was, like in many of my projects, I had NO idea what to do with it.  We thought about making a bench out of it for the kids to fall on.  That was going to be expensive for all the padding.  So the pallet sat there for months.  Till one day...
 
I remembered this lovely spot behind my door...and the fact that I didn't have a coat hanger that I'd plan to replace years ago.  Voila!  But a pallet is a HUGE thing to hang on a wall and I'd have to hang it rather low just so it would fit.  Idea #2...cut half of it off.  I consulted with my Cigar Geek and he concurred that this would be an interesting idea.
 
.
So...here's where we start.  My Cigar Geek cut the yuckiest half off the pallet (the one that had gotten water logged), but then removed the loose boards off of the top rung.  He then took that rung and pounded it in the middle of the bottom section.  From here it looks like a full pallet...kinda...but if you notice it's rectangular and not square.
 
It was exactly what I wanted...size wise that is...but it still looked a bit too "new" for me, and I don't have any dark wax nor did I want to stain it.  So I grabbed what has become a new "painting" medium for me.
 

Brown Kiwi Shoe Polish
 
I rubbed it all over and darkened up the wood.  It wasn't a huge difference, but it did bring out some of the pretty texture in the grain.
 


To finish it off...the wood that is...I grabbed the Minwax Waxing Paste (not the specific name, but it's close) and for the first time applied it to wood...go figure!
 

I waxed and waxed (sore fingers and all), then buffed and buffed...and I cannot imagine going back to polyurethane ever again!!!
 

It's a beautiful thing!  I could not believe how rich it made the wood look.  I am a wax lover now!!!
 

Now the pallet shelf is ready!
 
Wait, there's something missing...what could it be?
 
Oh, yeah, HOOKS!!!
 
PROBLEM...I want the hooks to attach to the bottom...horizontally...Home Depot & Lowes...NOPE!  They don't carry hooks that attach horizontally and still hook.  I couldn't find them anywhere.  Cigar Geek found them on-line, but I wanted them locally (ok, impatient I know...but dang it...I worked hard...I want it DONE!)
 
So we decided to try a hardware store, NOPE!  But we had to drive by a Hobby Lobby...might as well try.  I had no idea where to look, but my first thought was in the drawer/door knob area.  Low and behold there was this ONE hook that was designed to hang vertically, but it had enough filigree on it that it could be hung horizontally and work...we tried!  And this is why I love Hobby Lobby...they were 50% off!!!  SCORE!  4 for the price of 2...can't beat that!  Problem solved!!!
 
So today Cigar Geek took the time to attach my hooks and then hang this heavy coat hanger on the "Lovely Spot" on my wall. 
 
BRING ON THE COLD...WE'RE READY FOR WINTER!!!
(ok, not too quickly...I want to enjoy the Fall!)
 



Now our coats have a place to hang, the gloves and hats have a place to sit, and I don't have the clutter in the living room (or in the kids' bedrooms).
 
TREASURE!!!
 
Thanks all for stopping by!
 





Jennifer

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Sunday, September 16, 2012

Obsessed with Windows

Since I'm in the middle of a couple of projects, but yet I don't want to abandon my blog, I thought I'd post one of my older crafts.

I have an obsession with old wooden windows.  I love the crackly old painted look they have.  I love their potential.  I've already shown you one of my windows...see Window Message Center...but here are two windows I did before the message center.

Both of these windows started out with no purpose....other than to pique my obsession...and they sat in our garage for a few months.  But one day as I was looking at these ugly 70's spindles above our brick half wall in the living rooms I realized that one of these windows would make an excellent room divider.  Idea #1!!!

Sooo...I cleaned up the panes, did a little scrubbing on the paint to remove excess yuck, and then painted away.  I started with brown and then covered that up with an antique white then sanded back to show the brown.  All of this was done long before my sister shared her love of ASCP (Annie Sloan Chalk Paint) and I'm sure it would have made the job much easier and look a little better, but I'm very familiar with good old acrylic paint.  So that's what I used.  Then using some decorative chain and my Cigar Geek's brawn we hung the window in place of the ugly spindles.  Here's how it turned out.




At the same time I painted this window I was painting my other, smaller window.  It's purpose was still elusive, but it finally found it's place.  I decided I wanted it as a mantle piece decor, and I wanted to put our last name on it with a cardinal sitting on a decorative branch.  BUT...I don't have a silhouette cameo...yet!!!  So, I decided to use old fashioned painting and a template. For the Travnicek I used a print out (I don't know what font...it's been a while and I didn't write it down.  I do know it isn't standard to MS Word) taped behind the top pane and a white chalk paint pen.  It worked awesomely!!!


(Is that even a word)
 
The chalk paint pen wasn't going to work for the bottom pane, however, so I had to dig into my craft closet to find my enamel paints.  Thankfully they were still fresh enough to use, and so with brown, white and red in hand, another print out and a couple of paint brushes the bottom pane got it's make over.
 
No paint applied yet.  Just the template taped to the back.

The branch is done...at this point

My Cardinal...he's my favorite bird and my inspiration for decorating my living room.

The final product!
And it was done!!!  I hung it up and admired it...but soon noticed a problem...see if you can figure it out.
 


Do you see it? The problem?  The BRANCH???  Nope, neither did I.  And after all that work I wanted to see my branch.  So the next day I took it down, studied it and suddenly the idea hit.  I turned the window over to the back side, mixed some brown into my white and painted that over where the branch was on the front.  3D crafting!!!  It worked wonders!  And now I can see all those details.




And there you have it.  The start of my obsession...and new Treasures to enjoy!!!  I can't wait to use my window divider to decorate for Christmas...maybe that will be a post for later!


Jennifer

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Monday, September 3, 2012

And There Was Light!!!

 
 
My it's been a busy weekend...but 3 lamp projects planned and 3 lamp projects finished!  Oh, and I realized that I hadn't introduced my husband, and I couldn't have done my projects this week without him.  Beware, with all these projects this will be a LONG post!!!
 

This is my Cigar Geek.  He is a brilliant techie and an avid cigar smoker.  (See example in hand above.)
 
So here's where we started...
 


...an old, ugly lamp and an old colandar.  Ahh, but we're missing a third.  I did say it was a 3 lamp project.  I don't have a great picture of it, but here's one from our OU/OSU bedlam game party last year...yes we're OU (that's OKLAHOMA people!) fans...anyway, it's that lamp right in the middle there.  And, yes, that's my Cigar Geek in the big chair there!

 
 
I took them all to the garage where I had a spray paint can of Krylon Oil Rubbed Bronze waiting for them.  I sprayed 2 out of 3 of the lamps, because lamp one above was in need of repairs before it could get pretty.  So Cigar Geek worked on replacing the light bulb and cord part of the lamp while I painted the rest.
 
 

 
Once all the broken pieces of lamp one were removed I sprayed it too.
 
 
Just so you can see how much work my sweet Cigar Geek did here's all the broken parts he had to remove (some breakage was done to get the broken part removed.)
 

Once he replaced the light piece and the cord and I sprayed the shade holder (with the old finial...will be replaced SOON!!!) we got started on the new hanging lamp from the old colandar.
 

 
We started by drilling a hole in the center where we wanted to put the light, but we soon discovered that a normal light piece (would someone please tell me the name of that so I can quit calling it a "light piece".  SOCKET...that's what I mean...sheesh!!!) or socket was going to be too long and the light bulb would stick out the bottom.  So back to Lowes we went and decided on a candelabra socket because it was much shorter.  We had to get the right screws and while there picked up a candelabra light bulb, the kind you use in bathroom fixtures.  It was shorter and we hoped would fit inside the colandar when we put it all together.  We also picked up a hanging lamp kit, or swag kit, with an 18' long black chain and a 20' long brown cord.  Here's were we are at this point...
 



 
See...I couln't have done it without my Cigar Geek.  He did most...well other than painting he did all...of the work on this lamp, but it was my idea!!!
 
My Cigar Geek used the holes on the colandar to attach the socket, which meant that it wasn't exactly centered, but I didn't really care.  It was close enough.
 
Then we had to figure out how to hang the chain off the colandar and have it even.  Sweet Cigar Geek drilled holes on the bottom at each side under the middle of each handle.  It's hard to describe so check it out in the picture below.
 
 
Then he took a length of the chain (it was actually loose in the package we'd bought, but it was exactly the length we wanted the lamp to hang down if we folded it in half...perfect!) and opened up a link on each end then weaved it into those holes he'd just made.  Then the middle link was the one we used to hang it from the ceiling over my table in my room (which is where I needed this badly for all my projects!!!)
 
 
Doesn't he look thrilled...but he did such a good job.  I think he was just done for the night.  The next day he measured how far out we wanted the lamp to go and drilled the ceiling for the anchor to hold the hook up.  He also drilled for a hook in the ceiling right above where the lamp will be plugged in.  Then he hung the chain without the wire inside and decided where the switch would be.  That piece couldn't weave through the chain so therefore the chain had to stop at that point.
 


 
Then he wired up the light, hung it back up and removed the excess chain.  And that project was DONE!!!
 

 
 
I love the way it turned out and the light sits up inside the colandar just how I wanted it to.  Thank you Babe!!!
 
Now on to finishing lamp 1...project 2.  I hated that flowery lamp shade and love burlap right now.  I decided to cover the lamp in ruffly burlap.  I chose creamy and natural burlap for the project (since I had it on hand it was an easy choice!).  I cut my burlap to even it out by following carefully one of the lines in burlap.  If you've ever worked with burlap you know what I'm talking about.  Then I cut several 3 inch wide pieces out of each fabric.  I ended up needing 4 stripes of natural and 4 stripes of cream burlap for the lamp so I think I cut 6 strips of each color.  As the lamp shade base got bigger I needed a longer strip of burlap to cover it and get the ruffled effect.  Then I removed the outside row of burlap string all the way around so it had a frilly edge.  Using my sewing machine I zigzagged all the way around each piece to keep it from fraying later.  Then I basted a line down the middle to gather it up with.  Once it was gathered up I measured and evened out the ruffles around the top edge of the shade and hot glued it down. 
 

 
I repeated the process 7 more times till I covered the whole side of the shade.  I overlapped each stripe a bit to fill in and cover up that ugly floral pattern.  Here's the finished result:
 
 
My next shade was in great shape and looked nice, but I wanted to tie it in to this shade.  So I took the same burlap and made up 6 flowers.  To do that I cut 1 1/2 inch strips of the burlap, twisted it and hot glued it as I went till I had a pretty burlap rose.  I added a few ties I made out of the burlap strings I'd pulled out of the above strips to dress it up, then I attached it in groups of 3 to the creamy lamp shade.
 



 
Last thing I had to do was put them on the newly painted lamp bases and set them up in the living room. 
 
DONE and DONE!!!
 










 
3 pieces that are new Treasures...and introducing my hubby too...it's a great weekend!!!
 
Enjoy what's left of this holiday weekend...till next time...
 

Jennifer

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