Happy Mother’s Day to Me

Yes, I know its November and no this isn’t an old post I’m just now publishing.

Ricardo finally finished my Mother’s day present, and I’m so thrilled.  I asked for picture frame molding going up the stairs and under the chair rail in the upstairs hallway.

Here’s a post with pictures of what the stairway used to look like.

Under the chair rail I had stenciled some flowers that were cute, but I was sick of them. Also, the collage was kind of bugging me too.

You can vaguely see the lines I drew to mark out where I wanted the frames.

Using some decorative molding he made frames using my not-so accurate drawings. There was a lot of measuring and remeasuring.

It looked like this for a long time. Those little triangles were really difficult to cut! I was so afraid that he was going to cut off a finger. After all the molding was up, I painted everything white.

Here are the after pictures…

The oak banister needed to go.

I also decided to do a black and white photo collage. I love the way it turned out!

Message Center

Have you been on Pinterest yet?

Its so addicting and part of the reason why I wanted to restart the blog!

There are a ton of ideas out there for message centers.

Some of the criteria for my message center were everyone needed a “slot” and somewhere to put bigger things. It also needed to be CUTE!

I fell in love with these boxes from Pottery Barn and Ballard Design. I didn’t love the pricetag, plus I needed room for 5 and just didn’t have it.

I found wall organizers similar to these at Target for $11 each. The best part is that each one has 3 slots, so I only needed two. I sprayed them with metallic bronze and they became really similar to the Pottery Barn and Ballard Design versions.

I used hanging plant hooks to hang egg baskets for bulkier items. (ignore the mess of shoes in the background!)

As the school year progresses, I’d like to add a bigger basket for library books that need to go back. I might also replace the “E” and candles with a chalkboard where I can write reminders.

I’ll keep you posted on any changes I make. One major change will be paint color!

Silhouettes

I saw this silhouette from West Elm and loved the graphic nature of it, but thought they would be cooler if the silhouettes were of people I knew. Even more specifically, my kids!

What you’ll need:

Canvas

Paint or spraypaint

digital pictures

cardstock

printer

mod podge

 

I scrolled through my pictures and found all of the full bodied pictures I could find.

I printed them in random sizes between 4×6 and 8×10 onto white cardstock.

Picture quality doesn’t matter for this project!

Using various scissors, large and small, carefully cut around subject.

As you can see printing pictures out on cardstock prevents seeing the ink on the backside.

After I was done cutting out all the figures, I spray painted a 16×20 canvas black.

When the paint was thoroughly dry, I decoupaged the cutouts to the canvas.

(Oliver)

(Piper Ann)

(Nathan)

I plan on getting some open back frames and painting them green.

 

Christmas Card Display

What you’ll need:
Glitter
Glue
Clothespins
Pretty ribbon
tape

 

Start with some clothes pins, brush them with glue and glitter one side of them.

 

I took 3 strips of ribbon and taped the tops to the backside of a hall closet door, wrapped them around the front of the door and then taped them to the back.

Attach the clothespins sporadically and clip your cards to the ribbon.

As you can see we’ve only gotten 5 cards so far. Come on people Christmas cards are like crack to me! I want this door to be full!

Inspirations

I just bought this stencil…

With this in mind…

Stay tuned.

Jewelry Organizer Tutorial

(Sorry about the bad pics. Bad lighting in the bathroom)

 

What you’ll need:

*A frame

*Spray paint

*Foam core board

*Fabric

*Ribbon

*T-pins

Thrift store frame

Primed

Spray painted black

Cut a piece of foam core board to fit inside the back of the frame.

Cut a piece of fabric a little larger than foam core board.

Wrap fabric around foam core. I secured it with duct tape.

Miter the corners

I wanted to be able to clip things on, so I added some ribbon.

I duct taped 3 pieces of ribbon to the back and wrapped it around the front to the other side.

I used T-pins stuck into the foam core in which to hang earrings

Hang on the wall!

Kids’ New Bathroom

We finally finished the kids’ bathroom redo.It took a lot longer than plan, but isn’t that always the case with home improvement?

This poster from IKEA was my inspiration for a gender neutral kids bathroom.

We replaced the vanity, vanity top and faucet.

A new light fixture.

Toothbrush holder that hangs on the wall…also from IKEA. Its yellow against a yellow wall, but the pictures don’t show the colors very well. There’s no natural light.

Shower curtain.

New toilet that’s white, but looks yellow here!

New floor and orange rug.

Kid’s eye level hooks, so they can hang up their own towels!

They each have their own colored towels, red, orange and yellow.

Instead of ripping out perfectly good, but ugly tile, we just had it all reglazed white.

I left an 18″ border of white along the ceiling, and added red, orange and yellow vinyl polka dots.

Once again these pictures aren’t doing this justice. It looks a lot better in person!

Kids Bathroom Before

We saved the best for last as far as updating the house goes! The kids’ bathroom was definitely still stuck in the 70’s. Too bad it wasn’t cool retro. It was just fugly.

Nice wallpaper and harvest gold tile.

Harvest gold toilet with matching backsplash. Ugly tile floor.

Ugly vanity.

I did manage to salvage the knobs for Piper Ann’s  bedroom.

The countertop was also harvest gold, but its a terrible picture.

Ugly brass lamp…do you see a theme here?

ugly brass towel rack.

Hi Piper!

The wall to left had an ugly built in medicine cabinet that Ricardo took out like a year ago.

From Disheveled Little Girls Room…

To funky yet sophisticated little girls room…

There are still a few major things I’d like to do. I need to do somthing a little different with the curtains. Closet doors are a must although it might be difficult to access the kitchen, so maybe a curtain there? I’m also trying to get inspired to do something with the wall under the chair rail. I thought about painting stripes, but the wall isn’t smooth. I’m afraid it will be a huge nightmare! Any suggestions?

New Cabinet

A few weeks ago as I dropped off Piper Ann at school, I noticed this cabinet in someones trash. I drove by it, checked it out and drove away. A few thoughts ran through my head, “how will I get it in the car?” “what will I do with it?” How will I fix it up?”

I didn’t have solid answers for those questions, so I just let it go. Of course I thought about it for the next 4 hours and came up with the answers to those questions. I had to have it. When I picked up PA from school, one of the mom’s (thanks again Heidi!) helped me load it up.

Once again here is the before picture…

It started with some sort of trim thing around the top. I thought it looked cool, but it would be far more functional to have a flat top, so I removed it.

I figured I’d either use it as a sideboard in the dining room, or in Piper Ann’s room for toy storage. Since she got a new dresser, I used her old dresser as a sideboard in the dining room and decided to put the cabinet in her room for storage.
I did paint it a color that could go in either room, though.

I painted it aqua blue.

I stole these acrylic knobs off of the original purple dresser.

I sprayed the hinges and screws chrome.

All her toys fit nicely inside.

I got these projects done just in time to free up space in the garage for a car that doesn’t exist anymore!

Update on Mallory… we’re waiting to see if someone wants to buy her for parts. If not, we’ll just donate her. I took Ricardo’s car, a Jeep Commander, and he got a new car that he got a really good deal on. As cool as I didn’t feel driving a mini van. The convenience was unbeatable. Where I make up in coolness now, I definitely lose in convenience!