Making (DIY) art pop

Hey there all! Hope you had a lovely weekend! Hope those of you in the NYC area are stocked up – please be safe over the next few days!

Real quick, I wanted to remind you that the eBook sale finishes up tonight – it’s your last chance to get the 76 eBooks I told you about here. Baking, crafting, DIY, photography – it’s all covered in the books and it’s an incredible deal for less than $35! You can order yours here – I believe the sale ends at midnight tonight (EST).

OK, onto my latest DIY! So this is another one of those little projects I’ve had on my mental list forever, and this no-spend month is as good a time as any to get it done. Seriously, I want to go shopping SO bad. But this has been a GREAT month of getting lots of projects done and I will power through. :)

Back when I was finishing up our family room reno I needed some art for a wall and did a very quick piece of my own using a canvas I had picked up for another project. It turned out OK but it was a little dark and moody for the family room. The colors went gray instead of blue so I didn’t love it there.

I was changing things around in the master so I ended up hanging it there – and quite liked it. I don’t know if it will stay forever but for free art it will stick around for awhile:

A couple months ago I was finishing up small projects in that room and went ahead and framed it out with basic wood lattice trim from the hardware store:

I didn’t miter the corners or anything – they just butt up against each other. I quite loved the natural wood with the gray painting too:

I’ve been wanting to do the same with the painting I did years ago that now hangs in our foyer:

I just knew it would look more professional and finished off with a little edge to it. Problem was, I’m not spending on DIY this month and I didn't have enough of that lattice stuff. So I searched through the wood pile in the garage and came up with a solution. Cause I’m a hoarder crafty like that. :)

Remember the underlayment I used to do the inexpensive wood treatment over our fireplace?: 

Well when I had them cut it down at the store I kept the scraps. It’s really hard for me to give up stuff I know I can use later. And that I did:

I had a couple pieces that were a little over two inches in length so I sanded down the rough edges, then gave them a coat of black paint on the front and back:

This stuff takes paint really well so I never have to prime first.

Since it’s so thin I was able to avoid the garage and just cut with my miter box and handsaw:

Old school baby!

I used my nail gun to secure them to the side of the canvas:

And I couldn’t believe what a difference it made! It really makes it pop!:

The thickness is just perfect – even better than the lattice stuff. It’s a lot more substantial:

You can see here how I didn’t miter the ends – I just boxed it out:

The edges of the underlayment stuff weren’t great but after it was painted, you can’t even tell. I really really love it! I love touches of black and now this all ties in together nicely with the stairs and the bench underneath:

Not bad for FREE. You can see how I transformed this old canvas into our personal art (I did it with the Bub) here. It’s something I treasure and I’m glad it has even more of a presence now:

If you don’t have scrap laying around the lattice is about $4 for eight feet – for less than ten bucks you could give a canvas some oompf. :) And if you have a big piece of art that underlayment is only $15 for an eight by ten sheet – you could have it cut to whatever size you need.

I did the same look with the giant IKEA map in the basement as well and it really finishes it off nicely:

Boom! Another one off the list and no money spent! I’m concentrating on getting a big project done this week and hope to declutter a few more spots as well. It’s been a productive month for sure!

I’m so blue

First of all, I need to shout out to the world a big HAPPY BIRTHDAY to our not-so-little man! Can you believe he is eight today? I know some of you have been following along with me for years (thank you for that) and I simply cannot believe that he was only 18 months old when I started this blog. We are truly the luckiest parents ever – he is such a sweet, respectful, fun, happy child. He is growing so, so fast and I love him so!

I’ve mentioned before that this month kicks my BUTT. Like, a swift kick. We celebrate birthdays for my brother, husband, son, nephew and now grandson all in the first two weeks of the month. And ten years ago (setting the tone for this crazy month) we went and got married in late December. Plus the holidays…and I know it’s all coming every year. It’s not a surprise. I just can never get caught up enough from the month before to get ahead during this one. ;)

So this weekend I was trying to decorate my house and clean it (which is just a losing battle) while taking care of bday plans for the Bub. I’m sharing our Christmas house tour tomorrow and I still have bins and garland and ornaments strewn throughout the main level…I’ve got some work to do.

All that being said…this is the most special month of the year to me and our family and I absolutely love it. And after this week I will be able to slow down and bask in all of the Christmas joy. ;)

So me being me…Friday night I pulled out more Christmas bins and instead of decorating I decided a dresser needed to be painted. Makes sense. Do you ever look at something for a while and the more you look at it the more it drives you totally crazy? Like you just can’t stand it all the sudden? It doesn’t happen often with me but when it does I can’t get it out of my head.

For some reason I have wanted to paint over this color on the dresser in our foyer lately, like, big time:

It’s a really gorgeous color called Aubsusson Blue (chalk paint) and I truly loved it when I did it two years ago and for a long time after.

But lately – just in the past two months or so -- it’s seemed so bright (it’s a little more subdued in that photo) and out of place with the rest of our house. This shot shows the color a little better:

Literally every time I walked past it I just wanted to paint over it right that second. I couldn’t figure out what color I wanted to use though. I really wanted to do a gray, but we’ve got enough of that going in our house right now. I couldn’t decide what else I would like. So Friday night I walked past it, couldn't stand it one more minute and head for my paint stash.

I found the navy blue I used in the Bub’s room:

It’s a beautiful blue called Admiralty (Lowe’s color I had mixed at Home Depot) and I knew it would be a nice change. What I’d really love to do is take the dresser down to it’s original natural wood – but that will take a warm day and more time. :) I bought it on Craigslist already painted but the insides of the doors look gorgeous.

I painted it over two nights – both when it was dark. Brilliant I know. The morning after I started I realized it was so not coming out that same navy blue as the walls:

Isn’t that crazy? Not the same color by any stretch. Scroll up and look. I’ll wait. :) But I kept going because I liked it and it was almost done anyway. It’s this color instead of a deeper navy because the Aubusson that was already there.

It really toned it down and I quite love how it turned out:

When I look the color in the can it does have a “dusky” tone to it – so it more natural light maybe this is just how it looks? My son’s room doesn’t get a ton of light so who knows.

I wanted to simplify a bit so I centered the mirror and took down all the decor on there as well. Right now it just holds a lamp (I’d love to find something different eventually), a poinsettia and our nativity:

I don’t think anyone would even notice the color changed if they just walked in – but I’m just so happy it’s not that bright color anymore. I can now walk past and not twitch:

Next up…the tile. That’s another thing that I want to change out so bad but that one I can’t really do on a whim. It will take some planning, dang it.

Here’s a before and after – a brighter blue, beautiful! But just not what I want anymore: 

And as it looks now – a more subdued look and a lot less stuff, which is welcomed in life right now:

For the whole month of January I’ll probably have the lamp on there and nothing else – I crave clean and simple after the holidays. :)

Is there a project in your house that you’ve started at a really bad time? When you have a million other things to do? But it was driving you so crazy you just HAD to? Or is it just me? ;)

I’ll be back tomorrow with a tour of our Christmas home! :) Until then, check out last year’s tour here.

A glass door, sorta kinda

Hello to you! Hope you had a great weekend! Ours was lovely – lots of time outside, a date night with my hubby and family time as well. So happy that summer is here!

So a couple years ago I wrote a post that got a huge response – I never imagined talking about glass doors would be so interesting. :) I spoke of my desire to add some glass to our front door. We have a transom window above the door and five windows in the living room/foyer, but because we face north the foyer especially can feel dark.

It got even worse when I painted the inside of the door black years ago:

I LOVE my black doors though, so that was staying. :)

So many of you agreed with the desire to have that natural light coming in as well. Those of you who already have glass sidelights or doors were mixed – some loved it and some hated it. Because a lot of you are in the one percent like me:

Ninjas!

So the years passed and I still couldn’t get over how much I wanted some natural light up there. And the boy got older and I really wanted to be able to easily see where he was at outside. One day I realized I was going to just do what I said I would never do – get a storm door:

I’m going to be honest here – I used to be a storm door snob. I mean, in my defense, there are some that aren’t great looking. I have just always preferred the look of just the plain door.

But my mind changed. It happens. I’m growing, changing, all that stuff.

We got it from Lowe’s and it was actually a long wait to get it installed. It was about six weeks, maybe more, from start to finish. The last two weeks were the hardest – it was getting nice out and the Bub was outside all the time and I wanted that glass door so bad!

When it was installed I instantly felt very mom-like and very suburban. You know how I feel about suburban – some think it’s a bad word but it’s me. Proud of it.

I’m not totally obsessed with the way it looks from outside, but it’s not horrible at all. I went with a cranberry color (there weren’t a ton of options) because I figured it would work best with our front door. When I got home from ordering it I realized how much more rust our door is than cranberry, but I really don’t mind it:

For a hot second I thought about painting the door again but I think this is fine as is.

We ALL love it. It’s open all day, everyday. LOVE love love. The animals are obsessed:

I do know one thing now though – I could NOT do an all glass regular front door. No way, no how. When darkness hits that baby is closed and I need my privacy.

I was so thrilled about the door I figured it was time to update the trim like I’ve been doing all around the house. What a difference!:

You can see how I install my DIY craftsman trim here.

Now it works great with the new window trim up there as well:

I still need to do some caulking on the door trim but it’s almost complete. I want to replace that foyer tile even more now! I still need to finish up replacing the chair rail throughout this front area as well.

We’re enjoying all the natural light that the new door brings in. I adore it! It makes the whole house brighter. We went with the heavier storm door with great security features, so I feel comfortable leaving it open all day:

Do you have a storm door? Does it make you feel incredibly suburban? :) Or do you have a glass front door and love it? Either way the natural light is amazing and I’m never going back! Whoot!

Living room refresh

Good Monday to you! Hope you had a great weekend!

I’ve mentioned before that I LOVE when I get to move furniture around…because I never move it around. Our house has a very open floor plan and very little useable wall space (that isn’t covered by windows). So once I find a spot for something it stays…forever. Moving furniture is a rare treat. :)

I found this étagère at HomeGoods a couple years back and it was love at first sight. I loved the detail on the sides of it and the size – nice and skinny. It started out between the two windows in the living room, but that became too busy to me, so I moved it next to the sofa last year:

It was there for a long time, but the height right there bugged me. It was right where the dining and living rooms meet and it felt awkward. I don’t have a full shot to show what I mean. It wasn’t awful or anything, I just wasn’t feeling it.

I decided a few weeks ago to try it in the corner where this desk/console used to sit:

I wanted to use that desk in my office so the spot was freed up. I moved the bookcase over and loved it in that spot! And that of course started off a series of other small projects as well. It’s how I do. :)

When I installed the new window trim a couple weeks ago I started replacing the chair rail as well. I wanted something simpler that would sit flush against the window trim. And when I put the rail in years back I kind of cheated along that half wall behind the desk. Long story short the trim on the half wall didn’t meet up with the chair rail on the wall. So I removed all of it, including the top of the half wall, and installed all new:

Now the chair rail on that wall is one continuous piece of wood instead of two mismatched pieces. This would all make more sense if I had taken a before pic, but I forgot. :)

I got this new-to-me primer at Lowe’s when I was painting the window trim and so far I love it:

It gives the wood a great base and goes on really smooth. I finished off the new chair rail and the top of the half wall with caulk and two coats of semi gloss paint. I still have quite a bit of chair rail to replace but I’ll do that as the budget allows.

But the best part is that I think this piece has finally found it’s forever home!:

It’s much bigger than the desk was, but takes up less visual space for sure. I couldn't believe the difference. I love how open it feels now and that we can appreciate the pretty detail on the side!

I loved what I had on the wall above the desk so I moved that between the windows:

I’m not sure that will stay but I do like that the round mirrors break up all the rectangles in this spot – windows, wainscoting, bench and bookshelf.

OH! And I pulled the chair away from between the windows and I LOVE it. I hesitated to put the chairs on the rug (they don’t match but I’m working on that) -- I’ve liked having the floor more open. But WOW, what a difference it made to pull everything together – it really opens up this room. Love it. More pics soon!

I edited the contents of the shelves down a bit:

I’m not 100 percent on the bottom shelf, but I’m using what I have so I’ll deal. ;)

I’ve decided for now I’m not putting the drapes back up. I’m sure I’ll crave more color there eventually, but for now I’m loving how clean and simple it is. Speaking of color, I was looking back at photos and found this before that shows the étagère in it’s original spot and the old pinky walls:

Can you believe how pink they were in that light? Goodness. Anyway, here’s how it looks now, with new paint and trim: My little BFF is smooshing himself into this shot. :)

This room was on my list of spaces I wanted to rework this year and so far I’m really, really happy with how it’s coming together! It’s a two story space so it’s harder for me to figure out.

Do you move furniture around a lot? If so I’m jealous. It’s a free fix when you get the itch to tweak things around the house. :) Or do you keep things the way they are forever like me? I love using what you already have in a different space – it feels brand new when you move it around!