Easy Wall Art

October 21, 2013 Sherri Rice

Happy Monday! I hope you had a good weekend. Ours was a little busy, but we are enjoying great fall weather :)

I just (oops - have you read this? I'm trying to be more thoughtful about my choice of words :) ) wanted to share a quick idea if you need to fill some wall space.

The side effect of all the rearranging that resulted in this was a blank wall above our couch in the family room. I'm all for not filling all the spaces, ie leaving breathing space in your decor, but this space is one of the first things you see when you walk into our front door. It needed something!

I was trying to come up with something that would use what we already had, if possible. Then I remembered that I had a few extra wooden pant hangers. And I remembered that we had saved some calendars that had pictures that we liked...

Our intention was to frame some of the pictures, but the sizes are odd and would require custom framing, ie. $$, so it hadn't happened yet. Can you see where this is going?

Tada!!

Ok, almost there, but they were hanging a little cock-eyed. Hmmm... I grabbed a level and used small bits of sticky tack stuff to hold the hangers level.

August Blues - Calendar pictures with pant hangers

Much better :) Not an entirely original idea, but this version works for us for now...

And now the space is filled with art that is meaningful to us, it cost me nothing, and we can change the pictures out when the mood strikes. My kind of project :)

Do you like to change your wall art?

Sherri

Workroom Reveal

October 16, 2013 Sherri Rice

Finally done (mostly :) ) - my new workroom! Remember the "before"?

This upstairs room has been the boys' playroom. It has undergone a bit of a transformation and here it is now...

It needs a few finishing touches, but it's functional and working here is definitely a pleasure :) Let me show you around (I'm in the middle of a project, but I tidied up just for you)...

This table is actually the Norden dining table from IKEA. We purchased it for our last house which had a large dining room. Until we have another dining space that is suitable, it makes a great cutting table! The skirt is just stapled to the bottom of the table top. It makes for great (hidden!) storage underneath.

These are the two machines I have had for years, since August Blues 1.0 with my mom. And the bench works really well for moving between them (the table and bench were both Craigslist finds). I think the pegboard needs a little something...

See the trees out the window? Almost like working in a tree house :) These curtains have found a home in all of the houses we have owned - first they covered closets in our bedroom, then they curtained the front window in our front porch. I was so excited when I remembered I still had them - they are perfect for this space!

On the other side of the window I created this little storage area. We have had the shelf forever, but the bins are new (from Lowes). They hold fabrics. The hat boxes and clock are also from IKEA. The curtain to the right conceals a yet-to-be-organized storage area for my personal fabric and craft supplies.

Here she is - I'm still getting used to her, but she is a hard worker :) The table on the right is where homework happens in the evenings. It will be replaced with a smaller, rectangular table that fits the space a little better. And just for a dose of reality...

Yes, this is the sad state of the rest of the room. I did take over half of the boys' playroom - my youngest watched me measure the space out and then reported to Grandma that he now only had 9' of space to play in! Never fear, I have a plan for this space, too, and it does include the toys and space to play ;) I will share it as soon as we get it finished (and you can hold me to that!). I think the boys will be quite excited when they rediscover their toys :)

One last view...

MANY thanks to the boys for agreeing to share their space with me and to the Professor for all the help and heavy lifting he provided (do you know how much that Juki weighs?)! And now I need to top up my coffee and get back to work (I am now booking projects for January)!

Have you made a workspace just for you?

Sherri

P.S. I linked up here :) Check out all the other great projects!

Celebrating Fall

October 3, 2013 Sherri Rice

I have always loved fall! I love sweaters, hot drinks (I picked up a stash of pumpkin spice coffee this week :) ), colored leaves, and the crisp air. I don't think it will quite feel like fall here until the weekend, but it's October now (and Canadian Thanksgiving is less than 2 weeks away!), so I got out a few fallish things to decorate with. Enjoy!

(She was posing :) )

(Pumpkins courtesy of my youngest who needed an art project a few days ago :) )

What do you like best about fall?

Sherri

Testing Screen Door

September 13, 2013 Sherri Rice

I visited this new shop last week. It's just off the Denton Square...

So much farmhouse goodness! I did come home with this...

It's a chalk-based paint, so I was excited to try it out. Lots of delicious colors to choose from, but in anticipation of using this color on a piece for my reworked office space, I chose Screen Door.

I couldn't wait to try it out, so I grabbed this table from behind our couch. As with other chalk-based paint, this requires no prep (well, except a much needed dusting!).

I did two coats, distressed it lightly, and finished with clear wax from Miss Mustard Seed (I would definitely recommend a top coat of some kind - the wax worked well).

The verdict? This paint is easy to use, especially because you don't have to worry about prepping your piece. The color turned out a little bolder than I anticipated (it was very difficult to capture here), but it is a pretty color and I think it will work well on the piece for my office.

So, if you need a relatively quick update for a piece of furniture, give a chalk-based paint a try!

What needs an update at your house?

Sherri

Front Entry Redo

July 1, 2013 Sherri Rice

Happy Monday! I am excited to share the "prequel" to this post! Mostly because it is finally done (the kitchen table has looked like this for the better part of a week - projects don't always happen very quickly around here :/ ),

but also because I am really happy with how it turned out!

Here is the before...

... it was just feeling a little tired and in need of a change. It's not a big space, but it has to live large since we use this entrance the most; our stairway from the second floor also comes down here. I had put the stripes in some time ago, with the ultimate goal of finishing off the space with crown molding (the adjacent room, the August Blues work space, has crown molding put in by the previous owners).

The large cupboard was great for storage, but it was feeling quite large in the space and I really wanted that storage to be available in our family room (anyone else struggle with Lego storage?). The shelf on the other side was ok, but it was getting bumped when we moved furniture in and out of the house, so we needed a more moveable solution.

First step, put up the crown molding! I kept this low budget by using molding we already had for another project and, the best part, we found the corner blocks on clearance at Lowes - REALLY on clearance (we may have cleaned out our local store so we would have them for future crown molding projects)! We had the paint, nails, and caulk on hand.

The corner blocks make the installation so easy! No fancy cuts with a fancy saw. I painted everything with primer and a first coat of paint first. I installed the corner blocks (inner and outer corners) with Liquid Nails and a couple of finishing nails to hold them in place while the liquid dried. Then I just measured in between the blocks and cut the crown molding to those measurements. A little Liquid Nails, some finishing nails and they were up (thanks to the Professor for helping me get them up!). I caulked (don't miss this step!), filled the nail holes, and painted the final coat of paint.

So much better (and now the stripes make more sense)! And here is the rest of the new look...

I shopped the house for the rest of the new look:

the shelf on the wall is the shelf that had been on the opposite wall, just painted white
the hooks had been here in the entry way in a previous version a few years ago
the baskets were from IKEA - they found a home here to store the Professor's caps
the storage bench came from the playroom upstairs. It now holds my shoes, but previously has also lived in the family room and has been seating at our kitchen table
I grabbed the pillows from the family room and guest room
the large metal basket came from Hobby Lobby a few months ago - it works great for the shoes I use most!
the antique chest came from the guest room (after a brief stop in the family room). I love this chest! We purchased it from an antique mall while we lived in our first house. It was covered in red high gloss paint that was starting to chip. It was cute for awhile, but then the red had to go. It was quite a job, but very worthwhile!

We are very happy with the finished project (our youngest said it looks like we live in a "fancy" house now!). It's functional and feels a little more like us. And now with all those corner blocks, more crown molding projects await :)

Have you tackled a new project lately? (I'm linking up here and here)

Sherri

P.S. Did you catch this?

Happy Canada Day!

One Room Three Ways

June 27, 2013 Sherri Rice

Well, this was a fun project! Have you seen the One Room Three Ways challenge? A group of bloggers were challenged to make over a room three different ways, with minimal expense, primarily shopping their home. So, I thought I would join in :) I decided to work on our front entry-way, a small (7 1/2' by 5') space at our front door; the stairs from our second floor also lead here. It opens directly into what should be the dining room, but it functions as my sewing room. Full-disclosure: I started making some more significant changes to this space a few months ago, so this project spurred me on to finish the job. This post will just focus on the "pretties" that finish off the space; I'll do another post at a later date with the larger before/after details.

So, here we go - one room, three ways!

Here is the look (with slight variations) you are most likely to see if you come to visit...

This space has to live large so I try to include as much storage and function as possible. The look is simple and a little eclectic.

Then, I thought I would try a blue-and-white version...

A little less function, and a little more pretty. Someday I will have room to display more of my blue-and-white collection :)

Finally, I thought I would push the pretty a little further and go a little more shabby chic...

Definitely pretty, and not so functional for a house with little boys!

It was certainly fun to play with different looks; as I worked I thought of a few other variations I might need to try out sometime ;)

So, do you like to play with accessories? Do you have a signature "look" or do you mix it up?

Sherri

P.S. Linking up here...

Friday Five

June 14, 2013 Sherri Rice

Happy Friday! I hope your week was good and your weekend promises to be even better :) Well, I worked on the fireplace yesterday, but you'll have to read to the end to see the "after" ;)

1. We made it through our first official week of summer vacation! The boys had two days of day camp (awesome!) and we managed to fill up the rest of the time with trips to the park, therapy appointments, errands, a playdate, and some down time.

2. My favorite product of the summer so far? Sunscreen stick - have you tried it? Not very exciting, but if you are a mom, I'm sure you'll understand. It's probably been around for awhile (I'm a little slow). It just works so great for the boys!

3. Ok, I have two favorite new products ;) Have you tried Tazo Decaf Chai Latte concentrate? I found a carton at Kroger (apparently it's also at Starbucks) and, wow - it makes a delicious drink! A great treat without leaving home :)

4. I got brave and joined my first linky party yesterday - check it out here!

5. Ok, here is the fireplace after (check out the before here)...

I basically used the technique she describes here, and I'll give more step-by-step details another time :) We all like it much better! Now the mantel really looks not-quite-right (and we'll have to do something with the black hole), but we'll live with it for awhile so we can figure out what kind of mantel we want.

And the fabric for my next project arrived yesterday, so it's sewing time!

Do you have any projects for this weekend?

Sherri

Fireplace Project

June 12, 2013 Sherri Rice

Happy Wednesday! Wow, my last post got a lot of attention - thank-you! I have the chair for my next project - just waiting for the fabric to arrive :)

In the meantime, I have been thinking for sometime (ok, since we bought the house, um, a "few" years ago) that our family room fireplace is in need of an update. Here it is...

... in all its pink-bricked glory (please forgive the lame mantel decor - I got started and then never finished). The brick is the same as on the exterior of our house and it really looks a lot more pink than the picture shows :( And, you can sort of see that it is a corner fireplace, with about 12" of wall space on either side. The wall color (Valspar Desert Fortress) is relatively new so it will be staying.

In the last couple of years (yes, these things take me awhile!) this room has taken on a beachy, country, farmhouse sort of feel. So, my grand vision for this space includes doing something with the brick to get rid of the pink, changing the mantel, and probably finishing off the wall above the mantel with beadboard and crown molding (since we used beadboard here and here). And, since this will have to be a LOW budget make-over, it will be done in stages, starting with the brick.

Here are some ideas I have collected (click on the links below to check out the source; and I have more ideas here)...

Cleverly Inspired

Decorate With A Little Bit

The Lettered Cottage

Beneath My Heart

A Great Adventure

So, what do you think? Whitewashed brick or painted? White mantel or wood (similar to our breakfast bar here)? Beadboard above? Replace the current screen? With what?

Do you have any summer projects?

I will keep you posted as this project progresses :)

Sherri

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