To make room for our DIY-ed clothespin light, first we had to give the current fixture the ol’ heave-ho: Well, not literally. Since there’s actually something kinda charmingly retro about that puppy, we wanted to give him a new life somewhere else in the house instead of sealing his fate (aka: donating him to the Habitat For Humanity ReStore). That’s where this hallway that leads to the guest room, hall bath, playroom, and nursery comes in: Clearly our hallway screams “nothing to see here folks, move along” for the time being, so there’s certainly a lot to be improved upon. But our attention kept going to this 18″ wide (I’ll pause while you digest just
Archives for August 2011
How To Make Faux Butterfly Art
On Sunday we took Clara on a little weekend adventure. And one of our stops was a butterfly exhibit with all sorts of real live butterflies who were doing their thing: And thanks to something that we picked up while there, I was able to make this new framed art for our built-ins as soon as I got home: Wait, it’s not what you think. My little craft isn’t made from real butterflies. It’s actually cut from this information sheet we were given at the exhibit (I asked if I could buy it with this idea in mind and they said that they didn’t sell them but I was welcome to take the one I
Fab Freebie: Channel No. 125
*** This giveaway is no longer accepting entries – see who won below! *** Random.org has done it again and selected our winner as… Chelsea (who loves the smell of coffee in the morning). Congrats! The only fragrance we’re giving away this week is that of sweat and elbow grease (yummy, right?). Because this week’s prize comes from Channellock, who not only makes some of our favorite tools but is also celebrating 125 years of forging them right here in the USA. So they’re giving away 1 + 2 + 5 tools (that makes 8, btw) to one soon-to-be-sweaty guy or gal. That lucky lady or lad will be getting a five-piece Tool Roll, two
Our Finished Laundry Room Makeover Before & Afters
With the addition of a light fixture and shoe storage this past week (and deciding to nix a window covering for now and just frost the window when we convert the carport into a garage), we just had one last item on our tig ol’ bist (which is how I would imagine Missy Elliott would say “big ol’ list”): Frost the side door for privacy <– seen here Remove the narrow shelving that gets blocked by the open door <– seen here Remove the old shutters that block much-needed light <– seen here Craigslist the old un-energy efficient stacked top loaders and snag a killer deal on new Energy Star front loaders <– seen here
We Got Professional Photos Of Our House
The following images make me wish I could carry a professional photographer around in my pocket at all times. But since I can’t, at least we had the pleasure of having one over for the afternoon. Local-ish photographer Andrea Hubbell (she’s from nearby Charlottesville, VA) is doing a series of “living spaces” photo shoots and asked if we wanted to participate for fun. Since we’re (a) not too camera shy – at least when it comes to our house and (b) always excited to see our home through someone else’s eyes (especially someone a lot better with a camera), we gave an enthusiastic yes. And boy are we glad we did. Not only was Andrea
How Many Patterns & Fabrics Should You Use In Each Room?
I was watching Sarah Richardson (Sarah 101) the other night (thanks DVR) and she mentioned that at the end of a makeover she has usually used around 10-14 fabric textiles in each room that she does. And as the title of this post suggests, it totally surprised me. Doesn’t that sound like a lot? Of course she’s an expert when it comes to layering prints and patterns, but I couldn’t imagine a “regular Joe” going into a fabric store and walking out with 10-14 swatches that they were going to combine. But then I realized that she was counting the upholstery fabric on chairs and sofas and headboards along with curtains and a ton of
How To Potato Stamp A Wall For A Stenciled Look
I did it. I finally completed Clara’s closet stamping project (you know, the one I started here)! And yes, if you couldn’t tell from the title, I made a potato stamp. It was actually really fun. Don’t roll your eyes. It was. And it was free. In fact this entire project cost me 99 cents since I used one tube of Folk Art Paint in Champagne (a soft and pretty metallic gold color) and two potatoes that we already had (never thought I’d list potatoes as existing DIY materials). As for landing on a pattern, last week I shared how my first idea, a $1 rubber stamper from Michael’s, didn’t work (the rubber stamp pattern
How To Spray Paint A Mailbox
Remember when John met his frog friend (well, technically his toad friend) here? Well, this time around we made a new neighborhood acquaintance… … a snaaaaaaake! And we were skeeeeered. But not to scared to take a picture. Thankfully he was just a harmless garter snake. Why were we outside? Yard maintenance. We figure our exterior will need a whole lotta small phase projects if it’s going to ever-so-slowly transform like our last one did, which went from this… … to this (over the course of 4.5 years)… So since that’s nothing we’ll ever be able to accomplish overnight – or even within a year – we’re all about breaking that humongous task down into
How To Make A Clothespin Chandelier
Woo to the hoo. We did it. We met our self-imposed Tuesday morning deadline and finished our clothespin chandelier as part of our little (completely unofficial) Pinterest Challenge (not sponsored by Pinterest or anyone else, just dreamed up by Katie B to make us stop pinning and start doing stuff that we’ve already pinned). Here’s how it all went down. We already explained the whole Pinterest Challenge thing here, which is where we snuck in a few photos of our supplies, like this one below: We actually didn’t end up using those three 10″ metal rings from Ben Franklin, but the rest of the stuff came in handy. So for those who can’t quite make everything
Adding Shoe Storage By The Door
We couldn’t do all of this work in the laundry area and just ignore our sloppy shoe situation. Since the side door into our laundry room is our most-used entrance, it’s also the dumping ground for most of our footwear (since we try to keep shoes off in the house). Up until now, our “storage solution” has been a shallow woven basket from Bed Bath & Beyond about five years ago (that and a pile next to it – not pictured, because I don’t want to ruin the illusion that we’re not complete animals). This system actually worked fine at the old house since the basket stayed in the sunroom, where it sort of fit