Showing posts with label House related. Show all posts
Showing posts with label House related. Show all posts

Thursday, August 9, 2012

Guest contributors - house projects!

Since I can't do any house projects right now, I thought I would provide some inspiration through two of my friends who have recently completed some amazing projects and were so kind to share some great pictures of their completed projects.

First up is the wall ledge that my fantastically design-gifted friend Pooja and her husband installed. I love how they did something outside of the box and didn't just do a collage of frames on the wall (nothing against collages of frames, I plan to have several in my house) but I love the ledge! And it will be so easy to give the room a fresh look just by rotating out the items on the ledge. Great work you two, your place is coming together so well!

Isn't that ledge awesome? And check out the texture in this room, beautiful!

Second, my roommate finished two projects that she had been planning for awhile.

Here is some wall art that she did herself - bought the stencils, stenciled the canvas, and then I showed her how to use the miter saw and she built the frame herself! She has created such peaceful space for herself.

Wall art up close



Check out this great photo collage she put together on her closet door. She designed the collage in powerpoint to make sure all the photos would fit on the door and then assembled it on poster board. She Mod-Podged the whole thing and then hung it on the door. Isn't that red trim great? Really draws the eye into the collage. Great work Claire!


Photo collage!


Hope you enjoyed the creative of works of my guest contributors Pooja and Claire. Thank you ladies for sharing your creative talents with all of us!


Friday, August 3, 2012

Another craigslist find!


So over a month ago, I found a great modern industrial lamp on craigslist. I emailed the gal and never heard back. Oh well.

Well, last week, she emailed me and said it was still available and asked if I still wanted it. Um,  yes please!

I was blessed with an easy pain morning last Saturday and took my Mom with me to look at the lamp.

 I had been eyeing this one at Urban Outfitters...price tag: $129



 Check out this craigslist beauty...price tag: $15


 
Not as fancy as the Urban one, but you seriously can't beat the price or the authenticity of this find :). It's got some great scuffs and dings too, uber industrial looking, and the height is adjustable.


By the way, that particularly awesome yellow beetle bag on my coat stand? Yeah, that was my "wow, it was a crazy busy day on console, I am going to go eat some Pinkberry" and somehow I ended up at Macy's where they were having a massive 75% off of their Fossil bag sale...so that's my Pinkberry-turned-purse purchase :)

Have I ever mentioned how much I like craigslist?

Saturday, July 7, 2012

Cabinet tweak



The new white ceramic knobs that I put on the cabinet just weren't cutting it - I'd look at them and think "nah, that's just not it". I had wanted some mercury glass knobs, but the square ones that were available at Hobby Lobby were all mismatched sizes. Today, while out shopping, Anthropologie delivered with these awesome mercury glass knobs. I love the difference and they are JUST what I had pictured being on the cabinet...you'd think I would have learned by now to not just settle...apparently, I'm still learning :)

Before and After...

Friday, July 6, 2012

Cabinet complete!!!



I needed a small cabinet in my dining room to house the teasets and teapots I've collected during my travels (and yes, I actually use these!). After much searching on craigslist, this beauty popped up and it was a great deal.




Antique cabinet - sometimes it's a hard decision to paint over such beautiful wood...but...paint can be removed - so bring on the paint!



I sanded and primer-ed it and then found this blue that just makes me smile every time I look at it. It's a really happy blue :)




I used a small round gladware container and dipped it in one of the sample jars of gray paint I have laying around and just stamped it on the back of the cabinet to add a little texture.




I added new knobs and voila! A cabinet just right for holding the teasets and teapots. Here's how it looks in the dining room. I'm really liking the addition and it's a perfect place to display the melted crayon artwork.

Sunday, May 6, 2012

Pseudo House Crashing

One of my favorite DIY blogs to read is Young House Love and they do this thing called "House Crashing" where they visit someone's house and post pictures of how awesome it is.

I didn't go through and take pictures of every room in these houses, hence this is only a pseudo house crashing, but two of my gracious friends allowed me to take pictures of certain aspects of their home that I will use for inspiration/ideas.





I took this one because I am seriously considering having my cabinets painted and the counter/backsplash colors in my friend Elizabeth's house match my kitchen closely, so I thought this gave a good feel for what white cabinets would look like in my kitchen.



These are from my friend Leslie's house. Her house is amazing. Mid-century and vintage. Love the colors. Love the exposed brick. Just love this house...and the friends who live it in, of course :)

Tuesday, May 1, 2012

Spring Cleaning Status



I know you all have just been on pins and needles to see how my spring cleaning went ;-). Two and a half weeks ago, I posted a list of spring cleaning items I wanted to accomplish by the end of April. I didn't get everything done - some of the items will get done tomorrow (windows and baseboards) but considering how I have been feeling lately, I'm pretty happy with what I was able to accomplish! I know that in the grand scheme of things, being able to accomplish household tasks probably isn't all that amazing, but I am thankful that God allowed me to do them, because I want to be a good steward of what He has blessed me with.


Spring Cleaning chores for the month of April:

Inside:

Wipe down cupboards and doors
Wipe down all light switches and door knobs
Wipe baseboards
Wipe down all blinds
Dust ceiling fans
Clean out/wipe down refrigerator and freezer
Use stainless steel cleaner on outside of refrigerator
Clean inside/outside of microwave-
Clean dishwasher - thanks Claire!

Go through cupboards and toss old spices/tea/etc
Wipe down pantry shelves and sweep inside of pantry
Move DVD shelves and remove all spiderwebs

Wash all windows (inside and outside) – all the ones that are easily accessible
Wash front glass door
Pull out refrigerator and stove and clean behind them

Outside:

Clean up deck outside – throw away dead plants/pots
Trim outside bushes
Trim trees out front
Trim gardenia bush on the side of the house

Powerwash driveway
Powerwash deck

I also added cleaning and organizing my closet and my nightstand drawers (catch all for...everything) and I got both of those done as well!

The remaining items I hope to have complete in the next couple of weeks and then my Spring Cleaning will officially be complete!

Thursday, April 12, 2012

Spring Cleaning!


Okay, so maybe "Spring" is pushing it a little bit...after all, it is just about mid-April, which usually means summer for all the places I've ever lived, but considering the temperature is in the 80s and there's little humidity...well, I'm calling that Spring. And with Spring, comes Spring Cleaning! I've never done Spring cleaning. Ever. I've been seeing posts on Facebook about Spring cleaning and so I decided to make a list too. And my awesome roomie has offered to help out some too. Now, since I am pretty limited right now in what I can physically accomplish since my joints are hurting so much, my goal is to complete my list by the end of April, so that gives me about 2.5 weeks...I think that's pretty decent, especially considering I am probably going to just pay the neighbor kid to take care of a few things (like power-washing the driveway and deck).

I'm not going to blog all the tasks (because, really, who wants to see what's under/behind a refrigerator that hasn't been moved in two years? Ick). But I figured I'd at least post the Spring Cleaning Kick-off Tasks!


Spring cleaning list tacked up next to the standard chore list (yes, my roomie and I keep a calendar of chores- both of us are super busy, so this house could get really messy if we aren't organized!). I even broke the list into Inside and Outside chores-hey, at least I didn't use a spreadsheet...it was tempting though ;-) ).


1) Trim gardenia bush

Gardenia plants have always hated me. I bought no less than 3 plants while living at my apartment and all of them died. I tweaked water, sunlight, and food. Didn't help. They just died. So I was thrilled to discover when I first moved in that a MASSIVE gardenia bush (it's really tree-like, meaning, I hope it is here to stay!) grows just outside one of my kitchen windows. The branches literally bend to the ground under the weight of the amazingly fragrant blossoms. But...it was getting a bit out of control. So time to trim.

Thankfully, I purchased a branch trimmer a long time ago that was approved by the American Arthritis Foundation, which means that people with ouch joints can actually use this tool and not have to apply too much pressure to trim a branch. So I trimmed. It didn't need a lot, so it only took about 15 minutes (crazy how long one can put off a 15 minute task :) ). And then I cut some of the blooms to Springify my kitchen :)


See the branches piled outside? My wrists wouldn't handle the bagging of them today, but I can do that tomorrow. And just 3 of these gardenia blooms make the kitchen smell AMAZING!!!

2) Clean out spice/tea/baking stuff cupboard

A hodgepodge of expired teas and spices, all cluttered together

Decluttered, shelves cleaned, and better organized. I could probably get some cute storage boxes to make it look even more organized...hmm...

Spring Cleaning is off to a successful start!

Friday, April 6, 2012

Two years later...

March 29th was my second house-a-versary, so I thought it would be fun to do "before" and "progress" pictures of the different rooms two years after closing. I am not finished with any of these rooms (hence, "Progress" rather than "After"), but I'm really happy with the results thus far. I'm enjoying making this house into a home.




Breakfast nook: Before and Progress


Master bedroom - before and progress


Kitchen - before (oh pink formica, I do NOT miss you) and progress


Living room - before and progress


More living room before and progress



Dining room before and progress



TV room (slightly wasted space) before and progress (I have NOT touched this room at all, it is literally my apartment living room transplanted into this house)

Hallway before and progress


Saturday, March 17, 2012

Melted Crayon Artwork


My Pinterest project was to do some melted crayon artwork.

I bought a 16 X 20 canvas ( 2 pack for $7.99!) and 2 boxes of Crayola 64 count crayons ( $2.99 a box). I am not sure how other brands of crayons would melt - I have a feeling they would be too waxy and the color wouldn't be as consistent.

First I had to choose the colors - this is going in my dining room, which is orange and will soon have a blue cabinet in it, so I wanted to pick up those two colors, but not be all "orange and blue" looking.


I hot glued my color choices to the top of the canvas.

Then I used my embossing heat gun to melt the crayons. Most instructions I found said to use a hairdryer and also said that it could take up to an hour to melt the crayons. My heat gun accomplish the melting in 5 minutes. You can get embossing guns at craft stores for under $20.

Whoohoo, it's working! Definitely do this on cardboard or drip catching surface because the wax pooled at the bottom and did splatter off the sides some.

The crayons melted SO fast...there was even smoke. To get longer drips, I just held the heat gun over the crayons for longer.

And melted! A $10 DIY piece of art :)

I am going to add the word "EAT" to this somewhere, but I need to get the wooden letters first. Can't wait to sit this on the top of the new cabinet...guess I should finish painting it huh? :) So many projects to tackle!

March Pinterest Party

Well, I had so much fun at Lisa's Pinterest party last month, that I decided to have my own. I invited a few ladies over and told them them bring the supplies to complete one Pinterest project (or a craft project if they didn't do Pinterest). I had a blast with these ladies, eating, chatting, and getting crafty :). Great way to spend some hours on a Saturday afternoon! (I'll post separately on my project...)


Daniella, painting a striped onesie for a birthday gift for her neighbor

Leslie started with some gray yarn...and look how far she got: almost a whole hippo hat!

Colette covering some old lampshades with some cool fabric