I'm Down with the DIY...

I L-O-V-E a great DIY project.  I can be a little picky when it comes to DIY-- it's gotta be good-- like seriously amazingly good-- not cheesy.  Here are some of my recent fav's...  prepare yourself-- they're awesome.

DIY rope mirror-- why pay $650 bucks for the RH Iron & Rope mirror when you could make this beauty yourself for $50!  Unreal.

apartment therapy

These burlap covered letters are so stinkin' cute.  Pick up some cardboard letters for $1-2 bucks from a craft store/dollar store, cover them with burlap-- instant charming nursery decor.

The Virginia House

It seems that you're not an expert DIY-er until you've hacked yourself a rast.

These are some of my favorites...

Campaign Style 

Little Green Notebook

Two Tone 

I've loved the wood/painted white ones in the past but the grey and white combo is pretty great...

via pinterest

Numbered

via pinterest

I don't know about you but all of a sudden I have the urge to go spray paint something.

Now there's an idea

I've mentioned this before on the blog-- but one of my favorite ways to make Caleb's bed "cool" is by covering his box spring with a fitted sheet.  He doesn't have a bed frame to hid the unsightly box spring and bed skirts can be a little too girly.  Since I have many many fitted sheets for his bed (he's four-- what can I say-- many many fitted sheets are needed) I regularly change the look of his bed by changing the sheet covering the box spring.

A while back we had stripes.

The last few months have been dots.

And today we have yet another look.

Yesterday I found this fantastic idea on pinterest... UPHOLSTERING a box spring!!  How cool is that?  You can find the instructions here.

I don't think I'll upholster Caleb's box spring since I do like being able to change is up whenever I feel like it.  But, I am contemplating doing the box spring in our bedroom to match the headboard we upholstered a while back.  Hmmm... I'm liking this idea.

Well-- if anyone's looking for a project to do over the weekend-- here you go!

On Display

I love art created by kids.  I also love gallery art walls.  So, if you combine the two you get something pretty awesome.  Maybe something that looks like this...

Caleb LOVES to do art projects.  He started at an early age-- when he was just a wee lad he would head off to daycare where he would craft away the day.  His love of creating has continued.  I literally have an entire filing cabinet drawer that's full of his creations.  One project that's on my to do list for this fall is to find a way to creatively display some of his stylish work!  I've been collecting some pictures of stylish ways to display kids art.  Here are some of my favorites...

Honestly-- this is so stylish and so pretty-- it's beautiful!  Who needs to buy art when kids can create something like this!

A grid of frames up on the wall like this is pretty incredible-- you could put anything into these frames and it would look amazing.  I LOVE it!

Honestly-- skip the fridge magnets and head for the frames.  I've been collecting a bunch of cheap frames and mats to frame some of Caleb's paintings-- because the frames take it from being cute to stylish!  Stylish enough for the kitchen :)

I think the key is to display kids art in a collection-- putting one or two up won't have the same impact as a grouping of pieces.  In this picture these images aren't framed-- but they are grouped together in an artistic way.  Because the room is more casual it works!

Again, in this space it's the grouping and scale of this arrangement that makes this look so amazing!  All this mom did was attach thin strips of wood to the wall, painted them out and attached clips to the grid so that artwork could be rotated and added to the wall easily.  Brilliant!  (For more details click here)

There are hundreds of creative ways to display kids artwork-- just search on pinterest for a while and you'll be blown away.  Here a few more fav's of mine...

Clip it up!!

Magnetic strips.  Oh my-- I am totally digging that pink strip along the bottom of the wall.  And those little boots, and the little chair-- so cute!

And I would love to try this one out-- if you can't store all of your kid's art just photograph it, shrink the images and display them as a collection in a single frame.  Totally modern-- from a distance it looks like a great print-- and the best thing is that you don't have to keep drawers full of artwork!!

So one of these days (maybe in a few weeks!) I'll have to get Caleb set up to do more painting and figure out where I'm going to display it!  I can't wait!  And if you're looking for a project for the long weekend and have stacks of kids artwork-- here you go.  A weekend project just for you :)

All images can be found here

I see chalkboards everywhere...

My friend Kathleen said it first...

If you want to invest some money in something, I say invest it in whomever manufactures chalkboard paint. Everyone is into painting something in their house with chalkboard paint. Are we rebelling against the white board?

Yup. I see chalkboards everywhere.  And alot of them are pretty darn cute.  That's why we went a little bit chalkboard happy when it came time to think about wedding decor.

Making your own chalkboard is remarkably easy.  Here's how I made mine out of picture frames:

1. pop out the glass and the cardboard backing
2. Cut a piece of hardboard (or any other thin material with a smooth surface) to the same dimensions as the glass
3. If you don't have any scrap material (or a handy husband with a table saw) and want a quick and easy solution try using cardboard-- I ran out of scraps of hardboard for the last few "reserved" frames so I cut up a bunch of my cereal boxes, painted the inside (the brown side) with chalkboard paint and once it was dry I used my scissors to cut it to size.  They worked just fine... but this probably isn't the best solution if you plan to use your chalkboard regularly.  Don't use corrugated cardboard-- your going to end up with a "wavy" looking chalkboard.  Flat and smooth works the best!!
4.  I used brush on Rustoleum chalkboard paint-- it went on nice and smoothly with a foam brush.
5. I did 2 coats-- instead of rinsing out my brush I put it in a plastic bag and tied up the end so that it didn't dry out.  It's ready to use at a moment's notice!
6. Let it sit for a few days before using!

Now... just for fun... here are a few ideas of how you could use chalkboard paint!!

You could create a chalkboard for your super organized home office... 

You could paint a calendar on your wall...

If the fancy frame isn't appealing and you'd prefer a more clean modern approach, all you've gotta do is paint a big rectangle on your wall.  You could do it in your kitchen to write out your meal plans, recipes, to-do lists for the hubby... so many options.

I have no advice on how to remove it from your wall however.  If you start painting your wall with chalkboard paint you'd better be ready to commit.

I personally love chalkboard with fun fancy frames.  I always love the white...

But how about this red one!!

These are totally drool worthy... so are the chalkboards.

You could paint a piece of furniture and label the drawers so your husband kids have no excuses when it comes time to put things away in the correct drawer...

You could label your herbs and other potted plants... how cute.

You could paint an entire wall in your house with chalkboard paint and go chalkboard crazy.

You know how some people like to take weekly or monthly photos of their kids with a sign or object to track how big they are getting at each stage?  Why not take a picture of them in front of a cute chalkboard... you just write their age or another cute message and snap away.  I LOVE this one :)

How about using a chalkboard at a wedding in place of a guest book?  Just have the guests write out marriage advice for the couple on the chalkboard and have the guests photographed with it!  How cute is that?

And finally, the most GENIUS idea of all.  If you absolutely hate your ugly fridge but cannot afford to replace it... paint it!!  I can't believe how awesome this fridge turned out.  You can read all about this kitchen's transformation here.

Happy Chalkboard making everyone!!

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For a Growing Family

I came across this awesome idea this week...  making a super stylish growth chart!  I love the idea of having a spot in the house where you mark the heights of your kids over time.  Instead of marking up the walls (could be problematic when/if you sell your house!) why not make this amazingly stylish ruler inspired growth chart that you could display in your house!  The best thing is... it can travel with you and the family if you ever move.  I love it.  Check out the step by step tutorial on how to make your own growth chart here.

Another weekend project idea for you... a few days early.

Thought I'd pass along this idea just in case anyone's looking for a fun DIY project this weekend!  This time around I decided to post the idea a few days early-- just in case you need a few days to gather supplies and such.

I saw this do it yourself art on the blog me oh my!  How fun and creative is this?  She has a step by step tutorial on how to create this for your own home.  What I love about this (besides the fact that it looks great) is that you can totally customize the message on the sign-- you can make up your own message or use some great lyrics, a saying, or a verse that's special to you.

In other news, I am currently camera-less... I left it at Toews HQ during family dinner on Sunday night.  If anyone residing at that house (I know there's a lot of you living over there these days!!) are heading to my part of town please feel free to drop it off :)  Until then... I shall have to get creative with this blog of mine!

If you want to DIY yourself some built-in's... do it this weekend!

So I noticed on Ikea's site that Billy bookcases are on sale this weekend only!!  Instead of $69 bucks for one shelving unit, they are selling them for $49 each (black and white only).  I think they were cheaper for a one time sale over Christmas, but this is still a pretty good deal.  If you want to DIY yourself some bookcases like ours, now is the time to get started!!

I mentioned in an earlier post that the jury was still out as to whether or not it was worth it for us to customize the billy's or if it would have been better to build them ourselves.  In the end, since we ended up doing so much custom work (adding crown, building up the base, cutting part of one shelving unit down so that it would fit around the bumped out wall, adding an end panel to the one side, replacing the backing with beadboard... whew!) Doug felt that it would have been easier to do it from scratch.  But, if you're going to do a more simplified built in version, I think it would be worth it, and easy to do!  Wanna a bit more inspiration?  Check some of these ones out.

Painting out the back in a fun color looks awesome.  I wish I was brave enough to try this in my house...



In both of these cases, they just attached the shelves to the wall, trimmed out the top and sides with flat stock and painted it out in a similar shade of white to make it look like one unit, not three.

Both images are from House and Home

Man, these pictures of perfectly styled bookcases make me want to head downstairs and start tinkering with ours... if only I had nice stuff to put on them.

Or... if you didn't want to do an entire wall of built in shelves, you could always pick up one shelf and customize it to make it extra special.  The DIY experts at Young House Love  did it in the office of their old house (see the transformation here).  Isn't this cute?

Here are a few more ideas if you feel like hacking a Billy...

both images from here

If you're looking for a weekend project, I just found one for you.  You're welcome :)  If anyone out there decides to attempt such a project, please send me a picture!!  I would love to see...