DIY

Living Room Reveal {Part 1}

May 20, 2013 By Megan Leave a Comment

I mentioned a few weeks ago, that I had worked on another creative storage solution for my place. I finally was able to take pictures of it, so I’m doing a little reveal today.

My bedroom closet is teeny tiny. Like small enough to only fit one season’s worth of clothes {i.e. fall/winter}. Since there was a whole other set of clothes for spring/summer that needed a home, I had to get creative.

My living room is basically one long room {I plan to show you more pictures later}. Because of the size, I really only had room to put one small couch in front of the tv. That left an awkward space behind it. So, instead of letting that space go to waste, I decided to put a dresser behind it to store all my remaining clothes and summer/spring shoes. Here it is in all its glory.

This back corner of my apartment hardly gets any sunlight, so these pictures are a little darker than I would like, but hopefully you are able to get the picture.

The dresser is actually a Habitat Restore project that I re-finished and I plan to blog all about the step by step tutorial of its transformation soon.

It’s the perfect size for the wall and the perfect size for storage. Fits all my remaining clothes perfectly. Now that it’s basically summer, I need to switch things around and put my winter clothes in it instead.

You may recognize many of the accessories I used to decorate & style the top of the dresser with. The fan, books and bottle are all from my previous bookshelves in Nashville. The window is from my old bedroom. The bird print is actually from Emily Jones Design. I bought it when they were having a 50% off sale. Was waiting to find the right place to display it.

The two pieces of wood are actually candle holders that I bought at a little indie craft fair in Greenville before I moved down. I bought the lamp from Kohls and I made the little moss monogram ‘M.’

I love this little corner of the apartment and love that it’s one of the first things you see when you come inside. Plus, I love when you can make something pretty but also make it functional.

Are you using a dresser or another large piece of furniture in your home outside of your bedroom to store things?

Simple DIY Spring Wreath {2013}

May 1, 2013 By Megan 4 Comments

Several weeks ago I blogged about my diy spring wreath from last year. I finally got around to making a spring wreath this year and today I thought I would show it off to you guys and tell you how I made it.

This is seriously the easiest wreath to make.

Judging by last year’s wreath, I apparently gravitate towards green and purple for wreaths. That was totally unintentional, but now they can be twinsies.

For supplies, I bought a round twig wreath base and several floral stems from Michaels.

The floral stems came in bunches, so the first thing I did was clip them apart with wire cutters.

Then I just started adding in the stems around the wreath. I started with the purple and pink stems since I had the most of those.

Then you’ll just keep adding stems all around. Don’t worry too much about placement just yet. Once you get the whole wreath filled in, you can go back and add more stems to the places that are more bare than others.

Once I had the whole wreath covered and made sure there weren’t any bare spots, I then went on to add the white floral stems.

These were also in bunches and I clipped them apart first.

Just wanted to break up the color a bit with some white so I just added them throughout the wreath here and there.

And that’s literally it. I’ll be the first to admit I’m not the best floral arranger, but this is seriously the easiest wreath to make ever. Anyone can do it!

And now it’s hanging pretty from the ~~BF’s~~ fiance’s front door {more on that later }.

Between a coupon I had and the sale on the floral stems, I think I spent around $20 for everything. Not too shabby.

What do you think? Since both of my spring wreaths I have made have the same colors, which one is your favorite?

Linking up to: Shabby Creek Cottage, Liz Marie, Uncommon Designs, Home Stories A to Z

7 Handmade Wedding Ideas

April 22, 2013 By Megan Leave a Comment

If you didn’t already know, wedding season is definitely in full force. I don’t know about you, but my Facebook feed is blowing up with people getting married. My favorite part of seeing wedding pictures posted is checking out what handmade or diy touches people incorporated into their special day.

So in honor of wedding and season, and for all you out there planning a wedding, here are 7 handmade wedding ideas you can make to add a unique/handmade touch to your big day.

1- Kraft Paper Favor Bags // 2- Cake Flowers // 3- Rustic Table Numbers // 4- Rope Words // 5- Printable Chalkboard Matchbox Labels // 6- Door Knob Table Numbers // 7- Wedding Sign

I personally really love the antique door knob table numbers. I have a thing for old knobs and love this creative use for them.

If you are married, did you diy a lot of stuff for your wedding or add any sort of handmade touch? Do share!

How to Revamp Your Old Kitchen Table {Using Chalk Paint}

April 10, 2013 By Megan 13 Comments

Well friends, I finally did it. I can now finally say I have used chalk paint. I had wanted to give it a try for a while with all the buzz I’ve been hearing about it, but never really had the right project. Well the right project finally came along with my new/old dining room set.

When I moved down to Greenville, my parents gave me their old kitchen table that had been sitting in my grandparent’s garage for a few years to use in my new place. Since I didn’t already have a kitchen table, a free table was definitely appealing. Plus, given that I didn’t have a job lined up right away, buying a kitchen table and chairs was out of the question. But, the downside was that it looked like this.

Super dated wood. But, I thought I would give it a paint job and hope that the finished product looked better than how it started. I found an Annie Sloan stockist here in Greenville and bought a can of Pure White. Now, I will say, the chalk paint was pricey. I was a little hesitant to purchase {see comment above about being unemployed}. But, I heard a little goes a long way so I was hoping I could paint multiple projects with the one can {which I did and hope to blog about the other project soon}.

So with my Annie Sloan chalk paint in hand and a Purdy brush, I got to painting the table. After one coat, you could see some of my brushstrokes.

Two coats was definitely the ticket.

The thing that I liked about the chalk paint was how easy it was to distress. The idea of having to put a lot of elbow grease into distressing the table wasn’t appealing. But, with the chalk paint, it only took a little bit of light sanding with a sanding block to distress it.

I gave all the chairs, table legs and table a good distressing. Since the shape and design of the table was already old and dated, I figured I would just accent the ‘old’ and make it look worn.

Next came waxing. I was a little nervous about this part. I wasn’t exactly sure what to do. I wanted it to look antique {given the old factor again}, so I bought both the Annie Sloan clear wax and dark wax.

The instructions said to use either a rag or brush. The brushes the stockist sold specifically for wax were close to $40, and this girl didn’t have that kind of money in her budget for a brush. So I opted to go with the rag option. Just bought a pack of cheap white ones at Home Depot.

With my finger and the rag, I rubbed on a little bit of the clear wax in a spot and then with a separate rag, rubbed on a little bit of the dark wax.

You can see the difference between the dark wax finish on the left versus the right without the dark wax on the back of the chair. Just makes it look a little bit more aged.

Having my first painting project be a kitchen table with chairs full of spindles, was probably not the best idea. Let’s just say it took foooorever to finish. And hand rubbing the wax on the chairs was almost the death of me. Seriously, I really thought I would never finish.

Not sure I will ever paint kitchen chairs again because of this project.

But, I did finally successfully finish. Here’s what each piece of the dining set looked like once it had been waxed.

I know you are also supposed to buff the wax after it dries for a bit. I attempted to do this, but not sure I was super successful. Because I used the rag option, I think I ended up using too much wax overall which made it a little harder to buff. From what I understand though, the buffing is just to give it a shine, so I was ok if my table and chairs weren’t super shiny.

Here’s the finished product all set up in my new place.

For a first painting project I think it turned out great. I do think I went a little too far with the distressing. If I did it again, I wouldn’t distress everything quite as much.

You may notice something wrong with the kitchen table. Because the table was sitting on the ground, I forgot to wax the brackets underneath. Oops. Once I realized it, I probably could have fixed it, but after spending days and days working on this project, I decided I could live with it the way it was. You don’t really notice it unless you get down {like I did with the camera}.

I think the final product looks way better than it did to start with so I would consider that an overall success.

Would you agree?

Have you ever used chalk paint? If so, were you successful in buffing the wax?

Linking up to: Home Stories A to Z, Shabby Creek Cottage, Liz Marie, Serenity Now, Uncommon Designs

Recycled:: Square Spring Wreath

March 25, 2013 By Megan 1 Comment

Spring is upon us which means it’s time to bring out the fresh flowers and spruce up our front doors with some ‘Spring-y’ decor.

I haven’t had a chance to work on a wreath for my door yet, but I did make one last Spring. Since I have some new readers, I thought I would recycle an old post and provide some {new to some} Spring project inspiration. Read on to learn how to make this DIY Spring wreath.

The wreath started out looking like this. Pitiful, I know. I had made a faux boxwood wreath the year before and it had been sitting in storage for a year. So it needed a little TLC.

I decided to re-use the wreath instead of buying a new one. I removed all the greenery to start with just a plain square wreath base.

To make the wreath, here are all the supplies you’ll need::

-Square wreath base
- Ribbon {of your choice}
- Faux Baby’s Breath {in this case, purple and green

I wanted the wreath to have a full/clumpy look. Typically when you buy the filler stuff at a craft store, you angle them into the wreath and they lay against the wreath. But since I wanted the baby’s breath to be front and center, I had to cut them down quite a bit.

Then I just started sticking the little pieces into the wreath, alternating between purple and green.

Here’s an ‘almost done’ shot. Now, forewarning, I had only planned on this little project taking a few hours at max. But, since I was cutting them down into such small pieces, it took a lot longer than I planned. It probably took me a good 3-4 hours total. :/ Some of you may be faster than me, but if you wish to duplicate, be sure to set enough time aside!

I also added some hot glue here and there to make sure some of the baby’s breath stayed in place.

Here’s what it looks like all finished.

For the ribbon, I wanted something with a print or pattern, but I also wanted it to match the wreath itself. I knew our door was blue, so I also didn’t want to do something that would clash with that. I found this fun purple and white patterned ribbon and it added just the perfect touch.