Redecorating a Wall Hanging

A few years ago, my mother gave me this picture for my wall.  It didn't really match my house, but the flowers were pretty, so I hung it in our bedroom to fill the blank wall.  We've moved a couple of times since then, and I just kind of carried the picture around with me, never really getting around to hanging it again.

Finally, I looked at it one day, and realized that while I loved the flowers themselves, the basic picture had to go.  It was a little worse for the wear, having been somewhat beat up over time.

So in a fit of inspiration, I took it apart, painted the mats -- not as easy as it sounds, surprisingly -- and the frame, and painted a new image for inside the frame.  (My first real time painting something like that.  Fear not, the tulip picture is still safe and rolled up in my craft room closet.)

I focused a lot on the black, red and white theme of the decor that I'm planning for my bedroom, as you can see.  I just used regular acrylic paint.  I'm fairly pleased with how it turned out, particularly for a first-time.  And altogether, it cost me nothing to do, as I already had everything on hand.

A quick recap:

I posted:

And I shake my basket on the catwalk

The other day, I saw a sign posted on one of the many blogs I follow -- I can't recall exactly who posted about it -- and fell in love! The sign, originally made by The Handmade Home, was witty, cute, and so fitting for those of us who tend to avoid doing our laundry.



I HAD to have one for my own laundry room. My laundry room isn't nearly as big or gorgeous as hers -- quite the opposite, and really too awkward to get a decent picture of, but I'll try another time -- and I'm not brave enough to try framing mine yet, but I liked the basic idea.

So, I painted a board of plywood that I got at Michael's -- it wasn't very large -- and painted it green first, and then an antique white. I printed off a font that I really liked with the words, stenciled it onto my board, and painted. I wanted a soft look, so I used a toothpick to paint the words on. (Also, my small paintbrushes suck for detail work.) VERY TIME CONSUMING. Then I sanded the board a bit. It still lacked a little something, so I grabbed some mini clothespins I had, glued them on, and my floral wire, and twisted them into mini hangers. (Floral wire is VERY SHARP. Be careful, or you'll end up stabbing yourself in the thumb and bleeding everywhere like I did.) A little hot glue later, and voila!

It was about 1am when I took this picture, so it's a bit darker. If I brightened it up, it would have lost the details... I could take another picture in the light of day... but I'm lazy.




I linked up!

The pantry project – Finished for now

Finally, I have the pantry done.  Altogether, it took me about a week-ish to do.

The only thing left is to get new handles, but I have yet to find handles for it that:
A.) Fit the current holes in the doors.
B.) Are what I’m looking for.

But for now, the rest of the pantry is DONE, and I can finally get it out of my craft room!  Yay!  (My counters have been overloaded in pantry innards for the whole time I’ve been working on this.)  If you missed it, I put up a post yesterday detailing most of the work I did in this project.

Again, the handles suck… but I don’t have any other handles for it right now.



We have the faux antique hinges... the balsa wood painted black, and then spray painted with Krylon's Oil Rubbed Bronze, and then a very light dusting of Sparkling Canyon.



The scratching on the hinges could probably have been avoided with patience, and I'll probably go back and fix them later.

And finally, the finished product fully opened.



And here it is, in its place, in use.  Doesn’t it look awesome???  I couldn’t be happier.  (Isn’t it amazing the difference that a different room/light can make on something?  Look how much brighter it all looks in the kitchen than it did in my craft room!  You can see the difference in person as well as in the picture!)



I know, compared to so many of the craft projects that I’ve seen SO many other crafters take on, this is kinda sad, but that’s okay!  It’s my first big project, and I’m proud of myself!!  (I’m also sort of wondering if perhaps finding some poly and putting a coat of that over the paint might project the paint from scratching a bit more?)

Total costs for the project:
Caraway Seed paint by Kilz, quart sized - $5 at Walmart (clearance)
Balsa wood - $1.99 at Michaels
Book for the decoupage - $.25 at library bookstore
Total:   $6.24

Everything else, I already had on hand.

I hope you all like it!!


I've linked to:




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Further Into the Pantry Project

(BEWARE: This is a very picture-heavy post!)

For those of you who may recall (because I post SO OFTEN, how could you possibly remember what it is that I posted a whole two posts ago???), I decided to take on the redesigning of my pantry.  I got tired of the OMG IT'S SO WHITE, and felt I needed to repaint it.  Most of my house is all renter's white, and until I own a home, I can't just repaint the walls to fix that, so for now, I paint what is mine to mix things up.

A refresher on what the pantry USED to look like:

Picture it with boring flat white doors and handles, because I forgot to take a picture before I removed the doors.  Whoops.

My first really big project: Tackling my pantry

I have a pantry.  We bought it when we moved into an apartment that had NO storage space.  Just a simple white particle board, two door, four shelf cabinet.

And I’m tired of the white.  It’s been white for years, it’s boring.  So I decided to change it.  I’m inspired by so many of the blogging ladies, I’m changing it up!  I decided on KILZ color Caraway Seed, a sort of dark taupe.  It’s a really long process, because the paint takes a while to dry, so this will definitely be a multi-day project.  But I do have some photos to share of the process thus far!!

Here’s my pantry Before.  Picture this with white doors – I forgot to take a picture before I removed the doors – with white plastic handles – which I might very well replace.

Here’s the fronts of the doors painted with two coats.  That’s the color, and I LOVE it!!  I painted them last night and let them dry overnight.

My snack, because everybody needs fuel for a quasi-long-term project, yes?  Yay for Costco!  (This post not sponsored by Snickers… unless they want to sponsor me!) 

Lifted the doors to paint a coat on the backside, and the bottoms of the shelves have one coat as well.  Yay!

My goal is to have this done by the end of next weekend.  I have a girlfriend coming over on Tuesday, and I’m hoping to do a big chunk of the project that day, we’ll see!

Trial and Error - Filing Cabinet-style

Going through and reading so many of the different crafting blogs out there, I'm struck by... jealousy?  Envy?  I don't know...

These ladies -- so many incredibly talented women! -- completely change the look and feel of their homes with a little bit of trim, a coat of paint, and more!  I'm limited by the changes I can do by the fact that we rent, though someday, I would love to own a home.  For now, though, I can only change what I have in my home.

My current project is a filing cabinet.  It's a black metal filing cabinet that I've hauled around for a few years, but never dressed up in any way, just having it around simply for its function.

I don't remember who wrote it, or if it was tweeted or posted on Facebook, but somebody yesterday said something about livening up a dull filing cabinet with some paint and/or wallpaper.  It inspired me!

So today, I took apart my filing cabinet -- it isn't fancy, just a $30 cabinet from Walmart -- and emptied it out.  Two coats of primer and one coat of satin white interior house paint later, and I have it here in my craft room, resting on flattened cardboard boxes, drying.  I've painted the handles a soft spring green, and I have a wallpaper boarder that I'm going to somehow incorporate onto it.

But now I'm concerned.  Through the priming/painting process, I've noticed that it's nicked/scratched easily, exposing the black metal underneath.  I can't help but wonder if I should have perhaps sanded first?

I put a layer of Mod Podge over it, hoping to make it stronger, but I really don't think that has made any difference, and I'm too afraid to try it to find out.

Am I right?  Should I have sanded first?  I don't know... I guess I'll just have to find out.  Trial and error?  Fortunately, it doesn't take too much paint and primer to do this.  Just all of one afternoon.