Natural Wood Love

via

Via

Via

Via

a splash of green

Via Here


Via Here

Via Here

Happy Saint Patty's Day!



PS - Spend today with a smile.

Featured on House of Grace!

Oh snap. Creating a House of Grace has featured my Jewelry Pinboard! And I've been crowned a Twice Owned Queen!




Thanks for hosting such a great party Bonnie!

A photo break

Because along this path of decor and design, I've developed a love for photography. Here's a shot I took of the Mr. Isn't he handsome?

Oh, and another.

Linking up over to the portrait party over at Tracy's Trinkets and Making the World Cuter's Monday Party, along with Shutter Love over at The Trendy Treehouse.

Master Bedroom Inspiration Board

When I first started this blog, my goal was to decorate the house. Since gettin' hitched, we had been saving money.. so were trying not to spend money on "unimportant" things like decorating the house. Until I got utterly sick of living in an undecorated house and joined blog world.. with the mission to decorate on the cheap.

My first goal was to pretty on up the master bedroom. And I started doing that.. back in October. I made monograms.. and pillows.. and... err, that's as far as I got. Because then I got sidetracked with other neato projects like sisal rope baskets, desk redos and sunburst mirrors.

But lately I've been gettin' that itch again... that {{run on sentence alert}} [I need to do something to this room right now or I will never get any sleep due to the nonstop influx of ideas flowing through my head on how to decorate it as I am trying to fall asleep]. So one early morning last week, fresh up from the mind marathon of the evening idea influx the night before, I put together an inspiration board for our room. And me oh my, I am so excited to get started on the room again!

1. My Whole Heart Antique Sign by Sugarboo Designs. This sign has my whole heart, sorry hubs. In fact, Sugarboo Designs has a whole bunch of signs at Modern Chic Home. And I love them all. Like this one, and this one, and this one. However, they're also a pretty penny. So this will be another DIY project for me, although I think I'd make my words red.

2.Anthropologie's Moving Light Sconce. I'm going for a little reading nook, and I think this would be a perfect touch.


3. Stack of books, from a West Elm flier, first posted here. I absolutely love books. I've wanted to use a stack of 'em as a table ever since I saw this pic, but don't think I could live with such a small table top space bedside table. But, for a reading nook.. it would be perfect!



4. West Elm's Tulip Upholstered Chair. Love the grey. Love even more that Ikea has one just like it, for a fraction of the price. Check it Mr. Tullsta Chair.


5. The bed was in a flier I got from West Elm. This was actually my original inspiration for the entire room. I absolutely love it. It reminds me so much of Celadon, a local store we have here. However, after many hours searching, I can't for the life of me find the pic online or determine which bed it was. So I'll have to leave you with this.. my original post with the pic.


6. Oh yep, that would be my very own sunburst mirror. I've already got plans for my next mantle set up and so I plan on moving this baby into our room.

7. Ikea's Hemnes 6-drawer chest. I actually have this dresser in black. Bought it a few years back and it's still looks new.. props to IKEA. However, the big black dresser happens to be an eyesore.. because it's big... and black... but I could never justify painting it because it looks new still! But, fear not, I will work up the courage and this baby is going to be painted gray.

8. That's the color of our floor. I just added it on here to see what everything would look like with it.


9. Anthropologie's Cooled Globed Lamp. Grey, Red and Turqoise and the colors for the apartment. So I think this would add a great touch.

10. A rug. We need one.. for cheap. I'm still trying to come up with ideas on how to accomplish this.

11. I absolutely love West Elm's rose pillow cover. If only it were red. But haven't you seen all those great DIY versions around town? Like this one up there.. if only I could figure out where I saved that picture from!

12. How neat is PB's Potters Wheel Table? I'm lovin' it!


What do you think? Does it flow?


Cheers!



Linking up to the Newbie Party over at Debbie Doos!

Saturday Morning Love!

Happy Saturday! I'm joining in on the Saturday Snapshop party over at Yellow Songbird today.


This is the Mr. and I in an Art Museum in Atlanta last spring. I dragged him to the museum specifically for that DaVinci display.

Today we're off to a few St. Patty's celebrations. What are you up to today?

Have a wonderful weekend!!!

Featured on Better After!

Guess what, ya'll? (Yes, I did just pull a Ya'll.) I've been featured for my Wooden Tray over at Better After!

Thank you so much Lindsey!! If you haven't heard of Better After you must go check her out. She's one of my absolute favorite blogs in the whole world. So seriously. Right now. Stop reading this and go!

DIY Jewelry Pinboard

My sister-in-law's birthday was earlier this week. We always have a hard time picking out gifts for the hubster's family because they all happen to live in Europe. Which means we need to pick something that 1. we won't get too upset if they don't actually make it there (like that time he mailed his favorite watch so his dad could take it to his favorite watch-fixer-man.. we sent it, and his dad never recieved the package.. the watch gone forever). 2. Something that is not large or heavy, unless we want to pay an ungodly amount for shipping. 3. Something we know they will like or use, because returning it isn't so much an option.

PB Jewelry Display Frames

Every girl loves some jewelry, (as long as every girl = me.. or my sister-in-law..) but we had given her jewelry in the past. So this time I thought a jewelry holder of some sort would be perfect. At first I was thinking of something like these PB Jewelry Display Frames. I love these. But I wasn't sure if she'd "get" it.. I had the image of her opening her package and seeing three empty white frames.. and being totally disappointed.

I was also loving this Modern Chic Burlap Post Board. I just love the vintage letter print on there. Isn't it gorgeous?

Modern Chic Burlap Post Board

And then I saw this PB Striped Pinboard. And my heart melted a little. And I just knew that these were my 3 inspiration pieces. I was ready to make a wired-jewelry-holding-burlap-pin-board with some sort of vintage print.

PB Striped Pinboard

First was finding a frame. No worries, I have a wall full. So I pulled down the green one, once framing the K. I originally picked this frame up at a thrift store a few months back.

I had some burlap, white burlap and muslin already. After much debate, I decided to go with the muslin fabric. I had exactly two cork board tiles left over from our Burlap Monograms. I did have to run to target to pick up some wire and hooks for the jewelry holder part. Besides that, I had everything else at home.



First part was cutting and gluing the cork board to be the size of the frame. Then with some spray adhesive I sprayed on the muslin. I also used the spray adhesive to glue scrapbook paper to the other side so the back of the frame would be pretty-ish.

Originally, I was just going to have the wire go straight across the board. But in target, I saw a French Twill Memo board with the crossed ribbon and decided to go this route.

Target French Twill Memo Board

I sprayed the wire with Krylon Metallic ORB (oil rubbed bronze) spray paint. But after laying them out on the board, I still wasn't crazy about it. Something was missing. At the time I had a piece of sandpaper next to the frame (pic above), the sandpiper was a deep purple and I realized how well that color complimented the green frame. And I just happened to have some deep maroon ribbon left over from our wedding. So I wrapped the ribbon around the wire and loved it! I wrapped the wire around hooks on the back of the frame, as well as using decorative nails (also left over from the Burlap Monogram) to keep them all in place.

I was still debating on whether or not to add some sort of vintage stamp print on the fabric, but decided against it. Then I hung her on the wall to take some pictures. And had to talk myself out of keeping her for myself. Because I love how she turned out! I just hope my dear sister-in-law feels the same way!

Linking to these parties -
Nifty Thrifty Tuesdays @ Coastal Charm
Tutorial Tuesdays @ Hope Studios
Twice Owned Tuesdays @ House of Grace
Show Me What Ya Got @ Happy Housewife
Tip Me Tuesday @ Tip Junkie
Under 100$ Linky Party @ Beyond the Picket Fence
Show & Tell @ Blue Cricket Design
Show off your Stuff @ Fireflies & Jellybeans
Restore it Wednesday @ Restore Interiors
Just White & Wow Us Wednesdays @ Savvy Southern Style
Get Your Craft on @ Today's Creative Blog
Before & After Party @ Thrifty Decor Chic
Made by You @ Skip to My Lou
Anything goes @ Type A
Tag Back Tuesdays @ Mommying On the Fly, Life with Twins & Multiples, Boobies, Babies & a Blog
Upcycled Awesome @ The T-shirt Diaries
Weekend Bloggy Reading @ Serenity Now

Final Touches for the Desk, and your help!

After seeing it on my to-do list for months, I've finally picked up a piece of glass to cover my desk. Every time I would write at the desk, I felt like I was making grooves into the wood. Hence the need for the glass.

Along with that I lined the drawers. After some fabric and modge podge and here she is as of now:

I'm still waiting for that lightbulb moment on how to organize all my to-do lists with the other half of the wood I used for my Via Carducci sign, so we can stop looking like this:

The last big thing for my woman cave (for now) is my thrifted chair.

I can't decide on what to do with it. I've thought about leaving it mostly as is and painting something on the seat.. maybe a vintage, french stamp emblem, with a story like Donna did.

Then I also like these simple, classic black chairs. But I'm thinking a darker shade of gray to go with the white desk.

I'm also loving this Anthropologie Garvey Chair.  I can see Beige / White Fabric? Paint the chair grey? Red inspirational words? Or maybe Turquoise words?

"Dream. Achieve. Live. Believe. Reach. Push. Change" or "Be the change you want to see" repeating itself? Or maybe we can stick with Nike, and have a repeating "Just Do it". Can you picture it?

And the of course I could also reupholster it.. of course... gray fabric! At first I wasn't even considering this. Because, well I've never reupholstered anything. But also because I love me some natural wood. But the more time passes, the more it's growing on me. How gorgeous is this chair? 

So many options, so many decisions to make. What do you think? Are there any other options I'm missing? What would you do?!? Help!

Cheers!

Dumpster Dive to PB!

I pulled in the parking lot after work one day and was walking up to the apartment I spotted this beauty, err.. mess hanging out right next to the dumpster. I stopped and thought about it, then continued on. As soon as I got into the house I thought, Wait! What am I thinking.. and quickly ran out to the dumpster (..as if someone else was going to take it..) and picked up my new table.

Isn't she a beauty? Hmm.. let's rephrase. Doesn't she have so much potential?

So I promptly set her in our entryway. And there she sat. Until the Mr. got annoyed enough that he moved her to the front porch. And there she sat. Until I got embarrassed enough that the bright red, falling apart table I stole from the dumpster was on our front porch for all our neighbors to see, including the one who once threw this away, so I brought her inside.

Then I covered her in paint thinner and scraped off some paint, three times. But she still had tons of residue. Then I gave her a good sanding, too many times time count. At the time, I was pretty certain those round legs were going to be the death of me. But don't fret, I survived.

After the paint thinner:


After the sanding:


The wood wasn't in good shape, so I knew I'd have to paint her. But I've always been a fan of dark, natural wood so having to paint her intimidated me.

At first I thought I'd make a bar cart out of her. Then I wanted to make her into a table top sign, like Donna's at Funky Junk Interiors. Then she was going to be a side table in the living room. However, I wasn't crazy about any of those ideas in the apartment.

Then one weekend the Mr. and I were walking around downtown and stopped in Pottery Barn. Like always, they have so. many. trays. And I always want every. single. one.

A girl can dream can't she?




Darn price tags.

I digress, in PB that day was when I realized exactly what my little red table could become. A tray! So home I went ready to roll.

Of course, I forgot to take some pictures in the process (I'm still learning!).

I picked up 2 pieces of metal from Lowe's. They were originally the standard silver color, but some Krylon Metallic ORB (oil rubbed bronze) spray paint fixed that.

I tore off the top of the table, and to my surprise underneath actually had a logo from the company that made the table. The wood was a lot better on that side too. So with a little more sanding and some Dark Oak stain, they were good to go. The wood was still definitely worn, but that gave it a perfect Vintage look.

I nailed the metal pieces around the tray. Don't be fooled. It sounds easy. But nailing the metal to the tray was somehow the hardest part of the project. Something about have to position, force the bend and nail at the same time didn't work so well. But so worth it, either way!

And that was it! I still want to give the tray handles and think sisal rope would be perfect, and happened to have some left over from the Sisal Basket I made. I just need to make a trip to the store to pick up a new drill. My current drill decided it no longer wanted to drill.

What do you think? In total, the metal was about $4 a pop. So I spent a whopping $8 on this project, as I had all the other supplies. Take that PB!



Link Parties - Made byYou Monday's