Basement Door frosting

Do you ever feel like just wearing whatever you feel like in your house, even if it's nothing at all? Want to do that without having to run like the Flash past windows so neighbors or pedestrians don't see you? Want to do all that but still let light in without putting curtains up on door windows?

I hate thinking that people are looking into my house at night.  It's dark outside so I can't see out but you can bet if someone is looking they can see me if my lights are on! And when you live in a city, the neighbors windows look into yours easily. I don't like it, which is a little hypocritical of me because I like glancing into people's windows when I'm driving at night to see how they decorate their houses.  Don't judge me, you know you do it too ;).

Most of my windows do have curtains on them but there's one window I always feel paranoid I'm going to see someone standing there looking in at me.  It's my back door that goes out to the fenced in back yard.  It's right at the top of the stairs to the basement that I just fixed up in a post a few weeks ago. Here's a little reminder of the pretty fake wood peel and stick tiles.
 
See that door on the right? That goes out to the mud room and then my back yard, but you can see right into the back yard. That's the one I was hesitant to walk by at night which wasn't good because the master bedroom is in the basement (I know it's kind of weird, but there's so much more room down there! If you want a spacious master, you put it where there's enough room).

I wanted to get some privacy but I didn't want to add a curtain to the door because I thought that'd look way too 50's kitchen and I have brand new flooring on my stairs! Plus the stairway is dark enough I didn't want to darken it further with fabric.  So naturally I hit Pinterest:


Obviously the first inspiration pin is more attainable for the DIYer so I set out to find a stencil and where did I go? You guessed it, Hobby Lobby.  I found this stencil there and it was pretty decently priced plus I can use it again! I also got the cans of frost there too!

So the process began of taping the stencil and covering the rest of the window with saran wrap to keep the "frosting" off the places I didn't want it to be.

Then spray, let dry, move stencil and saran wrap, and repeat until finished.

 

Now I feel much more at ease going up and down the stairs at night.  If there is someone back there they won't be able to see clearly what's going on inside but I can still peek out through the sides.

Next time you think about curtains on a door, maybe consider frosting :) it's beautiful, lets the light in but also gives the privacy/safety needed.

What do you think? Are you a frosting or curtain person?

String art

As promised from my Spring fresh start post, here's how we made our cute little string art projects!

Before we got started, we hit Pinterest to see what kind of afternoon project we should work on for our "Crafternoons" :)

We found a couple string art projects that looked fun and pretty easy.


Then we found the winner:


The only challenge was to re-create it. So Deb had the idea to print this out and use it as a template for creating our own.  We had a plan :) so it was off to the happiest place on earth.....Hobby Lobby.

We found these great wood pieces with frames on them, blank and just asking to be turned into something.  We also found the little gold nails and the perfect colors we wanted to use for the birds and twig.

With our print offs in hand, we taped it in place and started nailing in the little gold nails.  Luckily the picture showed the nails so we just put our nails right on top!

The nails are really small so we used these tongs to hold the nail upright.  I tried using my fingers, the nails kept falling over and when they didn't I tended to hit my fingers because they were in the way, ouch!

Once the nails were all in place, we pulled off the stencil, carefully, some of the nails wanted to come out with the paper so there were a few that needed to be hammered back in. With a free work surface we started winding the string.

When we were satisfied with the amount of string we tied it off and sat back to admire the handiwork.

Here's the finished product in it's happy little home. (This picture was taken before my Spring Time refresh but it's still on the same wall, just a new spot :)



Any new projects you want to try?  Tempted to try some string art of your own?

Basement Stairs re-do with the help of the best Dad ever!

Happy Father's Day everyone! This is my Dad.  He is quite possibly the best Dad in the world.  He's kind, hardworking, caring, would do anything for anyone and he's taught me and my sister Lonna those skills as well.  He's a carpenter and he helped me renovate my antique buffet.  Of course this wasn't the first project he's helped me with, and vice versa, I've spent most of my life helping him in his garage with various things.  He turned his old garage into a new master suite for him and Mom and I can't tell you how much mudding and painting I've helped him with, also the classic, "hand me a hammer," or "go grab me a few nails please" tasks you ask little kids to do to make them feel like they're helping.  Oh did I love it though! I loved snapping the straight chalk line after he measured, and most of the time I think Lonna and I did a lot more playing around the work than we did actual work but I don't think Dad ever minded.  I think it was his job as a carpenter is what made me so interested in home design and home decor.  I loved going to visit the large houses he was working on, especially when they were almost done and the finishing touches were being added.

Here's a little proof that this was in my blood since I was teeny tiny while I "helped" Dad build my Grandparent's house.

A few months ago (because I'm terrible at posting any fresh projects) he helped me make-over the stairs to my basement that cost only about $35.

First the before pictures.

 
They were so old!

It's like a linoleum from the 70's or 80's maybe.  and the white toe kicks or whatever you call them, the risers, were stained up and just in need of a refresh.

What was I going to do with them you ask? Let's take a stroll to my basement board for the inspiration Pins.

If you can sense a pattern I love dark wood! If I had my choice all my wood furniture/cabinets/floors everything would be dark wood.  Most of these pins was a matter of staining the wood that was under people's carpets or linoleum or whatever.  So I started scraping and peeling and after hours and hours I got this far:

Haha yes, just the landing.  It was so tedious! Whatever glue they used was really strong! Whenever you watch home improvement shows they make it look so easy.  Even when I "helped" my dad reno our bathroom when I was younger, he pulled up that old linoleum so easily pulling up big pieces in one yank.  Well not the case with mine! It was coming up in little tiny chunks so I'd have to pull and scrape so much! I never knew I could get such a long hard work out in one little area.

Anyway, after I saw what was underneath and my lack of ability to remove all the glue I decided staining what was underneath was not an option so I started shopping.  I didn't wan to use glue so peel and stick tile seemed like a good option.  Whomever laid the flooring in my mud room seemed to have used peel and stick tile and it looked pretty good and seemed like something I could handle in a relatively short amount of time.

I was able to find this peel and stick wood from Lowe's for under $1 per square foot!

I did the math, and then I did it again 4 times before I placed the order.  I was so scared I would get enough and I'd have to go back and risk it being out of stock.  I also was worried I'd get way too much, although that'd be better because I'm always doing projects, I knew I'd put it to use sometime.  As worried as I was about that, I was even more worried to lay it down and have it look stupid, or not make cuts in the right places and waste the tile.  That's when I called Daddy! I need his expert measuring skills.  He agreed to come so I scrubbed the linoleum that I couldn't pull up so the tile would have nothing to stick to but the stair itself and gave the toe kicks a fresh coat of white paint.

My Dad came and we got to work.  I'd resume my old jobs of handing him more tile when he was done measuring, taking the trash and scrap pieces out of the work area, and making sure he had enough water and keeping the animals out of his way (ok that was a new job, we never were allowed pets growing up, probably why I have so many now lol).

Once he had the tiles in place, I'd follow behind and screw the stair tread caps back on. It only took about 3 hours and we were done!

Now the stairs have joined the 21st century! I can't wait to get a fresh coat of paint on the walls in this hall and get everything decorated up the way I like it.  Get excited because I've got a few more projects to do in this stairway before everything's all done. Stay tuned!

What do you think? Do you think you might try some peel and stick tile projects? Remember they don't have to just go on your floor.  Open your mind, stick them on the wall, or on a canvas, or in the back of a bookshelf.  The possibilities are endless.

Spring....a Fresh Start, even if it's almost Summer

 I definitely meant to post this a while ago but you know how time gets away!

With the coming of Spring it was time for me to give the house a little decor makeover.

I had been going through the rooms in the house and asking myself, what do I love and what am I just satisfied with?  If it's not a room I love, then how do I make it one that makes me feel happy and completely at home.  I've seen several pins on Pinterest about de-cluttering or making your house a home on my organization board and that's one of the questions you should ask yourself.


It's also a question I have made a habit of asking myself this year.  Life is too short, I'm aiming to follow the advice outlined in my new wall art from Kirkland's.

Ok you guys! I just discovered Kirkland's and I have no idea how I hadn't gotten there sooner! I freaking love that place! Anyway, I have this little beauty hung on the living room wall opposite the front door so when I get home from work every day, it's the first thing I see when I walk in the door.  Alright, I guess it's not the first thing I see, because there's usually a few fur babies right in the front door hungry for supper.

My next bit of "Pinspiration" is from all those Gather signs on Pinterest.  Hung in the dining room, it's a perfect vibe in a place to sit down for a family dinner or have some great friends over and share a meal or play some games, or just enjoy a drink and chat.  Here are my inspiration Pins:


So I went shopping at Hobby Lobby (Kirkland's is great but I'll never kick my Hobby Lobby habit) and I found the perfect metal gather sign and a great wall hanging with blue and brown accents that really pops nicely on my off white walls in the dining room:

They came as separate items and with just a couple nails they go so well together!  Under that I have a giant key that my cousin Katie didn't want any more.  She had painted it red and I was keeping it in my craft room closet waiting to paint it black or dark brown or maybe blue, I had no idea.  Well while Lonna (my sister) and I were dragging things out to decide what to hang in the perfect arrangement, my eyes landed on it, but it was just too much red.  Lonna and I decided if it was a little weathered so the black underneath the red, it'd look perfect!  We took some sand paper to it and worked it until it was right:

I have red accents in the kitchen so it's a great way to tie the kitchen and dining room together, along with some fake roses I have in a vase on the bookshelf. I paired it all with items I already had in the dining room, also all things that answered the do I love this/does it make me happy question. Among the items is my hand print that I made in Kindergarten and one of my mom's hand print from when she was 2 years old, and a chalkboard that I always customize for the season.  I have a koo-koo clock in the dining room and it plays "Edelweiss" and "Happy Wanderer." I decided for spring and to mirror the songs from the clock, I decided on "Bloom and Grow" for the chalk board.  So many meanings behind that phrase, inspiring, hopeful, and comforting.  What better feelings for your home right? Here's the full decor above my beautiful new/old buffet from my last post:

For the wall next to it I put some more Hobby Lobby finds along with a project I made with my favorite fellow crafter, :) it was our first intro to string art and was super fun and surprisingly easy. I'll show how we did it in a later post so stay tuned but here's the other wall:

The tree I already had, the birds make me happy and remember the bonding moments spent doing a new task together and learning along the way and ending up with something beautiful.  I also love that little hi sign :) such a nice way to welcome people to the heart of the home.

With the shifting of items in the dining room there was a big white blank space next to the buffet under my red clock by the kitchen door.  I wondered what to put there and I thought of another of Katie's hand-me-downs. One of the many great perks of having a cousin who has similar interests and taste in decor, I've been gladly accepting her hand-me-downs all my life :)

I've always loved the color of this beauty! The teal pops so nicely off the almost white walls and anyone who knows my design style knows that wrought iron is my jam! I love it, all the intricacies and detail, it's awesome! I had this in my office for a long time but with the tan walls in my office it just didn't look quite right.  In the dining room it adds a great balance in the color in the room and the balance of large pieces.

And with that, I looked around my dining room loving everything I saw, and it was good. :)  I went into the office next and tweaked some thing in there too, making it a space I can get sh** done and let my creative juices flow.

So Beauty and the Beast just came out on DVD right? I've been watching it pretty much consistently all my life but especially since I got my pre-ordered DVD in the mail.  To say it's my favorite Disney movie is an understatement as reflected in some of the references in my guest room post ironically titled "Be our Guest" Now here's the reason for the Beauty and the Beast tangent, since I love the story so much, I got some Belle related art work :)

The picture on the left is a water color painting of Belle "with her nose stuck in a book" and the words read "That girl is strange but special"  I would say similar things can be said about me haha. Plus this is hung above a couch section I have in there where I sit and read from time-to-time. The picture on the right is of a dandelion with it's seeds flying away with the words that Belle singes in the meadow when she releases dandelion seeds: "I want adventure in the great wide somewhere" how inspiring? Both pictures have the letters in metallic ink so it's shiny and of course I love things that glitter, shine, or sparkle! Of course in the middle is a picture of my family at the Alan Jackson concert, who's music I also love.

Oh and I love my Dad, Mom, and sister too :)

On the wall by my desk is another great form of inspiration and this one is a bit more in your face which, when you have my procrastination skills, is sometimes what you need.

You Got This! Definitely a comforting and inspiring thing to see when the bills need to be paid, budget needs to be done, grocery list or to do list needs compiled and then completed.

And there you have it! A few minor tweaks can go a long way to take your house from like, to love. I, as mentioned, did some shopping in stores but I also shopped my craft closet.  I've been squirreling away items from my grandparent's farm, garage sale/Goodwill finds, hand-me-down decor.  If you are feeling the need to shift rooms from one you just have mild feelings about to head-over-heals, shop your house first.  Does something not quite fit in one room? Try taking it to another.  Forgot about that lamp you bought years ago? Dig it out and find it a home.  You can do a lot with things you already have.

How do you make your house feel like home?