An Armoire's New Life

Hello!! I cannot believe it has been over a week since I have posted anything. Life has been a bit hectic around here. Birthdays galore and more!! My little man is now 2! I cannot believe it. It's funny how his birthdays and milestones are now how I mark the passage of time. In fact, I think I was more excited about his birthday than my own! There was something so special about watching him blow out his big #2 candle! It was our first party here at the new house and we went into crazy mode in the days leading up to it to finish some projects. Did I mention that the Hubs put together our new cedar swing set....in a day basically? That officially secured my belief that he is the handiest person EVER. Of course, he "beefed it up" by adding his own personal touches. Like a longer support beam (because he really wants it to hold up) and a spot for an additional swing for Miles. Considering I think more adults have played on it in the last few days, it probably was a good idea to place a larger beam in there! HAHA!

In the interim, I found some evening time to finish up an armoire that was handed down to me from my aunt. It was actually my grandfather's as a child. The piece itself was in fairly decent shape considering how old it is and that it has not been used in a very, very long time. Cosmetically the wood was in decent shape, but structurally I needed to spend some time repairing and stabilizing the door and legs. Here she is on the day we picked her up!

I knew exactly where I wanted her, so that helped to determine the color I wanted. So began, the very easy process of sanding her down. Due to her age and wear, most of the finish had worn off. I lightly sanded everything down and removed the drawers and door for repairs. I flipped the entire wardrobe onto her side and placed a few screws into each leg from underneath so that you wouldn't see any unsightly screw heads. By drilling directly into the base of the legs, I got a tighter fit against the body of the wardrobe and this corrected the wobbly feeling. I also went around the back of the piece and placed a few brad nails around the perimeter to keep the back piece of wood from bowing.

Next up, PAINT! Here is where I really had fun. I have a ton of sample paints laying around in varying shades of blue, so I simply started pouring a little of this and a little of that into a plastic container. Lastly I added a bit of Dover White to soften the color and give a little bit of sheen (the Dover White is in a semi gloss finish as opposed to the satin finishes of the samples). I put a light coat over everything and then took a small piece of sand paper to the edges of each drawer, the door and the wardrobe itself.

Once this first layer of blue was down and distressed, I went back over the entire piece with some antiquing glaze and a cotton rag. I like the random look of streaking the glaze on in vertical wipes. Some people prefer to do circles when rubbing it on. Totally personal preference! Just remember that the glaze soaks in quickly so to keep your hand moving. I used the Valspar glaze.

 

After my glaze had dried, I decided to lightly brush on some silvery gray paint from a sample. To do this, I started with a very dry small paint brush. I dipped it lightly into the sample and then brushed off the excess on a paper napkin. Then I very lightly feathered the paint onto the piece.

It just added another layer of age and depth to it overall. While I was waiting for all of this to dry, I started thinking about how to change out the hardware and door to make the piece a little more me. Then my eye caught the chicken wire (that I HAD to have, as the Hubs chuckled in the background, on our last trip to Lowe's). I removed the small tack strips from the back of the door that were holding the center piece of mdf (medium density fiberboard, a thin piece of plywood basically) in place.

I measured the length and width of the opening and using my wire cutters, I cut a piece of wire to fit. Be extra careful here and wear gloves. That wire is a pain in the.....Then I just used my power stapler to secure the entire piece to the backside of the door.

Some sale knobs from Lowe's and I was ready to start piecing her back together.

It was here I noticed that now you would be able to see right into the door. Cut to me breaking all the paint back out! A few light brush strokes of leftover white paint and I was all set.

I know it looks sort of awful, but I didn't want it to look perfect!

Now the fun part......bringing her up to our room. I decided to place her in the nook in our bedroom. That nook had not had an identity since we moved in and I am finally HAPPY with what it looks like!

White ceramic knobs.

Great for jewelry and for clothespins with love notes!

Some fun accessories for up top!

Love the finish!

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How to Create Wall Quotes

In my current obsession with the vinyl lettering all over Etsy right  now, I was trying to find a way that I could create the same look without breaking the bank. There had to be a DIY version so I began my investigation two minute online search. I found lots of letter stencils, but again that would become pricey for the quotes I had in mind. I began to consider free hand writing it.......which would require an extremely steady hand and uber patience....neither of which I am blessed with. Lo and behold....da.da.daaaaa....there were quite a few places that made homemade "carbon" paper. Emily of Jones Design and Janell of Isabella & Max Rooms both had great ideas on easy ways to create quotes for your walls.

I had two areas to conquer and both would employ slight variations of the same technique. To start, I used the Word program on my computer. I really love the Bookman Old Style font so I typed out both of my quotes in size 200 (yes, 2 hundy!). Especially if this is your first go with this, go big or go home! It was much easier with a little bit of a larger font. (I cannot fathom anything smaller....at least right now as a newbie!)

Printed in "landscape" to accommodate the length of each word, I turned the printed pages over and lightly rubbed chalk over the backs of each word. Next simply cut out each word and tape to the wall or area that you wish to transfer to.

Now the somewhat tedious portion of this project. Using a pencil, trace the outline of each letter. I am inpatient so I of course peeked after the first word!

Don't worry about any excess chalk that rubs off on the wall. A quick wipe of a slightly damp cloth will remove it when all is said and done. Once I had transferred the entire quote, I went back over it....eh hem...free hand (eeeekkkkkk) with some white leftover wall paint we had. While ranting over and over in my head that I could paint over any screw ups, I found that if I anchored the meaty part of my palm and my forearm on the wall, I could actually stay within the lines. A little while later.....

Next up was a small addition to the laundry nook. Here I used the same technique, but instead of chalk as my transfer medium, I used a pencil. I did this because unlike the dark chocolate walls of our family bathroom, the laundry nook is light yellow and white.

Again, I taped up my words and traced each letter. This time I used black paint (same font).

Just a little something extra in each space! I am already thinking about using the same technique for signs for our garden!

DIY Driftwood Sunburst

This is the tag team post to my previous one with the stencil above the headboard in our master bedroom. I have wanted to do this for such a long time now and it felt so good to see it through to completion. The reason why I have wanted to do a sunburst with driftwood? Well we are big beach people.....not sit on the beach and get a tan type people (although I secretly love that....the Hubs not so much), we are more the type to go with the fam (dogs included) and do a beach hike. We are very lucky to live in an area that has tons of places to do this and we didn't slow down even when I was ginormo prego (both times). Check out this belly awesomeness.....

Yes, there was a ginormo baby in there too.....all 9 lbs and 4 oz of him. As I got bigger (and subsequently slower...hehehe) the Hubs would always find me a great walking stick from the driftwood at the beach. I would use it the whole time we were walking for extra stability and because I loved the pieces he always seemed to find, I typically threw them in the back of the truck and brought them home with me. He would always ask, with a raised eyebrow, what I was going to do with them and I never really had an answer. Until, I started looking at various wreaths and sunburst mirrors online. I knew instantly that the walking sticks would be a beautiful addition and reminder of my prego days and of those long walks thinking (and often talking to) the lil' bambino growing inside.

To start, I measured the space above the headboard to make sure I created something that would be the right scale for the wall. Then I brought the sticks downstairs to the workshop for cutting and arranging. I cut the sticks to the desired lengths leaving about two inches variance between each piece. I did this to create variety and a less uniform look to the whole sunburst.

I played around with the arrangement and added in skinnier sticks and thicker sticks sporadically to give a more organic feel. Next up was figuring out what I was going to adhere these all to! As my eyes scanned the workshop, I noticed a big empty plastic jug of Folgers and had an AHA moment. I popped the lid off and cut out the center. Instant grayish colored wreath! At that point it was as simple as picking up a piece of wood and dotting some glue down. I worked all the way around and then let it sit for about an hour to set.

It puts a smile on my face every time I see it. What a great reminder of how special this time of my life is! Now off to chase those two lil' meatballs!

Stenciling an Accent Border

Hello hello everyone. It's a big week here at Casa de Farias. We are in the midst of preparing for the big numero DOS for the lil' big man, Bray. I cannot believe he is two. Seems like just yesterday we were bringing him home from the hospital, staring at him and exclaiming over and over.....I can't believe we MADE him....Ahhhhhh!

Since all energy is directed at our weekend festivities.....(yours truly is also celebrating a bday this weekend)...house stuff has taken a back seat. I did, however, finish two smaller projects that I have been wanting to do FOREVER. The first is adding some detail above our headboard. Let's take a very short trip down memory lane....

Days after we moved in and just days before Miles arrived.

New bedding and new sunburst mirror.

So in my quest for finding the perfect detail to add some pizazz, I started looking in to wallpaper for above and around the headboard. Oh and little plug here for the awesomeness of the Hubs....he made our headboard when we first moved in together. LOVE IT!

While browsing for different graphic prints online, I came across this tutorial for painted wallpaper at Jones Design Company. Interest piqued, I printed out a stencil and begin to lightly trace the outline in pencil above the headboard.

Once I started going I realized that I wanted it to look more like panels of the stencil rather than a solid wall block of it. After the stencil was complete, I used a small paint brush (from a craft kit for a model airplane....class-AYYY all the way!) Although the tutorial has each pencil line painted, I decided to paint between the lines to create a thicker print. You can easily do either version depending on your taste!

Ok so here is the finished product without any other embellishment. Was and am still LOVING it. Stay tuned........

Spring Wreath

Waking up to 8 inches of fresh snow this morning was anything but a pick me up. So as I sit here staring at my already blooming, pot bound daffodils, tulips and hyacinth, I am going to take a deep breath and remind myself to be patient. Good things come to those that wait, right? I am going to send positive thoughts into the atmosphere so that I can be planting and gardening and chasing lil' legs in the yard in no time.

In the meantime, to give myself a dose of spring-y love, I made a new wreath for our front door. My focus was to use up some of the materials that I had leftover from other projects. I started cruisin' for some inspiration and saw this wreath over at Jones Design Company.

I always have burlap in my workshop so I fired up the glue gun and started pulling out leftovers. I had some beautiful French Country Kravet fabric, twigs and ribbon. I began by wrapping 3 inch width strips of burlap around the entire wreath form.

Wreath from the Dollah Store.

Once I had the entire wreath covered, I started pulling and manipulating the burlap to see what I might like. I really like the idea of burlap ruffles, but there was no way I was breaking out the sewing machine. I started experimenting with pulling a thread of burlap and cinching up the fabric around it. AND...it worked! Make sure to pull a thread about 4 or more threads up though so that it doesn't unravel on you!

Pulling a horizontal thread and cinching across the burlap.

Once I got the burlap ruffled, I used some hot glue and wrapped the ruffle around the wreath form. I used wooden skewers to press the burlap down to prevent burning my fingers!!

 I repeated this step for 4 ruffles and continued down the side of the wreath. Again, I took a step back and realized that I really liked the way it looked with just a few ruffles on one side.

Next, I started experimenting with my fabric to see if I could make some fabric flowers. I had never done this before so I started scrunching and folding the fabric to make a flower form. Nothing seemed to work visually for me. Then I realized that I would just cut out "petals" and layer them on top of each other, almost like a dahlia or zinnia.

Cute fabric? Check!

I cut varying width strips of my fabric and then folded them accordion style so I was left with this.

Using my larger scissors, I cut out my petals by cutting the figure of an "8". So it was actually two petals that were connected in the middle (muck like the propeller of an airplane)

Bad pictchah....sorry!

I cut a length of floral wire and started sliding the petals onto the wire through the middle part of the fabric cut out. Start with your smaller pieces and build up to larger ones to create a blossoming flower effect.

When this was complete, I twirled the end of the wire that was sticking out of the center (like a wine bottle opener). This little spring in the middle of the flower looked pretty cute so on some of my flowers I left it. On the other ones, I just took a small strip of fabric, curled it over itself so it formed a little roll, then glued it onto the center.

Now I started arranging the flowers on my wreath and used the extra floral wire to wrap around the wreath. I put in a few drops off hot glue behind certain petals to make sure they didn't move.

Once I had two flowers on, I decided to take it up stairs and give it a whirl on the front door. The second I saw it, I knew it needed more!!

Needed a lil' more POW!

I brought it back in, made some more flowers and added in some twigs......

Love it now! So boo hiss to you SNOW!! It's spring up in hereeeeeeeeeeee!

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