Dollar Store Spring Flower Arrangement

I took a break from working on the guest room renovation to make this quick, budget friendly spring flower arrangement.

 Have you seen these tin bucket vases at the Dollar Tree?  Fantastic deal for a buck!  If you don't like the bronzey brown it can easily be spray painted.  I happen to like the brown.
 

 I found these pussy willow and forsythia branches there also.  I bought 3 of each.  Should have bought more.  I'm sure they are long gone by now.  I had to cut about 6 inches of stem off them because they were way too tall for the bucket.

 

 I already had the green floral foam, which by the way, you can also get at Dollar Tree.  That's where I got mine.  I cut one piece in half so it would fit into the bucket.

 For $7.00 I have a pretty spring floral arrangement.

 Thanks for visiting.

How To Remove Wallpaper Border

I can't believe it's May already.  Where has the time gone?

I have been extremely busy these past few weeks.  We have had some awesome weather so I've been outside doing lots of yard work..............raking, mulching, etc.  Soon it will be time to plant flowers and our vegetable garden.

I have also been hard at work working on our guest room reno.  Today I'm going to share with you how to remove a wallpaper border with ease.

This is the border that needs to be removed.

It pulled off easily......or so I thought.  Actually, it was only the top layer.  The bottom layer with the glue was still on the wall.

I used my PaperTiger scoring tool.  This makes little holes so that water will penetrate.

I then sprayed with hot water.  You could use wallpaper remover, but I find that plain old hot water works just fine.   Using hot water is important because it dissolves the glue.

I just scraped it off.  That's pretty much it.

 

Now I have a nice clean wall to work with.  The next step is to remove trim,  tape and spackle seams.  I am not looking forward to that.

Thanks for visiting.

Armoire Makeover With Homemade Chalk Paint

I have begun working on our guest room.  The first thing I did was to give this armoire a makeover with some homemade chalk paint.  I bought it from my sister-in-law at least 5 or 6 years ago for $100.  Recently I told her I was going to finally get around to painting it and she couldn't remember it.  So, Linda, I hope this jogs your memory.  :)

 I really don't know for sure how old it is.  This label is on the back.  Does anyone have any idea?

I removed all the hardware.  Here's a tip for you.  In order to make sure you get it back together correctly, take the time to bag up the pieces and label them as to where they go.  I just used Ziploc bags and a sharpie.  It sure makes life a lot easier.  Oh, also take a pencil and number the drawers and spaces so they go back in easily.

The reason I love using chalk paint is because there is no sanding.  That's a huge plus in my book.  I don't use it on everything I paint, but considering the age of this piece I thought it would be appropriate, for me anyway.  The only prep work I did after removing the hardware was to just clean the whole thing with some warm water and a damp sponge.

Here it is after two coats of chalk paint.   Yup, that's me in the mirror!

I taped the mirrors before painting the doors.  I ran out of blue painter's tape so used this other really wide tape that I found in the hubby's stuff.  Not sure if it's painter's tape or not, but it did the job.

After letting the chalk paint dry for a day, I used a sanding block and distressed it.  Chalk paint dries quickly.  I didn't really have to wait a whole day; I just didn't get back to it until the next day.  You know me, I love the distressed look.  I wiped it down making sure to get all the dust cleaned up and then gave it a coat of clear wax.

 I added an accent color to highlight the beautiful detail.

 

 Here's a close up of the drawers.

I was going to replace the hardware.  I had even bought some beautiful black handles at Lowe's, but when I got them home they didn't fit.  The holes didn't match up and I really didn't want to have to fill old holes and drill new ones.  It was a very small difference, but just couldn't stretch 'em.  I had even called home while I was in Lowe's and asked Henry to measure the distance between the holes.  I was positive they would fit.  I think somebody gave me a wrong measurement by rounding up.  I put the original handles back on and I kind of like them.  Thinking they'll stay.

I painted the inside of the small cupboard above the drawers.

Let's take one more look.

   

Other than the price of the armoire, this project didn't cost me anything.  The paint I used was from last year when Ace Hardware was giving free quarts of their Clark Kensington paint away.   The accent color is called Forgotten Secret and I don't know the name of the gray because Ace only put the formula numbers on the can, not the name of the paint.  I really like that gray and am almost out of it.  Guess I'll be saving the can lid so I can get some more.

 Thanks for stopping by.

 

My Kitchen Makeover Budget

I was so eager to get my final kitchen reveal post up that I neglected to include a list of what we bought.  So, that's what I'm doing today.  

 Our kitchen makeover took a year and a half to complete.  At first, all I thought I wanted to do was paint our cabinets white.  In September 2011 I tackled that job.  It took me a month to complete.  I added new hardware and thought I was happy.  You can read about that here.  

 

Backtrack a little.  Before I started blogging in April of 2010 we bought a new dishwasher and fridge.  Rather, I did.  We really needed a new dishwasher, so one day after work I stopped at Sears to pick one out.  We had also been looking at fridges, but decided we could wait awhile longer.  That is until I had to walk by the fridges to get to the dishwashers and saw that the fridge we had been drooling over was on sale!  Not only was it on sale, but that was the year the government was offering energy saving rebates.  We got back a check for $250!  Plus, energy saving appliances are deductible on your taxes.  SCORE!   

As luck would have it, the oven on my stove broke.............just before Thanksgiving in November 2011!  I had to have a stove so off to Sears we went.  Read about my stove here.  Now I have all new appliances!

We lived with the newly painted cabinets for awhile.  Then I decided it was time to make some more changes.  

I stripped the wallpaper and put up beadboard.

 

We removed the old ceramic tile backsplash and installed a new tin backsplash and tiled over the old green 80's laminate counter top.

Here's my budget breakdown:

  We got a deal on the bead board because all they had in stock had dings or small chips, so Henry bargained them down.  Really, it didn't take much.  Lowe's was pretty accommodating. 

1.  Bead board 7 sheets $10.00 each from Lowe's              $70.00

2.  Molding/trim - Lowe's                                                $38.00

3.  Glidden ceiling paint - Wal-Mart                                  $25.00

4.  Back splash - American Tin Ceiling Company               $109.00 shipping included

5.  Outlet covers - Lowe's                                               $15.00

6.  Counter top tile, adhesive - Lowe's                            $240.00

7.  Curtain rods & hooks - Dollar General/Family Dollar       $14.00

8.  Burlap for curtains - Hobby Lobby                                $ 7.00 

9.  Miscellaneous                                                          $30.00

TOTAL                                                                                     $600.00

 We did this little by little so it wasn't $600 out of pocket all at once.  With a little planning, it can be done.

I have already begun work on my next project that I have been avoiding like the plague.  Our guest room makeover, which we affectionately call the cat room because our 3 cats like to hang out in there.

More wall paper to strip.  UGH!

How I Turned a $5.00 Window Frame Into Fabulous Wall Art

Do you remember this?  It's a window frame.  No glass, just a wooden frame.  It's quite large.  It measures 36" x 50".

 

I picked it up at a garage sale last summer for $5.00.  It's been hanging out in my yet to be made over guest room ever since. 

I finally decided what I wanted to do with.  I'm going to show you how I transformed it into some fabulous wall art.

As with any project, I draw out my plan.  I know...........I'm such an artist...........NOT!  As you will later see with the finished project, I changed my mind on some of the sayings and where I placed them.

 

 The other items I used were foam board (4 pcs.) from the Dollar Tree, leftover burlap from my kitchen curtains, scissors, hot glue gun, stencils that I made using my Cricut, black acrylic craft paint and a foam brush.  If you don't have a Cricut you can always buy letter stencils.

I measured the area where glass would have gone and made a pattern from scrap paper.  Since I scrapbook I have TONS of scrap paper.

 I used my oh so professional taped together pattern to trace onto the foam board and cut out.  I tried using scissors to cut the foam board, but that didn't work out so well so I ended up using a box cutter.  You could use an electric knife too.
 

I cut burlap to fit.

 

Now, a smart person would have glued the edges onto the back of the foam board and then pop them into place.  Apparently I'm not that smart.  I popped them in the frame.  This is what it looked like.

Then, I hot glued the edges.  Learn from my mistake and save yourself some time.  The pieces fit snugly and will not fall out.  I kind of like not making them permanent in case I ever decide to change it out.  The back is not pretty, but it won't matter because no one is going to see it.

It took me an entire morning to cut my stencils.  I used these Cricut cartridges: Cursive 101, Close To My Heart's Artist Philosophy and Doodletype.  All the letters were cut 3", except for the word "Thankful", which had to be cut 2" because it's a long word.  

Here they are, spread out all over the table.  Do you see "Thankful"?  Yeah, it's kind of big.  I originally cut it 3" and had to re-cut it.

Did I mention that we had already hung this on the wall?   I had to use a step stool to reach the top.  Again, I should have stenciled before popping the pieces in.

 I used painters tape to attach the stencils.  Since the Cricut doesn't cut the letters as a true stencil, I had lots of little center pieces, like the middles of the "B".  The cursive pieces were a lot smaller.  I used a removable adhesive to temporarily attach them while I stenciled.  I removed the stencil immediately after brushing on the paint.  I'm not gonna lie, it took me 3 hours to stencil.   

This is what I had after a whole day's work.  In the end I am very pleased with it.

 So, there ya go.  Next time you see a window frame for cheap...........don't pass it up.  Make some art!

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