My Updated Front Porch

There's nothing like a fresh coat of paint! Especially when it's the first thing guests see when you welcome them to your home. New trim paint, "Welcome" sign, and house numbers made a big difference!

Royal Exteriors by Ace House Paint in Flat
Welcome sign from Pottery Barn Outlet
House numbers from Ace Hardware
DIY Boxwood wreath here

Only 1.5 weeks of Summer around here until school starts!

"Children at Play" Boy and Girl Shared Bedroom

Time for baby girl to share a room with big brother! I gave the walls a fresh coat of paint, repurposed the curtains, sewed a pillow and got a few new pieces of art/decor for the walls and the rest we already had. It turned out so great and the room feels bigger and cleaner. I am happy to report everyone is sleeping through the night now :) Sources at bottom of post.

ROOM BEFORE:

 ROOM AFTER:

Wall Color: Sherwin Williams Worldly Gray

Curtains: homemade by me using queen size sheet and old red panels

Letters: old, from Kohl's

Crib bedding: old, pink chevron sheet from Target; quilt: gift; pillow handmade from Sarah Jane Children at play fabric "On Parade." 

Twin bedding: levi quilt old, handmade by me; standard pillow sham made from repurposed mens dress shirts; throw pillow handmade from Sarah Jane Children at play fabric "Rocket Launch Club."

Wall decor/art: Art clip boards from craft fair/sister in law; I love to see the temple and Rocket Launch Club art prints from Sarah Jane Studios; On Parade canvas handmade by me; Love one another and Seek after these things art prints from Jones Design Company.

linking to: http://www.thriftydecorchick.com/2015/04/april-15-before-and-after.html

Easy Kids DIY Butterfly Canvas and Girls Room Gallery Wall

You may have noticed in the back to school post that the girl's room has changed a bit. One of the things we did was take down all their art scattered all over their walls. Then we decided what we wanted to stay and created a gallery wall. After I laid everything out there was an open spot. Since one of my daughters loves horses and she already had her horse painting in the gallery, we decided we needed a butterfly painting for my other daughter who loves butterflies. I gathered materials I already had, googled a few butterfly templates and let her pick one and then she created this canvas.

Pretty cute! I love that we have something that represents each of them in their shared space and is meaningful.

Gallery wall:

Hope you had a great long weekend, is Summer over in your neck of the woods? Can't wait to pull out my fall stuff, what about you?

~ Rebecca

DIY Grainsack Style Stripe Pillows

Remember the sneak peak I gave you of my latest project {here}?

Welp, here it is in full. I love these cushion covers, but they just needed that little extra something. You know? I started with my washed and dried six dollar H&M cotton canvas cushion covers {here}(say THAT five times fast!), some painter's tape, a paint brush, tons of plastic grocery bags, and my leftover paint from my coffee table project {here}.

I simply folded the cushion covers in half vertically and hand pressed them to find the middle and make a crease. I put plastic grocery bags inside the covers and in between them and the table for protection in case the paint went through. Then I put a strip of tape down the middle, left a space half the width of the tape on either side, and then put another strip of tape, pressing down well each time along the edges to make sure the paint didn't spread. Then I just dipped my brush in the paint and went to town.

I did two coats, one right after another, to make sure it was a nice thick coat. I tried to take a picture (below) to show you the double coat on the left versus the single coat on the right.

Next was the fun part: removing the tape! Make sure to do this while it's still wet.

(Bags inside the cushion cover).

I let them dry for a couple hours. (As you can see I just washed them and didn't bother ironing them, once I out them on the pillows, they smooth out pretty well.)

And the finished product!

(...Aaaand a boring picture of the other couch....)

And my picture-taking began disrupting my sons play with Spiderman, so...

Here is a final before and after as a reminder of what they looked like before and how much better they are now; Boring brown pillow covers

BEFORE:

And

AFTER:

So pleased with this no-cost-to-me project!

Have a great week!

~Rebecca

Linked to: http://thriftydecorchick.blogspot.com/2014/08/august-before-and-after.html

The Coffee Table Project. {Before and After DIY}

The thing about blogs and pinterest and all these online DIYers, is that when you read them, you tend to get big ideas. Ideas that are so big that when you are in the middle of them you think, "why the heck did I think this was a good idea? Now I know why they just painted this thing black. This is a big headache and it's probably going to only be a week before my kids scratch it, knick it, and chip it." Well, either way, I did it. I love the way it looks now. But I think next time, I'll just wait till I'm rich and have money to buy exactly what I want! Sorry, if you were looking for DIY inspiration, this probably isn't the best post :) But I don't like to paint or stain furniture in the first place, so I don't know why I thought stripping and refinishing would be any better. So hopefully you are better at this stuff than me!

We got this coffee table second hand from some friends. It went to my husband's office, then we inherited it when his office closed. Which I was really excited about since we haven't had a coffee table for 5 years and this one is solid wood and substantial. The black paint they had done over the original finish was chipping and peeling so I figured it was time for this table to get a new life. After I saw someone do this on a blog, then read about it on ehow, it sounded easy peasy. So I read all the instructions and got some stripper from the hardware store. 

Here is the table BEFORE:

After I put the first coat of stripper on, I forgot to read the part that said "do not do in direct sunlight." OOps. It dried right up and didn't strip. So then I moved it to the shade and tried again. It worked, a little. So then I applied it again, and again. And then again in certain stubborn spots, using almost the whole can. Then I took it into the garage because I realized this was not going to happen in one day. In the garage I added some more stripper to certain spots again. Then I sanded the top. Originally I wanted to stain the entire thing a lovely brown. After stripping the top I realized it was going to be near impossible to get it all off the legs and curves and lines and grooves, so I gave up on that. So I sanded what I could of the rest to paint over.

Here it is DURING:

I used some leftover stain we had from a dresser then bought a little can of paint mixed "Wedding Cake" from True Value. It's a lovely delicious white with a hint of buttercream. (haha. Cake? Buttercream?) A n y w a y s..... I put 3 coats of stain and 4 coats of paint on it, followed by a can of glossy polyeurethane I found in our garage. I love the way it turned out (after several weeks!) and I have no idea how long the finish will hold out, but it's good enough. The total cost for this project was about $12, $8 for the stripper and $4 for the paint, the stripping knife, sander, sandpaper, sponge brushes and poly I already had.

Here she is AFTER:

What do you think? I like it so much I thought it might look cute to paint another one of our tables all white on the bottom.... BUT, let's not get any more crazy ideas.

Have a great weekend :)

Adding link to http://www.lizmarieblog.com/2014/05/inspire-please-linky-party-9/
http://thriftydecorchick.blogspot.com/2014/06/june-before-and-after.html

Watercolors {Modern Farmhouse & Peacock}

My last watercolors which I made into Christmas presents. Something I love doing that I need to find more time for.