That will teach him...

While the husband was gone earlier in the week, I found a way to show him what happens when you leave me alone for a few days with cash and internet access.

The glory of Craigslist!

Yes, it is a table, with the legs removed and on its topside. But still a pretty table with fun details and legroom! Our current table has odd support beams underneath that end up giving 0 leg room, even for someone as short as me.

I've been trolling CL for a while, but my cheapness has kept me from buying anything. This little {large} baby was only $30 though, and the former owners were kind enough to deliver it for me since my poor wee car couldn't carry the table!

The legs are held in place by wood blocks and wing nuts, so are easy to remove (perfect!). I'm sure the table used to have leaves, but none came with it. However, if I went crazy and wanted to make some, the table opens underneath with this adorable crank mechanism- I love it!

At some point someone defaced the top with an ugly, plastic-y black top, but I think that can get stripped off and then I'll refinish in a dark stain. If not, I will end up just sanding and painting some lovely color. But I'm hoping for the stain- she'll look so pretty new!

Last minute gift idea: The Artful Swine

I created this beauty several months ago, but apparently forgot to make a post about it! With the holidays being... tomorrow {OMG where did 2011 go????}, if you are a few presents short, this might be the perfect idea for you!

Quite a while ago, Mr. Pony and I encountered this gem at World Market.

photo from World Market

Of course, all that were on display were dinged up because this is a piece of metal with blackboard paint on it. Boo. Turned out that it would have been too small for our space anyway, so it was all for the best.

Then the resident food snob pointed out that the pig pictured was an Americanized swine, which is not at all what he wants. I'm pretty sure he didn't even know there were different kinds of pig (besides bacon and ham) before we started dating. *sigh*

He wanted something like this (Big Picture Ag)      He didn't want this (National Geographic)

 My problem was to create something the right size, of the right breed outline, with the right finish to make the wall space look fabulous. DIY time!

After a few trial and error steps, we ended up with a fabulous porcine wall hanging that was both beautiful and functional (plus a couple items that were just shiny), all for 2/3 the price of the original inspiration piece!

In keeping with the holiday spirit that one runs into EVERYWHERE this time of year, I realized that this would be a wonderful and moderately quick gift idea for those who procrastinate on shopping, unlike me!

A couple of months ago, I posted about my owl wall art extravaganza

Follow the same steps as I used in that post for getting your gift idea of choice cut out. Once you have the piece cut out, you are ready to make decorating magic! 
 

Please be sure you have expert help available.

I like to use a couple layers of primer before I start on the real 'meat' of the project. In this case I used 2, but if I did this again I would go with 3 to smooth out the wood grain.

Now for the chalkboard finish. I first tried to Rust-Oleum spray chalk board paint, and while it looked great, after following the dry time instructions (3 days or something like that), I primed it by rubbing the long side of a chalk bit all over it, wiped that off, wrote on it and... it wouldn't wipe off. *sigh* Not to be defeated, I sanded that down again, and tried the quart size brush-on Rust-Oleum chalk paint. I followed the drying and priming instructions, and this time it worked like a charm! 

Just wipe with a damp rag, let dry and it is ready for your rewriting pleasure!! At this point, I though my project was done, but...

Le Pig looked kinda lonely on the wall by himself... But what should keep him company? To avoid having an entire barn of farm creatures on our dining room wall, we took inspiration from another decoration I'd seen- giant cutlery!

I printed out a giant chef's knife and spoon and cut them out of wood the same as above. But really, there was no point in them being painted with chalk paint (too small for usefulness) and a bit of texture sounded nice, so I bought Rust-Oleum Hammered spray paint in silver {I promise, they didn't pay me to tout their products! These items just happened to work well for me!}. I did a couple layers of primer, then gave several layers of this stuff. I did have to stop and sand at one point because I got too close with the sprayer and it started making funny, chunky patterns- my bad! In either case, they dried quickly and soon were keeping good company with Le Pig!

Total cost: $25
Rust-Oleum Chalkboard spray paint (fail)- $5
Rust-Oleum Chalkboard paint quart- $15
Rust-Oleum Hammered spray paint- $5
primer- already owned
wood- already owned (would have been about $10)
hanging bits- already owned (would have been $8)

I still have more than 3/4 of the quart of chalkboard paint left, so it can make many more projects, and this sort of project can make great use of scrap wood, providing a wonderful and inexpensive project for you!

There is still time to make this amazing and fun gift for your loved ones! With dry time, it can be ready to gift in the morning tomorrow- just make sure you include a card with the dry time and priming instructions. If the chalk board idea is too much for you, you can still make pretty decor and simply use craft or spray paint and voila! Custom made gifts!

A couple of tips before you start:
- I use extra clean blades for wood- most brand make them. They reduce splintering and sanding needed
-Don't skip the sanding!! With the chalk board paint it is essential, otherwise the paint will chip off as you use it. 
-1/4" ply is very bendy- only use if you will hang the finished item flush on the wall or plan to add supports to the back. I used 1/2" for the pig and 1/4" for the spook and knife.
-When you pick a silhouette, remember you are cutting it from wood- don't get more detailed than your skills or equipment can handle!
-Always wear eye and hearing protection,and fingers+blades= OUCH!!!!

Hosted by Cecily and Lolli

Gray and yellow, gray and yellow...

No, that isn't the title of a horrible rap song. Those are actually two colors that I have become obsessed with. I want clothes, shoes, art... everything in that combo of beauty. It seems that I picked this up from the design world, which figured out over a year ago that they yellow and gray palette was going to be the next big thing.

Who needs to be at the forefront of stuff anyway. Blah.

But now that I'm obsessed, I have decided to put this color combo to good use on my newest acquisition. Behold her garage-held beauty!!

She even comes with a mirror that has some adorable details at the top.

 

Yes, our garage is a mess. Yes, it is my fault entirely. Whatevs!

But what does this Craigslist beauty have to do with gray and yellow? I shall turn to my good friend Pinterest to help you understand the connection.

source, source, source, source and source

See?

I know those don't all have yellow on them, but the basic idea is that I will use a darker gray for the main portion of the dresser, and then yellow for the accents. The hardware is a bronze-y color. I'm wondering how effective painting that would be as well.

In either case, I intend to use her to convert my closet wasteland into a much prettier and more functional space. Currently, it looks much like it did in college, only with more clothes.

It may take me a few weeks to get this project done, but I'm looking forward to it! Please share any tips or tricks you have for repainting and refinishing old furniture!

Library envy

You know that scene in Beauty in the Beast where Beast shows Belle his library?

source

Yeah, that scene. I want that. Sadly, Mr. Pony thinks it is unlikely {barring the death and subsequent bequeathment of wealth from a rich/royal foreign relative that everyone in both families somehow failed to mention} that we'll be able to afford such an opulent monument to the gods of literature. *le sigh*

To fend off the doldrums encouraged by my lack of a palatial library, Mr. P found a site through which I can live vicariously. Children- avert your eyes. The gratuitous awesomeness of this site may be more than young eyes can handle.

It is nearly too much for my eyes.

<3 <3 <3 Bookshelf Porn <3 <3 <3

Those are hearts, in case you are wondering.

This site has a bazillion jewels of bookshelf-y awesomeness, such as these:

Trinity College- Dublin  source

source

And if that wasn't enough for you, I've also discovered that Pinterest has tons of amazing library-centric images to drool over!

source and source

source, source and source

source and source

Of for the chance to cuddle up in those spots and read some of those dog-eared novels. What a dream! I believe I shall never donate or sell a book ever again- I must work towards this level of library-ishness somehow!!

Branching out: a tutorial

I've recently developed an addiction to Pinterest (I know, I jumped on the bandwagon rather late), and for the first little bit, I wasn't sure if I was doing more than just looking at the great ideas of others but losing my own productivity.

Then I saw her.

source

I wasn't happy with how I was dealing with my necklaces. I'll spare you the 'before' shot because a) I forgot to take one and b) it was ugly. You are welcome.

In either case, I decided that this couldn't be all that hard to do, so I spent a few hours wandering antique and second hand shops. I'm sure you could find something at a frame shop, but it seems silly to buy something brand new just to paint it.

By the way- wandering antique shops is a great way to find all sorts of projects and items that you didn't even realize you needed! Mr. Pony doesn't even know how much he appreciates me holding back from buying all the inspirations! But I digress.

Good old J.T. I knew I could count on him.

So I found a frame for all of $8, bought some craft paint {Spicy Mustard- my current color obsession}, and went to work!

Of course, that wasn't the color I wanted. As always, I put a coat of primer on first. This helped cover up the old frame color, and filled in some of the beat up parts so they wouldn't soak in so much of my pretty paint color. {I recommend always having a can of primer on hand. I bought a gallon of the Lowe's cheap stuff for ~$10 and have so far used it on this and this and this. Well worth it!} Then I followed up with 2 coats of my mustard paint. Yay!


I liked how my inspiration used branches, but I didn't want to have to deal with actual branches {shedding bark and bugs all over the place}, so I pulled out a pencil and some 1/4" plywood and sketched out some branches. I cut those puppies out with my handy dandy jigsaw, then sanded them down a bit.


Definitely do a dry run of the branches before you paint anything- I ended up playing around with mine to make sure I had them fitting in the frame like I wanted. It took some playing with, but not much time.

For the branches I used a pearly white craft paint that I had left over from my owl project. Once everything was dry, I  used wood glue to put the branches in place and clamped everything down. I just left it overnight, but check how long the glue you use asks for. 

My next step was going to be screwing dozens of little eye hooks into the branches to hang necklaces on, but I liked Mr. Pony's idea of just hanging the necklaces around the branches. Not only was it WAY faster, but it would give a prettier finished result!

Of course, right when I thought I was done, Mr. Pony said "How are you hanging it?". DOH! I didn't want to put it up as a normal frame since I'd need to be able to reach the back of the branches to hang stuff. I ended up cutting for 3/4"x3/4"x1" wood blocks, painting them yellow and gluing them to the back with wood glue. Add a couple of hooks to the top two blocks, some wire, and you are set!

What do you think of that?!

Also- Mom, I'm sorry for my new addiction to yellow. I will do my best to become addicted to something less... yellow... soon:)

 

Whoooo is there?

I mentioned earlier in the week that I have had some other decorating adventures. Well here they are!!

I've been drooling over art from various Etsy sellers for months {here
here and here, to name a few}, but couldn't justify the extra cost since this revamp was *supposed* to be a cheap thing!

Then, out of the blue, it hit me.

Owls.

Seriously, who wouldn't want an awesome owl on their wall?? So I googled "owl silhouette, found one I liked that wasn't copyrighted {don't steal the art of others for this people- be cool}. I used an online tool called Rasterbator to blow the image up to the size I wanted (about 2'x3' in this case), printed it out and got started!

I ended up using 1/2" ply that I already had in the garage. I initially wanted to use 1/4" ply, but all that I have of that I got secondhand and its badly bowed, so I went with something a little sturdier.

After taping together the pages (it printed out on 9 letter size pages) and cutting out my design, and put it on the board and traced the outline.

If you look at the shot below, I ended up adding another branch with leaves on the other side of the owl- I thought it would look more balanced, and I like how that worked for me.

I tried to minimize the wood waste, so I put the silhouette as close to the edges as possible. I still have another 3'x3' piece of 1/2" ply left from this, and who knows what I'll end up making with that!






Then it was down to the part where I nearly sever digits cutting stage. For this sort of project, the jig saw is really your best friend.

Get to know her and love her and learn to keep her steady, otherwise the wood you are cutting will jiggle its way free and snap. Not that I had that happen. Ever.

And here I am, cutting skillfully. It is REALLY important to make sure the wood is well braced and that you depress the trigger all the way. I ended up losing some leaves because I let up on the trigger a bit, the wood wasn't braced well and the wood just started jumping too much. It worked out in the end, but annoyed me at the time.

On a project like this, the leaves and branch were a bit difficult for me to work with. If there is a smaller jig saw out there and you plan to make a ton of these, it would be good to buy the smaller size for getting into the nooks and crannies. However, our regular old jig did a good job- it just took more time cutting out the detail bits.

I can haz rawr?

On a side note, I liked using the blades labeled 'X-tra clean for wood'- the clean ones do well, but these minimized the sanding that had to be done when I finished cutting.

After all the cutting was done, I cleaned up the edges with a power sander and a hand sander. I also made sure both sides were smooth, but spent more time sanding the side I had designated as the front. 

When sanding make sure you don't put too much pressure on any of the little bits- you don't want to snap off that painstakingly cut leaf {or whatever bitsy thing you cut out} before you've had a chance to enjoy your work!

And here is your finished pro... DOH! Ok, so you've cut out the piece, but you still need to make it purdy (unless you are going for the raw wood look, but even then you still should stain it or something, IMHO) and hangable. This is the only part of the project that actually cost me money. I stopped at Michael's and got some Martha Stewart Multi-Surface Pearl Acrylic Craft Paint {aptly named 'Mother of Pearl'} to finish this with. To minimize coats of paint, I gave the entire project a coat of primer, then gave it two coats of the craft paint.

To hang it, I put eyeholes in two pieces of scrap wood and glued them to the back using wood glue. I also gave them a quick coat of the craft paint just so if you see the owl from the side, they don't stick out. Then I strung some wire between them, put a photo hanger in the wall and we were good to go! If you end up making a smaller piece (like the moon) this approach may not be the one for you. Just mess around with the tidbits you have available or take it to the hardware store with you and see what you can find!

A few days later I randomly decided I wanted a moon to go with my lonely owl, and in less than 3 hours (with paint dry time) it was ready to go!

Total cost? Two buckaroos!! Whoooo can beat that?

On a side note, since my favorite holiday is coming up {hint- it starts with a Hallow and ends with a ween}, I like that the owl adds a slightly spooky element to the room. If painted in a black or orange, it would be very Halloween-y indeed!

Sorry, I can't avoid being cheesy;)






Hosted by Cecily and Lolli