Updated Kitchen Shelves

Hey there - long time, no write!  Life's been busy in so many ways, so this little blog has taken a backseat.  I would love to be blogging more frequently again, but that won't happen until things slow down a bit more.  Until then, I'll pop on every once in awhile to share things.

Recently, I put in new shelving in the kitchen.

Sconces & Mirrors: A Master Bedroom Mini Update

Last week, I shared my plank headboard that I finally got around to making.  I still have some other projects in mind to make the room complete, but for now I've added a couple of small touches to give it a mini-update.

Chair Style Guide: One Kings Lane

I was recently contacted by One Kings Lane to feature my style profile for their Chair Style Guide.  I jumped at the chance because One Kings Lane is pretty awesome!

If you look at the guide, there is a chart and you start by picking your style:  Classic or Modern.  Next, you'll choose which material you prefer.  Then, you'll choose another style among the list, which will then lead you to pictures of chairs.  It's a great way to help you choose a chair if you're on the hunt for one!

Framed Disneyland Attraction Poster Art

Hello, hello!  As some of you may know, I'm a Disneyland annual passholder.  They sent me a 2013 calendar earlier this year (I actually got 2 of them since I bought my nephew a pass too) and each month's picture is a different Disneyland attraction poster.  I'm a sucker for those attraction posters, especially the old-school, vintage ones, so I knew I could use these mini versions somehow.

I finally figured out how I was going to use them!

Fall Front Porch

Since I recently shared my back patio, I thought I would share my Fall front porch.

Living Room Update: My New Ikea Vittsjo Shelf

So, I previously mentioned in this post how I bought this Vittsjo shelf.  I had moved the Billy bookcase from the living room into my rearranged & reorganized studio and used the Vittsjo to replace it. (This is one of those 4 projects I mentioned in the last 2 posts)

I'm Ready For Fall!

I've been a bit m.i.a. lately.  It's just been way too darn hot to get much accomplished, so I decided to slow things down, take a bit of a break, and just enjoy things.  Don't get me wrong...I have been working on a couple of things in the last month or two.  One of which was a big undertaking, so it's taken me some time to get that done and hopefully, I'll be sharing that soon.  I'm pretty close to being done.   :)

As I just mentioned, it's been really hot here in Southern California.  And in the last week or two, we've also had rain & thunderstorms, all while continuing to be hot, so it's been muggy too.  Blech!  With my niece & nephews back in school & this horrid heat, I.am.so ready. for the Fall!  

By the looks of it, the stores are ready for Fall too!  HomeGoods was just starting to put out their Halloween stuff when I was there a few weeks ago.  I couldn't resist and bought something.  It's more "Fall" than "Halloween" though.  

Faux Metal Letters

You've probably seen these about a million times.  I know I have!  Now, I'm not one to follow trends just because they are, well, trendy.  I like what I like no matter how trendy or uncool something is.  But, I'm a sucker for words & letters and the cottage/rustic/industrial look, so as soon as I saw these, I planned to make my own.

French Doors Window Treatment

After I got the french doors painted, I decided to, well, cover them up!  I know - you would think I would want to see my lovely painted doors all the time, right?

Sally photobombed the picture.  Can you spot her?  :)

I'm truly happy with how they came out, but ever since I bought the house, I have been debating on the window treatment for the french doors.  I was never in a big rush to get them done, though - I don't have any neighbors that live directly behind me, since there is a big sports park right behind my house.  So, over the last few years, here have been my ideas for window treatments:

1)  Bamboo blinds - I really love those.  However, all the windows weren't very wide and they would have to be custom ordered which means big buck$$.

2)  The old style curtain rods (I remember these from back when I was a kid).  But, I wasn't sure exactly how to attach it to my metal/steel doors & sidelites and if I changed my mind later, I'd have good sized holes left in the doors.

3)  Magnetic rods.  For quite awhile, I thought that this was the best idea because they could be easily installed and removed without damaging the doors & sidelites.  But, I wasn't sure how they would hold up to being opened and closed everyday.  Also, since there would be one rod per door, the curtains would obstruct a lot of the light since I wouldn't be able to push them completely out of they way of the windows.

4)  Install a single curtain rod over all the sidelites, french doors, and the side window.  I figured this might be the best & cheapest way to get them all covered up.  Also, when I pull back the curtains, it would still allow all of the light in.  The only issue was still how much it would cost exactly because of the width of both french doors, both sidelites, and the side window.

Now, it was time to research...I had looked online and at different stores for curtains and could never find a pair that were wide enough (they needed to cover at least 121 1/2 inches).  I would have to buy more than one pair and with everything being at least $20, this was going to add up.  I even considered using painter's drop cloths and sheets, but with the width I needed, it was still going to not be cheap.  I also looked into the hardware (curtain rods, finials, curtain rings) and everything was expensive and a lot of it wasn't my "style".  I didn't need or want anything really fancy looking.  So, after a lot of research, I hopped on the Ikea website to see what they had.  I had perused their window treatments at the store in the past, but I was only just browsing.  They didn't have much of a selection to choose from, but the prices were excellent.  So, I made a trip to Ikea and here is what I got:

Racka curtain rod x 1 @ $4.99 ea
Raffig finial x 1 pair @ $1.99 pair
Betydlig bracket x 3 @ $1.49 ea
Syrlig rings/hangers (set of 10) x 3 sets @ $2.99 set
Vivan curtains x 2 pair @ $9.99 pair

My grand total was $40.40 (+tax) which completely covers the set of french doors, the set of sidelites and a side window!  Not bad at all!

I installed the brackets with no problems.  It was pretty easy - the only thing is that they didn't come with screws, so you will need to make sure you have some on hand (I needed 2 screws per bracket).

Please don't mind the gross popcorn ceiling.  They will be gone one day - hopefully soon.

And then I put together all the rings with the clips on them.

I decided to install the curtain rod as close to the ceiling as possible to give height to the wall.  I also took down the blinds in that side window - they were cheap, aluminum blinds and I always left them up anyways.

Since I needed 2 pairs of curtains to cover the width of all the doors and windows, I ended up sewing each pair together - so 2 pairs ended up becoming 1 extra-wide pair.  They were also too long - I generally don't mind the "pooling" look, but since I would be opening & closing the curtains everyday AND since the curtains were covering a main entrance to the house, I decided to hem them so they just barely hit the floor. 

The curtains I bought were a bit see through (obviously), but they aren't completely mesh and still give me some privacy.  You definitely can see any sources of light through them though (the tv, the lamp), but anything else is mostly safe from prying eyes.

I love how they turned out and think they are nice touch to the wall.


Originally Posted by Adventures in DIY

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Home Goods Eye Candy

Hello again!  I'm still working on those lovely french doors of mine (it's gonna take awhile!), but in the meantime, I wanted to share a couple of things I found at Home Goods over the weekend.

A quick side story:  Home Goods/TJ Maxx opened up over the summer in the city next to mine -  I cannot tell you how ECSTATIC I was about that because before, the closest one to me was about an hour away.  It took me a few months to finally make a trip to the store - I originally had heard that it was a TJ Maxx, but while driving on the freeway, I saw a sign that said TJ Maxx and Home Goods.  What the what?!?!  So, I finally cruised on over there last weekend and a couple of things caught my eye.

Driftwood Tree - $49.99.  I loved this, but didn't want to shell out the money for it.  (It was very tempting though).

Driftwood wreaths - $19.99 and $39.99.  I debated on buying the small one, but told myself that I didn't really need another wreath.  But, the whole time that I was walking around the store,  I kept thinking about it.  If I think about it long enough, I can justify buying it, so I ended up scooping it up.  :)  Instead of putting it outside on my front door, I'm going to hang it up inside the house.  I just need to find the right spot.

I also finally bought a set of sheets for my bed that I like!  I've had so much trouble finding a set that fit correctly (I have a California King, so sometimes the pockets on the fitted sheets aren't deep enough, even though it's labeled for a California King), feels good, doesn't rip (ugh - the last set I bought at Home Goods was Cynthia Rowley brand and they ripped after a few months because they didn't fit the mattress properly).  So, I'm really, really pleased with my new sheets.  And they're Calvin Klein - $59.99 for the set.  Woo hoo!

They had lots of cute Christmas stuff too, but in my shopping frenzy, I didn't get any more pictures.  I'm just glad that there is a Home Goods nearby now so I can pop on over whenever I please and not spend tons of money there on one big shopping trip.   Now, I can spend a little bit of money there lots of times.  :)

Guest Room Accent Wall

Hello again!  Even though I was quiet on the blog for awhile, I actually got a lot done around here - just didn't have time to post since I was super busy.  During that time, I got some painting done.  The guest room had an accent wall - it was a nice red color, but it was too dark for the room and I very quickly got tired of it.  I had other projects that were more of a priority, so I just left it red until I felt like painting (have I mentioned that I hate painting?  Although, I'm starting to enjoy it.  Except for the prep work.  That's the worst).  I decided to use my guests' visit as an excuse to paint.  I gave you all a sneak peek of what color I chose.

This is how the room looked when I bought the house.

And here's a picture of the red accent wall that was painted almost a year after I bought my home.

The red is Behr's California Poppy and the other walls were painted Behr's Wheat Bread (the bottom picture is a cel phone picture - the actual color looked more like the top one).

Here is what I chose to re-paint it with...

Valspar's Bay Mist.  I had decided that I wanted an aqua/turquoise/teal color and after buying a few samples, this is what I chose.

I could have bought the paint with the primer in it, but I decided to prime the wall separately first.  There were lots of problems when painting the wall red - the manager at Home Depot didn't tell me that red is a tricky color to paint, so it didn't get done correctly and 1 1/2 gallons of paint was used on just this 9x13 wall!  (And yes, I did complain to Home Depot about it and got the 2nd gallon free).   So, I put two coats of primer on the wall.  Yay!  It already looks so much better!

And then I put on two coats of the paint color.  Love it!

As I mentioned, I hate painting.  And I'm not good at it - well, I don't paint often enough to get better (that is slowly changing though - I'm liking it more now).  I don't know if it was the brand of tape I bought, the texture on the walls, or what, but when I pulled the tape off, it pulled up some of the new paint.  And no, I didn't pull up the tape when the paint was still wet like you're supposed to - I had to leave the house right after I put up that 2nd coat.

Anyhoo, you can see in the picture above that the primer seeped through the tape and got on the Wheat Bread walls.  And then it pulled up the new Bay Mist paint - some of it down to the old red color.  But!  I came up with an easy solution.

I bought a set of artist paint brushes (with my Michael's coupon & gift card - score!) and figured that it would be the easiest way to cover up those "imperfections".  It worked perfectly!  I didn't have to re-tape - I was able to free-hand it very easily.  And while I was at it, I covered up some other imperfections that I found on the Wheat Bread color with the sample container that I still had.  :)

Much better, yes?

And here's the wall all done.

I'm so happy with how the wall turned out.  I love this color - it's so much brighter and cheerier (yes, that is a word.  I thought it wasn't, but I just looked it up.  Hee).  It also goes really well with the other color in the room.  And because we love before & after pics...

BEFORE

IN PROGRESS

AFTER

I'll have a guest room reveal post up soon.  It's more of an "in progress" reveal, but it's looking much better than before.  And by the way, is everyone shocked that it's already going to be August?  One of my boss' kids already started their new school year today!   Crazy!  But, I'm ready for this insane summer to be over and head into one of my favorite times of year - the Fall!  I hope everyone is having a great week and stay cool!  Thanks for stopping by.  :)

Posted by http://adventuresindiy1759.blogspot.com/

Ikea Hat Box Makeover

Hello there!   I don't have much for this week - mostly in-progress projects or project fails (can't win 'em all!), so I have just a quick post for you.  This will show you the wonder of spray paint.

I bought my first set of Ikea hat boxes a few years ago in the color red.  At the time, my decor involved red, but then I started going lighter in color, so bought the off-white set last year.  (This was before I discovered the wonder of spray paint).  So, these red boxes were banished put in the guest bedroom, which has a red accent wall (which will hopefully get painted over sometime this year) and they just got lost against the wall.   I previously posted about my TV & entertainment center cord organization which briefly showed how I transformed a red Ikea box into an almost-perfectly-matched box with the other Ikea hat boxes on the same Expedit shelf unit.  So, I decided to paint the red hat boxes while I was at it.

I did a couple of coats of primer and then sprayed the smallest & biggest box in Rustoleum's Heirloom White with a couple of coats.

I actually ran out of Heirloom white, so I sprayed the middle box with Krylon's Glossy White since that's what I had.  I was thiiiiiiiiis close to spraying it with Rustoleum's Aqua, but changed my mind.  Hmmm...I can always do it later if I change my mind again.  :)

 

So, if you have something you're considering getting rid of because you don't like the color, I would suggest that you try spray painting it first.  It really can have amazing results.   

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Thanks for stopping by! 

Posted by http://adventuresindiy1759.blogspot.com/

Starfish & Driftwood Hanging

Hello - somehow we are already heading into the middle of the week.  How did that happen already?  The weekends go by so fast anymore and now it's already Wednesday!  I've been bad about posting lately - been taking care of some "non-bloggy" stuff lately.

I have finally completed a project that I've been wanting to do for months.  I didn't really know how to execute it and then other projects got pushed to the top of the list and then I kind of forgot about it.  See how I am?  Anyhoo, I decided to just get it done and boy, was it a super simple project.

I originally saw this on The Lettered Cottage's blog post and immediately knew that I wanted to make my own version (love those planked walls by the way).  

Via The Lettered Cottage

Here is a quick tutorial in case you'd like to make your own.
Supplies needed:
*  Jute or other type of rope (I used jute)
*  Starfish (purchased on-line)
*  Driftwood (purchased at JoAnn)
*  Hot glue & hot glue gun
*  Drill & drill bit

1)  First, determine how long you want your piece to be.  Cut your piece of jute considering you'll need an extra length of it to account for the knots.

2)  Based on the jute size, determine which size drill bit to use.  Then, drill holes in the driftwood pieces to thread the jute through.

3)  Make a loop at one end of the jute and tie a knot.  You will need this in order to hang the piece on the wall.

4)  I hot glued the smallest starfish onto the jute.

5)  Once I did that, I eyeballed where I wanted to put the driftwood underneath the starfish and tied a knot.  Then, thread the jute through the hole in the driftwood and push the driftwood flush against the knot.  Then, tie another knot flush underneath the driftwood so it stays in place.

This second picture shows how both knots keep the driftwood secure.

6)  Continue these steps by alternating starfish and driftwood down the length of the jute.

7)  At the end, I just tied a simple knot in the jute.  I hung it on a couple of different walls to see how it would look.

I love how it turned out and can't believe it took me so long to get it done.  It only took me about 20 minutes to complete.  Thanks for looking!

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