The Exterior

I am excited to share with you the face lift that we had on the outside of our house.  First off choosing paint colors was a little harder than I would have thought, mostly when choosing the white.  So my first tip is get lots of samples and paint them in different places around the house where you can see it in each light.  

Here are the colors that I chose for our home:

Sherwin Williams:

Dark Gray- Gauntlet Gray 7019

Light Gray- Mindful gray 7016

White Trim- Greek Villa 7551

Blue Door- Tempest Star 6229

First we had our rock re faced:

Then the painting:

BEFORE

AFTER:

In addition to the paint here is the break down of what else I did to spruce up the exterior:

Vinyl Lettering for the door and mailbox from Janey Mac

New Pillows for the Porch.  I found this fabric at Hobby Lobby and just made a pillow cover for some outdoor pillows I picked up at Wal-mart for about $8.

Fresh New plants for my pots

I picked up Carriage Door Hardware at Home Depot for about $20 to spruce up the garage.

I hope this inspires you to give your outdoors a new fresh look, whether its new paint or just some fresh flowers!

Entry Way Makeover

The entry way in our home has always been left blank due to the large expansive wall.  I have to say I have always been at a design loss when it came to this space . . Until I came across this picture on Pinterest.

I fell in love with the simplicity of the molding with a touch of family photos. As I was in process of adding the molding to our nursery I decided it wouldn't be that much more work to add it to the entry way.  I wanted to go with a little different design that would fit the style of our house a little better.  Here is what our entry looked like before:

Here is the new and improved entry:

I also added a new Dash and Albert runner to the entry that I love!  It is an indoor/outdoor rug that will hold up to the shoes  and weather coming through the door.  

I hope this inspires you!  

enjoy!

DIY Book Page Artwork

I needed some artwork to go in my fabric matte frames . .but something that would not be too busy.  I got my inspiration from this pottery barn magazine page:

All you need for this extremely easy DIY project is:

• Vintage book
• Printer
• Silhouette image
• Frame

I found these images online:

Then I formatted them to print where I wanted on the page, actually found that lightening the image to gray looked better and last by not least ran the book page through my printer to end up with this:

The possibilities are endless with this . . printing flowers, numbers and letters as art work!

This is the first step in my bathroom make over . . stay tuned for the full reveal!

Enjoy!

Framed Vinyl

Here is another simple project I did over the holidays.  Now this is the ugliest room in the house. . where all of the un-liked furniture goes . . and where I make my messes.  This one day will be the nursery.  (don't ask when we are going to have kids please we get that too often from the elders) So I don't want to paint or spend much money fixing it up.  But since it is where I do my crafts I like it to look somewhat decent.

I had some vinyl cut from Janey-mac.com and designed it to display my business name.  Adhered it to the wall then added some nifty decorative push pins from Michael's to add more interest.

Then I framed it out with crown molding I picked up from Home Depot.  Take a look:

I also picked up some jewelry chain to hang from a unique hook (found at the fancy farm girls sale) on the wall.

I like how adding the frame made the vinyl appear much larger. I thought about taking some more empty frames and turning this wall into a gallery.  Kind of like this:

Now I need to hit all the second hand stores for some unique frames!

enjoy!

DIY: Picture Gallery

Every time I get the Pottery Barn catalog I am just amazed at the gallery walls they can put together. So I decided to stop craving over them and make one of my own! The best part is that I did it with frames I already had! Here is a picture of the inspiration I wanted to follow:

Just keep on reading to follow how I created my own gallery wall!

Pictures just dont do justice. . this gallery really makes the room feel larger and taller!  I hope this has inspired you to do something crazy and fun in your home!  Below is my recent purchse from the foundary . . Love it!  The rug pulls everything together. . enjoy!

{weekend projects}

ahhh  . . a sigh of relief.  I was able to get a few projects done this weekend . horray!  First I want to share with you what great buys I got at the second hand store! 

I have been on the look out for collecting frames to make a a collage in my living room.  I picked up all of these frames for under $15!  Just a little paint and they are good as new!  

So now for my second project . . to be honest I have been putting this one off for a while because I knew it was going to take all day and all of the patience I have!  But it is done and I just love it!  Here is my version of the painted wallpaper:

I used the Martha Stewart Metallic paint again in this project.  I just love how throughout the day the painted wallpaper looks different with the changing light.  It did take me all day to do this and all the patience I had . . . but with a little good music . . . another successful DIY project was finished!

I received my inspiration from this fabric:

I made a stencil from the fabric design.  Soon you will be able to find this as a wallpaper option at Janie Mac . .i will keep you posted!  But a vinyl would save a whole lot of time . . I am now considering that in my office.  I hope this inspires you to finish those projects you are putting off. .because once again IT WAS ALL WORTH IT!

Corbel [kawr-buhl]:

CORBEL: A new word to me!  You know the old houses when people describe the “ginger bread” or the decorative support structures in kitchen islands/bars.  That is a corbel.  I found the idea from Sarah Richardson to use a corbel as a decorative detail in my dining room and I love it!  I found mine on e-bay from a 1800’s house in Pennsylvania.  All it needed was a little sanding and a fresh coat of paint and it looks great!  Up close you can still see the details of how old it really is; a great piece of American history in my house!