Southern Hospitality » Projects and How-To

Drying Ferns for Framed Botanicals

Rhoda — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 10:00:49 +0000

While out in the Pacific Northwest on our recent adventure, I loved all the ferns I saw growing wild in the woods. So, I decided to pick a few fronds to dry and frame.

I had to try to keep them from getting crushed on the way home in the plane, so I carefully placed them in some newspaper I had and put that between 2 magazines for the time we were there. They were pretty much dry in just a few days and they made it home just fine.

So, my next plan will be to find some plain black frames with white mats that will fit these 3 pretties and they will end up on my wall somewhere. In fact, I may just change out some of my current botanical prints for these. I love the texture and natural feel that they have.

I’m delighted that they are retaining their original beautiful green shade and hopefully that will continue even when they are under glass.

I also picked these tiny little pinecones which I’ll add to my collection. These are so teeny and cute and I love having something that we don’t grow around here.

My star gazer lilies bloomed recently and I brought in a little bouquet for the dining room.Have you ever dried plants or flowers before for framing and how did it turn out?

I’ll keep you posted when mine are in frames!

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Furniture Redo: Child’s Room to Entertainment Center

Rhoda — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 10:00:18 +0000

I shared the dresser/chest I found last week at the antique mall for $100, in its Before state. You’ve got to look past what something looks like to see potential. That’s always been my motto and it definitely works!
And now I’m proud to say, she doesn’t look like this anymore:

Much improved. I’m still getting used to my new camera and trying to get good pics in low light, so bear with me on these. It’s hard to capture the color of the walls in here, which is Sherwin Williams Blonde. Some are too light and some too yellow, but the true color is in there somewhere. Doesn’t take up too much space either. Much better, don’t you think? I added some beadboard wallpaper inside the door and did a paint overhaul with some soft blue paint I had on hand: Rain by Sherwin Williams. Adding some glaze for a vintage effect helped too, as well as adding new knobs.

Not so baby-ish anymore, huh?

This chest really was the perfect size and shape for what we needed: adding a flat screen to the room. It now sits directly across from the bed, instead of in the corner as before. I don’t even mind that it isn’t hidden anymore. The distressing is really subtle (even more so than this pic) and I used Ralph Lauren Smoke glaze to achieve an aged look. I’ll show you more on all of that later. I patiently waited 2 weeks for the knobs at Hobby Lobby to go back on sale and it finally got here this week. You can’t beat their knobs! Very much Anthropologie-like, but much cheaper on sale. These are navy polka-dots. The flat screen sits nicely on top and there are plenty of storage drawers and a big door too. Close-up of the knob and aging glaze. Inside the door, I built a little shelf to put the DVD. Drilled a hole in the back for the cords with my skil saw. This was made with simple furring strips (98 cents for 8′), cut with my miter box and I had a left over piece of real beadboard that I just plopped on top, after cutting it to size. Nothing fancy, but holds the DVD up top and out of the way. I moved my vanity over near the window and it fits there nicely too. Looking back at the antique armoire as you come in the room. Our room is not huge, so this piece doesn’t take up a lot of space, thank goodness. We have a lot of furniture in here, but it works out pretty cozy for us and everything functions well. We only have this one single window in here, so I have a hard time getting great photos in this room. I would love a whole bank of windows, but that’s not what we got.

You may remember that my mom made those drapes for me right after we moved in. I’m sorry to say they have faded quite a bit, as you can see in some of the pics. They are made of silk and I just don’t think I’ll use silk again in a window that gets this much sun. They are lined and inner-lined too, but it didn’t stop the sun from fading them and I didn’t get to it fast enough to spray the fabric with a UV protector. So, I think I’ll use them for awhile longer and then I just might replace them with some ivory dropcloth drapes. I can always add some blue to those to fancy them up a little. I hate it, but that’s what sun can do to fabric, especially silk.

We also found out that by pulling the drapes shut most of the time, it keeps out a lot of the heat that can get in during the summer, so we do keep them pulled shut most of the time during the summer and winter (to keep the heat IN). I opened it up to let some light in for these pics.

View of the bed and pillows. I still enjoy the fabrics that I chose for our room.

The vanity fits in very well in the corner now. I actually do put on my makeup here all the time. I decided to just keep the little bamboo table right here in between the vanity and the dresser. It’s nice to hold books and it seems to anchor the painting over it, so I’m just gonna leave it here for the time being. That plant is looking rather pathetic, time for a new one.

Here are a few in progress pics. I’m not the best about documenting every single step while in the middle of a mess, but hopefully this will give you a good idea of how I did this one.

I did start off by sanding all over the piece with my electric sander. I really should have gone ahead and primed the whole piece, but I was being lazy and tried to cut corners, but I discovered that after my 2 coats of finish paint, it was scraping off really easily on the front of the piece, so I sanded all of that down again and primed the whole front of it to make sure the paint would stick well. It is usually better to prime, when you’re in doubt and I didn’t follow my own advice on this one. The old paint was pretty shiny. When you see shine on a piece, you just know it needs to be knocked down for that new paint to stick well, so either get out the electric sander OR prime. Either or both will work so that you have good results at the end.

I simply cut to fit a piece of my beadboard wallpaper and glued it inside the inset door frame. As neat as that is, there is still going to be a slight gap when you add this, so my solution is to add a small piece of molding on top of the wallpaper to really make it look more authentic. To me, this just finishes it off. For $4, one piece of molding will do the trick. This piece is raised higher on one side than the other, so you have to cut it appropriately with the miter box. Not hard, just pay attention.So, back to the molding. I just cut it with my miter box and angled the corners. Caulk and paint and you’re all set. I painted 2 coats of Rain on the whole thing, along with the drawer fronts. Then I went back after it was all dry and used Ralph Lauren Smoke stain to give it an aged look. There are many ways you can go about aging something and I love to sand down too, but the way the old white paint was coming through, I didn’t want to risk my new paint coming off with the sander, so I just opted to do this method of distressing. I simply paint on the glaze and then take a damp rag and wipe most of it away.

And you’ll end up with a subtle distressed look with the glaze. I don’t think they are making RL glaze anymore. It used to be a Home Depot. But, this is really easy to duplicate. All you have to do is buy small bottles of glaze and Raw Umber craft paint at the craft stores and mix your own. It will do the very same thing, as will wood stain. Lots of ways to distress, so pick your fave!

So, that’s my little update in the bedroom. I’m so happy to have found a perfect sized piece for the flat screen and we do enjoy watching TV all snuggled up at night.

Are you looking for a special piece of furniture?

And are you thinking outside the box?

Elegant Wallpapered Office Nook

Rhoda — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 10:00:58 +0000

When we moved in our house 4 and 1/2 years ago and I spotted this tiny 6×9′ space outside the laundry room, I quickly claimed it as my own. I knew that it would be perfect for my own little bitty office space. I didn’t need a whole room for my office, this tiny area would be just big enough and out of the way for me. Let’s start with the humble beginnings of this space, right after we moved in. I began making it my own, with a desk from Target online and using shelves that I had already bought from Ballard Designs, this space came together and I have loved my little office space for over 4 years now. I first shared this space with all of you right after I started blogging in 2007, when I sent it in to our local Birmingham Paper the year before and was lucky enough to get featured.

I’ve been tweaking it ever since. It’s been over 2 years ( I know, can you believe that?) that I added the lime green accent wall (with left over paint, Behr’s Grasscloth, from the laundry room) and trimmed it out with braided trim. Then I changed out the bulletin board to a snazzy zebra print. Take note of the gold picture frames and the desk chair. Changing out those things made a big difference too, as well as paring down the stuff. I had way too much stuff in here and it was feeling cluttered and not calm, like I was looking for.

Check out the clever mouse-over that I learned from my friend, Beth, just in time for this post. Roll your mouse over the pic for a BEFORE and AFTER:

I really loved it like this too, but when I fell in love with that wallpaper, it was time for a final revamp.

I finally have it the way I want it now and just a few additions and changes have made a big difference, once again. It’s going to stay like this for a long, long time now.I’ll show you the whole area, so you can see how small this space is and how it all intersects together. This is looking in from the downstairs den, into the blue bath on the right, small hallway with the new paint color, Dutch Boy Colony Green, and looking through the office nook into the laundry room. The new color has a lot more yellow than Grasscloth does, but I love how it brightens up the space. This is a really hard color to photograph, especially with not a lot of natural light coming in. I know some of the pics look yellow/gold, but they are really lime green, so think of that as you are viewing. I never showed you this pretty piece that I won in a blog giveaway last year. Now I need to remember which shop it came from, but isn’t it a cute mirrored shelf?

I don’t worry too much about all of this flowing with the rest of the house upstairs. I figure I can have this space the way I enjoy it from day to day, since it is tucked away by itself. I wouldn’t use all this color in the main part of the house, but I love it here. I went ahead and painted this little hallway in the green too, since I didn’t want to break it up. In the tiny hallway looking to the right, towards the beachy guestroom, this color is pretty accurate on my monitor of the green shade. Just a note about carpet color. For some reason, this carpet really photographs very pink and it’s not pink in real life(more of a beige/sand color), but definitely has a pinky undertone that photographs always pick up. I would love to get rid of it and maybe one day that will happen too. You know how that goes! Did I mention how much I hate carpet? Here are the 2 yardsale New Orleans prints I picked up this year in the hallway.Turning around in the hall, here’s the office nook. Tiny, at 6′ x 9′, but very functional. It wraps me up with warmth when I’m in here.

It all feels very good to me now. I got everything tweaked that needed it and it flows much better. I also decluttered some things and am determined not to let it get too busy again. I know the patterns are all busy, but I like them all together. Some may not, but it works for me.I love the addition of the Graham Brown wallpaper, which I’m selling in my shop, in case you’re interested. See, I’m the guinea pig who tried it out first and I do love it. I think adding an accent wall in a space like this really adds some impact. But, when I decided to add the paper, I just had to paint out the rest of the walls in a lime green to coordinate with the green in the paper.

The paper is green and a pearly/silver color. I thought it was white, but when I got it in it definitely has a silver/pearl tint, which ended up working fine for me too. You’ll notice that I painted the big R with black paint and before I had it a bronze tone. I think changing out most of the accessories to either black or white works really well in here as a high contrast to the green. I did away with most everything that reads gold to keep it consistent. I moved both of my Larson-Juhl framed newspaper prints to the left wall together. I don’t have a lot of wall space in here, so have to use it wisely. All the green baskets you see under the desk were all found separately and then spray painted with the same green paint to unite them. Quick and easy way to get a cohesive look with mismatching pieces. To the right of the desk is my big ole’ bulletin board, made from a $10 yardsale frame and zebra fabric. I did a post on how to make that here. Very easy project! You just need a huge frame and this one is ginormous. Painting the frame black was definitely what it needed. I knew that last time around, but got lazy and didn’t do it. This board helps keep me organized. I couldn’t make it without my calendar nearby. This time, I also added a small chalkboard made from a $1 yardsale frame that had plexiglass inside. Worked perfect for my project and this board will hopefully help keep me more organized as I write my “to do” list on it.

I painted the big R in black this time around and it looks much better. Remember Mary Tyler Moore and her BIG M in her apartment. Yes, and her best friend was Rhoda. I loved that show, they just don’t make them like that anymore. You’ll notice the white painted frames on these shelves too. One thing I’ve learned is to keep things consistent and getting rid of the gold was key in here to pull it together. There’s one more gold plate holder that needs to be painted. I ran out of black and white paint! Spray paint, girls! Such a great way to update. My large bookcase (the Riley) which I found at World Market faces the laundry room door. It’s been perfect for me to store and organize things in. That is scrapbook paper on the back of the bookshelves (all from Hobby Lobby) adhered with double-sided tape, from my last tweaking a couple of years ago and these holders are great for keeping the magazine collection at bay. You can see how I covered these simple cardboard magazine holders here with scrapbook paper and decoupage.

Those 2 striped boxes came from Ikea and hold hanging files. I’m really trying hard to stay organized. It’s a constant struggle to keep up with the paper clutter around here! I’m sure you can relate. Those 2 lime green boxes on that top shelf are yardsale finds that I painted with lime green spray paint. When I get more paint, I’ll paint that brown basket, probably black also. Maybe white. Decorating books and a few family and friends photos round out the top 2 shelves. I painted the old gold frames white and love the contrast with the bookcase now. I’m trying not to put too much back in here and am in major purging mode. That bunny bookend I kept here just because it’s heavy and holds the books.

On the wall right outside the laundry room, I decided to put up some black and white old family photos that I had stored for awhile. My parents, grandparents, and some of my family when we were growing up. I love having these close. I have always loved these old pics of my parents back before they got married. So sweet! And if you look back at yesterday’s post, these are all the formal gold frames that got a quick spray paint coat of satin black. Changed them instantly. That’s my maternal grandparents, Clarence and Kitty. My mother looks a whole lot like her mother. I found those damask plates at TJ Maxx a few years ago and you can see they were hanging on the soffit in that BEFORE pic. I thought they would be a nice accent with these black and white photos. This small watercolor to the left of the bookcase is by the fabulous Fifi Flowers, a gift from her after I won one of her giveaways a couple years ago. I treasure this too, it’s a rendering of my laundry room. Hello, beautiful! This elegant chair is a find from Homegoods. Homegoods comes through once again. The office chair I was using was bought when I worked for Ethan Allen. It is a pretty gold damask fabric, but it never went with the vibe of this space, so I finally decided to replace it. It’s served me well for many years, so I don’t mind getting rid of it now.

I love the new sleek pearly white leather one with silver nailhead trim and simple black legs. Sleek and stylish, it now pulls this space together, just the way I had hoped. And it keeps my back supported really nicely too. The rug is a find from Pier One several years ago.

And that concludes the final tweaking of the office nook. I could not be happier with it now. Pure bliss and elegance is how it feels now. And organized, definitely organized! It’s amazing what changing out the chair did for the look too, don’t you agree?

One more side by side BEFORE and AFTER and you can compare changes. Note the new light fixture too that was added last year, an $8 yardsale find. I think I’m going to add a vinyl saying around the drop down soffit, when I find just the right one:

I adore it and hope you like it too! For those who loved my old space, I think you will agree that the new one is definitely improved. I’m learning all the time too.

It just goes to show that you can definitely get some high-style in a really small space. Here are some ways to do that and I hope these help you to see the potential in a small area:

Keep your color palette to 2 or 3 colors.

Wallpaper one wall as an accent. It will draw the eye into the space and be the first thing that is noticed when someone comes in. Besides, it’s just so darn pretty and elegant.

Go vertical with storage and use that wall area to the fullest. Those Ballards shelves have been one of the best purchase I have ever made.

Use boxes for storage, they are pretty and hide all the ugly paper and mess. Be on the lookout for mismatched baskets and boxes at yardsales that you can update to work for you.

Spray paint a lamp if the color is not exactly right. Yep, did that.

Spray paint frames to update them for your new look.

Chalkboard and bulletin boards are another way to stay organized. You can make them pretty and functional at the same time.

Add a rug, even over carpet. It will further anchor the space with a little color and texture.

Get a comfortable and stylish desk chair.

Do you have a small, tucked away space that you could utilize for an office area?

Adding this post to Kate’s Where Do You Blog party!

My Office Nook & Dutch Boy Paint

Rhoda — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 18:00:36 +0000

Last week, I began working on a little update in my office nook and while the wallpaper was a big part of that update, the paint was also an important piece of the puzzle.So, today I’m sharing a little sneak peek of the office space, but you’ll have to go over to this page to check it all out.

Watch out, the paint is still wet!

A DIY Cornice

Rhoda — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 10:00:29 +0000

Over a year ago, I picked up some fabric I ran across for $3 per yard and knew that I wanted to do something with it on the 2 single windows in our master bathroom. So, I finally got inspired to get it done, after saving an inspiration post from Jenny, at Little Green Notebook. She has lots of great ideas and this one was perfect for what I wanted in my space.

See how pretty and simple this pelmet or cornice board is? You can click over to Jenny’s blog to see how she did it, but I’ll share my method here too. And the good thing is this: it’s made from foamcore board and duct tape! Yeah, I knew you’d like that too.

Come on in and I’ll show you my version.

I”m really loving this cornice board and how easy it was to put together too. Well, relatively easy. One thing I can mention on this project is, you may not want to use a stripe, because it’s impossible to keep them straight when you have curves and angles. But, I’m pretty happy with the way this turned out in spite of the wavy stripes.

The hardest part is getting your fabric to lay taut around this little curve, but I’ll show you the back of it down below in my how-to and you can see that you have to clip the fabric with scissors to get it around the curve. I still have a slight pucker on the fabric, but most of that is covered by the trim and button. I found this pretty braided blue trim at Hancocks and I covered the buttons myself from other fabric I had. Just a shot of the white nightstand I painted last year, along with some storage boxes in my paisley blue fabric. The cornice is simple, but adds a lot, I think. I kept this space to blue, gold-yellow, and white.

The same treatment goes in the toilet room too. You can read all about the beadboard wallpaper I did here in this post. That really added a big punch to this little room. Buttons and trim add lots of interest to this simple treatment.

Another peek at the DIY subway tile I added in here earlier this year too. I think I can now say that the master bathroom is done!

So, if you’d like to read all about how these cornices were put together, keep on reading.

I made a simple pattern out of packing paper. You may have to work on this, it took me 2 attempts to get my angles and curves the way I wanted them. Once you have one side drawn, it helps to fold the paper in half, so that both sides match.

Then, just place it on your foam board and trace.

Cut along the lines and you have this. I used an Exacto knife to cut mine. Remember those?

My box needed a little extra on each side, so I cut out 1″ strips to go on either side to make it a little wider. I duct taped both sides, front and back to keep it steady.

I decided to have my board sit 2 1/2 inches out from the window, so I cut 4 pieces that were 2 1/2″ wide and taped those on each side of my 2 boxes. Now you have a box that needs to be covered. Who would know that underneath your pretty fabric is THIS. No one but YOU!

Be sure and iron your fabric well before you start.

I roughly cut my fabric into 2 pieces and left extra on each, just to be sure I had enough. Luckily, no one will see behind your board so you don’t have to worry about the backside. Lay down some batting first, then your fabric on top. I used a staple gun with 3/8″ staples to adhere all the fabric. Start in one spot and pull taut, moving all the way around.

The toughest spots, as I mentioned were right there on the curve insets. You can see that I cut the fabric all the way down to the board to be able to pull the fabric as tight as I could here. Lots of staples! The batting helps keep the fabric smooth too, so don’t skip that step. I had to work on this curved part longer than all the rest, but just keep going until you get all the fabric adhered.

And here they are, both covered with fabric.

I wanted that little extra pizazz, so added some pretty braided flat trim that I found at Hancock’s Fabrics. It was my lucky week and it was all 30% off. I glued on all the trim with fabric glue. My favorite fabric glue is Fabri-Tac, but I’ve been out of it for awhile. I picked up some fabric glue from Hobby Lobby, called Crafter’s Pick and I hate it. It doesn’t stick worth a darn and it won’t squeeze out the small hole in the top, so I definitely would tell you to stay away from that one. Fabri-Tac is the BEST!

Hot glued a ring onto the back top corner of the board on either side. This thing is so lightweight, it doesn’t take much to hang it. Just 2 small nails will do it. And that’s how to make a cornice board out of foamcore.

I hope this inspires you to try this project. It just takes a little time and patience to get the fabric stretched over it, but I’m so happy with how it came out.

What do you think? Do you have a window to try this one on?

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And the giveaway winner for the 2 Tea books is: Georgia from Grandma G’s. Congrats, enjoy those books!

DIY Shutters from Fence Parts

Rhoda — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 10:00:57 +0000

I decided I really needed to make some cute shutters for my double window on the deck and knew that it would really make that space much more inviting. I had seen these somewhere along the way, so I did some Googling and found out that a couple of my bloggy friends, both named Sarah, had made their own shutters too (I had seen them, my old brain had just forgotten!). You can see Sarah’s here and the other Sarah’s here. Also, Kathysue, another bloggy friend’s hubby made her some shutters for her backyard. You must go and see her really adorable backyard space too, those blue shutters are too cute.So, getting back to my project. I went to Home Depot and picked up some fence slats that are 6′ tall, the perfect size for my window. I didn’t have to cut them down or anything, they were a good fit for my size window, slightly taller, but I like that look just fine. These are 5 1/2″ wide. And the good thing is, they are cheap! Like $1.39 each. I spent about $10 for all my materials, not counting the spray paint. You’ll need 3 of these for each shutter. I had one of these Gothic fence pickets at my house and these are not what our fence is made of, so I do not remember why I have this one. But, neither Lowes or Home Depot carries these in stock anymore, they are special order only. If they were in stock, I may have gotten these, since I love the shape of the top. This one, at 4″, is not as wide as the ones I got, so I used this one as my cross piece at the top and bottom. If you can’t find something like this as the cross piece, you may just have to cut down another one of the fence slats for this part. I know Home Depot and Lowes seem to have many different things at various stores, so you’ll just have to check it out in person and see what your store carries. Both HD and Lowes carried the ones I have for the same price. First, I cut all 4 boards for the cross pieces with my miter box, then I measured down 12″ from the top and up 12″ from the bottom to place these boards and screwed them in with wood screws and my new handy dandy cordless drill/screwdriver. I just got this and should have bought a good one years ago. This will save you a ton of work and a lot of fussing. You’ll need wood screws about 1 1/2″ long. I used 3 screws in each board across the top and bottom and that held it all together just fine. I then laid them out in the backyard and primed them really well. I was going to use spray paint on them without priming, but quickly discovered that this raw wood would just drink up any spray paint I attempted to put on there and my cans would be empty FAST. So, prime it is! I decided on this green Krylon color, Avocado (oh, that sounds SO 70’s!!), and it’s a perfect complement to my fabric. I used 2 cans for both shutters. And the color came out just as I had hoped. A pretty limey green, not so much avocado after all.

EDIT to ADD: A couple of you asked how I attached them to the wall. Just a few screws will hold them in place. Mine are in siding, so it was not a problem. In the above pic, you can see the screws I put them in with. You’ll need at least 1 1/2″ screws to attach and a cordless drill will be a lifesaver for this job if you are doing it alone, like I did. I used 2 screws in the top and 2 in the bottom.

I used the regular (not Fusion) Hammered Brown paint on a couple of my side tables, like this one.You do know you can paint plastic now, right? Yep, Krylon Fusion paint has been out a few years now and is especially made for plastics. It will bond to plastic and make it look brand new.

The deck box I picked up at a yardsale last year for $10 came in handy too, but I felt it needed a little something to dress it up more for the deck, so I picked up Fusion paint in Hammered Brown and sprayed it down with a darker color. Save the Fusion paint for plastic things only, you don’t want to waste it, since it’s a little pricier than some of the other spray paints.

I found the regular Hammered Brown on clearance at Hobby Lobby and the Fusion Hammered Brown at Walmart. Check all of your local stores for these Krylon paints and you should be able to find them. Home Depot and Lowes also carry a lot of them. Krylon Hammered Brown is a really good color.

And here’s the deck box after a couple of coats of the darker brown paint. Looks MUCH better than the beige it was originally. These are the original cushions that came with my Big Lots all-weather wicker. The cushions were OK, but not as plush as I wanted and this fabric was not my favorite. So, I’ll save the seat cushions for maybe another project later. I did use the throw pillows though and covered them for the settee. Cut out my squares for the throw pillows, added some cording with green fabric I had left over from another project. And I have a set of custom throw pillows now that really enhance my space.

So, that’s how I got it all together out there by spray painting, building the shutters myself and sewing a little. If I can sew, YOU can too!

If you have any other questions about the deck space, let me know!

The Slow Love book giveaway winner is Mary (Meteor Mary) and I’ve emailed her already. Mary said this:

Rhoda, Never lost a job but I would love to enter the give-a-way since I love to read and this book sounds very interesting! Mary

Feature Friday: Nicki’s Stairs

Rhoda — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 10:00:28 +0000

If you still haven’t peeked under the carpet on your stairs, this one might give you some extra incentive. Inspired by my stair project, long-time friend and reader, Nicki, ripped off the carpet from her stairs too and redid them with just paint and some hard work.Here are her carpeted stairs that she was unhappy with. I know the feeling. And after the carpet was pulled up, she has what looks to be pine boards down. Not fancy, but with a little wood putty and caulk, they are going to look great. And they look fantastic with their new coat of black paint on the treads and white paint on the risers! She also painted her post and top railing black too, which adds a lot of punch.

So, if you’re still thinking about this one, get on up from the computer and take a peek at YOUR stairs to see what is lurking under there. Nicki’s stairs were in SO MUCH better shape than mine were and you might luck out on that too. For all the details on Nicki’s project, go on over to her blog.

Fantastic job, Nicki!

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Our friends over at One Project Closer are starting their Before and After summer project contest this month, so if you’d like to get in on that, click on over here for all the details. They are choosing the best projects to feature every week on their blog and if your project is chosen, you will win a $50 giftcard to Home Depot, Lowes, or Amazon. They will also donate to Habitat for Humanity on your behalf too. At the end of the summer, ALL the projects will be compiled and there will be a final winner picked from a voting poll.

I entered a couple of years ago with our outdoor patio and won a $50 giftcard from Home Depot. Any project that you’ve done this year is eligible, so go over and enter. You might win too. I’ve entered my stair project this year!

Beadboard Wallpaper in Masterbath

Rhoda — Tue, 04 May 2010 10:00:10 +0000

I’ve been at it again. My love for beadboard wallpaper has not slowed down and I’ve finished up the masterbath water closet. Amazing what this stuff does to add architectural details to an otherwise bland and boring little space. I love the crisp whiteness against the blue walls. Instant appeal!

Here’s how it started.

All blue, but not all that exciting.

Withe the addition of chairrail and other molding, along with the beadboard wallpaper, much improvement don’t you think? I sure do!

Want to know how I did it all? Of course you do! This is one roll of my nifty beadboard wallpaper, that I now carry in my Open Sky shop, so you can get your hands on it at the click of a button.

I hope you know that the Wall Doctor Graham Brown version is the very best type and the only one I would use. Some of the copycat versions are not at all the same. I saw one in person and it was really bad. This one looks like the real thing.

If you missed my earlier posts last year when I first discovered and started using this amazing stuff, click here to see the tutorial on my kitchen and bath cabinets. I added this on the ends and really took them up a notch.

And we had a beadboard wallpaper party, after many of my readers tried it out too. It’s been a hit now for going on a year, in case you haven’t heard about it before.

I decided to begin the chair rail right underneath the window trim that was already in place, so that set my line for the chair rail on either wall. I measured just under that, so I would have a line to stop the wallpaper and then have the chair rail cover it up. Much easier to put up the wallpaper and then put the chair rail molding right on top. So, I figured out how many sheets I would need to go all around this little space. 9 to be exact.

Here they all are cut and ready to go. I actually put these up one at a time with a lot of time in between. I would wet a piece, wait 5 minutes, put it on the wall, smooth it out and then go do something else. Next time I came in the room, I did another piece, until I made my way all around the room.

I didn’t worry too much about the bottom where it meets the tile wall baseboard. I had already figured out that I would add a simple small piece of molding there to cover that seam. That is one thing I’ve found in working with this paper. If you add molding around it, it totally looks like the real thing and I really think that’s one of the key secrets to making it look SO authentic.

All the pieces are in place now and waiting for the chair rail to be installed.

Here’s how I got behind the toilet. I can’t imagine having to put in real beadboard behind a toilet. It would not have worked in my case. I barely had room to slide this paper behind, much less a thick piece of real wood beadboard. So, you can see how time and cost effective this would be. Don’t get me wrong. I love the real thing too, but sometimes it’s just not practical. Here I just cut a slit in the paper to move it around the toilet line.

And here it is all smooth and in place.

I did slide it behind the toilet without much problem. This paper is thick and easy to handle.

Now it’s time to get busy on the chair rail. I opted to go ahead and paint my already primed chair rail with 2 coats of my trim paint, just to save the hassle of painting next to my blue wall paint. Didn’t want to have to deal with that.

Here’s where I added a small trim molding (again, this is the lightweight foam stuff that can be cut with scissors). I glued it in place with wood glue. Really any sort of glue should work. Don’t tape on top of your wallpaper though like I did. I did have a little bit of it that pulled up with the blue tape. No major damage, but be more careful than I did.

See how that cute little trim just finishes it off and sits nicely on top of my existing trim baseboard tile? It’s those small details that make the difference.

This is shoe molding, very small (about 1/2″ wide from Lowes) and it worked perfectly on top of my tile.

And again, here is is all finished and painted. I did one coat of my gloss trim paint on the wallpaper too. I definitely think you should always paint this wallpaper to further enhance it and make it look like the real thing. It’s made for painting!

I love how it adds so much more interest in here now.

Mitered the corners with my simple hand miter box. It’s never perfect, since houses are sometimes off square and this was no exception. I did have to add some caulking in here, but after painting, it looks pretty darn good.

Close-up of the small trim molding and the wallpaper. Once you paint over the wallpaper, the paint fills in the seams for the most part, so they are hardly noticeable.

Love, love, yes I’m in love!

Now, here’s one thing I’ll show you. Houses and walls are not always straight or plumb. I was having a hard time getting this molding to lay flat and had to hammer in a bunch of extra nails in the center of this board. I thought the board was warped and was about to commence with some major whining out loud! Grrrrrrr!

But then I figured out that it’s the wall that’s not straight! So, those are some of the hazards of doing projects in less-than-perfect houses. It can show up in the strangest ways. Now, if I was a perfectionist, this might bother me, but since I got over that a long time ago, I can live with a little wave in my chair rail. Oh, and I finally picked up a nail set, which made my life much easier. That’s to punch in those finish nails and then caulk fills in the holes.

Project Cost:

Beadboard Wallpaper – $25

Chair Rail from Lowes (real wood): $20 for two 8′ pieces

Small foam molding ( two 8′ pcs. from Lowes) – $5

Total: $50

Looking in the dirty mirror from outside the room. It’s SO gratifying to do a project like this. It was really a fast one and I got it done in no time. The hubs thinks I’m still trying to cover up more of his blue, but I still say all that white just enhances that purdy blue!

Instant architectural detail, you gotta love that!

Added to Kimba’s DIY Day this week.

Happy Birthday to my sweet mama, who turns 82 today.

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Telling Tales of Dusk book giveaway winner is:

#38: Nancy from Nancy’s Cottage Treasures. Congrats! Email me your mailing address and I’ll have Terri send you a copy of the book.

I loved Nancy’s comment:

Growing up in south Arkansas, on a tomato farm, well…I had my share of tomato samwiches. I love poetry and used to write long, rambling, obscure poems that my Mother thought were grand. I was just melodramatic, lol. I appreciate the opportunity to enter this give-away. What a lovely book to spend time with on the front porch this summer….remembering the olden days when my life was simpler and slower. Thanks!

The Alabama Chair or How to make Your Hubby Smile

Rhoda — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 10:00:53 +0000

You all cheered with me when I found this cute chair a couple weeks ago yardsaling for $15. Didn’t really know where I’d put it, since I don’t have spare room around my house. But, I couldn’t resist and brought it home anyway.

And this recent conversation with my hubby prompted a FUN chair makeover, when he told me that the old dining room chair I had in his office had been cracked across the back by the big lugs who sometimes come to visit him and sit in his office. Those guys sat in the guest chair and cracked the back of it, so a sturdier chair was needed for the hub’s office.

So, since a makeover was needed, I decided to have some fun with it….

And, the Alabama chair was born! Ta-da! How do you like this one? Doesn’t it make you giggle out loud?

Someone sent me this Alabama fabric last year as a freebie (and if you are reading, I don’t remember who you were and so sorry, but I lost your email & didn’t hear back). I had this yard of fabric and figured it would look pretty snazzy to fix up this chair and make it Crimson Tide worthy for hubby’s office. I did purchase the houndstooth fabric at Hobby Lobby (only needed 1/2 yard, so it was $5.00 on sale). I found several online sites with the same fabric, along with many other colleges and one of them is here.

I love how it turned out, so I’ll show you all how I did to it to turn it into an enviable Alabama Crimson Tide wonder-chair. You Auburn fans will just have to shield your eyes at this point.

Started by taking off the seat and began ripping off the layer of fabric that covered the original fabric. I didn’t want too many layers on there.

I had never taken apart one of these chairs and you would think that this back piece, which has fabric on the front and back sides, would all be one piece, right? Not so! These are 2 pieces of wood that are placed in here and covered. I pried off the frontside and it had nails protruding out of it.

Like this.

I then tried to get that back piece off and could not figure out how it was attached, so as usual got my hammer out and began banging away on that piece of wood, trying to dislodge it. Then, I figured out it has screws in it that were holding it in place. Turned the chair upside down to see these 2 small screw holes. So, just a warning, if you have a chair like this, look for all the small openings that might hold screws in place. I didn’t ruin it, but did splinter those screw holes just a bit. Not enough to mess it up though.

So, we’re ready for the fun part. Painting and recovering.

I used that famous Heirloom White on the chair frame and gave it a good 2 coats for coverage. I did wipe it down with my liquid sander first, just to degloss a bit.

All painted and waiting for her cushions.

The original seat cushion was in really bad shape, so no wonder the previous owners recovered it.

Get out the staple gun and get busy. I pull taut on one side and staple in place, then go to the opposite side and staple. Do the same things on the other 2 sides, that way all your fabric will be pulled equally taut all the way around the chair seat.

Keep stapling, pulling the corners in nice and tight and fold down as needed and it will look like this. I went back with my scissors and trimmed off the excess fabric outside my staple lines.

I put the back side of the 2 pieces in first (the back piece had a dowel that fit up into the chair & then 2 screws in the bottom part). Then the front side with the nails protruding went in place last. This is the only part I had trouble with. Once you take out the board with nails (the front side of the back rest), it’s not so easy to get them to stick back in place again. They tend to want to push back into the foam underneath. I finally got it in place with a rubber mallet and I added a bit of wood glue, hoping it would stick to the other side. If it comes out again, I may have to get some thick double sided tape to help it stay in place. So far so good.

And there she is! A cute chair now. Not at all what I had planned for this chair, but I think she is cute as a button. And later on, if we move things around, I can reinvent her once again.

For now, she’ll keep my hubby company in his office and be a suitable and sturdy guest chair for those guys dropping by.

Houndstooth was the perfect mix for the other Crimson Tide fabric.

Ador-able!

How do you like the Alabama Chair??

Added to Frugal Friday at The Shabby Nest.

Added to Traci’s Best Projects of April party.

The Down & Dirty on the Stair Project

Rhoda — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 10:00:25 +0000

Here’s how it all started. Ripping that carpet off, one step at a time. Unearthing all the ugliness that was hiding beneath. Our builder certainly never meant for these stairs to be shown, that’s for sure. And like I mentioned, if I had any delusions of something nice lurking beneath this mess of carpet, that was quickly put to rest after the first couple of stairs.

In fact, it just got worse, as I went down the stairs ripping that carpet and padding off.

Like this gaping hole! I know, it’s really bad. So bad that I started to question my sanity. But, one thing I’ve learned in the DIY world is this fact. Most anything can be improved upon by hiding it with molding or caulking with caulk and that was my motto here. Hide it, cover it up, or make it look better.

Look at the ends of the stairs. Pretty darn bad, with all the carpet fuzz and the milllllllions of staples that were in here. That itself took awhile, just to get the staples pulled out. This wood was not meant to be seen either, so I had to cover it all up with molding.

Evil, evil carpet tack strips. I pulled and tugged and finally got them all out of there.

Using these tools. Don’t even try this without safety glasses and leather gloves. I didn’t have a crowbar or I would have used it.

How about these lovely edges with drywall trapped inside. Is there any hope to beautify THIS?? Well, yes there is. You see, I had a vision. Or maybe it was a nightmare after I saw what I was working with.

First, I bought a nice hand sander and began sanding as much roughness as I could off all the stair treads and risers. I went through several pieces of heavy duty sandpaper and sanded them as good as I could. And no, they were not even smooth at this point either, but then came the wood filler putty. That works pretty good too for smoothing out holes and gaps in wood. There’s only so much you can do with rough raw wood like this, but paint works wonders too. I went back and resanded after I added the wood putty to all the holes and uneven gaps.

So then began the process of covering all the ugly gaping holes with molding. I went to the store and bought about 3 or 4 kinds of molding, going back a couple of times when I fine-tuned things a little more and figured out what all I needed. I started at the top, cutting those pieces to fit and used wood glue to hold them in place. Cause they are nothing but foam and could be cut with scissors. You gotta love molding you can cut with scissors.

See, here it is. It will splinter a little, but I made it work just fine. It was all I needed to cover underneath the stairs and on the sides to cover up the ugly holes and it was cheap. Cheap, I like for something like this. Held in place with blue tape til dry.

Here’s all the different size moldings I used, so you can be on the lookout for it as I explain it all. Some of this was leftover from other projects and some I bought.

Left to Right:

3″ Reeded molding

1/2″ fluted trim (bottom of stairs)

1 1/4″ small chairrail type

1″ MDF (this is the one I cut with scissors)

1/2″ shoe molding

1 1/2″ to trim out the stair nose

All of this was real wood molding, except that one piece. Someone asked if I have an an electric miter saw. NO! I wish I did and one of these days, I may have to break down and get one. I used a less than $10 yellow miter box that you can buy at the home stores. It works fine, of course takes much longer than an electric one would.

And I knew I would need some wider molding to cover the really BIG gaps, like this one that you see above. One nice piece of 3″ reeded molding covered it right up. I had some of this leftover from another project, so I raided my extras for this and used up all my left over pieces.

Used quarter round on the edges of the stair treads to cover more gaps. And you can see the big gap on either side of the stair nose. I knew I would have to cover that up, so that’s what drove me to use a nice molding piece on each stair nose. It looked better AND it covered up that gap too. You’ll see more of those down below.

Making progress all down the stairs, one at a time. Aren’t they starting to look beautiful now. Ha! Not yet, but we’re getting there.

Now, this bottom part down on the edges of the stairs was the most challenging part. I knew I’d have to cover the ugly down here and be creative about it too. Again, left over fluted molding was used as well as some of the quarter round I had bought. I figured it out as I went along and started with a small base piece of molding at the bottom.

One good thing about the stair treads were that they were nice and thick. I figured out that I need to put some molding on the front of them to help hide gaps on either side of the stairs, so I found this flat piece that fit on there perfectly to make the stair treads look better AND hide the gaps on the sides. This is about 1 1/2″ wide. I used wood glue AND finishing nails on these.

Working on the bottom 3 steps that had more molding to deal with. I just kept going, again figuring it out as I went along. I started with one layer and that wasn’t looking so great, so I just added another layer on top and they started to look decent.

Cut, glue and wait. All the way down.

Getting there.

Cut more, glue more, keep on going.

Getting to the final part here, this was the last thing I did was figure out this corner.

You can see I used all the leftover pieces I could find in the garage to make it all work. And it did! Once it’s all painted out with my white trim paint, it looks beautiful.

When all the molding was in, it was time to caulk. Again, caulk hides a multitude of flaws. It’s a DIYer’s best friend! I used an entire large tube of caulk in my caulk gun on these stairs.

Caulk, caulk and more caulk hides all those seams and gaps. Another sanding and it was time to prime.

Even the primer looks pretty good! I then painted all the white trim with my interior white trim semi-gloss paint, letting it all dry overnight between coats. I figured it would be easier to do that first and then go back and do the stair treads black.

One quart of black porch and floor paint was plenty for this project. I didn’t even use 1/2 of this can.

And I put on 3 coats, letting it all dry at least overnight in between. I used a small foam roller and a tiny craft brush to get around the edges by the white trim.

Just a quick visual here…BEFORE

And AFTER….here are the ends all trimmed out and painted. Lots of difference between Before and After on this for sure!

These are SO not perfect, but unless your nose is right down here, it all looks great.

From this BEFORE….

And AFTER. It IS pretty dramatic, huh? I still have to touch up my dark post railings at the bottom too, but I’ll get to that.

See, not perfect, but perfectly beautiful. And I’m OK with NOT perfect, since it’s totally better than before.

After 3 coats, the black painted stairs are done. You can see nails in the stairs. There’s just no way to completely cover them, since they are on each end and in the middle. So, that was one reason I decided to add a runner. That and the fact that I really love natural runners. But, really if you have steps that are in pretty good condition, I think the 2-3 coats of black porch paint look pretty fabulous too and I would not have had a problem leaving them like this. But, I like that extra touch that the runner added.

And one final addition of molding here at the back of the stair treads. It was impossible to keep a straight line back here.

So I just added an additional small shoe molding on top and that hid all the wavy lines.

Next, stapling on the jute runner which I got from Overstock. I had to order 2 of them, since one wasn’t quite long enough. I needed to cut an extra foot or so off the 2nd one to fit that last step and it was easy enough to cut with scissors. And I have a whole section from the 2nd runner in case I need to replace one stair tread later on (like if something gets spilled, etc.). Nice to have a backup piece.

And after stapling away, this is the end result. You can see even more AFTER pics in this post.

I did go back and add a little jute twine at the back of the stair treads to sort of hide the staples, since I had 6 of them that came with my rug. I simply wrapped them around the rug on either side and they are laying in place just fine. But really, those staples don’t bother me a bit. I had the twine so I used it.

Dramatic AND beautiful, a great combo! We will definitely be enjoying these stairs for a long time to come. When the runner wears out or gets too dirty, I can pull it up for something else.

This whole project cost around $200:

1/2 for the molding, paint and supplies and 1/2 for the runner.

It was very cost effective and SO totally worth every penny. Keep in mind, I only had 6 stairs here, so if you have a whole staircase, it will be even more work. But, it is TOTALLY worth every minute of pain.

Here’s a visual from the top of our upper stairs looking down towards the foyer landing, and down to the newly painted stairs, so you can see how it all ties together.

As you can see from the pics, our foyer landing already has beautiful finished hardwoods, as do the flight of stairs going up to our main living area. I simply wanted to tie these down stairs into what we already have and get rid of that ugly carpet! Mission accomplished!

Do you have some ugly carpet on your stairs you’d like to rip up? This might convince you to do it, right?

Your stairs can’t possibly be any worse than mine.

Added to Kimba’s DIY party.