Door as a Headboard

Still crankin' out the projects while it's gorgeous weather! All too soon falling snow will replace falling leaves! This old door is destined to become a new headboard:

I hosed it down and let it dry. I mixed up a shade of grey to coordinate with the bedding colors and brushed it on as a base color. (Graphite and antique white) Then I dry brushed a shade darker shade, followed by a lighter shade using Annie Sloan's Cocoa with a touch of Graphite.

Finally I sanded the edges to bring out the details. I finished by rubbing in a coat of Fiddes & Sons Supreme wax polish - Light.


Fiddes is an ever so slightly yellow color wax compared to my Annie Sloan Clear. I felt this would help with the aging look we were going for, without going too dark. I may change my mind after I see it in the room and add the darker wax, as well. Here is it so far:

Look What was Underneath!

Carey was looking for an old trunk to use as a coffee table - with the emphasis on "old." We found a trunk that at Whetstone Antiques' Barn sale that was the right size and had some interesting design elements.

But . . . .

Someone had painted it shiny black, silver and gold!

[Side note: I find it rather humorous - one generation says, "look at this old piece, I can paint it to freshen it up." The next generation says, "Why would anyone paint over such a great old piece! I could strip it to reveal the natural patina!" Next generation - "Paint it!" Next generation - "Strip it and stain it!" These poor old pieces never know what they'll be wearing! I've lived long enough to try it all!]

Definitely not the look she was going for. She wanted to see the original wood, and hoped for an older, "well-used patina" on the trunk and metal-work. The price was right, so we decided to take it home and see what was underneath . . .

We started with this:

I brushed on a coat of CitriStrip Stripping Gel and waited a half- hour. I like CitriStrip cause it does not have harsh fumes. Then I used a plastic scraper to remove the residue, followed by a little elbow grease with steel wool & mineral spirits. (Took about 45 minutes) This is what was revealed:

I took it over to see what she thought - Should I rub in a little yellow ochre? A little olive green? Should we protect it a bit with some wax, oil, or satin varnish? 

She was pleased with it so far, and decided to live with it awhile before doing anything else with it. Here is in its new home.

Mirror & Dresser

One old (and pretty cheap laminate) dresser from our house "back in the day" ended up at Jeff and Carey's house to hold their TV.

Carey dry brushed the drawers a few years ago to give it a little lift, but it was time to do something new again.

I tried my had at it . . .

The top was bumpy and had some water stains and after sanding a bit looked like this.

She also had a mirror from TJ Max that had served them well, hanging horizontally over their couch for several years. It was time to freshen up that look, as well. She was going for a more aged look and wanted to ditch the gold.














I used Annie Sloan Chalk paint on both pieces (Color: Graphite) followed by a little sanding of the edges and some of Annie Sloan's dark soft wax. Since this is in a home with 5 children, I also used 2 coats of Artisan Embelishments Clear Topcoat Sealer on the top of the dresser - it still amazes me that you can apply it right over the wax!

Tada!

The Kitchen Table

Jeff & Carey have been working hard remodeling. They knocked out a couple walls to open up the space between their living room and kitchen. At a Habitat store, Jeff found wood flooring for the kitchen that matched the living room floor boards. He also added trim to the old cupboards and painted them white - don't they look amazing?

From this . . . .

To this!
Way to go Jeff - That's my boy!
Grandpa John will be proud.  

I found this solid oak table on Craig's list for $50. It also included three pressed oak chairs that I will keep for another project.

With one leaf it will comfortably seat 8. With both leaves it seats 10.
For a family of 7, it's just the right size!

I had to strip the top because it had been used for crafts and had some paint, glue - and even a little glitter attached to the top. (I used CitriStrip  Stripping Gel) I scraped and sanded and let it dry thoroughly.

I mixed two parts Annie Sloan Graphite with one part Annie Sloan Antique White, and added some water to create a wash of grey. The hope was that some of the wood grain would show through but would not be pronounced.

From this . . . .

To this!

For the base and legs I used straight Annie Sloan's Graphite - I brushed it on and let it dry. Then I mixed Antibes Green with Florence and a pinch of Graphite. I dry-brushed it over the graphite.

From this . . .

To this

This table will be used by a family of seven, so I opted to skip the wax and applied six coats of acrylic Polyurethane. A few more coats and several days of drying and we'll be ready to take it to their house! I promise to post some pics of the big finale!

Carey's Office

We are making progress on Carey's office!  We finally got the photo wall up - at first we ended up with an "optical illusion" - even though the photos were centered on the wall between the corner and the bookcase, they looked like they were much closer to the corner. So I took them down and we just "eye-balled it." My recommendation is to take some time to "test it" before just assuming that taking measurements will give you the look you want. You can read more about our original inspiration for office, and how we created the photo wall here.

About her desk . . . When she showed me her inspiration photo I realized that I had just worked on a table much like the one in the picture. It was still in my studio,  and I was willing to swap it out for a different table. I had painted it a deep teal, so I just dry-brushed the legs a bit to get the greener color she liked.

Remember her chairs from a previous post? I also dry-brushed the bookcases and added some colorful accents in her colors.

It's been a fun little adventure!

Wall of Large DIY "Photo Canvases"

My daughter-in-law saw this photo on Pinterest (from melangephotographyblog.com) and thought it would be the perfect look for her new office at church. It became our inspiration.

I already had the perfect table to serve as her desk, and I'll tell you more about that in another post. Today I'll focus on the wall of photos. An entire wall of actual photo canvases are quite pricey and out of the question for our budget on this project. So . . . we checked out some DIY options online and settled on a super-economical way to pull off the look. The whole wall needed to cost less than $100.

Step 1: Decide on size of the entire grouping, and choose the size of each photo. 
- Photos need to be high quality in order to make them this large. Most of the photos Carey chose were taken in a photo shoot with a nice camera. (Largest was 5616 x 3744 - 6.8 MB. The smallest was 604 x 403 - 26 KB, and still worked out ok. It had a bit more "blurry, painterly look" to it, though, which I liked) Chloe Heckman took most of the photos. Aren't they GREAT?!?

- We decided the center photos would be about 24"x36" and the outer squares would be about 24"x24". We used a grid like this and made a mock-up, cropping the photos she chose:

Step 2: Have your photos printed
- At this size, even large photo posters would have been more than our budget would allow, so we decided to give it a try using engineer prints from Staples. You have to be ok with some a bit of a "shabby chic" look - with some lines or streaks - not a "perfect glossy photo." But run a test print to make sure the it's a look you like - and printers can vary, so if it comes out too streaky you could try a different Staples. Also be aware that the paper is quite thin - like regular copy paper.

- The three middle photos were 2'x3' and cost only $3.89 each. A 3'x4' print was $7.79, so I used Photoshop to put two of the 2'x'2' photos into one jpg. (I created an 18"x24" file that was 300dpi so it was in proportion for the 3'x4' print. They may be able to help you with that at Staples, or you might want to just stick to standard sizes) With a $10 off coupon, the prints came to only $22.00! But be sure to remember that there are other things to purchase to complete your project - and they add up!



- Be sure to make the photo about an inch or so bigger than the foam board you will mount it on so you can fold the print over the top edges.

Step 3: Purchase and prepare mounting materials
- I purchased and sprayed my photos with 2 cans of Design Master Clear Finish - Matte. (Micheals - on both the front and the back - just to protect them a bit and to help the the adhesive not seep through. You could try skipping this step - might turn out fine but I did not want to take any chances. The spray also deepened the color just a tiny bit.

- I purchased Scotch Photo Mount spray adhesive. I've used other spray adhesives in the past, but I whose this one for this project because I didn't want to take a chance on the adhesive discoloring if it seeped through at some point. Note: If you do not choose to prime the foam board before applying, be sure to purchase an adhesive that is mad for styrofoam - or it will dissolve it!

- I also purchased black Gorilla (Duct) Tape to put around the edges for the "Canvas look"

- We found two 2" thick 4'x8' foam insulation boards at church that had been used for a set in the children's department. That saved us about $27 each. I rolled on a coat of white primer because the paper was so thin I did not want the magenta paint they had used color to bleed through.

- My friend, Kurt used his table saw to cut the foam board for me. We  decided to cut them as 22.5" squares and 22.5"x34.5" rectangles so I had enough wiggle room as I glued them.



Step 4: Mount the photos on foam board
- Make sure the foam board is smaller than the photo so you can fold it over the top

- Lay the photo face down on a clean table top

- Take the foam board outside and spray a 1" line of adhesive along the top on one side only


-Carefully line up the foam board 1/2" away from the edge of the photo.

- Lightly fold back the photo to expose the rest of the foam board; spray the rest of the board. (Again, be sure to do that outside, away from anything you do not want to have spray adhesive on!)

- Carefully smooth down the rest of the photo, working from the center out to the edges. You may want to use a hard rubber roller (Micheals - Decoupage roller works well.)

- Then I used a few pieces of double-sided tape along the edges before I folded over the edges. (Like wrapping a present)

-Step 5: Apply tape around the edges
-  I wanted the tape to overlap the folded-over photo right along the top edge, and also wrap around the back edge

- The tape was not quite wide enough so I applied two on each side, starting the lower piece first. I put it about halfway down the side and around to the back. Then I applied the second strip on top carefully laying it right up to the top edge. I found that standing the foam board on one edge near a wall helped me to be able to carefully apply it.

Ready to hang!

Step 5: Hang them on the wall
- I used industrial velcro to hang the photos on the wall. We started with the lowest center photo and worked our way up and out, using the width of a 2" level as our guide between photos. Note: we marked a center point on the wall between the corner and the bookcase - but we ended up with an optical illusion  - they looked WAY closer to the corner than the bookcase. Sooooo . . . we took them down and redid it just by "eye-balling it." Be sure to test it out before handing them all up!

TA-DA!!!!

Making a Memory - Kaleigh's Wall

We had a wonderful time in North Carolina last week at our son and daughter-in-law's new home - and it was fun to tackle a few projects. Kaleigh wanted a design on her newly painted aqua walls. After a lot of discussion and lots of options, she settled on  using the design on her new comforter as inspiration.

Kaleigh's Inspiration:

My challenge was that it was a chevron - more geometric than my usual free-flowing style! Soooo . . . her dad and grandpa Bob came to the rescue - saving me from a high stress level by offering to measure and tape the outline for me! Whew! Thank heaven for those who actually enjoy measuring!

Dad & Grandpa to the "measuring rescue."

A few details:
We decided the highest points would be 3' from the baseboard and used little pieces of tape to help mark it. Using a 2' level we made dots with a pencil along the wall.

Then we decided how "steep" we wanted our angle by placing a small piece of tape between our top points. Again, we used the level to mark the low points of the chevron centered between the high points. We used painter's tape to connect the dots and provide with our outline.

Learning to roll it!

Then Kaleigh and I had freedom within the parameters to add her favorite colors. We had chosen sample colors from Lowe's for this project, and used painter's tape and a small roller for the larger stripes. It was fun to make a memory!

Painting with Grandma

Ta-da!