Art for Biscuit's Playroom

Lately, I'm all about following up, huh?  =)


Remember when we set up a playroom for Biscuit??? Well, I wanted to get some Art in there . . . and so I did!  A little bit of DIY art . . . [excuse my pictures . . . a little blurry . . . taken with my BlackBerry]


This is what a box of crayons, an extra picture frame laying around the house, some construction paper and a glue gun will get you . . . [note: I saw this online . . . I'm a good copycat . . .and I'm proud of how it turned out!!]

And some more art . . .

And finally . . . here they are hanging up in her playroom!!  More to come . . . waiting to get some more inspiration . . .

ORBing the Hizzy

ORBing (short for Oil-Rubbed-Bronze) the Hizzy . . . that's right.  This past weekend was GORGEOUS out - sunny, mid 60s and sunny in JANUARY!!  AWESOMENESS times 2!!! 

For those of you who know me, I FREAKING LOVE spray paint.  Don't judge.  I know everyone has their thing . . . this just happens to be one of mine.

Anyways . . . I follow a blog about home improvements and saw a post where Sherry and John had transformed some gaudy gold door fixtures into modern, ORB fixtures.  I am OBSESSED with the ORB finish.  It just looks so sleek and classy . . . and I feel as though this trend is here to stay for awhile. 
Since I had already read this post, I thought ahead and already had the materials I needed on hand: steel wool and spray paint.  Here is the spray paint I used:

So, armed with my screwdriver, I set out unscrewing the door from their hinges and taking off door knobs. 

After unscrewing all of the gaudy goldiness, I went outside and roughed up all of the hinges and the doorknobs with my steel wool.  Word to the wise . . . the steel wool is rough and kind of breaks apart when roughing up the fixtures.  I would wear kitchen gloves or garden gloves or something . . . I didn't and my hands had little tiny pieces of steel wool in them . . . not the best feeling in the world, but maybe you are tougher than me!  =)

After I roughed the fixtures and hinges up, I laid them on the ground outside at the base of my deck steps.  I started the painting process . . . the key to spray painting is multiple, thin layers.  This is serious.  Take your time.  Thin layers.  Multiple layers.  If you follow this formula, you are golden  ORB'd [ . . .or whatever color you choose - see how cleaver that was =) . . .]

If you follow this formula, you go from this . . . (BEFORE)

To this . . . (AFTER)

And a close-up [just because this was a decent amount of work and I owe it to the prettiness of my "new" doorknobs]

I was BEYOND ecstatic!!!  Buying all new hardware is definitely one way to go but can add up QUICKLY.

Anyone else ever done something like this??

Biscuit's New Playroom

Ok . . . so I have a New Year's Resolution completed already . . . and this makes me happy.  =)

Biscuit now officially has a playroom.  I was inspired after visiting Andy & Allyson and seeing the adorable princess playroom they have set up for their "biscuits" so I decided that I needed to get on the ball, be a good mommy and get Biscuit a nice playroom in our house!  =)

We actually have an eat-in area in our kitchen that we are using as the playroom . . . we donated the kitchen table and chairs to Hannah Home and had a play area set up . . .

Here are the before pictures . . .

The playroom . . . and yes, I was using layers of comforters to make it "cushy"

. . . Another view . . .

And AFTER!!!

We got a shelf and baskets to store toys along with a rug to make crawling a little easier on the knees . . . 

 A close-up of her toy shelf . . . and Betty Lou chilling out on the top shelf  =)

Another shot of the toy area . . . and Big Al from Aunt Denise & Uncle Jason [which also works great as a pillow according to daddy . . . this has been used several early mornings]

And her very own TV . . . we actually use this TV for Alabama Football tailgating but figure that we can share during the off-season  =)  The shelf it is sitting on was previously a decorative piece in the guest room . . . and it was black.  I painted it white so that Biscuit would have a nice TV stand and a place to store things in the many drawers  =)



And a close-up of the TV stand . . . I was proud of my painting skills and my re-purposing of furniture switch-a-roo  =)  A girl has to have a place to watch Looney Tunes, right?!?!

And there you have it . . . Biscuit's playroom.  It's nice having all of her toys in one area and having a place that is dedicated just to her.  I like having my own space - I figure that she does too!  I also like having a way to organize the toys . . . it's an easy way to make things look nice and neat.  

I'm thinking about adding so artwork to the side of the shelf . . . thinking about coloring some pictures, framing them in simple document frames and hanging them . . . I'll follow-up with what I decide to add.

 

PITA Bookshelves . . . Following-Up

Remember those PITA Bookshelves???

Well, once the Christmas decorations were packed away until next time and we had vacuumed, I set out to copy-cat Pottery Barn as much as I could!

My Goal: To have beautifully arranged shelves by mixing up books, picture frames, candles and other knick-knacks . . . all already-owned . . . so that this would be a makeover on a low budget

End Result: I am so very proud of my bookshelves . . . and we already owned everything so no hit to the bank account!  Always a bonus when you can home improve using stuff you've already got . . .

What do you think??


The Before . . . . Right Side of the fireplace . . .

After . . . 

A close-up . . .

And the left side of the fireplace . . . . Before . . . 

And After . . .

A close up of Ada's first art project . . . (I framed it, of course!!)

Another close up . . . frames galore and books







Believe it or not, it took me 3 hours to do this.  Maybe I have too much time.  Maybe I screw around too much.  At any rate, I big-time HEART these bookshelves!!  =)

PITA Bookshelves are DONE-ZO!!!!!!!!!!

This whole bookshelf project has been a total PITA [pain-in-the-ass].  Seriously.  Like, I'm not AT ALL KIDDING.

Here's where we started . . . [and for some reason this is the blurriest picture in the whole world]

Our landlord [at work] owns a Christmas Shop that has gone out of business.  He was selling fixtures and I got the total "brain-i-ac" idea to buy these shelves, refinish them, prime them and paint them white for our living room. 

I figured . . . how hard could this be, right? 

Why do I continously do this to myself???!!!!  I always think a home improvement project is 500% simplier and will take about 5% of the time it ALWAYS ends up taking . . .

In future home improvements projects, I'll be better about documenting the progress.  The thought of documenting my progress crossed my mind several times during this project but, honestly, I was just too pissed throughout most of this to stop and take pictures since it took 4 . . . count it . . . 4 . . . weekends to finish these bad boys.  I guess I didn't want to re-live some of the memories  =)

Needless to say . . . I have a new respect for anyone who refinishes furniture.  I also don't see myself doing this again . . . EVER.

Why, do you ask, was it one of the most un-fun things ever??

I didn't count on 2 coats of primer being necessary . . . which, when I look back on, was pretty dumb of me . . . the back of the bookshelves was very DARK blue. . .

I also didn't get the hang of the sander right away . . . so when I was smoothing out the front bottom panel and front top panel, I actually made quite a divet on both shelves and on both panels.  It was SUPER noticiable.  I mean . . . we had valleys all over both shelves and both panels.  At least I was consistent and jacked up both shelves.  =)

Hubby suggested that we use some wood filler to even it back out.  Turns out . . . we needed A LOT of wood filler . . . so after a trip to Lowe's for more and several hours for it to dry . . . sanding re-commenced.  Wood filler worked like a charm.  Those wood filler people are freaking geniuses!!!!!!

We FINALLY were ready to paint . . . and this step, believe it or not, took a lot less time than I thought.  I thought we would be painting for a few hours and it was really only took about 45 minutes for both shelves.  SCORE!!!!  This usually NEVER happens in home-improvement-land so I was beyond THIRLLED!!!!!!

And the last insult to injury . . . just when we thought we were ready to put the actual shelves into the bookcases and start getting all of our crap up out of the floor before Biscuit chewed on all of it . . . we looked and realized that the small front side of the shelf [that would be visible when looking at the bookshelf] needed another coat of paint.  Son of a . . . .

So we painted, waited about an hour . . . and then were able to put up the shelves.  I guess looking at the bright side, at least we still had paint!!  =)  That would have been terrible to run out . . .   

So here are those bad boys . . . in all their semi-gloss glory . . . resting in their new home on either side of the fireplace . . . right side of the fireplace . . .

And left side of the fireplace . . .





Like I said, there was a lot more involved with these than I initially thought . . . but they are done!!! WAHOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 And I can FINALLY park in the garage again.  =)  WAHOOO times 2!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

All I've got left to do is to arrange everything on the shelves . . . I'm a little bit of a copy-cat . . . I like to look through the Pottery Barn magazines to see how they've got everything arranged on their bookshelves. . . then I use my non-Pottery-Barn accessories and do my best copy-catting.  I'll follow-up with a post once I've got it looking "Pottery-Barn-Esque"  =)

Ambitious To-Do List

I've got an ambitious to-do list for this weekend . . . which is funny because on Monday I swore that I was doing nothing this weekend since we actually do not have anything planned.  Funny how the productive/task-oriented side of my brain takes over the couch potato side!!  =)

Here's the list . . . I'll let you know how much of this actually pans out  =)
[Sidenote . . . some items are very little items . . . I like to be able to cross stuff off of the list so building in a couple "little items" makes me feel more productive . . . and Harley is not aware that this list exists .  . yet . . . ]

1. Put the baby swing in the attic [Biscuit has figured out how to grab the support sides of the swing and stop the seat from actually swinging, thus making the swing pointless.]
2. Put loveseat in the kitchen back out onto to deck.
3. Clean kitchen floor/Vacuum rug in kitchen
4. Continue teaching Tom that his food is now in the dining room [out of reach from Biscuit]
5. Fold/Put away laundry
6. Put away fall/Halloween decorations
7. Finish baby-proofing kitchen cabinets/Install cabinet safety hardware
8. Clean the Master bathroom
9. Watch the AL/Miss State game [and watch Harley grill]
10. Set up food/water/litter box for Lil Debbie in the garage [starting to get cold out - and she sleeps in the garage when its too cold out]
11. Sand the new shelves [more details to come!!]
12. Dye my hair

So, like I said, I've got my work cut out for me!!  =)  My personal favorite is #9 . . . I should be able to get this one done!!

How many do you think I can knock out??

My Laundry Lair

I do A LOT of laundry = A LOT of time loading, unloading, sorting, folding, fluffing . . . you get the picture, right? :) So, in order to enjoy this whole process more, I had a lightning bolt strike my brain - I'll decorate my "Laundry Lair"in a fantastic, cheery, unique, girly way!!

Watching all of the HGTV shows and listening to advice from Decorators or Realtors, everyone is always saying to "maintain a neutral color palette". I get it - and I agree - about 95% of the time. I say that though . . . because I'm pursuing a very non-neutral, very personal-choice for my "Laundry Lair". . . Let me lay it all out for you . . .

Le Inspiration:

I love love love Marilyn Monroe. Always have. Even when I was little and there was a magazine article about her in either Ladies' Home Journal or People, I would pick it up and my mom would always toss it in the cart. Ms Monroe fascinates me. I have always wanted to decorate a room and pay homage to my fav classic movie star - and now I have the perfect place to do this - "My Laundry Lair"

Le Wall Color:

Here is the color I've eyed. [On a side note, I know Benjamin Moore is expensive, but BM and I go way back. After a terrible experience with another paint, BM came through for me and has NEVER, EVER even THOUGHT to make me apply more than 1 COAT . . . and so because of this, I'm hooked. BM - you are worth every penny for the very over-priced gallon!!]

Le Wall Decor:

I'm sure that everyone has seen Marilyn prints when wandering through Old Time Pottery, Kirkland's, Pier One, Target, etc. I'm going to pick up a few . . . here are a couple of my all-time-favorites I'm going to try to hunt down . . .Ballerina Pics . . . The Ambassador Hotel . . . Thoughtfulness . . .

Le Lighting:

There is a cheap-o light on the ceiling in there right now . . . It works, but is ain't pretty.  To keep with the theme of cheery and girly, I'm actually thinking about a DIY light project . . . I've seen where these creative people go and buy a second-hand light and transform it into a unique piece with spray paint.  I freakin' LOVE spray paint . . . so I'm thinking that I should try this.  I'm thinking about maybe a bright purple light fixture . . . I'll keep you posted!  :)


Anybody else deck out a "Laundry Lair"?