Framed Silhouette DIY

I LOVE decorating for the holidays. As a renter I am limited on storage space so finding ways to repurpose things I have already is a must. I was inspired by this post on Goodwill Glam and created something similar to suit my home.

These are some lovely prints we have from husby's sister. See more of her work here.

I decided to repurpose these frames and change out the image inside; here are the finished pieces!

This DIY is very simple, and only cost me $1.50! The polka dot paper is some giftwrap I already had from Homegoods which I cut to be the same size as the photos that were in the frame (11x14).

I then found some silhouettes on Google to print and trace. I decided on a dove and a buck. If you are trying to do some other subject, say a disney character for a kid's room try searching for coloring pages if you don't find a silhouette that you like. Here are the images I used below, be sure to change your printer settings to fast draft quality as to not waste ink!

I cut out each silhouette and traced them on the back of some glitter cardstock from Michael's then cut that out. Depending on the paper you choose you might just be able to put that in your printer and only cut once. Unfortunately that was not an option for the 12x12 cardstock I used. 

When tracing, be sure to remember which way you want your images to face. You can either invert the images before printing, or just flip the ink side down when tracing to maintain the same direction as the original image. For images such as these this is not important unless you are dead set on having your silhouettes facing a certain way. If you use a phrase your letters will be backwards if you they are not inverted when being traced/printed.

 Here are my buck heads cut out. 

I originally did just the gold, but felt it looked too yellow next to the paper. Then I tried just red and thought it looked plain! I decided to see how they looked stacked and loved the shadow effect it produced. Many people seem to think everything goes well on the first try and if it doesn't they get discouraged. I am here to tell you even the best laid plans do not always pan out. Just be creative and play around until something fits. If you REALLY hate it, then toss it or start over but remember that one project that didn't work out is not going to define your ability for all projects!

Here are the finished frames in their new home! 

Thanks for reading and have a happy holiday season!

Nightstand to Plant Stand

I hardly have a green thumb but have managed to keep some plants alive through the summer. Now with winter approaching my plants needed an indoor home. Traditional metal plant stands had crossed my mind but with two cats who like to climb that route promised a lot of dirt cleanup. While out at the thrift store I came across a great $7 solution.

 

This lone nightstand matches so well with our French provincial TV stand that I had to have it. I really love the look of wood and paint together, so I only painted certain areas of the piece and did a light distressing over the bottom detailing. This whole redo literally took half an hour thanks to everyone's favorite, chalk paint.

I used Americana brand chalk paint in Yesteryear. I wiped down the piece and taped off the tops and sides. I eye balled a few blobs of paint and cut it with water until it was the consistency of a creamy soup. I could have gotten away with one cost but did two anyway as this was my first time using chalk paint. I distressed the detailing on the front and left the rest and used the Americana creme wax on an old white tee to seal the paint. I purchased both Americana products on sale at Michael's. I have completely boarded the chalky paint train since using it for the first time! The Americana brand works great for both a distressed or smooth finish!

Happy crafting until next time,

Linen Dresser

     In our new apartment we have a considerable lack of closet space, despite the apartment being twice as large. For me, this was a great opportunity to get my hands on a fresh piece of furniture to refinish. Enter this piece:

(excuse Elena who can't resist climbing on everything that walks through the door!)

     For 14.99 this piece was a steal at our local Red, White, and Blue thrift store (one of my favorites). The drawers opened and closed incredibly smoothly, all the hardware was intact. On the downside, we have some chipping on the edge of one of the drawers, and there was a lot of sticker residue and crayon on the inside of the drawers
     I picked up this piece along with another dresser (my husband also said we weren't buying furniture that day, famous last words!) so I didn't exactly have a plan for it's location until I realized it was the perfect size to act as a buffet piece in our dining room.

     As you can see, the wall behind the table is very blah. We had some white and wood tones going on, with some greige striped cushions, so I began my search for more inspiration.
Enter:

Source: frazzledgrace.com

     I really loved the way the white played with the greys and wood tones, my piece has an incredibly different shape, but I thought the color scheme was on point. As such I collected my products, I used one sample of Valspar Snowcap White, and Rust-oleum Weathered Grey stain. I started by removing the existing varnish and stain with some generic stripper:

     We left the stripper to sit while we ran to the store for our paint and stain; we tried covering the stripper with plastic wrap, but when we returned the stripper was all dried up and didn't allow us to scrape the gunk off, so another coat had to be done. Word to the wise: don't leave your stripper to sit and dry unless you like doing more work. After stripping the wood we cleaned it up, and sanded. I taped off the sides of the dresser to imitate the detailing on the inspiration picture and painted. I love this white! It will definitely become my go-to white color when I don't want to use spray paint. I put on two thin coats and it was great. The drawers were entirely white, and then the panels on the side were white.
     The stain on the other hand was a nightmare. When I put it on, it turned purple instead of grey. The wood doesn't look like it was any kind of cherry colored or mahogany colored stain, but what was left in the wood resulted in purple stain. This is where many people get discouraged, and one of the wisest pieces of advice the blogosphere has given me is that sometimes you just have to go with it. I figured at this point rather than starting over, I would see where the piece took me. I took the leftover white and watered it down and whitewashed all the areas I wanted to look "weathered grey." One thin coat over the whole thing took away the purple hue, and then a few carefully placed heavy white areas produced a result I was happy with:

(We also painted an accent wall behind the dresser, the color is a mixture of many leftover paints)

The wood tone showing through ended up really working for me! 

(Here you can see the tiny chip in the second drawer. I felt it wasn't very noticeable so I left it as is. Here you can also see the detail of the stained stripe down the side, my piece did not have a separate piece of wood like many do, so I faked it!)

     I used some white vinegar, warm water and dish soap to clean off the handles, and used double sided tape and scrapbooking paper to line the drawers and cover the crayon:

     I did not end up covering this in polycrylic like I normally do, and so far it is holding up wonderfully. I strongly encourage everyone to protect their pieces with a good polycrylic if it is going to be a high use item. We sadly do not use our dining room very often as husby and I work opposite schedules. Below is the dining room as it stands today. This room is one of my favorite's in our home, probably because we never use it and it always looks clean!

Until next time,