Amazing Stuff

Showing posts with label farmhouse. Show all posts
Showing posts with label farmhouse. Show all posts

Monday, November 7, 2011

Box store furniture CAN be aged loveliness, Whitewashed Apothecary Jars TUTORIAL, and 25% off coupon code

I am currently in the process of decorating "middle boy" and "baby boy" s bedroom into a vintage/nautical/sailing room.
It has been quite fun
to come up with random ideas
 and hunt the thrift stores
 for bits and pieces to make it all come together.
-So I thought I should share a few
random little ideas
on how to get that look without
breaking the bank ;)

I started out with a basic box store book shelf that had two shelves
and a basic 4 drawer desk.
Both had a cheap dark finish on them.
The bookshelf was $5 at the thrift store and the desk was $3 at a garage sale.
(It was toward the end of the day at that sale and the couple told me that they were just going to tear it up and use it for firewood if no one bought it! -You can just imagine my mouth dropping open when I heard that! The desk was completely sturdy and had TONS of use left in it)

So anyway,
blue was the lucky color for this desk and bookshelf.
I had found a fabulous blue color
(Marine Magic by Behr)
in a magazine and then promptly lost the name of it.
So I chose a blue from the chips at the store,
came home,
primed and painted both pieces and OH NO!
That blue was way too bright and bold with a teal tone to it.
So there they sat in my garage for months.
And then one day the name of the color I had been trying to find popped into my head from out of the BLUE, ;)

Needless to say, I rushed to the store,
bought a gallon,
painted both pieces,
and there they sat for a month, cuz that's how I work :)

The other day I happened across an extra hour so I flew out to the garage and started sanding both pieces to give it that worn, vintage look.
As I was sanding I noticed the bright blue from the beginning was starting to show through here and there.
Oh my word was it ever lovely!
So I guess mistakes can lead to great new ideas!

-But wait, I'm not done with my longwinded post here ;)
As I was sanding the edges, the sander was taking of the dark finish and leaving the cheap light wood or whatever fake wood it is and making the piece look terrible.
What a bunch of ups and downs!
I racked my brain and the only thing I could come up with was
the same thing I always use:
a dark paste wax.
I was sitting there thinking, hmmm...
what if just rubbed a heavy coat of it everywhere that raw wood is showing through the paint?
So, I tried it,
and
I could not be happier!
This is the exact look and feel that I was aiming for in their room.


Oh, and the jars?
Well, that could be a whole other long winded post so I will try to quickly give the basics.


They are being used in a holiday vendor sale/ flea market/whatever you want to call it sale, coming up this weekend.
(I needed a fun way to display my knobs that I make so this is what I came up with)
-By the way all the knobs and other items in my etsy shop are 25% until Tuesday November 8th
with coupon code:
NOV11
So feel free to hop on over and check out the latest styles I have added.
-I have almost hit 900 sales so let's celebrate and thank you all!


Anyhow, 
for the jars,
you just go to your local thrift store 
and grab up random jars 
and
those lovely-wooden-candlesticks-that-are-so-plentiful-at-thrift-shops-and-no-one-seems-to-wantanymore.


Throw a light whitewash on the candlesticks and if the jars have wooden lids, do those also.
Grab your handy dandy tube of E-6000
(I don't get paid to say that, the stuff is just like gold to me though!)
put glue on the top of the candlestick and center you jar on it.
Voila!
You have some out of this world apothecary jars:)

-A teeny tiny tidbit........ Look for wide bases on the candlesticks,
otherwise your jars are gonna be tippin' over on you
and breaking!

Enjoy!
I would love to see what you all come up with!

Wednesday, June 8, 2011

Lazy days of summer


Although I have to admit that we have had our fair share of rain,
I can't imagine a better way to spend the day,
out on the farm,
in all it's chippy, rusted
workworn glory,


Surrounded by farm sounds,


and sights,
just imagine the fresh raspberries to come!


The smell of fresh linen that has hung out in the sunshine,


and the brand new flowers with their bright colors and lovely textures,


let's not forget the anticipation of that bakery fresh out of the oven!


And the enjoyment after a hard day's work,
just sitting and watching the world go by.


My newest knobs are inspired by all that lovely faded farmhouse inspiration.


Sunday, March 13, 2011

504 Main Features

Tickled Pink at 504 Main

Check out the lovely features over at 504 Main! Holly so kindly featured not 1 but 2! of my projects!

Saturday, March 12, 2011

My Pottery Barn Richard Taylor Leaf Planter

Richard Taylor Leaf Planters
I fell in love with these wonderful Richard Taylor Leaf Planters from Pottery Barn.

So what did I do? I set about getting one for myself! Can you see mine below?
Follow along and I will show you how to get one for yourself. All it takes is about $5 and a little effort.


Start with a basic terra cotta pot ( and don't forget to use your 40% off coupon at the craft store!)
Mine was 7" tall by 7 1/2" wide.
Halfway in between the two PB sizes so I would guess this one would be priced at
about $24.
Mine costed about $5 (for the pot and the clay)


Spray it with some Bulls Eye 1-2-3 primer and let dry.


While it is drying, get some oven bake clay, roll it out and cut out with a leaf shape cookie cutter.
Joanns has a lovely set for $2.99 with 3 different sizes in it-(again remember the 40% off coupon!)


Add some veins to the leafs with a sharp knife tip or pin or something of that sort.


Make more leaves until you have a pile!
(I used 50 of them)

Bake the leaves, cool, and then just start hot gluing to the pot.
One on the bottom, one on the top pattern, overlap them a little.


Work your way around until you have done the whole top edge of the pot.


Paint one coat of tan paint.


Mix 1 part antiquing medium (available in a craft paint size container)
to 1 part paint. Brush on and wipe off.
Do this with 3 colors:
Dark dark brown or black
orangey brown
and
light brown.

The pic above is after the black layer, I still had the other 2 layers to do.
When the antiquing layers are done,
brush on lightly another coat of the tan that was used as a base coat.
Do not mix it with antiquing medium or wipe it off at all.
You want this coat to cover a little more than the antiquing layers did.
I also recommend sealing it with some sort of waterproof sealer so that you can water your flowers without having the paint come off.

Here are some more pics of the finished results:


I am really tempted to make a family of planters like this.
I could have a really fun display on my front porch steps!


But for now it's just gonna rest on a little table inside my front door with some faux flowers.


You see, we still have snow so I will have to wait to use it outside :(










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