Happy Memorial Day...

Photo via CL

Blank Slate...

This is it.

My decorating nemesis.

The master bedroom.

This is how it looks nearly everyday.

Laundry, unmade bed, shoes on the floor...

I am never quite sure how to decorate the master bedroom. I want it to be comfortable and inviting. An oasis for my husband and I. Kid and stress free zone. But as you can tell that is not happening right now. The kids books reside in the black shelf to the left, L's blankie on the bed and I am sure there are toys on the floor somewhere. 

What should I do with this space?

Stenciled canvas...

Awhile back I found this on Pottery Barn (where else?) and knew I just had to make it. I am a sucker for old typewriter font.

Well Susie Harris at {where friends become family} had the same thought. Maybe I am lazy but I was not about to do it by hand like she did, I am not that good. (click on her link for details) Although it is beautiful, I think my way is a bit easier.

 

If I did this one again I would have found a square canvas. At the store I couldn't remember if it was square or rectangle. I chose rectangle. Oh well. Since I am not making the ABC's again I will show you how to make a stenciled canvas.

Materials needed:


Canvas
Vinyl stencil cut to size- if you are ordering vinyl from somewhere explain that you are using this as a stencil and they should understand. You could always order from Off Woodland Lane. *wink*wink* It is my sister. She does great stuff and would know exactly what you are talking about.
Paint
brushes
masking tape

I always want things to look old so I did a light base coat followed by a few coats in darker shade. Each layer was light enough to show the colors underneath.

Then I laid the vinyl. Laying vinyl deserves its own tutorial by itself. So I am not going to go into great depth here. Maybe some other time.

Next peel back the masking that covers the vinyl. Please notice my painted hands. I cannot paint anything unless I get paint on my hands. No matter how big or small the project.

Now paint directly over the vinyl. Do two or three thin coats.

After the paint dries peel off the vinyl. It will bleed a tiny bit, but nothing horrible. It just adds character.

 And there you go! I ended up shading the canvas a bit more around the edges. I finished it with a frame. Hopefully it will find a place to be hung in my bedroom soon.

 I also love this technique on wood. It looks beautiful.

MIA...

Can someone please tell me what we did before computers!?! My desktop crashed last week and since then I have really missed having a computer. Thank goodness for a warranty and an external hard-drive! Now everything is fixed and I can get back to normal.Yay!

Little blue dresser...

My sister Jill is uber crafty. I swiped this before and after from her blog...

About a year ago, my father-in-law showed up at my house with a trailer full of furniture. He was moving and has asked my husband to pick out a few things we wanted that they had decided not to keep. I was really excited to get this dresser! The knobs were what made me want it the most. Anyways, he dropped of the dresser {along with quite a few other items that are mostly still in the garage} and I had every intention of painting it right away.
But, life happens and here I am one year later finally getting it done.

Here she is:

(don't mind the paint all over my patio...this is a public apology to my husband...}

And do you want to know what she looks like now?

Super cute. At least I think it is anyways. I'm pleased with the color I chose, it matches really good with the girl's stuff, and I'm even more pleased at the way the pink knobs turned out. I didn't have to spend any extra moolah on purchasing new ones. Love to make old, new. :)

I ended up having to prime this baby after sanding it, I like to use the Kilz brand from Walmart, I think it does a great job. I also really like the Kilz brand of paint, in fact I picked up the paint for this project from Walmart, too. I used Seacrest Spray {it's the "Colorplace" brand color, but mixed with Kilz paint.} I spray-painted the knobs with the only pink spray-paint there was to choose from, but it ended up perfect. The color matches the walls in the girl's room.

This dresser was one of my less labor intensive projects....and that's a good thing because I was really needing to get something, actually anything, accomplished. It seems like life is so busy and there's never time to get my hands dirty and focus solely on a project. I need that! Picking this to do the past couple of days was perfect because a couple of days was all she and I needed. Anyways...I was telling my husband that I would rather re-do something or build it myself than purchase new. Is that sweetness to a man's ears or what? I save him gobs of money!

So..we have a nice dresser for the girl's clothes. Their clothes had been stowed in those plastic drawer things we got at Target almost 6 years ago. It was time.

 

Let it be known...

That I wish I could find the oldest, tackiest, wood paneled, dropped ceiling, fake brick wall, 70's house.

Just so I could make it look as gorgeous as Young House Love.

It is hard to believe this is the same room!

Gathering...

Gathering is what I do when I am planning to decorate. I like to walk around my house and look for things that are ready to be placed somewhere new, old frames and accessories that didn't have a home. I recently got a piano (yeah!) and needed to decorate the top and the space on the wall above the piano. So on my hunt I found a few fun things I had tucked away...

This huge frame was my Grandma's.

She was painter.

In her house she had a whole room full of oil paints, paint brushes,

 canvas's of all sizes and frames.

Her home always had the faint smell of turpentine and oil paints.

My Pottery Barn knockoff Hurricane jar came in handy :)

My Goodwill owl found a home.

The only thing that will get changed is the lamp

The one there right now is functional, but not pretty.

This is what I am thinking about getting from Target.

But that will have to wait for another day.

I really love the way the wall collage came together. Have you every heard of Real Deals? It is a fun little store. I went there on Saturday hoping to get a little inspiration and I did not leave empty handed. I got the keys, frame and mirror for $15.00. Oh how I love a good deal!

 The picture in the lower right is my Grandpa.

 I love this picture!!

He was a great sportsman.

He had many mounted animals and fish in his house.