mimiberry creations

The Christmas Light Updated

2025-12-19T18:47:00.000-08:00

Nearly a decade ago, I awoke one early winter morning and was inspired to write a Christmas children's story that would appeal to all ages. I originally shared it here, and thanks to the recent development of ever-improving AI, I felt the urge to create illustrations and simplify the text for a more reader-friendly version. Below is the updated version of The Christmas Light to bless you and your families this holiday season.

Interior Design Styles have been Changing--Does your Space need an Update? (Contributed Post)

2020-10-13T10:19:00.005-07:00

Remember December 2019? Yeah, that was a more peaceful time for the interior design world. If you follow the scene, you will have known that an earthquake was occurring. It wasn’t a surprise at all, it was actually a changing of the guard. If you weren’t paying attention, the gist of it is, the sharp clean lines of the contemporary, minimalist, industrial and postmodern designs and styles, were going out the window. A return of more curves, complex shapes, form over pure function, and more personality was taking over. It had been 10 years at least since we saw the latter but it was a welcome revival of such styles. But, older styles weren’t coming back, we were in the midst of creating a new style, merely taking inspiration from the others. So, let’s get back to this task and finish the transition!

A new bathroom

The bathroom is very often, the last room to get updated. It's not really a showpiece room, is it? The family room, kitchen, and dining rooms always get more praise from guests, so that’s where we pour all of our creativity. But we cannot leave any room behind!

Start off with new but cheap bathtubs which you can just drop in. These drop-in bathtubs, like the TOTO, KOHLER, and Mansfield are brilliant choices. The square and oval shapes can fit almost any room. The square gives you more room in the bath, but sharper edges so may feel it's easier to slide in. An oval shape is better for those that want more side support and can fit into small rooms.

Another addition to make in the mirror. Yes, the mirror. It's not just purely practical, it can shape the way the light is in the room, making it brighter around the room or just located in one spot. Check out the LED-lit mirrors which have lights around the edges rather than a lamp underneath. These are excellent for saving money but more stylish than just a ceiling light.

A classy living room

A classy living room will consist of one new thing. A blue suede sofa. Blue is the new color in the household that is fighting to take over the turf that white has held for over a decade. We are all neutral junkies. The modern home is filled with white, cream, black, and grey. Aren’t you just so sick of it!?

So, start off with a curvy classic Chesterfield sofa, in the blue of course. The blue is regal and the traditional color of royalty. A fabric sofa in the form of suede or perhaps velvet would be excellent. The Chesterfield buttons will give you the support you need, but not wrinkle your clothes as it was designed for classic lounge rooms for men who wore suits.

Another item you should add is a grandfather clock. This amazing addition can be found in antique shops but also bought brand new, even though the best options will be thousands of dollars. The Victorian Era designs are the best.

Floral makes a comeback

If you love nature and floral patterns, you will love the latest comeback kid. You know him, you’ll recognize him, he’s the floral bedroom style! You can see how awesome some floral wallpaper is for your bedroom, as it's not overpowering, can be dominated by one block color, and yet still have bright and vibrant flowers.

You can also add a floral bed sheet set, for your duvet, bed, and pillows. The types of floral patterns that are making a comeback are more the classic nature. It's not about pastel florals anymore. Now, we want bright yellow, blue and pink tulips, and of course, white roses and bell bottles. It's nice to have floral patterns for the wall and your bed, but it's a daring challenge to have them for our lampshade, headboard, towels, and even your area rug.

Rugs and more rugs!

The area rug has been kicked to the curb for a few years as more and more people start to buy new central heating systems. With modern thermostats, you can set each room’s temperature and keep your home nice and warm without the need to set the heating too high. However, the area rug is not just for warmth, it's there for style. It can be a statement, a symbol, and a plinth on which you confess your style.

The most popular area rug styles are the Mediterranean such as the Italian orange and yellow rugs. The Arabic style is one of the most popular because of its traditional manufacturing method and brilliant patterns. The other area rug that is very popular is the British style, mainly from North England. Shaggy sheep’s wool is used to heat a room but also, give you a layer of style and depth that cannot be done with anything similar.

Geometric ornamentation

As the interior design world has been in search of a new style, older styles have been cropping up everywhere in the hopes we draw some inspiration. The classic 1920s Art-deco style gave birth to what is now known as a geometric design.

It's not a style that everyone likes, but bits and pieces of it in the form of ornamentation are quite palatable. Consider geometric show boxes, which can be used for unique storage, but are mainly for show. These can be placed in window sills and ledges. You can also get geometric patterns for your backsplash in the kitchen. The bichrome tiles in a rhombus design are very popular, but you can also get a geometric wallpaper design for your bathroom. Geometric lamps are incredibly popular because they are minimalist yet also classic. They usually use bronze and iron as their main material.

We highly recommend that you keep exploring new interior design styles and make new additions to your home. Let’s not allow the virus to stop us from enjoying our love for home design and style. We will keep the ball rolling and allow new ideas to rise.

4 Ways to Enhance your Kitchen (including one that can be done on a dime!)--Contributed Post

2020-09-09T08:19:00.005-07:00

Improving your kitchen is something many people avoid. You need your kitchen to function every single day; preparing food, eating with your family, and catching up with each other about your day. The idea of a kitchen renovation can be stressful in itself for most people; the dust, the invasion of builders and contractors in your space… It’s enough to make anyone turn their back on the idea. But here’s the thing: kitchen improvements do not have to be huge, life-altering renovations which rip out your kitchen at its roots and start all over again. Making a noticeable difference to your kitchen does not necessarily need to involve huge disruptions or bank-breaking expenses.

Image credit.

During the winter, most of us need a pick-me-up. We all love our cozy nights with candles lit and a blanket, but the winter can make a lot of people feel down due to the darkness and cold weather. This isn’t to say that a kitchen renovation will fix all your problems, but making improvements to your space can vastly improve your mindset and make you feel a million times more revitalized.

Refacing Your Cabinets

Old, weathered looking cabinets can immediately age your kitchen and make it look out of date and shabby. If you are looking for an improvement to your kitchen that doesn’t involve ripping the cabinets out and replacing them, refacing the cabinets provides a fresh feeling which lasts a long time.

How does cabinet refacing work? You can attempt this yourself as a DIY project, or if you want the job done quickly and reliably, you can hire a professional. You can find well-reviewed companies who offer cabinet refacing in any major city in the US.

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Going To Work On Your Floors

Flooring is an unmissable element of your home’s decor. Your home can be lovely, bright, homely and clean - but with shabby, stained or worn out flooring, nobody will notice the pretty parts. If you don’t want to replace your kitchen floors, though, that’s understandable. This takes some time and money, not to mention that floor replacement can be very disruptive to your home routine.

Before

Instead, try waxing, varnishing or even repainting your wooden flooring. Wood is a great, classy and valuable choice for home flooring, but the downside is that it is very easily scratched and worn down. If your wooden kitchen floor is starting to age your kitchen, invest in a waxing or varnishing service which not only makes your kitchen floors look stunning, but it protects them against damage and scratching too.

After

Accessories To Elevate Your Kitchen Decor

One thing many people forget is that it doesn’t take a lot to transform a space. If your kitchen has a great base decor which is simple and elegant, but you feel it is a little boring or nondescript, you can easily jazz it up with some decorations. These decor tips are easy to implement and can also be very helpful to your cooking too!

Growing herbs. If you have any natural light in your kitchen, you can grow herbs inside. If you often find yourself buying herbs in a supermarket, such as basil, rosemary or mint, why not save yourself the trouble and grow them yourselves? You can keep these in your kitchen on a shelf or windowsill, and they will add a drop of life into the room. Plus, if you are cooking and need a little extra something to flavor the food, you can go right ahead and cut a few sprigs from the plant growing in your kitchen.

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Brightly colored pots or accessories. Not everybody wants a bright, intensely colored kitchen which looks like it’s straight out of a Disney movie. That’s understandable. If you like an understated look in grey, brown or white tones, you might still want to consider a few brightly colored pieces to add to the space. These could be a bright casserole dish, a bunch of flowers on the counter or funky mugs. These simple changes can dramatically warm up your space

Conclusion

Sprucing up your kitchen this winter does not have to cost your savings or disrupt your life. Use this helpful guide to pick up your kitchen and give your home the revitalization it needs!

3 Simple Home Changes that make a Big Impact--Contributed Post

2020-08-31T09:23:00.003-07:00

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If you are looking for ways to change up your home that don’t have to be a lot of work, then you’ve come to the right place. There are plenty of options when it comes to doing things differently. You don’t have to tear the whole place up and start from the beginning; instead, you can just do a couple of simple things to see the desired impact. If you want to know more about what kind of things I'm talking about, keep reading down below to find out.

Get Rid Of The Old

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The first thing that we recommend is that you start by getting rid of the old. The best way to go about this is to go through your home and look at each item you own. If it doesn’t bring you any kind of joy or happiness, or it doesn’t hold any sentimental value, then it’s time to let it go. You might find that there is plenty of stuff that you want to get rid of, which is why you should look into dumpster rentals. By doing this, you are ensuring that there is somewhere for all the trash to go so that it doesn’t clog up your home and make everything into a huge mess. That is the last thing you want when you’re trying to change your home for the better!

Take A Look At The Garden

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The next thing that I am going to suggest is that you take a look at your garden. Now, for a lot of people, the garden is the area of the home that is a mess. Overgrown grass, weeds everywhere, and it essentially looks like a scene from a nightmare. But, all it takes is mowing down the grass, pulling out the weeds, planting a few flowers, and then any extra additions you want to make to turn it into a completely new space. It doesn’t have to be a lot, just the basics to turn the nightmare into something beautiful.

You can go one step further and add elements like water features if you want to, but this isn’t a must. Though these kinds of additions do enhance your garden so if this is something that you’re interested in, it's definitely worth it.

Little Changes That Make A Big Impact

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Finally, you can look into some of the smaller changes that are going to have a big impact. For example, changing the color of the walls can have a dramatic effect on the feel of the home as a whole. You might not realize this right now, but when you make this simple change, you will see just how different the home feels.

I hope that you have found this article helpful, and now know some of the simple steps that you can take when it comes to changing up your home. Of course, there are plenty of other things that you can do to your home, so it all depends on what works best for your home.

Two Quick & Easy DIY Decor Changes to Spruce up the Walls in your Home -- Contributed Post

2020-08-14T09:30:00.007-07:00

Chances are you’ve spent a whole lot of time in the four walls of your home lately. Social isolation and social distancing measures put in place to slow the spread of coronavirus and Covid-19 have meant that many of us have been stuck inside for months. When looking at the same four walls day after day, it is likely that you have grown tired of the "same old same old" and may be wanting to consider sprucing those walls up a bit. The good news is that stores are open and you can now get the supplies you need to make a significant change. If you don’t want to dedicate to a full scale home improvement project right now, but would like to see some positive change, here are two suggestions that will take less than one day to complete!

Painting an Accent Wall

Courtesy of @myhouseof8 (my sister Kelli's Instagram account)

We tend to associate painting our walls with moving into a new property. We’ll move into a space, carry out a few patch tests and determine the right color for our walls. But this doesn’t necessarily have to be the case. There’s nothing stopping you from changing the color of any of your walls at any time. Plus, a fresh coat of paint can really help your home look fresh and clean! Now, you could completely redecorate your home, focusing on one room at a time and giving everywhere a fresh lick of paint. However, this is bound to take a pretty long time. You could use professional painters and decorators to save yourself the time, but this will be costly. Instead, if you want to make a significant change without dedicating a whole lot of time to the project, you could consider painting an accent wall. This involves painting just one wall a completely different color to the other walls in the room. You can find out how to paint an accent wall here.

Courtesy of @myhouseof8 (my sister Kelli's Instagram account)

Putting Some Shelves Up

Courtesy of @myhouseof8 (my sister Kelli's Instagram account)

Storage is essential for a comfortable and healthy living space. It will provide you with somewhere to leave your belongings without your home appearing cluttered. Now, there are plenty of stand alone storage options out there that you can consider like cupboards, wardrobes, chests and more, but what about the items you want to keep out on display, but still want up and out of the way? This is where shelves come into play. Now, you may not feel confident in putting up your own shelves. If this is the case, you can call in a contractor to do it for you. However, if you do want to put a shelf up yourself, you can definitely achieve this within a couple of hours at the most. Below is a video that I found that is great for building your own floating shelves, and for those of you who prefer the super easy route, Amazon (and many other retailers) offer great wall shelves such as these that can be set up in no time, as well as you can also nail/screw baskets or other "shelving" options as my sister Kelli did in her boys' room (above).

These are just a few different things that you can do to completely change the look and feel of your home in a really short time span. They require a little effort, but the results really will be more than worth it!

Basic Invite, a Cool, Custom Company that is far from Basic--Sponsored Post

2020-08-10T09:30:00.002-07:00

I love when a really neat company reaches out to me and asks me to check out their product and decide if it is something my readers would be interested in. When Basic Invite contacted me I had never heard of them before, but since I had never before looked into creating custom invitations, it made a lot of sense why I hadn't. When I looked over their website, customized a few things myself, and then received my creations in the mail, I was not only impressed with what they have to offer and how user friendly the whole experience is, but their products are top notch as well. So here are 3 reasons to LOVE and use Basic Invite...

For some reason I am a sucker when it comes to the ability to truly customize something, let alone a good quality paper product. Having a background in art I respect good artistic elements, and I appreciate being able to add my own artistic flair if I feel I need to. To play around with things, I created a thank you card and a Happy Birthday card.

Since I didn't have any current need for an invitation, yet have a lot of birthdays and thank yous I need to send out, I truly tested Basic Invites customization options. On both of these cards I changed what was written, changed the font and font size, as well as angle of the writing, and played around with color options. They have almost unlimited colors, 180 to be exact, and as you design a card you can change the color of each element on it. What is cool too is that it allows you to instantly see a preview of what your card will look like, (and when you get the finished product in the mail it truly matches that preview). Since I am a sucker for fonts, I was blown away at how many choices there are to choose from.

Also, their envelopes are cool. Who has ever heard that phrase before? I know I have never said it before, but truly, their envelopes are actually cool. They not only have over 40 different colors to choose from, but they also are peel and seal so they can be closed quickly and securely. I don't know about you, but not having to lick a million envelopes and be afraid of getting a papercut on my tongue is a win win.

Currently, their company is promoting birthday invitations. Since we all have birthdays every year, it is nice to know there is a place that offers ALL KINDS of invites that feel personal, fun or exactly what you need (like 50th birthday invitations for him--how specific is that?). With COVID affecting everything in our life right now, birthday parties can be a little tricky. But with the weather still being nice, outdoor parties are an option, and maybe you can get really creative and create a remote birthday party? Necessity breeds invention right?

What is nice is that they offer a simple address capturing service so you don't have to contact a million people for their address and then hand write them all individually down. You can share a link on almost any social media platform for your guests to reply with their address, and Basic Invite will print the address at no cost on all card orders.

Currently they're offering 15% off with coupon code: 15FF51 so that can help save if you have invitations to send out for a birthday or a wedding, or you name it, they probably have it. And if you want to get fancy, they also offer foil cards in gold, silver, and rose gold. Truly, if you can think it, they probably have that customizable option.

So these are 3 of the main reasons I think Basic Invite is worth you checking out:

They really offer TRULY CUSTOM invitations.
They are made just for you---you can create your invitations just how you need/want them, and can even have samples sent to you to feel, look at, and review.
They're a very hands on, helpful company. They are ready to chat and answer any and all questions, and provide all forms of ways to reach them, allowing you to feel like you and your needs are important.

So if you have a moment, and are looking to celebrate something (cuz who isn't?), you should check out Basic Invite.

Ways to Affordably Maximize your Garage - Contributed Post

2020-06-11T15:04:00.001-07:00

Garages can provide incredibly useful storage, work and workout spaces, as well as offering a safe place to keep your car sheltered from the elements. If your garage has become a dumping ground, or you're not maximizing the space, here are some tips that can help you make better use of this valuable square footage without blowing the budget or devoting every second to DIY.

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Storage and shelving

Many of us use our garages for additional storage. If you’re running out of room indoors, you have a supply of tools, or you're a fan of outdoor activities, a garage is a fantastic space to keep bikes, helmets, coats, tools and garden toys. There are myriad options when it comes to storing items in your garage, and you can choose systems, units and shelving according to how much floor space you have available and what kinds of items you’re looking to store. If you’re short on space, making use of the walls is an excellent idea. You can fit shelves or opt for a wall-mounted unit to keep your stuff in order and preserve valuable floor space for your car. Another option is to use hooks to hang coats and store tools. You can also use chests or free-standing units if you have power tools or household cleaning substances, for example, which need to be kept away from small fingers or paws. Open units with cubby holes work brilliantly for smaller items like bike helmets, torches and umbrellas. We personally use a pallet we cut into two, and stand our kids bike tires in them allowing them to stand neatly in a line, which conserves a lot of space vs. being dropped wherever.

Below is a picture of what we did to affordably organize our garage space:

We built a rack on our ceiling for our long pieces of wood
Spent around $18 at Home Depot for the unit hanging on our wall to hold our shovels, rakes, etc
Used cupboards we no longer needed in our office to build a workbench, taking off one of the cupboard doors to hold small pieces of wood
Put up pegboard on the wall to hang tools (I'm not organized enough to really maximize this space, and wish my husband took an interest to the tools since he would really know how hang the tools most efficiently)
For a few dollars we bought brackets for the wall above the workbench, and used leftover wood to span the space between them to hold paint, etc.
Lastly there is the 5 shelf storage by our workbench that someone gave to us, but can be purchased very affordably. In January storage shelves are normally at their lowest point, or at least Costco told me that is when they have theirs on sale. You can also find them often on the Nextdoor app from your neighbors wanting to get rid of theirs for free or on the cheap.

Flooring

If you plan to make the most of your garage and use it as a workspace, gym or storage facility, it’s crucial to have a level, stable, robust floor. When choosing garage flooring, there are several questions to ask, including which garage flooring type is easier to clean and how much do different kinds of materials cost? Choose a type of flooring that reflects how you plan to use the space. If you’re going to be using your garage as a studio or a workshop, for example, it’s wise to invest in heavy-duty flooring that will be easy to maintain, as well as being durable.

Finer details

For some people, a garage is a place to park the car. For others, it’s an extension of their living space. If you’re keen to create an attractive, functional space, it’s worth putting a little time and effort into the finer details. You can create a fabulous workspace, a den for teenage kids, a gym, games room or the storage space of your dreams with a few carefully-selected accents and accessories. From potted plants and wall art to cool shelving, floor cushions and funky lighting, you can style the area based on your requirements and your personal taste.

Image source

Whether your garage is lying vacant, or it’s crammed full of stuff, it’s possible to transform the room to create a usable, versatile, attractive space. Investing in innovative storage solutions, affordable, durable flooring and adding personal touches will help you achieve a makeover that works for your family. From storing your car safely and keeping your tools and bikes out of the house to designing a workspace, a studio or a den, there are all kinds of things you can do to revive your garage.

Tips for a Successful & Budget Friendly DIY Flagstone Patio AND Homemade Stream

2020-06-04T14:12:00.005-07:00

Have you ever read, or watched, so many how-to articles or videos, and then tackled a project making your own rules thinking it would turn out ok in the end, only to realize that you should have taken the warnings and tips from others more seriously? I learned the hard way when I tackled our most recent project: our new flagstone patio. If I had taken the tips I learned from those videos and articles seriously, I would have saved myself 3x the effort I ended up having to expend, as well as some tears. Thankfully I followed the tips I learned on how to do a DIY stream, so that project went smoothly.

Today I will share with you the articles and videos that I found to be incredibly helpful, as well as some tips I learned that can't be skipped, as well as how much we spent on the overall project.

First off, one of my biggest reasons for posting how to articles is to help you realize that almost everything can be improved on a budget, and be done by you. Yes, if you had unlimited financial resources, you can improve things rather easily by hiring an expert. Sometimes, even without an unlimited budget you should hire an expert for some projects, but for a patio and stream you can do it yourself!

When we first moved into our house we discovered there was a gas leak, and it ended up being found underground in our backyard. Unfortunately the gas line had to be dug up and so within the first month of moving in, we paid $2,000 to get the line excavated, and thus paid to have our backyard destroyed:

It was pretty disheartening. We learned that when filling in a hole you need to not skimp on dirt, but overfill the trench because with rain, sprinklers, and general settling, the hole ends up much lower than you'd expect, and because of that, we have a 2" drop in our lawn where it was once excavated. Someday we will work to have this remedied, but it taught us that skimping in areas on projects due to time, cost, supplies, etc. can come back to bite you. I wish I had remembered not to skimp on things when we started our flagstone patio project.

What started off the chain of projects was that the upper parts of our waterfall, that were put in prior to us moving in, started leaking. This is what they looked like before:

Before: Closeup of the uppermost part of our 3 part waterfall

Before: Overall look of our three part waterfall

For those of you who are wondering what that brown covering is that is showing, 3 years ago we bought Rock on a Roll to cover up the black pond liner as shown below:

We thought it looked so much better once we put it in (which it really did improve it), but still the waterfall looked so rudimentary:

Once the waterfall area started leaking, we were ready to get rid of the pond entirely. We had gotten an expert to come out and quote how much it would cost to make the waterfall and pond look nice, and it was over $10,000! We figured that once it stopped working, we would have to get rid of it because we weren't going to spend that much money on a non-necessity. However, when we thought of all the fill dirt we would need to fill in the hole of the pond, and then thought about how we had a working pump and hose still, we decided to reconfigure the upper area to look more like a stream. We enlisted the help of our four boys and filled in the holes that were there, and dug a stream instead.

Stream Tip #1: You don't need to dig very deep/wide

They dug about 8 inches deep and about 2-3 feet wide. Unfortunately I didn't take any during pictures, but some words of advice that I learned was that you don't need it very deep, just deep enough for the rocks you are going to put on the sides to slightly rise above the bank.

Stream Tip #2: Make it curve naturally

You also want to make it look natural by creating a lazy arch to it, rather than sharp angles or just a straight line.

Stream Tip #3: Put barrier down before pond liner

Once you have dug your stream, put down cardboard, newspaper, or something that will allow the pond liner to be on something other than dirt or rocks (to help prevent puncturing).

Stream Tip #4: Lay pond liner starting from bottom of stream to top

We bought this PVC liner from Lowes, and needed two packs for the 25' x 3' wide stream we had just made. Since the liner wasn't in the dimensions we needed, we laid it down, allowed for it to extend over the bank about 10" or so (enough to stake it down and cover with rocks and mulch), and then cut the excess. Your stream does not need to be steep, and only needs to be 2 inch drop per 10 feet of stream per the Family Handyman, but you do need to make sure that the pond liner at the bottom of the stream, is below the upper pond liner of the upper part of the stream. As the water moves down the stream, you don't want it hitting overlapping pond liner and going under that liner. If you lay them over each other as the water flows down the stream, as long as you overlap the two layers by several inches, you don't need to worry about a leak. Since I had excess pond liner, I was able to have two layers of the PVC liner in areas I was worried about foot traffic, thus preventing holes. This liner seems like it would be easy to puncture, but it is surprisingly very strong and the two layers were probably not necessary.

Note: The above link for the Family Handyman was a very valuable resource that provides every step you need to take to create a stream and waterfall from the very beginning. Plus, his stream and waterfall look WAY more professional than mine turned out.

Stream Tip #5 Optional: Rock on a Roll adds protection and aesthetics

Like I mentioned above, 3 years ago I purchased Rock on a Roll to hide the black pond liner that showed. After 3 years it is in like new condition (except for some coloring of where the water line hit). This stuff is built to last, and it has withstood me changing up where I put it many times, so it malleable and durable. I laid it down over our pond liner before placing the rocks, and thus as rocks move or shift, it will look like it is either a rock wall or a sandy stream bottom.

Stream Tip #6: Place large rocks then small rocks

There are fancy streams out there with boulders, and waterfalls, etc. but ours is a simple stream that incorporates 4-8" Cobblestone and 1 1/2" River Rock. I first placed the longer and larger cobblestones along the inside walls of the stream bed, with as many of them slightly rising above the bank's edge as possible. I then placed a few in the middle of the stream bed, keeping in mind to not create a dam. I then used a few, ideally the more flat ones, around the outer edges of the stream. Lastly, we used about 1/2 ton of the river rock to go along the banks of the stream 5-7" out, as well as the bottom of the stream.

We used a similar method to reconfigure the rocks around our pond, but unfortunately due to the pond being steep on some sides, as well as so deep, we couldn't use the Rock on a Roll, and we couldn't put rocks all along the sides and bottom. If you are creating a pond from the beginning, make sure to make ledges around the inside of the pond that can hold your rocks so that it looks more natural.

Bonus Tips:

We bought a 5' bridge on Overstock for around $110 using Rakuten cash back and coupons, that we then stained and put polyurethane on, (link is to one that is already stained, but probably could still use a coat of polyurethane to extend it's outdoor life). Even though our stream is just 3' wide, we needed the 5 foot span for it to feel stable.

These tips will also work for a dry streambed that can help for flash flood runoff, or just aesthetics. Since we had the pond pump already, we just brought the pond hose up to the top of the stream, put it into a tupperware box we had cut a hole for the overflow to flow out of, covered it with rock liner and rocks, and that made the stream begin it's natural looking flow.

We bought Ice Plants, Butterfly Bushes and Candytuft.
I am hoping that once we get them established, they'll thrive in the sunny/dry area they are planted.

How to Put in a Flagstone Patio (& what not to do)

Boy did we go wrong on this one. What I found most helpful, and wish I had followed to a T, was this video I found on YouTube:

In the video he explains what supplies you need as well as each step of the process. A few things I have learned that are not covered in the video are:

Thicker flagstone weighs more = more expensive, but is sturdier and doesn't break or move as easily. I wanted flagstone similar to what he used in the video, because it probably was only about 1" thick, which would be cheaper, and easier to work with. Unfortunately it was not available at our local rock/soil yard, and we ended up getting Arizona flagstone that was about 2" thick. For 70 sq ft we spent $365 for a little over 1.5 tons. We ended up having a little extra, but it is nice to have extra because it is really hard to figure out how to configure them as a puzzle together, so more rocks equals more shapes to choose from. The leftovers we used to make little stepping stones.

I found this picture on my phone from 2 years prior. I was hoping to put in a flagstone patio then, but then forgot about it. Funny to see that two years later we ended up getting the same stuff I had taken a picture of and had forgotten about.

Another thing I learned is that Polymeric Sand is not advisable to use in between the rocks, but to use the type of sand that he references in the video, which is called all kinds of names. At our local rock/soil yard, it was called Concrete Sand. It is a little courser then you would use in a sandbox, and thus doesn't wash away as easily, or is something ants like to have a hay day with. In regards to Polymeric Sand, some people suggest using it because it creates almost concrete in between your flagstones, preventing weeds and erosion of sand. However, the experts on the subject said that it will eventually settle, crack, and then be a major pain to remove/clean up, and will in the end still allow weeds to come through.
To calculate how much sand or gravel base you need, here is a helpful equation:

To determine how much sand, topsoil or stone you need to fill an area:

Measure number of square feet in the area.
# of square feet x depth in feet = # of cubic feet.
# of cubic feet /divided by 27 = # of cubic yards.
# of cubic yards x (unit weight in pounds / 2000) = # of tons needed.

Before: What the area looked like before the patio (and us changing up the rocks around the pond:

After: What it looks like with the Flagstone patio put in:

Notice the flagstone walkway using the leftover rocks. We ran out of the better sized rocks and had only little ones to finish the pathway with. Still makes it much easier for my kids to walk through the mulch to get to our trampoline.

What we did wrong & took 3x long to fix:

In the video he talks about digging the area for your patio about 6" deep. Because we had to remove about 2" of mulch, and then dig down about 2" into the soil, I figured it would be good enough. I then leveled the area, tamped it down, then laid the aggregate base, tamped it down, then laid the concrete sand, tamped it down, then we laid out our flagstone pieces to determine the layout.

This is the aggregate base (gray) that goes down first, then the concrete sand (brown)

This is our first configuration attempt

At this point I started to panic. The rocks were so high and I started to question if they were even flagstone rock. The video showed him giving a shimmy shake to each rock and it would work it's way down in the sand, and then you would just need some sand pushed into the cracks courtesy of a push broom. These rocks were way too high, too heavy, and were not allowing us to get them into the sand at all. Plus they weren't going to be the right height with our grass line, or pond area. I was panicking.

So I hefted one rock out of the way, dug and dug and dug, deeper than the layer of the soil, and put a little bit of aggregate in, hefted the piece into the hole, measured it with a level, stepped on it to make sure it was secure, and did that with every. single. rock around the grass perimeter. I realized that I should have dug at least 6" deep, 2-3" deeper than I did originally, and then everything would have worked out fine. Because I had cut that corner, I spent so much time trying to get each rock to it's own individual depth to match the surrounding rocks that had been lowered. It was exhausting and frustrating and I was making very slow progress. We then decided to remove all of the rocks so that I could just dig the entire area to the proper depth, which ended up being annoying, but less time and effort than the one by one rock method.

Unfortunately, we didn't get the suggested level of aggregate and then sand under every rock because of my mistake. Fortunately, because the rocks are so massive, the patio has endured many rainstorms, sprinklers that spray into sections of the patio, as well as furniture, and it has been incredibly stable still.

Hard to see the individual rocks due to how sunny it was, but in person,
even though the sand is similar in color, you can tell there is a flagstone patio 😊

From this angle you can see our lovely trampoline that the flagstone path allows for much easier access to now

Overall cost of the project:

In the end I wish we had changed up our stream earlier because it looks so much better than before, and was way easier to accomplish than I expected. And lastly, I wish I had followed instructions on laying a flagstone patio in the first place. I hope that something I have shared will allow you to accomplish one or both projects more smoothly than we did!

Free Restoration Proclamation Printable

2020-04-15T11:57:00.001-07:00

I'd like to first start off today's post by saying how grateful I am to be a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I am grateful to be able to worship my Savior, learn of him and his teachings in the Bible and Book of Mormon, and to have his church (& thus teachings) to bless my life. One of the blessings of this church is that God continues to provide revelation to His sons and daughters, and He speaks through His living prophet when it comes to providing worldwide revelation. On April 5th, 2020, His prophet, President Russell M. Nelson, shared a new proclamation with the world. If you would like this historic document to put up in your home, I have created it to match the Family Proclamation, Articles of Faith and Living Christ documents that I have already made. This document, and the ones I made prior, are sized at 24"x 30," and can be printed affordably through Office Depot and Staples using their engineering prints. I have heard of others printing these files much much smaller, and you are welcome to use the JPEG file as you see fit.

Read on to see how to download this file, as well as get the links to the other free printables.

Although I only have the large printable of the Family Proclamation in my home, many of you fellow members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints wanted to have all four documents to frame and put up in your homes. Because I love playing with fonts, and playing around in Photoshop, making these printables was a lot of fun for me. I know many out there sell them and I hate to take away from their opportunities, but since our family lives on a tight budget, I wanted to offer these for free for anyone else who would like to have them in their home to remind themselves and their families what is most important in life, and what will create lasting peace and happiness.

Because I made the other printables for a 24"x36" poster frame, I made this printable the same size. The fact that the file is a jpeg, you will be able to minimize it's size if you prefer printing it smaller.

How to get an Engineering Print

Staples and OfficeMax are the two places near me that offer affordable blueprints/engineering prints. Although they can print in color, these prints are often for large black and white prints. I have had them print a large photograph for my boys' room before, but large amounts of grayscale does not come out in the best quality. For prints that are all font, they work excellently.

Click here to upload the file to OfficeDepot, who charges $3.36 for a 24"x36" print currently. If your computer is like mine, and blocks the ability to upload the file, call your nearest store and ask them for their print/copy email. You can then email the jpeg file directly to them with the size you would like them to print it. They will email you when it is ready for pickup.

Once you order it, they will contact you to let you know when your print is ready.

How to Download:

Click here to download the jpeg file or click image below.

To get the other Free Printables, click here

If you are not a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and want to know more about what me and my family believe, please take a moment to visit comeuntochrist.org where you can learn about what over 16 million worldwide members believe.

Thank you for your continued support, and hope that you enjoy this fourth freebie.

Restore your Wood Furniture in 15 Minutes and for only $15

2020-01-21T11:34:00.000-08:00

I feel like I am copying Geico's ad campaign by using the 15 minutes slogan, but these products are so amazing, so easy, and so affordable, that I have to share them with all of you.

Most DIY products and projects, require a learning curve, lots of time, and more money than you anticipate; but these two products continue to amaze me because they truly are fast, easy and affordable. For around $15, you can get both of these products, and a little goes a long way! I have done a few furniture pieces now using Howard's Restor-A-Finish and Feed-N-Wax, and I have used only a small fraction of each. Amazon, Lowe's and other major retailers sell them each for about $7-15, depending on the size you get.

Restore-A-Finish comes in 9 colors, but is so versatile that I have read many product reviews that say you don't have to buy one that is the exact match to what you are needing, just a close approximation. For this dresser I was debating between Dark Oak and Walnut, but because of the grain matching the Dark Oak example the best, I bought that color.

Courtesy of howardproducts.com

When I got this dresser for free, I wasn't thrilled that the top of it had seen better days. However, because it was solid wood, the drawers were roomier than what my boys had in their room already, and it was built well, I decided to see what I could do to refresh it. Since I would prefer a different stain color, I debated about re-staining it, or painting it; however, due to the cold weather, I didn't really want to deal with paint or stain not working well, nor did I want to work in a cold garage.

I then remembered hearing about Restor-A-Finish, and loving the Feed-N-Wax that I had used on this Mid Century dresser. I had found the dresser on Craigslist for $20 almost a year prior, but was able to sell for $550 after spending less than $8 and less than an hour wiping on and off the wax:

Prior Project using only Howard Feed-N-Wax

Before:

After

Using just the Feed-N-Wax, the color and the suppleness of the wood were restored--I was amazed. Here was a piece that was in need of nourishment as it was probably 50-60 years old. After just rubbing in the wax, and then wiping off the excess, it not only smelled good (like oranges), it felt good and it looked good.

So when I got this:

I was excited to try Restor-A-Finish, to help restore a very patchy surface.

For around $8, I ordered a can off of Amazon, and had it in my hands two days later (Amazon, I love you). I followed the directions on the can, used an old rag, and wiped it on. After a few minutes, I wiped off the excess. After just one application, it looked sooooo much better. Since it was so fast and easy, (like you really could do a kamikaze job of wiping it on and off and it would still look good,) I decided to apply it one more time within just a few minutes.

After 30+ minutes of letting it sit, I then applied a coat of Feed-N-Wax. I let it stand about 20+ minutes and then wiped off the excess.

That was it.

I then had a "new" dresser for my boys' room:

You don't have to sand it. You don't have to strip it. You just get to restore it, and you can do so for around $15 and in less than 15 minutes (of your total effort).

Check out the many other satisfied customer reviews and before and after pictures on Amazon, plus see the available colors and prices that Amazon sells it for.

So if you have a wooden piece of furniture that is worn out, dried out, has heat rings, water marks, fading from the sun, etc., you really should try these products from Howard. I am not sponsored to say these things, just wanted to pass on some great products that will make you do a happy dance.

Reminder of how Awesome General Finishes Gel Stain truly is

2019-10-01T10:18:00.000-07:00

Hello fellow DIY'ers, I was so excited to be contacted by one of you last night about my one of my post popular posts. Do you remember a couple years ago I shared how we not only removed the popcorn from our ceilings, but we used gel stain to cover the painted wood beams that were in our home?

Well, I was excited to get the following four pictures, and this message from one of you last night...

"I recently bought a small place with painted beams (a horrible curdled beige I’d say). Everyone I talked to told me I’d have to sand or strip the paint, or box in the beams with wood, but that was not in my budget or really what I wanted to do at all. After some internet research, I came across your post. HOLY COW. I was so skeptical, but you are absolutely right. General Finishes Gel Stain is the ~$h!t~. No one else can believe it. I used Brown Mahogany and put it on with a 2inch paint brush after a very cursory 180 grit sanding. This is one coat. I don’t even think I need a second." -Melissa

Before

In Progress

Finished

I love that she used the Brown Mahogany color, as I had used Java and it is nice to see that there is another color that looks great on these painted beams. And I have to agree with Melissa, General Finishes Gel Stain is the bomb. It has yet to disappoint me, and proves to be amazingly versatile.

So what have you transformed with this amazing product? Have you re-rustified your painted wood beams? Or anything else that is unique? Please email me your success pictures so I can share with all of our fellow DIYers. I love Before and After pictures about as much as I like GF Gel Stain ;).

From $0 to $450 in a Few Days (How a simple coat of paint sold a Mid Century dresser that Goodwill wouldn't take)

2019-01-10T03:30:00.000-08:00

Sorry for the long title, especially since this is going to be a very short post. But today I am writing about how finding someone's "junk" can sometimes require very little work to find the treasure hidden inside.

I know in my last post I promised that I would be writing several DIY home makeover posts in a row, but this dresser project got in the way of all of them, so it's post is going to do the same. I had just finished installing the bikes on our new wood bike wall and was getting ready to re-do our garage, when my husband came home from a neighborhood walk. Never are his walks exciting, but he said he found something he thought I would like. The thought of a project interrupting my plans did not excite me, but when he took me to see a mid-century dresser sitting on the side of the road with a FREE sign on it, I was excited.

It was in almost impeccable condition, only a few water stains on the top of the dresser. That's it. Dovetailed drawers were in brand new condition, and it didn't even stink or have a speck of a dust! The homeowner came out when he saw us looking at it, and said his neighbor tried giving it to Goodwill who didn't want it!! He said he was trying to help him unload it, and then proceeded to help us load it into our car. It was literally around the corner from our home. (Note: I have found that the best deals are often nearby and convenient if you're just willing to look for them and get them.)

I wasn't sure what to do, but decided that since the frame of the dresser had the water stains, and didn't appear to be solid wood, I decided to only paint the frame, and keep the beautiful wood grain drawers as is.

All I had to do was:

1. Sand using 220 grit in the direction of the grain, and wipe clean.

2. Prime

Because I had a gallon of Zinsser Bullseye primer on hand that was too old and lumpy to put into my paint sprayer, I used a roller and rolled the primer on to the frame of the dresser. When it dried I used a 220 grit sanding sponge to lightly sand off any rough patches.

3. Prep & Paint

I had a gallon of SW6258 Tricorn Black paint that I wanted to use in my sprayer, so I cut up some trash bags, used painters tape to close off the areas I didn't want painted, and sprayed using my Wagner sprayer.

In this picture the paint looks black...like I had hoped...but when it dried it looked...

BLUE

I had forgotten that Tricorn black often resembles more of a navy color when dry. I went onto Instagram to ask my followers if they thought the blue looked ok, and they put my mind at ease. Many of them even said they preferred the blue hue.

4. Stage & Sell

Although I loved this dresser, and even my boys loved this 9 drawer dresser, I knew it was too cool for our decor and would sell well. Hubby and I lugged it inside and upstairs, and I took pictures of all of it's lovely angles. I then posted it on Craigslist and within the week it sold for $450.

For what didn't cost me a dime in supplies, and only a few hours of work, $450 was an exciting profit.

The moral of the story is: Keep your eyes opened for a piece of furniture that has good bones, and snatch it up. Think of what is good about it, and keep and highlight those aspects, and disguise, change, and improve the bad. Stage it and sell it (or keep it and enjoy it). There's a lot of treasure out there for those willing to find it and improve it.

I know many of you have turned trash into treasure. Please comment below what were your awesome finds, and even send pictures. I'd love to share your successes!

Happy Hunting!

A Gift for Someone Else that became a Gift for Me

2018-12-13T19:13:00.001-08:00

Many of you already know that I am a Christian, and belong to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Even though my religion is an integral part of my life, it isn't something I write about much. There have been a few posts recently that have offered free printables of The Family Proclamation, The Living Christ, and the Articles of Faith, each documents of my faith, but I typically write about how you can give new life to a piece of furniture, or a part of an outdated home.

However, I have had the opportunity to do several pictures of individuals with their Savior recently, and I have thoroughly enjoyed doing so. One in particular has made an impact on me, and helped me realize that I need to put this opportunity out there more for others to know about.

I was contacted by an individual who asked me if I could do a picture of her deceased grandfather with Christ, so she could surprise her grandmother on Christmas. I had done this once before for my own grandma when my grandpa passed away. My aunts went through family photos and found the best pictures they could find of his profile, and emailed them to me. It was a challenge, but so rewarding. Knowing this individual needed her grandfather's picture done in time for Christmas added to the pressure, but I felt I had help from the other side, and was able to get it done for her in record time. This is what I shared on Instagram, and wanted to share it with all of you:

I am grateful she gave me permission to share these pictures and her story with all of you, and am so grateful I had this opportunity to do this for her family. Being able to work so closely with the countenance of someone who has already passed on was a unique, and blessed gift.

I would love to be able to do a custom work of art (or two) for any of you that would be interested. If you would like to see more of these pictures I have done, click on the Art tab above. Also, on that same page, I have a link to my Etsy listing. Until the end of this year I am only charging $30 for a JPEG file of your custom art that you can then print at any size you'd like, and share as many times as you want with loved ones. At the beginning of January I will be raising the price to $50. Even though I need to raise the cost, I am still trying to keep this personalized gift affordable for all those who want one.

Thank you always for your encouragement and support along my many creative paths. I wish you and your loved ones a very Merry Christmas!

Functional and Beautiful DIY Wood and Bike Wall

2018-12-12T13:10:00.000-08:00

These last few months have been filled with DIY home projects that I am excited to finally start sharing with all of you now that they are finally done. First I am going to share how I transformed a boring, old wall in our home, to an awesomely rustic bike wall on the cheap. This tutorial is also helpful if you have wanted to put up any kind of wood on your wall (shiplap, pallet wood, you name it), because the bikes are a last minute feature that are not necessary.

How to Install Wood on Wall

1. Find & Mark Studs & Remove Baseboards & Electrical Plates, etc.

Using a stud finder, find where your studs are and mark them on the wall. (You can barely see the two dot markings on my wall below, which I then used a ruler and drew lines from floor to ceiling.)

Also remove anything attached to the wall. I used a pry bar to gently remove the baseboard, and then a screwdriver for the electrical outlet (not shown in picture).

2. Get Wood Ready for Hanging

This whole project was possible thanks to my husband's college buddy having leftover 100+ yr old hardwood flooring from a lumber mill he used for his pediatric dental office's wall. He had already removed most of the nails that had nailed this pecan, maple, and oak wood flooring down, and so the hardest part had already been done for me. I then went through and chose the straightest, cleanest, least splintery pieces, that had the tongue and grooves on them still, so they would work best on a straight wall. I then cleaned them with a mostly water solution and scrub brush and hose, and laid them out on our driveway to dry in the sun (I did this in August so the Colorado sun had these pieces dry in less than an hour. If you live in a wet, cold, humid environment, you'll want to dry them off as best as you can so the wood doesn't warp or splinter as it dries).

3. Optional: Map out wood's placement

If you are not going with different sized or different colored wood, then this step is not necessary. However, since I liked that some of these pieces had numbers on them, were aged differently, etc., I wanted them placed in a certain way. I measured the wall, where our baseboard heater was, our light switch, and the floor, walls and ceiling, and chalked out the dimensions on our garage floor. I then placed the pieces as best as I could there to get an idea as to where things would go. In the end this all got messed as I started to take them into the room I was installing them in, but it might have saved me some effort.

4. Hang Wood using 2" Finish Nails

Using my nail gun and 2" nails, I started at the bottom, around our baseboard heater, and worked my way up. Ideally you want each of the wood's ends to land on, or close to a stud so that they are firmly hung on the wall. Since I was using hardwood flooring that have grooves that fit into one another, I didn't have to worry about using as many nails to hold each piece to the wall. It is a slow puzzle piece project, but you just have to watch for what colors you want placed where, as well as that the wood's ends are staggered nicely. My miter saw was crucial during this step in cutting the pieces to work with the studs and other pieces' ends.

5. Add Electrical plates and Trim

Because the wood added depth to the wall, my electrical outlet needed depth added to it. There are a couple products out there to help with this, but I used Ideal Spacer Shims from Home Depot. If you go to the store, you can buy them in a small package for a few dollars, and you just pull off the amount you need, fold them back onto themselves (like a Jacob's ladder) to the depth you need for the screw to go into the faceplate and into the electrical box.

For the trim you can see a small, dark blue line framing the walls and floor. I used my table saw to cut wood I had on hand to the size I wanted, sanded it, and then painted it the navy color I had painted cabinets in that same room. I then used my nail gun to frame the wall.

How to Install Bike Rack(s)

I searched all over for bike hanging solutions, and didn't like 99% of them due to their complexity or lack of affordability. I then found some on Amazon that had a good amount of reviews, but since I had a Walmart gift card, I bought similar ones on Walmart for around the same price (around $20-25 for a pack of two).

My road bike is super light, so I wasn't worried about it being too heavy for the wall, and it just so happened it was being installed where a stud was; however, my husband's mountain bike, although it is made of carbon fiber, is heavy, and unfortunately there wasn't a stud where we needed his bike to go. Even though the racks said they could hold 66 lbs, we were doubtful the screws were that strong. We bought some drywall screws and anchors and voila, super sturdy. We hung up his bike so that it wasn't resting on the floor, (to keep it out of the way from sweeping/mopping, etc,) and have taken it down, and put it back up many times---that rack ain't goin' nowhere! Also, even though my bike's rack was installed into a stud, we followed other reviewers advice on similar products, and got longer/stronger screws.

It's been a few months now and these racks are acting good as new---they're strong and simple.

And there you have it, a simple, affordable, and beautiful wall that makes a lovely, rustic statement, and at the same time keeps your bikes out of the way and ready to go when you are.

And if you have leftover wood, you can use it to make a simple picture frame using a miter saw and your trusty nail gun:

Next thing to add to this room is a gun safe so that this Glock patent art makes sense being hung in a room with bikes

Are you looking for a place to store your bikes out of the way? Or is there a wall that would look great covered in wood? I'd love to hear your ideas and what you do to beautify your space and solve your storage problems!

Three FREE Large Printables

2018-10-01T07:28:00.004-07:00

To get your free printable downloads of The Family: A Proclamation to the World, The Living Christ, The Testimony of the Apostles of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and The Articles of Faith of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, please see links below:

First off I want to mention that there are several out there who have created far more beautiful, and creative renditions of these inspired documents, that can be purchased on Etsy.com as well as other websites.

However, if you are like me and are all about DIY and saving a dime or two, here are the links to each of the three Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints documents:

The Family: A Proclamation to the World

The Living Christ, The Testimony of the Apostles of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

The Articles of Faith of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

Update 4/15/20: The Restoration of the Fulness of the Gospel of Jesus Christ

And for those of you who have never read these before, please take a moment to read them to learn what "Mormons" truly believe. I hope that as you do, you will feel peace that comes from a loving Father in Heaven, who knows you, loves you, and wants you to return to live with Him again after this Earthly existence.

For more information on what Mormons, or the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints believes, visit mormon.org

FREE The Living Christ Large Printable

2018-10-01T07:13:00.004-07:00

You asked and now it's here--The Living Christ free printable! Ever since I first offered The Family Proclamation printable back in April of 2017, many of you have requested that I also offer the Living Christ printable. To keep you all anxiously waiting, though I made the Articles of Faith printable next, and now finally have the Living Christ printable available for free. It is made to be printed as 24"x 30" to match the others of the trio but can be scaled down to print any size you need. Keep reading to get your free printable download of the Living Christ.

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Although I only have the large printable of the Family Proclamation in my home, many of you fellow members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints wanted to have all three to frame and put up in your homes. Because I love playing with fonts, and playing around in Photoshop, making these three printables was a lot of fun for me. I know many out there sell them and I hate to take away from their opportunities, but since our family lives on a tight budget, I wanted to offer these for free for anyone else who would like to have them in their home to remind themselves and their families what is most important in life, and what will create lasting peace and happiness.

As mentioned in my prior posts that offer the Family Proclamation and Articles of Faith, these printables can be downloaded to your computer as a JPEG or PDF, and then uploaded to either Staples, OfficeMax or any other company that prints 24"x 30" (blueprints). Typically these large prints will cost $2-4, and can be framed in a poster frame, etc.

Click here to be taken to the PDF if the JPEG file below doesn't work well for you.

If you are not a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and want to know more about what me and my family believe, please take a moment to visit mormon.org where you can learn about what almost 15 million worldwide members believe.

Thank you for your continued support, and hope that you enjoy this third freebie.

Fun and Free Website that Allows You to Change your Home's Exterior

2018-08-21T08:04:00.000-07:00

Do you try and imagine what your house would look like in a different color? Or switching your siding, or roof, or even windows? Do you like to have creative control, and see your ideas turn into something you can actually see? Maybe you need to replace your home's siding, and want to see the options as they will actually look on your home. Who knew that we could do any of these things FOR FREE on an easy to use website, that is super fun to play around with. Let me tell you more about Dream Designer, a company I came across online the other day, since more people deserve to know they can now have this creative power...

Ever since we moved in I have hated our home's lack of curb appeal and color. Unfortunately no one on Pinterest had ever shown me different options for our home 😊, so I had no vision of what our home's potential could be.

So you can all see what I mean, here is what our house looks like now:

The only thing we have done to the exterior of our home since we bought it late 2016, has been to paint the front door to match the trim, and get the grass greener.

Since we are NOT in the position to pay for all new windows and siding, I don't see the point in painting the home yet either. However, even though we aren't ready to change our home's exterior, I want to be able to see what our home can look like, so that I can visualize our home's future potential.

When I came across Dream Designer, they said I could upload my home's picture for free, and they would have someone "map it out" so I could design it. Seriously?! It sounded too good to be true. (I came across another site that would do it for $15, but free is much better in my mind). I honestly figured that after I uploaded my picture that I would never hear from the company again, or would get an email that for $XX.XX I could get my picture mapped for designing. However, less than a week after uploading my home's picture, I received an email that it was ready for designing. Wow, no tricks!

I played around with updating our home's exterior for an hour last night, and went through every thing I could see on the site, and nowhere was I asked to pay a fee. The program gave me so many design options, and was a very intuitive, professional website. Thank you Dream Designer for allowing me to see my home's possibilities!

Here are a few that I came up with last night:

Here's What You Can Do

If you are designing your dream home, you can play around with some of their ideas:

Or if you want to see your home's possibilities, you can upload your home's photo:

It takes only a few minutes, and then you wait a few days while someone itemizes each of your home's exterior features that you are interested in them mapping. I asked them to do all of our home's features (roof, siding, masonry, windows, door, etc), and there was no extra charge.

Once you get the email that your home is ready for you to design, you log back in and go to "Your Projects." Once you have designed one you like, you can save it, and create different folders for different projects.

It was so helpful, fun and exciting for me that I had to share this opportunity with all of you. I am not getting paid by Dream Designer to tell you this, and they have no idea I am writing this article. But when you come across something that is free, that lets your creative juices flow, well it's something that needs to be shared.

So now I need your help...

Please Help me by Voting which one is your Favorite

Which exterior below do you like best? If you can comment below with your vote, (or suggestions,) you'd really help me in designing the updating of our home's exterior! Thank you!

Exterior #1 (fewest things changed)

I kept this picture as a screenshot so you can see how the site looks when you are designing your own home.

Exterior #2

Exterior #3

Thank you for giving me your feedback!

I hope you have a lot of fun playing around with your home's look, and I'd love to hear how it goes!

Share Your Before & Afters

2018-06-19T08:30:00.000-07:00

The #1 reason I started this blog was to share with others that you don't have to be creative or have artistic skills to create amazing things for your home. After gaining encouragement from other's how-to's or seeing cool things on Pinterest, I have tackled each of the projects that are showcased on here. What gives me great joy is hearing that you have gained encouragement from a tutorial on this site and tried and succeeded as well! So it is:

Before & After courtesy of Holly after following "Drab to Fab Piano Transformation"

Every now and then I get a message from my readers with pictures of their success. After getting their permission, I share their before & afters at the end of that specific tutorial to share with all of you that you too can do it.

So if you have tackled one of the projects featured on mimiberrycreations, please email me with your before and after pictures so that I can share them and give others the encouragement they need to try too!

Also, if you ever want to tackle a project, and have additional questions that are not answered in any of the tutorials, please do not hesitate to comment on that post or send me an email.

Thanks!

Are you Brave Enough to Pursue Your Idea/Dream?

2018-03-28T13:45:00.000-07:00

I've been debating about writing this post for quite some time now, and decided that if I share what I've been working on with all of you, I will now be held more accountable to follow through with it. But before I get into what I have debated about sharing, let me ask you something...is there something you have always wanted to do/learn/be, that you talk yourself out of day after day, year after year? What is it? Why do you do keep yourself from doing/learning/being it?

Source

I'd like to venture and guess that you all have something that rattles around in the back of your mind every now and then, that says, "It's time! Pay attention to me! You know you want to!" But as soon as you give that thought your energy, new predator-like thoughts invade that say, "It's not time. You're too busy," or "You have more important things to do," or "Who do you think you are?" And if you're like me, you let those thoughts push back the thoughts that fill you with excitement and hope.

Why do we do it? Maybe it is because we look around and see so many amazingly talented people that we know could do a better job than we can? Maybe we look around and people have already done it? Maybe it is because we are constantly reminded of our limitations, and focus on those rather than our strengths? Well we need to stop. There is always room for that something that keeps nagging you, begging you, pleading for you to pay attention to it. There is a reason there is that something there in the first place, and it needs your attention and action.

Courtesy of Pinterest with no source

First, A Story

I want to share a story that happened a couple weeks ago with my oldest son. My two boys have been skiing for a couple seasons and have gotten pretty good. However, my oldest this year kept asking if he could try snowboarding. I grew up snowboarding, or should I say, trying to snowboard. It is brutally tough. I tried skiing this past year and fell only once the whole day...so much easier (and less painful). When my son asked to try the new sport, my husband and I tried to talk him out of it. We didn't want him to have a frustrating day on the slopes when he could have a fun time instead. But he kept asking, and we eventually said, "Ok, only if you realize it is hard and we don't want to hear you complaining the whole day." I am so glad he was brave and decided to do it. He got out there and kept on trying. He didn't complain. He was a little scared, but he was brave, and he pushed through it. And he was good. He was a natural.

My oldest is the one pictured on the right, happily holding his snowboard

I bring this story up, because I believe we have these inner desires that burn within us, encouraging us to give them energy and attention. When we do, we find that we have a natural ability to do them. I am not saying we are immediate experts, or are even talented right away. But if we work on these desires, and recognize that we will still have to work, try, mess up, and continue to believe in ourselves, we will have happiness and joy along the journey, and will most likely end up thriving.

So Just Do It, right?

Source

I love this quote, it makes the decision seem so much easier. But we all know it isn't. However, maybe it actually is? If we decide to worry more about what we think vs. what other's think, then it makes it harder not to do something that we want to. In answer to all of those questions I wrote above, maybe we need to tell ourselves this...

There is only one you, and there is only one me. Even though we are similar to one another, we each have a unique makeup that keeps us from competing. So I'm gonna say it, I'm gonna say what I have been too embarrassed to say all along---I'm working on writing a children's book. There I said it.

Many of you know that I tried this awhile back. In fact I wrote a post on here about it, but then time passed and I was embarrassed about it and deleted the post. I wrote a story that I thoroughly believed in and submitted it to a few publishers that were open to new writers. I never heard back from any of them. People kept telling me that Dr. Seuss, and J.K. Rowling had to go through tons of rejections to get a chance, and that I should keep on trying. But I learned that my first story, even my second story, and many others since, weren't good enough to keep pursuing. I put their ideas on the back burner, and gave the new ideas that were fighting for my attention, some energy. I have been studying book after children's book. Typing out their words so I can see how simply they're written without the illustrations. I am studying writing books. I am joining writing groups. I am letting other writers critique my work, and I am critiquing theirs. I have days where the sky is the limit, and days where I ask myself if I am an idiot for trying to enter a very competitive market that is next to impossible to get into. And even though children's writers make next to nothing, it has always been a desire of mine, and it is so much fun. I finally have found an outlet for the constant barrage of ideas that flood my mind on a daily basis. I love reading books to my children, and now I am thoroughly enjoying the art of writing them too.

Who knows if anything will ever come of it. All I know is that this idea in my brain has been rattling around in there a long time, and it isn't going away. When I give it my attention, it gets excited and it grows. There are days when the ideas dry up, or seem mad at me, but I have to keep telling myself to try. This is normal.

I also thoroughly believe that "where there is a will there is a way," and that hard work and honest introspection pay off..

I write all of this to hold myself accountable to you, and to myself. I know that tomorrow I will most likely feel discouraged and dumb, and feel tempted to call this a wasteful effort. But no effort is wasted if it brings us joy and growth. Creating in all of it's many forms brings happiness, fulfillment, and knowledge about ourselves, and all of those things are worth it.

Now be honest with yourself, and let those ideas that have been begging for your attention to free themselves! Believe in yourself! Be fierce!

Happy Creating!

FREE Articles of Faith Large Printable

2018-03-14T07:20:00.000-07:00

It's been almost a year since I posted this free printable of the Family Proclamation, and since then I have received so many requests for the Living Christ and the 13 Articles of Faith to go with it. Today I am giving you the FREE printable of the 13 Articles of Faith, of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It can be printed as small as you like, but is prepared for a 24"x30" engineering print via OfficeMax or Staples, which are only a few bucks. If "Family Proclamation" and "Articles of Faith" are things you've never heard of before, well then I encourage you to take a second and read them for the first time. I am assuming you've heard of "Mormons" before, and most likely have heard all kinds of things about who/what Mormons are, but equally likely they are untrue. Reading these documents will give you an idea of what Mormons truly are/what we believe, in a nutshell. And if you'd like to learn more, I encourage you to visit here.

To get your free printable, or to read what Mormon's, (members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints,) believe, read on...

Because I made the Family Proclamation printable for a 24"x36" poster frame, I made this printable the same size. The fact that the file is a jpeg, you will be able to minimize it's size if you prefer printing it smaller.

How to get an Engineering Print

Once you order it, they will contact you to let you know when your print is ready.

Click on the image below. Save the jpeg file to your computer.
Or click here to download the PDF, or here for the jpeg if the file below doesn't work.

And that is it! If you run into any issues downloading the above file to your computer, please comment below so that I can help you out.

Stay tuned for a free printable of The Living Christ coming soon...

Easy Updating Magic Using Gel Stain

2018-03-06T10:47:00.000-08:00

Today I am going to show you how easy it is to update furniture, or other woodwork, (that is no longer the "in" stain,) with only 1 coat of General Finishes Java Gel Stain.

I bought a table and 8 chairs the other day for $75. When looking for a dining set to re-sell, look for solid wood, and clean simple lines. I wasn't a fan that it was counter height, but know that some people prefer this style.

Step 1: Clean & Sand

I used my Zep Citrus Degreaser to clean the table, but any other cleaning product works fine. If the table and chairs are particularly dirty or greasy, then I recommend something more powerful like what I used.

I then used a 220 grit sanding sponge I had, and did a light sanding in the direction of the grain. Do an extra good job on the table surface, edges of the tabletop, table legs, chair seats and backs, and the chair legs where people's legs and feet will always be. You sand to give the gel stain something to adhere to, so think of where the furniture will get the most wear and tear, and make sure you prep that area well.

Wipe off dust.

One of the table section's after I sanded, but before I wiped off the dust. See the white area on the other table section? Most likely an area that was damaged due to something hot being placed on it. I needed to use the stain to help cover this blemish.

Step 2: Wipe on Gel Stain

I always recommend General Finishes gel stain because it is a superior product that looks beautiful, lasts, and is easy to use. It goes a very long way too. This whole project probably used up less than 1/2 cup of it.

The most affordable place I have found for G.F. gel stain is at Woodcraft. It is about $17 for a pint (I think).
You will have plenty leftover for many, many more projects.

When applying gel stain, I put a sandwich bag on my hand, and then an old sock over it. I then dip the tips of my fingers barely in the stain, and wipe it on light and smooth in the direction of the grain. You do not need to wipe off gel stain like you do regular stain. Gel stain does not sink into the wood, but instead stays on the surface. So the way it looks when you first apply it, is how it will be when it dries.

Allow it to dry 6+ hours, or until it is no longer tacky feeling.

Before and after one coat of gel stain.

Step 3: Wipe on Protective Top Coat

When using gel stain, I always use General Finishes Gel Topcoat in Satin finish for protection my work. I apply it just like I do gel stain. It takes about the same amount of time to dry. For tabletops you want 2-3 coats of topcoat since you will be washing them often, as well as there is a lot of friction or heat that the topcoats protect against. I apply 2-3 coats on the chair seats and the chair rung that people rest their feet on too. For the other areas, 1 coat should be fine. This topcoat leaves your furniture looking professionally finished...I love it.

Step 4: Enjoy your Brand New Table Set

The whole project took me about a week, with just an hour or two spent each day. With drying times, you can't do much more in one day's time. For each chair, it took me about 20 minutes to put gel stain in every nook, cranny, etc. The table areas are much simpler to wipe stain onto, so that took less time.

When everything is dry, it looks and feels like a brand new table.

Hope the ease and affordability of this project encourages you to update an outdated furniture piece you already have.

Happy creating!

Published in Flea Market Home & Living

2018-01-31T07:02:00.000-08:00

I got some exciting news last week--one of my furniture makeover projects was featured in January's issue of Flea Market Home & Living!

Read on to see what furniture project was published...

Months ago I was contacted by the woman that was putting the magazine together, and she asked if she could pay me to have one of my projects featured in the new magazine. Toning down my excitement so I could sound professional, I in essence told her, "Of course!"

After emailing back and forth, I forgot all about it, and then had a random thought last week, "Oh yeah, I wonder what happened with that magazine?" Within a couple hours I received an email from her that the magazine was on news stands nationwide! Funny how our brains work sometimes.

Here is what it looked like on the shelves of Barnes and Noble (notice it is next to so many awesome and inspiring magazines?! So cool!):

And here is the full page spread, on page 42, of the "Fixer Upper Farmhouse Hutch" I did:

The editors wrote such a nice little bio about my site, as well as summarized the steps to recreate the project. I should have them write for this site instead since they are a lot more succinct!

The farmhouse hutch is still one of my most popular posts, but has recently been surpassed by my post on repairing laminate furniture, and how to update an old piano. Maybe the publishing of this article will bring back what a fun project this was, since it is easy to do, and fixes the problem of what to do with outdated decorative stained glass windows.

Just wanted to share with all of you a big surprise and source of excitement in my world lately. Here's to you all getting exciting news in your lives today too!

Two DIY Family Signs

2017-12-18T12:27:00.000-08:00

I came across this picture of two personalized gifts I made last year, but couldn't share since I hadn't given them away yet. In case any of you are still looking for things to give this holiday season, or have run out of money and still have a few more on your list to get gifts for, here are two wooden signs with one's family's pictures you can make too. And even if you aren't of the same faith as me, you can easily tailor the message or picture to something your family is all about.

Items You Need:

Wood piece (varying sizes work)
Paint, stain, sharpies, whatever...I used latex paint for the top sign, sharpie for the letters, and watercolors for the flowers. For the bottom sign I stained the wood, then a whitewash for the temple silhouette, and a silver paint pen for "eternity"
Drill - to drill two holes toward the bottom corners
Thin rope/string to go through the holes, and tie in the back
Mini clothespins--to clip on the rope
Mini photos of family members--I copied and pasted pictures on an 8.5x11 cardstock, printed it out, and then cut out each picture
Picture hanging hardware

That's it! For less than a few bucks you can make a thoughtful gift they are sure to love!

Not Artistic but want to make your own Art? Stencils are the Solution!

2017-11-10T08:31:00.000-08:00

One of my main purposes of having this website is to help others realize they can make and create things they never thought they could, and have the happiness and fulfillment that comes when they can step back and look at what they were able to do. Because of this goal, most of my DIY tutorials on here do not include anything that requires artistic ability.

Drawing has always come naturally to me, so when growing up I remember assuming it did for others too; however I remember in 7th grade in my Speech and Debate class, I taught my class how to draw a simple step by step penguin. My teacher's penguin looked awful, and she was the first to admit it. I then learned that drawing, even when simplified, can still be very difficult.

So I don't want any of you to discount yourselves when looking at the wood signs below, because I am here to tell you that YOU can make art that speaks to you for your own home (or to sell), and you don't need to have artistic abilities!

Note: Although this is a sponsored post, courtesy of Stencil Revolution, it provides honest feedback on the product, and provides helpful tips and tricks when working with stencils.

A month ago I was contacted by the owner of Stencil Revolution to see if I would like to try one of their products and then write about my experience. At the time I didn't have projects on my mind that needed a stencil, but when I went to their website and saw how many detailed stencils they had to choose from, I knew I could come up with a project or two that I could play around with.

I have always been partial to trees, (hence my logo and tagline: "Taking a tree's creation & making more creations"), and although I had a lot of stencils I could totally think of uses for, such as the compass, the buck, and the baseball, I decided on the pine trees because they felt so rustic and forest-y, and I am all about that.

How to Make a Rustic Colorado Flag Sign

1st: I went and got some old fence pieces I have been holding onto for over a year. I then used my circular saw to cut off the rotted bottom, and the angular tops. My sister said I should share videos of my projects, but I have always hated seeing myself (or hearing myself) on a video. Anyway, the following very short video of me cutting off the tops of the fence is to humor her request:

2nd: I used my hand sander with 60-100 grit sandpaper and sanded the front, back and sides of the old fences.

3rd: Because the wood was very weathered, I screwed (from behind), the tops and bottom slats to the connecting wood pieces, as well as put in a few nails where the old nails weren't really doing their job anymore.

4th: I used a Home Depot 5 gal bucket and traced the circle that is within the Colorado "C", because it seemed like the right size for the size of my sign (52" x 29"). I then drew a circle a little larger than the circle for the C, and then copied the angles of the C from a picture of a flag. Lastly I drew a random zig-zag line for the mountain tops.

5th: I painted the blue of the sky first, then the yellow circle, the red C, and then the white mountains. I used latex paint from Home Depot that I already had for the blue and white, and for the red and yellow I used indoor/outdoor acrylic paint from Walmart I also had on hand.

6th: Stencil Time When everything was dry, I used my pine tree stencil courtesy of Stencil Revolution. I used the 24"x18" size, which is $29.99, and only used the small and medium sized trees for this sign. I made them slightly overlap each other, and then painted over the base of each tree to the bottom of the sign in blue.

My thoughts on the stencil:
Pros: Good durable material so it can be used over and over again, which is great for making signs (or other things) to sell. Super detailed stencil. Easy to clean.
Cons: The cutouts are too close to one another. To prevent painting into the neighboring stencil I would suggest putting painters tape over the cutout you don't want to paint. I wanted to cut them and thus separate the three trees, but this is impossible because you would cut into the other stencils.
Note: When painting on rough/bumpy wood like this sign, the details of the stencil will get a little lost. When working on a smooth surface you can capture every cutout of the stencil.

7th: Add hanging mechanisms on the back (if you want them to hang), and choose to leave as is:

Or distress:

As much as I loved these two signs and wanted to keep one, Christmas is around the corner and I wanted more spending money for gifts. In about a week's time, each of these signs sold for $100 via a Facebook group page that sells handmade items in my county.

How to Make a Serene Forest Scene

For this one I used a piece of 1/4" plywood (dimensions 33"W x 24"H) I had laying around, and two pieces of that fence board that I cut thinner using my table saw.

1st: I used the same Hale Navy paint I had on hand from my Colorado sign for the background, and let dry.

2nd: I used the large tree stencil, and painted that on the right side of the picture. Rather than use a paintbrush like I did for the Colorado sign, I used a small foam roller I had, and found that it was much faster than the brush, and looked better. I then did the same with the medium and small tree cutouts.

3rd: For the deer and the stars I did freehand their silhouettes in pencil first, but if you need to go the non-artistic route, here is similar clipart you can print out, cut out, and trace (play around with the size you need for your sign before printing).

4th: Once the deer and stars are painted, I took the cut up reclaimed wood and put wood glue on each piece and used my nailer, and nailed them directly into each side of the plywood. Lastly, I added hanging hardware to have the option of hanging it. That's it. Now I have a sign that is great for Christmas AND any day of the year, since deer and pine trees are prevalent in our neighborhood.

This is before the stars were added. I couldn't determine what to add to the blank sky, and so I asked my Facebook fans. I got so many great ideas, but one of the most common suggestion was stars.

Now with stars (or twinkle stars as my sister calls them)

It provides a good focal point in our home as you come to the end of the hall and can either go into our kitchen or our family room (the two most popular rooms in the house)

I love the rustic touch the reclaimed wood frame adds

Stencils sure are awesome. I love how easy they are to use and how detailed they are.

So that is it! Art is so expensive to buy, why not save yourself a lot of money and create your own. There are so many stencils out there, and so many creative ways to use them. Anyone can be an artist now thanks to stencils.

Painting Oak Cabinets (everything you need to know to update your kitchen cabinets the right way AND in 10 days)

2017-10-10T03:30:00.000-07:00

I always said I would do it once, and then never again...and now that time has come and gone, and I have lived to tell the tale on how to paint kitchen cabinets. It was a dreaded project that ended up taking me only 2.5 weeks. My project was more burdensome than most of yours would need to be, because most of you don't have kitchen cabinets from the 1970s/1980s, don't mind if you see the grain in your cabinets, and don't need to add trim since your cabinets already have details; however, in the end I am here to share the research I learned from countless articles, which I then applied, as well as from talking to experts, and then applied. I will let you know every product I used, and my thoughts on each, as well as every thing you need, how to do every step, tips to staying organized, and how long each step takes. Plus I will share every cost from the trim, to the paint, to the knobs, pulls, and grain filler. For those of you who hate reading step by step details, just scroll through the pictures and you will get a good idea of how to do your own cabinets, and update your kitchen for less than a few hundred bucks.

My husband often remarks that my site's articles are so wordy, and what can I say, I am a wordy woman 😊. However, with all the research I did to prep for this project, I appreciated the details that were shared by others who have lived to tell their tale. My goal is to give you the courage to affordably update your kitchen (or tackle any other daunting project you have), and to give you the knowledge to make the process as seamless as possible. So without further ado, here we go:

The Kitchen Before

When we bought our home I loved so many aspects about it. The kitchen was not my favorite room though, because it seemed the most outdated. I had grandiose ideas of vaulting the ceiling to match the adjoining family room, exposing the beams, knocking out a wall, adding an island, adding a pantry, moving all the appliances around and updating many of them, and changing out the cabinets to shaker style cabinets...but then realized this project would cost a fortune that we don't have. I actually liked the granite already in our kitchen, and the oak cabinets are extremely well-made, so why throw out expensive, quality stuff? It isn't in my blood...I am all about "recycle, reduce, reuse" (all the 1980s kids join with me in singing that little jingle 😉)

Everything looks so dark and orange, am I right? I love wood, and hate to just paint over it and hide it's natural beauty. Even though I paint over wood a lot of the time, a lot of thought goes into if that is the best route. If these cabinets had any trim, or details on them, I would have elected to change the stain color instead of just painting them; however, as I say that, stripping them down to re-stain would have been a nightmare so I probably would have painted them anyway! (Plus I love how bright our kitchen is now with them being white).

Notice the grease discoloration underneath? Yuck. Also the little cutouts in the cabinet doors were the way we opened the doors and drawers. Although they worked, we knew knobs and pulls would be easier to use.

See the gray bands just below the shelves? Due to the yellowing of age, and the gray lines due to grime and age, I knew I needed to also paint the insides of the cabinets.

Supplies you Need to Update your Oak Cabinets:

Screwdriver
Hand sander
150 grit sandpaper
220 grit sanding sponges
Degreaser/Cleaner. I used Zep Citrus Degreaser from Home Depot because I had it on hand
Plastic bags (I used cheap folding sandwich bags)
Painter's tape
Sharpie/permanent marker
Timbermate wood grain filler (if you have oak cabinets, or another wide grain wood and want to have your cabinets as smooth looking as possible)
Paintbrush (for the wood grain filler, or if you plan on painting the cabinets by hand)
Oil based primer (Kilz or Zinsser work equally well. You can buy this in a gallon, but instead I bought around 20 aerosol cans, because spraying is so much easier, and eliminates brush strokes and the annoyance of cleaning your brushes with mineral spirits)
Two gallons of paint: I used 1.5 gal for almost 30 cabinet doors, painting the shelves inside the cabinets, and the interior and exterior of each cabinet. I used SW Pro Classic in Alabaster (semi-gloss sheen).
If you will be adding trim to your cabinets, you will need the following:

Trim (I used almost 20 8ft. strips)
Nail gun and finish nails
Liquid Nails
Square ruler and ruler with level (see trim section below for picture)
Miter saw

Knobs and/or Pulls
Knob/Pull Hardware Installation template
Plastic sheeting and/or tarps if you will be spraying your kitchen cabinets vs hand painting
Paint sprayer (I have the Wagner Control Spray Max that I love. I suggest shopping around online for a price close to $100 if you are going to buy it).

I will detail the amounts I used of each of the above supplies as I go through each of the days' steps.

Although I divide this project into days, since that is how I chronicled it on my facebook page, you can obviously go faster or slower.

Day 1: Remove Cabinet Doors & Label Doors' Hardware

Remove cabinet doors and label each door so you can make sure you put them back where they go when you are done.

I numbered my doors from left to right. For the top level I started with letters, and went from A to Q. The bottom level I used numbers, (skipped the turnaround cabinets as well as the drawers,) and went from 1 to 8.

As you can see in the picture below, I used my Sharpie, and once I took out the door's hardware, I wrote what door it was, and used a T for Top, and a B in the other hardware hole for Bottom. This T and B isn't necessary, but it was a little helpful. I then put the hardware and screws in a sandwich baggie and labeled what door they belonged to.

Note: Prior to painting, you will want to put painter's tape over one or both hardware holes. Once you're done painting you will then remove the tape and be reminded where that particular door belongs and what hardware goes to it.

Day 2: Clean & Sand Cabinet Doors

Using half of our garage, I laid down drop cloths and arranged the doors so I could clean and sand the back of each door, and then the front of each door.

1st: Cleaning/Degreasing:

There are many good cabinet degreasers out there, but since I had Zep's Citrus Degreaser from some other household need, I watered it down based on the suggestions, put it in an empty spray bottle and sprayed every cabinet door. By the time I had sprayed them all, I then went to the first sprayed one, and using a rag, I wiped the doors in the order I had sprayed them. The degreaser had a few minutes to work on the grease and grime before I wiped them down, and it worked amazingly well.

Even though I did the shelves towards the end of my project, here is an example of how well this stuff works:

Before:

After:

Before:

After:

The shelves got this clean with very little elbow grease. Just sprayed and then wiped off.

2nd Sanding:

After cleaning the fronts and backs of the doors, I then used 150 grit sandpaper on my hand sander (220 is fine too), and sanded the fronts and backs of the doors, sanding in the direction of the wood grain. I then wiped off the dust with a rag.

This picture was taken after I had been sanding the doors, and I started stacking them once they were sanded on both sides. The reason for stacking the doors, was so that I could then take the drop cloths out and shake them, since they were covered in dust.

Note: I debated about sanding before cleaning, but because there was built up grease, cleaning prior to sanding saves you from going through a ton of sandpaper, because sandpaper does not like grease.

I used about one 1/4th piece of sandpaper per 4-6 doors. So for approximately 30 doors, front and back, I used about 3 full sheets.

Day 3: Timbermate Wood Grain Filler

This was the messiest day, and lucky for many of you with newer cabinets that are most likely made out of maple instead of oak, you do not need to worry about filling in the small grain of your cabinet doors.

For those of you who have oak, you don't need to do this step either. However, this before and after picture from Evolution of Style made me go through the extra effort and cost...

She used a wood grain filler called Behlen Waterbased Grain Filler; however after doing a lot of research and talking to the pros at Woodcraft, I settled on Timbermate instead.

The reason I went with Timbermate is the number of positive reviews online, (most wood grain fillers take 2-3 applications, and are messy, hard to work with, and can shrink when dried, thus giving most other grain fillers mostly negative reviews). Timbermate also can dry out, and then have water added back in so you will always have grain filler, or putty, ready to be used for any woodworking project you have now or in the very far future. I like that, no waste like many other wood putty and grain fillers. Plus it can be stained, which is a plus for future projects.

After shopping around, I bought a tub of it from my local Woodcraft, since it was the cheapest there at $18. I used almost all of it so I am glad I didn't buy the smaller more common size.

At first I didn't know how to use it, but thanks to YouTube I saw that you add water until it is like a thick paint, and then you paint it on. I painted it on in the direction of the grain and then against the grain to hopefully avoid having to do two separate applications of it. However, as it dried I realized I had so much excess to sand off once dried, that I should've just painted it on against the grain, like the videos suggested.

Warning, this stuff smells like burning plastic, or something else toxic. The container says it isn't toxic, but it does stink, and I suggest you wear a mask for safety reasons, as well as you will be covered in so much dust when you sand the excess grain filler off.

Here is what it looks like at different stages (jumping ahead in my days for your visual benefit):

The drawer on the left just had it painted on, and the drawer on the right had slightly dried:

Here is what it looks like when it is dry and ready to be sanded:

After it was dry, I then used my hand sander with the 150 grit sandpaper, (I used the sanding sponges for the rounded edges of my cabinet doors), your doors should look like this:

The dried Timbermate sands off very easily into a fine dust, and the stuff filling the grain cracks stays, making your cabinets look nice and smooth once painted.

Once you have sanded off the excess Timbermate, wipe off all excess dust and congratulate yourself on surviving one of the messiest days of your kitchen update.

Note: DO NOT WIPE DOWN WITH WATER! Water wipes the dried Timbermate away like it was never there! Spraying the primer on (the next step) will protect all of your hard work in applying and then sanding down the grain filler.

Day 4: Oil Based Primer

First, I laid out (mostly dust free) drop cloths and tarps in my garage. I then laid out long wood scraps in parallel lines so that I could have my cabinet doors off of the ground, preventing paint from gathering around the edges if there was no gap underneath.

I then laid the doors face down, with pathways that would allow me to spray the doors from all angles. After wiping down all the doors with a dry cloth, to make sure I removed all dustiness, I started spraying my oil based primer.

Make sure you are wearing a mask for this stuff, as well as have good ventilation. Even though I did both, I still ended up feeling woozy (I probably need a better quality air mask).

To cover 29 cabinet doors, it took me nearly 9 cans of primer. I used both Zinsser and Kilz, since I got them at Home Depot and Walmart, and they didn't had enough of just one brand. As far as coverage goes I feel like they are comparable. Kilz I think is a few cents cheaper and I do prefer the spray nozzle. However, I would be happy buying either brand in the future.

The reason for dealing with oil based vs. the more common (and cheaper) water based primer, is because oil based primer really prevents oil based stains, and other tricky messes that have been soaking into your cabinets for years, from coming up through the paint. Even though I had thoroughly cleaned these cabinets, stains would have still bled through regular primer, plus you have to prevent oak tannins from bleeding through, and coming to the surface of your paint job. Tannins are "water soluble extractives [that] have a tendency to migrate or bleed to the surface of the wood, causing discoloration to the coating" (Source). Tannins are naturally in a lot of wood types, oak being one of them.

After the primer had thoroughly dried, I turned the cabinets face up and painted the fronts of them.

Once both sides were dry, I used my 220 grit sanding sponges to softly sand any dried roughness. With very little effort/sanding, they become utterly smooth.

Day 5: Add Trim

I thought this step of the project would take a week to complete, but I got it done in a day. What wasted most of my time was trying to determine where I wanted the trim to go,(how many inches in from the outside perimeter of each door), and if I wanted to vary the location for the big vs. small cabinet doors. In the end, I decided on 2" in for ALL of the cabinet doors, and NOT for the drawers or turnaround cabinets.

Pictured below is little ruler that came in a pre-made toolset we got as a gift a couple years back. I had never known why it was attached to a level perpendicularly until I saw some other blog post that used it for drawing the lines for adding trim to cabinets. Seriously this tool is a lifesaver. I drew a few marks using it, and then used a square ruler to draw the rest of the perimeter for the trim to go.

After marking where the trim would go on each cabinet, I used my miter saw, and cut each piece with my saw set at 45°. Many of the cabinet doors were different sizes, but finding which ones needed the same trim lengths, allowed me to cut several pieces using the same measurements, speeding up the process. Before nailing down each piece, I spread a thin line of Liquid Nails, and then used my nail gun with 3/4" finish nails, and did 2-3 nails per piece of trim. I nailed down opposing sides, and then made sure my smaller sides fit well before I nailed them down too. Once every trim piece was nailed down, I filled in the nail holes with caulking, (however I think wood filler might have been better at filling the holes).

Note: Choosing the right trim is a tricky job, and took me almost a year to decide on the trim that I did. Some things to take into account:

The sides of your cabinet doors: Mine had a slightly rounded edge, and so I chose trim that had a slightly rounded edge as well. If your cabinets have more of a right angled edge, then choose a more sharper edge for your trim.
Trim can often be thicker than you think. It is helpful to get a few samples to hold up to your cabinets to make sure they don't stick out too much. If the trim comes out too far it can get in the way, or look bulky and unprofessional.
Trim comes in varying wood types or PVC material. Oak is going to be one of your priciest because it is the strongest and most durable, and is obviously natural. Since I was going to be painting our cabinets, I didn't need to worry about stain-ability or matching our existing wood. I chose the PVC trim, because it was the shape and depth that I wanted, and it was only about $2.25 per 8 foot strip. This was by far the cheapest route, and it was easy to work with.
Make sure you check each strip of trim for straightness, since some can be really bowed and that makes that piece of trim garbage. For almost 30 cabinet doors, I used approximately 18 eight foot strips.

Day 6: Paint the Back's of the Cabinet Doors

Before using your paint sprayer, make sure all the dust and dirt is off the back's of your cabinet doors, and that all dust and dirt is out of the way (not under cabinet doors or nearby). If your sprayer is like mine, you can turn it on without pulling the trigger, and just aim it to blow things out of the way. Do a test before spraying to make sure that when air is pointed at your cabinets, it isn't kicking up hidden debris that will then land on your wet paint job. Some of this will happen, however, the cleaner your environment, the less things you will have land on your drying doors, and the less you will have to use your sanding sponges to remove that grit.

Once things are good to go, add your paint to your sprayer plus some distilled water to make it the viscosity that your sprayer recommends. The amount of water you need depends on the thickness of your paint. I used Sherwin William's Pro Classic paint in semi-gloss finish. This paint is on the thin side so I didn't need to add much more than a TB of water per my sprayer's paint container. Check your paint sprayer's directions for making paint easy to spray.

To avoid drips in your paint, when spraying make sure to keep moving and not let too much paint spray in any area. Also maintain the advisable distance recommended by your sprayer. Although you can hand paint your entire kitchen, spraying everything speeds up the process tremendously, and avoids brush strokes, which look unprofessional. $100 is all I spent on my sprayer, and it was well worth the cost.

After letting the first coat dry for several hours (depending on your weather), I took my 220 grit sanding sponges and did a quick brushing almost of each door to get off any little dirt that might have settled on the drying paint, as well as any little sputters in the paint. This quick, light sanding makes the doors feel very smooth. Then, it is helpful to look at the cabinets in good light and see if you missed any spots, and then do a second coat of spraying in those areas (plus everything else for good measure).

Day 7: Paint Front's of the Cabinet Doors

After a day of drying (in dry Colorado), it is safe to flip the cabinet doors over and paint the fronts. After following the same steps mentioned for day 6, I ended the day with only using 3/4 of a gallon of paint for the 29 cabinet doors fronts and backs.

Due to garage lighting, the color looks much darker and more yellow than in good light.

I want to mention my thoughts on SW Pro Classic in Alabaster. In deciding what white I wanted, I settled on SW Alabaster for two main reasons. First, I wanted a white that was close to pure white, but had a hint of warmth to it. I used SW Extra White on all of the trim and baseboards in our home, but didn't like how "cold" it felt. I am still happy with the Extra White, but find that most white things in my decorating have a hint of cream to them. With the granite we already had in our kitchen, having beige and other warm colors in it, I thought the Alabaster would look better. Second, while trying to solidify my decision between Extra White and Alabaster, I got an email from Sherwin Williams that said that Pottery Barn had chosen Alabaster as one of it's top 2017 colors. Knowing Pottery Barn liked the color made me feel safer choosing it.

In regards to choosing semi-gloss as the sheen, the Sherwin Williams guy, plus many other pro painters online, suggested semi-gloss for kitchen cabinets due to the ease of cleaning. I however, did not want shiny cabinets, but more of a satin finish. I don't know whether it is the Pro Classic line of paint, or the fact that I sprayed the paint, that the paint looks satin in the end, and I am happy with the low level of sheen that it has.

Lastly, I went with Sherwin William's Pro Classic line because it is second down from their top line, and one of the most recommended paints for painting cabinets due to it's self leveling properties, its durability, and coverage. I painted my entire cabinets, inside and out, using only 1.5 gallons. Using a 30% off sale that was going on at the time, two gallons of paint cost me $100. I know $50/gallon sounds expensive, because at Home Depot and Lowes I hate spending even $30/gallon; however, I have used the top lines of paint both stores carry and am not happy with the sticky/latex feeling that they have in the end. Although the paint cures, and is less latex feeling, it takes longer to cure, and still feels not as dry and smooth as Sherwin William's paint that they sell in their stores. Most paints have some enamel type finish in them now, but SW Pro Classic truly feels harder and stronger in the end, and does self level better.

Day 8: Prep Kitchen for Priming and Painting

On day 8, while listening to some classic 90's music, and my two youngest playing and rocking out in the adjoining family room, I prepped our cabinets for priming and painting. I took shelves down to our garage, food and other things were spread around our home, and then I vacuumed out cabinets, and used my Citrus Degreaser to wipe down the inside and outside of the cabinets.

I then used 150 grit sandpaper, and sanded down all of the cabinet outsides. I wiped off the dust from sanding, and then used Timbermate wood grain filler for any of the areas that had a large surface area of wood, as well as the front's of the drawers. After the filler was dry, I sanded off the excess and cleaned up my dusty mess. It was a long exhausting day of prep work.

At the end of the day, my husband helped by plasticking (should be a word) off the area above our cabinets. Thanks to his extra height and muscles, I knew this job would go faster if he did it vs. me.

While he was doing the plasticking job, I was working on the shelves. I first cleaned them with the Zep Degreaser...

Remember the before:

And the after:

...and then after cleaning, I used a paint roller and rolled on some Zinsser water based primer I had on hand, since I was out of oil based primer, and the shelves are not made of wood, (no tannins to worry about), and had been inside cabinets, (very little oil/grease exposure). After the primer was dry on both sides, I rolled on the SW Alabaster. The whole shelves process I did in between working on the kitchen cabinets, and took me about two days due to drying times.

Day 9: Finish Covering everything up and Spray Primer and Paint

I bought a bag of 6 plastic drop cloths at Home Depot for around $8 and used a roll and a half of painters tape, and plasticked everything off. Because I would need to move around on the floor, I put a tarp so that it was overlapping the plastic, to make sure I didn't rip any holes.

Once everything that I didn't want painted was covered, I went through about 10 cans of oil based primer. When it was dry I checked for any rough areas, or areas where paint had dripped and dried, and used my 220 sponge sander to smooth those areas prior to paint. Thankfully primer dries very quickly, so everything was ready for paint within the day.

Later that day I brought my Wagner sprayer in from the garage and sprayed all of the cabinets. Nothing too complicated to explain with this step 😉.

While I took a break from working in the kitchen, I worked on adding the knobs to the cabinet doors I had in our basement. Using the knobs/pulls guide I bought for $8 at Home Depot, I marked the bottom third dot in with pen, then I pre-drilled a hole, and then screwed in the knob.

Shopping for Cabinet Knobs and Pulls

If you have followed this blog for long, you have learned that I am all about finding the best value of things. I hate spending money, and often will shop for something, find that I can make it instead, and go home to make it rather than spend the money on it. Unfortunately I can't make knobs and pulls and so I shopped around.

I looked at Home Depot, Lowes, Hobby Lobby and www.dlawlesshardware.com (a highly recommended hardware site on Pinterest). In the end I bought everything on Amazon. Hobby Lobby is great for more unique hardware, and is priced great when it is 50% off knobs and pulls week (about every other week). However, I wanted rubbed bronze hardware to match some colors in our granite, and to really pop against the white.

Home Depot and Lowes have more rubbed bronze options, but none of them were what I was looking for, and when buying a lot, their prices really add up.

D. Lawless Hardware has very competitive prices and it is easy to get free shipping, but Amazon's prices beat them, and had the knobs and pulls I wanted.

Here is a screenshot from my orders section on Amazon:

At about $1.15/knob and $2.50 a pull, you can't beat that price. Plus they are solid, the perfect weight, and look amazing. Thankfully Amazon, like always, had a lot of reviews saying just that, with users pictures too, so I was able to buy them with confidence. The screws that came with them were even the length that I needed, so that was a bonus.

So before this project I had no idea Amazon had a good selection of cabinet hardware at a good price, and now you know too.

Day 10: Spray Second Coat of Paint, Remove Plastic, Add Shelves and Doors

Early in the morning I went around and sprayed a second coat of paint. When using a sprayer, it isn't like you do a first coat and a second coat, and so on; but instead, a sprayer is a finer mist that you can quickly overlap on your first time spraying that item, and thus get way more than one coat at a time. When everything looked good, and didn't need anymore paint, I let things dry a little, and then used an X-Acto knife to cut away the tape, (so that paint that had adhered to the tape didn't get ripped off with the tape). It is such a fulfilling thing pulling tape and plastic away from freshly painted things. Seriously, such a great feeling.

Once all of the plastic was off and the tarps put away, I let the paint dry the rest of the day. Later on that day I carefully added the shelves back in, and then I added the doors. At the very end of the day I screwed in the pulls on each of the drawers.

I probably should have spread this day out to at least two days, but seeing the end in sight made it really hard for me to take a break, and fortunately I live in Colorado so things dry really quickly.

Because I hate fluorescent lighting, especially in our kitchen, I will someday pay an electrician and drywaller to change our lighting. However, with the kitchen now being white, I feel like the outdated lights are less obvious than before. Now that's a perk!

No more yucky grease stains

No more yellow and gray signs of age

No more grain lines. Thanks Timbermate!

Even though the drawer under the sink doesn't open, I decided to put a pull on it for uniformity. I am glad I did since I think it makes everything look more finished.

And last but not least, I finished off our "new" kitchen with a dinner bell. I've always thought it would be fun to call my four boys to dinner using a bell, so thanks to Hobby Lobby having their 50% off metal decor the week I was looking. I got the bell and hook for around $10 total thanks to that sale! It is a heavy duty cast iron bell that I just love (and so do my boys).

I hope you have gotten some valuable tips from this long saga of a post. I have planned for this project a long time, and I would imagine you have about the project you are thinking about too. Planning for a project really does make everything go smoothly, but sometimes you need to recognize the itch to start the project, and muster up the bravery to finally go for it. Once you do start, the momentum gets going and you will be amazed at how quickly everything is transformed, and how good you feel for going for it. To think that our kitchen is completely different from just 10 days of work, makes me wonder why I didn't do the project earlier. Even though the work can be back breaking at times, I can attest that the achy muscles and joints quickly go away, and you will forever be able to enjoy your hard labor.

Please feel free to ask any and all questions, because I know what it is like stepping into the unknown, and wanting to know why someone did something or why they didn't. I actually asked some bloggers out there questions leading up to my project, and because they never responded I had to look for my answers elsewhere. I promise to answer your questions in a day or two. That is why I created this blog, to chronicle projects that I do, to encourage you that you can do them too, and to be there to help make it easier for you along the way.

So thank you for reading and for following my creative undertakings.

Here is the approximate breakdown of what the kitchen update project cost (I included items that I already had on hand, but wanted to give you the cost in case you don't already have something):

Note: Items from Home Depot unless mentioned otherwise

Zep Degreaser $11
220 grit sanding sponges 4 pk (Amazon) $8
150 grit sanding paper $5
Timbermate (Woodcraft) $18
Oil based spray primer (Walmart best price $5-6 ea) $100
9'x12' 0.7mil 6pk plastic drop cloths $8
20 pieces of 1/4"x 3/4"x 8' PVC trim $50
Liquid Nails $4
Finish nails 3/4" $8
SW ProClassic paint 2 gal (Sherwin Williams) $100
35 knobs + 10 pulls (Amazon) $69
Alignright hardware mount kit $9
Felt pads for cabinet doors to close softly $3

________________________________________________________________________

Total: $393

For less than $400 and in only 10 days you can have a "new" kitchen. If you don't need to add trim, or use wood grain filler, you can do it in less than a week's time and for less money! Not too bad huh? You can do it!

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Accessories To Elevate Your Kitchen Decor

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Flooring

Finer details

Tips for a Successful & Budget Friendly DIY Flagstone Patio AND Homemade Stream

Stream Tip #1: You don't need to dig very deep/wide

Stream Tip #2: Make it curve naturally

Stream Tip #3: Put barrier down before pond liner

Stream Tip #4: Lay pond liner starting from bottom of stream to top

Stream Tip #5 Optional: Rock on a Roll adds protection and aesthetics

Stream Tip #6: Place large rocks then small rocks

Bonus Tips:

How to Put in a Flagstone Patio (& what not to do)

Before: What the area looked like before the patio (and us changing up the rocks around the pond:

After: What it looks like with the Flagstone patio put in:

What we did wrong & took 3x long to fix:

Overall cost of the project:

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How to Download:

To get the other Free Printables, click here

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2. Prime

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4. Stage & Sell

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How to Install Wood on Wall

1. Find & Mark Studs & Remove Baseboards & Electrical Plates, etc.

2. Get Wood Ready for Hanging

3. Optional: Map out wood's placement

4. Hang Wood using 2" Finish Nails

5. Add Electrical plates and Trim

How to Install Bike Rack(s)

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Please Help me by Voting which one is your Favorite

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So Just Do It, right?

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Step 2: Wipe on Gel Stain

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Painting Oak Cabinets (everything you need to know to update your kitchen cabinets the right way AND in 10 days)

The Kitchen Before

Supplies you Need to Update your Oak Cabinets:

Day 1: Remove Cabinet Doors & Label Doors' Hardware

Day 2: Clean & Sand Cabinet Doors

Day 3: Timbermate Wood Grain Filler

Day 4: Oil Based Primer

Day 5: Add Trim

Day 6: Paint the Back's of the Cabinet Doors

Day 7: Paint Front's of the Cabinet Doors