paint's chips

summertime, and the livin' is easy ...

noreply@blogger.com (Linda @ it all started with paint) — Sun, 17 Jun 2012 23:59:00 +0000

… and the projects are peasy …

Like these summertime-and-the-livin’-is-easy-and-peasy project ideas that start with some thrift store and yard sale glass and porcelain-ware …

~ Linda

going to the dogs

noreply@blogger.com (Linda @ it all started with paint) — Mon, 28 May 2012 20:58:00 +0000

One of the many DIY blogs I like to visit, Perfectly Imperfect, revealed their dining room redesign last fall ...

Source: Perfectly Imperfect 

And I was immediately drawn to the white, brown, and ebony/espresso color pallet used in the room. There’s something familiar and comforting and warm about this combination.

It’s a color template that works great regardless of whether you prefer a light backdrop …

Source: Ikea

… or dark.

It looks great with country décor …

… and modern décor alike …

… and yet, I still can’t put my finger on that nagging familiar feeling it evokes …

What I love the most: a white, brown, and ebony/espresso foundation sets the perfect stage for color – and I definitely crave color in my home.

The addition can be varied and subtle …

Source: Ikea

… or singular and bold …

… or (as my home redesign will most likely skew) much more saturated …

Source: Ikea

And then it hits me why a white, brown, and ebony/espresso room décor combination is so very comforting and familiar:

Curled up next to me all this time is my design inspiration: Ernie the tri-colored beagle.

See how wonderfully he coordinates with both blues and reds? I may need to pose him against some different colored throws and pillows as I redo each room … I wonder if I can bring him into the Home Goods store?

It’s official. I’m letting our home go to the dogs.

Linda

yardstick yearnings

noreply@blogger.com (Linda @ it all started with paint) — Tue, 08 May 2012 14:18:00 +0000

I need yardsticks (as in plural) in my home ...

Source: Corner House Blog

I need them glued to my furniture like this ...

Here’s the before …

… and the after …

Source: Corner House Blog

Seriously gives you a new way to look at yard sale and thrift store furniture, right? Or even that not-so-loved piece you inherited years ago from a relative ...

And there’s even more creative ways these crazy talented home décor bloggers have been using yardsticks, of all things ….

Source: Country Living

I need yardsticks in my home. I need to find them. And stain them. And glue them to furniture and stairs and walls …

This project should be cheap, cheap, cheap.

If I can’t find vintage yardsticks, I can always buy new ones from Home Depot and Lowes and the teacher supply store located not too far from me for like $1 per. Then I can distress them and sand them and stain them various shades of brown …. and in the end they’ll look old.

Then I’ll just need my miter box for cuts … and some liquid nails to affix … and maybe some poly or furniture wax to finish it off.

I have two potential victims in mind …

This side table is a piece Mike inherited from his family. It lives in our living room and I had planned to paint it black and distress it a bit when remodeling this area of the house. But now I think it might also need a yardstick drawer and sides … and maybe a yardstick bottom shelf too. The current one is in pretty poor shape.

This side table in our bedroom is cheap and “matchy matchy” with the rest of the furniture. But with some yardsticks glued on the top and the shelves (which need a little tlc), it could be something really fun and different ….

Sigh. My “to do” list just got a whole lot longer …

put a cork in it

noreply@blogger.com (Linda @ it all started with paint) — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 22:58:00 +0000

Ten reasons to drink more wine ...

1. Wine Cork Cork Board

2. Wine Cork Blackboard

3. Wine Cork Letters

4. Wine Cork Ornaments

5. Wine Cork Wreath

6. Wine Cork Wine Bottle Holder

7. Wine Cork Magnets

8. Wine Cork Backsplash

9. Wine Cork Wall Art

10. Wine Cork Floor

These and more can be found on my ‘Wine Cork Projects & Ideas’ Pinterest Board here …

… and all the pictures featured here today are linked directly to their original sources …

Linda

Oh, and I couldn’t resist adding in an eleventh just for fun; this amazing wine cork giraffe sculpture …

pillow talk

noreply@blogger.com (Linda @ it all started with paint) — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 17:52:00 +0000

I’ve got pillows on the brain. Understandable since I’m currently working on my soon-to-be-open Etsy shop …

… as in I’m working furiously on getting it up and running next week …

And that Etsy shop will stock (shocker) pillows. There’s so much inspiration that can be found online and on Pinterest that my head is literally swimming with ideas.

Like the uber popular Union Jack pillow designs …

This one is actually a canvas made of drop cloth and burlap but could easily translate into a pillow design …

I’m a bit number nutty so I’ll definitely be stocking a variation or two like these …

And of course there will be ruffles and rosettes …

I plan to include customized monogrammed pillows. You know, standard transfer sheet options. However, this button monogram has me seriously intrigued …

Finally, the big ticket item will be the elusive Pom Pillow …

*swoon*

Linda

P.S. Just click on the pictures and you’ll be linked to the original sources.

sugar high

noreply@blogger.com (Linda @ it all started with paint) — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 19:24:00 +0000

My head is up in the clouds …

Clouds of marshmallows, that is …

Click pic for source

… and cupcakes …

Click pic for source

Maybe it’s a seasonal thing. You know Easter and candy and such …

Click pic for source

Or it could be because I’m on a self-imposed diet to try and lose weight …

Click pic for source

… so I have sweet dreams on the mind.

Click pic for source

I hope my kids eat their chocolate bunnies right away. Otherwise, they may find ear-less bunnies waiting for them when they get home from school next week …

Linda

some cinch-spiration

noreply@blogger.com (Linda @ it all started with paint) — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 17:22:00 +0000

Last week’s “It’s a Cinch” link party left me inspired …

Jaime Lyn at Crafty, Scrappy, Happy’s ink stamped pitcher sent me to Michael’s …

… where I picked up my very own stamp kit.

And Kristy at The Life and Times who hung numbered flower pots from her fence?

She included a link to this website where you can buy the easy to install hardware to hang those flower pots. Yup, I ordered mine.

And Angie at Echoes of Laughter’s cute marshmallow kabobs?

We've been emailing back and forth because I wanted to find out where I could find those candy melts (she found hers at Michael's in Canada) because I’ll be bringing these to Easter dinner …

Linda

form and function

noreply@blogger.com (Linda @ it all started with paint) — Tue, 03 Apr 2012 15:33:00 +0000

When art meets furniture, this is what you get …

Little Black Dresser

Canned Bench

Daddy Long Legs

Sobey

… something straight out of Tim Burton’s head.

And for the life of me I cannot figure out why the last piece has been called “Sobey.” Perhaps an inside joke that’s way over my head?

Linda

All of these pieces were created by Straight Line Designs. It’s a one-of-a-kind workshop that has been operating out of Vancouver, British Columbia for the past 25 years. In addition to installations, sculptures and private commissions, designer Judson Beaumont and his staff of eight full-time craftspeople have designed and constructed a variety of custom-built furniture and projects for public institutions and children’s exhibitions throughout North America and abroad.

i want to be the next j.k. rowling …

noreply@blogger.com (Linda @ it all started with paint) — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 11:30:00 +0000

I’m crazy for Harry Potter …

A super fan …

And when I read the last word on the last page of the last book in the series, I decided to write my own YA fantasy.

And I did. Six years ago I wrote an entire novel. I even shopped it around to literary agents. Got a few pages requests and many, many rejections. I even posted my query online as part of a critique contest here …

The critics were very critical. They did not like it. Not at all. I think the word derivative hurt the most. Mostly because I conceived of ... and wrote ... my novel before Rick Riordan’s Percy series was published. It was just bad timing that it came out right around the time I finished my book.

Needless to say, looks like I won’t be the next J.K. Rowling …

Linda

it’s a bird. it’s a plane. it’s a painted ceiling fan blade ...

noreply@blogger.com (Linda @ it all started with paint) — Sun, 01 Apr 2012 14:45:00 +0000

I seriously considered following Jennifer’s amazingly talented lead and doing something like this to my son’s ceiling fan when I remodeled his room …

She painted on the stripes in the fan above; the blades below received a Mod Podge fabric treatment …

I mean, right? Have you ever seen anything like this before? I know I haven’t …

In the end, I copped out and did this …

Now, if you’re like all those Trading Spaces designers and despise ceiling fans to the core of your very being, then why not repurpose those fan blades into art like Lucy did here …

She used table legs, but I have a few newel posts hanging out in my garage that may work equally as well …

Hmmm …

The wheels on the bus are going round and round …

Linda

some ‘meet cutes’ ...

noreply@blogger.com (Linda @ it all started with paint) — Sat, 31 Mar 2012 22:18:00 +0000

It all started here …

… with this crazy ladder Christmas tree. And then she led me here …

… where this blogger ‘claimed’ to have a one and only (I know better).

And the quartet was solidified, if you will, when those two introduced me to this blogger …

… but I was already all to familiar with her amazing driftwood Christmas trees.

It all started around the holidays …

… and things have never been – and never will be -- the same again.

Linda