DesignDreams by Anne

How I Made My Dark Living Room Bright

noreply@blogger.com (Anne) — Tue, 18 Jun 2013 18:16:17 PDT

My living room has always felt wrong to me. When I moved in I wasn't able to place my furniture the way I wanted to because of a sagging floor. It took two years to get to it, but the floor was repaired last summer and I never thought to move the furniture. Sigh. Too many things on the go all the time!

Well, I finally got the urge to move everything on Friday night. OMG what a difference. The room feels huge and happy and I love it.

Here's the before (like when I moved in before):

So dark and depressing...

Here's what it looks like now:

Holy this room looks BIG now! I was aiming for a Shabby Chic meets Industrial look cause I'm a confused eclectic kinda girl. I think I got it! What do you think of my gallery wall? ps notice I got rid of my area rug? It made the room seem much smaller. Now the light bounces off the floor and there's nothing to stop the eye from moving across the space.

I struggled with the gallery wall, let me tell you. There are more nail holes in that wall than I care to admit to, but I love the final look. The scraggly plant really made the difference. LOL What I really love about the gallery wall is that the TV doesn't stand out like a sore thumb. I think it works because I chose frames and pictures that matched in colour so that it blends together.

I love the bookcases against the far wall. Somehow having them where the TV is now made the room so small and yet the dresser that the TV is on is much deeper. Weird.

I didn't want to disturb sleeping beauty to style the sofa so this is what you get! This is what my house usually looks like anyway. The quilt on my leather ottoman? Oh that's there because Maggie decided the leather made a nice scratching post and I came home one day to find it almost in tatters. What's up with THAT?! Cats... good thing I love them!

So most of the furniture and the trim got painted in between when I moved in and when I took the after photos and I created an industrial table a couple of weeks ago for my sofa side table. If you want to see the transformations, click on the links below:

Industrial Look Side Table

The Turquoise Door

The Bookcase Odyssey

I painted my 1930s Trim

A Console Table and A Duck

Painting the trim and the paneling definitely opened up the space. It's much brighter with the light colours instead of all the dark wood. The lighter pillows, the throw and the lack of a rug keeps it light and bright. The new furniture placement makes the space seem huge. It's amazing what can be done with just paint and rearranging things.

Have you swapped your furniture around lately? Doesn't it feel make your room feel better?!

Have a great week!

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How My Garden Grows

noreply@blogger.com (Anne) — Tue, 18 Jun 2013 18:25:12 PDT

I've been working on my landscaping as much as I can with all the rain we've been having. It's excellent for all the planting I'm doing, not so much fun for digging new beds!

Anyway, enough with the chatter! Here are some photos of my new beds, progress on what was done last year and some of my favourite early summer flowers. Enjoy!

Azalea

My patio garden is starting to come together! The thyme-and-stone patio is blooming and I managed to weed most of the gravel. I plan to keep adding stones and thyme until the whole thing is a mass of sweet smelling thyme.

This bed was recently expanded.

I've started growing veggies and herbs in galvanized tubs - love this look!!

This area still needs TLC but it is beginning to come together.

The fence needs replacing... but not this year!

My tomatoes grew so well in the greenhouse last year that I needed to increase the height. Unfortunately I broke one of the window panes while I was working on the new roof last fall and cut my leg to the tune of 13 stitches. This was the best I could manage with my leg out of commission, but I plan to make it beautiful this summer! If you want to see how to build this greenhouse click HERE

I'm so in love with pansies this year!!

Irises and poppies just love this sun baked stretch of garden.

My Sensation lilac is about to burst into bloom.

My latest garden bed is up against my deck. I hope the vines grow quickly and give me some shade and privacy from my neighbours. The plant hooks are my temporary garden hose guards. I am forever knocking the flower heads off with that hose!

More lovely pansies! This was taken with my brand new Nikon D5200!! So excited to finally have a decent camera.

Purple and gold are such a gorgeous combo, don't you think?

My only shade garden. Some of the plants are not doing well due to the ginormous spruce tree that is shading this bed. More plant moving is in my future...

Oh and my lilac bloomed as I was writing this post!

in case you missed it, I built a potting bench a couple of weeks ago. You can check out the how to build it post HERE

Hope you enjoyed the tour! I'm so happy to be playing in the dirt again. I've been gardening ever since I was 7 years old and had a little flower bed all my own to play with. Foxgloves were my favourite back then. I still love playing in the garden just as much now.

Cheerio!

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Potting Bench Mania!! Finding Inspiration on Hometalk

noreply@blogger.com (Anne) — Fri, 31 May 2013 16:00:04 PDT

I'm having such a blast on Hometalk. I find all kinds of inspiration while I'm scrolling through all the pretty photos and this week, I was asked to curate a clipboard on potting benches! Well, you don't have to ask me twice!!!

I got busy fast, searched through all the fabulous ideas to bring you a wide range of pretty options. Here's a sampling of what I found:

To see all the benches I clipped, click HERE

Plus I just built my own potting bench last weekend, if you haven't see it yet click HERE.

Did you know that Hometalk is the largest online home and garden hub? It’s fueled by the firsthand experience & advice of hundreds of thousands of home enthusiasts and professionals. You don’t have to be a blogger to participate. Just set up an account and clip ideas or ask questions or just socialize. It’s such a blast! There are professionals who participate as well - interior design, landscapers, contractors, garden gurus, and so many more.

If you haven't joined up yet, you really need to check it out!!

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How to Build a Covered Potting Bench Part I

noreply@blogger.com (Anne) — Tue, 18 Jun 2013 06:34:36 PDT

A few weeks ago, I dragged my little potting bench inside to use in my mudroom. Since I'm beginning to landscape my property now (finally!), I needed a new bench PRONTO. Soooooo time to build! Here's what I came up with:

I searched Google for some plans that I liked and found a whole bunch of 'em. I chose this one - click HERE - and then modified it to suit me and the little touches I wanted to incorporate. This was a bit of a difficult plan to work with because I had no one to help me. If you have a helper, this is a great plan to use.

I bought all new wood for this - 2x4s, 1x4s, 1x2s - because I didn't want to dance around with odds & ends of wood. As it was, I wound up doing the dance anyway because I added an old window frame and some metal panels from a fire screen - then I spent a ton of time trying to figure out how to secure everything. Sheesh.

I began by building the base, a rectangular box with 2x4s - the long pieces are 48" and the short pieces are 21". Then I attached the legs - the front are 36" and the back are 72". Once that was in place, I attached the 48" slats all across the bottom. I used 1x4s for the first and last pieces and 1x2s spaced evenly (I used a 1x2 on edge as a spacer). I used acrylic caulk as glue and my nail gun to attach the slats to the cross pieces. Then I covered each nail hole with more acrylic caulk - this stuff is interior/exterior and paintable.

Then I dragged this baby outside because I was never going to be able to move it by myself after I added any more wood to it.

I had a salvaged window frame that was the perfect size to fit my upper pieces. How lucky is that?! So I used coated 2" screws to attach it to the frame. Then I attached the front piece for the table top, a 51" 2x4 and another 51" 2x4 is attached across the top of the window frame.

I built the table frame in the same way as the base frame minus the front piece which is already attached. Notice the table front piece fits right across the legs and the shelf front piece does not.

Then came the jiggling part as I had to come up with a brace to hold this assembly in place so I could screw it to the legs. One trick to making things easier is to measure, drill and install your screws in place ready to screw into the frame once you have the table frame in place and level.

Once the table frame was in place, it was simple to add the table top pieces. So that I didn't have a lot of material waste (save on wood and money!), I added 2x2s to the sides so that my table top pieces would be 48" instead of 51". I also prefer not having the end grain exposed, so this method works really well!

Then I added my metal fire screen pieces and realized I was going to have to find some way of holding them in place. I came up with a pattern I liked and used 1x4s to fill in the gaps:

I picked up two flower basket brackets and built a little shelf from two 1x4s and braced them across the bottom with 1x2s. I placed the braces right up against the brackets so that the shelf could be removed easily but would sit firmly in place without any screws. Then the whole thing got painted.

Garage Sale Find! $1.00

More garage sale finds - gotta love those garage sales.

And now the photo you've all been waiting for!

Stay tuned for Part II where I add a roof to the bench :).

Happy gardening!

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Baker's Rack Makeover - Industrial Look

noreply@blogger.com (Anne) — Fri, 07 Jun 2013 19:42:52 PDT

I got a baker's rack through the online classifieds last year. I wanted it for a display piece in my dining room. I didn't like the colour of the rack so I did a shabby chic makeover but it never seemed to fit. With my love of industrial furniture, the black pieces in my dining room and the brown velvet curtains, industrial with its dark metal and warm wood tones is a perfect fit!

I sanded down the white paint on the metal but I couldn't get enough of it off, so I wiped raw umber paint over the top of the metal. I didn't like the metal rung racks either. It's hard to place things when they keep tipping over thanks to the thin rungs. I cut down some 1/4" maple veneer to match the maple plywood top I had installed last summer and stained it brown. The plywood top had been painted twice and I couldn't face using a stripper product, so I popped it off and flipped it over. That got stained as well.

The outer rungs are bigger than the inner ones so the veneer is held neatly in place without the need to fasten it.

I hated the fake wood drawer front so I used the same veneer to cover it. With a coat of stain and a new industrial look pull, it looks fabulous!

The metal is much darker than the photo shows, it was such a sunny day when I took the photos that everything looks light!

I'm thrilled with the makeover. The wood looks rich and the white flecks on the metal make it look oxidized. I LOVE it!!

And if you want to see the shabby chic version:

Isn't it nice we can make over things as many times as we want? LOL

Have a great week!

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6 Budget Saavy Tips for Landscaping Your Home

noreply@blogger.com (Anne) — Tue, 18 Jun 2013 06:34:00 PDT

I'm back to my first love these days - gardening! I love being in the garden, digging, planting, sowing and enjoying. This house will be the 6th that I've landscaped and because I always seem to buy houses that have no landscaping, I have learned how to do it on the cheap.

Here are some of my best tips:

#1 - Use as many free materials in your landscape as you can. Every part of the world has at least one thing in abundance that you can use for free, be it gravel, rocks or stones; wood, pallets or pine needles; dumpsters, landfill sites or Craig's List and Freecycling networks as cheap sources for repurposed items. Find out what's in your own neighbourhood or town and use it! I've used my local freecycling network to find plants and shrubs for free. I got a whole lilac hedge that way, it really works!!

Recycled fence potting bench

Pine needle and bark mulch path

Repurposed dresser as garden storage & potting bench

Rock sculpture

Stones and gravel with thyme planted in between as a patio (this is an early stage photo,
thyme grows really fast once established)

One year later - see what I mean?

#2 - Beg for plant divisions or cuttings from family, friends and neighbours. Anyone who has perennials , bulbs or tubers will have to be dividing them up every so often and will be happy to let you have the extras.

Liatris aka Gayfeather and Black Eyed Susans

Yarrow, chives and peonies

#3 - Look for local gardening clubs, they usually have plant sales once or twice a year to raise money for the club and you can get beautiful plants for much less than gardening centers sell them. Plus you know they will survive in your climate because the local gardeners have grown them.

Begonia

#4 - Watch for end-of-season sales. You can pick up loads of plants at a discount from department stores that have seasonal garden centers. That's where you can pick up your trees and shrubs for less and save big!

#5 - Grow your own plants from seed. Some plants are super simple to grow, you can even just toss the seeds out in your garden at the right time and they'll grow well. Hardy geraniums, sunflowers and pansies are easy to start from seed. Poppies and cosmos are good examples of seeds you can just sow directly in the garden. Opium poppies can even be sown while there is still snow on the garden!

Poppies

Hardy geraniums

#6 - Grow plants that self-seed or spread easily. Examples are creeping thyme, culinary thyme, Johnny Jump-ups, Ladies' Mantle, campanula, euphorbia, lamium, bugleweed, poppies and bee balm. I don't quite understand the desire for growing borderline plants in the garden. I personally don't want to drag some plant kicking and screaming into my garden, I'd much rather have ones that are happily growing and flowering and self-seeding all over.

White and pink lamium aka Deadnettle and hosta

The best part about rampant growers and self-seeders is that every year, you can dig up the extras and sell them at a yard sale to make some extra cash for the landscaping items that you can't get for free.

Hope I've been able to give you at least one tip you can use. Happy gardening!

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Industrial Look Side Table

noreply@blogger.com (Anne) — Thu, 30 May 2013 17:09:36 PDT

I have a cute metal table I bought for a song a few years ago. I love it but the table top is too small to be really useful in my new home. For the last few months (ok longer) I've been trying to decide what to do with it and today I found my super simple solution.

Ikea has these awesome butcher block cutting boards for $20 ($10 in the USA). I bought two of them for my kitchen but I don't really ever use them anymore. The size is perfect for my table!!!

Ikea Lamplig Cutting Board

I flipped it over so that the groove is on the bottom and the edge that sticks up is pointing toward the floor. Then I stained the wood with a Minwax oak stain and glued the cutting board to the metal table top with acrylic caulking (works just like glue!). I also used linseed oil to shine it up a bit.

Tah daaaaah!

Easy peasy new table with an industrial edge!

Have a wonderful week!

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Beachy Sign

noreply@blogger.com (Anne) — Wed, 05 Jun 2013 19:27:25 PDT

I had so much fun creating with the alphabet letters I found at the Dollar Store that I went back for more!

I'm so into beach-oriented projects lately, that I made a new sign by painting the letters and gluing them to a piece of reclaimed wood. Such an easy and fun project - just let the paint flow!!!

I laid out the letters on the board a couple of times until I found the look I liked best, then it was off to paint the letters and the board!

I glued a starfish in the upper corner and I had a bee eraser that I glued on as well. As a final touch, I outlined the letters with a black sharpie.

I used all the colours that remind me of water and then swirled white paint over the letters when the paint was still wet.

Sea water and lake water is so pretty... It's hot enough here to head out to the beach this weekend, so I'm off to enjoy the weather.

Have a happy week!

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Can You Help a Girl Out?

noreply@blogger.com (Anne) — Thu, 23 May 2013 02:45:58 PDT

You may have seen my post about Hometalk a few weeks back. It’s the largest online home and garden hub. It’s fueled by the firsthand experience & advice of hundreds of thousands of home enthusiasts and professionals. You don’t have to be a blogger to participate. Just set up an account and clip ideas or ask questions or just socialize. It’s such a blast! There are professionals who participate as well - interior design, landscapers, contractors, garden gurus, and so many more.

Here are some of the projects I've posted:

I've gotten loads of hits on my blog from posting things on Hometalk. I also got great feedback from everybody when I was searching for a colour to paint my front door and shutters. There are so many talented people willing to help out, it's amazing.

Hometalk has Pinterest beaten because you can clip all you like (or pin) and ask questions and people actually answer you!! Want to know how to build something? Want to learn how to do simple repairs around the house? Or complicated repairs for that matter. Want help choosing colours or someone helping you to make design choices? Want some great ideas for landscaping and plant combinations? Need someone to identify that thing that is growing in your yard? Do you want to find a reputable pro in your area? Get your answers on Hometalk.

Here's a look at all the topics on Hometalk right now, and the list keeps growing!

I could win a trip to Virginia to visit Lucketts Market on May 18 & 19 – but there's a catch. I need to recruit 10 new Hometalk members and the new members have to follow me before May 17.

Puh-lease!!!!!!! Pretty, pretty please??

You won’t be sorry you joined. And you’ll have my undying gratitude.

You can watch this VIDEO to learn more about them.

Pop over and check out Hometalk and then set up your account. Here are the FAQs of Hometalk

and then please, follow me! Click HERE for my Hometalk profile

You’ll love it, I promise!

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Bathroom Gut & Remodel COMPLETE!

noreply@blogger.com (Anne) — Mon, 03 Jun 2013 08:15:14 PDT

Welcome to my "Impossibilities Challenge"! I completely tore apart the old, ugly bathroom in my 1930s bungalow and remodeled it, BY MYSELF! (well except for the plumbing lines and new electrical wires).

I kept the budget down by doing almost all the work myself. A basic bathroom remodel runs between $8-15,000.00 in my part of the world and I spent $5200.00 - not as low as I'd hoped, but you know what happens when you open up the walls in old houses...

Here's the rundown of the work I did. I began by tearing down all the wood plank paneling, the ceiling tile paneling (don't ask), the tiled tub surround and the tile floor. Then I ripped down the wall covering on the insulated outer wall and installed a window (can't believe there wasn't a window!) and new insulation. Rather than living with drywall dust, I opted to install bead board panels on all the walls and the ceiling. I installed 1x6 pine baseboards and 1x2s for crown molding with 1x4s and 1x5s for trim with a few special trim pieces to make the space look more vintage.

My big savings came from buying a fibreglass tub and surround for $500.00 on sale and a sink/cabinet combo for $88. The most unexpected cost was the 3 gallons of oil based primer to coat all the wood (both sides, edges and ends). The building inspector advised it was a necessary step to avoid mold and mildew from forming behind the walls. Steam gets into every crevice and if it has a lovely unfinished wood surface to cling to, mold and mildew begin to grow very quickly. Since I never, ever want to do this job again I paid attention!

I installed a vinyl plank floor and saved on the fixtures by looking for big markdowns. The door is a 5 panel fir door from another room in the house. I bought the light fixture at a garage sale and found the mirror for $20. I really splurged on buying pre-primed pine trim - by the time I got to the trim phase, I just couldn't face using that oil based primer any more!!! The plumbing was the biggest single cost because I moved every fixture. I had budgeted $3000.00 and I spent $5200.00 I also went through about 8 tubes of caulking. This bathroom would have cost me $12,000.00 if I had hired a contractor to do the whole job so I am pretty pleased with the final tally!!

So here are the photos with the old & icky ones first:

See that closed door? That is the original bathroom opening.
The door stayed closed the whole time until it was walled over
during my kitchen renovation. That's how bad the bathroom was.
I never photographed it...

And since I never photographed it, I prepared a collage - a kind of mood board - of the old bathroom look for your viewing pleasure:

So the ivory tiles weren't nearly as clean looking as the mood board photo, they had grungy grout that had a green tinge to it. The dark photo is of the paneling that was on every wall. Note the lovely shade of puke green in the fixtures and that hand held shower head - wow, what a thing of beauty! Anyhow, here is the actual bathroom mid-way through demolition.

Lucky for me, someone had walled over the original window
opening so all I had to do was cut through the sheathing and siding
and add a little more framing for the size of the window I bought.
Please note the mold on the unfinished wood surface!!! Ick!

It almost looks professionally installed don't you think??

This old house has 2x4 exterior walls (2x6 is the norm nowadays) and I wanted to insulate up to today's code. I used a combination of stone wool insulation (ROXUL) and rigid insulation to avoid having to reframe the walls to get the correct depth of insulation (R22). Rigid insulation was a much easier fix.

Oh so pretty ... NOT! But at least I now have a room with a view.

Here is where I saved some cash:

My $88 sink and cabinet with a faucet I picked up at 40% off retail cost. The toilet was also on sale for 40% off.

Window was on clearance for $130.

I built my own shutters as a window treatment - $40. I love them!

I used reclaimed wood for two shelves. I painted the surface but left the edges natural with a coating of satin polyurethane. I really like that look! I made the "Hot Baths 75 cents" sign after I saw it on a vintage sign. It made me laugh! The shower curtain was another sale item.

The towel hooks and rack were on sale and I bought all new towels (I'm totally addicted to new towels).

The poor vanity got painted 3 times because I couldn't decide on the right colour to use... I got the glass shelf and soap dispenser set from Ikea. LOVE them!! I made the little "Soap" sign and hung it up with command strips.

Another big challenge was installing an attic access in this room. The only other attic access is in my master closet which has a closet organizer in it. Call me crazy, but I prefer NOT to take all the clothes out of the closet and uninstall the closet organizer to get into the attic. Not to mention all the loose insulation that gets tracked all though my bedroom when I go up into the attic. For the bathroom access I built a box with a regular sealed panel door and then I allowed a 6 inch drop to the actual bathroom ceiling where I have a hinged panel door to allow me to install extra insulation and another seal. THAT was a fun job, let me tell you!!

If you want to see all the posts in my Impossibilities Challenge series, click HERE. You'll see I changed my mind a few times! lol

Thanks for stopping by!

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I want to live at the beach!!!!!!!

noreply@blogger.com (Anne) — Wed, 05 Jun 2013 19:27:53 PDT

It's no secret, I want a beach house and I fully expect my dream to come true. In the meantime, I am having fun dreaming my dream - decorating my beach house in my mind (and on Pinterest and Houzz), painting coastal pictures, collecting seashells and vials of sand... Anything that makes the dream feel more real works for me! If you want to follow my beach dreams, you can check out my Pinterest "Life at the Beach" board HERE.

So in that spirit, I decided to use a piece of bead board paneling as a canvas and I painted a beach scene. Just a very basic one, but I love it so much!!!

I grew up 5 minutes' walk from a beach so I drew on my memories to come up with this view. This is a "tide is going out" painting.

"On the Beach"
13x24 Mixed Media on Wood

I used a glitter craft paint over the top of the water to simulate the sparkles caused by the sun. Then I added sparkles to parts of the beach as well because some of the sand particles sparkle in the bright sunshine. I can feel and smell the seaside air when I look at this painting.

Now to figure out where to hang it.

Mmmmmm, can't wait to be there again! Meanwhile I dream.

Photo via Predi Son Jaumell Hotel

Have a great week!

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"Paint Spatters, Stripes & Swirls Oh My" Laundry Sign & Mudroom Makeover Part 4

noreply@blogger.com (Anne) — Tue, 14 May 2013 17:15:17 PDT

After seeing all the gorgeous water colour painted things out there in bloggy land, I decided I wanted to use that technique to create a sign for my newly organized laundry room. Of course I had no watercolours on hand when I wanted to do this project, so I modified the drippy watercolour finish for something I could do with acrylic paints.

I'm so thrilled with what I came up with!! I found some MDF letters at the dollar store, picked out some bright and fresh paint colours from my acrylic paint collection (any paint will work) and painted each letter from the word "laundry" in either grain stripes, paint spatters, swirly stuff and it all came together in such a pretty way. I hot glued the letters together and hung it on the wall using 3M Command Strips.

So cute.

I also got rid of the huge bar table I had built for the mudroom and replaced it with my outdoor potting bench because it fits the space better. I found some printables of vintage seed catalogues and dolled up the side of my dryer while I was at it. I hung the Artist's Studio sign that I made last spring on the dryer too, using suction cup hooks on the top of the dryer so I didn't have to see them. Everything is a little crooked, but that's the way I fly. :)

So cute. So perfect.

I'm so modest...

I love this look, it feels like I'm in the garden. Now my mudroom and laundry room feel happy again.

Oh and lest we forget, this is what I started with:

BEFORE

AFTER

To see my other post on this makeover, click HERE. So glad this makeover is over!!
I'm off to do my laundry - cheers!

Have a great week!

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Laundry Storage Solutions

noreply@blogger.com (Anne) — Sun, 14 Apr 2013 10:52:16 PDT

AFTER

Open storage - love it or hate it? I love the look of it but living with it is another matter. I can handle a few open shelves but when it comes to my mudroom/laundry room, I want things behind closed doors!

When I moved into my house three years ago, all I had for a laundry room was connections for a washer and dryer in an enclosed, heated porch at the back of the house. It was just a long, skinny L-shaped room with nothing in it but a cheap particle board pantry cabinet in rough shape. Here's a shot of it before I took it to the dump:

BEFORE

I wanted front load machines so I could eventually stack them. I also wanted to use this space as a mudroom so I needed storage! I bought a closet organizer on sale, it had a tall shelving unit with hanging bars to attach to the sides. Another thing I desperately wanted was a laundry tub, so I bought a sink cabinet in preparation for it. The original layout had the closet organizer tucked away around a corner. This is how it looked back then:

Super cute!! But now that I know better, the laundry tub has been relocated to where it will be easy to run plumbing lines (and cost me less money). So now it looks like this:

The cute factor is sadly lacking. The washer and dryer are stacked now, and that hides the hanging clothes from view. I need these shelves for storing all the things I use in the laundry as well as things I use all the time. Putting everything in cute baskets is a great idea except that I get fed up pulling baskets out and having to set them down on a counter so that I can pull out what I want, put the baskets back, use the thing, get the baskets back out to ... well, I was tired of wasting my time doing that. I wanted a better solution. Out of the blue, I remembered that I had saved the doors to the old pantry cabinet (there's that hoarder factor again). I dug them out of my shed and installed them on the lower shelves. They weren't quite wide enough, I had a 3/4 inch gap between the doors that I covered with a piece of trim.

Oh so much better! I don't have to keep it all neat anymore PLUS I now have a place to store boots out of sight!

And here is the full view of my little laundry storage area. I'm still working on the cute factor, but for now this works for me!

Thanks for popping in!

UPDATE: I found my cute factor! Pop over and see my new laundry sign & finished mudroom update HERE!

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Grain Sack Theme Bedroom

noreply@blogger.com (Anne) — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 20:26:34 PDT

I've had grain sacks on my mind lately. I've clipped and pinned so many images my head is spinning! I love, love, love grain sacks.

When I found my grain sack look tea towels and made a sham and curtains for my spare bedroom, I loved the look so much that I thought I'd keep the theme going with some special touches. If you haven't seen my 5 minute no sew shams & curtains, click HERE.

So I had my theme started. Also in this room is a shelf desk that I built about a year ago. The room is too small to hold much furniture but it had just enough space between the closet and the door for a shelf. I opted to install a wide shelf on brackets that I screwed into studs. The shelf is cut from cabinet grade maple plywood with a 1/4 trim added to hide the grain on the edges.

It worked like a charm! I had originally stained the desk to match the trim in the room. Here is a photo of the shelf desk after I had finished it:

This past month I painted all the trim in this room and painted the desk to match. Then I thought it would look cute with a grain sack stripe.

So I began by taping off the area for the first stripes.

I used a home made blue chalk paint for the lines. It's the same blue as the chair shown above. After the first stripes were dry, I taped off the line for the wider stripe down the center of the two skinny ones. I also painted stripes on the chair seat using the trim paint and painted the spindles white. I painted the grooves in the chair legs and upper supports in white to add the to striped effect and then outlined the edges in white to show off the detail in them - loving the grain sack theme!

I rearranged all the furniture in this space while I was at it. I have so much stuff that I needed a better layout to allow me to keep all my stuff (read HOARDER).

Um yep, this one works really well. Now there's room for two side tables and a trunk at the foot of the bed! I'm using a leather ottoman as one of the side tables (hardly the height of fashion, but I love this ottoman and don't want to get rid of it...). I have a tray that I put on top of the ottoman, so guess what? I painted it.

The tray has a piece of adhesive cork (shelf paper) in the bottom to keep things from sliding around. The tray was black to begin with so I only lightly coated it with the trim paint colour and then used more masking tape to add the blue line all around the center point.

So there you have it! My grain themed guest room is complete - and thank God that trim is painted. What a job and a half that was. Two rooms to go!

Hope you all have a fabulous week!

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What's the BEST Source of Ideas on the Net? Hometalk.com!!

noreply@blogger.com (Anne) — Fri, 29 Mar 2013 13:52:12 PDT

Have you found hometalk yet?? Anyone can share their projects, you don't have to have a blog to do it. Just set up an account and post your photos. There are tons of ideas, tips, tricks and DIY projects with full how-to instructions. You can use it as a q&a forum for the things that you can't figure out, too - like what the heck is this thing growing in my yard? or How do I stop my drain from plugging up? or Help me choose colours for my livingroom-bedroom-kitchen-bathroom... you get the picture.

I've been a member of hometalk for about a year now and I love it. Here are a few of the projects I've shared on the network:

DIY Garbage Enclosure for $30

Home Made Chalk Paint

How to make a Mason Jar Soap Pump

Don't Hesitate - PAINT THAT TRIM!!

Ikea Hack - Making that Knotty Pine into a Gorgeous Antique

Dress Up Ugly Cube Storage with Legs and Wood Panelling

Add Faux Fronts to a Boring Dresser

How to Build Functioning Shutters

A DIY $5 Chunky Wood Frame for a Mirror

Build Your Own DIY Display Stepladder

Tray Makeover with a Paris Subway Stencil

5 Minute No-Sew Curtains and Pillow Shams

How to Build a Mini Greenhouse that Fits ANYWHERE

Build Your Own Headboard from a Door - It's EASY!

Click on any of the pictures for more details on the projects shown. Here's my clipboard of all the projects I've shared on hometalk - My Project Board

You've got to check out Hometalk if you haven't already found it, it's FABULOUS!

Have a happy Easter everybody!

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5 Minute Pillow Shams & Curtains for $6

noreply@blogger.com (Anne) — Tue, 14 May 2013 17:15:01 PDT

Sewing is not my favourite thing to do. With no sewing machine I have to sew by hand which takes too long and I get bored fast. Fusible tape is now my BFF!!

A few weeks ago, I found these great herringbone weave tea towels in a clearance bin. They were a buck apiece. I bought 10 of them with no clue in my head as to what I was going to do with them - but you know how it is when you find something of quality on sale, right?

Once I got them home, I realized they were a nice big size and I needed curtains for a horizontal window in my spare bedroom. I used Ikea clips and curtain rod and they were the perfect length. I love that the stripes are on one end only, it works so much better for curtains that way.

I thought it would be sweet to make a cushion cover to match and then I discovered the towels were large enough to cover a queen sized pillow. Out came that lovely fusible tape! This was so easy it's ridiculous. I got out the ironing board, laid the towels one on top of the other (nice side to the outside). I laid the tape just inside the edges so I would have a bit of an edge that showed and used the iron on high steam to press the tape. I left one end open so I could slip it on and off the pillow easily.

So there you go! I used 6 tea towels and got curtains AND a matching pillow sham. Not too shabby!

To see a full tour of the bedroom, click HERE

Cheers!

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The Reds

noreply@blogger.com (Anne) — Wed, 01 May 2013 19:13:57 PDT

I was scrolling through old posts and was about to delete this one but decided instead to share it again. These were some of my very first paintings. I'm amazed at how much I've improved although I have to say that two of these paintings are still great favourites of mine!

May 16, 2011: Red, orange and yellow have been dancing in my head for the last few weeks so I let it all out and wound up with four new paintings.

The last painting didn't look at all the way I wanted it to. It was supposed to be the sun casting its rays out across a beautiful orange sky but I couldn't get the paint to do what I wanted it to. It looked like a big fried egg!! Even feathering the colours together did nothing that suited me do so I painted over it:

Look familiar?? I can't seem to get enough of this flower! After some very frustrating moments, the mood I was in passed and I have some paintings that I like very much to show for it. I love that I can take the emotions I'm feeling, distract myself completely with creating something and find myself in a completely free and happy state of mind when I'm finished. :)

Painting pictures soothes the soul. It truly does.

Have a happy day!

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Checkerboard Storage for the Kitchen

noreply@blogger.com (Anne) — Fri, 22 Mar 2013 12:36:50 PDT

A few weeks ago I was asked if I wanted to receive a sampling of containers from Specialty Bottle. They were interested to see what I might be able to craft with their containers. It sounded like a fun way to stretch my imagination, so I picked out what I wanted from their online catalogue. One week later, I had a nice box of tins to play with. Christmas all over again!

Here are the two tins I chose for this project:

I love these tins! I had wanted containers for storing my growing collection of assorted teas, and these were so cute. I would even have just left them as is because I like the look so much, but a challenge is a challenge and so I decided to use my FAT chalk paint again.

I so loved the look of the step stool I painted (see HERE) that I decided to paint checks again. Out came the painter's tape again and squares were meticulously (NOT!) measured. lol!

FAT paint in Autumn

I painted the tins, pulled the tape off and voila! Looked awesome!!!

I needed a few more smaller tins for the loose tea but instead of painting them all in checks, I thought it would be cute to stack them and paint the center tin red. After looking at it for a while, I decided it wasn't working and painted all three tins. I wrote a letter in chalk on each tin.

Hmmm, still not working for me. Then I had the idea of making them look like the wood building blocks I used to play with when I was little. I added chalk squares around the letters.

EUREKA!

Now we're talkin'!

While I had the paint out, I painted a couple of tea lights too! I love the metal tart tins I got at a yard sale last year. I use a few as tea light holders and thought it would be sweet to paint the tea lights themselves in the red - kind of like the center of a flower.

Now all I need to to pick up some red tea light candles.

Red is beginning to take over my kitchen and I love it!!

Pop over and check out Specialty Bottle, they've got lots of bottles and tins to choose from and their prices are pretty awesome!

Have a great week!

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Pink Tulips

noreply@blogger.com (Anne) — Sun, 21 Apr 2013 08:20:00 PDT

I think I've created my best work to date. I'm so thrilled to share this painting with you!!! I love it :) Spring is almost here!!!!!

Reflections
8x12 Acrylic on acrylic paper

I'm so looking forward to seeing the tulips in my garden pop up.

Happy Friday!

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Country Red Stepstool using FAT Paint

noreply@blogger.com (Anne) — Wed, 05 Jun 2013 19:34:10 PDT

Another chalk paint project! This time using a super sweet retail chalk paint & wax called FAT paint. A dear friend of mine just opened her own shop in Vancouver selling this product and I had to try it out!!!

The colour I chose was Autumn. It's a perfect country folk red with a hint of an orange to warm it up. I love this colour!!!

Last summer I wanted to give my kitchen stepstool a makeover. It's gorgeous, shaker style and solid maple. I was very hesitant to paint it but I slapped some paint on anyway and instantly hated it. No photos. Sorry, I suck at before shots... I hate it when I want to make over a piece but have absolutely no clue how I want it to look. It took 8 months for this inspiration to come to me. Sigh.

My step stool looked kind of like this when I began:

I began by painting the whole bench red. I even waxed it because I thought I was done, but I wanted something more. Something special. Something that I was really in love with...

I've been seeing so many plaid and checkered patterns on Pinterest lately that I decided to paint a checkerboard pattern on the treads.

I started by taping off my squares. I mixed up a tiny batch of home made chalk paint in ivory (just added some baking soda!) and painted the squares. I pulled the tape off right away and, being the impatient person that I am, didn't want to wait for the paint to dry. I discovered that my brush was exactly the same width as the tape I was using, so I just went ahead and painted the extra squares free-hand.

I added the "flourish" (found on clipart) across the fronts of the steps. (scribbled across the back of the photo with HB pencil and traced the pattern onto the bench then went over the outline with a Sharpie)

Then I sanded the whole thing and added a thick coat of wax using a paint brush. My supplies??

Lovely, lovely stuff!!!

PS One of these lemons is fake and one is real - can you tell which is which??

DISTRIBUTORS OF FAT PAINT

Canada:

The FAT Paint Company (New Westminster, BC & on-line)

The Heights HOME Boutique (Burnaby, BC)

Junkin Around (Merritt & Interior, BC)

Marmie's Empty Nest Custom Painted Furniture (Camrose, AB)

United States:

Shab 2 Fab (Springfield, TN & on-line)

AND... starting in March...

T'ost and Found Interiors by Kristy Fuller (Jackson & area, MS)

Tess Home - Cottage Furniture & Vintage Finds (Point Pleasant Beach, NJ)

& still more to come!

Have an happy and creative week!

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A Hint of Spring

noreply@blogger.com (Anne) — Sat, 09 Mar 2013 05:19:08 PST

Just a quickie post to share my latest painting - I'm so happy with it!! Here's hoping for an early spring!

PS I was thinking of spring with all the greens and yellows in this painting, but the flowers are all late summer bloomers... lol!!! These are coneflowers & lavender, not daisies & grape hyacinths. Sorry for the confusion!!! :)

Have a fabulous day!

xox

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Sailboats and Sunflowers

noreply@blogger.com (Anne) — Mon, 01 Apr 2013 06:42:13 PDT

Just a few more paintings to add to the ever growing stash in my studio. I really enjoy painting the sea and the sky. I guess that's why I can't get enough of these sailboat paintings!!!

Sailboat 5 8x12 Acrylic on acrylic paper $55 plus shipping

Sailboat 4 8x12 Acrylic on acrylic paper
$55 plus shipping

I love the grey, black and blue together, it's stormy and calming all at the same time. If you want to see the other sailboats I painted, click HERE

And I had to have another go at painting the sunflower that so inspired me a few weeks ago. This one is softer and a paler yellow.

Sunflower Take Two Spring Showers 8x12 Acrylic on acrylic paper $55 plus shipping

not sure if I like it with a white mat or a black one

I do love this sunflower, though.

Have a happy week!

If you are interested in buying any of these pieces, please contact me at designdreamsbyanne @ gmail.com

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Adding French Flavour to a Wood Tray

noreply@blogger.com (Anne) — Wed, 01 May 2013 10:31:56 PDT

BEFORE-ish

During the Christmas season, the office I work in received a gift of a nut basket. Only the "basket" was actually a wood tray. Guess who brought the tray home... yep, that would be me and my scrounging ways again.

It was just a cheapo dark stained wood and of course I forgot to take a photo of it before I began creating my masterpiece, so here is a reasonable facsimile, except it looks really nice & my tray did not look this good!

I painted it basic white and it sat for a couple of months until I saw this graphic from the Graphics Fairy:

Love, love, love this!!!

I knew I wanted this image on the tray. I considered the different ways of transferring the image. I don't like the mod podge method because it creates a bumpy surface and I don't want a bumpy surface on a tray that I plan to use. So instead I scribbled all over the back of my printout with an HB pencil and I hand traced this onto my tray.

Then I went over the letters with Sharpies - an ultra fine point and a fine point.

Very, very time consuming and I almost gave up a couple of times but oh, am I glad I kept going!!!

I left it to dry for a couple of days and then sanded the surface with a fine grit sanding sponge. Then I waxed the tray with Minwax Dark Paste Wax to protect the surface.

TAH DAAAAAAAH!!!!!!!

How awesome is this?!!! I am in love.

May all your projects work out as beautifully as this one did for me!!!

Cheers!

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And then this project was named one of the
top 10 Subway Art projects! Hooray!

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DIY Mini Stepladder

noreply@blogger.com (Anne) — Sat, 18 May 2013 19:35:01 PDT

Somebody asked the other day if bloggers check Pinterest to see if a project they're working on has already been done. Hmmm. I spend most of my time trying to copy stuff I've seen on Pinterest - I'm not proud!!! I love trying to recreate something I've seen and fallen in love with. I say bring.it.on!!!

So this week's project is based on a super cute little vintage stepladder I pinned some time ago.

I love the beat up, mish-mash, this must have been broken & repaired look of the inspiration ladder. Perfect for using up little odds and ends of wood that I can't bring myself to toss out. So I began to pick out as many bits and pieces of usable wood as I could from the bin in my shed.

The construction looked pretty simple from the photo of my inspiration piece (don't worry you'll get to see that photo soon!), but of course, I had to improvise since I didn't have enough 1x2 pieces to do the legs and supports.

Here is the base assembly (and my only during shot because, well, I never remember to take during shots).

And I could not have done this project without a level... I decided I wanted two steps and then the top piece, so I measured out the proper spacing so that the steps were evenly distributed which didn't actually work out since I changed my mind about using 1x2s for my step support pieces and used up some left over 1x4s instead. I hate math, so don't ask me for more details - it makes my head hurt!

Then I ran out of wood, so it took me another two weeks before I found time to go to the lumberyard to buy some 1x4s to finish the steps and sidepieces. While I was waiting to pick up the extra wood, I painted what I had put together with some leftover paint. Just because.

And then I painted the entire piece with a home made chalk paint created from an oops paint sampler I picked up at Home Depot in some shade of grey. It turned out even better than I had hoped!!

And now for the styled photo:

And to compare mine to my inspiration shot:

Cheers!!

PS If you want to check out all the other projects I think I can build myself, see my Pinterest "I Can Build/Make This" board HERE

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Upcycling a Plastic Framed Door Mirror

noreply@blogger.com (Anne) — Tue, 12 Mar 2013 11:29:49 PDT

I did it! I built a nice wood frame from 1x4 lumber for my yard sale find door mirror. Total Cost: $8.00 - $1 for the mirror, $3 for the wood and $4 for mirror clips to attach the mirror to the frame. What a bargain!!

I picked up this cheapo door mirror at a yard sale a couple of summers ago.

Pretty basic!

So I after seeing Shanty to Chic build a simple frame for a similar mirror, I figured I could do that too. I ripped the paper backing off, scored the glue with a blade and pulled the frame off. It was super easy to get down to the mirror. These mirrors are really cheap, they are super flexible when you get the frame off them so be careful if you decide to do this project! I could see this kind of mirror breaking very easily if not stored properly until the new frame is prepared.

I measured the mirror and made sure to cut my wood so that the sides would overlap the mirror. I cut the long ends first, then took the two long pieces and clamped them together before cutting the ends at 45 degree angles (this way they're the identical length). Then I dry fit the long pieces to the mirror and made sure the shorter pieces were going to fit properly. Mine were a smidgen too long, so I recut the two short boards and dry fit them again before cutting the 45 degree angles on them.

When I had everything fitting together perfectly, I glued the pieces together and used big rubber bands as clamps to hold the wood in place. I added a couple of staples to make sure everything stayed tight.

I wanted a wood stain look, but I had no stain on hand so I used paint to get this look. I used a bone white paint for the first coat - no primer - with a foam mini roller because I wanted to see wood grain. When it dried to the touch, I used a damp paper towel dipped in Raw Umber acrylic paint (artist's paint tubes) and wiped that over the entire painted surface until I was happy with the colour of the frame. Then I used Minwax Paste Wax in the dark wax colour and waxed the whole surface. Lastly I attached the mirror to the frame using mirror clips.

The mirror clips I bought were heavy duty ones and a little too deep for the mirror, so I added two lengths of 2x1/2 inch plywood to each of the long sides, but if you buy the right clips, you won't have to do that! You could glue the mirror to the frame and skip the clips, but I wasn't sure which glue would hold best so I opted for the clips rather than choose the wrong glue and have it all fall apart later...

Now it can reflect a little more light into my kitchen and I love the look of it!

Happy creating!

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