Small Bathroom Reveal and Free Artwork

Wow it is hard to photograph a small bathroom!!! Especially with a dark wall and a bright window and a reflective mirror.... 

Immediately I knew that I had to paint our small main floor powder room. And it didn't take me long to make the bold move and paint the whole thing a dark navy! I am so glad I did, I love this room!!! (A side note, it too forever to paint this room navy, it took so many coats and with it being a small room with unmovable items in it, it just took a long time!!!)

I knew I would need some fabulous artwork in this room, I gave my kids paper and a couple colors of paint in the colors I wanted, and yeah instant FREE artwork!!!

Being a small powder room, there is not any storage, so I thought this Ikea shelf would not only complement the navy wall color but be a perfect small storage space!

I also didn't want a basic builder grade mirror in all of my bathrooms, so I found this pretty mirror which works perfectly with the dark navy walls!

I love my small little navy bathroom!

Painting Stripes Quickly

This is my third time painting striped walls! And I liked how they turned out in Little Man's last bedroom I replicated them in his new bedroom. The difference this time I was I decided I wanted six big stripes instead of eight smaller ones. 

Before I started painting the stripes, I looked for tips to paint stripes quickly, because I needed to finish this project in as little time as possible. We were hosting a house warming party soon and I had a babysitter for my daughter. (She isn't the best helper with painting!) 

I used green frog painters tape and I read some tips that if I used this I could just trust that my lines would turn out crisp. Well since I had such a limited time and was using a dark color on a light wall, I didn't want to take the risk. So after I used a level to get my tape on the wall, I used my base paint (the light blue) and painted right over the tape to seal the tape. I only used this technique on the top two stripes, since the bottom stripe won't be seen with the bed and the shelf. 

After two coats of my dark navy paint (which is my absolute favorite!!!!!) I removed the tape while the top coat was still wet. Since I didn't do the extra bottom coat on the bottom stripe, that was the first one I removed the tape on, and it was horrible!!! The line looked horrible. It had bled so much under the tape I was so disappointed!! And so nervous about my other two stripes. Luckily you can't see the bottom stripe, so it is ok. See below for how much it bled! 

With my fingers crossed, I slowly removed the tape on the top two stripes and they were perfect!!!! So in the long run my extra step of painting the bottom coat did save me time, or I would have spent a lot of additional time fixing the bled. 

So save yourself some time in the long run and do the extra step of painting your base coat over your tape, even if you have the best tape out there! 

Master Bedroom Dresser Re-Do

A while back I AGAIN re-did a dresser for our master bedroom. Remember this dresser I painted. With all of the shuffling we did around making a Big Boy Room for Little Man, we had to move things out of the Guest Bedroom and I wanted to add a dresser to out bedroom, so it worked out perfectly!

This dresser was so easy to paint the first time. BUT this time I knew it would hold some of my husband's clothes, so I did not want it to smell at all.  I spent a lot of time removing the musty smell from it buy by doing that I somehow warped the drawers so they wouldn't fit back into the dresser. That was problem number one I had to fix! 

Then I accidentally broke a drawer so I had to glue it back together. Things just took a lot longer than they needed too! BUT I am so happy with the finished results and I love how it looks in our bedroom! 

Top Posts of 2012

My top 2012 posts are as follows:

DIY Burlap Wedding Shower Invite

Red Envelope Knock-off Artwork

Craft Room Reveal

Chevron Curtains

And my most popular post of 2012 is my DIY Pouf

I can't wait to share my projects in 2013! Happy 2013 to everyone and thanks for reading!!

Christmas Subway Art

I love the Subway Art I made for my living room.  As I was recently admiring it, I thought I should figure out where I bought that board so I could make another one in that size since I like the size!! It's a 12 x 24 inch board. Well...... a light bulb went off..... why not just use the back side of the board, then I don't have to store either when its not in use!!!!

SO here is my new Christmas Subway art. It works for this year, but I created my file in Silhouette Studio on my laptop using the same font I used on my black one and sent it to myself to cut out on my desktop.... and SOMEHOW the font changed!!!!! I didn't realize until I had the entire thing cut out and placed on the board... so I had extra space.... so its not as perfect as I would like it to be.... it meant I had to done some piecing together and some of the lines are not straight :) Has anyone else every had this problem???

Maybe if I am bored in the next couple weeks or next year I will re-do it!!! But just think of all of that vinyl I would waste and it works for now!!!

More Subway Art

I finally made myself some Subway art, after making it for everyone else!!

I used a 12x24in piece of plywood for mine and pretty much followed my previous post Subway Art Sans the Silhouette except this time I did use the Silhouette!

I learned a few lessons on this. I designed my 12x24 inch file in the Silhouette studio software which was fine but its kind of hard dealing with that large of a piece of vinyl! I used transfer tape (not the transfer paper) for the first time. Did you  know there was transfer paper and transfer tape? I kind of like the transfer tape better, its basically a large roll of masking tape. So again dealing with a 12x24inch piece of transfer tape was a lot of tape to deal with. I placed the entire 12x24inch piece at one time and then ripped the transfer tape row by row only removing one row at a time. The whole thing took a lot more time that I thought BUT it worked out perfect!

The vinyl was perfectly straight!!!

  AND I used the trick of painting a layer of your base coat over the vinyl before using your top coat (in my case white) I really do think it helps! AND I have one letter that up close was not 100% perfect!

I am so happy with how it turned out! I love its "odd" size! I decided not to distress it. I might still go back and do that. I was just so happy with how it turned out I didn't want to go back and play with it any more!!

My Current TO-DO list

To try and keep myself honest and ACTUALLY get things DONE, I thought I would post my TO-DO LIST to be completed by April 1. And cross them off as I do them!!! Why April 1, well we have a big birthday in April so I figure that's a nice time frame. It also gives me time before my sister's wedding in May and then doesn't put the pressure on to have a million projects to do over the summer!

1. Finish Little Man's room - DONE - just need to blog it someday

This was done before, but I made some changes, so its no longer "done" I don't have too much left in this project. Just some new art work and things for the wall. Super EASY! I should be able to cross this off of my list in a week.... right??

2. Re-Do Wall of Guest Bedroom - DONE - sort of.... its a fix for now....  again need to blog it

I love my guest bedroom, but I don't love this wall of the room. It just doesn't quite cut it. So I have plans to re-do it. Not 100% sure yet what it will look like, but it will include the Red Envelope "You make me happy when skies are Grey" artwork.

3. Organize Craft Room - DONE

OMG this room is a disaster!! Trust me it's a mess and is in desperate need of organization! Some days it looks better than others... but most of the time its a stressful place to work on projects. I have started a gallery wall in this room, which I love, but need a few additions.

Update: This room is done!!! Check it out!

4. Add Some Style to the Master Bedroom - Working on it

I love our end tables, headboard, the lamps, the sconces above the bed... BUT this room just needs MORE. Besides what you can see in this picture, there is one photo on the wall, which is directly opposite of the bed. To the left is a big blank wall, to the right is a nice big wall of windows with white curtains. I love the start of this room, but it just needs MORE! Like another gallery wall, and maybe a stenciled wall behind the bed. We will see! Check out my Master Bedroom Pinterest Board...

5. The Living Room - Still a hot mess!!

We have lived in this house for six months and I still have not gotten around to this room. And of course it's the first room you see as you enter the house! When we moved in I put those black shelves up but I don't like them. The empty room has been a 4th playroom for my son... and worked out well for our Christmas tree... and currently holds Little Man's train table... but it's time for this room to at least have a place to sit! A while back I bought 2 chairs on Craig's List that need to be refinished, so I have to tackle that project! A while back I started pulling staples... I didn't get very far because it was hard work! ... and I have upholstered easy chairs before like these and this... but never a big chair... Then of course I want to paint and curtains, artwork... oh the possibilities.... check out my Pinterest living room board...

6. Paint Guest Bathroom Vanity - NOTHING.....

Just because I have the paint and I want too... and I think it would look fabulous with the Dr. Seuss decor of the bathroom!

7. Paint the Main Floor Bathroom - NOTHING

It's a pale green, and its fine, but I don't like fine in my house! I am thinking white and turquoise!

8. Finish Little Man's Photobooks - ONE DOWN.....

When Little Man was born I had the brilliant... crazy... something... idea that I should make one photobook PER month for him... Little man was born in April and I think I did the first month pretty quickly... and then things slowed down. As of 2 weeks ago I had only finished the first 6 months (which is PRETTY good considering my insane idea) then 2 weeks ago I completed 2 more books. So I am ONLY a year behind and need to complete January of 2011 until April 2011. THEN I need to figure out how I am going to do year 1... Obviously I should NOT keep doing this insane idea of one photobook per month for the rest of his life... too insane, plus any additional kids we have. I am debating either one for the entire year or maybe 2 for the year... we will deal with that when it happens... hopefully before his second birthday!!

9. Lose like 40 pounds - NOPE DIDN'T DO

I ordered my bridesmaid dress 2 sizes too small so I need to make sure it fits!! Even though my son is almost 2 years old, I still have not lost the baby weight... but that's a whole other story... so it's time to lose it and get on with my life!!!

So there we have 9 super easy projects that I can easily get done in 2 months... right?? Time to get off the computer and get doing... something...

Update: So as of April 1, I had 3 things done. I picked April 1 because I knew we were going to be on vacation for a week and it was Little Man's birthday.... and my sister's wedding... so yeah not all that great.... oh well, on to the next goal list... 

The new house nursery

I finally finished my son's second nursery! I knew I wanted to do an accent wall and this is what I came up with! It is based on the Restoration Hardware Baby curtains and bed skirt I purchased.

It was very simple to paint. First I painted the Silver Sage color (I have used this before, I had it color matched at Home Depot with Behr Paint) I let it settle for 4 days and then taped the thin brown line.
Here is the rest of the nursery:
I love how bright little man's room is! Making the black out curtains a must! I love the white little book shelf. It's now a favorite of his as well, he likes to climb in it and play with the stuff on top off the shelf.
My little man and I made this stool for him to look out the window. I am planning on painting his name and date under his foot prints!

Dr. Seuss Bathroom

My 18 month old has a new fun Dr. Seuss One Fish Two Fish bathroom! And he LOVES IT! He loves showing off the fish and pointing to them!

I got the idea from Pottery Barn Kids. They recently had a Dr. Seuss One Fish Two Fish Bathroom, but I discovered it after it was no longer available from Pottery Barn Kids, and I did not want to pay Ebay prices, so I made my own version with some paint and a Target Shower curtain and Target Accessories. I am very happy with how it turned out and a lot less than what Pottery Barn Kids originally sold it for and less than I would spend on Ebay!!

Little Man showing off the fish!

The wall was already painted a shade of blue, so I used a projector to get the outlines of the fish and then free handed the rest of the mural. I used Behr paint samples from Home Depot in several Disney colors! The fun bright colors were perfect for this project! I replicated the waves from the inspiration Pottery Barn Kids shower curtain to create the accent wall.

Little Man pointing at the fish. I used a paint pen to outline the mural, my first time using a paint pen, but not my last!

One fish and blue fish!

Behind the door looks a little funny because there are no fish, but its behind the door and where we hang bath robes.
Red fish!

Red fish (and my favorite, I think he turned out the best!!!)

PBK had cute bath accessories that were bright primary colors with descriptions on them. I found these great bath accessories at Target and stenciled then with Martha Stewart's new stencils to replicate PBK's accessories.

Three fish!
Throw in a Dr. Seuss hat and you have a complete bathroom perfect for any little man!

The shower curtain is also from Target.
Two fish!

I am so proud of my finished bathroom. This is the first time I have done any major painting like this and I am very happy with how it turned out! And its even better that my Little Man loves it too!

Playroom fabulous table and chair set

I am in the process of decorating my son's play room in bright primary colors. When we moved into our new house, the previous owners left a slightly boring table and chair set (for some reason there were only 3 chairs). Figuring I had nothing to loose, I had fun with the spray paint!! I LOVE how it turned out and I think it looks great in the soon to be finished bright primary color play room!

I did not take a picture of the whole set, but here is a before of one of the chairs. Some of them were in better shape than others. There were a few paint splatters on the chairs as well.

I primed the chairs. At one point I was thinking of painting all of the chairs white and painting the table a bright color.

I love how bright and happy the chairs turned out!



I forgot to take a before of the table, but you get the point. I primed the table and gave it a nice coat of bright blue!



I am so happy with how the table and chairs turned out! I can't wait to be done with the entire play room! It's going to be a fun and bright place for my son to play!