My first chalk paint project!

Hi y'all!  It has been forever and a day since I've had time to get crafty around the house!  I'm finally getting back to working on things around here.  I've started painting the hallway, and the kitchen will be next. Then David's room will get a major overhaul.  Oh, and I have an AWESOME product to share with you - I will use it to replace my faux painted kitchen counters early in June.  But for now I want to show you my first chalk paint makeover!

It's a tiny little table that we got as a hand-me-down from family.  Our foyer is very small, so the table is a perfect fit for the little area right next to the front door.   I always have several candles on it, because you will almost always find candles lit in my house!  Right now there is also a set of mini prim houses I got all together in a bag at Goodwill for 99 cents.  One of my favorite thrift finds!  The table came to us with a few stains and water marks on the top, but the candles and mini houses kind of covered them up.

But, the table was the same color as the floors and that was starting to drive me crazy. The walls are brown, the floors are brown, the table.....you get the point! I'm trying to brighten things up here.  The current wall color - Sherwin Williams Library Pewter - used to be so cozy to me.  Now, it's cave-like and depressing! So we definitely need some color in this house.

David and I were at Countryside Antiques in Hoschton last month and I saw a display with this chalk paint, the soft wax and the brushes.  I figured it was a good time to makeover my table, so we bought them all.  I got the small (8 oz) container of paint because I've heard it doesn't take much chalk paint to complete projects. (Turns out this is true - I barely made a dent in this container after finishing the table.)

I know I am late getting on the chalk paint bandwagon.  I'd heard it was expensive.  I'd heard the wax was expensive and a lot of work.  But I also heard that it was so easy to work with - there was no prep work! Just clean the item and paint.  No sanding, no priming, no stripping the stain or paint already on your furniture. My sweet sister-in-law, Lia had used chalk paint with beautiful results and gave me her tips on using it, too.   So.....

When I got home, I brought the table upstairs, and cleaned it from top to bottom with soapy water and let it dry. And I took the before picture, too!  Using the new paint brush, I applied a light layer of the chalk paint.  (the color I used is Toile)   After it dried for about 30 minutes,  I added a second coat.   Next, I lightly distressed it in a few places with a sanding block I got at Dollar Tree.

I let it dry for a few minutes before I began the final step of waxing.  I got a little wax on the round wax brush, and pushed it onto the table and into all of its nooks and crannies -  top, legs, and sides included.  Then I just buffed it with a dry rag and voila - all done! I waxed, then buffed a small area before moving on to the next area. It took a while, but it was so worth the time I put into this project! I absolutely adore my "new" table!! It's like a little bit of the beach in my foyer - the light aqua color reminds me of Florida and the ocean.

I was pretty nervous to try my hand at chalk paint, but found that it is actually one of the easiest paints I've ever used, and the wax was simple to apply, too.  The finish on my table is soft and pretty. You don't see the brush marks, just a velvety look that is really lovely.  I can't wait to use these products again!

Next up, I will be making over a paper towel holder for D's bathroom. Paper towels are easier than a hand towel in a kiddo's bathroom! It is a dark, ugly wooden one from Goodwill.  I'm thinking of using Faux Real Mineral Paint in Bianca, a beige color, for it.  I want to use the dark wax on it, too. Stay tuned - I can't wait to see how it turns out!

I am including links to similar products on amazon if you are itching to get started on your own chalk paint projects! (affiliate links)  I especially love the bundle of three waxes - I spent $10 on just one color for mine - this is a much better deal and you get three colors!  They don't carry the same brand of chalk paint but this one in the Biloxi Shores color is very similar to the Toile color I used for my table.








If you've used chalk paint, share your favorite project in the comments below, or a link - I'd love to check them out!!

Thanks for stopping by!

How to make two easy picture frame projects

Last month we visited my Dad in North Carolina.  He is preparing for a move, and downsizing so he had lots of things for my brother, sister & me.  I drove up for the afternoon and the kids & I got to check out all the things he had to get rid of!! (Besides the boxed stuff for all of us).   He let us pick out what we wanted....

My favorite things I brought home were the picture frames!! If I could go back to that day, I'd have gotten more ~ Dad had literally hundreds of frames to get rid of.  I just grabbed a couple that caught my eye.   My favorites were two that had a blue, weathered finish and mats inside - one a light blue, one navy blue.  Once we got home, I tried a few pictures in them, but couldn't find any that really worked with the color of the frame.  What to do?




this frame had the navy blue mat, duh! The frames themselves are identical...

I had picked up some burlap to add to my fabric shelf, so I grabbed it, as well as a bag of old keys that Dad gave me a few years ago.  They belonged to my PaPa, & I've been dying to do something cool to display them!! So with a little time and a lot of glue - here is the result!  I'm going to keep adding keys to this to fill the holes....

Isn't it pretty? I like the bumpy texture and different colors in the burlap.  So perfect for summer!

So, now it's on to frame two.  While blogsurfing yesterday I saw a frame with pretty scrapbook paper in it being used as a dry erase board.  (SO sorry to not remember whose blog I saw that on ~ if it was yours, PLEASE leave a comment so I can give you credit!!)  That's what I decided to make.

Since mine had the mat, I decided to leave it in there and put my paper in the middle, like a picture.  I used a coordinating seahorse scrapbooking paper. Oh, how I LOVE this!!  And it was FREE ~ I had the burlap, the keys, the frame and the glue.  It's very summery & pretty!

Here's a not-so-great picture of it, sorry for the bad quality.  Try not to look at the mess in my craft room reflected in it, lol!!  There's a second picture where I wrote on it so you could see it in action!  I love that I will be able to change the paper on a whim ~ back to school paper, Halloween, Fall, Thanksgiving, Christmas ~ the possibilities are ENDLESS! This will be one piece of home decor I'll never tire of.  The price? FREE!!!  I had the frame, the paper and the dry erase marker. 

Hope you liked these easy-to-make wall decor projects!! What are some of your favorite free d.i.y. projects? 

Linking up with Not So Moody Monday Blog Hop and Made by You Monday.

How to makeover your porch lights!

A few weeks ago I really noticed how badly faded our front porch light fixtures were! They were black when we bought the house, but now that we've lived here six years, the intense sunlight we receive on the front of the house for 6+ hours a day really has taken a toll on them.  I remembered reading a post on Thrifty Decor Chick's Blog that she had spray painted her light fixtures, so I asked my DH to take ours down so I could clean them up and paint them new again!

When he brought them inside they were so gross! Dead bugs inside (eww!), plus the glass was really dirty, so faded and even a bit of rust - can you say big fat hot mess?  I had gotten a can of oil-rubbed bronze spray paint - my favorite - at Walmart, and a really cool spray paint trigger that keeps mama's hands and nails clean (!!) so it was time to paint these suckers!

I used blue painters tape on the three glass sides after I cleaned the fixtures with soap and water and cleaned the glass.  Here's a side by side shot of one straight off the house, and one cleaned up and ready to tape the glass!

Left: Straight off the house, Right: cleaned up glass & fixture

And after they were painted:

Light fixtures after two coats of spray paint.



Each light got two coats of oil-rubbed bronze paint and they look AMAZING! Can you believe how easy it is to revive something with a little elbow grease and a can of spray paint? LOVE IT!

I can't wait for DH to put them back up tomorrow on the front porch - it's got grey river rock, so the black will absolutely pop off that now! : ) 

Have you done any spray paint makeovers? I would love to see them - leave a link so I can come by and comment! : )

Online Sale at Ballard Designs through March 20th

I *drool* over the Ballard Designs catalog and website.  Their gorgeous home furnishings are out of my price range for now, but they do serve as inspiration for things around the home! 

I just received an email about their weekly sale and it looks like anything that hangs on your wall is 20% off this week!

Take this burlap message board:

Even with the 20% off it is still $39.  I'm thinking this would cost under $5 to make ~ looks like those upholstry nails around the edge, and I've heard you can buy the board at home depot for uber-cheap.  Just cover with burlap, add the nails and voila!

Or this ~ the Madison corkboard:


Gorgeous, no?  But the price (before sale) ranges from $299 to $99.  People, check the picture section of your Goodwill or Thrift store! I see beautiful frames with ugly pictures all the time! Spend $10 for the frame, take out the glass, cover the picture with cork (buy cork at the craft store in rolls), and use a little paint, stain and sandpaper to distress the frame.  You'll have a Ballard-inspired corkboard for a fraction of the cost! No one has to know how cheap it was to make unless you want them to!

I tried to find a coupon code for Ballard Designs to share with you, just in case you wanted to spend the money on some of their beautiful home furnishings, but they have requested that the legit coupon code sites block user submissions of coupon codes....so none are out there. 

Have you ever made a Ballard-inspired item for your home? If so, I'd love to see it! Leave me a link to check it out!!

How I made over my laminate countertops

I am never satisfied with our home. I always have 3 or 4 (at least) projects in the works. For example, the dining room chairs I received from my grandparents' home - I painted and reupholstered 2 of the 6 so far. The others are in various stages of priming or painting. The reupholstered seats are stacked neatly in a corner of the dining room. Fortunately for me, we don't use that room often, so it's not a big deal.

OLD chairs:


NEW chairs:


Likewise the one wall in the dining room with wallpaper. When we moved in 6 years ago, I loved it. Then (at the time still a toddler) David tore a piece of the wallpaper off the bottom...and I lost the love for my wallpapered wall! So last summer I began stripping it - but what a chore. Even with the spray stripper gel used with the razor-y thing, we're still getting a layer of the back paper left on the wall from the wallpaper. It is a mindless but tedious job. I only work on it when I'm completely, utterly, bored ~ which is not often!

One project I did complete was my daughter's bathroom vanity. It was a standard white, but we wanted to warm it up, so I faux painted the countertop to look like granite, and painted the base a warm mocha. It's one of my favorite home makeover projects ever... but one of the few of which I don't have a "before" pic to share. Darn it!

But here is the after!




Two years ago I started a kitchen makeover. Two years. What can I say - my husband is very patient, and luckily for me, doesn't care how long my projects take. I'm very lucky!

When we moved in, the kitchen was U-G-L-Y!! I can't stand white walls, white counters, white floors. I have two kids (Three counting my stepson in the summer) and kids make messes! Or at least mine do. So in my head, I envisioned a Tuscan-themed kitchen - warm, inviting, the heart of our home.

Here's the BEFORE:


When the white tile began showing a yellowish stain in several places, I was ready for a new floor. Too bad the budget didn't agree! But, after many hours at various home stores, I found a gorgeous adhesive tile from Home Depot. I knew how to apply adhesive tiles, having used them in my bathroom at my last home. They aren't super durable, but for a few years, they'd work! So we got them - they are a beautiful taupe/rosy beige slate look. It took me about 3 days to get them all on, and I was in LoVe!

(pretend there's a picture here - tomorrow I'll take one!)

Next, I repainted the white cabinets black. Even now, I'm not sure that was the best idea. But it's done. I replaced the hardware with an oil-rubbed bronze set of knobs, and love them, but they are almost lost in all the black. On my to-do list is to make a glaze with a bronze acrylic paint to rub into the cabinets to antique them and add some interest.




We painted the walls, too. I had the paint picked out forever - Sherwin Williams Different Gold. My sister used it in her home and I love it. But while my husband was at the paint store, I did something bad. I went against my gut feeling, and called to ask him to change it to a buttery yellow. Can I just tell you how much I hate it? It's been up for two years this summer. Ugh. Luckily, last week a nice man on freecycle gave me a full gallon of a wonderfully rich gold paint that I'll be using to cover the butter yellow. Soon!

Lastly, the counters. They were white laminate. They stained often - grape juice, coffee drips, you name it, they stained. I was bleaching all the time. Yuck!
So I decided to try this pricey countertop paint from Home Depot. We got it in the Taupe shade. Painted them with it last fall. I have to say that it did not live up to the claims I'd read. It does scratch, it does take more than one coat, and it does not last. I was very disappointed in it. Especially since it was a special order product from Home Depot, and I had to order two quarts, instead of just the one I needed. But, I wouldn't let the newly-taupe chipped counters go to waste. I decided to faux paint over them to look more like granite, since new counters are absolutely the last thing we can spend money on!

So far, not including the counter paint and polyurethene I aleady had, I've spent
$12 on my "new" counters: $1.50 each for 4 shades of acrylic craft paint at Michael's, $3 for six foam rollers at the dollar store, and $3 for sea sponges at Michael's. Not bad at all, right?!

Since I'm going for warmth in my colors, I chose metallic gold, cream, black, and brown paints. I had a small bottle of white, which I did use to lighten up the brown & black for a couple layers, as well.

If you try this at your home, you'll need to clean the counters very well, sand them down a bit, clean again, then apply a base coat. In my Katie-bug's bathroom, my base coat was a brown latex paint. And in the kitchen I used the countertop paint for my base.

Since I already had a base coat on, I started out dabbing the edge of a sea sponge in one color paint, then dabbing it all over the counter. Once you start dabbing the colors on with the sponge, you may think you are doing it OH SO WRONG, because it will look TERRIBLE! Like a weird animal escaped from a zoo and walked all over your counters with weird little paws!! Like this:



But you are doing it right, I promise!! Keep doing it, over and over, letting each layer of sponged on color dry. And keep a selection of sponges on hand so you can rinse them out after each color and let them dry. I dipped one edge or point in the paint, then blotted them on paper until I got the "dotty" look I wanted. Then sponge on the counter randomly. It will feel like you're doing this forever! But it will all come together, I promise!



Keep going! Over and over and over. Dab with different edges of the sponges, and with lots of different color layers. You want to leave a bit of the base coat showing, but have a ton of other layers dabbed on. I also blended the colors to make lighter or darker shades to use as well. Just to add more color like real stone has!



When you decide you like it - stop, step back, and be sure! If it's what you wanted, then it's time to seal those suckers up. I chose an oil based, clear semi gloss finish polyurethene. I've added 4 full coats, but more around the sink, because I want to make sure it will be protected from drips! I finished this afternoon, so tomorrow I can start putting things back on the counter. That is when I'll have some more pics for you! But for now, here is the picture I took Saturday morning, before the poly coats began. It really does look like granite! Well, to be honest, if you stare at it for long, you'll see dabs of paint, not swirls of rock-y beautifulness. But who is gonna stare at my counters, right? And this is SO much better than the stained white I had before! I Love Love Love my new counter. I have three more sections to do before the kitchen is done. Well, I still need to repaint the walls, and add the glaze to the cabinets. But there is a light at the end of the tunnel now that I am tackling the ugly counters!!



Pictures from this morning:




Please ignore the blue painter's tape - I think I'm going to do ONE more poly coat before I take that off. And ignore the ugly yellow on the walls, and the paint that I got on them - they are going buh-bye SOON! Ditto the painted-over electrical outlet covers - they will be white (or maybe black) soon!


Thanks so much for letting me share this makeover with you!! If you have any questions, I'll do my best to answer them, just leave me a comment!