Decal Decorating

I have kind of a silly little post for you today.  I was in the mood to play with some removable decals I bought at Target, I had seen several fun Pins on Pinterest using them on a variety of surfaces.  If you know anything about me you know I could not resist getting some of my own and going wild all over the house sticking them on just about everything.  I will say some of them will not stay up very long but they were so much fun to play with I just could not stop myself. Yikes!!!! I was addicted!!!  Here’s what happened.

A shot of the container and one of the decal sheets so you can see what I used and all the great colors.

First up was my washer and dryer, I actually bought the removable decals to hide several rust spots and damaged areas on both machines. I used the retro colored flowers to match the laundry room décor; I loved them so I went onto the next room to see what else I could put them on. Guess which room was next?

You got it right if you guessed the downstairs guest bath. The little white cabinet was super basic so it got a face lift with some decals inside and out.

I could not stop there so the tank and lid got some too, kind of funny if you think about it, how cute is that!  I probably won’t leave them there but they were a kick to do.

Why stop there, I still had more decals leftover in the upstairs guest bath colors, so up the stairs I ran to see what I could use them on next!  (I think I probably lost my mind by then but I was having a great time!)

The medicine cabinet was driving me nuts due to some rust and stains which would not come off even after using some heavy duty cleaners.  Those decals would do the trick and cover up the imperfections I did not want my guests to see when they came to stay.  Woohoo!!! I was a very happy camper when the stains just disappeared under the flowers, not to mention it was cute too.

I still had two more decals left; guess where those went, right onto the tank and seat cover is where they went. Darn it, I was finally out of decals, oh well that was enough crazy for one day anyway.

I hope you enjoyed my adventures with decal decorating all over my home, I had a great time and I hope you got a little chuckle out of it too.  I think that about wraps up the decorating with decals, decorative tapes and adhesives but you just never know what I will come up with next. Next up should be a new Easter Tablescape post so watch for that one.

See you soon.

Laurette

Seashell Picture Frame

I have a quick little project for you today, this one only took me about an hour to make maybe a little less; I hope it encourages you to make one too.  My guestroom/office is an ocean inspired room with hints of the sea sprinkled throughout the space, when it came time to frame my granddaughter’s new school picture I knew just what I wanted to do with the basic boring frame I had laying around.  The inspiration came form Simply Handmade, the June/July 2011 issue, it was jam packed with lots of great projects and the photo frame was one of them.  This project was in my “To Do” pile ever since that magazine came out; I finally had the perfect reason to make it, no more moving it around the studio to make room for other projects.

Here is what you will need to make your own frame:

Photo frame

Pearls

Assorted Shells

Starfish

Sand dollars

Moss

Hot glue gun, hot glue sticks

**Note:  All my supplies came from Michael's Crafts, except my sand dollars those came from one of my beach excursions, but you can buy those as well.

The first thing I did was place my sand dollars at each edge of the frame to give it the stop and start boundaries, about half way down one side and half way across the top edge.  Next I glued the starfish in the center point between the two sand dollars and worked my way around the frame with several of the larger sea snails and scalloped shells, filling in with smaller shells and finally the pearls.  The book calls for moss around the edges, corners and to fill between the shells, I forgot the moss and added it after I took the photo. It was much easier to work from the larger shells inward toward the starfish and filling in with the smaller shells and pearls, it took away the confusion of what to do first and shows off the focal point items around the frame.  It was just that easy, all done and ready for the photo.

*Tip of the day: use a hair dryer to melt any glue threads left from your glue gun, it will make your project look much sharper.

My granddaughters outfit makes the frame and shells really pop on the ice blue walls. I love it and the frame looks just right in the room.

I hope you enjoyed my seashore photo frame project and it inspires you to make one of your own. I have a lot more projects to share with you on this blog and my other blog as well. Coming up are more decal decorating projects, an Easter tablescape, the family room/kitchen makeover, charming chairs rehab project and so much more.  On the Buttons, Bows & Bling blog there are several sewing projects for the family room/kitchen makeover and a darling knit dress I recently made, keep watching for all of them, they will be posting in the next few days.

See you soon.

Laurette

Southern Carriage House

Today’s topic is how to spruce up your curb appeal by adding decorative items to the outside of your home and porch.  A couple of years ago we purchased our current home leaving behind one I truly loved in a neighborhood gone bad. Our home had been newly painted a pretty sandy taupe with white trim, white lattice work fencing, black shutters and rod iron accents, it was so pretty. The new home was newly painted tan with dark brown trim and light cocoa accents on the shutters and front door, can you say colorless! (I absolutely hated it but loved the size of the house so we bought it anyway) Last year I began the curb appeal process by painting our front door a dark red so guests could find the door when stepping onto the porch.  This year I am determined to get all of the trim painted a nice white with the shutters painted in a sharp glossy black, more like our last home.  I wish I could repaint the body of the house but a two story home this size is pretty costly to repaint after only three years, trim work and embellishments will just have to do for now. 

To give our cookie cutter home some individual personality and a bit of southern carriage house flare I unpacked all my rod iron accents and added a few new pieces to my collection to place around the outside of the house. Upon inspection of all my treasures I noticed rust had taken over several of my outside décor items.  That was just not going to work on the house if everything was in less then perfect condition, so I cleaned all my pieces prepping for a new coat of Hammered Black Spray Paint by RUST-OLEUM, perfect for my outdoor decorations.  Everything got a new coat of paint, nice and fresh and ready to find homes on the front of the house.

Before:

This is the front window of the house, nothing stellar to look at, not even any shutters, (I plan to remedy that when the trim gets painted) a perfect place to add curb appeal.

After:

We placed an elegant half round over the window and two rod iron carriage lights on each side of the window giving the front of the house some dimension and making it pop, love it!

The front porch got a few pieces as well which stand out against the tan color of the house; it is not a large porch, leaving room for just a small bistro set and a plant, it is bigger then the one I had before giving me some room for a little decorating.

Last but not least, the house numbers and the hose reel.  The numbers were a faded light brown which you could not read from the street and were so flimsy they threatened to crack when I tried to take them down.  I decided to paint them in place using a very tiny paint brush, they came out great and you can see them from the street.  The hose reel got a coat of hammered black paint as well to make everything cohesive straight across the front of the house.  My ultimate goal is to put some carriage house hardware on the roll up garage door to make it look like two doors opening in the middle, I think that will get done after the new paint on the house; then I will truly have my cozy cottage carriage house. Did I mention I live in California in a subdivision and almost all of the houses look the same in each housing tract; boring! Not for me, you just wait and see what happens!

Thanks for letting me share my new curb appeal project, I had a great time adding some much needed color and dimension to my home; I can’t wait to finish the rest.  Oops!!! I forgot to take a photo of the front of the house so you could see it all pulled together, I will do that soon, watch for it.

See you soon.

Laurette