Revisiting the Starfish and Picture Frames

Remember my recent post about the starfish and picture frames? I wasn't going to do anything with them until after I moved, but Elijah is with his grandpa all day today so I figured I might as well get something accomplished!

So, I started by using some spray adhesive to glue some white cardstock onto the back of the $1 (yes, $1!!) frames.

Next, I measured and cut out some burlap about an inch smaller than the cutout for the frames.

I frayed the edges a little bit by pulling out 3 strands on each side then I put a little dot of hot glue in each corner so it would stay in place. I didn't glue the whole thing down because I wanted to be able to move it around since it's really hard to get burlap straight.

I really wasn't crazy about the corners...

So I came up with a solution to cover them up and add a little bit of shine.

Muuuch better! Now you can't tell the corners were missing a little sumpin' sumpin'.

Next, I just glued the starfish in place and popped them back in the frame.

I love how it looks like the starfish are dancing! This was such an easy and cheap project and didn't take long to make at all!

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Basket Embellishment

I went to Home Goods (one of my fave stores!) this past weekend to find baskets to go on the top shelves of my new tv stand (which by the way, all the wood is cut and now just needs to be assembled, stained, and polyurethaned...wow, ok, I still have a long way to go!). Anyhoo, I've seen these baskets everytime I go to Home Goods and I have always admired the wooden embellishments on one side, but the only 2 left were, well, not the cutest.

Yeah, they just weren't doing anything for me, so I was about to put them back, but then I figured I could do something to change the look of the wood cutout. And plus, they were only $5 bucks each!

I measured the cutouts and took a measuring tape with me to Michael's where I found this wood applique.

It's not a perfect fit, but it's not that noticeable. I'm trying to practice telling myself that not everything has to be perfect ::deep breaths::

I held the applique in place and traced the cutout on the back because I wanted to leave the wood bare where I would be gluing so that I could get a better bond.

And I ended up with this:

I pulled out my craft paints and couldn't find a great match, but decided to paint it anyway and try and work with what I had. It turned out looking like a charcoaly-brown; not so cute!

I tried adding different browns to make it look better, but it wasn't happening. I have learned that sometimes walking away from a project is the best thing you can do because that's usually when an idea pops in your head...which in this case I remembered that I have some Espresso spray paint left over from another project. I wasn't sure how it would look since it has a satin finish, but I ended up really liking the contrast between the applique and the background.

It's amazing how such a small thing can make such a big difference! Now I just have to go get another one. I originally only bought 1 to see if I liked how it turned out. Ok, and I also only had 1 coupon with me at the time =)

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Elijah's Lanterns

I was trying to find the perfect lamps for my son's room a while back, but wasn't quite sure what route to take. When picking out his bedding when I was pregnant, nothing really jumped out at me. There were some cute jungle prints that I found, but I wanted to pick something that would grow with him. After looking at several different stores with no luck, I decided to see if my mom would make his bedding. My inspiration? A grandpa's sweater. Yes, that was seriously my inspiration. I wanted fabrics with a subtle pattern and toned-down colors. I ended up finding the perfect fabrics at Beverly's. Two dark olive green fabrics, two mustardy  fabrics, and a rusty red fabric. While we were at Beverly's, I spotted a huge star hanging way up on the wall. I knew I just had to have it! It was an ugly yellow, so I painted it to match the red in his quilt. I also had some iron stars that I bought at Denio's swap meet several years ago and thought those would be perfect for the room. I still didn't have a theme per se, but my mom bought the picture below online of a little boy taking a bath and it kind of reminded me of a little cowboy with that western feeling.

I didn't want to go over the top with the whole 'western' idea, so I have kept the decor pretty simple. Wait, isn't this post supposed to be about lamps??  Well, I guess giving you the down low on his bedroom decor will help you to understand my choice of lighting. I thought it would be cute to have something that suggested a western kind of feel without screaming it (like a cowboy shaped lamp!), so I got the idea to get electric lanterns (found on this website).

Here's a picture of the kind I got:

I think they are so adorable, but I'm not crazy about the brass.

I'm debating on painting those parts with a flat black, but I haven't quite decided yet. Any thoughts?

Starfish and A Picture Frame

I have been looking FOREVER for some cheap, matching picture frames. But they also had to be sturdy and have some kind of moulding or interest of some kind. Usually I find some that are cute, but are too expensive, or I can find only one, but today at the thrift store I found TWO matching frames with detailing, and I was pretty much sold when I saw they were solid oak.

Perfect!

I took them home and sanded them right away. Next, I primed and painted them an off white to match my vanity bench. I also applied the same Early American wood stain to give it an aged look.

I don't have a finished product for you yet, but here is a preview:

I have some good plans for the frames which involve another frame I have waiting for me in New Jersey. Hopefully I'll get to show you guys soon!

Cubby Makeover

I got this cubby thing (I have no idea what to call it!) about 7 years ago from Denio's and knew right away I would be painting it.

I painted it green (my fave color) right when I got home. I didn't even put primer on it 'cause I'm just that impatient. Over the years though, I really started disliking the shade of green because it had a blue undertone, so I decided to remove the black stand it was on and paint it. I used my usual Lucky Bamboo by Behr and things were going great...until little pieces of paint started flaking off. And that, boys and girls, is exactly why you should use primer! I had to scrape all the paint off so I could start from scratch. When I got it back down to the wood, I started kinda liking that look, but it's just a veneer and it started chipping. Back to Plan A: Paint.

After I primed and painted, it looked like this.

Then I used Minwax Early American stain. You can tell the drawer on the right has the stain and the one on the left doesn't.

Wow, please excuse the photos! It's so hard to capture the color green on a camera!

I finally got around to polyurethaning it this weekend and I love how it turned out.

Had to add a pretty flower to the mix!

I kinda feel like it's missing something though. I was thinking new knobs, but unfortunately the current ones were glued on, not screwed, so I'm thinking they might be hard to remove. I thought about painting them, but wasn't crazy about that either. What I really want to do is get some cute label holders (like the kind used for scrapbooking), but I haven't been able to find exactly what I want. I'm sure you'll be seeing an update on this piece in the future!

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Project Woes

Ahhh, polyurethane. We have a love/hate relationship. It's usually love, but this weekend it's pure hatred.  Remember my scroll painting I did a while back?  Well, I finally decided to polyurethane it, along with some other projects, this weekend.  I'm sure we could all agree that a little poly makes any project look better, but this is what she did to my painting.

That's actually what it looked like after hours of having a few dumbells on top. I set up my workshop outside yesterday because the weather was so nice and I got started on polyurethaning the backside. Then I took my son to the park while it dried and when I came back, both sides were completely bowed by about 5 inches!! My heart totally sank because I spent a ton of hours painting this thing. My dad's theory is that it shouldn't have been in the sun, but my other project was in the sun and didn't do this. I'll definitely poly in the shade from here on out though! And I'm thinking I might just have to have my dad make a frame for this to get rid of the rest of the bowing.

Not only did the painting bow, but some of the poly leaked onto the front and dried all goopy.

This isn't even the worst of it! I tried taking a razor blade to gently ease it up, but it cut right through all the layers of paint and revealed bare wood. Plan B? My trusty fingernails. I couldn't get all the mess up, so I did the best I could then touched up the paint. I had actually forgotten which paint I used for the background color and used the wrong color, then had to go back and paint over it. And since the chocolate brown was a spray paint, I had to use a brown that I had on hand which was more of a grayish-brown. Yeah, today just isn't a good project day for me!!

After I got the goop up and retouched the paint I put a coat of poly on the front. I'm keeping my fingers crossed as I anxiously await to see what happens.  It seems to look ok as of now, but since there is a slight sheen to the poly, I know it will highlight the imperfections (you can see them on the left in the picture below).

And don't worry, that's just the reflection on the painting and not spilled paint, although that would be my luck!!

Little Stool Makeover

I have had this stool forEVER...or at least since 3rd grade. We went on a field trip to Sutter's Fort here in Sacramento and we each made a stool and a cornhusk doll and I honestly don't remember what else. I've always thought the stool was kinda ugly because I like the stools with a V, or I guess it's more like an A, cut out on the bottom of both sides. Know what I mean? But the purpose of these stools was to be able to sit on it AND turn them upside down and carry our goodies in, so they kind of had to be made like this.

I don't even remember what the 'A' on the side stands for. I don't know if we all burned our first initial on the side or what?

And for some reason, I got the urge sometime in elementary school to put a footprint stamp in the corner.

It was time to either do something with this stool or get rid of it, and considering I have held on for this long, I figured I might as well give it a shot.  I decided to do a simple stain...

But I did not like the look of this at all. I didn't want to paint the whole thing either, so I compromised and left the top stained. I did 4 coats of white, purposely not letting them dry inbetween coats. Why, you ask? I wanted to be able to chip away at the paint and the edges and I knew it would be easier to do if the paint was not completely cured. I could have just sanded the edges, but that would have made it look too smooth. So while the paint was still slightly tacky, I took the edge of a flathead screwdriver (is that what they're called?) and rubbed the edges of the stool.  I also scraped away at random parts of the stool to give it an overall old look.

I still didn't like the color of the stain, so I rubbed the top with watered down black craft paint. Here is the final product.

But I think I might just use it as a magazine holder instead!

If you are a Country Living subscriber you know those are very old magazines, but it's SO hard finding time to flip through them when you have a toddler running around! =)

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