Guess what?! We started our kitchen remodel! We have been planning this for years and it’s finally here! We found a great carpenter and they started a few weeks ago. I wanted to post a few “before pictures” because who doesn’t love a good before & after :) We fell in love with this house because of the open floor plan, the size of the kitchen and the fact that it’s the center of the home! We have been here a little over two years and even thought the kitchen was very 1994, thankfully it wasn’t offensive…. neutral nineties haha. The worst part honestly was the boxed florescent lighting and my husband fixed that last year. We are keeping the same layout but making a bunch of little changes (and some big ones)… I’ll post some pictures of our selections and our process over the next few weeks. Goodbye pickled oak, linoleum, vinyl and wallpaper. If you want more behind the scenes follow along on my Instagram @taylormadecreates
DIY Ombre Curtains
When I envisioned my dream craft room I knew I wanted everything very white so I could decorate with my bright (and loud) craft supplies and fabric. I searched for some fun curtains for months but couldn’t find any (that I could afford ha!). So I decided to make my own DIY ombre curtains! I went with pink but the color possibilities are endless. This project was so simple but I took a few pictures of my steps, I also did this in the middle of the day and the garage lighting is terrible.
Materials:
– White Curtains ( I found mine at World Market)
– Liquid dye (I used Rit Liquid Dye in Fuchsia)
– A large bucket
Instructions:
Fill your dye bucket with the hottest water from your sink and add a little salt. The salt helps the color stay vibrant! Then add your dye, I used two bottles because I had four panels and I wanted the color really bright.
Hang the curtains up somewhere that you can adjust the height, I used two hangers and my overhead garage door. My curtains were super long so I had to fold the fabric over on the top.
Then, start dipping the bottoms of the curtains in and out of the dye bath.
Pull them out a little then hang them and leave them in that spot for about 8-10 minutes or so.
Repeat this same thing a few more times. Every 8-10 minutes, pull the curtains in and out of the dye bath a few times then hang them a few inches higher than you did the last time and leave them for another 8-10 minutes. I did this about 4-5 times total until I was at the bottom of the curtains.
Then, ring the remaining dye out and rinse them in cool water. I sprayed mine out with the hose and let them drip dry in a tree because I like to make my neighbors think I’m crazy ;)
I let mine dry over night then I ironed them. I didn’t want to wash and dry them because I was afraid of them shrinking and mine are just the right length but washing and drying after dying would be just fine!
I really love how they turned out! They are a fun pop of color but still mostly white just how I like it :) Stay tuned later this week for some updated craft room shots!
Boy and Girl Playroom
For almost two years now, the playroom was all about the boys! It’s been filled with super heroes, trucks and legos. It is still filled with all of those things but now we have a 7 month old baby girl who is making her way in there. The playroom is starting to see things that are pink :) We all love it but I wanted to give the room a little facelift! Now we have our new and improved Boy and Girl Playroom.
This room is one of our bedrooms that shares a bathroom with another room. Instead of the boys having their own rooms, they share a bedroom and then it leaves more room for toys in here :) It works out great right now because they are 4 and 5 so they love sleeping together.
The room was mainly red before but things were getting old and ruined, which seems to be what boys do to things :) Also our toy storage was a big problem because it didn’t exist. So the room always looked like this…
With a little organizing, some paint and a trip to IKEA, now it looks like this :)
I went with the Kallax 4×4 shelving unit from Ikea because I have the 5×5 in my Craftroom and I love it. I also Bought enough boxes to fill half of the squares then filled the other squares with toys and games. I used some fabric scraps and ruffled them then used hot glue to dress up the boxes a little. Then I used my silhouette to label each box. And yes I still have the VHS TV in there for their viewing pleasure :) I cant bring myself to throw away all of our Disney moves.
My oldest son helped me make the felt triangle bunting to go around the window, the curtains are white so I wanted a little pop. We also took down the little workbench because they were getting too old for it and I replaced it with the chalkboard/dry erase easel and a basket of our preschool stuff.
I changed the slipcover to a green one so I gave the play market a little facelift too.
Then my youngest son helped me repaint our Play Kitchen. It was scratched and dirty so we (not very perfectly) painted it aqua to match the blues and greens in the room. Don’t look too closely but while we were painting my son said “Mom… painting is BERY FUN!” :) I also added a new window pic, some curtains, a bunting and some fun paper jars. Hopefully little miss will love this as much as my boys did!
So far, its been way more picked up. I try to remind them to only take down one box at a time so that rule helps! Also because this is a bedroom, there is a nice sized closet that holds books, board games, costumes, trucks and those lovely VHS tapes.
In my perfect world we could tear up this carpet and have hardwoods but my husband says legos are more cozy on carpet ;) Let me know in the comments if you have any questions about anything!
Union Jack End Table
This project has been in my head for about two years now. I’m so happy to see it come to life! This piece of furniture because it was a little blah but my main problem (and why I didn’t try it for two years) is that I hate sanding and worried about being able to cover the black. Then, the one and only Martha came out with a new line of paint products… Vintage Decor Paint :) A Matte Chalk Finish, requires no prep, is self priming, and comes in 22 colors! OK!!
I used 3 colors for my end table: Red Wagon, Wedding Cake and Sailor Blue. I also used the Antique Wax and the Vintage Decor Paintbrush.
I started out by painting the sides, back and top of the table blue. The paint is super thick, almost like a thick gluey consistency.
I was super impressed at how well it covered the table! This is a very thin coat on one side. I could have gotten away with one coat but I waited about 30 minutes and did a second coat just for extra coverage.
Next, I taped off the Union Jack. All of the tape lines are where the white parts will be.
I also did two coats for the front of the table too. On the left is one coat and on the right is two coats.
When I pulled off the tape I had some major bleeding but it was because of my tape job (oops). This shows how I taped off the rest of the table to paint the white parts. I waited about 1-2 hours between each step to make sure I didn’t tape over any wet paint. I used three small paint brushes at the very end for all of the touch ups from the bleeding and that worked great!
I waited for it to dry overnight and the next day I sanded it to look more “antique”. I sanded the corners and edges as well as some flat surfaces.
The last step was to apply the wax. The instructions said to apply a thin layer and then wipe off the excess with a wet lint free rag. I was nervous about it because it was super thick and very brown but after you wipe, it all makes sense. You can see how it gives it a richer, darker more aged look.
On the left I had used the antique wax and I hadn’t on the right yet… it’s more obvious on the white parts.
After drying for a few hours you can buff it with another clean rag.
I am pretty much in love with the way it turned out! It looks so at home in our living room! Speaking of at home… I couldn’t get a certain five year old to move from the couch before these pictures were taken :)
Here is a video introducing the line and a coupon code for you to get 25% OFF all Vintage Decor Paint that is valid at Micheals Stores through 9-12-14. Be sure to visit Plaid Online and check out their blog for more project ideas. For even more inspiration you can find them on Pinterest, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Google+.
I wrote this post as part of a paid campaign with Plaid Crafts and Blueprint Social. The opinions in this post are my own.
- « Previous Page
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
- 6
- …
- 13
- Next Page »