Tuesday, March 31, 2015

A Sneak Peek At Guest Room Changes

I've been busy in the yard this week - raking oak leaves and bringing plants out of the greenhouse. It's been so warm and perfect these last few days. These are in full bloom too:


They are just beautiful and the smell! Just heavenly! Nothing like a huge field of bluebonnets. I have to admit they are my very favorite of wildflowers.

I'm also working on some small projects for the guest room. You see, I found the perfect chair to go in there which sparked a mini makeover. This chair really spoke to me and gave me a direction to go in this room. The fabric on it is adorable! I love the birds in the bright colors!



Because of the chair, the tablecloth turned curtains no longer go, so I also bought new curtains.

Then two of the decorative pillows no longer matched (they were covered with leftover tablecloth fabric):
Old pillow covers - Pretty but they don't go with the new chair
I have this blue and pink that go with the birds:



I drew some bird designs on Heat-n-Bond using my fabrics:



Cut them out and ironed them onto the pillow fronts. Next up, I sewed my new pillow covers. Pretty pillows to go with my pretty new chair.


Close up of long pillow

Close up of small pillow
Can't wait to show you the room with all the new things in place so stay tuned! I'll share that next week.

:o)
Cecilia









Monday, March 23, 2015

Barn Door Frustration

I'm back after a wonderful and relaxing week at the farm. The daffodils were almost done blooming


 but the irises and dogwoods were starting to bloom.


I worked on the barn door and other projects while there. For the barn door, I had a look in mind - I wanted it to have an aged wood look with chippy paint. I used several pieces of leftover wood to try out finishes.

On some I just used stains-


others stains with paint:



and also multiple stains/paint:


I actually liked the last two. Bruce thought the one with red was too busy. I decided to try the last one which was Grey Weathered stain, Early American stain with a white wash over it. I knew it was going to look fantastic.

I don't know what I did wrong but I didn't get that look at all. It was a disaster. The paint clumped and was too heavy in areas, the stain wasn't rich enough and it just didn't turn out the way I envisioned. Ugh!


It just looks too busy to me. Sigh. Of course, I ran out of time and had to leave it as is for now. Frustrating!!

Have you ever had a look in mind for a project but it didn't work out? I think I'm going to have to sand the door and start over. If all else fails, I'm painting it to match the headboard.


Saturday, March 14, 2015

Mail Catcher

Since we don't live at the farm full time (yet), we don't get a lot of mail.

But what we do get always gets thrown on the breakfast bar. Can you say messy and unattractive? Ugh.

All the mail is junked on the counter - messy and seems to breed more piles of stuff

Of course that means I've been looking for something that fits my style and space. I found several different mail sorters. Like this:
source

or this:
source
I really liked this one:
source

But nothing was the right size. Then when at Target (I have not been compensated in any way. I just love that store and find great things there), I stumbled upon this:


hm, right size, galvanized, and cuteness all rolled into one! I knew with a little bit of tweaking, I'd have just the look I was after. To start with, it was a little too shiny so I had Bruce spray it with muriatic acid and rinse with water to get an aged and rusted look.

After it dried, I took my stencil and traced out my letters "MAIL", then filled in with a Sharpie.



 I hung it by the back door:


Hurray! Now the mail has an out of the way spot until we can go through it and take care of it. Much, much better!


 One less clutter area. :o)

Ta da! Clean counter top. Much, much better!
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I'll be finishing the barn door this next week and working on the guest room...I found the cutest chair and it has sparked a (minor) redo of that room! Stay tuned. :o)

Have a fantastic weekend!

Tuesday, March 10, 2015

A Barn Door For The Closet

I've been in the process of redoing the Master Bedroom at the farm. If you missed it, you can read about it here and here.

I ordered the rug from Ballard Design and it came in last week. Then I had to patiently wait for this past weekend to take it up and put it down. It is just what I had envisioned! Isn't it pretty?




 At Home Depot, I found this back in the closet door area:


Yep! Barn door hardware at very reasonable price. It went into our stack of things going up to the farm.

On Saturday, we went to get the lumber for the closet door. (Have I mentioned how awesome my Bruce is?). We talked over the size of planks, type of wood, and how rustic I wanted the door. We figured it all out and picked out the boards we needed. Then we went to the hardware aisle to look for a handle. Hm, the style I liked was huge. "Let's go to Braly's and see what they have", I suggested. So we drove over to Braly's (the local hardware store- so cool! It's in an old school building but I digress) where I found the perfect handle for the door!


Upon getting back to the farm, Bruce went to work - measuring, sawing, and building!



He added the header for the hardware:


 Now I have this:




I love it! It's just what I wanted. To figure out how to finish it, I gathered up several of the leftover board pieces. I'll try out different looks and share them later.

How do you think I should finish it?

I am partying over at:
Flusters Creative Muster Party
You're Gonna Love It Party

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