This weekend I got an odd little collection of things done. Sadly, neither of them is a complete blog post because I either forgot a before picture or an after. I guess I was just too excited about the fact that things were actually happening that I was a little lazy with the documentation. That won't stop me from giving you a run down though. First up, is this crusty little dresser. Forgive me for not getting a true before picture. This is after sanding and a few passes of paint on the top.

 

 

 

I had been planning on giving this dresser to my sister since she moved back home. She was just a little pregnant when I offered it to her and I had a air compressor that hadn't been run over by someone. Now she has a month old baby and I was just getting started. Thanks to my dads awesome skillz we were able to bring my little air compressor back to life. This shot doesn't look too bad, but its a little off in person. It's like my own little Frankenstein.

 

 

After about four hours the dresser was looking a lot less crusty and spent the rest of the weekend drying.

 

 

Just look at that smooth paint job! I have really missed using my paint sprayer while my air compressor was out of commission. It's just perfect! Oh, and if your look past the top of the dresser you can see the desk that goes with it for an idea of what it looked like before I started.

 

 

And because I didn't want to put these dingy brass handles back on I gave them a bunch of coats of black spray paint.

 

 

Wanna see the after? Well, you're going to have to wait. Maybe a while. I already took it down to my sister on Monday. Since having little Ellie the amount of stuff in her room has gotten out of control. She called me a week or two ago asking for me to come help her organize and sift through her stuff, so that was my Monday. I was planing on posting about that, but it was just too chaotic! I know that makes for dramatic before and after pictures, but I didn't want to do that to my sister. Besides, we are not even close to finished. I'm planning on giving that desk the same treatment and possible adding a topper so it can be a changing table. We also want to paint her room and pretty it up a bit, so there's plenty of time for before-ish and afters!

 

Just to satisfy the after portion of this post here is the mantle we installed in the dining room this weekend.

 

 

It's just like the floating mantle we installed in the living room, which is on the other side. And just incase you're asking, there are no progress or before shots. Ha!

 

 

Now that the fireplace downstairs has mantles on both sides that just leaves the loft fireplace. It has a dumb one on it right now, but it's held up with 4 tiny screws and looks like it belongs in a gingerbread house. You can just see it in the top of this picture from when we finished the flooring up there. Basically this is your last shot at asking detailed questions about how we installed our floating beam mantle. Just leave me a comment.

 

 

Alright, me and my partially functioning brain are going to start planning our next project (Winter Pinterest Challenge!) before we forget something else. What are you working on?

 

Nikki Kelly

 

So I've had this lamp shade frame just sitting around for quite a while. I picked it up from the free pile at an estate sale early last summer. It was free because the plain Jane cover was ripped, and probably because it was ugly to begin with. Anyway, I didn't really have a plan for it, but I liked the shale and the fact that it had a sturdy wire frame. I figured an idea would come along sooner or later. Well, that idea was STRING!



First I painted the frame with a newly acquired can of Krylon Duel in Yellow. I just love that color! It's so bright, and it's the perfect pop of color for someone who prefers cool tones, like myself.


Once the paint had time to cure I started wrapping the frame with some thin crochet thread. I started by tying it to the frame and then tightly weaving it through the the panels of the frame. Just a little fair warning, you can only do this part once before there's not enough space to squeeze your ball through the panels.

While you're wrapping the frame with the string make sure to keep it nice and tight. I just used a little pressure in the form of my finger pushed against the frame with the string in the middle while I placed the next round of string.

Since I wanted my pattern to be random I would step back now and then to make sure the string and gaps were evenly spaced out. I didn't want one area to look too heavy compared to others. Once I was happy with the amount of string covering my frame I decided to add a little starch to keep things in place. I took a little bit of Stiffy Fabric Stiffener and diluted it with a little bit of water. Sorry, but I don't have a ratio for you, because I just kept testing it until it would spray out of this empty product bottle. I wasn't looking for a fine mist (I think that would be way too watered down) but I also didn't want a solid stream. Knowing that spraying starch would be messy I thought of a perfect way to contain the mess. I went to the bathroom, turned on the shower, and sprayed my new shade so that any over spray would be rinsed away immediately.

I let the starch dry for about a day before I hung it up. I used one of those little hanging light kits that I've had laying around forever and took the socket off so I could run the wire through the little hole on my lamp shade. It's pretty easy to do yourself, but you can also find videos on YouTube if you need help. With the flip of a switch it casts the craziest shadows on the walls.

And some with the light off.

I love it! Do you have any lamp shade frames waiting for inspiration to strike? Have you come up with an unconventional method to update a lamp shade? What kind of things have you found in the free section of estate sales?

P.S. we've got some exciting projects in the works, like adding an awesome dry bar to our living room, and finally getting around to doing something with our loft/office upstairs so stay tuned for more about that.
P.P.S. If you like DIY lighting check out my DIY chandelier and DIY pendant light.

Well neither the dollar or thrift store had those plastic toys big enough. But never fear, your local Michael's store has them. While I was there I also picked up some spray adhesive and a new color of glitter from Martha Stewart (my favorite!) I also had to make a few different stops to find some birthday candles with little holders. I finally found some at Party City.

I started with a base coat of black primer spray paint. I had it on hand, and thought the glitter would still look even.

Now I must apologize for the lack of pictures for these steps, but I found a drill bit that was close to the same size as the little picks on the bottom of the birthday candles and drilled 9 holes along the ridge of my brontosaurus' back. Then I just sprayed him (yes, its a boy) with some spray adhesive, and sprinkled glitter all over him. To keep my hands sticky free I used a piece of folded up alimunium foil to hold him with. Once it was a decked out in glitter I gave it a good final coat of some clear spray paint.

What? Boy brontosaurus' like purple glitter! They love it, and can't get enough of it. And I'm glad to say Pam's son Braden really loves it. The menorah, not so much purple glitter, although he's only 2 so I'm sure he doesn't really have much of a preference on glitter colors. Hopefully she will share some pictures of it all lit up and pretty during Hanukkah and I will update this post then. Either way he is glorious!

So whats pinspiring you lately?

 



 

Sunday morning I hit the ground running. I had a lot to get done in only 2 days. My first priority was to get the fish tank set up so we could move the fish into their new home. Last time you saw the tank it was sitting in the back yard holding some poop water and rocks.



After we scooped out all the rocks (those small plastic nursery pots work really well for this), separated them, and rinsed them off it was time to scrub the calcium deposits off the tank. I used a little water and vinegar mixture to help loosen things a bit and a razor scraper thing to scrape off what I could. Some of it would just not come off, but it was on the back side and you really wouldn't see it, so whatev's.




After we cleaned it up it I had to prep the aquarium for it's spray paint makeover. Yep, I convinced Matt that I wasn't crazy and that painting it would be a good idea. So we carried it into the garage and set it on top of some cardboard with some scrap pieces of wood underneath it. I used some painters tape and whatever ads were sitting on the kitchen counter and covered all the glass. To protect the inside I just held a piece of cardboard underneath the lip of the plastic while I was spraying it. Originally I thought a glossy white would look good, but while we were at Ace (the helpful place....) I insisted that Matt have some input. Usually he just says "whatever you think honey", and then I feel like a pushy jerk that makes all the decisions (I'm trying to get better at that). Anyway, back to the spray paint aisle, I may or may not have stomped my foot a little and put my little fists on my hips, I'm not really sure, but finally after looking at a few lighter colors we agreed that we liked Krylon Fusion in River Rock. It's a really pale grey color and, this wasn't planed, but it ended up matching those white-ish rocks that we reused.




I sprayed the bottom band first while the aquarium was upside down. I didn't want to risk messing up my paint job in the top by resting it on those pieces of wood. Then waited 1 hour per the instructions for it to be dry enough to handle, flipped it over and painted the top band. Just enough time for some lunch in between!




After the top band was painted it was time to watch the Bronco game. We made our way over to Mike and Ail's to endure the second half. Terrible game, but they had green chili, burritos, and KITTEN INTERMISSION! "What's that?", you say. Kitten Intermission is Ali's and my new favorite thing, basically we look up cat videos on YouTube and watch them one after another, much to Mike and Matt's displeasure (we even have a pin board devoted to this). Our most recent discovery is Maru the cat. Anyways, we also needed to purchase a stand for the aquarium, so Matt and I made a quick trip to Petco and purchased this stand for just under 80 doll hairs (that is how my friend Taylor says it and I love it!). Once our fun with the Ladafoged's came to an end we spent the evening feverishly filling up this bad boy with water. One. Gallon. At a time.




We filled the tank about half way with new water, then added some chemicals to neutralize the chlorine and maybe so we wouldn't kill the fish. Then we filled some gallon ziplock bags with water from the smaller tank and put the fish in the bags. I may or may not have screamed really loudly when the big plecostomus was laying on top of the bag, refusing to go inside it. It was so scary, it splashed gross fish water in my face, and I knew if I dropped the bag Matt would have to chase it around in the fish tank again and be none to pleased. Ugh those things are so creepy. After getting all the fish bagged up we topped off the new tank with gross fish water from the old tank.

About 30 minutes later we released all the fishes into the wild new larger aquarium. I would imagine the whole experience was pretty traumatic on their little fishy emotions. The shark that created this project is just hanging out in the back corner to the left. He comes out to eat, but then goes right back. What an asshole! Anyway, we still have to replace the top parts. The old lid is still functional, but has a melted dent from the tank heater. Since the light that fits doesn't really work we just have the one from the smaller tank on there for now. That's why the sides are all dark and shadowy. Once we buy the lid and light I'll give them a coat of River Rock so its all the same color (I'll be sure to share how that turns out).




We would also like to add a little hidden storage underneath the tank. The stand had 2 horizontal bars that connect the sides together that could work off of. A nice piece of chunky wood and maybe some baskets would hide the air pump and the various accessories that are inside the old cat litter bucket. Classy, right? Oh and ignore the fact that I need to vacuum and mop the floors please, I've been busy.




Well, what do you think? Do you have a less than attractive fish tank in need of a makeover? Would you ever consider painting the plastic like we did? Do you have a favorite cat video from YouTube? Share yours either here in the comments section or on my new Facebook page!

While our newly transplanted Russian Sage endures a slow death in the back yard, I decided to move on to a new project. A while ago I mentioned painting all of our wood trim and doors, but that was before our gas line started leaking, in turn thrusting our back yard to the front of the priorities line. So with the back yard at a manageable stage and a newly purchased paint gun it seems like now is the time to start. The first thing to be removed was the little hand rail that's mounted to the wall. I brought all of our little clickety wrench sockets upstairs because I didn't know what size to use. After about a minute I had a match and in the time it took to remove 5 bolts I had this big chunk of wood off the walls.







Now its time to remove the little vertical stick things (technical term). They are held on by 2 bolts at the bottom that go into the wall, and 2 at the top that connect to the rail. I decided to remove every other one, that way if one of us gets a little too drunk we won't fall to our deaths when we stumble up to bed.






Since the stick things were so easy to remove I decided to move on to the big railing along the catwalk upstairs.




That was a lot of clickety wrench action!




After removing all those stick things I sanded them down. I started with 60 grit sand paper on my little vibrating sander, then smoothed them down even more with some 150 grit paper. There were a few spots where the varnish had dripped, those spots took a little more sanding. But all in all it went pretty quickly. Well as quickly as sanding a bunch of boards can go.




Oh, and after all that my forearms were so sore that night. Like to the point of not wanting to move my arms. Maybe those orbital sanders would be a little better. If you've got any advice for avoiding painful arms after sanding I'm all ears!

Hopefully we'll get some paint thinner and solvent so we can use our new paint gun and give these a pretty new finish. Fingers crossed!

- Nikki

Sorry for no post for last week, I was on vacation in Florida, visiting my friend Taylor in Destin.  Hi Taylor!  So much fun, but really hot.  I get it now when people say "yeah, but it's a dry heat" when talking about how it doesn't get hot in Colorado.  We had some beach time, went on a boat, Matt caught a fish, got lost in the MLK and alphabet street neighborhood in Pensacola, and capped it off with a night in NOLa. But now I'm back to share a quick little project or 2 for yo fridge!

First, a little disclaimer.  I don't know why our stainless steel fridge is magnetic.  It just came that way.  We even spent a few months with all of our magnets on the side because I've always heard that stainless steel isn't magnetic until one day Matt slapped a magnet on the fridge and it stuck.  So you could say our fridge is kinda fancy.  Alright, back to making it look nice.  So if I was to ask you if you like to put photos or postcards on your fridge you would say yes right?  I thought so.  But if your fridge looked like this you might re-think that.

So here is a classy way of putting this stuff on your fridge.  First step is, get all this stuff:

Mix a little of the epoxy per the instructions, then using your mixing stick apply some onto one side of your magnets.


Now just put that magnet, and 4 more in the corners and let it dry overnight.



I only cut the pointy thing until it was like this, then just broke the rest off.

Now my fridge looks a little prettier.
So am I the only one with a magnetic stainless steel fridge?  Are you going to slap a magnet on yours to see if it works?  If so and it is, how long have you had your fridge with out magnets on it?   Have a good weekend folks!

Nikki