Category: Paint

Rustic Paint Stick Light

Published on by Sydney5 Comments

I’ve been plugging away at all the little projects to make Bryson’s room come together. Today I’m going to share the light I made for his room out of paint sticks. I saw this idea in Pinterest and knew it would work perfect in his room!

While we were at Home Depot picking everything up for the bathroom remodel I asked the paint counter if they sold bulk paint sticks. They told me no, but I could help myself to free paint sticks. I proceeded to explain that I wanted about 50 paint sticks for a project…I’m pretty sure they thought I was crazy but they were happy to give me all those paint sticks.

Next up I needed a lamp shade to use as the form for my paint sticks – I ran to Goodwill and found one that was the right size but was ugly camouflage! I put two quick coats of spray paint on so that it would blend in better (I forgot to take picts of this part of the process…fail!!)

Supplies:

  • Lamp Shade
  • 40-50 paint sticks – depending on your lamp shade size…you’ll just have to estimate
  • Stain – I used Minawax Jacobean
  • Tons of hot glue

I stained one paint stick to see if I the color was what I wanted. I started my first paint stick on the seam of the shade to make sure it was covered up.Then just keep gluing them all on. This probably took me 15-20 minutes.

The finished shade – now it was time to stain it.

Make sure you do the staining outside…it has a really strong smell. I just painted it on and the wiped it off with a rag.

Here is the finished product!! It turned our really well and was a super cheap project. It probably cost me about $6-$8. We did have to buy a kit to hang the light, which my husband wired in. That was an additional $15 but you may not need that if you are just making a lamp shade or if you can modify the current light to fit the new shade.

21 Weeks, Nursery Inspiration And Progress

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Well this week I hit 21 weeks – I can’t believe that I’m already past the half way point! It’s crazy how time flies! Bryson is a very active baby – he seems to be moving around and kicking all day and all night – he even wakes me up sometimes in the middle of the night with all the kicking!

We had snow this weekend in Seattle so I decided an outside picture was appropriate! We don’t get snow very often and having grown up in N. Idaho I really miss it so when we do get it I get really excited!!

This week I started working on the nursery – I’ve been working on de-cluttering but this weekend I was able to get the nursery started by painting and sewing the crib skirt.

I saw this picture on Pinterest and knew I had found my inspiration for Bryson’s room. I showed Tom the pictures and he was sold!

Picture from Bower Power Blog

This weekend I got started by making the crib skirt

The crib skirt is blue, cream and has a small pinstripe of orange. The project was pretty simple but a little time consuming to cut all the pieces out.

I painted the room a blue with gray undertones it turned out a little bluer then I wanted but it still looks good!

The next step is going to be having Tom do the pallet wood accent wall but that may not happen for a couple months. It’s definitely an outside project since we will have to tear the pallets apart, stain the wood then cut them all to fit…considering that our weather is in the 30’s right now we will have to wait until it warms up a little! For now I will keep working on finding a dresser and figuring out art/wall decor!

Coat Closet Makeover

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One of the latest trends for small houses seems to be turning a closet into an office space. I decided I wanted to turn our coat closet into my sewing nook. Originally I was going to do this in our spare room but then I decided I wouldn’t be able to use it as much when we have another kid. Also I didn’t want to be suck in the spare room all the time. Our coat closet is right in between our living room and dining room so I can still feel like I’m part of what’s going on while I work on my projects.

Last summer I found a wall mounted Ikea folding table at a garage sale for $5 and I knew it would make the perfect desk. Here is a breakdown of my supplies:

  • Ikea Wall Mounted folding table  – $5
  • Paint- Free (left at our house by the previous owner)
  • Extra Shelf – $10
  • Storage bins – $5
  • Chair – Free (already had)
  • Magnetic Knife Rack from Ikea – $9
  • Magnetic Storage Containers from Ikea – $5

Total Cost = $34!!

Here is the before picture(mostly Tom’s stuff)

We relocated the coats and shoes to our closet and the spare room closet and here is what it looks like now.

I painted it a bright sunny yellow so that the room would be cheerful! I didn’t want it to be dark since it’s such a small space.

I ran an extension cord from our dining room to get power to the closet. It works great!
Next closet makeover I’m going to tackle…the furnace closet. It has become a dumping ground for household items – light bulbs, vacuum, steam mop, dining table leaf, plunger, tool belt, tool kit. I have plans for it this weekend.

It started last night with patching this hole…not sure why it’s there but I’m pretty sure it’s easy access for spiders…eeeww!!

Master Bedroom Dresser

Published on by Sydney4 Comments

So I have been on the hunt for new dresser for our master bedroom for awhile…probably like 2-3 months. The one we had was an Ikea one we got 5 years ago when we got married. At the time we bought two but when we moved into this house we could really only fit one in our master bedroom. Our house was built in the 50’s so our “master” is extremely small to say the least!! Here is a before picture of our dresser situation…not good (notice the towel covering our wireless router…the lights on it are really bright at night!!)

So back to the hunt…I’ve been looking for a solid wood six drawer dresser for around 2-3 months on Craigslist – I was hoping for free but was willing to spend up to $20. So here is the beauty I found online and it was FREE!!

I knew when we were picking it up that Tom was a little unsure of how this project would turn out but hey it’s free right.

So the first thing I did was wipe everything down and vacuum out the drawers. I took all the drawers out and took all the hardware off. Then I wiped down everything with Klean-Strip Liquid Sander De-Glosser.

I let it set for about 10 minutes then I applied the primer.

Now onto the paint – I just used some paint I had in our shed so it’s the same gray color that’s in my kitchen. Here it is after 1 coat

The dresser came with all the original hardware which was in great shape but I didn’t like the color (brass…yuck) so I spray painted them as well. The paint I used is Rust-Oleum which I love because it doesn’t smell horrible and the smell dissipates really fast! The color was heirloom white…my new love!!

I put two coats of paint on everything and then let it dry for a full day before I put it back together. Once put together I opened all the drawers a little and let it sit outside for another day. I also did a clear coat on the top of the dresser to help make it more durable.

Here is the finished dresser

I love how it turned out and the best thing about the project is my total out of pocket expenses = $0!! I already had all the paint and supplies needed for this project. And the best part was Tom seeing the finished product…he loves it!!

Here it is in our bedroom (sorry for the not so great picture – Tom is gone and has the nice camera this weekend!)

The wireless router is now located in the box – a huge improvement from the towel!