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10 of My Favorite Posts and a Big Thank You!

January 7, 2014February 7, 2014 Karen

If things go as they have been for the last week, by the time I wake up tomorrow I will have had 50,000 page views on my little teeny tiny minnow of a blog. I will also be celebrating two years of blogging. There are blogs out there that get 50,000 page views a day and it has taken me two years. I never said I was fast. first and foremost, I want to say thank you, friends, for reading, thank you for commenting, and thank you for causing me to improve what I produce. I still have no idea what I am doing most of the time. By that I mean my husband and I are making it up as we go on our projects, and sometimes failing miserably. I am about the most technology challenged blogger out there. There have been many times when I did something on the blog but had no idea what I did, how to fix it, or if it was good, how to repeat that good thing. Between the time I started this blog and now both our children have married, my husband and I changed jobs, we sold a home, went a while “between homes”, bought a home and moved to a new city, my son and daughter in law have moved in part-time, I started a new blog called My Burb Home, and I have taken up photography as a hobby. Not bad for two folks in their 50’s.

This next year we plan to travel to two places on our bucket list, work on both our weekend home and our suburban home, build a raised garden, put in a fire pit,and continue to work on found furniture. Life is good for this weekend loving couple.

I wanted to share with you some projects from the last two years. As I looked back, there were others that could have or should have made the cut but I plan on rewriting several of them now that I don’t stink like when I started. Not many of you were around when I first logged in, set up an account and started rambling so some of the projects below may be new to you. Just click on the hyperlink and it will take you to the original blog. I hope you enjoy.

10. French provincial furniture makeover. I love that we were able to take a couple of homely particle board pieces of furniture and make them beautiful. I am seriously considering selling this set because I want to redo the room like now I recently saw on a home tour but I love the color combination and how much I learned on this project.

9. Western Dresser. We found a homely little Goodwill dresser and made it something fun for the lake house guest room we call the bunk room.

8. Table and Banquette seating out of reclaimed wood. Wow! This is one of my oldest posts and my dinky little camera did not do this beauty any justice. I will be re-photographing this set. This was a collaboration between Hubby and me to come up with a solution to a tiny space using reclaimed siding from our house. It is one of the most functional spaces in our home now.

7. Farmhouse Table. I love the look of a rustic table but man, they are expensive. Our $90.00 solution to this problem turned out to be one of my favorite pieces of furniture. It moved with us and was where we gathered for our first Thanksgiving meal in the new home.

6. Wedding Chalkboard. I did tell you my kids got married, right? I was fortunate enough that both my daughter and daughter in law wanted me to make personal items for their wedding. I loved that they wanted things that I worked on as a part of their special day. The link above is one of those items, an ornate frame my daughter in law, Sweet Amanda, found at a resale shop that I redid for the wedding and added a chalkboard. I chose this one because it was the first wedding project. I love all four of my precious kids.

5. Map Chair. Another piece of furniture that needs to be re-photographed. This little chair would be easy to recreate for a friend moving to a new city or a college student who needs to remember where home is. I seem to have a thing for chairs.

4. Painted Suitcases. I have made a total of seven of these painted suitcases now The link is to four of them I did at one time. I love finding cheap old hard sided suitcases, priming, painting, distressing, glazing then adding a chalkboard to one side. It makes a great entry into a home when guests are coming over or to announce an event. If I ever started a business, I would sell these because I enjoy mine so much.

3. Junk Fairy End Table. The last three are easy. They are my favorite, favorite projects. They speak to my love of color, family and friends. The junk fairy ( AKA The Social Planner) dropped off this homely table while we were gone one day. I did not need it, so posted a photo of it on Facebook and offered to redo it for a friend. Robin snagged it. I am happy that she chose green as the color for the table. I really like how the stained top turned out. I enjoyed it so much that I painted a table in my own home close to the same colors.

2. Beverage Station. I am now working on number three of these babies. What a great re-purpose project for an old stainless sink and a sewing machine cabinet. I love the look and they make entertaining in a back yard or porch more inviting. My favorite blue color, Behr sailboat blue, got used here. My long-suffering husband gets major credit for the stainless sink idea here.

1. Mudroom Bench. When we moved this year I literally looked for homes that my mudroom bench would fit in. It is by far my most favorite project to date. I look forward to the day that someone sends me a photo of their version of the project.&nbsphttp://theweekendcountrygirl.com/2013/01/28/toilet-paper-roll-art/; A found dresser, waiting for heavy trash pickup, and a resale shop mirror turned into this beauty.

I hope you enjoyed my little walk down memory lane. Thank you for taking the time to look back on my last two years. Thank you for allowing me to share what we do.

crafting, Decorating, DIY Art, DIY Projects, home decorating, mantle, ornate chalkboard frames, painting, repurposed frame, reusing an old frame, reusing an old window, silver, Thrifty Art, vintage style

Valentine’s Mantle

January 29, 2013January 3, 2023 Karen

I will bet that a few of you are thinking that you are tired of seeing my mantle. Well, here is the finished Valentine mantle.

Old windows from the garage, chalkboard from the upcoming wedding, silver candlesticks and pedestal from thrifting, string art,toilet paper roll art,ribbon wreath,topiary
I love it! It makes me smile.

I also brought home my chalkboard suitcase to welcome Cupid!

Chalkboard DIY, Reused frame, reusing an old frame, reusing an old window, Roadside Finds, Roadside Rescue, Star Hill

Turning Trash Into a Kitchen Menu Board

January 22, 2013January 22, 2013 Karen

Recently my social planner, Tanis, picked up two old windows that were in a trash pile where a home was being renovated. They were already the perfect shade of red on one side and had just the right amount of peeling paint. I loved them and I know that they are going to look great at her new home, The Rockin F Ranchito, in Coldspring.
One of the frames wil be a hat rack with an adhesive Rocking F Logo on the glass and the other will be a menu board for the kitchen. The glass is removed from this one.

Tanis painted both sides of the frame with polyacrylic to seal in the paint should it have lead. Here is the finished product after Hubby put in hard board and we painted several coats of chalkboard paint.

home decorating, paint chip art, reusing an old frame, Thrifty Art, using bright colors

Paint Chip Art

October 31, 2012December 13, 2012 Karen

Here is a picture of our wall in the family room.

See that puny picture on the wall? can you believe it is really 18 inches by 24 inches? The reason it looks so small in this space is because it is in a huge room on a ridiculously tall wall. My den is 17 feet wide and 24 feet long. I have never known what to do with the room, and from what I saw the people who owned the house before us had no idea either.

On top of being a long and wide room, the room sweeps up to eighteen feet with a cat walk stairway.

I have decided that I love color so it is time that I embrace what I love.

My first bold purchase was a rug. I love the colors. It makes me happy. I bought it one afternoon with my buddy the social planner. Hubby would never have picked this out, but I brought it home and rolled it out. He seems like he has warmed up to it.

Shortly after the rug, I purchased some neutral furniture. It was before my blogging days but the stuff was a great deal. I have moved slow because I really didn’t have a direction to go. I love the wood floors, I like the room height, I am happy with the french doors, but something always seems a little off with this room.

I painted this picture this past summer from something I saw on Pinterst. I loved the colors because they are all in the rug.

I have been slowly collecting McCoy pottery as I find reasonable pieces. I love the colors, and we have a family connection to the McCoys.

At my friend, Pam’s house, I was inspired to make a paint chip art piece. Here is the link to how she did this. i really did follow her directions.
http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4086884246929168617#editor/target=post;postID=159055830737770270
I loved the fact that I could choose my colors, the slightly vintage quality, but let’s be honest… this is great looking almost free art.

I bought this big frame for $3.00 up near the lake house. I painted it the color of the craft table. That color is in the rug.

It was big. twenty four inches tall and forty eight inches wide.

I used paint chips that match the colors in the rug to make my version of the paint chip art project. I actually was able to use the picture in the frame as the base for the paint chip art piece. This piece really meant that the cost of this whole project was $3.00.

Here are the paint chips glued down. I used Elmer’s spray adhesive to get everything stuck down. I did have to check the corners and press several down many times.

I thought the colors were too vivid when glued down.

Here it is with watered down brown acrylic paint washed over it. I love the frame on the picture. This is going to be a statement piece in the room.

To fill the big empty wall, I plan on bringing in a small buffet height dresser that I am going to paint an amazing color. The wall is going to look great when I am done, but I still do not know what I want to do with the whole room. Suggestions?

Chalkboard DIY, ornate chalkboard frames, repurposed frame, Reused frame, reusing an old frame, the Southern Belle, Thrifting, vintage style, wedding, wedding preparation, Weddings

Finding Frames for the Charlotte Wedding

October 30, 2012January 9, 2013 Karen

The Southern Belle asked me to look for small ornate frames for her June wedding. She wants to turn them into chalkboards to write menu items and information to guests. Because the chalk boards are black, I am painting the frames white until I get instructions from the Southern Belle.

Here is how the beauties started:

Bought for $1.00 each

Bought for 25 cents each

The top two are Home Interiors specials from the 70’s. The bottom two are plastic faux wicker. They will all make great chalkboards.

I am determined to become a better spray painter, and I believe I am on the right track finally. I have discovered the spray paint handle.

This is the best thing since sliced bread. I love it.

It is amazing how they turned out. I did not take a picture of the larger one when bought. It was southwest style teal and salmon. I bought it for a dollar. Hubby already cut the chalkboard for the large one.
I am going to spray the mirrors for the narrow ones with chalkboard Sprint. I can see them as direction signs at the reception. On my way to collecting some frames for the girl. It is nice to be able to help with her wedding- even from a distance.

Chalkboard DIY, chalkboard paint on furniture, DIY, DIY Projects, Huntsville State Park wedding, ornate chalkboard frames, repurposed frame, resale finds, Reused frame, reusing an old frame, Weddings

DIY Framed Chalkboard

July 17, 2012September 26, 2013 Karen

Project number two from the weekend was to turn a frame that Sweet Amanda and her mom found at a thrift store into a chalkboard. That girl is quite the thrifter! She found an amazing gilded frame in the trash that will make an appearance at the wedding and I think she paid $3.00 for this one:

The frame was in overall good shape. I believe it once held a large mirror and is made out of particle board. It is HEAVY! There was some damage to the front of the frame that allowed the particle board to show through in a couple of places.

Sweet Amanda plans on having her wedding program written out on the chalkboard as everyone enters the wedding chapel so she wanted it to be fancy yet rustic/vintage… just her style. I could not figure out how to fix the damage to the front of the frame without totally redoing the finish…so I repainted and refinished it. I sure wish I were more talented and could have just touched it up but it would have not looked right with my lack of skill.

Between showers I laid the frame outside and got out spray paint. I am not the best spray painter in the world. I tend to spray too much in one spot. I really focused on thin even coats of gold spray paint this time. I also had some shiny silver paint in the cabinet so I very lightly sprayed a coat of the silver over the gold.

The frame looked a little scary at this point. I had visions of having to call Sweet Amanda to tell her I ruined the frame.

After the frame dried and before the rain came, I brought it in to the Garagemahal. The frame is really divided into four concentric rectangles so I decided to work on applying the antiquing glaze one whole rectangle at a time.

Working with such deep detail on a large frame meant really working fast. Even as humid as it was the glaze dried quickly. I use cut up t shirts to wipe off the excess because the cotton really seems to pick up any puddles and it allows me to get into the small spaces. I have two t shirt towels going at one time. One is for the first wipe over and it is really gross, the other is for the second wipe over and is more clean. When the second rag starts to get dirty I demote it to the first wipe over rag and get a new second rag.

After I finished the entire frame, I went back over everything at one time with a fresh rag… really rubbing hard. Some gold and some silver shows through the glaze.

I loved the results. The frame really does look like an old plaster frame for $7.00 in gold paint and left over silver paint I would have to say the frame was a success.

The next step was to make the chalkboard part. Hubby cut a piece of hardboard to fit the frame on his table saw. We buy tons of hardboard. It comes in 4 X 8 by 1/8 sheets and costs about $8.00 a sheet. I use it to put backs on furniture we recycle, I paint on in like canvas and about a million other uses. I primed the hardboard with Kiltz primer before I started painting on the chalkboard paint. I bought Rustoelum chalkboard paint in a can to use and got out the foam roller and small paint tray. My advice is that if the chalkboard you are making is small, go with the spray paint version. The paint on version of the paint was a pain in the neck. I wanted the finish to be smooth so I rolled on thin layers of the paint. It took 4 coats to get the finish I could tolerate and it is still not perfectly smooth.

The picture above is after coat number one.

After the chalkboard paint dried over night I put the board into the frame. We were really lucky here, the frame had some easy to use tabs that made putting the board in a snap. I was pleased with the results. According to the directions, I have to wait three days for the paint to cure then condition the chalkboard by rubbing the entire board with chalk then wiping it off. After that it will be ready for use. I will make sure to post a picture from the wedding.

On the Internet there are several crafters who have posted making their own chalkboard paint by adding un-sanded powered grout to regular latex paint. I may try that down the line.

TADAH! At the wedding. Not bad for a resale find.