Browsing "From Scratch"
Hopefully you were able to read Part 1 of this mural series before you landed here. OK, now that we are all on the same page, here is Part 2.
Is that a mural? Well yes, to me it is. When I first moved into my house I had two boys that would be sharing a room. I knew I wanted something totally boy. We had visited a U.S. Air Force museum with my husband's family earlier that year and I was in love with the old graphics found on the airplanes. This one especially.
It was so clean, crisp and vintage. I later found out they put this symbol on the airplanes to make sure our allies didn't shoot us down at war. I decided on a vintage airplane theme. Yes, I do theme kids rooms. Why not? After all, I have four boys, they can switch rooms and have a whole new feeling. It drives me crazy when a TV designer says, Read more [...]
Seven years ago when my husband and I built our house,
I was in love with this chandelier.
It is a Kathy Ireland entry chandelier from Lamps Plus. Well, seven years is a long time in my design eyes and the love has faded. Even my husband was ready for a change. I decided that what I really wanted was a barrel shade over a chandelier. Maybe I could buy a shade and slip it over the existing chandelier. I searched the internet high and low but the largest shade I could find was 18" in diameter. My chandelier is 30"! That was not going to work. Even if there was one that was large enough, with the standard top X it would be too high to expose a little iron above and below the shade like I had imagined.
I'd have to make my own. What would I use for my stiff circle for the top and bottom? I drug my sweetie Read more [...]
There is nothing like a mural or accent wall to give life to a stale box bedroom. I am kind of obsessed with them, partly for their drama and partly because they can be so easy and cheap! I currently, as of this post, have 4 murals in my humble abode. I have painted each one. Now, don't get the wrong idea. I am not some fabulously talented artist, painter or magician. What I have learned over time is how to make murals simple, funky, and dramatic. Anyone can do this, seriously, anyone. I am going to do a 4 post tutorial, one post for each mural I have done. I will start with the easiest and they will progressively get more difficult. Ready for round 1? Here we go.
The Pottery Barn Kids World Map Outline Mural
I love opening my Pottery Barn Kids catalog and seeing what their set geniuses have come Read more [...]
This project, along with so many others, came about because I aquired random supplies years ago. I like to collect things that may become a project someday. That is why if you drive by my garage on any given day it is FULL of "supplies". Well this one started with six 18"X18"Pottery Barn denim pillow shams. A stencil design I found online would be the graphic design I would apply with a bleach spray.
First I searched for a stencil design. I found one at Royal Design Studio, but being the antsy person that I am, I couldn't wait for a stencil in the mail, so I made my own. I blew up the image on my computer and printed it out on 5 sheets of very heavy card stock with a shinny finish (if I was to do this again, I would buy the stencil plastic at a craft store since this barely lasted through the 6 pillows). Read more [...]
This last spring my husband and I went on a trip to Hawaii. We visited beaches, LOST sites, a nature preserve, surfed Waikiki, ate at fun restaurants and even the famous went to the Aloha Stadium swap meet.
We took a lot of photos, but I wanted another way to remember the great time we had. I couldn't find anything at the swap meet I was willing to put out in my house, way too tacky tourist. I decided to collect nature from some of my favorite spots. I brought gallon Ziploc bags and loaded up. Sand from a romantic sunset at Sunset Beach. A small rock/sand mix from a river bed near our condo. Tiny bits of shells, rocks, sea glass and coral from a tiny island we walked through water to get to. Beautiful white coral chunks from a quite beach.
I packed my luggage and carry on full of sand, shells, and coral Read more [...]
I love Christmas! I also have a two story family room with a large blank wall on the second story. I needed a large graphic that was inexpensive to fill the space for Christmas. That's when burlap came to mind!
I went to JoAnn's (with a coupon of course) and purchased 4 yards of cream burlap. I chose cream because I like the way it lightened up the space against my sand colored walls. Then I cut the 4 yards in to two 2 sections. Then I cut each of those vertically giving me 4 panels that are each about 2 yards long. I say about because I trimmed a little off the top and bottom to be sure that they were straight.
Time to paint! I searched through my garage to find a paint that wouldn't be gaudy. I landed on a milk chocolate wall paint that I had left over from another project. Then I used blue painter's Read more [...]
Design Steps, From Scratch 
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