Paint and Plants

My life has changed a lot over the past few of months*, and I've not set aside the time needed for this blog. Now that things are a little calmer I am hoping to write a little more often.

I've gathered lots of materials and lined up a bunch of projects, but I have only finished a few. In the works are a couple of chair redos, a lamp, some picture frames, and a desk.

A couple of projects that I have managed to complete are as follows. All these items were found at the Goodwill where I work. Goes to show what paint can do.

This great magazine holder. First I sanded well with 150 grit paper. It took two coats of satin paint, leftover white and aqua I mixed together, painted with a good quality brush. Designed the whale on a sheet of paper then redrew and painted it in white. Then I distressed the entire surface by sanding again, and finished with wax paste. :




This next one was done exactly the same way. It is a little plaster medalion, painted gold originally. I simply painted and sanded to distress it.





And on a non paint note, check out how much these plants have grown!





So anyhow.. I look forward to sharing my other upcoming projects. :)







*got married, grandfather passed away, working to get a promotion, among all the other little things that happen in one's life..

Before and After Chair(s)

Before and After Chairs
Originally uploaded by Renovations, art, and other photos

I purchased these chairs for $5 each at my local thrift store. In their "before" state, they were badly spray painted black, and the seats were recovered very sloppily several times. I recovered the seat with Jessica Jones Peapod fabric that I purchased from J Caroline Creative.

Redoing a chair like this has to be one of the quickest, most effective diy projects. Simply unscrew the cushions, and remove the old fabrics. Use the old fabric as a pattern and cut your new fabric. Staple the new fabric on to the cushions, stretching as you go, keeping the designs straight. Repaint the frame, priming first, and sanding in between coats. Screw the cushions back on, and you are done.

House Renovation

This October will be two years since I inherited the "Brick House". My uncle, my dad, and myself have been working on fixing it up it since last July. It has been a slow battle, but I thought I would share what we've accomplished so far. I am proudest of the kitchen. We used Duron's Silvermist on the walls, and plain white for the cabinets.





The master bedroom hasn't changed much, just lightened up the walls from a dark peachy tan to Duron's Kilim Beige.



The guest room looks worlds better, from a horrible bright blue that would hurt your eyes to Duron's Divine White.



The living room was off white, and looks similar to how it does now, but before, it had a very unsafe fireplace. The person that built the house never finished the chimney and we also had some very bad leaks around it. Since the house is so small anyway, we had the chimney knocked down and walled up the fireplace. Now, it it a suitable space for built ins, cabinetry, etc. I have not decided on a color for the living room yet, but I am thinking a light sage green.




The bathroom is the next biggest project after the kitchen. It needs to be completely gutted. Here is a before shot.




I can't take all the credit here though. I enlisted the help of Chris Kauffman of the blogs Just Beachy and CK Interiors to help pick paint colors and sort of shape the way with how to make the interior of the house look nice. She is amazing. Her style of decorating is perfect for my little house. We've come a long way but have a long way to go. I will definitely be glad when this project is over. For more pictures go to my flickr page.

Picture Frame Before/After

Since I started my job at Goodwill, you can imagine all the cool stuff I find. One thing was this awesome little oil painting. It was in great shape, just needed a little cleaning and a coat of aqua paint.Vintage frames have great designs but usually they're made of gold plastic. Don't pass a frame by just because of color though, paint it!

Vintage Finds = Cool DIY Projects to do

I was fortunate to pick up this chair for only $9.99 at Goodwill! I am going to paint it white, and get it reupholstered with yellow and white fabric. It is quite comfortable, and such a bargain, considering all the accent chairs that we were looking at to purchase new were $200+

On another trip, I found these awesome lamps for $8.99. They are an identical pair, one pictured here. They are really huge, probably 2 1/2 to 3 feet tall. Not sure I am feeling the shape of those shades. They at least need to be recovered, but I am thinking white drum shades will make them look a little more modern. The bases are a little rusty, but that's nothing a little elbow grease and spray paint can't cure.

Orla Kiely Canisters

We picked up these two canisters at Target for a steal! They were in the clearance section for under $5.00 a piece. We didn't buy them at first, since they were a little pricey. But now they happily house our brown sugar and rice. I had read some reviews on Target.com that people were unhappy with the fact that the lids don't quite fit. Ours didn't want to fit at first either, but I found that if I messed with the rubber seals enough, they would eventually fit flush.

Green Thumb?

I grew up in the south, and for many years my mom worked part time on a vegetable farm. She always had a very green thumb so we always had a plethora of plants and flowers around the house. I never really paid too much attention to plants until recently.

When my mom moved away, she really didn't have room to take many of her plants with her. So, my grandmother and I took them all in. I ended up with a 50 + year old snake plant and a 20+ year old Holiday Cactus. The snake plant was about 5 feet tall and about 100 pounds including the pot.

Mom repotted them in plastic pots a few years ago before she left. Because I really didn't know how to take care of them, the plants ended up almost dying. I think because they were so old and big, the plastic pots they were in were not allowing water to drain away. I purchased new pottery for them all and some cactus soil, which drains better than regular potting soil.

When I pulled out the snake plant, the roots were very fragile and tiny, and the middle of the pot was drippy sludge. I took away all the baby plants from around the outside, and potted them by themselves, then the base plant went in a huge pot of it's own. The Holiday cactus had gotten so bad off, I was only able to save about three full sprigs and pot them.

After doing a lot of reading on the care of plants, I am happy to say the plants have made a full recovery. When Sam and moved, I kept the pot of snake plant "babies" as it was smaller than "mom". Grandma ended up with the bigger plant, as we decided we could not get it up 3 flights of stairs.

I placed the plants outside on our balcony and they love it. The weather during the summer is about 80-90 degrees F, and they get indirect light all day. I water the Holiday plant (aka Thanksgiving or Christmas Cactus.. This one blooms in March-April..) weekly, or until the pot dries out. With the weather being so hot, it has a tendency to dry out pretty quick. This photo shows all the new growth that has appeared during this spring and summer. Again, this plant started out as three tiny sprigs!



Here is the snake plant.. The taller stalks unfortunately weren't doing very well from being in standing water. After about a month of being on the balcony though, I noticed that the plant started shooting out baby plants of it's own. The babies have grown about 1-2 feet tall now, and I opted to cut the drooping leaves. I am hoping the cut leaves will be buried under the baby plants one day. Or I may separate the babies back out after they get more established. The green and white variegated leaves are the babies and the dark leaves are the parent plant. It gets watered about every 2 weeks.


Nursing these plants back to health inspired me to go pick up a few more plants for my balcony garden. They had a lot of lovely cacti, so I made my own mixed pot for about half the price that the store was charging. I also picked up a Jade Plant for about $5. It was in a little plastic pot, so I re-potted it also with the cactus soil in a ceramic pot. They also had a very interesting Echeveria, that is sort of pink and lavender in color. Pretty sure it's an "Afterglow" variety.

All of the little succulents seem to be doing really well. The Jade plant and Echeveria enjoy sun and being neglected so I water them every week or until the pot dries out while it's so hot. The large mixed cactus pot I made does not need to be watered too often. Every two weeks or so. I usually go by feel and weight of the pot instead of a schedule on this one. All of the plants have put out a ton of new growth since they were purchased, so I am guessing that I am doing something right. Now I just have to figure out where the heck to put them once the weather outside gets too cold for them!

Something I knew only recently is that really healthy Jade Plants have red tips. After mine turned really red, I was getting upset because I thought I killed it! Nope, it's doing fine. The trick with succulents is to let them have lots of light, and only water them when they are really dry.

I have found that taking care of these plants is very relaxing and rewarding. They make our balcony seem more welcoming and pretty, without having to spend a ton of money on seasonal plants.

Happiness in a flat pack - our first trip to Ikea

Our apartment is terribly unorganized, with clutter all over the place. We had to downsize when we relocated, and didn't quite get rid of enough stuff.

With the clutter driving us crazy, and just not finding what we need at Walmart and Target, we decided that a trip to Ikea was finally in order. This past Memorial Day ended up being the perfect opportunity to visit our closest Ikea (4 hours away).

We knew it would be really busy, but it was really our only chance to take the trip within the next few months. My first and only purchase to date from Ikea was the white PS locker for DVDs/CD's. I ordered it online and couldn't be happier with it.

We got into the city the night before and stayed at a Hilton. Believe it or not, it was one of the cheaper hotels in the area. Wow, was the room nice! Very posh. Since it was a Sunday, and after 7 when we got there, there really wasn't anything to do. So we induldged in room service (also a first) and made a romantic, relaxing night in.

The next morning we checked out and drove to the Ikea, ariving there just before 11. When we drove by on the exit ramp and saw the building for the first time, we both got a little overwhelmed. I knew it would be big, but wow!

We got a fairly decent parking space and went in to the store. Since neither of us had eaten anything that morning we went upstairs to the cafe. I tried the Swedish meatballs (served with cream sauce, mashed potatoes and liggonberry jam) which were great, especially for the price of $4.99! I also had the apple (pie?) dessert, which had good flavor but the crust was mushy. Sam had the salmon with vegetables and the daim torte. She loved the salmon, but I thought it tasted too fishy. The torte was amazing!

After lunch, we stayed upstairs and toured the show room. It was so crowded we could barely walk. It reminded me of an ant farm. But that's what we get for going on a holiday! We were really amazed by all the displays. The room plans were really well thought out and functional.

We tried out a lot of the furniture, but I really didn't find the sofas and chairs all that comfortable.

Everything looked awesome, and the prices were unbelievable. But, I think I will stick to my ugly green living room furniture right now. There was such a swarm around the Poang chairs, we didn't even get to go in that section.

I was really impressed by the kitchens. They all had such lovely clean lines, so functional and really modern. I am used to the country and traditional kitchens that are on display in Home Depot and Lowes. My next house will definitely have an Ikea kitchen.

I was also really impressed with the bookcases, lighting, and tv storage. Everything was really cool looking and well made. We made it to the bedding section and tried out the mattresses and pillows. The pillows that we have purchased previously were from walmart, and cost under $10. We both have chronic neck and back pain and it went away when we tried out the GOSA RAPS pillow. It was like laying on a cloud. Looking at the price tag was a little bit of a shock. We debated and wrung our hands, but we decided to get two of them.

After an hour or two in the showroom, we went down to the marketplace. We bought tons of Kassett boxes, a Fira box, a Snack box, some shelving, the PS low locker in white (who dosen't own one of those these days!), several yards of fabric, and a few odds and ends. The only thing I didn't expect to buy were the pillows. We checked out and loaded up our car.
Since it was 4:30 by then we decided to get some more Ikea Food. Sam got the meatballs, and I opted for a buffalo chicken wrap. For dessert, we had the almond torte and chocolate cake. Everything was wonderful, like before. Since we are big dessert people, and everything being
so inexpensive, we felt justified in eating all those sweets. :) Then of course, we had to check out the frozen/packaged food section in the front of the store. We got a Daim bar, some lingonberry jelly, and lingonberry drink concentrate. Finally we left to go back home at 5:30 PM.

To any other Ikea first timers out there I would like to give the following advice:

Try the food! Don't be put off by the fact that it is frozen/mass produced. Think of it like any other fast food restaurant. Some things are gonna taste a little processed, but some of it is really great. Especially the tortes.

Wear comfortable clothes and shoes.
Allow 4+ hours to properly tour the whole store. The place is enormous.

Don't be put off by the "flat pack" concept. Everything I've purchased has been really easy to put together, and I am no carpenter.

The store was really busy at 11, but was a lot quieter at 3:30. That may be more a holiday/weekend thing, and I'm not sure about how things are in the evenings.

Try before you buy! Sit on the furniture, lay on the mattresses, etc.

Don't bother looking for sales people to help you. I saw 2 on the floor the entire time. Not that you really need help, everything is pretty well laid out and self explanatory. The furniture warehouse section is self serve too, like the rest of the store. We had a good time wrestling our PS cabinet down off a second shelf.

All in all, I loved Ikea. We can't wait to go back. The products are fun and affordable.

Orange Candle Holders

I had been lusting over these orange candle holders at Pottery Barn. But I'm a tightwad and the smallest size holder ( 6 inch or so) was $20. I think the biggest was $35 or $40. Thanks but no thanks..

Then I saw these cheapo brown candle holders at Walmart.com . They had a nice shape, and were $18 for the pair, and they are nice and tall. I bought them along with a can of orange gloss spraypaint and went crazy.

If I did it over again, I would prime them first, but I think they turned out great! I am on the lookout for a couple more candle holders with a unique shape to them, but paint them in the same orange, so I can play around with different arangements.

Just a little intro..

Over the past year, I have taken on quite a few projects. I've decided to start this blog to record what I've acomplished so far, to inspire others, and to keep myself motivated.

I've always considered myself "artsy" but fairly limited in what I was capable of. The rest of the men in my family were/are in the renovation and construction field, but it never interested me until recently.

What REALLY sparked my interest in home decor was stumbling across the blog Design*Sponge. That blog introduced me to a world I had never seen before. I grew up in a sheltered family, in a small southern town. The only "style" of decorating I knew of was traditional, and if I was lucky I saw colonial and cottage stuff in magazines. I had never heard of IKEA, much less been in one. When I first got cable and internet a few years ago, I first saw all those home makeover shows and was really blown away. I felt like I was watching the Jetsons, or something!

Over time, I started reading more blogs like Apartment Therapy, watching HGTV, and realized I loved what I was seeing. It made me step back and say, wow! I really don't like my furniture or the way my house looks. I can really get into this vintage and modern stuff I keep seeing! A friend introduced me to Etsy, bless her.


Last year, when my bride-to-be (Sam) and I decided to relocate out of state, it left us with two houses to do something with. One we had been living in (nickname: white house) , and the other one I inherited a few months prior (nickname: brick house). So all these design blogs and tv shows got me to thinking.. "hey, I can do that..." So I got to workin' on the houses while Sam secured a job and apartment in the "new" state.

As of now, the white house is almost finished, and the brick house (which was in terrible shape) still has a lot more work. In the next few days, I will be posting pictures and blogging about what I've done so far to both houses.

So anyway, there you have it.. I've really been looking forward to starting this blog, to be able to look back on my projects one day and be proud. And if I can inspire just one other person to find their style and try to make their space their own, that will be icing on the cake.