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.