Pottery Barn inspired Mobile

The above is my version, which was inspired by The Pottery Barn "Primary Regatta Mobile"

also found at :  Primary Regatta Mobile

I discovered the Pottery Barn mobile a few months ago, and was actually going to order it.  At $39, I thought it was a pretty fair price, but I ended up putting it off for some reason.  

The more I thought about it, the more I thought, "Hey, I could make that."  I figured I could buy a bamboo stake from the garden section of Home Depot, find some little wooden sailboats from Hobby Lobby, and paint them up myself.  I could even make the sails with a little cotton duck and some wooden dowels.  I was originally going to make an exact copy of the mobile, where one would assume it came from PB.

I still put if off, while wrapping up other projects, and then when I came back to it, I decided to go REALLY frugal.  This is where my own interpretation came into play. 

I ended up chopping off a big branch from this tree in our back yard.

Okay, well ... I started to cut it off and I was unable to, so I made my husband do it for me.  Enter in: Confused husband wondering why he is chopping down a tree limb for his wife.

I took the branch from this:

to this:

by removing the foliage.   I then trimmed it down a bit more, and then painted it red with leftover paint from a paint job in our little boys' bedroom.

While waiting for the paint to dry on the main stick, I started construction on the sailboats.

I used the sticks that I trimmed off of the main branch with twine to hold them together.  I probably should have used some sort of glue, but I didn't have any on hand, and I wanted to make this a completely free project. 

The first step was to attach two sticks together like so:

I then attached a more 'green' and flexible branch like this:

Don't you dig the pre-k scissors I'm working with up there?  haha.

And finally, this:

Once my main 'frame' was complete, I just cut the shape of the sails I wanted from left over cotton duck.  Since I didn't have anything other than Elmer's glue on hand (not the quickest drying glue out there), I just did some quick stitches to put the sails together.

I did this process 4 more times until I was left with 5 sailboats of various sizes. 

The next day I attached the red branch to the ceiling, right above the baby's crib and the chair in the "Nursery Nook"

I then laid out the sailboats to figure out the arrangement I thought looked best.

A normal person would probably use fishing line at this point to attach the boats to the stick, but I just used plain white thread because I had it on hand.

I simply tied each boat onto the stick and was done!

Total cost:  Nada!  Zero!  Zilch!

Linking up to:

Tomorrow!  Check it out in the AM for other Pottery Barn inspired projects.

Thanks for stopping by and for any comments!

Oh, and today was my oldest baby's first day of school. :( from me, but lots of :) from him. 

Have a great day!

Nursery Wall - singular.

We're expecting another bundle of roughness and toughness this November.  Ahh, 3 boys.  Our lives will never be the same.  :)

When we bought our house in March, we had no idea we were in the very early stages of pregnancy, so our house shopping criteria didn't come close to thinking of a wee-one.
A few weeks after closing- SURPRISE! :)

So, since all of our secondary bedrooms are upstairs, we're doing a "Nursery Nook" in our Master Bedroom downstairs. Just the thought of trudging up those stairs 3 to 4 times throughout the night, after another c-section makes me hurt.  :p

We're not wanting to totally baby out the room, so we're choosing to do decor that goes with what we currently have - but fun and whimsical for a child.  When I do get ready to move the baby to his own room sooo far far away from us, everything should be pretty easy to relocate.  Okay, except for THIS project.  haha.

I've already posted about the dresser remodel (which, by the way isn't even going in our room due to space constraints, but anyhoo), so here is the next chapter in the "Nursery Nook" saga:  The Nursery Wall - singular, because the kiddo only gets one wall his little little Nook.  :p  Okay, one and 1/8th.

Here is the wall before:

Ignore the funky chair and ottoman waiting to be slipped, and obviously the crib is not "dressed."

First of all, I'm obviously way to in love with the print on these curtains (below) for my own good, because I keep buying them, only to chop them up to use all over the house.

AHHH... okay, it appears that they aren't for sale anymore online to steal a photo from.  :(

but it is the same fabric I used for the curtains under my sink.

and for the curtains under a buffet, and for the curtains in my laundry room...

......and, in frames above our bed, and... for part of the baby's bedding I'm working on.

Yep, I like the fabric.  LOL.

So I decided that I SOMEHOW wanted to put this pattern on the baby's wall.

I thought about doing vertical stripes.. eh, too busy.

I thought about doing large Stars with the stripes inside...

Nice, but man that would be a lot of work to make perfect stars.

So, I settled on doing large circles, with the pattern inside.

I started by using a pen and string (high tech, here  :p ) and making various size circles on the wall.

I then taped off the stripes so that it mimicked the pattern on the panels.

Then came the paint.

I started with the darkest color, let it dry, and then went back and taped off the other colors.  From the beginning I planned on changing the wall color, but I thought I could use it as one of the colors of the stripes for this process.  However, it ended up looking just plain gray against the other colors rather than aqua.. so it all went in the end.

Here is the finished wall:

I'm really liking that it's fun, yet it doesn't scream BABY at us.  Especially since our king size bed looks directly at this wall.  


Thanks for looking, and for any comments!  :)  Edited to add:  check out the sidebar label for nursery to see other projects relating to this area.

The Up-Coming CSI Project

I have been having so much fun stalking so many cool blogs lately.  I've seen a lot of bloggers link up to The CSI Project, so I hopped on over last night to check it out.



I am SO excited about this week's upcoming project "Pottery Barn Inspired!"

Um... Yay!   It just so happens that I've been working on a little Pottery Barn inspired project of my own around here, and this is the perfect motivation to finish it up today.

So, I'm off to get busy wrapping up my loose ends.  Check back here tomorrow to see what I've come up with.. I'm hoping the final outcome looks like it does in my head.  HA!

On another note, I'll be posting another Nursery project this evening.   I actually started writing up a post and realized the photos were still on my camera!  We all know a post is worth nothing without photos!  :p

Numbered Stools

Well, I can't really say who inspired this project.  I've seen versions of this all over the Internet. 

Here is my version. 

After remodeling our kitchen, I decided that we really needed some bar stools for our bar area.  I originally wanted bar stools that would match our breakfast table. 

This is a Better Homes and Gardens set from WalMart (looks a LOT like a Pottery Barn version, so I'm always proud to tell people what I DIDN'T pay! lol), and while the matching 29 inch tall bar stools were pretty inexpensive (considering some of the pricey bar stools I've seen elsewhere) at $69 each, they were still $69 each.  I wanted at least 3, so to get those would be around $200 by the time I paid tax.

Soooo... I was in WalMart one day, strolling down the furniture aisle, drooling over the bar stools I ACTUALLY wanted, when I saw this:

It's a beauty, eh?  Okay, well.. not yet.

But, at $19, for a 29 inch stool, it's a pretty good deal.  So, I picked up three.

:)

So at this point I had three inexpensive (yay!) but ugly (boo!) bar stools.

So, I primed them, and painted them with 2 coats of leftover Valspar's Lincoln Cottage Black.

I then distressed the edges and the rungs where your feet would naturally rest.

Nice, but not quite done, right?

The next step was to print out 3 large numbers and I of course went with 1, 2, and 3.

I also printed out a 6, because my five year old (who is obsessed with printers) heard it on and insisted he get a number too.  haha.

I cut out the black part, so that only the white outline remained, like so:

Brodie and his number 6, which while working on, he critiqued me the whole time for cutting my numbers out the wrong way, LOL.

I taped the numbers down like so (I'm sure there are easier ways to do this.. vinyl being one of them, but I don't have the patience to wait when I get an idea in my head.)

I then very carefully stenciled in the numbers.  I did go over them again, with the stencil removed to get a good second coat on them and to clean up the lines.

Ta-Da!

And here they are in their place of honor...  I still need to seal them... but so far a few days worth of hiney action hasn't phased them.

Awesomeness.

Total cost - approximately $20 per stool.  Paint - already had, printed paper stencil, free!

$60.   $9 less than ONE of the stools I originally wanted, and with twice the charm.  :)

Thanks for looking and any comments you might have!

A dresser remake

About 4 or 5 years ago, my dad gave us this old dresser/armoire that he had sitting in storage, for us to use in my oldest son's cabin room.   Since the look in there was rustic and woody, the finish worked fine.

We've since moved from that one story house to a 2 story, and I didn't want to move this huge thing up the stairs.   It was sitting out in the garage taking up space, so I decided to clean it up and fix it up for our new addition that will be here in November. 

This is the before:

It wasn't actually missing drawers.  I'd already removed them to start painting when it dawned on me to take a before shot.  Amateur blogger here, okay?  haha.

I lined up the drawers and got an assembly line or sorts going, so that by the time I was done putting the first coat on the last drawer, the first drawer face was dry and ready for another coat. 

I of course removed the hardware first.  Since this piece was so old and worn, I didn't prime (probably should have, ahha) or sand.   The wood just soaked the paint right up.   I used Behr's Ultra Pure white, straight off the shelf.. the same color that we've been using for our trim around the house.  

After painting and lightly distressing, I had this:

Notice my technique of painting on wood slats?, brilliant eh?  LOL!  Okay, okay.. sometimes a girls gotta give herself a few compliments, right?

Moving on.

I could have attached the new hardware at this point, but I wanted something a little more whimsical since this would be for a baby.

umm...  Let's do stripes!

If you think I'm an odd one for putting little knick knacks on top before its even done, you're not the only one.  haha.  Luckily everyone around here knows I'm a little nuts.  :p

After removing the tape, I added a little nautical compass freehand onto the armoire door. 

I added some new hardware from Lowes... the modern pull was around $3 and the bin pulls were on sale for only 2 something!  I made sure to measure the pre-drilled holes, so that when we picked out new hardware it would be sure to fit.  I actually found the most adorable little fish, in the same finish, that I wanted to use on the door, but it was too small.  :(   Good thing we measured first because that thing was almost in my cart!  haha.

And, Here she is!

Thanks for stopping by and checking out the new Nautically-whimsical dresser!

Linking up to:

http://www.inthefunlane.com/2010/08/fresh-coat-friday_19.html

Our Remodeled (on a budget) kitchen

Before we bought our house (I guess I should say before we closed on it), I knew exactly what I wanted to do to update the very 80's kitchen.   Our home was built in 1989 (still 80s!), and the ONE good thing about the kitchen, was that the cabinets were solid wood and in good condition.  The first home we bought new in 2004 had the more modern, less wood-like (you know what I'm talking about, right?) cabinets. 

And honestly, that was pretty much the only good thing about it.  The layout is semi decent- the location of the fridge makes accessing the cabinets beside it semi hard, but we really weren't in the position to change around anything.  We were also on an extreme budget when purchasing our house, and some things we just had to be flexible on, plus we LOVE our floorplan of the other rooms.

So, before we even closed on the house, I researched kitchens.  I read blogs, some of them over and over again, and looked at photos over and over again.   I was greatly inspired by Layla's kitchen over at The Lettered Cottage.  http://www.theletteredcottage.net/   She has since painted her cabinets white and soft greenish gray, but they were originally black.  I loved the way she turned those standard stock cabinets into something special. 

Using her kitchen as inspiration, I tried to figure out a way to visually raise the height of our cabinets... tricky since ours have a soffet (is that what that THING even is called?  LOL) above.   Here is the before picture of our kitchen.  Ignore that my husband makes an appearance in one of the befores- he just so happens to be in the EXACT same view of the after too!  LOL- taken four months later.. 

-Note that last photo we'd already moved in and primed the cabinets for paint-

Notice the wall paper, the blah-ness of the island, and the countertops (which were in HORRIBLE shape). Oh, and the single lonely can light above the sink. I specifically say notice the wallpaper because after ripping those tons of layers off, we ended up having to repair and retexture the drywall.  What a pain!

 After many months of hard work, (and saving for new countertops -whew those were pricey - for budget minded us), this is our after!

....

..

..

Like Layla and Kevin's kitchen at The Lettered Cottage, I carried the beadboard over as the backsplash.  Boy was that a money saver!  The whole backsplash behind the L portion of the kitchen was only $20 since we managed to fit it all from a single sheet of beadboard.  I found the same corbels that they used, purchased at Home Depot, and used them to give the cabinets more of a furniture and higher end look.  I didn't specifically set out to COPY their corbels, its just that all the other ones were too country or too embellished- so not me.  These were perfect.  :)

After much thought (on my end.. my husband didn't really care one way or the other, :p)  we ended up nailing beadboard directly to the soffet above the cabinets and finishing off with various sizes of trim.  The flat part in the middle of the beadboard is actually the flat, back side of the beadboard.  Pretty nifty, eh?

My FIL and husband installed two more can lights over the island, which I love. They're placed so that if we later want to switch them out to pendants, then we can. The cabinets were painted Valspar's Lincoln Cottage Black and distressed to show some of the primer. The knobs are simple satin nickel that came in a contractor's pack from HD. The bin pulls are also satin nickel from HD, and I managed to find them for around $3 each.

There's that hubby I warned you about.  ;) 

The countertops were our biggest expense.  They are New Venetian Gold granite and were around $2000.  Considering that we saved money everywhere else, we felt justified spending that much.  Plus, we were able to snag a pretty good deal on them.   We do still plan on getting glass front doors for the opening to the left of the microwave. The ones on the right we'll leave open.

We upgraded the island with more beadboard, higher baseboards, and lots and lots of trim.  We also added sawed down corbels for the look they give, and to help support the added weight of the granite. 

I love my DEEP undermount sink (would have loved a farmhouse, but man they are expensive!).  I also love the curtains, but much like a lot in this house, they happened on accident.  When I was painting all of the door faces, I painted ALL of them black, not thinking about how the two on the island were supposed to remain white.  Laziness struck and instead of stripping off the paint and starting over, I decided to make curtains for under the sink.  Okay, so yeah, I'm a bum, who cares?  haha. I think they're really cute.  The fabric came from pre-made curtains from Wal-Mart that I cut up and used randomly around the house.  I love the navy with the aqua and the gold stripe.

We still need to move our stainless fridge from my inlaw's barn, and get a new dishwasher.  For right now the cash cow has been drained, so it might be a while on the new dishwasher. 

The tiles behind the sink are simple white subway tiles, and embellished subways.  The faucet was a mega bargain at Home Depot - only $108.  Anyone who has priced faucets lately knows how great of a deal this is.  I don't remember the brand, but as of yesterday (roaming through researching bath faucets) they were still in stock.

That's it!  Thanks for taking the time to 'tour' our kitchen.  I've had a lot of fun finding inexpensive accessories to finish it out, and can't wait to post about that in the next few days.

Linking up to:

http://www.inthefunlane.com/2010/08/fresh-coat-friday_19.html

Metamorphosis Monday @ Between Naps on the Porch.