Easy Chevron Picture Art

Only one word here ladies and gents. Target. 

This place is amazing, my knock-off Pottery Barn. I am incapable of walking in there and coming out empty handed. I'll admit that I'm bad about walking in to grab toilet paper and come out 2 hours later sans toilet paper, with 5 dinosaurs from the dollar section for my son, cardigan I already have in 3 other colors and a clearanced item I don't need, but have convinced myself I'll use it for something. Surely I'm not the only sucker to this heavenly place, am I?

A few months ago I came across a section of large frames knocked down to $4 each. With the amount of ideas I instantly had for them, I couldn't resist. So I snagged 2 of them. Almost regretting I didn't get more at that price; but seriously, I don't need them. I can say I have some restraint. :)

I ended up walking around the house for about 30 minutes with my 2 year old trailing behind, placing these up on the walls where I thought they'd go best. He didn't like a single spot. He was pretty consistent with the no's. Go figure. The kid has the choice between yes and no, you'll get a no 90% of the time. I mean, 99%. Ahhh... Toddlerhood.

You can't beat having that monkey jabbering through the house with you though. I'll turn him into a DIYer before long... bringing him to the dark side. :)

Once I decided on the master bedroom, I pulled out some old scrapbook paper and a ruler to throw on some chevron lines for a pattern.

I cut out the first section and repeated it down the sheet. Then I cut out the white pattern pieces and just glued them to my main background color. Pretty easy right?

Once I finally got them situated, it was time to pull out my ninja skills. Holding these in place while I put the glass on. Easier solution? Just tape it. I promise you won't look as ridiculous.

These little frame makeovers cost me just $8 total

I'm not sure how I'm feeling about the 3 clashing patterns at the moment. We'll see if they grow on me or get the better of my OCD after a few weeks. :) 

The lamps are definitely staying. They're one of my biggest steals thus far. They were $100 at Hobby Lobby for FOREVER. Every visit I made, I'd make a discrete walk by just to check on them. Of course, giving myself enough time to talk myself out of buying them. That much for a lamp was down right insane. So I left a little piece of my heart there every time. Then one day, I happened to make a stop through the clearance section and there they were! My beautiful lamps, only 2 left, it was a sign and marked down to $40. Was $40 a little much? Yes, but I had waited patiently for this moment and no way was I leaving there without them. Plus, after doing a little research on lamps and shades that were similar, it pretty much evened out. 

Linked up to
I Heart Naptime, Cedarhill Farmhouse, DIY Showoff

DIY Growth Chart

The DIY stained growth charts have been scrolling through the Pintresphere for awhile now... another pin I've had pinned and had yet to complete. Finally, after a little winter cabin fever and a little spike in the temps, I put it on the weekend to do list.

I browsed around for a few inspirational ideas and came across some really great painted or stained designs that I loved. In the end, I decided to keep it simple so I would be able to easily chart my son's growth. Here are a few I came across.

The ones above are from Design, Dining & Diapers, Bower Power Blog and Cozy, Cottage, Cute. I love these ladies. They have offered so much creativity to work off of.

So first thing on Saturday while Daddy was at work, I packed up the monkey and we headed to The Home Depot. I dream of the day we're no longer carrying a diaper bag, back up clothes, snacks and a drink everywhere we go. Quick trips would once again be quick trips... One day Ashley, then you'll be wishing for these days back.

We had to do our ritual Home Depot photo op...

We picked up a 1x6x6 board which was less than $8.00 and a container of Minwax Dark Walnut stain. If you already have all the materials needed, then this project will cost you less than $10 easy.

Once we got home, little man went down for a nap and mom got to work. I sanded the entire board with 100 grit sandpaper. 100 is a perfect level to smooth out the wood. You could sand it again with a 150 grit to roughen the surface area a little more for the stain to adhere to, but the one run through with the 100 worked perfect for this project. 

Don't forget to brush off all the dust.

When staining, I would suggest using a cloth instead of a sponge brush. The brush is easier and makes less of a mess, but using the cloth helps the wood soak in more of the stain. Make sure you have latex gloves, this stuff is super sticky and your fingers will turn out looking like tootsie rolls if you don't. Trust me; you'll do that, end up having to run to Walmart for something ridiculous and end up on the People of Walmart site. :)

I used Minwax Dark Walnut for the finish. The deep brown wood grain color turned out beautifully. Also, I DID NOT use polyurethane to cover the stain. I wanted to keep the rough worn look.

Now to let it dry. I always, ALWAYS jump the gun on this step. However, being outside in the cold helped the process along nicely. After 30 minutes this was ready to get taped off for painting.

From the floor, I measured a foot up the wall and decided where I wanted my board to start. The measurements on my board start at half a foot, 6 inches. Don't forget this step when drilling it into the wall!

The taped off sections are for each feet using Frog Tape. This stuff is amazing and has 'Paint Block' on the edges preventing ANY paint bleeding. It worked perfect for me. 

The foot marks are thicker than the smaller markings in between and go across about 3/4 of the width of the board. The smaller inch lines (done every 2) I just marked with a pencil. To be honest, instead of taping off each line, I just decided to wing it with the paint. If you do, take your time. Never will a task make you question your age like this one will. My hand was shaking like I was 90 from concentrating so hard!

After the paint dried, I pulled the tape off... revealing my beautifully straight paint lines. :)

For the numbers, the easiest method would be to just print out some numbers and X-Acto knife them. If you have a Cricut machine with this little cartridge, then that would work even better. I on the other hand had to trace these babies because my printer was out of ink.

Just tape the numbers to the board where desired and sponge/blot the paint on. Blot lightly because you don't want the paint to bleed under the paper. There's really nothing holding it down to the board other than your hand.

Finally after letting the numbers dry a little, they were ready to be removed and my finished work was revealed. I feel in love with it instantly. Kind of like that feeling you get browsing through the Pottery Barn catalog, drooling all over the decor and furniture.

When drilling the board into the wall, I would suggest using a screw anchor for this. I don't usually like using them because they're a bit time consuming, like 5 minutes because I'm impatient. Here is what we used. Remember, you're taking up an inch of your screw through the board, so its going to pull out of the drywall more easily without the anchors.

And once it was finally hung... GORGEOUS!

And of course a photo bomb...

Sharing with

Flamingo Toes, DIY Showoff, My Little Birds, Cedar Hill Farmhouse

Nursery Bedrooom Makeover

This post is well over do considering our little one is now a whopping 22 months! Everyone said it would go by so quickly but OH MY GOD! I ask him everyday to quit growing, but I don't think he's in agreement with me. Now after 22 months, I've gotten the itch to redo his room soon... into a "Big Boy" room.

My goal: hold off on a "big boy" room and bed until he's actually climbing out of the crib. So far we're good - knock on wood! Fingers are crossed that it doesn't dawn on him to just hike his leg up a little higher and go for it.

As far as this room, we did quite a few projects...

1. Replaced ceiling fan

2. Had the tree mural done on the wall

3. Made the animal canvas prints

4. Fabric bird appliques for the tree

5. Paper mache letter

6. Chalkboard labeled baskets

Bedroom BEFORE:

Linked up to

Flamingo Toes

Playroom Storage, Pottery Barn Knockoff

If Pottery Barn were a person, we would totally be best friends.

I fell in love with the huge wall storage systems they have on their PB Kids site. The set ups they had were perfect for our bonus room/den where we would make Lucas' play area. The only problem, what I wanted would cost $1300 through Pottery Barn, not including the shipping. Whoa, hold the phone! No way was I going to be able to slide that one by the hubby. I could see it then, that look 'woman, you have got to be crazy' and then saying our then newborn did not need a $1300 storage system for his 5 toys that he had. :) Yes, he was right, but oh men; can't live with them and can't live without him... but someone's got to open the jar lids for me :).

So of course, I was bound and determined to get what I wanted at a much cheaper DIY price even if I had to cut down the tree myself and make it... ok, maybe not that far :). I researched for several months looking at drawers, organizers, cubbies from practically every store measuring out drawings in every kind of configuration I could think of. Nothing was working how I wanted it and my little storage system dream was slowly circling the drain. Finally, the heavens parted and I came across the PERFECT pieces. I found the EXACT parts I wanted, EXACT color with the EXACT measurements to fit each other. I seriously felt like I had won the lottery, felt too good to be true, but it all worked and measured perfectly.

Here are the parts used...

- Drawers are Babyletto and were purchased from Amazon at $100 each

- 16 Cubby System was purchased from Bargain Outfitters for $100

So for $300 instead of $1300, I got the wall storage system I'd been wanting. Hubby gladly put it all together for me and I was one happy wife. It looks great and fills the 10 feet high wall perfectly. Now the real trick, keeping it organized :).

This is the playroom BEFORE...

Playroom AFTER...

Linked up to
Flamingo Toes

Playroom Chalkboard & Numbered Hooks

As if I haven't mentioned it enough already, I love love love Pottery Barn, but not so much their prices. Yikes! While browsing through their playroom ideas, I fell in love with the little chalk boards placed on the walls and noticed they had pails hanging on the side for chalk, crayons, what not... I'm sure ours will be filled with loose toys or who knows what once the baby is up and moving. Here's the picture I fell in love with.

Of course I could have just purchased these from Pottery Barn, but why would I go and do that : ). So... another project was started.

I was determined to find these little pails and after looking at Hobby Lobby and ACMoore, I finally found them at JoAnn Fabrics, I think for maybe $2 each, if that. I intended on doing just number hooks, but while at Michaels one day, I was browsing through their dollar section and came across these perfect little wooden hooks for $1.00.

Of course I didn't just leave them like that. I whipped out the paint, mod podge and Cricut. I painted each block black. Cut numbers out with my Cricut machine and mod podged them onto the blocks.

This project really took me no longer than an hour. The paint dried quickly and the Cricut cut the numbers out in less than 1 minute. I just let them sit out overnight and that allowed the modge podge to completely dry. I couldn't be banging into the walls with nails at 10pm anyway, otherwise we'd be up with a baby the entire night... you know the saying, "if you're the one to wake him up, you're watching him"... not this momma! : )

Here's the finished product.

Chevron Painted Pillow

I've fallen in love with the new Chevron pattern floating around in the blog world and knew I would have to find some kind of project to incorporate it. First something small, those are A LOT of zig zags going on.

So I decided an accent pillow for the couch wouldn't be so scary to tackle.


I started with one white fabric square (cut in half) that I purchased at Wal-mart for under $1.00. I picked up a cheap bottle of gray paint, $2.00, while I was there also. This product is easily under $10 if you include having to purchase the stuffing, tape and brush. Super easy!

I measured the spacing between each piece of tape to 1 inch. Just use a wider ruler if you want thick stripes.

Once I got it all taped off, I dabbed on the paint pretty thick to make sure a second coat wasn't needed. If it dries too thick, then it can always be sanded down a little.

My words of wisdom, let it dry! I always jump the gun on this part and really regret it later when either the furniture, dog or I am covered in little paint streaks. It really never fails. My husband always knows when I've been working on something when he comes home to a paint crime scene.

Stuff it and sew it up!

Heres the finished product. I really LOVE this pattern and intend on trying it on our curtains in the bonus room... fingers crossed!

Nursery Sneak Peek

When we moved into the house, we went ahead and designated one of the spare rooms to the future nursery. We kept all the loose baby items and random things in there so it was never quite presentable... which of course drove me nuts! : )

Finally!!! We're able to make up the room as an actual nursery now, one of my absolute favorite parts about getting pregnant! A decorating dream come true.. a reason to design.

As soon as we found out it was a boy, I went head first into the room getting it ready... still not quite done, but it's almost there. Atleast it's ready for him to come home.

So here is a quick sneak peek at the room so far...

Wood Hanging Note Board

This little project resulted in a weekend of boredom... so what else is there to do, but a project!

We just got a new desk step up, that I haven't finished the post for yet, but I will add that soon. It's amazing and an incredible craigslist purchase. It has a lot of shelving space, but I needed a little something for the wall between our bookcases for the quick notes I just jot down and then the post it gets lost because I randomly set them down in the house to never be seen again... incredibily irritating : )

So I took a piece of old wood we had lying around from something else and cut to about the size I wanted for a little note board. Took some dark stain (dark walnut) and stained the front and sides of the piece of wood. I didn't put a coating over it as to leave it a rougher look, not like I just purchased it from Target.



After I let it dry I stapled and glued on twine wrapping it around the board pretty tight so that I could slip notes or cards behind the twine and it stay.



After that, I added a wall hook on the back and put it up.



I'm pretty pleased with it and one of the easier projects I've done.



Linked up to
DIY Showoff, Under the Table & Dreaming