A Tale of Two Wreaths

This was last year's DIY wreath.

It so fluffy and white and ruffle-y and best of all....cheap! Plus, you can display it all winter long since it's not too Christmas-y. 

Tutorial found here.

You only need coffee filters, a foam wreath form, and hot glue. Total cost is less than $10 (with the wreath form being the most expensive part). In 2010, I hung it in front of a big mirror, but this year it got relocated to the front door to make room for....

...this year's DIY wreath.

Go ahead and break into refrains of "Isn't she lovely? Isn't she wonderful?" (I know I am. And I bet you are singing it now too, at least in your head.)

I am so happy with the way this wreath turned out! It's shiny and glittery and a nice diversion from the red & green-ness of the traditional holiday colors.

Tutorial found here.

You'll need shatterproof ornaments and a coat hanger. Can you believe the hanger was the hardest for me to procure? Mine are all the hard plastic kind! I used one full bucket of 26 medium ornaments from Wal-Mart ($4.97), about 10-12 more medium ones from a second bucket ($4.97), and one full tree-shaped package of small Wal-Mart ornaments ($4.97). If you wait to find them on clearance after the holidays, your project will be even cheaper! (I can vouch for the WM kind that the ornaments are fairly sturdily attached to the ornament tops. If you buy another brand, you *might* have to hot glue all the tops to the ornaments so they don't easily come apart. But this is too much work for me so thankfully I didn't have to.)

Any questions? Other favorite DIY wreath ideas?

A Dresser Made Lovely

Part of my Master Bedroom plan involved repainting the furniture. I think using what you already have is one of the most economical ways of changing your decor. I bought one quart of paint (Dutchboy Lined with Silver) to update my dressers and nightstand. After priming and painting and priming and painting some more, I decided to just relocate my highboy into the walk-in closet, which a) made for less painting and b) created more space in the room itself. Here is the side table:

before

 :: side table - This is representative of what all the furniture looked like. It seems like a country French style, which has some nice molding, trim, and curves. I wasn't too crazy about the knobs/drawer pulls or color of the wood. ::

after 

:: new pretty glass knob and light distressing around the edges ::

MORE BEFORE & SOME DURING:

:: You can see here the painted leafy flowery design that was on certain drawers in the set. The flower shaped back pieces of the handles left significant ruts in the fronts of the drawers. ::

:: Wood filler became my best friend. I used those little plastic reward cards for your keychain for filling and scraping. ::

I applied two coats of primer and one of paint, theorizing that primer is cheaper and since I only bought a quart of paint I needed to stretch it as far as I could. It wasn't until after I returned from the home improvement store did I realize that the holes on the drawers were NOT a standard size distance and my new drawer pulls would NOT fit in the holes and the internet does NOT carry a weirdly size drawer pull. I nearly had a melt-down. I just wanted these dressers to be done. So, I decided to use more of this:

And fill in one of the holes for each pull and then redrill new holes for the right fit. After filling, redrilling, and touching up the paint on nine holes....

:: New pretty drawer handles! See that scrollwork above the drawer? It was a pain, pain, pain to paint that. A royal pain. I had to use q-tips to kind of swoosh the paint around so that it covered the inside of them::

:: I lightly distressed the edges of the drawers and dresser itself to make it feel a little more casual and cottage-y. ::

:: Don't forget to make a big mess in the process. It's all part of letting those creative juices flow. ::

:: These purdy glass knobs where on the Husband's old hand-me-down dresser in our closet. I never really noticed the knobs because the dresser itself is so 70's. But in the midst of this project I realized that they would be perfect for our "new" dressers and so they were reassigned! ::

:: Big dresser in all its new loveliness ::

I am so happy with how these turned out. I can't believe the huge difference some paint & handles can make!

Our Farmhouse Bed

I mentioned in my last post that the Husband and I celebrated 12 years of marriage this fall and decided to forego a getaway in favor of decorating our Master Bedroom. The centerpiece of our new decor would be a new bed. Handmade. By us. I must say that the extent of my building skills was assembling laminate bookcases or a simple Ikea side table. I did put together a grill once, while I was 8 months pregnant. But I have never built furniture. Kinda scary, huh? But after months of stalking following reading Ana White's Knock-Off Wood, I was feeling a little more confident. It's kinda like following a recipe (which I know how to do), only with wood and huge power tools and it's more expensive.

My husband and I have never owned a new bed. Never. I realized that when our Pottery Barn knock-off Farmhouse Bed was close to completion. They have always been hand-me-down beds. Never something that was us. And these last few years, we didn't even have a bed frame at all. Just some king sized mattresses on the floor with a queen sized headboard pressed against the wall. So this bed, our bed, would be very special.

Let's get started, shall we?

::piles of wood::

:: my plans & tools ::

:: the very crucial drink (Chai) in one of my fave mugs ::

 
:: laying out the footboard ::

:: footboard complete! ::

:: repeat everything you just did, but make it taller. voila! headboard complete! ::

:: now, prime, paint & paint some more ::

:: more priming & painting for the headboard ::

:: now haul the whole project up the stairs and build a frame from for the mattress. we don't have a one piece boxspring, otherwise we wouldn't have had to do this step. we only would've had to add cleats for the boxspring to rest on. ::

**not pictured: realize at 10:30 pm on a weeknight (yes, I was impatient) that you didn't buy enough plywood to cover the bottom for the mattress to rest on. put the mattress in there anyways. thank God that it fits. go back & forth with dear Husband about who will get on the bed first to make sure it's safe. Wife sits on it first. It's holding up! Decide that you don't want the mattress in there by itself because it will sag through those slats. Put in the boxsprings too. Stare wide-eyed at your gigantic new bed. **

:: feel free to break into a chorus of "Isn't She Lovely?" ::

The total cost for the wood in this project was around $110. We also needed screws, liquid nails, wood filler, primer and paint. The headboard called for 1x8"s to make the planks, but somehow in between Menard's and home they metamorphisized into 1x6"s, so we just went with it. I sanded around the edges and applied a light stain to make the distressed areas a little warmer.

I found the plans, made my list (checked it twice), learned how to use a compound miter saw (with laser!), cut ALL the wood, laid out the pieces for assembly, sanded, primed, painted, and distressed. The Husband did most of the assembling.

The best part, besides the fact that we made a $1500 bed for about one-tenth of the price, was that we did it together.