We had an old bulletin board sitting around, so we painted it with one of our sample paint colors.

Then, we printed out a few pictures with some friends.

 

 The furniture used to be in my son’s room.  So, the desk is new to my daughter, by not new.  I painted the peg board writing center that used to be downstairs.  This is the perfect spot to keep writing supplies on hand.  I loved having this in the kitchen because it encouraged writing every single day.  My hubby got tired of running into it and politely asked if it could go somewhere else.  He lets me do just about any hairbrained idea I have in our house, so when he says something bugs him, I try change it for him.  He puts up with a lot of crazy ideas.  It’s the least I can do.

With a few projects down, we only have a few left to go!  Happy painting!

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I did finish up the gallery wall with some cute painted frames though!

I used frames I had around the house and painted them with colors that coordinate with my daughter’s quilt. I purchased four different colors of sample sized paints from Lowe’s.  I knew we’d be doing a few projects in this room and paint seemed like a cheap and easy way to go.  

I started pinning several different arrangements for gallery walls.  My original idea was to include an old window or some sort of subway art, but this seemed like plenty. I had planned to let my daughter choose all of the pictures for the frames, but she was a bit overwhelmed when I started scrolling through options on the computer with her.  So, I just picked photos I like instead.  She was happy with the finished wall, even though there wasn’t a lot of ownership into the selection.

This wall is above the long part of my daughter’s bed, so I thought a reading lamp was a good idea.  I found this one for about $12 at IKEA and my friend, Diane, picked up the wood block that the lamp is mounted on from Michael’s.  I love that redish-pink color and wanted to add one more little accent with it on this wall.

 

Old picture frames and several paint colors make a pretty cool gallery wall, if I do say so myself!

I can’t wait to show you the finished room!  Maybe I’ll get everything done by Spring Break! Now, I need to find more things to paint with those cute sample size paints!

Happy painting!

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A few months ago, I let my daughter pick out some fabric for a quilt.  She picked a beautiful Moda fabric line.  I’ve always loved the look of aqua and red, but never really had a place for it in my house.  I was secretly a little thrilled with this choice of fabrics, although I couldn’t let it show.  If you have kids, you know that if you like something then your kids will choose something completely opposite. Shhhh. Pretend I don’t like this.

I’m working on the quilt.  The blocks are almost done, but life’s been a bit busy, so there hasn’t been much sewing going on around here in September. 

The paint color was a bit of a dilemma.  Originally, my daughter said she wanted the grayish/brown color for her walls.  I wasn’t too keen on this at first.  Gray and brown for a little girl’s room didn’t set well with me.  The more I thought about it, the more I liked the idea and thought it could work.  The quilt colors would could be used and it would be pretty.  Then, at the last minute, she decided she wanted a pale blue/turquoise.  I had a hard time wrapping my head around it and I was afraid it would look too minty green.  So, I bought the gray/brown.  I painted a swatch on the wall and I hated it.  When people would ask my daughter what color she was going to paint her room, she said, “Ugly.”  Something told me she didn’t like it too much either.  So, we used the ugly paint in the bathroom, where the light makes it look very gray and actually really nice.  Then, we painted her room a pretty blue.  I say we but in reality, my mom painted 95% of the room and I got home just in time to help with the last few swipes of paint. 

I’ll post pictures when the quilt is done and the room looks a bit more finished. 

Happy painting!

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A little over a year ago I discovered the blogging world. I saw this think called a “linky party” on a blog that I was reading. I thought it was the best thing since sliced bread. A bunch of people shared the projects they were working on in their homes and I got to learn new things from them. I had no idea what was going on in Bloggerville.

One post that stood out to me was someone who had a brass fireplace. She used high heat black spray paint to cover all the brass and saved herself the cost of a new fireplace insert. Amazing. I had never heard of high heat spray paint and I had never thought of this idea. My obsession with linky parties had begun. I wish I had a before picture of my all too brassy fireplace, but here’s the after.

Next up, light fixtures. I was on a mission to replace the lame builder grade light fixtures in my bathrooms. Needing three fixtures, I was assuming I’d have to spend about $200 to replace all three. Not. In. The. Budget. So, you can imagine my surprise when I found three bathroom light fixtures on clearance at Home Depot. And here’s the best part… $15 EACH!!!! The only problem was that they were all chrome and I really wanted black in my bathroom.

Here’s a picture of the fixture in the kids’ bathroom. I haven’t painted yet, so you can still see the outline of the old lights. Sorry about the horrible photos. It’s really hard to take pictures of lights.

Enter the high heat black spray paint for the two fixtures in the master bath. I’m thrilled with the way they turned out.

So, when the grate on the outdoor fire pit was looking a little rusty and shabby. I hit that with a little high heat black spray paint too. I’m probably the only one who will notice the difference, but looking at the rusty cover was really bugging me.

Good as new.

So, today’s post didn’t really have beautiful photos. Sorry about that. But, maybe (like me) you didn’t know that high heat spray paint existed. It even works on Bar-B-Ques. Ooooh! How cool would a glossy red Bar-B-Que be? I better let that idea go. My husband would NEVER let me touch the Bar-B-Que.

Here are a few linky parties I like to participate in.

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