Finishing touches

I have been gone for the week on a family vacation. We had a great time visiting the Oregon coast. The ocean was cool and beautiful. A refreshing break from our hundred degree weather.
I have been working on some finishing touches for my craft room.  I love putting the general room together, then stepping back and adding some fun touches like curtains.  These are one of my favorite things to add.  My room started with my chair and moved on from there.  I knew I wanted to add another fun fabric and pattern, and had just the place to start with.  I found this old screen at an antique store years ago.  We took out the screen and stapled chicken wire to the frame.  I then found some bright fabric that I knew would add some fun to my room.

It is the perfect place to hang art projects and fun inspiration, plus it added some fun pattern for my wall of yellow.
I wanted to take the fabric from one side of the room and marry it with the other so I decided to add it to the curtains.  I bought some plain gray panels on clearance and measured and cut some off the top.  I sewed fabric to the top and hemmed the two sides.  Then I took some red ribbon and glued it on the seam to finish it off.  I found some fun door knobs at Hobby Lobby and decided to take ribbon, and hang the curtains off of them.

It was a fun way to finish off and add some personality to the room. Pin It

DIY Cupcake stands

I was in desperate need....want for cupcake stands to display some cupcakes I made for the fourth of July. I couldn't find any that I loved, so I decided to make a couple of my own. We were in Bed Bath and Beyond and I found plastic plates on sale for just 99 cents. Who could beat that? I grabbed enough plates and cups  to make two of them. 

I loved the square floral plates and the green bowl and circle plate. It had a whimsical look to it.  I was trying to decide what to put in the middle, when we found the matching drinking cups and decided to try those. I loved it.  It was way easy to assemble. First we traced the bottom bowl and grabbed the E 6000 glue. We  put glue both on the bottom of the bowl and the circle on the plate we traced.  Wait five minutes, then put them together.  Then we glued and traced the rest of the layers until we completed two great and functional cupcake stands.

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Dreamy ice cream dessert

It has been hot here, and when it is hot we love ice cream.  One of my favorite ice cream desserts is this yummy recipe I am about to share. I had it at a party at my friend's home years ago and it quickly became one of my very favorites.  It is a hit no matter where you take it, or who eats it.

It all starts with a half gallon of vanilla ice cream. This needs to be softened, so leave it on the counter while you mix the rest.  You will need rice crispies, coconut, butter, brown sugar, and walnuts.

Mix together 2 cups of the rice cereal, 1 cup of brown sugar, 1 cup coconut, and 1 cup chopped nuts. Pour in 1 stick of melted butter and mix well.

Take half of the mixture and pat it in the bottom of a 9x13 baking pan.

Dump the ice cream in a mixing bowl and stir until softened.

Spread the ice cream over the bottom mixture then top with the remainder mixture.

Freeze until time to serve, or mixture has set. Slice and enjoy... we love to top ours with home made strawberry freezer jam, pie filling, chocolate or caramel sauce.

Dreamy ice cream dessert
1 half gallon vanilla ice cream softened
In a mixing bowl mix
2 cups rice crispies
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup coconut
1 cup chopped nuts
1 stick melted butter
Make sure you mix well
Using half of the rice crispy mixture, line a 9x13 inch pan. Then take the soft ice cream mixture and spread over the mixture. Take the rest of the mixture and spread on top of the ice cream. Freeze until ice cream has set.
Serve with the topping of your choice.
Enjoy!

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Finished Craft Room

It was a lot of work, but we finished. We took a basement that had an awkward layout

 Tore out the wall of one bedroom and created a fun and way functional new family craft room.

We installed laminate hand scraped acacia flooring. I decided to go with laminate in the basement instead of wood just for the practicality. I wanted a space we could glue in, paint in, and just have fun in without worrying about carpet.  We put a butter color on the walls, and painted the cabinets white. I found the knobs at hobby lobby and decided I needed a pop of color. I sprayed the knobs red for a fun whimsical touch. I found my light fixture a while before I finished the room. We went with cans in the ceiling, but I wanted a focal piece above the desk for extra light.  I love all the storage I created, and I am so excited to have a space for everything.

I added shelves in between the upper cabinets for some more storage and to add a decorative touch. We took pieces of pine, cut them to size, and dry brushed them to match the finish of the table legs.  I love the mix of old and new. I sprayed the corbels navy blue to match the chair I found. I love the red, navy and gray color scheme. Very calming.

I found my chair at TJ Maxx. Every room needs a starting point, and that was mine. I like to have an inspiration piece to start inspiring me.  Usually for me it is fabric.  That chair dictated the whole vibe I wanted to use for that space.

I needed a second pattern, and when I found this fabric at hobby lobby I knew this was it.  I had this old window in my storage room. We took out the glass, added some chicken wire and stapled fabric behind it. It works great to display art projects and fun inspiration we find.

I love everything about my room, and can't start creating something great in it!

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Re purposing furniture

Painting furniture...one of my favorite things. I love how a piece of furniture can change so drastically with just a can of paint. A while ago my daughter had an armoire in her old bedroom that stored her clothes. We have since moved and did a whole different bedroom for her and she did not need to use that armoire. I decided that it would be great if I could put that piece of furniture in my craft room and use it for a sewing cabinet. The only problem was the paint color. I had painted it pink and creme originally, and those just weren't going to be the colors I was going to use in that room.

Here is a picture of the piece in her room all painted girly. It actually started out black, and I seriously just used paper towels to rub the paint on and off to give it an instant distressed look.  It was about the fastest piece of furniture I have ever painted.  She was a baby, it was nap time, and I got it done! Whiled I loved it, I knew it would never work this way in my craft room.

I decided to paint it all a charcoal gray color. I used some wall paint from another room in my house, a foam roller, and went to work.  I was going to paint a design in the center section, but I liked the way it looked just gray all over. I found some fun knobs at Hobby Lobby and sprayed them white to add more character.  I love the way it turned out, and I am so excited for the storage it will give me.
While I was painting that, I realized I needed some chairs for that room to go with the table.  I had some old wooden chairs I had used in other rooms in my home, and  decided to change them up a bit.

I had one of these chairs in storage that I used in my other daughter's room when she was little. Again, it was pretty pink and girly. I also had an old ikea chair I had painted from the craft room in my other home.

I went to work painting all the wood that was going to show.  I painted this chair's back the same butter and gray I used on the walls and the armoire.

I took the girly chair and painted some gray and yellow details on it. I found some fabric I loved for the seat, stapled it on, and I had two great chairs to sit on while I did projects.

Here they are now. These are such easy projects, and best yet inexpensive projects. If you shop around your home, you can not only have fun using some of your creativity, but you will have a one of a kind piece that no one else has. Pin It

My French Door Table

When I started this craft room process, I wanted a table coming out into the center of the room. A lot like a kitchen island.  I wanted to be able to use my sewing machine and have room to pull fabric through, kid's school projects that seem to always use poster board, and just have a space where more than one person could be sitting comfortably doing a project together. We looked into doing cabinets that resembled a kitchen island, or buying a table to go in the center. Both were pretty expensive, and kind of generic to me.  We came up with the idea to use a French door as the top and have my hubby make the legs.

First we bought a wooden french door from our local hardware store.  It was unfinished, and it also came without the knob hole cut out.  Very important to me... I didn't want a hole in the middle of my table.  I decided to paint the door a charcoal gray.  I used left over satin wall paint I had from another project.  Painted two coats on it, then distressed it to look old.

The design of these legs were inspired by a picture I saw in a magazine of someone's dining room table.  I showed my hubby the picture and away he went.  It was fairly simple.  We went to Home Depot and got some wood and assembled two unique table legs using just this wood and some nails. After he got them built, I went to work painting them.  I wanted them to look rustic and distressed, so I literally white washed them using a dry brushing technique. They were dry almost instantly, and took about a half hour to do both.  The fun part of dry brushing, is not a lot of paint goes on at first so there is a lot of room to mess around with the finish to get your desired look.

Here is what it looks like put together.  I haven't painted the legs in this picture, but after the legs were painted, we screwed on the top to the legs, got a piece of glass cut to cover the top of the window for the table top, and I had a one of a kind craft table.

I love working on my table. The kids also love the table, and having it come out into the room is just perfect for us. Best of all the table is one of a kind, I had fun creating it, and we saved a lot of money just making it ourselves. Pin It

Painting cabinets

My room is taking shape and I am excited to get cabinets put in. We painted a valspar paint on the walls called butter. Yellow is hard to pick, and this is the perfect shade of yellow for me.  Not to bright, but still very happy.  I always paint my walls with an eggshell finish, and my trim with a satin finish. We decided to go with the unfinished stock cabinets for this room. I thought to myself, I will just paint them quickly and get them installed...no problem.  They are trickier than they look. I have painted so many finished cabinets in my day, and these are a little different.  First off, we had to sand the heck out of these babies.  Sand, sand, sand.  When they are smooth use a good primer. Paint one coat, then sand again. Paint another coat, sand, and then start painting your color.  I decided to go white with these cabinets. I know that there is special cabinet paint on the market, but I just went with a satin white wall paint that matched my trim color.  I wanted it to blend in with the trim, and look more like built ins. When I paint my cabinets, I always use a foam roller. It gives them a smooth spray like finish. I cut in with my brush, then roller with the roller. It may take a few more coats, but the lighter it goes on, the less drips you will have.

Here they are white, uninstalled. We added crown molding to the top of the uppers for a more high end look. I love how they turned out, for a fraction of the cost of custom cabinetry. Can't wait to show what is going to happen with that french door. Pin It