by Wendy Scheel | Jan 26, 2017 | DIY, Home Tour
Today was a good day. I rate my days in terms of “things I need to do vs. things that got done.”
And today I checked off the removal of this mistake, which has been on the list for months.
The Merry Christmas saying was looking so festive until the season was over and it was time to move on. That is when I realized I had screwed up…big time. These jelly letters had left a stain on my wallpaper. (I hid most of it behind this wall art.)
Not happy. 🙁
I tried everything to get the stain off, and I even used some reader suggestions, but nothing worked. From this point I considered removing the wallpaper, repainting the wall or even hammering up some actual shiplap.
And then the skies opened and the angels sang. I found the leftover roll of wallpaper that I didn’t even know I had kept!
So today, I used my fabric cutting edges and a utility knife to remove the stained section of wallpaper.
Then, using the same tools, I measured and cut the new piece of wallpaper and applied it to the wall.
If you look really close, it is not a perfect match. But if I don’t tell anyone, no one will know where to look. 🙂
I hope your day was also good and stain free.
~Wendy
by Wendy Scheel | Jan 25, 2017 | DIY
So as it turns out, I have very limited “computer” related skills. (Don’t feel bad for me, I have skills in other areas. It’s all good.) For instance what should be a very simple thing, i.e. saving a digital download to your computer, frustrates me every time. But I am a problem solver by nature and have figured out to save everything onto my desktop.
I can find things there. They are literally staring me in the face.
One of the greatest things about writing a blog is meeting people who can teach you new things.
Techy things.
Enter Cindy.
Cindy has the greatest blog. You should check it out, B.O.R.N. House Living. She has also recently opened an Etsy shop, Born House Creative.
Born House Creative is a shop that sells digital downloads.
Can we just slide back up and look at that again. Did you notice that this download was $1.00?
Where on earth can you buy something this nice for $1.00?
Well, after purchasing the digital download, I realized that I had zero idea what I was going to do with it. (I am going to say “digital download” as many times as possible. It makes me feel so “techy”.)
So, I admitted my ignorance and asked for help. I contacted Cindy to ask if I could trace the digital download onto something else. She graciously replied this:
You absolutely CAN trace it onto something else…Let me break it down for ya:) If I were going to trace it, I would print it out, and then use the Art transfer paper. Can’t remember what it’s called, but it comes in either white or black. Put this down first, lay your image over top, and then begin to trace. I’m assuming you’re going to using paint afterwards to go over it? If not, let me know what your thoughts are so I can help.
If you are ever going to purchase an image to use as a transfer/iron-on, it’s always really nice if the designer gives you the print in a PNG file as well as anything else. You are able to do so much more with the print because when someone denotes it as a “PNG”, then the background should be transparent!
So, going from there, let me explain what you can do:
(1) Transfer method using Mod-Podge. You’ll want to use the reverse image when doing this, but this method also leaves the white background of the paper. So if you don’t want the full 8.5″x11″ on something, just trim it.
(2) Transfer method using Transfer Paper: If you have an ink jet printer, make sure your paper denotes that. You would print your image onto that paper, and then iron it on whatever you like WITHOUT the white background. Some people print this directly on their material!? Although I would never recommend doing that. You could also use citri-solve. I believe using that method works best on a nice smooth flat weave such as that tea towel material. If you Pinterest transfer methods, there’s a ton of information!
Now for the Cricut: A lot of people seem to think that they need SVG files for this thing. I know that there must be some kind of “hidden” reason, but I haven’t figured out why? LOL! All I do is upload the file, determine the size I want, and then figure out if I want to make it a iron-on transfer, or stencil. Note* Weeding a iron-on is slightly tedious, but produces beautiful results. Weeding a stencil with that much area is VERY tedious, down right stressful, makes ya wanna peel the skin off your face…LOL! HOWEVER!!!! It produces top-notch professional results, and looks silk-screened! NO JOKE!
Wow! Talk about going above and beyond in an answer!
Someday, I am going to try all of these options, but for today, I took my overwhelmed self and printed her digital download onto some antiqued cardstock I had in the cupboard.
From here I simply cut it to size and put it in one of my barn red frames.
First a barn red cabinet and now this frame, I’m on a roll.
So cute!
~Wendy
P.S. I used “digital download” seven times. Mastering the technology one word at a time.
by Wendy Scheel | Jan 20, 2017 | DIY
The barn red cabinet reveal is here!
If you need a short, light-hearted break from the news coverage taking over the airways, you’ve come to the right place.
So without further ado, take a moment, sit back, relax and enjoy!
Have a great weekend!
Wendy
by Wendy Scheel | Jan 18, 2017 | DIY
There’s nothing like a checklist to keep a person on track. I had nine Must-do’s on my list today. (Technically, a Must-do list is what you didn’t get done on your To-do list yesterday.)
This is how it looked:
- Make Etsy order: 12×72” table runner from blue ticking stripe
- Update inventory on Etsy for all stocked blue striped farmhouse table runners
- Go to the Library for a Lee Child book
- Go to the local hardware store for cheesecloth
- Mail Etsy order
- Watch YouTube video about how to use antiquing wax
- Finish Cabinet
- Take pictures of cabinet
- Blog about cabinet
Makes you wonder what my To-Do list looked like yesterday if these are now on my Must-Do list, right?
Well, I can tell you that I got eight of those nine things done. Probably not too difficult to figure out which one will be on tomorrow’s Still Must-Do list.
You guessed it. #7, finish the cabinet.
This is where I left you yesterday.
This is where we are now.
All of the cabinet is now painted, but only half of it is waxed. I took a close-up shot of the doors so you can see the subtle difference between waxed and non-waxed.
The left side is waxed, the right side is not.
I googled “ How to Use Antiquing Wax Miss Mustard Seed” and found this. I put “Miss Mustard Seed” in there because that is the brand I had.
The video is about six minutes long but well worth the time.
Marian uses a large waxing brush on her furniture. I do not have a waxing brush, nor was it on my Must-Do list to purchase. But I have a new friend in the blogging world and she suggested that I use cheese cloth instead of a brush. (Thanks Cindy!)
The waxing step was very easy to do. As long as you work in smaller sections and go back over that section to wipe off any excess, antique waxing is foolproof. Using cheesecloth was not only a great suggestion, but a clean up time saver too!
Once the second half of the cabinet is dry, I will wax it also and call it complete. So here’s my Must-Do list for my next post:
- Finish waxing cabinet
- Style cabinet
- Share cabinet reveal!
Let’s hope this Must-Do list actually keeps me on track 🙂
~Wendy
by Wendy Scheel | Jan 17, 2017 | DIY
According to Pantone, greenery is the color for 2017.
A refreshing and revitalizing shade, Greenery is symbolic of new beginnings
I was thinking about that looking around our home and realized that I have zero to no greenery. Well, unless you count this berry twig branch that sits on my ottoman.
Seriously, I don’t have one green live plant in my home. For that matter, I don’t have one dead plant either, so kudos to me.
When deciding which color to paint the cabinet, I took the color of 2017 into consideration.
And then I painted it barn red. 🙂
Last summer I received a bunch of free samples when we went to Haven Conference so I had been looking for something to try them on. The new milk paint I tried is called The Genuine Old-Fashioned Homemade Milk Paint, and I liked but didn’t love it. It came as a powder, that you had to mix with water, but an insert gave easy mixing direction. Although it is VOC free, there is an unusual odor to it, not unpleasant, but unusual. In terms of how easily the paint adhered, I can’t really say because I used a bonding agent, which thickened the mixture a little bit. So all in all, I would use this product again, but it isn’t my favorite milk paint.
Moving on, the cabinet sits at the top of our staircase and I thought it would be the perfect place to put a subtle pop of color.
This is a little bit risky and kind of dramatic compared to my neutral color palette, but hey, it’s just paint. It can always be removed or painted over.
The cabinet isn’t completely painted, and I still need to research how to use antiquing wax. I’ll get that done tomorrow and have a final reveal for you on Thursday!
~Wendy
P.S. Sherwin Williams picked Poised Taupe as the color for 2017
Earthen brown combines with conservative grey and the result is a weathered, woodsy and complex neutral that celebrates the imperfections and authenticity of a well-lived life.
That sounds more like me. 🙂
by Wendy Scheel | Jan 11, 2017 | DIY
Not only did we tile the desk backsplash while Wade had some time off from work, but we also upgraded our bedroom closet.
By definition alone, upgrade as a verb means that you,
raise (something) to a higher standard, improve by adding or replacing components
And that is exactly what we did. There was nothing wrong with the bedroom closet . The organizational shelving was already in place when we purchased our house, but it needed to be “cuter”.
As long as I am being all Webster’s Dictionary today, I asked Siri if cuter was a word and it is not. But Wikipedia gave a definition so I am using it. 🙂
Moving on….
There isn’t a defined entrance to our closet. Technically I guess it would be called a walk-in, but you have to walk past the double vanity, the shower and the toilet room to finally reach it. There is no door, just a big open space.
This is the before picture of the cubbies in the closet that we upgraded.
Like I said, it looked fine, but it was always jumbled. To make it look more uniform and organized, I wanted new containers besides the awkward variety of clear plastic ones I had been using.
While Samantha and I took a quick trip to sunny Texas for the weekend to visit my parents, Wade shopped at Lowes, Target, Walmart and Menards for the perfect containers.
He didn’t find them and when he did find something he liked, there weren’t enough of them or they were a bit pricey.
Now, I know that I recently shared with you our new ottoman and how much I loved the At Home store, but I went to Ikea to look for containers this time. Besides, it was Tuesday and I was taking some friends to the airport anyway (which is about 3 miles away from Ikea) so why pass up the chance.
Total side note: If you have an Ikea in your area, go on a Tuesday between snowstorms. There is no one there! They only had two checkout lines open and it still only took me 5 minutes to purchase my things.
Amazing.
Okay, back to the point of this post. I found these perfectly sized, sturdy neutral baskets.
The smaller ones on the bottom shelves were $8.99 and the taller ones were $14.99. That catapults the closet into the cuter category for about $100.
Better?
~Wendy
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