When I was in Texas last month, my parents and I went shopping at HEB. While checking out, I found this DIY magazine and knew that I had to have it.
I read it while in Texas and then when I got home I forgot all about it, because I couldn’t find it. Well, today was packing day and **BAZINGA** there it was tucked in the outside cover of my suitcase.
So happy!
This article is why I bought the magazine in the first place.
I thought I was going to make some patterned pillow covers, and I might, but I started out with some fabric coasters because they are quicker to make than pillow covers and I was supposed to be packing.
I do not like packing – could you tell? 🙂
Anyway…I have yards and yards of cotton canvas fabric so that was my fabric choice for this little project. I had also purchased this stencil from Joann’s last week just knowing that inspiration would strike me somehow and I would use it.
I cut a 5×5 inch square from the cotton canvas and green frog taped the stencil onto the fabric at an angle. I put things at an angle because it makes me feel artsy. ha.
Next I mixed up 1 tablespoon of Miss Mustard Seed Milk Paint powder Typewriter with 2 tablespoons of water. I had this milk paint left over from this project.
After mixing the paint and letting it sit for 10 minutes or so, I used a round stenciling brush to apply the paint (A simple up and down tamping motion does the trick).
Remove the stencil and let the fabric dry while moving on to the 3 remaining squares repeating the same process.
The magazine instructs that after letting the paint dry for two hours you should then heat set it with an iron using a pressing cloth. This will be a shock to no one, but I didn’t wait two hours and I have no idea what a pressing cloth is. Goggle said that a pressing cloth was a cloth that allowed you to see what you were pressing and help prevent scorching.
Good to know.
I used a cotton dish towel that my Grandma had embroidered a cow on. It worked great.
But before pressing, I had to make my coasters. I cut out 4 more matching squares to be used as the backs of the coasters and also 4 pieces of interfacing to be placed between the cotton canvas to give the coasters a little strength.
Then after sewing up the fourth side, I ironed them to set the paint.
Something different and a little bit elegant.
What do you think?
Wendy
If you are also packing or trying to avoid something you don’t like to do….you can purchase the coasters here. 🙂
I bought this vase at an estate sale. I loved the shape, I loved the appealing texture and I loved that it was green.
Then I got it home.
Wait. What? I don’t love the green! It was kind of pea green meets sea foam green mishmash. Maybe that is why it was for sale on the last day of a three day estate sale, marked down 50% and still no one had bought it. Maybe I had a weak moment and felt bad for the vase. Maybe I just felt like I wanted to buy something because I needed to justify driving 45 minutes to an estate sale and coming home with nothing. MAYBE…..I made a mistake. A home décor mistake, I should’ve known better.
So the vase sat here and there and I tried to fall in love with it. It never found a home, in my home. When that happens it needs to go to someone else’s home.
However, the philosophy behind items I create or purchase for resale is that I need to love them also. That isn’t to say that everything I love is what everyone else should love. But, I have found that sticking with this concept keeps a cohesive vibe in the shop.
Summarizing those last words of wisdom means that this vase needed to change.
As soon as I received the sample of Miss Mustard Seed Milk Paint named Typewriter, I knew it was meant for this home decor mistake vase makeover. This entire 30g sample package covers approximately 10 square feet, it is environmentally friendly and contains no VOC’s. (Volatile organic compounds are organic chemicals that have a high vapor pressure at ordinary room temperature)
Miss Mustard Seed milk paint comes in powder form and is easy to mix. Measure equal parts powder and water and stir. For darker paints such as Typewriter (black) let the mixture sit for about 10-15 minutes giving the pigments time to develop. I then used the Miss Mustard Seed paint brush – which I love – and applied 3 even coats letting them dry for about 30 minutes between each coat.
I took a chance and didn’t add a bonding agent to the powder/water mixture, nor did I lightly sand the vase before starting to paint. I wouldn’t suggest doing this but I like to bend the rules sometimes to see what would happen. 🙂
Now what started as a home décor mistake has become an elegant nod to home décor take me home delight. Don’t you love how the gold texture peeks through and the rumpled texture remained?
I left the inside of the vase as the original color. For whatever reason, the inside color didn’t translate to a not so wonderful color. It is a pleasant light spring green.
On Friday I will be sharing with you the newest items listed in the Old Lake George Shop. This typewriter black vase will be one of the new listings!
I hope to see you on Friday!
Wendy
Happy Birthday to my best friend in the entire world. I love you Lizzy. Have a great day!
I am a visual learner. I sometimes have to read something two or three times before fully grasping it. But draw me a picture and I am good to go.
Maybe that is why I can look at something like these,
and turn them into something like these.
I knew when I saw these metal candlestick holders that they needed to come home with me. Here is the back story how that happened.
I could see that each one of them needed to be a different color. They would work together but still have the strength to stand alone.
After removing all of the paint, I spray painted one of the candlesticks with a Rustoleum Pure Gold. My intentions for the other three were to paint them with Miss Mustard Seeds milk paint. I ordered online 4 different sample sizes. I have worked with this brand of milk paint before and I knew that a sample size would be more than enough.
I forgot one little thing. I didn’t order the bonding agent which would allow the paint to hold onto the metal.
So what does a girl do when she forgets? She Googles.
Googling Miss Mustard Seed milk paint took me to the site where I found all of her product line. Plus, I could locate a store near me that also sold her products.
The location closest was called the Round Barn. Sadly, I knew that the Round Barn closed last summer. 🙁
But I drove by anyway because it was on my way home and I wanted to see what had taken its place.
There was a new Round Barn! Not an actual new Round Barn Structure, but a shop now called The Round Barn Trading Company. How did I miss the re-opening way back in November? No matter, I was here now.
I zipped into the parking lot. It was 14 degrees outside so I grabbed the closest spot to the door and ran inside. I literally ran. It was…. 14 degrees outside. 🙂 After looking around for the Miss Mustard Seed line and not finding it, I asked the nice person at the counter where it was located.
She did not think they carried that line of paint, BUT as soon as Julie was finished with a customer she would answer all of my questions.
Okay, that gives me more time to look around. Bonus. Such a great boutique.
And what I found instead was the Country Chic chalk paint line. But still no bonding agent. ugh.
Then Julie turned my frown upside down.
Julie, the owner of The Round Barn Trading Company explained to me that The Country Chic line had recently released a new product that is an all-in-one décor paint. It is a clay based mixture that has great adhesion and a durable finish. And so many color options!
I was sold.
I bought three small project size jars and a new brush.
Cobblestone, Pebble Beach and Cheesecake. Otherwise known as gray, light gray and off-white.
The candlesticks themselves are not very big but if I had to guess I would say I used about 3-4 tablespoons on each of them which allowed for great coverage. That being said, I do like how you can see the actual brush strokes on the candlesticks, but I did give the Cheesecake candlestick a second coat only because I didn’t stir it enough before starting to paint. 🙂
Note to self: Stir paint, just don’t shake it three times because you are excited to get started on a project.
I already have something else that I want to paint with the chalk paint. I love the flat finish look.
I think I am going to put the candlesticks for sale in my shop. I say “I think” because I am practicing patience and letting them dry over night. I’ll let you know when they are listed. 🙂
I am working on a HUGE pillow cover order this week. So if you get a chance to stop by on Friday, you can catch a glimpse how that is progressing.
Incase you have forgotten, I love estate sales. And for some reason I am always drawn to the chairs.
When I first started going to estate sales I would buy all wood chairs, no fabric on them. I would clean them up and usually paint them. But I wanted to branch out. I wanted to try re-upholstering a chair. This is the chair I branched out with. Go Big or Go Home Wendy!
How hard could it be to take off each piece lay it out on some new fabric and tack it back on? Seriously, how hard? So I started and I removed all of the fabric and then painted the wood.
So far so good and only a couple of hours of work. Then I put the old fabric on top of the new fabric and started cutting. BUT, I didn’t mark anything down as to where the new pieces were suppose to go! I had so many different size pieces and no idea how to put it back together. Ugh.
Instead of trashing the whole thing and losing the $40 I had into it, I cut off the arms of the chair so I didn’t have to re-upholster them! Bra-ill-ient!
Now it was just a matter of sewing a couple of square corners and, done.
(I will share more about this chair on another day. It is now part of my daughters first apartment. )
Since biting off more than I could chew in the re-upholstering department, I have reverted to buying chairs that aren’t so difficult to re-upholster.
Exhibit A: This chair that I painted and re-upholstered the seat.
Exhibit B: This rocking chair. It needed a little TLC and an update of fabric. And here is how I did it. The right way.
After removing the fabric, I washed the wood with water, dried it and polished it up with Hemp Oil from the Miss Mustard Seed line of products. Instant beauty.
I knew I wanted to go with the French Farmhouse fabrics to replace the not-so-desirable fabric that was on the chair. Here is the line of pillows made from French Farmhouse style fabrics in my shop that I chose from.
The winner for me was the beige/khaki line fabric.
So, I removed the old fabric pieces and laid them out on top of the new fabric to cut them out. With only two pieces I figured I would know where to replace them.
Self explanatory right? The same process was used when the head rest part of the chair needed a little padding. To hold the padding and fabric in place I used some basting adhesive.
Incase you were wondering, this was the brand of basting adhesive I used to hold everything in place. Incase you were wondering. 🙂
And now for the big reveal…..always my favorite part.
And one more beautiful collage.
I haven’t attempted another large re-upholstering project. Going Big or Going Home! wasn’t the best choice. 🙂 Have any of you miscalculated your skill set when trying a project?
And as a side note, Spencer my product photographer didn’t take some of these pictures. I think it’s pretty evident, but in full disclosure, wanted to point it out. 🙂
Pinterest projects and DIY TV show projects take twenty minutes to start and complete. Right? Whenever I want to do a project around my house, I allot 20 minutes for it. Never, ever, ever has it taken me twenty minutes. By the time I get all of the supplies, actually attempt the project, complete it and clean up, we are looking at one hour to one week. I am not talking about putting an addition onto the house. I am talking about making an old oak door into a family communication center. How long could it take? Slap some paint on a door, throw on some cork-board and hang it. Twenty minutes. Done.
Heres the reality behind those twenty minutes.
I bought this door off of Craigslist.
It was rescued from a 100 year old Victorian house that was being torn down to build townhouses in its place.
I met the seller at a gas station two days later to pick up the door. She was on her way up north and this was the most convenient spot for both of us meet. I had my two kids come with me. She had her 4 with her. My children are 21 and 17 years old. Hers? 13months, 2,3 and 5 years old. All of them packed into a mini van along with the door. The cutest 4 children with just as cute names. Baby Henry, then Gracie, Luke and Jasmine. Bless this woman for re-using these old doors and bless her for unloading 3 of the 4 kids, all of their car seats along with one of the van seats to pull out my door. She then lifted everything again and placed it back in the van. Sam, my daughter played with the 2,3 and 5 year olds while Jack, my son, helped unload everything. Henry slept through the whole thing. All of this for a 100 year solid oak door for $30.
After getting home and unloading the door into my workshop area, the next step was to order the corkboard to place within the panels of the door. I had five panels, so I ordered 3 sets of two of these through Amazon.
Side note, I love Amazon. We have Prime Shipping. It is worth every penny to get items within one to two shipping days.
While waiting for the cork board, I started prepping the door. I removed the original door knob and plate and the brand new shiny gold dead bolt. Both left large holes. I lightly sanded the door with 220 grit sand paper.
I had recently attended a Miss Mustard Seed workshop and inside the gift bag was a sample of Trophy, from her milk paint line. It was probably two large tablespoons of the powder paint. Miss Mustard Seed paint is so easy to mix and use. Those two tablespoons were exactly the right amount for this door. At first I was going to distress some areas to get the look I wanted. After it was painted, the door naturally distressed itself. As Marian aka Miss Mustard Seed says,” I just let the piece talk to me.” And this one gently said that it was perfect. No need to do anything more.
Next I reattached the door and plate. Now what to do with the other hole left from the dead bolt lock. I considered putting something over it like a large hook or a block of wood or a tree slice. Nothing seemed right. I still had the original knob and plate from the side of the door so why not use it.
I positioned the plate over the hole, used GL6000 glue to stick the knob onto the plate and then reattached it all.
When the cork board arrived, I quickly measured each panel space and cut it using my rotary knife. I then put a strip of mounting tape in each spot and placed the cork board.
It turned out so cool. I just love it.
Now I had to hang this 30×77 inch solid oak door. This is the part of the story where it gets ugly.
I went to Walmart to the hardware section. I found picture hangers. There was a picture hanger that would stand up to 100lbs of weight. No way did this door weigh more than 100lbs. Problem solved. Bought it for $3.67.
I carefully measured where I wanted to center the door on the wall, found a stud and pounded in the mounting bracket. One-third of the way down each side of the door I attached the d-rings, just like the directions said. I then used the wire that came in the package and attached it to each d-ring. I was even smart enough to lift the door a little so the wire wouldn’t show after it was hung. I had thought of everything.
Now to move the finished ready to hang door into the laundry room. Since no one was home to help at this point, I moved the door myself. I would need one hand to open the door from the garage to the house, so I lifted the door by the wire that would be used to hang the door from.
Lifted the door and SNAP! The wire broke. Thank goodness it only dropped 3 inches back to the ground and not from 4 feet in the air. Crisis averted. Toes still attached.
So, its back to the drawing board.
I explained to a very nice and patient, young man from the hardware store what I needed. He guided me to a hanger that would easily hold 300 lbs, I little more expensive, but so much easier to install.
Per the directions and even a video link, for those of us that are visual learners, I attached the hanger to the wall and then the back of the door. My daughter and I then lifted and attached the door.
And I am happy to report it is still hanging in my laundry room today.
So who’s with me? Twenty minutes? Not even close. 🙂
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