by Wendy Scheel | Feb 24, 2017 | DIY
Getting back into the swing of things after a vacation was tricky. Updating a picture frame while I dipped my toe into the DIY pool with this quickie guest bedroom project was not.
The blankness of the wall behind the bed in the guest bedroom has been so, well….blank.
I was struggling with a piece to put there taking into consideration the angle of the wall on the left.
Then the solution to this blank wall problem had been staring me in the face all along.
This metal piece would be perfect above the bed.
So I hammered in a nail and bam, problem solved.
Now if you are saying to yourself….okay Wendy, that’s fine and dandy, but now you need something above the loveseat, you’d be right.
I bought this peel and stick wallpaper awhile back from Target. It was kind of pricey. $30 for a 27.5 square foot area. My intentions were to paper the short wall in the guest bedroom and then I decided instead I would paper the wall in the bathroom.
But something besides the price was holding me back from using it.
That something was the fact that I have never used peel and stick wallpaper. The directions suggested that you have two people work together to apply it.
99% of the time, I am doing these DIY projects by myself.
I figured that if it takes two people to wallpaper, it would only take one person to wallpaper a 16×20 inch piece of cardboard.
My brilliance comes in waves. 🙂
I collected the rest of the supplies that I had randomly picked up here and there and they all came together for this quickie project.
Wade and I bought this 16×20 inch wood frame for $5.00 at an estate sale last fall.
I found this Dream applique at Menards a couple of weeks ago, on sale for $3.83.
I cut down a piece of ¼ inch cardboard to fill in the 16×20 frame opening. Then I cut a piece of the wallpaper a little bigger than that so it was a workable size and not too cumbersome.
Ready for how easy this was?
I peeled off the backing of the paper, applied it to the cardboard and cut off any excess.
Then I peeled of the word Dream and applied it to the wallpaper.
The finished piece fit snuggly into the frame so I didn’t need to glue, nail or attach it in any other way.
The nail was still there from the metal piece so three seconds later, bam, another problem solved.
What do you think?
~Wendy
P.S. A small piece of this paper was easy to use. However, I cannot imagine wallpapering with large sections of paper. It definitely would take two people who are very patient and much more experienced with peel and stick wallpaper.
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 | Mar 24, 2016 | DIY
Sometimes the Universe sends me subtle hints. Per the definition of subtle, these hints can be “delicately complex and understated”. And I tend to discard them.
So, the Universe stops, grabs me by the shoulders and screams that hint directly into my face. It gets all up in my business and makes me listen.
The hints have been coming for a while, but the other day the direct hit happened.
I had settled into my morning routine of Mt. Dew, oatmeal and firing up my IPhone.
Reading my daily dose of Thistlewood Farms, KariAnne was sharing a wonderful piece of advice her mother had given her. (Read her lovely story here.)
It was if her Mother was speaking to me also. She told her that “Comparison is the thief of joy”. I googled this quote because I was thinking if her Mother pulls perfectly timed sayings like that, she is probably famous or written a book or down right brilliant.
As it turns out, her Mother is brilliant because her timing was impeccable when quoting Theodore Roosevelt.
Take a quick second and read a little deeper into this quote:
When you compare yourself to others, you know all the dirty details of your situation or the problems with what you’ve created but only the seemingly positive surface information about them or their work. Don’t hold yourself up to some outside vague standard of greatness. -lifehacker.com
This quote needed to stay front and center in my blogging/entrepreneurial life.
So I made a sign. A wood sign. Large and spelled out so I don’t forget sign.
I bought an 8 foot tongue and groove pine board from Home Depot and cut it into three 18 inch lengths with my handy dandy table saw. I even have enough board left over for some smaller signs.
Next, I simply ran a wood glue line in the groove of one of the pieces and inserted the tongue side of the next board. Repeating this process one more time gave me a finished 15 x 18 inch sign.
Using my go to milk paint line, I picked the color Linen from Miss Mustard Seed. The finish on this was to be a whitewash, so I combined one teaspoon of the Linen milk paint powder to four teaspoons of water.
After mixing the paint until it was nice and smooth, I brushed the entire front of the board with the mixture.
Because of how thin the paint was, drying time was minimal. I would guess 15 minutes.
The next step was to draw with pencil the quote onto the board. This quote was easily divided into three phrases. COMPARISON on the top board, IS THE THIEF OF on the middle board, and JOY with fancy olive branch swirls on the bottom board.
Once I liked how everything looked, I traced my pencil marks with black and gold permanent markers.
Final touches will put hanging hardware on the back of the sign. For now it is sitting in my family room as a daily reminder and to let the Universe know that I listened and understand.
Wendy
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