I did it!!

I've been wanting to hang a door on my wall (ANY wall!) for over 2 years now! My husband thinks I'm crazy, by the way. The only problem was that I couldn't figure out what door and which wall. That was until our recent trip to Round Top. I spotted this blue door for $50 and instantly fell in love. You can only imagine my giddiness after talking the dealer down to $34!! Random I know, but that's what we agreed upon. Yay!!

It now hangs over my younger daughter's bed and pulls in the blue from her comforter and nightstand. The color is off in this picture, but the blues coordinate great together. The black bed is from last year's Round Top trip. Apparently, I can't get enough :)

I think my favorite part about the door, is that I didn't have to paint it or shabby chic it. It was already perfectly distressed, just like I like it. I plan to hang my daughter's initial somewhere on it at some point, but for now it's up and I'm so excited about it.

My older daughter (age 3) just walked in & asked...

"Why is there a door on the wall??".

Apparently she takes after my husband! Haha.

Do you have any crazy wall decor that you just LOVE??

I'm BAAACK!!

Well, thanks to Tiffany this blog hasn't been completely neglected! My family has had a whirlwind of a few weeks so while I've had good intentions for blogging but it's just not made the cut.

I've had this wall staring at me since we moved in to our house in June. It's a bathroom... so I feel like I'm pretty limited on what can go up on the walls here. It's also above the tub which gets used rarely and I didn't want the typical towel bar to fill the space. {I don't have a photo of it completely blank. :( That would have been good of me... but do me a favor and imagine it without the basket!}


So, when I came across this photo on Pinterest I knew what I was going to do! {Now you can see where I got the idea for the basket in the previous photo}

So, I took this blank wall.



Built another cafe shelf {see the tutorial here}. I painted it the same color as my cabinets and then got my brain working on what would go up top...



I added a metal and wood piece I picked up from Round Top/Warrenton. Then I searched the frames I had sitting in my guest room for some to create an arrangement on top of the shelf. {Ignore the change in lighting... I have put off taking photos for 3 weeks now so it was 8:30 pm or never!!}


I took some of our family pictures and edited them to be in a sepia tone and had them printed at Walmart to fill the frames.

All this stuff was bought at Hobby Lobby at half off. I used the inspiration photo as a starting point for what I wanted it to look like.

I would still like to eventually replace the blinds to the rattan shades to bring a little warmth to the room but for now I'll live with the white blinds. I will have to figure out way to convince my hubby that replacing perfectly good, functioning blinds is worth it. Ha!

So, there it is... pretty much the ONLY thing I have had time to work on in several weeks. But, I'm happy with how it turned out and glad to have yet another wall checked off the "to do" list.

Stress-free decorating!

How many times have you hung things on the wall, stepped back to admire your handy work, and noticed it's crooked, off-center, or not spaced correctly? Or, how about those annoying frames that have two sawtooth hangers, or the kind that the screw has to fit into the hole "just so" and to make it even worse there are usually more than one of them? Oh, how I dislike those!!

Well, I'm here to share with you an easy way to make hanging things so much easier and less frustrating!

My first tip is to use masking tape {or painters tape} on the wall to lay out where you want your piece to be hung so you can imagine it there. I did this with my kitchen shelves so I could "live with it" for a day or so, just to be sure.

Next, take your tape and lay it over the top of whatever your mounting method will be. In this case it's the pesky screw holes that have to be exactly right or else you'll NEVER get the thing hung.

Use a pen or pencil to mark the holes. {In the case of other types of hangers you'd do the same concept...just marking where your nail or screw needs to end up}.

Take that piece of tape off and place it on the wall where it needs to go. This is why I love using the tape to lay out the outline of whatever I'm hanging. You can use that tape to measure out where exactly your nail/screw holes should be and there shouldn't be a need for a 're-do' because the height or centering wasn't right.


Nail or screw your holes, remove the tape and hang your piece!

I promise you this has revolutinized how I hang ANYTHING in my house. I wish I'd done this for years. I would have saved myself so many holes. Not to mention the crooked, off centered, & uneven decorations I've lived with just to save myself from doing it all over again.

I hope it helps you too!

Necklace Organizer

I'm so excited to show you my new necklace holder!

It's been on my "to do" list for FAR too long.

No longer is there a tangled mess at the bottom of my bathroom drawer (where little hands can reach). NOW almost all of my pretties hang nicely right next to my sink. I love it! Did I mention that might kids can't reach them? LOVE it!

Here's how I made it.

I picked up an old shutter at Round Top.

I spray painted it black.

And distressed some of the edges.

I used 2 picture hangers to hang the shutter to the wall & S hooks to hang the necklaces on the shutter.

And "Viola!" Problem solved!

I was worried that it would look cluttered or messy, but I actually think it adds some personality to the bathroom. And for pete's sake, shouldn't your bathroom be functional? :)

Pumpkin specimen art

Let the Fall decorating begin!

Pay no attention that it's still 95 degrees outside. I'm done with summer.

So I'm bringing out my boots & making new Fall decor!

This project was love at first sight. I copied it almost exactly from here.

It's super easy to make.

And you probably have most of the materials already on hand.

- - - - - - - - - - -

Grab a cute picture frame

scrapbook paper

scrabble letters (or you can just do more pumpkins)

& burlap (or any neutral background)

I suggest using a silhouette machine to make the pumpkins. Or in my case, befriend someone who has a silhouette machine! :) :) Thanks again Lindsay!

I used furniture felt pads under each pumpkin to raise it off of the burlap.

It gives it just a bit more interest.

And then used Scrabble letters at the bottom.

As a side note, what a great use for Scrabble! Ever since I learned of Bananagrams, poor Scrabble doesn't get played anymore. And now that I've officially ruined the game, I guess I'll have to think up more Scrabble projects!

I lined up the pumpkins & PUMPKINS before hot gluing everything to the burlap. The whole project cost me $4 (for the burlap).

Woo Hoo! One more reason to be excited about Fall!

Inspire me!

I've had my eye on inspiring signs lately.

As a stay at home mom, I have to give myself occasional pep talks ya know!! :)

So here are a few that I'm debating on doing...

Do you have a favorite??

Love them all!

Decisions. Decisions.

DIY Cafe Shelves...Ballard Knock Off

Remember last week when I told you I'd figured out what would go on my long blank wall in the kitchen? Well, here they are!!

I was inspired by some pictures on other blogs like this one and this one and some photos on pinterest to build my own knock-off Ballard Designs cafe shelves. I'm here today to share with you how I did it!

Let's remember what I was starting with... {sorry for the dark photo}

I used painters tape to measure out how long I wanted the shelves to be and about where I wanted them to hang so I could live with it for a few days to make "sure" that's what I wanted to do.

Once I was decided it was off to buy my lumber.

I decided on one 3' and one 4' shelf.

So, I bought a 8' long 1x8. I purchased door casing for the trim. I knew I'd need 7' for the fronts of the two shelves and about 8" for each end. At Home Depot you can purchase the trim by the foot so you can buy just the amount you will actually need. I think they come in 12' long strips. I found two that were already cut and in more manageable lengths.

I also picked out four corbels for my shelves to mount on. These were about $6 and the most expensive part of the shelves. I've seen other bloggers mentioning buying 2 for $5, but I didn't find those. :(

The first thing I did was use my mitre saw to cut the 1x8 into my two desired lengths... 4 ft & 3 ft.

Then I measured my door casing along the edge of the 1x8 and marked where I wanted the BOTTOM of the moulding to stop.

I set my mitre saw to a 45 degree angle and cut my wood.

**Important to know***
Cut your wood like THIS...

NOT like this...

I made that mistake and couldn't figure out why it wasn't working. Laying the moulding flat will give you a great photo frame...but not a box which is basically what you're building.

I used wood glue along the backside of the moulding and used my nail gun to secure it to the shelf. The door moulding I bought (and probably they all have this) had an inset ridge that my 1x8 fit nicely into. See below how I did my moulding.

You could butt the moulding right to the top of the shelf, but I preferred to have a little lip on mine.

Your corners may not be perfect. That's what wood filler is for!
To get these corners you'll have to figure out which direction your wood needs to go and adjust your mitre saw accordingly. When I marked the wood I also made a pen mark diagonally in the direction I wanted the wood to go. That way when I cut my wood I could see the line and make sure my blade was going to cut in the direction I needed to match up with the other piece to make a corner. I definitely made more cuts than necessary all because I messed up the angles and measurements.

Once you have all the pieces cut and nailed together you'll be left with something like this.

Now the fun part... painting (UGH!)... I dislike painting the most. :)

Once it was painted and dried I chose to hang the corbels on the wall FIRST.

When both were hung on the wall and we had them leveled out we just screwed through the shelf into the corbel.

And VOILA!

Then came the truly hard part for me... Decorating them.

I'm really happy with how they turned out!! The total cost was about $47 for two shelves. Not bad when this look would have cost me $189 plus tax and shipping at Ballard.

Linked up here:
Somewhat Simple

Someday Crafts

Fireflies & Jellybeans

House of Hepworths

Chic on a Shoestring Decorating

Finding Fabulous

The Shabby Nest

French Country Cottage