Monogram Wall Art

Guys, I am one tired momma. 

I know we all are, right?
But that's just the reason I'm going to give you right now for not being the best blogger :) 

I told myself a few months ago when we found out about our sweet baby girl coming in August that I had to be ok with not being on top of absolutely everything.

And that blogging is supposed to be fun. 

Not a chore.

Not something I have to get done each evening.

So I've gone with that. 

I blog when I can.

When I have energy.

When I have time.

And when I have the passion to do it.

I love seeing this blog grow.

And it may be doing it in tiny steps at the moment but right now I'm focusing on what is behind the blog.

My family.

My kids.

Work.

And our new baby girl.

And to enjoy all that, sometimes the blog gets set aside for a week or two.

Forgive me? 

Because I love you guys so much.

And I love this blog.

But I want to continue loving it.

And not feeling weighed down by it.

Ever feel like that?

So after sharing that little piece of my heart,

this may be my only post up this week. 

I'm starting a brand new job next week that I'm super excited about.

But it means wrapping things up at my current job this week.

And we are surprising the littles with a trip to Seaworld this weekend for little man's bday.

Which means packing, cleaning, laundry.

So.

I'm one tired momma. 

And this is what I can get up on the blog this week :) 

Some fun monogram art from the dining room reveal. 

It was a breeze to make and I love the impact it gives!! 

Plus I just love using our monogram :) 

Our dining room is our only eating area in the house so we spend a lot of time in there as a family.

I definitely wanted to incorporate things that displayed our family & the fun we all have together. 

This sweet monogram brings a little of me & hubby into the room (especially since my wedding bouquet is resting on the table underneath it). 

And my planked picture board brings in a bit of all of us. 

Supplies: 

Wood board (or plaque from Hobby Lobby) 

Chalkboard plaque (Hobby Lobby) 

Gold & White paint

Patterned paper for monogram

First things first, I painted my bottom board white.

It was just a scrap piece of MDF I had so nothing special. 

After several coats of white, I taped off my diagonal stripes with painters tape and painted a couple coats of gold on. 

The top plaque was already chalkboard painted when I bought it so I just brushed on some gold along the edges of it for some glam. 

I used my silhouette to make a gorgeously curvy monogram and cut it out on some blue patterned paper. 

I used spray adhesive to adhere it to the finished board.

Or you could use vinyl for easy application :) 

Then hang in a special spot & enjoy!!

Wouldn't it make a gorgeous wreath too? 

With a silky ribbon to hang it from? 

I'm loving the pops of gold all around the room and it makes this monogram arm so glam!!

Are you loving my striped, gold monogram art as much as I am? 

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Yellow Chandelier Makeover

One of my absolute most favorite makeovers to date is this colorful, fabulous chandelier. 

And for 3$??? What????

Seriously.

It was a huge part of getting my whole dining room makeover look to come together and was one of the first big projects to start that room's makeover. 

After the floors were put in :) 

Let's talk about what it started as first...

It started as a super basic, nickel-colored chandelier that I randomly found in the Goodwill clearance center. They couldn't guarantee that it would work but for 3$? Definitely worth trying it out. 

Sad story that there was a guy there that had it in his hands at first and then set it down.

After I snatched it up and went to go pay, he totally sat there with a sad puppy-dog face.

And I may have walked away feeling super giddy about my score :) 

I knew it would need a little facelift and it took me a while to decide how to proceed with it. 

But here's the supply list for what I ended up doing: 

Supplies: 

*Yellow Spraypaint

*White Spraypaint

*Several packages of varying sizes unfinished wood beads (found at Hobby Lobby)

*Turquoise glass beads

*Package of Jump Rings (in the jewelry aisle)

*Drill and small drill bit

*Jewelry wire

*Unfinished picket fences (found at Hobby Lobby) 

And I tried my best to get pictures along the way. 

Feel free to ask more questions if you need too :)

First things first, I knew I wanted to jazz the chandelier up more than just with paint. 

Though it would have looked super amazing in just it's new yellow coat. 

I found these unfinished wood balls at Hobby Lobby and knew they'd be perfect for adding 'beaded' detail in between each light fixture on the chandelier.

However, they didn't have holes in them :/ 

Cue the drill and drill bit. 

Very carefully use your drill bit to drill small holes all the way through the beads.

This got frustrating but it was doable.

I used a styrofoam sheet to hold the balls in place as we drilled. 

After drilling your holes, use toothpicks to hold them in place on the styrofoam so they can get a nice coat of white paint. 

I used my gloss white that I love by Rustoleum. 

Make sure to let them dry well before flipping them over to get the other sides. 

After getting all my wooden beads ready, I used beading wire to string them together.

I used my small glass turquoise beads in between each white bead for a little more color & contrast. 

I also tapered the sizes of the white beads by starting with large beads at the bottom of the strand and moving to smaller beads as they reached the top. 

To add the beaded strands onto my chandelier, I used a metal drill bit to drill tiny holes around the top of the chandelier- directly up and across from where they'd be attaching to the light fixture part. 

Then drill a tiny hole on the back side of the light fixture area. 

Use jump rings to tie your string to and attach them to each of the holes you drilled. 

Now you have gorgeous beaded strands added!!

Honestly, I went crazy trying to figure out what what to put around the light fixtures.

Of course, they originally had glass globes of some sort around them and I could have replaced them with some.

But I just wasn't feeling it.

I tried several different things before randomly stretching one of these wooden picket fences around the rims. 

I loved the texture it gave!!

So they got a coat of yellow spraypaint and I popped them in.

They aren't permanently adhered, once wrapped around the lights, they were nice and snug.

And easily replaceable if need be. 

And, if you're wondering, I was slightly worried about painted wood going around hot lightbulbs but I've had it up three years and never had a problem.

I was very observant of this for a while.

But we use this room A LOT and I've never seen anything crazy happen with it.

They're not close enough to the bulbs to get hot enough for anything to happen.

Tips on spraypainting your chandelier would be to find something to hang it from.

I used a hanging basket hook. 

Completely random but it was perfect.

I made sure it was crazy hard in the ground and then hung it from the hook. 

I was able to get to all sides of the chandelier and it's chain that way. 

It took several lights coats to get a good coverage and then I sealed it with a clear gloss coat. 

Whew.

I feel like I laid a lot on you :) 

But it turned out so absolutely gorgeous.

It's one of the things I get the most compliments from in the house and, rest assured, I will be finding a way to take it with us when we leave.

True story. 

I was so incredibly happy that it worked. 

I had my doubts considering where I got it from but we hooked it up before painting it and I was so giddy when it lit up!!!!

There was a fan in this place originally so one thing we did have to do was get a ceiling medallion for the ceiling. 

I hate how expensive these things are!!!

But I buckled down and got one from Lowes and it added a great finishing touch. 

Isn't it crazy how incredibly different it looks now?

Sometimes I have a hard time believing it used to be a boring old silver light fixture.

Here's a reminder of how far it actually came...

This was definitely one of my more involved projects but it has remained in my top 5 favorites for the past few years :) 

So that means it's pretty awesome in my book.

What do you think?
Are you in love with it's new glamorous look??

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DIY Arrow Sign

Back for another fun tutorial from the dining room reveal! 

There were so many fun DIY projects that went into getting the room ready and I love sharing all of them with you guys- especially since most of them were super simple!!

Remember the arrow sign that was hanging by the window in my dining room reveal? 

Well I'm sharing the quick tutorial for it today!!

I used my beloved weathered wood scraps again for my sign but any wood would work that you want to use!

You could stain it dark or do what I did and just sand down a piece of weathered wood for a gorgeous natural look.

Then just use painters tape to create your arrow shape.

I free-handed mine since the straight lines made it pretty simple. 

I used some white left-over paint for it and just sponged it on. 

Then just distress to your heart's content!!

I loved the wood grain that it brings out behind the paint when it's distressed.

I added a picture hanger to the top and then hung it up!!

How's that for some easy DIY art??

I"m talking just a few minutes and you have your own piece to hang up. 

I love that it could be used with so many color patterns and you could make yours big or small depending on the wall space you need to fill.

It'd be awesome to have varying lengths of wood and put up a few arrows together :)

So get creating!!

You know everyone needs a few more arrows in their life :) 

I'll be back tomorrow with another fun dining room tutorial so swing back around then. 

Happy Wednesday guys!!!

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Easiest Candle Update Ever!!! Like ever.

For real, guys.

So easy.

Like 'I shouldn't have  tutorial for it, it's that easy' but I do.

So you get to see the loveliness :)

Plus sometimes it's just nice to see an uncomplicated project that pretty much anyone can whip out, right? 

And this involves paper, a candle and sewing pins.

Simple, peeps.

Here's what we are talking about: 

Gorgeous, right? 

And about a minute of work.

Even better :) 

Here's what you need: 

*Plain white candle

*Paper/cardstock/fabric of your choice

*Sewing pins

So...

1. Decide how far up your paper will go and cut it to that width with your straight-edge. 

2. Wrap around your candle 

3. Secure paper with sewing pins. (see below) 

I used sewing pins so that I could easily remove if I wanted to change it out.

Which will more than likely happen :) 

For a fun candle stand,

I used a piece of scrap wood I had around.

It was gorgeous cedar and I knew it couldn't just be thrown away. 

I sanded away all the dirt and made it nice & smooth and it was gorgeous enough to stand on it's own. 

I made a sweet vignette on top of my little stenciled table that I did forever ago.

Doesn't the gold candle look gorgeous with the cedar block??

The yellow bowl was a quick paint job on a Goodwill bowl I did forever ago. 

And I wrapped some random books with twine to help lift the glass pitcher up.

The flowers were from my wedding :) 

To check out the rest of the room, head over here to see the whole Dining Room transformation!!

How's that for an easy DIY? 

May be my easiest one yet :) 

Go wrap some candles!!!  

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Dining Room Chairs Before & After

I figured that it'd be a great start to the week to start things off with an amazing and colorful furniture makeover!!

Because those are always my favorites.

If you're wanting a HUGE makeover and haven't seen it yet, head over to check out my dining room transformation.

But don't forget to come back here to check these amazing chairs out.

Because it all goes together :) 

One thing before starting the dining room makeover that I absolutely knew I wanted was mismatched chairs.

Not necessarily mismatched colors, but I wanted a couple different types of chairs that all went together. 

I had to wait a while but finally I had enough to complete my set of six :) 

The wooden ones on the left were from my grandma who was getting rid of them. 

Then the ones are the right were given to me when I first moved into the house.

Gorgeous, sturdy chairs but not my style with the dark wood & winery upholstery.

But I had four of those suckers :) 

So first things first,

they needed a facelift.

I unscrewed all the cushion from the chairs and ended up finding some amazing colorful fabric for them.

(This was about three years ago when I redid them, and the fabric has held up wonderfully) 

Here's the quick & dirty on on how I reupholster chair cushions.

First things first, lay your cushions upside down on your fabric. 

Use the cushion as your guide to cut the piece you need.

Make sure you pull the fabric around and over the cushion to see how much you need on the sides as you cut. 

You'll be pulling the fabric super tight as you reupholster, but you still need plenty of fabric to work with. 

Once your fabric is cut, then...

(follow the numbered pictures below) 

1. Start on one side of your cushion and pull your fabric to the back. The first side isn't super important to pull tight but the other sides, you'll be pulling it tightly as you staple to get nice, taut fabric across the top of the cushion. 

2. Staple as you go around. Be generous and don't be scared of putting them in!
I use a regular hand-held staple gun and put extra staples in each of my corners.

3. For corner, I fold the fabric under to make a triangle and staple one side and then overlap the other and staple that on top of my other triangle.

This makes a nice fold on each edge.

Tips for rounded & curved cushions, just make sure you pull TIGHT. If you're too loose with the fabric, it won't look right on those curves. Pull, pull and pull some more. 

Before re-attaching my cushions, I gave all my chairs several coats of "Ebbtide" by Sherwin Williams. 

Love love love this color. 

It matches my living room walls and compliments it nicely from my dining room. 

It took about three coats and I HATE hand-painting chairs but I stuck through it and it was so worth it!!

After the paint dried, I lightly distressed around the edges and legs of the chairs.

I knew if I left them perfect, I'd constantly be worried about them getting dinged up. 

And we have two kids so they were going to be well loved :) 

I love that distressing lets those natural dings just blend right in and look perfect. 

I loved how the caning turned out once they were painted!!!

A lot of the caning was very worn and faded so a coat of paint made it liven right up! 

And then they were ready for the cushions!!

I reattached them and just admired all the gorgeous colors together!!

I figured darker fabric would handle mealtime a little better and it's held up so well the past three years. 

It cleans up easily and every now and then, I scotch-guard them for a little extra protection. 

My plain wooden chairs also got a fresh coat of Ebbtide.

They took forevverr with all those slats but I'm so happy with how they turned out and I forget about all the hard work after seeing how pretty they are!!!

Don't both styles of chairs look so perfect together? 

And of course, the amazing Before & After shot: 

These chairs were definitely a labor of love but they make me smile every time I walk into the room.

Which definitely makes all those hand-aching and back-aching moments of painting worth it!!!

What do you think?

Do you like the mismatched chair look??

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