Silverware Artwork

Being in a new house has some challenges - obviously.  I'm not a very patient person (cue the 'no kidding' comments) and I want things to be done 'now'!  It's been hard to wait things out until I find the right piece of wall art or the right piece of furniture.  Also, I'm working hard to be thrifty - especially when it comes to the artwork and wall decor.  One project that turned out really great (I think) is this one:

yes, I know - awful picture again!  maybe I need to take some photography classes....

Silverware Art!  This was a super easy project and it really did turn out great.  I found lots of great inspiration via Pinterest - great websites/blogs like:  spunkyjunky.blogspot.com.

Supplies:
wall frames (these were at Hobby Lobby for 50% off - about $5 each)
thrifted silverware (25cents per piece at my local thrift store)
scrapbook paper/fabric (I used scrapbook paper from Hobby Lobby)
spray adhesive
strong glue like E600

First - spray paint your silverware.  I used a glossy black by Krylon.  I did get a little overzealous painting and ended up having to use a black Sharpie to do touch up (shhh.... don't tell!)

Second - cut your scrapbook paper/fabric to fit inside your frame.  I used spray adhesive and sprayed the cardboard insert from the frame (I put the glass in our recyle bin - no need to keep it, heaven knows it'd just end up broke anyhow) then pressed the paper down on top of it.  I did have to do some trimming to get it to fit just right.

Third - glue your silverware directly onto your scrapbook paper/fabric backing.  Let it dry for awhile before you hang these on the wall so you can tell they're secure.

Fourth - hang up on your wall and enjoy your thriftiness and craftiness!!!!

Horses and Purple - A 2 Year Old's New Digs

Baby Girls' room is a big girl room too!  She's no longer in a crib and instead has the adorable toddler bed her big sister had before.  Can't believe she's two and is sleeping in a bed and not a crib!  (Speaking of - anyone want to buy a white crib and mattress?  It's in GREAT shape!)  

Anyhow, when I had asked D what color she wanted her new room I got a very serious 'puple' as only a two year old can say it.  Adorable, of course. 

Purple and I have a love/hate relationship - I always think it's a lovely color on most people I see wearing it and I 'kind of' like a pale lilac or lavendar but in a room?  Again - with the smaller sized bedrooms the girls have (and I know, they're standard and in no way small) but can you imagine all four walls in a bright purple?  Ugh.  And yes, I'm aware the Pantone Color of the Year is Radiant Orchid but I'm pretty sure they don't mean to use it all at once - it's supposed to be subtle people....  Anyhow, I tried a few different shades of lavendar on the wall and we ended up with:

Behr's Pearl Violet and again had it color matched so we could get Sherwin Williams' Cashmere paint.

I'm super happy with how the paint looks - again, it's subtle like in her older sister's room but you can tell it's not just an off shade of white.  

 As you walk in - another wall with hearts!  I just can't get enough.... the lilac on the lilac walls turned out so cute (I was worried too)!  

Aside from the purple in the room, the other inspiration was this amazing fabric from the Wee Wander line by Sara Jane:

Isn't it AWESOME?!  It has the horses on it which D loves these days and it has a subtle amount of purple along with some other great colors!  The background is definitely more a teal than a turquoise (way more green in there) but I like it!  It also compliments a few of the items that we'd had in little girls nursery back in FL too.  Always nice if you can re-use some things!!!  

We had bedding for this adorable toddler bed our friends had given us (thanks Kaaren & Nick) but I wanted to use the adorable horsey fabric.... I ended up making a cover for the comforter and it worked fantastic!  I basically made a huge pillowcase and then sewed it shut.  I also added some purple ric rac trim too because ric rac seriously makes everything cuter.  ;)  I got a few more fabrics from the collection and made a couple of pillow cases for her pillows too.  It came together SO fantastically!  Don't you think?

Against the main wall in her room I added some DIY artwork and wall art.  I used fabric scraps from the duvet cover and pillow cases as well as trims, notions and fabrics I had in my stash that all went together - they became this lovely strip garland:

The scroll picture frame is the Ung frame from Ikea.  I've had it for a year or more (bought it on a whim at the Ikea in Orlando) but never really knew what I'd wanted to do with it.  Fast forward to needing 'large art' to fill that wall behind D's bed and it was put to good use!  I spray painted it using a gorgeous lilac color by Krylon called "Gum Drop" and used spray adhesive to add some of the pretty Wee Wander fabric.  I still need to figure out what to actually put inside the frame but I'm leaning towards a small yarn wreath or some special embroidery hoop art - a project for the future!  Any suggestions?

In the 'reading and rocking' area I added a few little special touches:  a funky fabric and trim chandelier and a gallery featuring found and made artwork.  

The inspiration for this fun chandelier was found via Pinterest on the blog: Decor Hacks.  I just loved the idea of making something special out of an old lampshade and extra fabric. Obviously that's a theme with some of my decorating - remember my 'scrappy lampshade'?

The 'd' art was made using scrapbook paper and a thrifted picture frame.  The Horse 'dream' art was purchased last summer on our special five week vacation to my hometown in MT and the carousel horse artwork was found via Etsy and this fantastic shop:  Avitalos.  I found a great pre-made frame for it at Hobby Lobby and they cut the mat for it.  The frame was actually black and I was so anal you all that I spray painted it white as soon as we got it home.  I hated the idea of ONE stupid black frame in the whole room!  Of course my hubby thinks I'm crazy...

Once again curtains caused me a WHOLE lot of heartache in this room - I had NO CLUE how I was ever going to find the right shade of purple to work in this room but perseverence (and an unhealthy addiction to online shopping) paid off!  These lovely scroll print beauties were on sale/clearance from Land of Nod!  I was stoked!  Of course they weren't lined and the shipping was painfully high but I am so happy with them.  I ended up purchasing some great drapery lining fabric at JoAnne's and sewing it to the backs - just the perfect amount of blackout lining to help my little one nap in the afternoons - VERY IMPORTANT PEOPLE.  I moved some of the artwork around above her changing table and wouldn't ya know - every single diaper change on that table she comments but that's ok.  The 'love' print was purchased for her original nursery and the metal flower art is from Hobby Lobby in their garden section.

The view from her bed looking towards her closet and doorway.

And I HAD to include a pic of little girls' adorable dolly bed - my parents made this one as well as one for my older girl too.  The girls love having a special bed for their dollies. 

Pink and Gold: Her Big Girl Room

Before we moved last November I asked my daughter what color she wanted in her new room - she replied "coral".  This girl has a sophisticated color palette for a 4 year old y'all!  Sooo, I ran with it!
Originally I was thinking go for it - pick a pink or a coral and slap it on all the walls but I realized quickly that actual coral walls or a shade likewise would look WAY overpowering in such a small space so I chose a blush pink instead.


The color is actually by Behr and is called Hush Pink (200C-1) but I had them color match at Sherwin Williams to get a better quality of paint.

So pink and I added gold, orange and black as accent colors - what do you think?

The really BIG DEAL for this big girl was her new bunk bed.... I was very anti-bunkbed when my husband first mentioned the idea but I quickly came around.  We ended up investing some money in a high quality all-wood version that has a full size bed on the bottom and a twin bed on the top.  They can be 'un-bunked' which will be great in the future when some little miss is too big for her britches.  :)  (That might be next year considering she's four years old going on sixteen!)  Anyhow - we figure this will be her bed until she leaves for college so we put the money down up front.  She loves it too!  I was stressed out more than the average bird probably trying to figure out bedding for the it but once I went for it on the duvet covers it helped a ton.  

I chose to get down comforters for the beds since we're in a cooler climate and then get duvet covers.  I probably looked at a thousand online but finally took the plunge and got these.  The orange/pink/black tile design is from PBTeen and are just awesome.  They were on sale too (a huge plus in my book)!  The sheets we lucked out on too - TJMaxx and Target (twin bed sheets are white with hot pink polka dots and the full set are orange and pink polka dot).  I'm slowly adding some throw pillows in fun prints but I'm trying to thrift pillows to save money there too.  You can usually find some for $1-$5 which compared to a pillow insert at JoAnne's is a big savings.  

The other thing I obsessed about?  The CURTAINS.  Ack - why is it so hard to find great curtains at a good price?!  Am I the only one that feels this way?  Of course I had specific wants here - a color that matched and the ability to blackout light as much as possible but unless you want to spend $85 a panel that's a tough find!  I think I ended up purchasing about six different pairs of curtains from good old Target and thank goodness for them... these were the winners.  Despite looking thin they do actually block out the light well.  I also added the pale pink pom pom trim for fun.  The tie backs are just Command hooks and pink grosgrain ribbon from the Dollar Store!

This fantastic white dresser was a find before we left Jacksonville - $80 people!!!!  Awesome!  It does have a slight smoke smell inside the drawers though which I still need to figure out.  Nothing worse than your four year old's clothes smelling like a pack of Marlboro Reds but thankfully a friend told me about a chemical called Otoban that I need to get!  That's a project for another day, right?

One of my favorite parts of big girl's room are the gold heart stickers on the wall.  After putting the polka dots in our playroom, I became slightly obsessed (as you'll see after seeing baby girls' room pictures too).  These fantastic gems were found for a great deal on Groopdealz.com - a daily deals email I get every day.  They were easy to apply - I just measured out every 2 feet using a straight edge and a level and put small pencil marks then went back and put a heart at every mark.  It looks so much like a wallpaper treatment but easy to replace or take down when big girl is tired of it - I hope that's never.  I kind of want to put hearts up in our Master Bedroom too but I think the Mister wouldn't appreciate that much.  ;) 

This original art piece was by big girl herself - it's a ballerina... ballet and dance has become a new obsession lately so it's fitting.

The 'reading area' is complete with a 'dumpster dived' chair in gold with a new throw pillow as well as paper lanterns as a mobile above the chair.  The lamp is from her previous room but it was yellow so with my trusty gold spray paint it got a new finish as well as new black ribbon trim to match the room.  The flower art above the chair were previously in baby girls' room but they have a whole new purpose in gold!

This little bookshelf isn't getting a ton of use now but I know it will eventually get more treasures on it the older she gest.  I made the paper circle garland by sewing scrapbook paper together in hot pink, light pink and gold glitter paper - fun and festive!  I'm hoping to add some more photographs to the wired circles on the wall too.

Lots of pics of big girl and her sister and their daddy.  I also put together some new embroidery hoop art with materials and fabrics already on hand.  And every girl should have a princess dress and a super hero cape hanging up in their room, right?