Main bath vanity redo

So to begin I hate lighter colored wood.  Unfortunately the home we bought is filled with light colored wood.  From the main bathroom, to the kitchen, to the wood flooring...all light colored wood.  I, myself am a dark cherry, mahogany, sometimes walnut kinda girl.  Its all about the dark woods, jeweled tones, Queen Anne style and damask patterns.  So buying the house with the light colored wood was a large leap for me.  At first I was upset that we would not be able to replace the floors for a few years, I knew the replacing/repainting of the cabinets in the bathroom and kitchen would be more realistic so I was not upset about that.  Then I found this pin on Pinterest...this woman is a savior. Her blog is also really great.  She introduced me to General Finishes Gel Stain.  Here is her link.   And here is my before and after.

She suggests the use of a sock.  I however found that it goes on much smoother and covers more in one coat when using a foam brush or a microfiber roller brush.  It took me less time (I started at 1130 this morning and I was finished in a less than six hours, not to mention all the time I spent doing errands and other projects while it dried) and I did not need to do continual coats, just two all together.  I also chose not to add the poly, I am not a fan of shiny furniture.  I also tested it on a scrap piece of flooring we had in the garage and guess what...it stained the ugly light wood a nice walnut.  So I bought the cherry in the quart size.  The Java color that I bought was 1/2 a pint and it covered not only the bath vanity, but I also have enough left over for the beadboard that we are going to put up in the main bath.  This stuff is amazing and can be addictive with all that you can transform. 

Happy Re-mollying!
Molly

Dessert Dishes Project

So I have been seeing on Pinterest different ways to personalize Dollar Tree pottery.  I hopped right on this bandwagon because its a cheap, yet fun craft.  I bought at first 4 plates with the intention of personalizing them with a cursive "L".  They looked pretty bad. so I took some stencils and colored sharpies and went to town.

If you are wondering what happened to the "4" plates, I got a bit carried away and decided that we need at least 20 hors D'oeuvres plates for parties.  And then reality struck and I settled for 12 for myself and two sets of 4 for gifts (I am currently in a holiday gifts making mode).  The first set I had a lot of fun with because I could play with the design a bit.  First I chose the stencil that I thought would look good for the intended recipient.

I then took some of my pretty sharpies and got to coloring.

See how much prettier this is than regular black sharpie?

I did four plates with different bloom colors.

After coloring, I placed them in my oven at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.  While I was waiting for these plates to finish I started on my other plates.  This design was repeated on all 4 plates.

The two sets of 4 above are my gifts to people while the next design I loved so much I am keeping for myself.  At first I wanted to do the design in silver to match my china, thus the 12 dishes I am keeping for myself.

As you can see the silver is not looking too good, so I switched it up to black.

It does look a lot better with the black and this design and much better than the cursive "L" that I tried.  The stencils worked great and I love all the different combinations I can create with the colored sharpies.  They also work great as an inexpensive gift for holidays, birthdays, hostess gifts, etc.


Happy Crafting!
Molly

Knife Block Redo

This is another project that I came across on Pinterest, I swear that site is like crack and I used to play mmorpgs.  This one was pretty easy and quick to do.  Just take your ordinary knife block and paint it, any color.  Here is my standard knife block before.

Don't mind the board it is on, it is my protection for the dinning room table.  Workbench is almost finished, yippee!  I chose one of the sample colors that we have on hand.  It is the same blue that we used in Liam's room.  I it is called Redstone Guest Blue, by Valspar.  We use only Valspar because it works the best for us.  I am sure that any paint will do.

Here are the after shots, like I said pretty easy.  The only difference is that I did not add a monogram or other decal to the block.  I thought that it looked better without one.

And here is the shot with the knives in it.  One of the shears is in the dishwasher at the time the picture was taken.

Since the kitchen is painted a darker blue, I thought that this lighter tone would look good.  Very easy and a quick update to the kitchen.

Happy crafting!
Molly

Finally able to take a breath.

So this Labor Day weekend also happens to be our wedding anniversary weekend.  This year is a big one considering that Josh is actually in the country this year.  Normally we would pack up the dog and head out to the ocean, but this year with the new house we are staying put and doing projects...too many to count to get ready to show off the house during a family BBQ this weekend.  Now that the garage has been cleared out (YEA!) Josh is currently down in the garage; music pumping, power tools grinding, and sawdust flying; making workbenches.  His and hers if you will.  Really looking forward to having a space to do my projects somewhere other than the dining room table.  We also started staining the bathroom vanity with a really great gel stain.  I will be posting those pictures later on when it is all done, as well as the tricks I found to make it stick in one coat.  I spent yesterday ripping out the bushes near the front door of the house, got sick of walking into spiderwebs everyday, and now it looks better.  Although I am trying to convince Josh that we need to expand the front porch out so we can have a bench and potted plants, mostly better curb appeal and sweat equity.  Will be posting pics of that later as well. There are plenty more projects to do with the house before the housewarming party in a few months.  For now I am relaxing whilst the stain dries and updating this blog with a few posting few projects that I have completed while working on the house.  I hope you enjoy them and am sorry for the lapse in postings.  Life has been hectic, but cest la vie. 

Molly

Seaglass Project

So I saw this project on Pinterest and I thought it looked kind of cool.  I usually tend to stay away from glass projects due to a brother who is a glass artist and puts anyone I know to shame with his artwork.  Yet this was a simple craft that I thought would be fun.  Its very simple, you take glass candlesticks (I bought mine from the dollar store), glue, and food coloring.

You mix the food coloring with the glue to get the colors that you want.  I wanted to try a lilac at first and added a few drops of blue and red until I got the shade I wanted.  I am sure you can do any color imaginable.  Because I am in the holiday present making stage right now I figured I would make them in the colors for the people I had in mind for this project/gifts.

As you can see it is a bit of a deeper lilac, but keep in mind that it will get lighter as it dries.  To paint I used a flat tipped brush and painted on a few coats.

After the candlesticks were painted I let them dry for a few hours.  I liked the project so much that I made two sets.

This could also be a great project for older kids to do for presents during the holiday season.  In total it was $1 per candlestick, $.50 for the glue (you have to love back to school sales), and the food coloring was in my pantry.

Happy Crafting!

Molly

Craft Storage Re-do

So a few Christmases ago Josh bought me a white craft storage unit from one of the larger craft store chains.  It has been hidden away with crafting supplies just stuffed into it and then banished to the garage when we moved.  After seeing that I would have to wait a few more weeks before having my crafting haven downstairs, I decided to give it a little pizazz with the contact paper that I bought and some paint.

Here is the before.  I do like the color white, but as an accent.  This was a bit too boring.

First I dismantled the storage cube.

 After I took the cube apart, making sure I marked which screws went where, I laid out all the parts on the table and measured out the contact paper.

I planned on covering the two sides as well as the top of the cube and the front of the storage drawers.  

After laying the contact paper on the larger pieces, I smoothed out all the air bubbles that popped up.  I also made sure to measure out enough contact paper so that I could overlap along the edges so that when it was screwed back together the paper would stay.  Once again, this is contact paper that I bought from the dollar store and I want to make sure that it will stay put.

After the three larger pieces were covered I stared to reassemble the cube.

 Once the cube was put back together it was time to also do the front of the drawers.  At Josh's suggestion I chose to paint the front of the drawers instead of placing the contact paper on them.

Once the paint was dry I reattached the pulls, and reattached the drawer fronts.

Here is the finished storage cube.

 

As you can see it looks much better.  All it took was some paint and contact paper.  If it wasn't for a whirlwind of chaos named Liam, I would keep this out all the time.  Now I am really looking forward to creating my crafting haven as soon as we get most of the garage cleaned out.


Happy crafting,
Molly

Bookshelf redo

So, with my passion for history comes a passion for books, a lot of books.  Unfortunately with being the mother of a toddler I have had to hide away most of my books from little hands.  With the addition of the guest room into our lives I have a new place to put my books where Liam cannot get to them.  After a long search for what I wanted bookshelf I went on Pinterest and saw this project; the original project calls for wallpaper, but all the wallpaper that I looked at cost more than the shelves themselves. First I found this great contact paper in a print that I love at the dollar store of all places.  I loved it so much I bought about ten rolls, future projects here I come! Then I went online and purchased two new, smaller bookshelves for $36 after taxes and re-modeled (or re-mollyed) them. 

I attached it to the backing of the bookshelf.

 

The hardest part of this was getting the pattern centered.  I was a bit OCD at this point with having it match up.

I also made sure to overlap it around the back of the board for better coverage and to make sure that the contact paper would not come loose.

 After the contact paper was on the backing, it was time to build the shelves.  I bought two with the intention of flipping one on top of the other to make one large bookshelf.  When building the second shelf, I turned the top of that shelf upside down because it was going to be screwed into the top if the first shelf.

Once the shelves were built it was time to add the backing.

See the couch in the background?  Told you I loved the pattern.  But it also goes well with the bookshelves.  After I hammered the backing in I brought the first bookshelf into the guest room and put it into position.  I then brought the second shelf in and secured it into the first with basic screws.  I forgot to take pictures of this step, but it is fairly easy to do.  After the bookshelves were screwed together I brought in the removable shelves and the books.

As you can see, the contact paper on the backing adds the touch that it needs.  The bonus of flipping one of the bookshelves upside down creates a top shelf with a bit of molding to place items that may be a bit more fragile behind the molding without the fear of falling off with toddlers around trying to climb the shelf.

This is the semi finished bookshelf.  When I have a bit more time and energy after chasing Liam around, I am going to add some trim to the edges to give it a bit more flavor.  All in all this project cost me around $45 for a custom looking bookshelf with room that was much needed for books.  I may have to do another one since this bookshelf is full already. 

Happy crafting!
Molly

Very busy week, even busier weekend ahead.

So we have been very here in the Lyonsden, Northwest edition, with projects and guests.  Last weekend Josh chose on the hottest day of the week to dig a fire pit and ring it with the large natural stones that we have on our property.  I thought he was crazy doing all that in the heat, but it paid off.  We have a great fire pit now that blends nicely with our Pacific Northwest backyard and as soon as the lawn is a bit greener and the yard pruned, I will post pictures.  Having our house guest was also great and was a great way to test out the guest room and how comfy the bed is.  Now that the chaos with all the projects is down to a dull roar and I can take a break, I am now able to post some finished projects as well as work on more projects.  Looking forward to relaxing with my glue gun today, in the 95 degree heat.

Busy, busy, busy...

So we are preparing for our first house guest in the new house.  One of our best friends will be staying with us for a bit after coming back from Korea.  In the midst of getting the house ready for guests, we are experiencing a bit of a heat wave.  Already 74 degrees and it is not even noon yet.  Great weather for being outside cleaning out the three storage sheds we have in the backyard.  As much as I am not looking forward to clearing out the items left behind by the previous owners, we do need to get it do so that the items in the garage, i.e the lawnmower, can go to its new home in the storage sheds so that I can have the garage freed up for my projects.  The biggest one that I want to get done is the bead board in the dining room.  It is getting a bit annoying having to wait for a weekend to get these projects done, and now it is so hot no one wants to go outside.  Hopefully we can get some of the work done before it gets to be too late and the sun gets to be too hot and become too lazy.