Featured! on Young House Lovins....

Wow, what an honor! I was so surprised yesterday to find out I'd been chosen to be on the blog Young House Love.  I have been a follower of their blog for a while now, watching their many adventures in DIY home repair.  They have a section called "Reader Redesign" and they chose the Hexagon French Provincial for their spotlight this week.  Head over to their blog and check it out, and explore their many many wonderful posts.  This comes at PERFECT timing because I've started on another french provincial, and I was thinking about doing a similar wood vs. paint design. This encourages me to do it! Have a great weekend!

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Spotlight: Farmhouse Table Tutorial

I just saw this post from Miss Mustard Seed, and I love it! The table looks like a project that is easily tackle-able, and the materials are pretty easy to come by.  Check out some of the pictures:

 So that's the finished product, here are some pictures of the during:

There you have it, not too bad at all! Check out the full tutorial here.  Have a great one!

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Bamboo Sofa Table

I just finished up work on a sofa table that a customer fell in love with. Here's the before picture:

 

Solid wood, and originally done in a sort of dirty wash.  I stripped it, sanded it, and removed all the hardware.  I really wanted to test out minwax's color stains, and let me tell you, it was love at first...  stain? Haha. This stain was great, easy, and water based. I put two coats on this table and it was perfect!  This is Minwax's Green Tea.

Take a look:

After the stain set, I hand cut two sets of stencils.  The bamboo poles, and the bamboo leaves that would layer on after.  Here's a tip if you ever stencil: I sprayed the back of the stencil with spray adhesive, then let it dry. This makes a tacky, almost sticky note surface so the stencil adheres perfectly.  This worked like a dream... I did it for the leaves and not the poles though, however, I like how the poles came out foggy here and there:

There you have it! The customer really likes it, I really like it, we are happy.  This was a really fun project to do, it was seamless from start to finish.  I love it when everything seems to just go well, with no surprises!  Hand cutting that stencil was really fun too, I can definitely recreate this look any time.  Have a great day!

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Spotlight: Double Wide Dresser

I saw this post come through the Better After feed, and I fell in love. Not just with the project, but with gradients in general.  I've always LOVED the look of paint chips, and it's so neat to see all the art people make with them.  It seems the paint companies themselves have hopped on the bandwagon and had people make things for their ads too.  Well take a look at this double wide dresser from Frou-FruGal:

Boom! Isn't that great? The stencils were actually reversed too, so she blocked the letters and numbers to keep the wood grain showing through. I love that. See how it gradually gets darker as it goes down? She started with the color on the bottom drawers, and for each level up added a teaspoon and a half of white.  Brilliant! It gives a great effect.  And those drawer pulls are macrame monkey paws! I've NEVER made those but I'm totally inspired.  Check out her step by step tutorial, here.

On the topic of paint chips, I saw the front of a Martha Stewart Magazine a ways back with some really neat wall art on it using paint chips.  And they didn't even alter them at all! Take a look:

This just follows along the same line of my love of color organizing.  It can totally change the look of a collection.

As far as my own projects, coming up I have the Sofa Table that I'm doing in a colored stain, which I have never done before.  I'm using Minwax's Line of colored stain, "Green Tea".  More on that later...

Have a wonderful Wednesday everyone!

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Spotlight: Paint by Number Murals

I've always loved the unique look of paint by number, and seeing it on these wall murals makes me fall in love all over again!  I recently saw this post from Nicole who writes the blog Making it Lovely.  People take paint by number pictures, copy them onto transparencies, project them on a wall, trace, paint, adore. Simple! Haha, just kidding. It looks like a LOT of work, but totally worth it. Enjoy the pictures, and head over to Nicoles blog for the original post.

 Here's a sea themed one from the cute blog: Easter Kiwi:

I'm extremely tempted to do this on a wall in my house, but I'm a renter and wonder if I should invest all the time in something I can't take with me for a few years! I love the look though, and as soon as I can do it - I am!  Have a great day :)

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