Striped Hallway Makeover

Even though we're still renters, I can't resist the urge to make our place more "ours". We are very fortunate and were allowed to paint our condo as long as it stayed in the same color palette as what the owners had painted....which we begrudgingly lovingly refer to as the Sahara Desert. The color throughout most of our home - entry, kitchen, living and dining rooms is the color you would imagine inside a mud hut. It's not my favorite. I haven't been able to convince Mister to paint the entire living space yet, so we just pretend we are in the Mojave for now. We did paint our bedroom a few months back and after that, I was bitten hard by the "painted patterned wall" bug! I was able to convince my sweet mom to assist one Saturday morning and a couple hours later, we had a new an improved entry way! I love it and it certainly will not be my last stripey wall!

The biggest piece of advice I have to offer if you are tackling this project is to MEASURE CAREFULLY! we measured, taped, and then had to measure again. That was not fun. Also, take care to make sure your lines a straight...the few extra minutes it takes will save you lots of re-do time later.

There are so many fun options for painting stripes, you can do contrasting colors, tone-on-tone, or for an even more subtle effect, try using a different finish of the same color paint like eggshell and semigloss. For my project, I just mixed some white into a leftover can of the original wall color until I came up with something I liked.

First you will want to measure the height of your wall and figure out how many stripes you want and how wide they should be. I went with nine 9" stripes. Tape them off (the sections you aren't painting should be much more narrow than the ones you are painting because your tape will overlap into that section. After you tape, recheck your measurements and use a level to make sure your lines are straight. If you have the original wall color (your your base color) paint it lightly over your tape line, this way if any paint bleeds under the tape, it will match the original color and won't be noticeable.

Then paint your 2nd color in the larger spaces. Be careful not to use too much paint near the tape line, otherwise it will bleed underneath.

Let the paint dry for a couple hours but not overnight. I have learned - the hard way- that you should take tape off, carefully, when it is just barely still wet. If you let the tape dry overnight it is more likely to pull up the paint underneath.

 

And there you have it! Easy horizontal striped walls! Now all you have left to do it decorate them! I hung one of our favorite wedding pictures along with two vacation photos I took during our last trip to Mexico!

 

 

Felt Wreath for Fall

I must admit, I haven't been into Fall decorating this year. I am already finding myself thinking about Christmas and longing for the twinkle of Christmas lights around our home. This is totally unlike me. I am usually all about each or the seasons because each is an opportunity to decorate my home, but this Fall has been crazy...I just made chili for the first time last week! Usually chili and my famous Jalapeno Cheddar Cornbread...I'll share soon...are every-Sunday rituals. But, so far, this Fall has gotten away from me, and the 70 degree weather hasn't helped much either. I haven't even worn a real sweater yet this year!

I hate for Fall to get gypped, so I got around to putting out a few pumpkin candles and a fall-ish tablescape and this wreath! I gathered inspiration for Pinterest, where else? Here are some of my inspiration wreaths 1 , 2, 3 Once I got inspiried, I picked up all of the materials and got busy crafting this pretty Fall Felt Wreath. At least our front door is feeling in the love this season.

 Isn't she lovely? I think so :) Here's what you need and how to make a Felt Flower Wreath for yourself!

What you need:
Wreath form (I used a large straw one)
Spool of yarn (whatever color your heart desires)
Multiple colors of felt (I used 9 - 8 1/2 x 11 sheets for mine)
Cardboard
Hot glue gun and plenty of sticks
Ribbon to hang it

Now let's get started! The first and most tedious and annoying step (which I also forgot to photograph - woops!) is to wrap your wreath. This took a.long.time. I would recommend doing this while you watch a TV show...or seven.

Next cut your felt. You need to make squiggly lines out of the square fabric. I used two different methods...photos of each are below. Length of the strip will determine how large your flower is, so experiment a little. I used various sizes and liked that look. You also want to leave a round..or oval if that's how it works out, piece at the bottom for stability.

Next you need to take each length of felt "ribbon" and roll it into a tight rosette. I didn't think this would work as well as it did, but the felt really weaves its way into a pretty flower...with just a little coaxing.

Use your hot glue to secure the bottom. You will also secure a round piece of cardboard, which will help when you attach to the wreath.

Before you start gluing them to the wreath, lay it on the table and play around with the placement until you have a good idea of what looks right. Once you have it all worked out and all of your felt flowers are glued in to place, attach and ribbon and hang on your door!

And voila, you're done!

 

I'm linking up with I Love You More Than Carrots "Hey, That's Pin-tastic" series...so head over there and check out the other links!

Master Bedroom Progress - Painted Wallpaper

We have been making major progress in our Master lately...this will be the first of 4 posts about the projects before the big reveal...so make sure you come back!

I LOVE the look of wallpaper but I am: 1) a bit of a commitment-phobe (except for when it came to marrying my wonderful husband) and 2) renting...which makes wallpaper out of the question. However, I didn't really ask permission to do this to our rented walls either...oh well, nothing a little sand paper and paint and a husband with strong arms can't fix in a few months :)

You have probably seen similar painted walls all over the blogsphere and Pinterest, but mine are even better beacuse I designed the stencil! I used the middle pillow on our bed (you'll see in a second) as inspiration for the pattern I wanted repeated (email me if you would like it).

I won't lie to you, this project was not exactly easy and took about 8 hours to complete...but it was worth every minute.

Without further adieu here are some pictures after the wall was complete and the steps I took and things I learned along the way...

Before:

After:





First, measure your wall and decide how large your stencil should be and how many times you want it repeated. If you are purchasing a stencil the size will be predetirmied, so you may have 1/2 of the image at the top, bottom or sides - that is fine and would happen with wallpaper anyway.

I designed my stencil, so the size was up to me and right now I can't remember the exact measurements. I drew it onto a couple of pieces of paper, cut it and then traced it onto cardboard.  Then I taped the two sides together, made sure they were even and got to work! I used a bit of tape on the back to hold the stencil in place, but still needed one hand on it. *be careful when tracing to ONLY use pencil and try not to make your line too dark. I learned my lesson and ended up erasing my lines because they were too dark*

I worked from top to bottom and each time lined up the top of the stencil with the line from the bottom. Be careful to keep it in line horizontally as well.
 



 After you have completed your stenciling (hopefully with a hand much less heavy than mine) start painting! Painting freehand is daunting at first, but part of the beauty of this is: a) you can use a wet cloth to wipe off as you go and b) it doesn't need to be perfect. Every person who has seen this has assumed it's wallpaper and hasn't noticed the imperfections until I tell them!  I blended two colors of acrylic art paint and applied it with a long handled artist brush about the width of the lines. My paint was metalic because I wanted that look but this would work with the same color, different finish or two different colors.

Here is the finished product again! Isn't it lovely? I love it! Just wait until you see the finished space!

 Next up:
a DIY Upholstered Bed
Painting Furniture
DIY Curtains and Pillow Shams

Project #1 - Master Bedroom

The last few months have been busy around our house and I can't wait to show you what I have been up to! We moved into a new condo in March and I have been busy turning it into "home" and *hopefully* using some of the rooms for my portfolio.

Project #1- Finally finishing our Master Bedroom

I feel like our bedroom as been in a state of flux since 2009. We have lived in three different "homes" since our wedding in May 2009 and each time our bedroom has changed. One thing we have always had is a very comfortable king size (a must in my opinion!) and an upholstered headboard (DYI project with details coming!). I want a soothing abode, but not something that is boring. Our color palette is "neutrals with a hint of blue".

Here are some sneak peaks of my inspiration for our bedroom...

We have (and love) a duvet and throw pillow in Pottery Barn Medici Blue and defnitely wanted to keep it in the room.

We already have an upholstered headboard (which I DIY'd...twice), but oh.my.goodness do I LOVE an upholstered bed! I do not, however, love the $3,000+ price tag on most of them. Never fear...I have plans to turn my regular old bed frame into a fabulous upholstered bed! Here are some of my inspiriational pics...

I also have a few painting projects in store...including painting our existing side tables and dressers and something similar to these fabulous stenciled walls! I LOVE wallpaper, but since we are renting right now, something a little less permanent is in order...

Finally, these are some images that set the mood...hee hee...and show the feeling we are going for. 

source unknown for last two pictures

 Stay tuned...

Something to "settee" on

Since we moved into a large condo back in March (pictures will be coming as we "finish" projects), I have been shopping for the perfect piece of furniture to add to our living room. We had an old hand-me-down mauve, floral sofa (not exactly in my design plan) and two chocolate velvet slipper chairs. I was dying to replace it with something more modern and neutral, so we looked and looked and looked, and finally found something perfect.
Next we started searching (ie. I started pinning) ideas for a new piece. We love to entertain and wanted to make sure we didn't loose too much seating. I decided that a settee/ loveseat would be perfect - doesn't take up to much space and still provides seats for our football-watching/ Catchphrase-playing friends!
Here are some of the pieces I liked...

 

I quickly realized that most of my favorites were traditional Camelback sofas in updated fabric....More to come on the settee search and other projects around the house!

Time Flies!

Wow! 1.5 years since my last blog post...that's embarrassing. Even worse is that I don't have a very good reason for my absence. Life in the Capitol City is busy and stressful!

Here is a quick run down of the last 1.5 years:
1. I got a job as a recruiter and work about 3 blocks from the White House!
2. We moved into a gorgeous condo...you will get to see pics soon!
3. We went to Mexico...twice!
4. Celebrated our first and second years of married bliss
5. Nick got a promotion
6. We did NOT get a puppy :(

A new blog has been in the works for a while, so stay tuned for changes and updates. In the mean time, follow me on Pinterest to see what I have been up to!

All Hung Up

No, I have not dropped off the face of the earth, just a little to busy keeping up with life these days!

We are all moved in to our new place in Northern Virginia. The move has been interesting and I am still working in Newport News (about 3 hours away) 3 days a week! We are absolutely LOVING our new place and have been checking out the area every weekend!

On another note...my life got a litle better today when I discovered these...

THESE ARE AMAZING! If you anything like me (ie. you put about 10 holes in your wall to hang 1 picture) these will be your new BFF! I was a littel skeptical at first but they were super easy to put on and seem to really 'hold on loosely" umm I mean tight :)

I next I will use them for something like this...

Love this one from Jenny

Image Credits: 1&2 from here . 1) Dana Slatkin, California Style Magazine, Jan/Feb 08. 2)Tricia Huntley, photoography Kevin Allen 3) Little Green Notebook.