Shutters turned Head Board

These fabulous shutters were hidden the back corner of an antique store behind some other furniture. We got them uncovered and got to look at them and fell in love! They were exactly what I had been looking for for a headboard for our bed! 

Because the paint was chipping off and very weathered, I wanted to seal them somehow without losing the look that I loved! After a little research, we decided on this Rust-olium spray. We did two coats and it really sealed the paint off, it has not really chipped at all since we hung them several months ago! 

This was before! (After seeing this old post, I see how even this was a HUGE improvement-I had forgotten how bland it was before we painted)

J figured out where the studs on the wall were and drilled some 1x2's on the back to align with the studs!

We got them both hung!

And I love the final outcome!!! We ordered some new pillow cases with some Anthropologie gift cards we had left over from the wedding and our bed was finally complete! 

Fall

I don't know anyone who doesn't love fall and really look forward to that first day where it feels like fall outside - when pumpkin spice makes its return, all the yummy fall scents hit the candle isles and of course football!! 

My fall decorating started with a trip to Hobby Lobby, only to return home and realize I had bought almost all the same stuff last year in the after season clearance sale. I returned the items and went to Dollar Tree to see if they had anything different and found a lot of stuff to compliment what I already had! 

A few of the details: 

• A cupcake holder with a sparkly pumpkin on dry beans. 
• The vase and all the decor came from Dollar Tree, I just added a little gold paint to the leaves to make them stand out a little more! 

This frame came from a flea market and I had been looking for the perfect place to use it! I started to make a wreath for the front door and decided the frame would be more fun! I bought the sign at Hobby Lobby for .99 and painted it with some paint I had at the house!  I had saved the yellow yarn from an Anthro gift I had received and drilled two holes in the sign and there it was! I used floral wire to attach the flower pieces and then just added the burlap ribbon bow! It was so much fun and ubber simple to make! 

The vases on this table came from Dollar Tree as well as the pumpkins! I cut up an old coffee bag on some books to set the center piece on! Again, super cheap and a lot of fun! {I will admit that the first bag of candy corns ended up all eaten and I had to buy another bag, but goodness they were delicious}

I got this chair for free at a garage sale last fall and decided to use it as part of my fall decorations this year! I had this small canvas with a eurpoean painting on it but had never used it so decided to just paint over it! I also wanted a burlap pumpkin so I decided to try to make one! 
I took a small bucket we had left over from our wedding and put newspaper all round it! I used the other side of the coffee bag and bunched it up around the newspaper! I took safety pins and pinned, from the inside, so that it stayed bunched up then put a rubberband around the top! I found a piece of bark out of our yard and used it for the 'stem'! 

I got this shutter at a garage sale last year and decided to paint it using Annie Sloan chalk paint! (this was my first experiment with the paint and I fell in love) I had it as my centerpiece on the table, but once the table got a facelift for fall, I decided to use it here! I have been collecting acorns from our yard and adding them to the small floaral arrangement! I had found the green and orange mini gourds at Dollar Tree, but adding the acorns makes it look a lot richer! 

These branches came from Dollar Tree and I wrapped part of a coffee bean bag around an oatmeal container! 

I have almost completely burned through 2 candles since I got it all decorated. I just love the smell of fall!

guest room

All of our family lives out of town, so we have guests often, but this just wasn't cutting it:

We added some color and got rid of the brown tapestry curtain::

This window is a fun place to write 'welcome' to whoever is staying with us, using dry erase! Ive had a lot of fun with that! 

This pic is super blurry, but you can see how just adding a shelf (from a garage sale - $1.00 & spray painted black), and a few other things to the wall really made a difference.

Now this room is becoming a nursery and we are turning our office into a guest bedroom! I am so excited for our nursery and cannot wait to see it all come together! 

trashcan find

I was hanging out at the park one day with a sweet friend of mine and I saw this:

She laughed when I said I was going to dig it out, but I loved the wood and saw some potential! 

I got it home and let it sit in the sun for several weeks - just to let the sun do any sanitizing that might be needed! Then with the help of my sweet husband we got the 'signs' off and in about 5 minutes I had them painted with some sample paints we had! 

One was a gift for my sister for her engagement party, one for our laundry 'room' and one for us! 

{Fun. Simple. & Free}

Small and simple

  I bought these beauties for 1.00 Each knowing they had potential! 

I kept the matting, but got rid of the lovely stitch work and painted the frames grey! I had some post cards from when I traveled in London and had never known exactly where to put them, but they fit perfectly and the colors were exactly what we needed to finish off the bathroom! 

The lamp adds soft light which I love! My mother-in-law had given us the lamp and we bought shade at Wal-Mart! 

Pallet Shelf

We started by measuring the size of the shelf that I wanted and then my amazing husband had it cut and put together in no time! He just took the slates from the backs of the pallet and the center and top pieces he used for the outside pieces! --He cut all of them using a hand saw {sweet and talented man} and nailed it all together!

Pallet used:

Shelf put together and ready to stain! 

Once the stain dried [Minwax^® Wood Finish™ Dark Walnut]

we hung it on the wall and added some estate sale finds - I also found a twig in our neighbors yard and hand painted it yellow (from the craft paint I had also just bought at the estate sale) and we went to Wal-Mart and bought a few towels to put inside the box! 

And there it was!!! 

The towels hanging on the bar, I had bought at a Stein Mart clearance sale for a few dollars each! 

~Bless the Lord Oh my soul~

This is one of my favorite things we have hanging in our house!!!! 

Using some pallets we had picked up off the street, John cut, using a hand saw, 6 pieces off the pallet and we naled some scrap 1x1's we had on the back to hold them in place! 

Then wood glued a small piece on the top so we could hang it! 

Once the stain dried on this, I painted one board a gray from some sample paints we had and then stenciled in part of Matt Redman's 10,000 Reasons (Bless the Lord) - One of our favorite songs, and a great daily reminder! I used some of the craft paint I had just picked up at an estates sale to paint the lettering

And there it was! 

bathroom make over in an evening

Our bathroom has felt kinda boring since we moved in. I wanted it to be peaceful and after putting about 5 samples on the walls for color, I decided to keep the walls the color they were originally! Our bedroom is full of color and finding something to compliment it without going over board just wasn't working! I did however, want to tie in those same colors! {teal, grey, yellow, and white}

It all started all started with a stop by an estate sale on the way home from work one Friday afternoon, where I picked up a few stitch work pieces, a vase, a small metal box and lots of craft paints - all for under $4.00 - I began planning and by the time John got home, I was ready to take on the bathroom! 

We had picked up 2 pallets off the road a few weeks before and I decided that between my estate sale finds and those pallets we could have us a bathroom in an evening! 

Before

After

{How to::Shelf}

Before

 After
{How to: Bless the Lord painting}

Before

 After
{Making the frames:: Small and Simple}

 the projects can be found below::


Bless the Lord painting


Shelf


Frames

And that was it - we were done! It was a fun evening with my sweet husband and we have really enjoyed the way it turned out!