I’m writing this on Sunday night.  I’m so excited that I just have to post this for you to read first thing on Monday morning!  I have a meeting at 9am, and this couldn’t wait til afternoon!!!

The Hubs had a meeting tonight so I put the kiddos to bed and just finished sewing a pillow a little bit ago.  I’m now happily perched on my bed with jammies on, 27 Dresses on the TV (fab-o movie if you need a great chick flick), a handful of Cabury chocolate eggs (the little ones with the crunchy shells), and my computer chocked full of pictures of my latest project just for you!!

It’s time to reveal the antique headboard I converted into a bench!  Just have to warn you…there are ALOT of pictures.  I documented how we did it to show you in case you happen to score a cool headboard and need to do something with it other than attach it to the end of a mattress!

<—–This is the before on the left.  Had been in someone’s barn for ages and then in our garage for probably 6 months…filthy, but full of potential!

Below is my big helper and me.  We sanded the headboard down a little to reveal some of the layers of paint, and then we cleaned it off really well.

Above on the right, are the 2 pieces of wood (1×8, and 1×10) for the seat that I stained using MinWax walnut stain.  Below is the frame that I made for the seat.  The Hubs cut the first piece that fit along the back between the posts, and then I measured, cut, and screwed the rest of the inner part of the frame together.  Then I pre-drilled holes into the legs and attached them to the outside of the frame.  We put a piece of 1×3 along the front to give a bit more stability and make the legs look flush along the front.

Because of how I had to attach the legs on the outside of the frame, The Hubs cut a couple of little blocks to mount the 1×3 along the outside and make the leg look flush with the side again.

Tid Bit had been wanting to paint this thing for a week, so finally he got his chance.  The headboard had layers of paint, so we had to do our best to replicate that layering.  First we stained the wood, then painted green (Sherwin Williams Tansy Green to be exact), then a coat of cream (don’t know the exact color because it was just $2.50 in the reject section at Lowes, but was perfect), and then finally the taupe-greenish-gray color.  The closest match I could find was Benjamin Moore Sag Harbor Gray, but I didn’t have that.  So… I mixed some Benjamin Moore Nantucket Gray with some yellow, and black, and brown and got a color that was actually an even closer match!  Hooray for a genepool that passed on an ability for precision color mixing!

<—-So here it is up close…it was still wet in this picture, so the color does look a little off.  Trust me, it’s just right!  Remember the giant gouge that was in the top of the headboard too…yeah, I painted over that as well!  All it needed now was to dry and then be sanded down to show all those beautiful layers that Tid Bit so carefully painted!

Ok…so see below!  Sanded down a bit to make the new part look old too!  I think it turned out pretty smashingly!

When I started looking at it all done and pretty, I decided that it needed a little something cushy!  The other day I was thinking of upholstering the back, then I thought of upholstering the seat, then I decided I liked it so much just like this, but I now had a dropcloth that I’d washed and dried to do something amazing with…so I made pillows!  And because I didn’t want to spend more on a monogram than I did on a 4×12 length of dropcloth, I decided to create a stencil and paint our initial onto the pillows!

First I found a “W” in a font that I liked and blew it up to be ginormous on a regular sheet of printed paper. Then I traced it onto a sheet of heavy duty stencil paper and cut it out.  I made sure to leave some points of connection for the inner pieces that would have fallen out otherwise.  I used spray on stencil adhesive to get the stencil to adhere to the fabric to make clean lines.  To apply the W,  I used a round paintbrush and dabbed some bronze paint onto the stencil.

See how there are some breaks in the W?  That was from the connection points that I didn’t cut out.  No worries though, I just used a small detail brush to fill those areas in!  And below you can see the finished stencil!

I didn’t do a tutorial on how to make a pillow.  I figured I’d taken enough pictures today and honestly, there are a million pillow tutorials out there!  If you really want me to do one sometime though, I will, but you will have to comment and say so!

So here it is…the bench AND the pillow!  In fact, I actually made 2 pillows, but need an insert for the other one…so hopefully you can get the jist with only one!

So that’s it!  I’m pretty pleased with it!  Now all I have to do is decide where in my house I’m actually going to put this beauty!  Happy Monday!

– Logan

For more fun craft ideas, check out my new friend Beth’s blog here!

I feel like junk today….some bronchitis sort of junk.  Kept me up late last night coughing like mad.  UGH….tired and gross feeling today.

Anyways…I finally found a picture of the amazing fabric that I’m putting on that chair i told you about before. 

<——-Here is the chair.

And here is the fabric.
                    ———->

UH-Mazing!  And did I mention it has a 3 yd repeat?…so those beauties are massive!

Hang on a second…someone is at my door…

Oh man…you’ll never guess what just came.  Really great neighbor…but she just brought the one thing that will guarantee my stupid jello jog for at least a little while longer.

THIS!!! ——————————->

Dang Girl Scouts!  Messing up my waistline…AGAIN!  Total nemesis!

So i just took a break for a Peanut Butter Patty and while my stomach digests that creamy goodness, I wanted to show you that I did indeed finish the pillow from the other day’s post.

Check it out.

And I’m not apparently a super awesome blogger because I did NOT take pictures to show you how to make a pillow like this yourself.  I started this one ages ago but when I do the next one I’ll document the process.  So for now, I’m sorry.  This is all you get.

I used Wonder Under to iron the butterfly onto the green linen fabric because I wanted to have the butterfly on there alone.  As you can see from the whole piece of the fabric above, you have to actually cut out a specific butterfly to do what I did here.  Otherwise you’d end up with a weevil or part of a grasshopper or some other unwanted bug on your pillow as well.  And I’m not feeling weevils and grasshoppers and unwanted bugs like I am butterflies these days.  Butterflies….me and the dang Pottery Barn.

Anyhow.  Wanted to at least show you that even if I didn’t get the laundry put away the other day, I did get a pillow made.

Oh…and I have to tell you one other super exciting project that I’m working on!

I  bought this headboard and that dresser I showed you yesterday at the same time off of Craigslist ($30 total for both items.)  They both looked pretty much like this when I got them.  I’m sanding this down and then we’re going to turn it into a bench to put I think in the foyer.  So far I’ve gotten it sanded and then I’ve got some work ahead of me to paint several different coats on the legs and lower part of the bench to try to replicate the amazing layering that’s going on naturally on this thing.  I had a sanding helper the other day…he’s a total cutie!  I look like death warmed over here, but who cares, we’re all friends here right?!

The boards above on the right are what I’m using for the seat…I stained them walnut using just basic Minwax stain.  They’re not stain grade wood, but I don’t care.  This was cheaper and I want it to have character anyways.  I think when it’s all done I might just make some pillows out of burlap to put on here anyways. 

So this to the right is how the headboard looks right now cleaned up a bit.  The previous owner had gouged that top part with what I’d guess was a putty knife trying to scrape off the paint, but I don’t care…just gives it a little more character.

Ok I better run. Have a birthday party to go to, and I didn’t want to wake up the baby who missed his nap this morning, but if I don’t I’m afraid we’ll miss the party.  And after Tid Bit spent a good hour making his friend Ruthie a bracelet and ring with my jewelry making supplies, I can’t let him miss out on seeing her anticipated delight when she opens it!

Hope ya’ll are having a good day!

– Logan

My bed isn’t made yet, so I’m not gonna post a picture of my master bedroom right now.  Well, that and the laundry from yesterday is still folded in the basket instead of in all of our drawers.  And… all the flat surfaces seemed to be currently collecting junk…papers yet to be filed, books in the middle of being read, and stuff that I haven’t put back on the walls in our bathroom since I have yet to clean the walls from stripping the wallpaper.  Work in semi-progress I guess….I say “semi” because I can’t seem to convince myself to scrub the wallpaper glue off of the walls because it’s just pure misery to do it.

I think I’m pretty good with color, design, etc in general.  But I tell you what…my master bedroom has been my nemesis since we moved in almost 3 years ago.  It has 2 dormer windows and an angled ceiling on one side, a closet and a door on one wall, and a bathroom door on another.  The furniture is all nice but completely mismatched (I love eclectic, but somehow this has just moved beyond that to mismatched.)  I’m willing to paint anything, but for the life of me I can’t seem to decide what I want to do in there!

I think I want to paint it grayish-bluish.  And maybe antique some furniture white.  Sometimes I think board and batten (since it’s in again and I’ve and  always loved it.)  But then i think grasscloth but I can’t afford that right now.  Sometimes I think whites and blacks and grays.  Sometimes I think lemongrass and aqua and white.  I love antiques old things that tell stories. I have this fab-o little sofa that is chocolate brown with a grayish-bluish little dot on it…but I tell you, I’m stuck!  I’ll take pictures of everything today at naptime and post it all for you to see.  Don’t have time right now though…

I don’t know what I want…there’s too much that I like to narrow it all down.  Indecision is my pet peeve and right now with this room, it is my middle name!

It’s a little frustrating though…this decorator’s block I have.  I can walk into other peoples’ spaces and immediately have vision for them…amazing vision with easy ways to achieve it, but when it comes to my own house I OBSESS and I’m stuck!  The rooms I have done to perfect completion belong to my children.  

I can’t seem to find what I did with a good picture of Tid Bit’s Room, but below is Little Bit’s nursery.  Probably my favorite room in our house.

 

Spring fever!

Where I live, the last couple of days have been glorious!  People in California enjoy days like this every day…no fair.  If my friends and family wouldn’t be so far away, I might just live in California.  Well, that and I guess I can get more house for my money where I am now…so nevermind. I think I’ll stay put.

Anyways, all to say, the nice weather is such a teaser!  I know we’ll have more cold days ahead, but I’m ready to break out my Rainbows and have a reason to get a pedicure (since my wildly neglected piggies will soon freak both me and my husband out since they’ve been hidden in boots all winter!)

I’m getting distracted by my own thoughts here!  What I really came to tell you today is that spring fever for me means my creative juices get flowing!  Lucky for you huh?  Only problem is that I have a tendency to have projects pile up…like the ones I started before it got cold outside and they’re just waiting in my garage for a little creative TLC.

So between this amazing weather and my friend L’s inspiration to do a “While You Were Out” (WYWO) on her master bedroom while her husband is on a mission trip in Haiti, I’m itching to get something painted, stripped, refinished, recovered…re-done.  And I think I’m going to get some friends in on the action too!  L and I decided yesterday (while I helped her conceptualize the room and pick a paint color for the WYWO re-do) that we’re going to have a re-do party in her garage sometime soon.  Everyone has some piece of furniture that they want to mess with…make better, newer looking (or older looking in my case…antiquing)…just get dirty creating to breathe new life into a room!  So I’m gonna teach some friends how to do it!  Fun fun!

And here’s the gem that I think I’m going to show them on…

I want you to know that I have had this AMAZING butterfly fabric for almost a year…LONG before the Pottery Barn put butterfly pillows on their front cover!  I think I’m just telling you this because I feel annoyed that my inspiration from over a year ago could now appear to be an idea-rip-off…which is great, but it annoys me.  I like to on occasion feel original.  But the truth is, they got their pillows made up faster than I have!  Pottery Barn does not have children running around screaming and crafting all day in their office though…

I digress…again!  Anyways I painted this chair above that fab-o turquoise color and am going to paint some more on it in a different color, and then sand it and rub some stain on it to make it look old.  Then I’m going to pay someone else to upholster it because I spent too much of my birthday money on that amazing fabric to risk crapping it up on an upholstery self-tutorial.

I have to show you this mortifying confession that I found when I was photographing this chair for you…just to make you feel better about your house too.

 OH MY WORD!  Do you see it?!  If this isn’t in the Tales of a Lesser Woman category then I don’t know what is?!  My living room fireplace has the most all-encompassing cobwebs.  And just to make you feel better about yourself, you know what I did about them right then?!  Absolutely NOTHING.  I’ll get to it later (today)…for now I had to tell you about my spring fever and painting inspirations!

I have to show you another thing I’ve been walking by and actually ignoring for a couple of months now…I’m really completely embarrassed to admit this now that I have confessed the length of time I’ve been ignoring it!  See below…awful!

Clothes sorting…sizes in and out for kids.  I can never figure out when to do it with the baby because the times it’s the easiest are when he’s asleep…in his room, where I need to work.  And I’ve really been wanting to move all of our out of season or out of size clothes from the attic over the garage to the attic in this hallway.  I’ll probably do it this week now because this confession is sort of giving me a pit in my neglecting stomach!

Let me show you what I’d SO MUCH rather be doing though (in addition to the chair I pictured above.)

<—–This pillow!  The one I started before Pottery Barn interfered with my dreams of individuality!  It’s taken me ages to do.  Partly because I have a million other projects I’m working on at the same time, partly because I haven’t found the right trim (til this past weekend), and partly because I have a life that happens before, after, and during my efforts to create.
 
Look at that glorious trim!  Ahh….it’s like a box of chocolates for me…but better because it doesn’t make me fatter!  If I remember in my haste to get it done, I’ll try to show you how to sew on trim to a pillow….or at least how I do it (which may not be right, but I don’t care as long as it looks good when I’m done.)  It doesn’t have to be perfect to be beautiful!!!

It will be awesome though when I finish it.  (Don’t worry, I’ll show you when it is!)  But I think I should attend to the hall mess first, don’t you?!

Ok…now to fold the laundry that’s all over my den.  Crafting dreams will have to motivate me to expedite the real life that needs to be dealt with in the meantime!

– Logan

Have you ever had your husband ask you what you did all day?

You know…in a way that perhaps would put into question if you had in fact done anything all day long?  Because when he comes home, there are toys strewn all over the den, the paper plates from lunch are still on the table, there is half a pile of folded laundry on your bed and the rest in a pile on the floor, and your kids are filthy running around like little gypsies.  You know what I’m talking about right?  And so when the question is asked “WHAT have you done all day?!” you find yourself wanting to say “What do you think?! I sat around watching soaps and eating bon bons all day long…OBVIOUSLY!”

You know how it goes… you go about your day that starts in the kitchen with breakfast, but as you look for a clean fork you realize you have yet to empty the dishwasher, which as you unload it, you then find a bib that didn’t wash as clean as you’d have liked in the dishwasher, so you head to the laundry room to give it some more stain treatment, but first you stop to feed your kids breakfast which was what you came down for anyways… and as you’re feeding your kids breakfast you notice a piece of craft paper that you then proceed to put back in the craft cabinet, only to notice on your way that you left the bib on the counter, which you then pick up and proceed to the laundry room to stain treat, but then on the way you trip on a boot that should be outside in the garage, so you head out there to put it back, only to then notice a box full of stuff that needs to go to Goodwill, so you then put that in your car only to realize that the floor of your car looks like a veritable trail mix, so you then go to get the vacuum to clean it out, but then on your way you realize that the baby is now done with breakfast and so you clean him up, and then forget what you were doing until you see the bib you were cleaning.  You know what I’m talking about right?  And some days, the whole day is like this and by the end of it you’re putting your kids to bed only to realize that the bib has yet to see any stain treatment.  And somewhere round about 5 o’clock your sweetie comes home and says “What on earth have you done all day?!”  And you have no idea really other than your children were fed and you were insanely busy.  So you say “Well honey, isn’t it obvious that I spent the day eating bon bons.”  (just fyi here…I don’t really recommend saying this, it really makes you sound like a jerk.  Not that I’d know from experience or anything. )

 

I don’t know about you, but when I’m home all day, I really see no reason to wear shoes.  Call me the antithesis of the women’s lib movement if you want to, but whatever…so what if I’m barefoot and in the kitchen?!

But in the winter, my hard tile floors are brutal to the little piggies and I just can’t take it.  Which is why I don’t do a day without my Bon Bons!  (See that cute aqua pair above…with the giant pink roses….yeah, I have those.

 But I think next I might like these—>