Monday, August 19, 2013

Projects, projects, projects!

Wow I suck at blogging. SO instead of "fillling in" everything about the last 4 months in a bazillion posts: I'll summarize: We moved into our new house April 19th- exactly 4 months from today! We've been super busy with lil house projects & outside projects. As far as my scrapbook pages- I've been sorta slackin' on those too, but my gallery is up to date: SCRAPBOOK LAYOUTS HERE

Last week, the kiddos went to my Mom & Stepdad Kenny's house for the entire week!!! It was SO nice to get a little break, sleep in (only one day really!) & get some projects done without "helpers." ;) 

Ever since we moved into this house with all the gorgeous dark wood stain/floors- I've wanted to paint Declan's dresser. It was Jeremys as a kid, then was repurposed to a changing table for Hayden when she was born & has been a changing station ever since. Decs is still in diapers- but we're on the downhill at least! I found a green that I loved & complimented the dark trim/walls/carpet well- Valspar's Crocodile Smile. Just sounds like a lil boy's room color huh!? Also- I've been on the lookout for a cheap headboard for Hayden's bed. Right after we moved in, I painted her room- purple & pink stripes on the main wall with accent wall purple, pink & purple glitter. Anywho, The bed against the stripe wall really needed a headboard. A friend found this free (read: ugly!) queen sized headboard that was a perfect paint project!
 
Dresser before:

 
Headboard before: (we had to glue the top portion back on)
 

During: After Primer (Zissner Cover Stain Oil Based Primer = NO SANDING!!!)
 


 After 1st coat of paint
(I used left over purple for the panels of the headboard)
 
 
Can't turn that pic for some reason- but you can see the glitter top coat I painted on!
(Disney's Glitter Top Coat- sold at Walmart)
 

Dresser After with hardware reattached. Sprayed a matte sealer on the top to protect more from scratches (read: little boy play)
 



Dresser all done & back in his room! :)
 


 Headboard attached & all finished- you can sorta see the glitter in the picture- but it looks super glittery in person! :)
 
 
 
And because those projects weren't enough to spend my quiet week to myself- I started a couple more smaller projects:
I saw in a catalog a growth chart life-sized ruler & loved it! But- it was expensive & I knew I could make it myself. I had Jeremy get me a board from the builder's scrap pile down the road & set to it! It only cost me $7 for the can of stain- everything else we had! I had Jeremy trim the board to about 6'6" (my kids better not get taller than that!!!) & stained it to match our dark wood (Walnut). After it dried (about 4 hrs- since it was 95* outside) I took a measuring tape & ruler & marked off every inch. I started my measurements at 6" so we could hand it up 6" on the wall.
 




After doing the inch markings, I found a font I liked & printed it out at 200pt
then I traced over the number with a ball point pen hard enough to leave an indent in the wood.
 

 
You can just barely see the 4 on the wood- I traced the indent with a fine sharpie, then went over the whole thing in a black paint pen.

 
With my ruler, I went back over the inch pencil marks
 

All done! Turned out to be almost 7' (Lord help me if Declan gets that tall!!)


To hang on the wall, we measured 6" up & made mark with a pencil. We used the 3M picture hanging strips (the large size since this board was pretty heavy). Side note- we've used the 3M hanging strips on EVERYTHING in our house! They rock & don't put any holes in our virgin drywall! ;) Anywho- I know why this board was in the scrap pile- it's not exactly flat! But that just adds some character! ;)
 


I went through the kids' baby books & marked their height at every year- so cute to see the differences between the two!
 


Shot of where it's located in the house! Look how clean without lil fingerprints & crumbs everywhere!! :)


Whew- last little project! These lil hangers were in the $1 bin at michaels awhile back. One was gray & the other was black. I painted them to mathc the cute lil key holder I also made awhile back :)



 
 
 
Look at those clean floors!!!! :)

 
 
 
So- kids' are back & my house is once again a disaster. It was nice to bust out some projects while they were gone- but I did miss them & the chaos! ;)