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A Mini Makeover

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When Amanda got home from college a few weeks ago I was so excited! We hadn’t seen her in more than two months which is the longest I’ve ever gone without seeing her in her whole life- and I don’t really like it. We prepared for her arrival by moving Chloe and Halle back into the same room and gave Amanda her old room back. But I wasn’t prepared for how.much.stuff. she has. I mean, she’s the host of RAW TV and she has the shoes to prove it! This little rancher is just not able to hold the amount of things that 3 adults and 2 kids have. So we purged. And I was a bit of a wreck. I have handled the lack of space pretty well and when confronted with the question (always from Travis), “Where are we going to put it?” my answer is always, “I’ll find a place.” And I have to say that I’m pretty good at it. Now, the place I find for said item might drive Travis crazy and he might move it somewhere else (ahem) but a place is always found.

Except this time. Apparently I’m only good at finding spots for one thing at a time. Like the drink dispenser I *had* to have for Mother’s Day.

When I’m trying to find a space for just one thing it’s easy. At the very worst I can just get rid of something that I’m not using anymore. This time though we had a truck load of things to find a spot for. Plus we couldn’t continue to use one dresser for Chloe and Halle. That was possible when we first moved in and Chloe was 5 and Halle wasn’t quite 2 yet. They’ve gotten bigger and so have their clothes so their room was just awful. Trav’s solution was to give Chloe the dresser he’d been using which made her very, very happy. Me? Not so much. It meant that Trav’s clothes were in piles and shoved in plastic bins. That was the time that I broke down and sobbed on his shoulder…at 1 am.

We’d put off making any type of furniture purchase because we couldn’t really agree on what we wanted. We finally decided to repurpose the armoire that had been housing the TV in the living room and use it in our room for Trav’s clothes- for a couple of reasons. First of all, it wasn’t meant to be a TV cabinet so the doors didn’t retract in and you couldn’t see the TV from some seating spots in the living room. In fact, we’d taken the doors off at Thanksgiving when Shane and Angie and the kids stayed with us and never put them back because it was easier to watch TV. Secondly, the armoire matches the rest of our bedroom furniture and while I don’t like the finish, it at least brings some cohesiveness to the bedroom. It also gave Travis a lot more space for his clothes than he had originally.

Then each of us had to give a little. I wanted a fancy piece of furniture that would hold up for the long haul so we wouldn’t be looking for another media cabinet in a couple of years. Travis wanted something more modern that would eventually hold a flat screen (we don’t have one now). After I measured the armoire and how it fit in the room I realized that what we really needed would be less than 50 inches wide and put my furniture piece out of the running. The one Travis wanted didn’t have enough storage and I didn’t want to have to store the metal bracket that came with it until we get a flat screen. So we headed off to Target to see if there was something suitable that would also not break the bank.

First we saw a traditional-ish console with two drawers and an espresso finish.

I’m typically a fan of the espresso finish but since we have a chocolate brown sofa, a brown dog crate, a brown-ish chair, and the walls are beige I just wasn’t feelin’ it. The drawers didn’t seem strong enough to store much of anything and we had to have room for all of this…

Yes, we still have VHS tapes. Why? It’s mostly because if I got rid of those tapes it would be like throwing Amanda’s childhood in the trash can. I’m weirdly sentimental like that. Plus some of them are really good movies that I like having and don’t want to replace right now. Swiss Family Robinson, Alice in Wonderland (Disney), Toy Story…you get the idea.

The next one was too black…

These were too black and too much glass (we didn’t want any glass because of the kids and Daisy)…

Too traditional…

This little cabinet was fabulous though and I’d love to find a place for it… it’s not for a TV though. Bummer.

Finally we chose this…it’s the only one I didn’t get a picture of (hangs head in shame).

We chose it because we already have a mission style side table in the living room so the finishes look nice together plus it has sliding doors instead of drawers and the storage space is larger. There’s no glass and it will accommodate a flat screen in the future.

I do have pictures of the assembly process though.

Aren’t they cute?

Travis is calling out the parts list to Chloe who keeps track of all of the nuts, bolts, doodads, thingamajigs, and whatsits. The assembly was pretty easy and I was happy that a lot of the cabinet is actually wood rather than completely particle board. Not bad for $139.

Stay tuned because next we paint…

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A Painting Primer

We had a very long weekend with Travis off on Friday, Amanda coming home and my parents coming into town. It’s amazing to me how quickly I forget all of my responsibilities. Dishes pile up, school didn’t happen for Halle and laundry is piled in baskets in the living room.  I guess it shouldn’t really be surprising considering I talk to my parents from the moment they walk in the door until the moment they leave. I’m glad we only live 3 hours apart.

The weather was perfect to have a fire outside and we roasted hot dogs, sausages, and marshmallows. It was so much fun and is the easiest entertaining ever!

My parents and kiddos

What does any of that have to do with paint, you might ask? It has nothing to do with paint, it’s just a peek into my weekend. My beautiful, stressful, exciting, good-news filled weekend. I can’t spill the good news just yet but we had some really, really exciting things happen.

On to paint!

I was at Michael’s last week trying to find some frames for art. I was really into painting a few years ago and stopped because I ran out of space to store them and didn’t have enough frames to put them in. I recently gave some away (my favorite one) and rediscovered some things that I’d shoved in a closet. Now I have one framed and I’m trying to decide whether or not to frame the others. As it turns out I don’t love them quite as much as I remembered. I framed one of Chloe and Halle and Halle shouted, “We made it on the wall, Chloe!!!” I didn’t know the wall was such a big deal but I’ll keep it in mind.

This is a matted frame that I got for $8. The watercolor paper is 11×15 and the matted area was almost too big. Michael’s had a pretty big selection and they’re so inexpensive that it would be easy to do a grouping on a bigger wall.

Michael’s also has paint. Lots and lots of paint. I’d purchased most of what I have from JoAnn but they didn’t have a very big selection and last time I was there I couldn’t find it so maybe they don’t carry it anymore.

Chloe and I love the paint aisle. If you’ve never bought artist paint before it can be a little intimidating so I’ll break it down for you.

First you have academic level paint.

It comes in lots of great colors and is good for home decor type projects. You could pick up a few canvases and paint them in your favorite color scheme and group them in 3 or 4 behind a sofa to give it an inexpensive pop of color. I don’t really like the texture of these paints but they’re about 5 dollars a tube so you could get quite a bit of colorful bang for your buck.

Next is level two paints. I like the texture of these a lot better and at 10 dollars for the biggest tube it’s still not terribly expensive.

Then we have level 3 for professionals. This brand is the favorite of an artist that has a column on About.com that I’ve been reading off and on for a few years now. I’ve found her tips very helpful and you can find her here.

The first time I bought a tube of this was from an art shop and I was so happy I was nearly giddy. It doesn’t take much to make me happy. The cool thing about these is that they brush a line of paint across the top to show you the color and whether it’s opaque or translucent. That’s what the black bars at the top are for. The price difference in the paints depends on the materials used to make it. In this case cobalt teal is $14 and phthalo green is $10. The history of paint colors and what they were made of is fascinating (to me at least).

Watercolor is also a great medium to work with but I’ll stop so as not to overwhelm you and so that I can finish school with the kiddos. The most important thing, I think, is if you want to paint just jump in and do it. You might discover that you love it and have a knack for it. Good luck!

A Colorful Day

I spent most of this morning on lunch duty at Chloe’s school. It was the fourth time I’d had to reschedule. First Halle had a fever, then I forgot (I’m not good at rescheduling), then Chloe had a fever and I finally made it today. This was the perfect day for it though. After lunch the kids get to have recess and it was beautiful. Warm and sunny without a cloud in the sky, it made me think of spring and color. So, I thought I’d share some of my favorite colorful spaces with you.

Blue and White Bath

Green Dining Room

Yellow Barn Door

Rustic White Bath

Bold Green Island

Bold Blue Kitchen

Yellow Diamond Floor

Yellow Ceiling

Do any of you have thoughts of repainting this spring? I always think of repainting. When I was doing the painting I showed you yesterday, Travis said, “Uh oh, Amy’s got the paint out!” I do get a little tired of repainting the same rooms over and over so I think I’ll be painting furniture, decor items, and pictures this spring. I’m looking forward to that.

All of these pictures are from Southern Living and Coastal Living.

Art on the Cheap

My taste in art has really changed over the last few years. I used to be content with whatever was on display at Kirkland’s but eventually I got tired of seeing the same prints over and over, just in different frames. I think it’s the personal things that make any house a home. So today I’ll show you how to paint art you’ll love. Or at least you can take the idea and run with it. I got the idea from, Lowe’s Creative Ideas Magazine, that anyone can sign up for and it’s free! This particular issue had a nice tree painting that I did my own version of. They used a board cut to size, stain, painters tape and paint and cost $33 dollars plus paint. For mine I used things I had on hand and it was free!

Update: I found the directions here.

Here’s my inspiration:

I started by pulling out all of the paint samples that I currently have. This is a great place to start because paint samples are probably going to be from painting you’ve already done or colors you really like.

Isn’t it nice when a  project starts like this?

Then I did some testing. Be careful to not leave the paint thick in spots, if you do (like I did) you’ll end up with a gloppy texture under your paint when you paint it for real.

I initially thought I’d go with Martha Stewart’s Sea Glass and a sample I had color matched to Restoration Hardware’s Silver Sage. That combo felt much too cold so I decided to start with Sea Glass and figure it out as I went along.

This vase (actually I’m not sure what this is, a friend of mine called it an urn) was my inspiration color. My friend, Mary, let me know it was on super-clearance at JoAnn for $12. I love it.

I used a small roller to roll the paint on. I don’t recommend a brush for this because it leaves brush strokes, which I usually like but not this time. A smooth surface is ideal.

Here’s my art arsenal. Yes, it’s a bit, um, ghetto but I couldn’t find our utility knife. Plus all the blades are dull from cutting drywall so this pocket knife worked fine. It’s a miracle that I didn’t cut myself. You should use a utility knife, it will make me feel better.

Now, it’s time for taping. I used scissors to round the tape just a little on the bottom. I didn’t want the bottom of the trees to look completely square.

Then I used the knife to take a little off the top. Carefully score the tape, not cutting too deep.

Then peel carefully.

Once you like the look it’s time for a top coat. Imagining what the painting was going to look like once it was finished was the most difficult part. Well, besides figuring out what color to paint on top. Initially I thought I’d add some white paint to the Sea Glass and have a tone on tone thing going on. Similar to one I already have in the living room.

Then I had an idea. What about a brown glaze? It would give it a little more depth and I’d either love it or hate it. I decided to risk ruining it because, well, that’s usually how I do things. It doesn’t always work but I figured it was worth it.

So I broke out my art supplies. I used burnt umber and Liquitex’s Slow Dry Blending Medium. It thins the paint out, gives it a nice gloss and slows down the drying process. I mixed the paint with a generous amount of blending medium into a cup until it had a consistency a little thicker than hot fudge ice cream topping.

Then I started brushing…and was afraid I’d ruined it.

I let that dry and did another coat. It took several hours to dry because of the blending medium. Then I really carefully peeled off the paint and this is the finished product.

I like the glazed look from the artist acrylic that I used but you could use regular latex paint like the one in the magazine and get a perfectly lovely painting. It would have been much more subtle if I’d used white. My living room is already really subtle though and in the end I wanted something much more bold. The important thing to remember is that if you use colors you love then you’ll most likely love the finished project. All-in-all this project was easy but with drying time it took two days. I really had a lot of fun with it and I’m looking forward to doing other painting projects. I’d love to see photos if any of you decide to do this project or one like it.  Just “like” The Button Casa on Facebook and you can upload photos directly to the page. Happy painting!