Getting a little crafty!

So, I have to admit that I am not the most crafty person ever.  I am not one to come up with great craft ideas on my own, however, I am pretty good at following instructions.  Take the two projects below for example.

Christmas Wreath.....

I saw this post on High Heeled Foot in the Door and knew that I had to try to make a wreath myself.  I have a hard time going into stores and finding just the right Christmas decorations.  I mean, there are so many options that it makes it difficult to choose.  This project allowed me to just do my own thing and give me a chance to say that I actually made it.  The tutorial that I used can be found on this site.  I really enjoyed the outcome of this wreath, although I gave myself a headache staring at the yarn while I was wrapping it around the wreath.  The total cost of this project was around $10, not bad, right?

Chair Rehab....

I have been dying to try my hand at reupholstering a chair.  I have read about how easy it is, so I couldn't wait to try it myself.  It required the purchase of a staple gun, which I opted for the more expensive one since I figured I would be reupholstering chairs on a regular basis, lol!  I found the chair below at A Classy Flea in Marietta.  It was only $10.  I figured I should jump on it since it was so cheap.  And, if I ruined it with my first chair makeover project, it wouldn't be the end of the world since it was so cheap.  The total cost for this project was around $25.  It is currently sitting in our little nook of an office outside of our kitchen.  It looks great there!

Definitely not the best looking chair I've ever seen but certainly worth $10.

A little better picture of the fabric.  I actually think this color chair might have worked perfectly if they had chosen a better pattern for the fabric.  It made it look blah.



Ta da!  I spray painted it black and reupholstered the seat with some fabric that I got from the Fabric and Fringe Warehouse.



Even Reed likes it!

DIY Project #2

DIY Project #2 was a project that I spur of the moment talked my husband into doing and then he spur of the moment asked his dad for help. Thankfully, he agreed. I purchased a new TV for us a little over a week ago. A TV that Chris had been dreaming of purchasing for quite some time. We went to buy one Labor Day weekend, but the place we went to was out of the one we wanted, of course. So I went back later to another location and purchased the TV. The bad thing about now having the TV we wanted was that we didn't have anything to put it on. Ugh!

I had been desperately searching everywhere for one that would look great in our living room/sunroom, but I never found anything that really fit. Of course I could easily find one at Pottery Barn that we like, but who wants to spend $700-$900 on a TV stand? Not us.

As I mentioned in my previous DIY post, I have become addicted to designers' blogs. In the midst of reading these blogs, they have led me to a new addiction, Knock-Off Wood. This lady basically takes furniture from Pottery Barn and other expensive stores and tells you how to build it yourself. Awesome. We can pick what we want and build it ourselves for a fraction of the cost! I have been super pumped ever since I found this website. Chris, on the other hand, was not so thrilled.

After searching one Friday night in every furniture store we could think of, we were thinking that we weren't going to find anything that would look great in our space. Saturday morning we woke up and I said, let's do it, let's build our TV stand. Huh? Those were Chris' exact words. I think he was pretty frustrated from the previous night's search, so he said okay, although his expectations were very low. Thankfully, Chris' Dad has all the necessary tools, because we own zero. Christmas presents anyone? We called Chris' Dad to see what he was up to for the day. He was probably planning a day relaxing on the couch, but thankfully he agreed to help us out. We drove to Summerville, dropped off Reed and then headed to pick up the wood and start building.........

Here is the link for the Tryde Media Console that we built. We only built the bottom half, which is all that is included in this plan. There is another plan for the hutch if you are interested. This plan is very similar to the Hyde Turned-Leg Media Console from Pottery Barn. Of course ours doesn't have the turned-legs, which we really didn't want and it didn't carry the pricetag of the Pottery Barn one. Theirs is $699, ours is around $150, yay us!

Making some cuts. Chris and his Dad did all of the work on this project during the building phase. I literally didn't hammer a single nail. I don't see how that's fair since it was my idea. My role for this project was project manager. I plan to be a little more involved in the next project.

The first step was to build the box that makes up the main part of the console.

Then, attach the legs.

And then attach the top.

The unfinished finished project.

We took it home, sanded it, stained it and put two coats of polyurethane on it.

And it looks so AWESOME in our sunroom!! Please ignore the cords, Chris hasn't had time to organize the mess I made hooking everything up.

A little bit closer shot.

And, from the side.

It fits so perfectly in our favorite room in the house. This is now where we spend most of our time while at home.

A HUGE thanks to Mike, Chris' Dad, for helping so much on this project! We couldn't have done it without you and it certainly wouldn't have been as straight. And, thanks to Chris for agreeing to my crazy project and for coming out ready to do it again. We think a dining room table is probably next!!!

DIY Project #1

I have become quite obsessed with reading interior decorator blogs since we moved into our new home. I have found several decorators/designers that I love their style, so I follow them religiously to see what new ideas they have. Shortly after beginning to read these blogs, I found this guest bedroom that one of my favorite bloggers had designed in her own house. Check it out here at High Heeled Foot in the Door. As luck would have it, our guest bedroom is painted almost exactly the same color as hers, although it isn't quite as bright. I decided that DIY striped curtains would be my/our first project. It took a while longer than I expected due to Chris' crazy work schedule and Reed's sporadic nap schedule but we finally got them up in the room this past weekend.

Here are the steps that we went through to make the curtains. You can also find the step by step process that the blogger used by going here.

Step 1: Tape off horizontal stripes 7" apart. We used Frog Tape, which kept any painting from leaking through.

Step 2: Tape any kind of paper to the part of the curtain that you don't want to paint. We used some paper that we got from Home Depot to lay down when we were painting trim.

Step 3: We used fabric spray paint that we got at Michael's. I have to admit that this was the worst part of this project. I might consider an aerosol paint or painting it with a brush next time.

Step 4: Pull off the paper and tape to reveal crisp lines! I was so relieved!

Step 5: Hang them in your guest bedroom and admire. I obviously have a lot left to do in this room before it is actually finished but at least I completed one project, woohoo!