Sunday, April 6, 2014

A Little Number



This adorable chest of drawers I've had forever.  It came out of my grandparents home and I've always loved it because of it's size and the "cuteness" of it.  The little drawers are wonderful for all those little things you just don't know what to do with.  Okay, the truth is, it's a great "catch all" for junk...  And not really the good kind of "junque" that I like to talk about here.

It had been painted once before (surprise, surprise) but this time I used Annie Sloan paint in Paris Grey to paint the base of the mini-dresser and Pure White for the front of the drawers.  


For the letters and numbers I simply used a font from my text editor and printed them out on plain paper in the size I wanted.  Using tracing paper I then traced over and filled in the lines using acrylic craft paint. 


I've seen this done, in much larger proportions on other blogs, and decided I needed to give it a try.  I was not blessed with any artistry skills, so tracing, filling in, and color by number is much more my speed.  Does anyone remember those black velvet color by number projects from your childhood??  I loved those things!  They at least made me FEEL like an artist....  Clearly I am not!


Well, I hope you like it!

Have a LUVLY day!

Tuesday, March 25, 2014

Re-Painted Lamp with Burlap Ribbon Shade

I've had this lamp in my living room for a while, but haven't been happy with the way it "fit in" with everything.  Do you have things like that in your house - they belong, but not really?  Anyway, I bought this lamp at a garage sale last summer for $2.00 (no pics before the first makeover - sorry) and I painted it in this Annie Slone gray color, and covered the existing shade with fabric.  

After covering the shade, the light just didn't shine through very much so it was rather worthless to use for actual light.  I know, so why even have it in the room house then... 

I decided that It needed a fresh coat of Annie Slone white paint and a shade that made it a little more useful.  And this is what I ended up with....

   Looks much better, doesn't it?  I actually used a different shade that I had removed all the fabric from, so that I was just left with the wire frame.  Then I wrapped it with burlap ribbon and secured it with a pin.  I could have used hot glue but I wanted to be able to change it out again easily, when I change my mind again....  Which is often!!




 

Hope you are having a LUVLY day!!
   

Saturday, March 22, 2014

Welcome, Come In

I've been looking at the empty front door for over two months now and decided it's overdue for something to welcome everyone in.  So after gathering up a few odds and ends I had laying around, this is what I came up with....





The grapevine wreath was in the garage (since who knows when) and I found the burlap in the ribbon box leftover from a past project.  The little wooden bird houses were in another box of miscellaneous craft supplies picked up at a garage sale last summer that I spray painted with whatever colors of paint I had on hand.   The moss was purchased last year for who knows what - and never used - Do you have lots of purchased and unused items in your craft supply???  I forgot I even had some of these things!! 

Anyway, I thought it looked rather blah.  It really needed something else... So, I added the welcome banner and this is how it ended up...



The banner is made from paper scraps that were left from the happy spring banner project, and sparkly letters I had in my scrapbooking supplies were added. 

I think it all came together nicely, considering I didn't have to purchase any of it!


Do ya think it's Luvly??

Now I think I'm going to paint the front door.  Maybe red!?  Hmmmm....

Thursday, March 20, 2014

Thrifted Chalkboard Makeover

I've seen all these super neat chalk boards lately and decided I needed one too.  Sooo, I was at the Goodwill store recently and found this beauty.  Does anyone remember this lovely picture from Home Interiors???




And for only 1.99 (yea!), it was the perfect frame for my project.  :)





After removing the picture, I painted over the entire picture with chalk board paint using several coats.

I want to hang this in the kitchen so I decided to paint the frame red -  Because that's the color I'm wanting to accent the kitchen with when I start it's makeover later this spring.  Plan a kitchen makeover around a homemade/goodwill/$1.99/red chalkboard - makes sense, right?  Well, it does to me...  :)
As everyone knows, it's been a brutal winter and it was about 15 degrees outside when I decided to do this project (and that's withOUT the windchill), so spray painting outside was not an option.  



Now, this is not AT ALL recommended (do as I say, not as I do) but, I decided to spray paint this in my basement - because I thought spray painting would be "quicker and easier".



I probably haven't told you this yet, but I'm the queen of impatience.  And impatience usually kicks me in the butt, and this time was no different.  The paint would not dry and it started to crackle, but not in the "crackle good" kind of way.  I don't have any closeup pictures of this "mess", but trust me - it was not pretty!  I'm sure this happened because it was too cold in the basement as well.  Anyway, out came the sand paper. So much for quick!  After sanding the areas that were crackled and getting a smooth surface to work with again, I got out the Annie Sloan chalk paint in Emperor's Silk.









                                     

I should have done this in the first place, as chalk paint adheres to anything and always seems to work out better in the long run.  It certainly looked MUCH better.  I used dark wax to finish it off and I think it finally turned out Luvly! All for less than $5.00 when you include the cost of the paints and the amounts used.  What do you think?






Sunday, March 9, 2014

Barnyard Treasures

Last weekend was a very pretty weekend even though it was still very cold.  
The sun was shining and the snow was melting, so all was good in my world!
So off we went on another treasure hunt - in an old abandoned barnyard.  Dearly Beloved, through his many connections, found yet another barn to treasure hunt and tear apart for the siding and anything else that could be salvaged before it was torn down forever. 




Even though we have enough barn siding to fill our shed (and the kids are ready to put us on a hoarders show), I love it when he gets excited about finding these treasures and it doesn't cost us a penny.  Just lots of hard work....



We were able to find a beautiful door with the original knobs still on, some really nice rough cut lumber, chippy white barn siding, old rusty corrugated tin, and so much more.   Keep checking back here as we use and repurpose our newly found treasures...



and underneath that roof was all this...



Isn't that door awesome!!!  I'm sure you could hear the screams of excitement. :)  
The door still had its original glass knobs.  There's also some really nice rough cut lumber, chippy white barn siding, old rusty corrugated tin, and so much more in all that mess.

   Keep checking back here as we start using our newly found treasures...


I really like chippy, white, and rustic and we were able to find all that here...


I also love hydrangeas, but that's not for a few months yet...




What do you love finding to decorate your home with?  Leave me a comment below and let me know.

Hope you all are having a LUVLY day!!!

Saturday, March 8, 2014

Love You More....

Love You More...

Words that are used often....  a sign to remind him everyday....

A quick and easy project as well as another great example of using up Junque from around the house....  and getting to use my Cricut - LOVE this machine!!



The board was a scrap from somewhere (who knows???), maybe even a door, that I found in the closet of my craft room in the basement.  After I cleaned all the cobwebs, dust and dirt off, I gave it a fresh coat of white paint for the base.  Then measured my board and made letters to fit using the Cricut Craft Room, and cut the letters out of vinyl on my Cricut...


Placed the letters on, painted over it all in a charcoal black craft paint and after the paint dried, carefully peeled all the letters off.  Okay, I'll be honest...  I'm SUPER impatient so I used a hair dryer to speed along the paint drying process.  Makes getting the job done super duper QUICK!  :)

Have I ever told you? - patience is a virtue I was NOT blessed with.






I think it turned out just LUVLY!!

What do you think?  What signs do you have and love?  Leave me a comment and let me know your thoughts....

Have a wonderful day LUVLIES!




Friday, March 7, 2014

Laundry Stand

About a  year ago, we purchase a new washing machine and dryer set.  They were both front loading machines, and after seeing the price for the risers ($300.00 each, yikes!!) it was decided we really didn't need them.  Then I saw this fantastic idea on Pinterest to simply build a platform that would function in the same way - except look even better!  



So, I showed a picture to the Mr., printed out the plans, and in less than a week he and his buddy Rex had it completed and loaded in the basement for me.  Thank you Rex!! :)  I don't have any pictures of the process but you can find the complete instructions that were used here, from Ana White Homeaker.  For mine, I painted just front panel white, placed vinyl letters over that, and painted another coat of white paint over the vinyl.  This way, if any of the paint bled under the vinyl it would be the white, and I would still get a clean edge.  Then I painted the whole sha-bang with black water based enamel paint.  After peeling the vinyl letters while the paint was still wet, this is what we ended up with.  





Isn't it beautiful?!  Three laundry baskets fit underneath perfectly which keeps all the dirty laundry organized, off the basement floor, and ready for the washer...  




If the laundry fairies would just come and leave it all clean and folded for me now....  :)  



Leave me a comment below, and let me know what you think! 

Have a LUVLY day!

Thursday, February 27, 2014

Hello Spring, please!

Hello everyone and welcome to Luvly Junque!
For several years I've been searching the internet for ideas and inspiration to help me in making my home more pleasant, warm and comfortable, searching sites like HGTV.com.  Then, a couple years ago, I discovered this awesome world of home decor and decorating blogs and my world has never been the same.  I could sit down at the computer searching through all these posts of beautiful homes only to discover that my entire morning had just disappeared and there was still laundry and a house to get cleaned.   Can anyone relate???  So after years of stalking other people's blogs, I decided it was time to start recording my own adventures in decorating and redecorating, and redecorating and....  Well, you get the point. :)  So I'll start this journey by sharing a quick and easy project/craft I made one early Saturday morning while still in my PJ's.  It's been such a looooong coooold winter here in Ohio and I really needed something bright and colorful in the house to give us some hope for spring.

  So I made this cute banner from some scraps of patterned scrapbook paper I had laying around and it was SUPER easy!




I started with a free printable pattern for the pennants that I found here from Sweetly Scrapped Art.  First I printed the pattern onto a piece of card stock, cut it out and then used it to trace around onto the back (so no pen or pencil marks show on the good side) of the patterned paper scraps.  If you are using a paper with any kind of stripe or pattern, make sure your patterns all run in the same direction - it will look better this way, trust me, I know from experience ;)  




Next, I cut the letters out with my handy dandy Cricut machine.  You could also use precut letter stickers found in the scrapbook section of your local craft store - those glittery kind would be super pretty for spring, but I didn't have any and really didn't want to trudge out in the cold again.  I was very content snuggled in at home, like a bug in a rug.




 I attached them to the paper and then glued the patterned paper onto coordinating colored card stock and cut those out giving it about a 1/4 inch border all the way around.  This I just eyeballed so they're not perfect but close enough for this girl!  Clipped them on with mini clothespins and WA LA!  Spring is in the air....   Well, maybe not just yet, but I can keep hoping, right?





Have a Luvly day!!!