Bulletin board make over

I've been wanting to do something with this everyday-run-of-the-mill bulletin board for a while now.

It started out as just a plain brown bulletin board.  I think it's been used in every room of our house.  It was originally purchased to go in the kitchen.  It did some time there, but then eventually moved into the oldest son's room.  When he was finished with it, it went to my daughter's room.  She never did like it or use it so it got taken down and put into the basement with all the other things that nobody wants.

My office/craft room is in the basement so I guess that means that I was stuck with the bulletin board.  I figure if I'm going to have it, I may as well try to make it a little exciting.

I started off by stray painting the entire thing black.

I was going to leave it like that.  The accent color in my basement is black, so it would work.

What doesn't work is how "used" the board is.  You can tell that kids had it in their possession at one time or another.

I decided that I would give it some color, or pop if you will.

I picked some scrapbook paper in bright, bold colors.

I laid it all out over the bulletin board and made any cuts to the paper to ensure it would fit.

Then, I sprayed the bulletin board with spray adhesive and applied the paper.

I made sure to start with the very bottom layer and only sprayed the adhesive to go directly under that  piece.

I then continued with the other pieces.

Lastly, I applied the very top pieces.

Make sure to press all layers down firmly paying close attention to the corners.

Allow it to dry for a few hours and then hang on the wall.

I love the way it turned out and it looks great above my sewing machine.

Let's take a closer look.

And, a couple more.

I see so many people doing this kind of fun stuff and I never get around to doing it.  I love how it turned out and it was super easy to do.  Probably took me a total of 15 minutes minus the drying time.

So when you see cool projects that you really want to try, don't be afraid.  Give it a shot, you'll be surprised how easy they can be.

I'm linking up with these parties......

Living room progress...

This is my living room.

If you remember, it's on my list of DIY home plans for 2012.

I has originally wanted to do board and batten in this room.

When I factored in how much time and money would be involved, I decided the best thing to do if I wanted to make a change quickly would be to simply repaint.

I love what a can of paint can do for a room.

I was really tired of the dark colors.

I loved it when I first painted it these colors but it made the room so dark.

So I set out to pick colors for this room.

I picked up a couple of samples at Lowe's.

And painted a small patch on the walls.

I love the light blue but not for a formal living room.

Hubby and I both likes the darker blue/green color.

We decided to go with that for the whole room then we are going to accent with the gold color that I picked out.

I also went and picked out some fabric to make curtains.

I started by priming all the walls.  Since I was going lighter over a darker paint, I wanted to make sure none of the darker paint shows through.

There was no turning back now.

By the time I got all the walls primed and went to the store to get my paint.  I had already changed my mind about the wall color.

I want this room to be really bright and airy and I also want it to look formal.

I decided to go with the gold color that I had chosen for the accent color.

I'm so glad I did.

I went ahead and got the walls rolled with their first coat today.

I now have to wait for hubby to come in and do the cutting in.

I am horrible at cutting in paint and so I have to leave that up to him.

I'm painting the entire room this color then we are going to do the trim rectangles at the bottom, like in our dining room; then I will paint the inside of the rectangles the blue/green color.

I'm sure there's a name for that technique but I don't know what it is.

I already love how much it lightens this room up.

Stay tuned for the finished product.

The paint colors I am using are: Shoreline Haze and Lyndhurst Duchess Blue.  They are both available at Lowe's.

 

I am linking up with the following parties.....

DIY Home plans for 2012

Happy 2012!

I'm just a few days late but better late than never, right??

So every year I have tons of DIY and decorating ideas just bursting to come forth.  This year is no exception.

I have put together a list of everything I would like hubby and I to accomplish this year.  Some of these things will cost lots of $$$ and others will be as simple as buying a can of spray paint.

  These are in no particular order.  We will do each project as the mood strikes.  That's just the way we roll around here.

I would like to strip all the wallpaper off the dining room walls and paint it a nice neutral tan.  I'm thinking tan right now but that could change as time goes on.  This was the first room I did when we moved here and it's been almost 11 years.

The wallpaper isn't in bad shape save for a few tears but it's just time for a change.

Once I get the walls finished, I would like to make some curtains for the windows.  I think curtains would warm the room up a bit.

Directly across from the dining room is the formal living room.  This room doesn't have any permanent light fixtures so the only lighting we have in this room are 2 small lamps.  Add that in with the dark walls and it's a very dark space.  I would like to do board and batten in here about 3/4 of the way up and then paint the top a very light blue/green color.  I think it would really brighten up the room a lot.

I would also like to see some nice floor length curtains to this room.  Sorry for the darkness of this picture.  I tried to lighten it up as best I could.  This gives you a good idea of how dark the room is.

I would also like to reupholster the loveseat and sofa.  Both pieces are still in great shape they just need a little change.  I was thinking maybe white or a light cream color.  I also need to get new end tables and lamps.

This is the family room, which is pretty much done.  I only want to add some curtains or valances to the windows.

Moving on to the kitchen.  We would actually like to gut most of it and replace everything.  We redid the floors about 4 years ago and the lights about 2 years ago so those things could stay but everything else would have to go.  We are so tired of the white counter tops and the white cabinets.  I believe the plan is to replace the counter tops then maybe paint the cabinets.  We go back and forth so tomorrow it could be something entirely different.

This bar area needs some major rehaul.  We honestly don't know what to do with it.  Of course, the counter top will be changed to something but what to do with all that white space underneath?

When we first bought this house the pantry was in what was actually a coat closet.  We had this laundry room right next to it that had a ton of empty space to the left and above the washer/dryer.  We decided to turn the original pantry back into the coat closet it was meant to be and turn the laundry room into a huge pantry.  The laundry would then be put into the basement.

This project goes on my to-do list every year.  It hasn't gotten done and I'm not sure of the probability of it getting done this year.  The whole issue lies in the basement.  Even though we are finishing it slowly, the room where the washer and dryer would be doesn't even have sheet rock on the walls yet.  It's been a slow process but I still wanted to add this project.  You just never know.

We just finished the floors in the master bedroom and upstairs hallway.  We now need to do something with the stairs leading up to the bedrooms. The carpet will be going we just can't agree on whether to replace it with stained hardwoods or more carpet.  Hubby wants the carpet and I want the stained hardwoods.  I love the look of the wood stairs and feel it would be much cleaner.  This project is on hold until we can agree.  So far, neither of us have budged.

This is my youngest son's room and the only thing we need to do in here is add some curtains.  His room is towards the street so he gets some light from the street lamps.

I would like to spray paint all these picture frames black.  I already have the spray paint but am waiting for it to quit raining so I can get this project done.

Another big project is our master bathroom.  If we had the choice, we would just blow this whole room off the house and start again.  It's just horrible.  Everything about it is horrible.  I guess I shouldn't be so ungrateful, we're lucky we have an inside bathroom, right????

Since we aren't able to remove it and start again, I want to do some minor changes.  You can see from this picture that I started to paint that wall brown.  I did it several years ago just to see if I liked it.  I didn't like it, it made the room to dark, but I hadn't taken the time or change it.

That huge mirror needs to go and the gold light fixture needs replaced.

The sad part is, I already have the paint.  I remember buying it and then I put it in the bedroom under a stand and never painted the bathroom.  I need to get my motivation on and get this project done.

We would also like to replace the floors.  We will most likely do tile in here and extend it to the closet.

This is the kids bathroom.  We would like to also add tile to their floor and get rid of this gosh awful linoleum.  We also want to add the glass sliding doors to the shower and get rid of the curtain.  I think it would keep water off the floor better than the curtain.

I have already started on this project.  I'm changing the frames to white, light blue and red.  I have all the paint and again am just waiting for the rain to stop.

These are the stairs going back down to the main floor.  Those triangle parts of the stairs is where the dogs like to lay.  They then scratch the wall and leave their dirt all over the carpet.  I think if we make it hardwood, they won't be doing that anymore.  They have their beds to lay on, they just choose to lay on the stairs.  We have already had to patch that wall and need to sand it and paint.

So that's about it, the home reno projects that I would like to see completed this year.  Maybe if we can get all these things done we can focus all our attention on the basement and get that done.  I'm sure other projects will pop up as we go along but this is a good start.

Now I just need to get hubby on board and get him busy.

Winter Mantle

Now that Christmas is behind us, it's time for all the snowmen to come down and get packed away for the next 10 months.  For January and February, I don't like to just go straight back to my beachy theme mantle, even though it has been 65 degrees here.  I wanted to do something simple for winter.

I was thinking white, silver and pops of red.

I found these glasses turned candle holders and mirror at a local consignment store.  They look really nice with the candles lit at night.

I went to Hobby Lobby yesterday and picked up some things to put into my glass hurricane.

I love these itsy-Bead-sies.

They come in several different colors and are great to put into glass for pops of color.

So I started by pouring one package into the hurricane.

I then added the fake flowers and put in the 2nd bag of itsy-BEAD-sies.

Then put it on my mantle.

On the other side, I had some beads already in this glass jar.  I just put it in front of the frame that I painted for my summer mantle.  This candle I found at Kohl's on Christmas clearance.  It seemed fitting for a winter mantle because it's white as had the snowflake on it.

So, that's my mantle.

Simple! Easy! Clean!

I love the color the red beads add and it'll be so easy to redo for Valentines Day.

I'm linking up with these parties.....