November Updates

Okay, so November’s been a little slow around here, as you can tell from my one measly post this month. Aside from being pretty busy in general, I’ve also been having some computer issues, so I really haven’t been able to blog (or check out other blogs) lately. This makes me sad, but I should hopefully be back in business soon. A few things you can look forward to:

- Photo gallery wall reveal
- New storm door on the front porch
- A Christmas project (or two…or three?)

Oh, and I’ve also finally succumbed to the peer pressure and joined Pinterest! Better late than never, right? I think I had been putting it off because I knew it would become dangerously addicting…and I was right. (I'm pretty sure I could spend days on end just pinning things.) Anyhow, I’d love for you to check out my boards and follow me! I’ll also start adding the “Pin It” buttons to some of my projects on here, so if something really strikes your fancy, you can pin it and make me feel special. ;)



In the meantime, Happy Thanksgiving! I can’t believe it’s just a few short days away. Where has this month gone?!

Photo Gallery Wall: Part 1

Dry your eyes, my bloggy friends -- I'm back! But my little hiatus over the past couple of weeks doesn’t mean nothing’s been happening. In fact, I’ve been feverishly trying to finish my latest project to share with you lovelies.

Let's remember a couple months ago when I first hatched the idea for a photo gallery wall...I knew I wanted to display my frames in our stairwell, but I had to choose between the large wall next to the stairs, or the smaller wall above the landing.

Yuck, bad lighting (or bad photographer?). It's not really this orange-y.

Originally, I thought I was going to do the smaller wall above the landing. So I gathered all my existing hodge-podge frames, but my collection seemed a little sparse.

After trips to Goodwill, Walmart, and Hobby Lobby, I had acquired several more cheap-o frames in a variety of sizes. I also bought two small ledges and a decorative "D" from Hobby Lobby (for our last name). Then I laid everything out on the floor in our office to visualize how it would look on the wall.

But first… Since the frames were all such different styles, I wanted to make them a little more cohesive, but not ALL the same, so I decided to buy white and ivory spray paint. This would also provide contrast with the dark reddish-brown wall color and tie in to the white trim in our hallway.

And so began the spray painting. I spray painted like I've never spray painted before. Unfortunately, most of the dark frames needed several coats. Needless to say, I was probably high on the fumes on more than one occasion.

It was definitely an exercise in patience, but finally – after painting in my spare time over the course of a couple weeks -- all of the frames were painted. Because of the materials a few of them are made of, they almost have a distressed look to them, which I actually like. I didn't want everything to look "perfect."

At some point during this process, I changed my mind and decided to put the frames on the wall next to the stairs instead. It was just such a big wall that it really needed something on it. Plus, the photos would be more visible from upstairs then.

So to help map everything out on the wall before going crazy with a hammer and nails, I traced all the frames onto paper and cut them out to make templates. Then I used ScotchBlue painter's tape to place my paper “frames” on the wall. (I'd seen this idea on another blog before - genius!) It really helped to visualize what it would look like.

I ended up switching around a couple of the frames once they were up on the wall.

Once I was finally happy with the placement, I measured where the hangers were on the backs of all the frames, and used this measurement to place my nails in the wall. Luckily, most of the frames had only one hanger on the back instead of two, which made my job easier. Gradually, the paper frames came down, and the real frames went up...

However, I'm not quite finished putting the pictures in the frames (deciding what pictures to use is the hardest part...I'm tempted to leave some of the nice-looking fake people in them). So you'll have to wait until next time to see the final reveal! Yep, I'm totally leaving you hanging.

Look what I found!

The other day, while perusing through Goodwill over my lunch hour, I came across a rare find -- a decent, good-quality piece of furniture. Even though it was $39 (more than I prefer to spend on a piece of furniture at Goodwill), I couldn't resist. I waited until after work, however, to return and see if it was still there. It was, so I took that as a sign that it was meant to be. Check it out in its new home:

Real wood, sturdy construction, and full of potential! Oh, and extra storage space to boot!

I found the perfect spot for this little cabinet in a corner of our dining room. It's actually not that bad as is, but I still want to turn it into a fun project and jazz it up a bit. I have no idea what I want to do yet though. I do know that paint will probably not be involved this time, like it was with my console table and guest room furniture. I don't want to cover up the wood grain and knots. So maybe just sanding it down and re-staining it, or doing something cool with the inset panel in the door.

Any ideas? Other similar inspirational projects you've seen? Do share!

Pumpkins & Paint

I normally don’t do a ton of fall decorating around the house, but there is one thing that I usually have to have - pumpkins! So when I saw that Aldi had large pumpkins on sale for $2.49 each, I had to take advantage of this bargain. With my barren front porch in mind, I picked out three pumpkins.

But this year, I wasn’t just going to plop the pumpkins on the steps like years past. No, this year I had other plans.

My fondness for all things paint has grown throughout the past year, and these unassuming pumpkins would soon find themselves face-to-face with a spray paint nozzle.

Pumpkin, meet White Spray Paint:

You might have guessed by this incredibly generic-looking can that I picked up the cheapo 97 cent off-brand at Home Depot. I figured it would be a good time to try it out since this project would only be on display for the next few weeks.

Well, suffice it to say, there’s a reason it only costs 97 cents. The spray was so broad and fine that it took about 4 coats (much closer than the recommended 10-14 inches) to get all the orange covered. (I also used ScotchBlue painter’s tape to cover up the stem.)

In between coats, I also painted my second pumpkin. For this one, I chose to show some school pride with the color of my alma mater (go K-State!).

Pumpkin, meet Purple Spray Paint:

Painting with the RustOleum Painters Touch was a dream compared to the cheapo brand. It was a much more concentrated spray and only took two coats. Lesson learned, it's worth the $3.77.

Back to the white pumpkin… I had originally thought of painting big black dots on it, but then I decided to try something a little more challenging and “artistic.” Maybe along the lines of what Sarah at Hennessey House might do, but obviously not as intricate or impressive (have you seen that girl's artwork?!).

I had bought a sample of black paint at Home Depot, so I got a little paint brush and started painting… and painting… and painting. About two hours later (including a couple breaks), I had this:

Overall, it didn’t turn out too bad. My swirly vines could have used another coat to make them more solid, but at that point I had already invested enough time in them. Plus, you can’t really tell that they’re a little streaky unless you get up close.

Just for tradition's sake, I decided to keep the final pumpkin orange. (Okay, maybe it was also because it was late and I was tired of painting.)

And here are the finished pumpkins on our front porch:

So tell me, what are you doing with your pumpkins this year? Carving? Glittering? Painting? Nothing?

Pin It


Linking up to:
Get Your Craft On Tuesday @ Today's Creative Blog
Creative Juice @ Momnivore's Dilemma
Weekend Bloggy Reading @ Serenity Now

Under-the-Sink Panels: From Fake to Functional

You know what I'm talking about, right?

Yeah, those panels under your sink that look like drawers, but really aren't. Up until recently, I didn't think there was anything that could be done to make these usable. Then I saw something amazing at a friend's house. They had turned their front panels into a storage space.

So this weekend, we went to Lowe's in search of the kit that could make this happen for us, and found it in the kitchen organization section (imagine that). We needed the 14" size, which was $18.57 for two trays.

Rev-A-Shelf - 6572-14-11-52 - 14 in. White Polymer Tip Out Sink Front Trays and Hinges

See where this is going? Maybe I'm behind the times, but I did not know such a thing existed.

At first, I was determined to make this my own project and do it without any of Luke's help. But it didn't take long before I realized my foolishness. These things just go much quicker when he lends his handiness (as much as I hate to admit it). Oh well, teamwork is a good thing, right?

The kit came with a pretty decent set of instructions, which we followed for the most part.

First, we had to take out the panels and remove the pesky plastic strip things that were stapled into them.



Then it was a matter of measuring and marking where to drill the pilot holes for the hinges and tray slots, as well as the holes in the frame opening itself. The kit came with templates to help do this.

The trickiest part was drilling the screws into the frame openings, because of the tight spaces we were working with. (And during this part, it really was helpful to have an extra set of hands to hold the panel in place.) Finally, we got them all tightened up. The result? Two shiny new storage trays just begging to be filled with crap!

Now I had a place to put the aforementioned, unsightly crap that normally clutters up the sink area (scrubber, scraper, drain plugs, water softener monitor that we never use, etc.)

The whole project probably took about an hour and a half, which I think was well worth it. Our sink/counter looks much less cluttered (except for the wand scrubber, which wouldn't fit), and you'd never know the sink panels are secret organizers now. Genius!

So tell me, did you know these sink tray kits existed? Have you already turned your fake panels into functional panels?

NOTE: Little House on the Corner is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com.

"Framed" Canvas Artwork: Corner Conundrum Solved

Remember a couple weeks ago when I told you about my new canvas print? Here it is again to refresh your memory.

Pretty small in this space, right?

My genius remedy was to paint a "frame" on the wall around the canvas to beef it up a little bit. Well, the result was still underwhelming and somehow incomplete.

My next move? Paint a second frame, of course! (I wasn’t going to give up on this idea, dammit.) So, back to the paint samples I went. I wanted to go with a color just a couple shades darker than the original aqua-ish wall color. We happened to be at Menard’s, so I bought a sample of Pittsburgh Paint Marine Reef for $2.94.

This time the taping was a little more tedious, since I had to tape off two rectangles instead of just one. After my last experience, I also decided to take Kim’s advice to help prevent the paint from leaking under the tape (due to our heavily textured walls). I painted a coat of the Breakwater White on the inside of the frame in hopes that it would act as a “seal” when I painted the new Marine Reef color next to it.

Then, after a couple coats of Marine Reef, I carefully pulled off the tape. Much to my dismay, there was still some bleed-through. *Insert curse words here.* (I must need Kim to come over and do that part for me.)

Stupid textured walls... Anyway, I couldn’t just leave it like that, so I grabbed a small artist’s paintbrush and painstakingly painted over the excess Marine Reef spots with Breakwater White. It actually wasn’t all that hard, just time consuming. In the end, it turned out pretty good (if I do say so myself) and left a nice, crisp border. *Insert sigh of satisfaction here.*

BUT… this space was still missing something. I scrounged around the house and found this “Relax” word decor, which was originally black. However, a few coats of trusty white spray paint would change that. *mwahahahaha*

But wait, there’s more! My final item to complete the “beachy” theme was a vase filled with sand and seashells, which I hijacked from our master bathroom.

NOW...it finally looked complete. The canvas isn’t floating in the middle of nowhere, and I think the painted “frames” helps give it more weight. The added accents fill the extra space and pull everything together (I hope). Let’s recap again, just for fun:

Before

After #1 (single frame)

After #2 (double frame)

 

So, what do you think of my cheap decorating solutions for this corner?

11x14 Canvas Artwork - $12 (with discount)
Two Paint Samples - $6
Misc. Accents - Free