Another project completed...

Has it really been since February that I last posted??  Wow, the last several months seem blurry. Now I'm busy helping care for the darlings because their mom had foot surgery. Just. Need. To. Slow. Down. Time. It's summer and I don't want to feel like I've missed it. Maybe I should start some more projects! You know that's bound to happen. 

Well, let's bgt back to the purpose of this post... Here's how I turned some random antique mall finds into my 'new' bedside table. 

These are the randoms-- step ladder, fancy serving tray, and patterned baking pan. Sounds crazy right? Here's the process explained...

First off I had to clean everything. I also used some sandpaper to help clean up some rough edges and water damage on the ladder. Next step was tightening some bolts to steady the ladder. That wasn't quite enough to do the job so I had super-hubby add a couple screws. That worked wonders!  

Close up before paint. 

I'm not a fan of any project that takes too much effort, and besides I didn't want it to end up looking new, so I decided to rub the paint on. Yes, rub.  I shall name my technique rag-rub-painting! I had several sample jars of paint in colors for the bedroom, and I decided to use them all to create a sort of tie dye look. It was super messy on my hands but no worries; washes right off!  I just kind of mixed and matched and blended and wiped and added more here and there to get the effect I thought I was looking for.... Because really before I started, I had No idea how I was going to paint it.  Just create! That should be my new mantra. 

Here are in progress pics...

See, such A MESS. My creative process in a nutshell. 

I decided to leave some of the original color on the ladder, because, well, I'm kind of a lazy creator and any color goes with boho you know! Also, I like that rustic feel it gives the piece. Next, we had to cut notches for the baking pan shelf and then it just slid in kinda like a drawer.  For the finishing touch the tray was mounted with screws to the top of the ladder. I had Jim cut a piece of wood to go in between to add some height and stability. 

Below you will feast your eyes on my creation...

Notice the color turned out really subtle, and I like it that way.

It really serves its purpose and I think it fits well with my bohemian theme.  A collage...

I love, love, love it and I hope you do too!!! 

Oh, and here's a picture of the darlings, because, no reason, they're just so darn cute!

Until next time...

Thanks for tuning in,

Paisley Pat

Renovation Reality... More projects

Here's the post with more projects for our 'Bohemian Dream Room'. I hope you're impressed. But if you're not, that's alright because I am, and really that's all that counts. Hahaha. Well, I am the one who has to live with the finished product, you know. 

First I will share our groovy dresser redo. I have other similar examples that gave me the idea on my Pinterest, so be sure to check them out @patoconnor. 

We had two great chests of drawers that used to be in our finished basement, so when we redid things down there we saved the dressers for when we finally redid our room. 

BTW that's one of the greatest ways to save money when renovating. Repurpose things you already have!!  

One of the dressers, which is more like an armoir, we left original and just changed out the knobs.

  I know it's nothing exciting, but a nice piece all the same. 

The other chest had some damage on top, so we eventually decided to use spray paint, but to leave some of the chest in its original finish because it still looked good. We picked out purple, orange and turquoise. We would've used gray too, but the curtains are gray, so I wanted more contrast.  In the end we also added off white, and I really love the results. By just using a light coat of spray paint and letting the finish show through, it gives the piece a little more rustic, yet sophisticated look. 

  Out in the shop, looking kind of ragged without the drawers!

      The finished product looking super cool, doncha think?

The next project was done by using the wood lathe strips that came from tearing out the walls in the room. I had seen, yes on Pinterest, tons of cool pallet signs and wanted to recreate that look. I also had in mind a couple of favorite song lyrics to use. I began by deciding on the size I needed to have Saint Handy-Jim cut the wood strips into.  Sorry, I didn't save measurements, but you can recreate the process with any wood, any size I'm sure. 

  

    I hot glued them together and then had Jim staple gun them for extra strength. 

To get the finished look, I lightly dry-brushed them (again going for a rustic look) with acrylic paint. The next step was to use paint markers (found at Michael's) to write the words. I added some flat fancy beads to one of them as well. The first one is going on the door to the room, and the other is on the wall above the groovy painted dresser!  

  Not super 'professional', but I like! And very romantic, right? 

Btw, since we're on the subject of walls, here is a photo of a great piece of art that I bought from The Shared Lives Studio in downtown Toledo.   

 http://shop.lottindustries.com/studio.html

    So GROOVY   The perfect compliment to our theme!!! 

That's all I have for now, next step is redoing some items for bedside tables. I found some interesting pieces at the Maumee Antique mall yesterday.   http://maumeeantiquemall.com

 I will share more as soon as I can. 

Happy Sundayfunday 

Pat

Renovation Reality...Part 4

I promised to share some projects with you all and here goes...

Remember my bohemian theme for the bedroom renovation? Well, first I made a Pinterest board with inspirations and then I got to work. BTW... Follow me on Pinterest! 

During the summer Jim had brought home this great old window he had gotten from a customer. I knew right away that it needed to be a part of our headboard. While I thought about how to finish it, Jim cleaned it up a bit with a light sanding. After some time, I decided that the best bet was to remove the old glass panes. Although it was that original old wavy glass that I love, it just seemed too risky to have glass right above the head of the bed. If you know what I mean!? Wink, wink. 

There I go, cracking myself up again. 

This glass removal was actually the hardest part of the project.  

                Before glass removal

         My handy dandy lady colored tools!

           After the glass was safely removed.

Now it was time to make it pretty, while keeping it rough around the edges. I dusted it off well and vacuumed it well also. By the way, only one ugly black spider emerged during the glass removal.  Hence the vacuuming of each little crevasse.  No spiders in my headboard, no sir!!  Jim also sprayed it well with a clear finish to keep the paint bits from further chipping, and hopefully sealed in any other little devils that might want to creep out!

Next step was to have the handy hubby cut some thin board to fit in each pane so I could cover them with my groovy fabrics. Covering them was really easy. I used a light coat of spray glue to adhere the fabric to the front and then used hot glue to wrap the fabric around back.

No limit to the design possibilities here, it just depends on your choice of colors and textures. I decided to use plenty of both in order to get that bohemian feel. I must say the finished product makes me very happy! I'll show you in a moment. 

So, we HAD to go to Tybee, our favorite vacation spot, this fall. Thanks middle child for getting a master's degree from SCAD. The trip was such a sacrifice, you know. Anyway, I'm really not off the subject. The point is, the headboard in the little apartment where we stayed gave me further inspiration and so, I had to add shutters to the headboard design.  

  Case in point... Yes, my window is much bigger, but it's the idea here! 

I couldn't find old outdoor shutters that I liked for a reasonable price, so as often happens ( when you're me) I go for option 2. Option 2 turned out to be an old tall indoor shutter. It was likely 1/2 of a closet door, but the cost was $8.50 at the antique mall, so I was determined to make it work. Or, should I say, make the hubby work on it to make it work to my specifications. Yep, that's it!  Thank you saint handy-Jim! The shutter door was soon cut in half and I worked a little 'lightly stain with paint, do a little sanding' magic on it, and it was ready to go.  

So, without further ado, I present to you... Bohemian headboard exhibit 'I Love It!'

             Ready to be hung. 

         All leveled and screwed into place -- I helped!

   

       And, the finished project! Yes, that's a cat on the bed. The cats love it as much as I do. 

What do you think? Let me know your thoughts. 

Next time, a couple more projects we've completed for the room...

Ta-ta for now, 

Pat

Renovation reality... Part 3.

The room is almost complete. I'm working hard now to organize things. We lived in the basement family room for over 4 months... Sleeping on a pull out sofa bed, with clothes in boxes and garment racks. Now I have to decide what goes in dressers or underbed boxes or closets, although our new room closet is still not completed. Yep, I'm used to things in disarray.  The term helter-skelter comes to mind. 

That's how it goes... Welcome to my world 

Haha. 

Ok, I'll bet you are just crazy with anticipation about how the finished (well, mostly finished) product (room) looks, right??  I thought so. Let's start here with a corner picture to highlight the room colors.  The paint we used was from Lowe's, Valspar Signature in satin finish... 'warm cider' #2003-1C on the walls and 'bay waves' #4008-1A on the ceiling.  We are loving the combination. 

Next step after the walls was the floor. We have oak hardwood, original to the house, so naturally I didn't want to cover them, but I didn't want them to look super fancy either. First we had to sand, so we rented a floor sander. I was surprised that the sanding went pretty quickly.  Jim did most of it, but I helped!!  After dusting and cleaning, it was time for stain. We choose a very dark water based stain (ebony, custom mixed with some gray) from Sherwin Williams. The great thing about it was there were virtually no fumes from the stain! Of course I had to get the perfect shading, so I ended up on my hands and knees wiping the stain to get the effect I had envisioned.  "Ouch!" said my knees. Why must I have these 'visions'??  

Here are some process pics...

We ( and the drywall dudes) had really made a mess of the floors

Cleaned up nicely, don't you think?!

  

The finish used was an oil-modified, water based polyurethane.  I know, it's a mouthful. It was also from Sherwin Williams. Btw, the salesperson there was very helpful and knowledgable. Jim just rolled it on, and lightly sanded between coats (3 coats, total). The final effect is not as shiny as the photo above, but it has a nice sheen, and the smell ( which wasn't bad for a finish ) went away after a few days. We thankfully ended up with the rustic look I was going for. 

That's what's been getting done around here lately! Next time, I'm going to show you some groovy projects I've been creating to bring this bohemian dream room to life. Lol, I just named it 'bohemian dream room'!!  

See ya next blog

Pat

My Day as a Caterer!

Oops, this should have posted in August... I don't know why it didn't!?  Here it is now, 5 months later...

We all know I'm not really a caterer, however I truly felt like one yesterday.  My daughter, Colleen curated an art exhibition for her Masters program.  This exhibition included the works of nine artists including Colleen and my husband, Jim.  Here's a photo including the sign in the gallery with the artist's names and several pieces from the collection. 

Ok, can't resist bragging, these next 2 pics are the family artists themselves, each with one of their creations...

The exhibition opening party needed to include food, so I kinda nominated my self to take charge of that aspect. We thought it would be best to have finger foods (aka fancy hors d'oeuvres), so I created a menu that the boss (Colleen) approved of...

antipasto kabobs

-- olive, marinated mozzarella or cojack cheese, hard salami, cherry tomato

hummus cucumber 'cups'

-- hollow out the middle of thick cucumber slices, fill with hummus, sprinkle with oregano

stuffed celery 

-- celery pieces stuffed with herbed cream cheese (soft cream cheese with added dried herbs)

bruchetta

-- mini toasted italian bread slices ( olive oil, salt, pepper, garlic powder- 375* oven) topped with 

    bruchetta mixture... Chopped Roma tomatoes, zucchini, red onion, fresh basil and garlic. Add salt,

     pepper, olive oil and balsamic vinegar.  The crowning touch is shredded Parmesan cheese!

watermelon-feta kabobs 

-- watermelon cubes and cubes of feta cheese, drizzled with a balsamic reduction. 

mini veggie cups 

-- 2 oz restaurant take out portion cups (from GFS Gordon Food Service) fill bottom with your favorite veggie dip, and then put into it small pieces of fresh veggies. I used carrot chips, celery, green pepper, cucumber and zucchini. Btw... The grand kids loved veggies this way.  Lily wanted a     

    whole cup with all zucchini sticks!  I didn't even know she liked zucchini.

meat roll-ups
-- this is a party mainstay, just thin packaged deli meat (I like pastrami and corned beef best for this)

    rolled up with cream cheese and pickle slices. Cut into thirds and stick a toothpick in each. Yum!

As you can imagine a lot of work went into the preparation of these easy to eat items!  Luckily, my sister, Cathy, was my sous chef for the day!!  She managed to live through this ordeal (working with a chef who has a hard time giving up control can't be easy). 

See some of the yummies for yourself...

In addition to the above deliciousness there were stuffed grape leaves (Cathy picked those up from the local Mediterranean market), and the sweets offered were Jessica's famous chocolate chip cookies, brownie bites, and mini cream puffs.

All in all, the opening party was a huge success, with the icing on the cake being that Colleen sold 2 of her works of art!!  All the hard work was worth it, and I have a new appreciation for caterers.  I do like being in control of a menu, but I'm not giving up the idea of party potlucks just yet!!  Although, if someone pays me enough to cater their party!!??  Just sayin'

Renovation Reality - part 2

Sooo, progress has been made over the past several months, albeit slow progress.  It took a long time to get our door installed, but as soon as that was done, we got to work on the finishing. 

        The door from the outside after installation. I love it!

Most of the work up to painting, I admit, was done by Jim... And with great help from our brother in law Rick in the 'electricity department'... Thanks Rick!  Jas' muscle came in handy for putting in the sister joists Jim insisted we needed in the ceiling. Haha, my husband is 'all about that insulation' and he wanted it very heavy duty near the roof. 

Here are some progress pics...

Just looks like walls and insulation right?  I know, but seeing the process will make the final product so much more amazing I think. By the way, we paid for the drywall to be installed and finished. Just couldn't imagine all the stress and strain of doing it ourselves this time. So glad we had it done, even though we think they could've done a better job, at least we didn't have to do it.  

We even had a new roof put on during the process. It had to be done, as there were a few leaks we discovered in this room! 

        The paint colors going on. Notice light gray ceiling color! 

      Getting ready to roll on the orange. 

 So we are finally getting to the finishing touches. I'm so excited to share my decorating projects with you all. I've already posted some bits to intrigue on facebook, and more blog posts will be coming soon.  The color looks fabulous and my curtains have been ordered. 

Next, the floor. Hopefully all goes as planned and sanding and finishing goes smooth. We will see...

Stayed tuned for more issues of my Renovation Realities!!  

Be back soon,

Pat