Flashback Friday! A little home makeover.

      So, we moved again. Even less fun this time than before, because guess what? The more kids you have, the more stuff you accumulate, and therefore the more you have to pack-load-unload-unpack etc. When you add the fact that one of those children you have happen to be in infant into the mix... this is gonna take a while! 

      Finding a place to rent close to hubs work was not easy.  All the nice places were crazy over priced for the area, and all the others needed lots of work. Besides those points, all of them we looked at were only 2 bedrooms. . . and I'm not saying I am too good for it, but I have 3 kiddos now... we just will not fit into a 2 bedroom place anymore. (unless maybe there was a full basement or usable attic space which was not the case in anything) We did however finally find a perfectly spaced home with 4 bedrooms, and a nice flat yard that we could actually afford. I was amazed this even existed, but when I saw the interior, I knew why it hadn't been snatched up quickly.

     I am a do-it-yourself kindof gal, and this made me cringe a bit, and think, can I make this a happy space? My before photos do not even shed light (a pun since it was so dark) on how dreary it was. Dark paneling on all the walls, dark wood doors on every room, dark trim, dark shag green carpet in living room, dining room, and a bedroom, and matching ugly green torn linoleum in laundry/entry room, kitchen, and bath. It was an outdated nightmare for someone who loves light, and bright.  Here are some photos . . . 

See, I wasn't kidding lol.  We armed ourselves with lots of paint and primer and work ethic (cause painting paneling takes a long time and is a hard job... dont let anyone tell you different).  First we removed the old flooring . . . it was gross lemme tell ya.  Then we primed EVERYTHING. With the good primer, kilz I think, anywho, we asked for the best, and were pointed to it.  I was glad too, cause I would have had to put 10 gallons of color on the walls instead of just one coat (maybe 2 in places) if I hadn't.  Anywho, I have listed below before and after photos as an ensample of how, even on a budget (boy we are on one) that with effort, you can transform a space from something dreary, into something light and bright.  

Here is the Laundry/Back Entry Before:

and after 

we chose a pale neutral color for the walls, like a light nutty tan, and well, I love aqua, and thus the door.

And here is before and after of the kitchen. The new (inexpensive) linoleum and light walls really transformed the feel in there.  I also (while everything was torn out) hit those white metal cabinets with a fresh coat of epoxy spray paint from walmart. They shine bright white like new, it even covers rust spots, and was less than $5 a can. 

This is the other side of the kitchen, looking into the hallway.  That green was just awful.

And here is the after! So much lighter! and perfect space for my little coffee station I made. I also painted it aqua :)

The before pic of the dining room wasn't a good one. I love the amount of light that streams through those windows, but even that couldn't kill the dull in there with that carpet.  But look at the after! (lovin my aqua) so bright and airy

And then here is the living room. Ugly, ugly, ugly.  

And here is a before, even with our super dark brown leather, and near black- hardwood, this space is light and bright!  Really makes it feel happier. If that makes sense at all! 

In case you were wondering, there was natural (but damaged) hardwood under all that carpet. I squeeled a bit when we tore it up.  We had hoped to stain it, but it had been stained, in random areas, and I didnt have time nor money to rent an industrial floor sander to remove that, so, I ran to google and pinterest, and decided on the best method for painting. I swept, scrubbed, scrubbed again, let dry, then hubs rolled on an indoor/outdoor heavy traffic porch paint from glidden. It was awesome, and covered great. I gallon can covered living room, dining room, and a bedroom floors.

Here is hubs making that floor pretty.

The bath, tho lots of character now, is too small to get a good picture in, id have to take 10 at different angles to show it all, here is just a peek of one of my favorite things, the old existing medicine cabinet.  I primed these (odd trailer-like) walls and painted with my left over aqua, then repainted the mirror frame with the white. We intend to replace that vanity also, but I didn't want to wait till then for this before and after.

     The owner paid for the linoleum replacement before we moved it.  So, all in all, we spent about $200 on paint and painting supplies. That's really not bad at all for taking your living space from depressing, to light and airy.  :)

God Bless!

DIY Barbie Doll House

DIY Barbie House!

This is the dollhouse I made for my daughter. It had to be slim to fit in her room.

I used all 1x10 shelving board, and luan for backing it

I simply cut out wood pieces like a shelf, and angled the top like a roof.

I didnt take many pics of this, by the time I thought to take the first pic, i had all pieces together and the roof painted black already lol.

Here it is with the backing cut and nailed on

I painted it flat white first for primer, then painted each room

for flooring, I found wood look contact paper at the dollar store, just cut to size and stick down!!

So pretty!!! She was thrilled!

and here is a quick glimpse into each room (except top, its just storage for now)

The bedroom. I made the bead, its in my previous post. The picture is a small craft frame with a picture of barbie i printed.

Bathroom

Living room 

Ariel watching spongebob lol

the kitchen (this was a repaint to match the table she had)

here is the before pic

Rapunzel fixing her man some tea, lol

Painting Primitive Paper Mache Boxes Tutorial

I have seen several different people show how they paint paper mache boxes, and although my rendition is very, very similar, it is what i find easiest, so maybe if there is someone out there like me, this will be easy for you too.

The boxes im painting today are a small set of 3, i got the idea for the olde pantry label off a box i saw on the pickled pepper patch.  I make my own everything usually, lol, so i opened up word and found a clipart of a sheep and made my own little "woolens" label.  I'll share that with you at the end, i dont care to share!

What u need!
Paper Mache Boxes (you can find these at almost any craft store, im using a small oval set)
Craft Paint (i like folk art brand, and i use black, barn red, yellow orche, and cobalt blue today)
brushes to paint with
old piece of wax (i use the old wax i remove from my tart warmer, you could use a cheep candle)
minwax dark walnut (this is optional but it seals and makes them look prim perfect)

ok first i painted them all one base color, i like to use black as my base for primitive projects, so i painted them all black.

 Let the paint dry completely (craft paint only takes about 5-10 min if its not too thick), and rub your wax all over the boxes and lids, i rub it on pretty thick. After you are finished with this, gently wipe off the loose wax from the box so you can apply your second coat of paint.


I wanted each of the 3 boxes a different color, i used barn red, yellow ochre, and a prim green (i couldnt find a green i liked, so i mixed colbalt blue and ochre yellow together pretty equall parts of each for a nice green).
Apply the paint to the boxes quickly, could be haphazardly, doesnt need to be perfect.

  and quickly, before the paint dries completely, roughly wipe it back off with an old cloth, or paper towel.  The more you rub off, the more prim it will look.

  This is about what mine looked like after rubbing some of the paint off, i like doing this, because i dont have to sand anything this way, if you want even more paint off, you could sand your pieces  as soon as this paint dries good.

I just followed this process for each color and the end result was this.

They looked cute like this, but a little too brite, this is where the minwax comes it, i just use an old cloth and wipe a little on, then wipe most back off, leaving just a hint of color, and the product is sealed.

I wanted to add some labels, so i printed some out, then stained them with instant coffee, dried them in the oven, and cut them out to size.

I glued each label on and i was done, the label i made myself that im going to share is the woolens lable in the center.

 Just right click on the image and save it to your computer!

Hope this helps somebody!!