Saturday, July 28, 2012

Say Goodbye to Dirty Grout Lines...

As I was strolling around Home Depot today, I ran across this new little product.  It's called Rejuvenate, and its grout paint in a pen.  It's actual came in a two pack for about 5 bucks and change, so I thought I'd give it a try.  (By the way- it was in with the cleaning products, which are usually towards the front of the store)

I tried and and was amazed, for less than $6.00.  It was so easy and pretty fast, it makes a huge difference.


I just kept going, and after it dried I did wash the floor with some hot water and Mr. Clean and the paint did not wash off.



I used the white, but it also came in grey and beige.

DIY Stenciled Ceiling




Completed!!  I love the look of the ceiling.  I can't wait to get the walls painted and trim up, but for right now I'll settle with the ceiling completed.  I used the Casablanca Allover Wall Stencil from Cutting Edge Stencil.  I ordered it from their website and it arrived before I knew it, I think it only took about 2 days!  I also ordered the kit that contains the correct paint roller, brush, and level.  We used Martha Stewart Living Precious Metals paint in Gold. 

To begin, I attached the level to the top of the stencil, and began to tape around the edges.  Now this is really a two person job.  It was be a lot of work to keep having to get  up and down from the ladder to refill the roller.  And remember to not over fill the roller, I found the perfect amount of paint allowed you to see the "v" shape from the back of the paint tray.


The key to painting the ceiling is to tape as much of the stencil to the ceiling as possible.  Also, I found it best to only use the stencil twice before washing off the paint.  The gold paint we used was thinner than traditional paint so that also made the job a littler trickier. 


The best way I found to apply the paint was to focus on one tile at a time.  I would work in toward the middle then go back over the whole area to give the paint an uniformed finish.  Now we did have some areas where the paint bled, but its really not noticeable.  Just don't worry if every tile is perfect, once its all done and you stand back, you'll never notice.  It took a while to do but SO worth it!  It the perfect accent for a powder room. 
 
 
 
****UPDATE****
 
The great folks at Cutting Edge Stencil gave The Welch Abode readers 10% discount. Use DIYFUN to get your discount today! 

Thursday, July 26, 2012

Bathroom Sneak Peak

I'm just in love with the bathroom updates.  I have the before's to show but I'm going to wait until I have the after's finished for the full effect.  I haven't decided if my favorite part is the mirror or the ceiling?  I just love them both.  I have a whole article to write about the ceiling but here's the sneak peak....

That's on the ceiling! 


Ahhh  don't you love it!!  I do!  It's a LOT OF WORK (stenciled) but I'll get into all later...clearly however it's worth it!

Now here is the mirror...Also LOVE IT.  It's from Horchow. 

It goes so well with the other items that will soon leave the living room/dining room/ foyer and make their way to their new home!


Vanity....just chilling in foyer
Garbage Chair-- more to come on this later.  Yes actually found in garbage
awesome sink from store closing sale at the Great Indoors
Even the cat fits into the gold and black color scheme (and no that was not preplanned)

Stella





Wednesday, July 18, 2012

Mr. and Mrs. Pillows Complete!


Finished!  They really did not take that much time, total and I am so pleased with how they turned out!

To see the how to on the MR. and MRS. Click Here

I used painters tape to mark off my 18 inch square, I would usually use chalk but that did not show up in pictures so well


Along the bottom edge I used a 14 invisible zipper.  Now I have only used one or two of these, so there was a little bit of a trial and error.  I would recommend using the back side of the pillow so that in case of an epic fail you don't have to repaint.


Once you sew the back side, then open the zipper and sew it along the front side of the pillow.  The zipper track side should be facing up towards the top of the pillow.


The key to the invisible zipper is to unroll the zipper track and sew right along side of it.  Make sure not to sew on the zipper track or you will not be able to use the zipper.  This gives it the invisible look.


After the zipper is in place I folded the two fronts to face each other and sewed up the remaining 3 edges.  Don't forget to unzip the zipper before sewing the 4th side.  (I saw this as speaking from experience)



Turn right side out, stuff with pillow and your done!



On as side note:  Next time I make this pillow I'm going to forgo the zipper as it was kinda a pain and just do a simple pocket in the back -Like the Dog Bed Pillow Case.  First it would be much faster, and less expensive as no zippers are needed. 

Monday, July 16, 2012

Mr. and Mrs. Pillows - Part 2

So day 2, and I worked on the MRS pillow. I really like the way that the it turned out, I choose to use a more feminine font.  I used MS Word font Harrington.  The MR was in 480 size font and the S was in 500 size font.  When I printed the S in 480 sized font it seemed a little small next to the R.


Same process as the MR pillow, click here to see the process.


First coat...


And finished...so love the font!



All that's left is to sew.....



Check back for hopefully the finished project tomorrow.......

Sunday, July 15, 2012

Mr. and Mrs. Pillows -Part 1

I think I'm in love with burlap, its such a wonderful fabric, not to mention very inexpensive. I want to go to Joanns and just buy the whole bolt as I just have so many things I want to use it for! My first burlap project is to make Mr. & Mrs. pillows. Similar to these over priced pair from Ballard Designs (no disrespect to BD, I still love you, however 59.00 each? that's almost 150.00 for both with tax and shipping...you crazy).
So I made my own.
I though at first I wanted to make them 20 inch pillows. So i cut the fabric for 20 inches, well that just seemed silly big, as they would take up a large part of your sofa, So I just re cut and went with 18 inch pillows just like they were at Ballard.

Once cut, I needed a template or stencil. I looked around the Internet for MR. and MRS. stencils and they were about $15 a piece so not too expensive but still more than I wanted to pay. So I made my own.   I went to into Word, typed out MR in Times New Roman then blew it up to 500.  It took two pieces of paper but they over lapped fine as I used the Narrow margins setting.


So once I confirmed the size and font, I centered the letters and placed they under the first layer of burlap as a template.


I used black matte fabric paint and a stiff 1/4 in paint brush and went to work.  It took about two good coats to really cover the burlap and get into the fabric.



Once completed I removed the fabric from the template to dry as if it's left in place the fabric would stick to the paper.  If this is a project you plan on doing more than once you could always laminate the template or put them in plastic page protectors.


Last step is to hang to dry, an the fabric is going to be just about as wet on the back as it is on the front, I used paint hangers and hung then on the cabinet doors in the laundry room.



Check back later in the week as I finish the MRS pillow and sew them together!

Thursday, July 12, 2012

Horchow.com

I'm am so excited about my recent purchase for the half bath project.   I found this mirror a few months back on Horchow.com and knew I HAD TO HAVE IT!!  Now, let me back up and tell you about Horchow.  I had never heard of this wonderful website until a few months ago when Brian's wonderful god mother was telling me all about it.  It's owned by Neiman Marcus and all they carry is furniture and home goods.  Some items are a steal and some are pretty pricey, but they do have great sales.  I was able to pick up this totally awesome mirror at 30% off!  I'll make sure and post pic's when it arrives and after the bathroom is painted.  

Monday, July 2, 2012

Pillow Dog Bed

This is a step by step of how I created a fast pillow pocket dog bed, it's the prefect size to fit into a 24 in dog crate.  If you dog loves to be under the covers, then they will love this bed!

I started off with about 5/8ths a yard of fabric.  I first folded the fabric not quite in half, keeping one side about 8 inches longer than the other.  (the shorter side needs to be about the length of a standard pillow)  Then I cut along the fold to give me two pieces of fabric.

 
I then took the longer of the two pieces I had just cut and cut that one in half, keeping one side about 4 inches long then the other. So now in total I have 3 pieces of cut fabric- all the same in width, one about the length of a pillow, the second one about 3/4 the length of a pillow and the last piece about 1/2 the length of a standard pillow. I took the two shorter pieces and finished the edges.


Next, I took the second fabric (pocket fabric) and folded in half, it was just over a 1/4 of a yard.  I put a seam at the top of the fold to keep the fabric in place as this will be the top of the pocket.  I folded the fabric so that both the inside and outside of the pocket will be the soft front of the fabric.


Then I laid the pocket piece (brown fabric) on top of the largest piece of white fabric.  Making sure that the bottom as side edges line up and the face side of the white fabric is facing up. 


I sewed the 3 edges to create the pocket. 


The next step is to create a the pillow case, it's the same as a standard pillow, but with the front of the pillow having a pocket.


I took the second longest piece and lined up the two white edges, then sewed the 3 outside edges,  I then took the final white piece and lined it up along the bottom brown side to sew the final 3 edges, this will provide a standard pillow case.

Turn the pillowcase right side out and fill with a pillow and your done!  I always use Ikea .99 cents pillows.  They are the perfect softness and they can be washed and dried if needed.

It only took me about 15 mintues to make and is a huge hit.


Mollie can wait to take nap on her new pillow pocket bed!