NEW APPRECIATION

Last night, very late I was still up working on projects.  I have so many things churning through my head....I want to try this, and this....AHHHHHH I wish my brain would just relax sometimes.  It's so hard when you have these ideas of things you want to try and be successful at, but know that it takes time, money and prayers that you don't waste any of them.

I have such appreciation now for wreath makers.  I have never really been a picky wreath person.  I could see ones that I thought looked pretty or thought, "Wow they really put a lot into making that look nice."  But since I haven't ever really had the time or money to decorate as I would like, I've never put that much focus on it.  I would see where people would put their wreaths on Facebook, or I would go to the Ginger Bread House in Danville, VA. and think, "Wow really? That much for a wreath?"  But wow was I wrong!

I'll never have a beautiful wreath for my front door if I have to pay those prices.  So since I've gotten on this farmhouse style kick I'm on, I decided I wanted to try and make a couple of wreaths for the house.  I have been to Hobby Lobby and a couple other places gathering things to make them.  Well once I started looking at cotton stems and pretty floral stems the prices started to add up! Then the time it takes to put it all together.  I said at 1 and again at 2am last night, "No wander these people ask so much for the their wreaths!"

Just looking on the computer for 1 cotton stem was 8 to 10 dollars.  So now that I'm trying to make a go at making a couple of these, if I sell them that's great, but if not I'm learning to have more of a appreciative heart towards others who have taken their time and money to make special gifts or decorations for their homes.  I'm putting a picture of my new front door wreath and a couple of others that I have made in the last several days.  If you are interested in any like these please shoot me a email.  knowlescrew6@gmail.com

DISTRESS ON THE CHEAP! 5 BUCKS FOR MY TABLE!

I have really enjoyed doing all these house projects because it helps put my brain in the place of happiness..... Yes my kids and hubby do that but sometimes you need this little me time inside yourself especially when you are home all day with 4 kids and homeschooling them... Can I get a Amen Madea?!    O yes, I get that someone may call the PO, PO over here if mama don't get a little quiet time in her head sometimes... LOL
  So anyway, I have taken to redoing the house into a more of a farmhouse style instead of rustic because for 1. it actually is a farmhouse and second because I just really like the style.  So good enough, I found a old coffee table that someone was going to through away.... AHHHH did you hear the angels sing... FREE love those 4 little letters! I had to do some wood working on it cause it was in pretty bad shape, but once I put my little touches to it I was very tickled at how it turned out.

This is the table when I first got it.  It was missing a drawer on one side, had these little shell looking things that I didn't like and it needed a good sanding.

So I just did a rough coat sanding, nothing major.

With a little hand sander.

Next I popped off the shells, they were attached with nails from a nail gun, this took like two seconds.  Then I sanded where they were so stains wouldn't show through.  I had left over Plywood from my shiplap wall... (I'm telling you, this stuff is awesome..if you are the least bit crafty you will use every inch of this stuff and not waste a bit!  I decided I wanted to cover the hole where the drawer was but wanted it to look like that on each side.  Now the plywood is sharpe on the edges and I wanted it to look soft like a real drawer, so I used the little dremel tool and sanded down the edges so it would look real... then I stained them grey and attached them with a nail gun.  

I did this on both sides.

I wanted the black distress to show through the top and since I was out of black spray flat I used some old black chalk board paint from my sons room, cause I didn't need much.  

Then I painted over that with gray paint from my bedroom. lol, I said it was cheap, and I already had all this stuff at the house.  

Once all the grey and white white was painted I used a soft sandpaper and distressed it in the areas that I liked... I also took a soft rag and coated with boiled linseed oil to give it a protective coat. 

 Next I went to Hobby Lobby and purchased some cute knobs that were 50 percent off which was 2.50 a piece to make them look like real drawers, used my husbands drill and made little holes for these.  I thought it was a cute final touch!

I was tickled with how it turned out.  My coffee table that was 5 bucks!!

DISTRESSED COFFEE TABLE

Happy Weekend Everyone!

So I have finally caught up on a lot of projects that I've been doing around the house so I'm planing to make a couple of post here in the next few days to show what all we have been working on.  

I'm trying to redo a lot in my house to go to the white, gray, farmhouse style.  I had somewhat the farmhouse style already, but was with more of the reds, greens and hickory style type furniture.  So I've been making slip covers, redoing furniture, and adding that ship lap look.  

This coffee table that I purchased was at a consignment shop in Greensboro for 66.00.  I wanted it to have that distressed look.  So I am using the same bucket of flat white paint, a can of black flat paint that you can get at Lowes for .99 and some boiled linseed that my husband already had in his shop....  

This is the table when I first purchased it.

It was a little somewhat scuffed up because it had been used. 

The first thing I did was sand it.  I used my husband hand sander and used a pretty rough grade sand paper because it needed to get the shinny coat on top off. 

This sand paper is really rough and it won't take near as long to sand it down and get that top coat off. 

 Next I painted the entire table white with the basic house flat paint. 

I was doing this late in the evening, I'm also redoing a rocker you can see in this picture but that post will come later.  Anyways, I let this table dry over night, but if you did it first thing in the am you could easily finish this project in a day.  

Next I re sanded again, to make the distressed look.  I sanded most of the white off the top but left the sides exactly how I wanted them to look 

These are much softer types of sand paper and was some my husband already had in his shop so if you had to purchase these it would probably add a little extra cost to the project, say around 5 to 7 dollars.  But I used this to do the sides so it would look distressed. 

I was gonna leave the top like this to continue on the project, and you can if you like it, but we really wanted to it show some character with dents and scratches so I went back sanded more of the white off and then took a chain and large hammer and we just laid it on the table and hit it hard to make dents all in the table. 

This is my sweet husband helping me with this part, it wasn't hard, but I think he just likes to hit stuff! LoL

Once the dents and bangs are made, you use the black flat paint to spray lightly over the dents.  

Next sand the black spots to where only the paint in the dent is left behind, unfortunately I don't have a picture of this because my husband grabbed the sander an did it before I could think to take the picture.  But this is the close up of some of the dents.

Ok, so once you have the black in a few places, your back to painting the white flat all over again.  After you do this you sand with the same softer paper on the places that you would like to make it look distressed!

I wanted to give the table a little protection but didn't want to use a strong polyurethane because I didn't want a shiny look to the table, so we used boiled linseed to go over it to protect it from water. 

I just used a old wash cloth and applied this all over the top of the table.  

I also made the little tray in the table but that's another post!

FARMHOUSE DECOR 20 BUCKS OR LESS!

Hello World....

I have gotten terrible about posting like I should.  I have like a million projects going on and I'm trying to get them done and make post.  Which would seem possible if I would do one project finish it and then post it.  But instead because my brain wants to do about a million projects at one time it takes FOREVER for me to complete something.  So this weekend I'm working on a coffee table remake, sanding down my moms original rocker that she rocked us in as kids, going to Ikea to get ideas, making slip covers for my chairs that don't match in my living room, ect, ect... the list goes on and on.  So I have managed to get a few of these things completed but yet to be able to do the write up with them.  

Today I finished my farmhouse wreath and was able to FINALLY complete my pallet wall in my bathroom.  I'm really tickled at how it turned out and I only spent around 20 bucks! Yay!

First I went to my famous go to Store Hobby Lobby!! I purchased a wreath that was more vine like and was already wound together. It was 19.99 and was 50 percent off, getting it for 10.  I also purchased the flowers that I like that was simple and kinda classy each were 4.99 also 50 percent off, so they were 2.50 each.  I bought 4 of these.  This is how they looked separate.

I had already started to add a couple of the flowers before I snapped the picture of the wreath. 

This is once I had them all fished in and was ready to hang... This is something so simple and easy to do, like 15 mins but gives the sweetest country look to any wall.