For the longest time I’ve been wanting to paint a piece of furniture bright Kelly green.  It started when I found this Reed & Barton color glazed silver bowl from the 1960’s in a thrift shop for a dollar.  A dollar for this beauty!

So I wanted to bring this fun color into our home and once I found the perfect piece, this small campaign desk, off to the paint store I went to color match it!  Here’s the  desk I found at (of course) a thrift store for $40 – the hardware alone is worth that to me, but the added benefit was this desk with faux bamboo legs that would tuck nicely into the kids study/art/craft playroom.

Before:

After:

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It has been said to me by my mate on more than one occasion that when it comes to decor I have champagne taste on a beer budget. You’ll get no denial from me. I’ve long been in love with lacquer nesting boxes like these and these ~ they are such glamorous little vessels for storing everything small from jewelry to keepsakes. I happen to find them completely irresistible, but the problem is they’re pricey, up to $80 a box (or more!) for the designer versions.

So last weekend I decided to do my thang  and mimic the look of these beauties with a few supplies from the craft store.

To make these yourself, here’s what you’ll need: wood jewelry boxes from craft store, small Phillips head screwdriver, paint colors of choice, wood filler, painter’s tape,  medium and small paintbrushes, fine sanding wedge, high gloss coating.

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Over the Christmas holiday, the kids and I did a lot of playing around with pictures of our family on the computer.  We’re big fans of Picnik because it’s free and you can make a lot of funny faces with it.  Have you tried the Gooify tool?  Hilarious what it can do to facial features!

Anyway, I was looking for a rainy day project, and I remembered there is a tool that will transform any ol’ photograph into a black and white sketch.  So then I thought we could just make some coloring pages for the kids… here is the simple (and free!) step by step:

***** See update to this post at the bottom with the latest disappointing announcement that Picnik is closing on April 19th (or in some aspect moving to Google+) that came the day after this tutorial was posted.

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It’s best to start with a high resolution image (1000+ px) since you’ll be printing these as 8 x 10s on letter size paper.  First, upload your image into Picnik and change it to a black and white image under the Effects tool.  You can also use the Boost tool to add a little more contrast between the blacks and whites.

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Hey everyone, I managed to snap a few shots yesterday of the upgrades to the downstairs powder room!  Freshening this space was one of my Home Goals of 2012 and I’m loving the new look.  This downstairs bathroom is just 3’ x 8’ but a few changes added some real drama to this space.  Here’s how it looked two weeks ago:

Here’s how it looks today!

I added beadboard wallpaper last week, then painted the upper portion of the walls a deep mushroom gray.  I also replaced the light fixture, the window shade, and the mirror with the one I mentioned with the winter mantel.  This small powder room now feels much more sophisticated, dramatic, and modern!

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Hey all, I’m so excited to show you the beadboard wallpaper in our powder room!  I’ve been thinking about doing this for a long time, especially after reading Rhoda’s tutorial, and at last I got around to it the other day. This really is such a great solution for those who want to add the classic look of beadboard wainscoting to a bathroom but avoid the expense of real panels (and the tricky cuts around the plumbing).

This project is step one in the little makeover going on in here, and I worked up a ‘how to’ with the steps I followed.

I’m took a lot of these step-by-step pictures with my phone (sorry for the quality) but you’ll get the idea!  First, here’s your supply list: primer* for walls; beadboard wallpaper, chair rail trim, sponge, measuring tape, bucket, level, scissors, roller, brad nails and hammer (or brad nailer), paint color of choice, miter saw for chair rail trim.

*I primed the walls with water based Zinsser 1-2-3 Plus where I was installing the wallpaper because the before paint was semi-gloss and I needed that paste to stick… I believe the wallpaper is recommended for primed walls as I recall from the instructions inside (which I threw out of course before I sat down to write this today…gah.)  If you have flat paint on your walls, you probably don’t need primer.

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