Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Deployment Project #39 and #40...Ballard Inspired Pillows

Have you seen these gorgeous pillows from Ballard Designs?? 

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You can check them out HERE

I saw these and thought, " I HAVE to have one..."

Then I looked at the price.

$75

WHAAAATTTT???!!!????

Who in their right mind would pay $75 for A PILLOW?!?!? (Seriously, people, if you are spending THAT much money on one pillow you need to have your head examined. ;-)

So...I went to work on my own version of the Ballard Christmas pillow....

This is what I came up with....

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Okay, so it's not exactly like the one in the catalog....but MY pillows were about $74 cheaper! ha!

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These were made from leftover drop cloth canvas I had in my craft room

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With my monogramming machine I stitched out the smaller ornaments you see, then glued ribbon on for the rest.

The pillow with the larger ornament was done by hand...other than sewing the fabric together, this was a no sew ornament pillow....I will try to get a tutorial up on it if anyone is interested! 

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I am thinking of making these as gifts for Christmas....who wouldn't want a $75 pillow for Christmas, right??



And what am I working on today??????


Well, see that black door????


It will no longer be black the next time you see it....


:-)
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Friday, November 19, 2010

Deployment Project #38: Corner Hutch Makeover

Last week, I showed you my new dining room makeover. (Thank you all for your sweet comments....I love hearing others like and appreciate my hard work!)

If you missed my Dining Room post, you can check it out HERE

Several of you noticed this hutch in my before pictures of my dining room, and asked where it went. (It's no longer in my dining room)

And I must say, you perceptive folks out there DO notice the small things.....like little missing corner hutches! ha!

Well, I decided the corner hutch took up too much of my small dining area, and I move it!!

Here is a BEFORE picture of that cute little hutch.....(it was pulled out from the wall because I was painting the wainscoting behind it)
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This hutch belonged to my grandmother and was passed down to me years ago....for so long it sat in the corner, dull and boring...never being noticed...

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Please excuse the poor picture quality....
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I took the doors off and painted them....I decided to go with white, so it would match the other furniture in the room.

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What would I do without my best friend, Mr. Cover Stain???? Can you say magical?!? This stuff is GREAT....no need to sand your piece if you have this magical stuff! 

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I also bought some of this antiquing glaze to give the furniture a little more character!

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This was the first time I used the antiquing glaze, and it was very simple. Just brush it on where there are cracks, and wipe it off with a damp towel. The less you wipe off, the more distressed it will look.

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And here is my new corner hutch. It now sits in my craft room and holds my craft supplies!!!

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I kept the original hardware and spray painted it with my ORB spray paint! 

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The glass to this piece was busted out years ago, so I just grabbed a piece of fabric and TAPED it on the inside of the hutch's door....Instant cuteness!
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Here, you can see the glaze in the cracks...it adds definition to the white paint!
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So, let's take another look....

BEFORE
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AFTER
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Who said hutches have to be only used in Dining Rooms?!?!?

Stay tuned for more peeks at my craft room in the upcoming weeks....

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Deployment Project # 37...Foyer Reveal

Check out my foyer before it got a little TLC....
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Just a plain, dull, boring wall....

Until the board and batten was added....(HERE)
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I painted the b and  b, refinished my entry way table (you can read about that HERE)....


and had a brand new entry way....
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But something was missing.

The wall above looked plain.

It needed something else.

So, I bought three 16x20 frames, and mats to go in the frames. 

To hang them like I wanted, I measured and taped up a piece of paper (the insert that came out of the frame)
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Then, with a pencil, I poked a hole in the paper just where I needed the nail to go...once I took down the paper, I had a mark on the wall just where I needed it....

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And here is my finish foyer!

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L.O.V.E.
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 I couldn't decide what I wanted to put in the frames......

So, for now, I have my children's Thanksgiving art work in it....and afterwards, I think I will put some of their Christmas art up. I like this idea because it shows off their work, and I can change it out whenever I want. If it's not a holiday season I can always just put a fun photo or another piece of artwork! 

What a great way to display their work! (and I won't get bored with just ONE photo in there all the time!)

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So let's take one more look, shall we???

Here is my foyer BEFORE!

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...and AFTER...

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Hope you like it as much as I do!!!!!

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Thursday, November 11, 2010

Dining Room Reveal...Deployment Projects #32-36

Another room is complete! Woo-hoo!

My DINING ROOM!!!!

I did 5 different projects in this room, so I am calling this Deployment Projects #32-36

Before I show you all I did in here, let me show you what it looked like BEFORE I got started...

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Project #32....WAINSCOTTING!

This was put up by a friend of mine who also did my stairs and my board and batten....

All the painting (all 4 coats...whew) was done by me!
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After all the painting, here is the finished project.....
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I LOVE how this totally changes the look of the room.

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I got my fabric for my curtains (project #33) from Tonic Living.....LOVE this source for fabric. VERY affordable and extremely fast shipping....AND I got 10% off my fabric!!!! I bought 6 yards of this fabric for cheaper than I would have spent at Target, had I bought curtains from there!

This particular fabric is called Bodega Mocha and you can find it HERE
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I didn't even sew my curtains. I used Stitch Witchery to fold and iron the fabric together...took me about 20-30 minutes to make these!!! Not a single stitch was sewn!

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I used the curtain rings with clips (bought from Lowe's for $10) to hang the fabric....

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This rug was over 10 years old...back when magnolias were "in".....I was so happy to get rid of this rug....I skipped all the way to Goodwill with that sucker!!! ha!

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I purchased this new rug ( project #34) on clearance at Pier One Imports...and I'm loving it!
You can find it HERE

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And now for my favorite part......

MY CHINA HUTCH!!
(project #35)

This hutch belonged to my late grandmother.  I was reaaalllllyyy scared to paint it because I didn't want to mess it up....but I did my research on how to do it.  Thanks to my fellow bloggers, they taught me everything I know! ;-)

Here are the before pictures of the hutch....

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From what my blog friends taught me, if you want to paint a piece of furniture, but don't want to have to sand it, you need to get this cover stain!

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You don't have to sand the furniture when you use this stuff!!!!! It's just wonderful!

I wanted to paint my hutch something other than white or black....and this is what I decided on....


BLUE!!!!!!!

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 It's a very pretty, almost robin's egg, blue. I picked up a paint swatch from Ace Hardware and the color was called "Fairfax".  I took it to Lowe's and they color matched it!!

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I have to admit, this is one of my favorite deployment projects. I stepped out of my color comfort zone....and I am so glad I did! This hutch now adds so much character to my once boring and dark dining room!

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Then I antiqued it with this antiquing glaze....it was so easy. Just paint it on, and wipe it off with a damp towel! The glaze will stay in the cracks and gives the piece of furniture more definition!

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I kept the hardware...It was too pretty not to. I just used my ORB spray paint and painted them a little darker than they were!

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Then, I added a few finishing touches (project #36)

The twigs came from Target, the vase from TJ Maxx...
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I hung some plates on the wall I purchased from various stores (TJMaxx, Wal Mart, Home Goods) All were around $3-$5 a piece.

I also made 2 pillows to sit in the extra chairs that line the wall....
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The basket and clear vase were things I already had. The white vase was bought at Goodwill for $2. It was black, but I spray painted it white and put it on top of my re-done china hutch.....

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And here is my newly, freshly, made over 

...from drab...

to shab....

DINING ROOM....

TAAA-DAAAAA!!!!!

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Another look at the BEFORE...(clutter and all) ha!

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And the AFTER...

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What do you think???

Happy Thursday!!!!

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