Mini Open Shelving Project

I'm embarrassed to say that I started this project one month ago and just finished this week. It would have taken a total of 45 minutes (tops) to complete, but involved patching holes with dry wall repair (or spackle-anyone else call it this?), which is the bane of my existence when it comes to house projects. I'm impatient- I just want to slap on the paint and call it a day. I hate having to spackle, wait FOREVER (a few hours, tops) for it to dry, sand, re-spackle, wait FOREVER (maybe another hour) for it to dry (again), and re-sand. Again. In this season on life, God is teaching me patience, contentment, and thoroughness- who knew that a 45 minute project would help the process along. I don't mean to spiritualize my open shelving ( :)  ) but I think God can use anything He chooses to humble and teach His children.

Anyway. We've got too many doors in our kitchen, and it was time some of them went. So off came the doors and on went the spackle. A few white coats of paint always rounds things off nicely.

He is Risen!

Oh, to see my name written in the wounds, for through Your suffering I am free.
Death is crushed to death; life is mine to live, won through Your selfless love!

This, the power of the cross: Son of God—slain for us!
What a love! What a cost! We stand forgiven at the cross.

The Lord is Risen indeed! Happy Easter!

DIY: Cloche Pedestal

I'm in a self-imposed "don't buy it unless you need (not want) it" season right now. Which is turning out to be more fun than I thought- it's kind of like forced creativity. It's exciting to rediscover things that I have, and to move around the decor that I've already got out to achieve a new, fresh look.

I've been wanting to find a pedestal for this cloche that I found for a dollar last fall. Most of them have been too big, too small, or too expensive. Rummaging through my decor cabinet (yes, I have one...), I found a small, perfectly sized wooden platform that came with a glass dome I've since decided is weird. The platform, paired with an old ceramic candle stick from Goodwill, made the perfect cloche pedestal! I hot glued the two together, gave the whole thing a few coats of heirloom white spray paint, and set it on my dining room shelf. Isn't it cute? The whole thing, cloche (and pear!) included was $3.00. Woohoo!

This is such an easy project to mimic. Find a candle stick and plate (or any other flat, circular surface), hot glue them together, and then paint them. Cloches can be found for cheap at thrift stores or garage sales. Etsy also has some reasonably priced cute ones, too.

Happy DIYing!

Inspiration: Pops of Color

Photo Credit



... do it! Notice how the walls are white, the woodwork is white, and the couch is white. If you start with a neutral base, it's so easy to add in color (and to switch up the color if you suddenly decide you're sick of red and want a blue room instead).

A Word of Encouragement

I received this devotional, Daily Light, from a good friend this past Christmas- I love it because it is straight scripture. I was so blessed and encouraged by this morning's reading that I just had to share it with you.

Morning

"I am very dark, but lovely." -Song of Solomon 1:5

"Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me." —"And your renown went forth among the nations because of your beauty, for it was perfect through the splendor that I had bestowed on you, declares the Lord God."

"I am a sinful man, O Lord." —"Behold, you are beautiful, my love, behold, you are beautiful!"

"I despise myself, and repent in dust and ashes."— "You are altogether beautiful, my love; there is no flaw in you."

"When I want to do right, evil lies close at hand."— "Take heart, my son; your sins are forgiven."

"For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh." —"And you have been filled in him."—"Mature in Christ."

"You were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God." —"That you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light."

Song 1:5; Ps. 51:5; Ezek. 16:14; Luke 5:8; Song 4:1; Job 42:6; Song 4:7; Rom. 7:21; Matt. 9:2; Rom. 7:18; Col. 2:10; Col. 1:28; 1 Cor. 6:11; 1 Pet. 2:9

I love the call and response of this devotional- how the sinner (me!) cries out to God, lamenting his sinfulness, but God only sees a perfect and forgiven woman who is covered in His Son's righteousness.

What undeserved and unfathomable grace!

Inspiration: Open Shelving

We've got 30 cabinet doors in our kitchen (I know because I painted them all with multiple coats in 2009- ugg!). That's a lot! I love the idea of taking a couple of them off to mix things up a bit. Here's what others have done:

Photo Credit

Photo Credit

Photo Credit

Photo Credit

Photo Credit



The work load is minimal: pop off the door, fill in the hinge holes with dry wall repair, sand, and touch up with paint. If you've got wooden cabinets, just leave the holes or find a matching wood filler.

Thrifty Finds for Spring (and some craftiness!)

Before meeting a friend for coffee last Friday, I ran into our local Goodwill. The parking lot was completely swamped (ie. I stalked someone to their car, waited for them to drive away, and then RACED into their spot before someone else could grab it). Weird. People were wheeling things to their cars by the cartload. Even weirder. Apparently the majority of the store was half off- score! I found a few cute spring decor items that need only minimal sprucing.

That galvanized metal watering can was a dollar! As was the cute tray pictured below:

I spray painted it white. While we're at it, decorate with books: they're free and visually interesting.

And no... those branches in aforementioned picture aren't real. Duh. My husband says they're "crafty looking"- not sure if that's a compliment or not... :)

Basically I hacked some branches off one of our snaggle bushes in the back yard (we don't know what kind of bushes they are, other than they're uuuu-gly) and cut them down to size. I then cut the green leaves out of card stock and the white flower petals out of tissue paper, and hot glued the them all over the branches.

Not to use a pun, but they're growing on me. I wasn't sure if I liked them at first, but now I think I do. Free spring decor- woohoo!

Gallery Wall @ the Inspired Room

I've added my gallery wall photos to The Inspired Room's linky party- go check out all of the other photos for more gallery wall ideas!

FYI: A linky party is basically a massive compilation of blog links on a specific subject all in one place. Usually a blogger invites other bloggers to post pictures of a specific thing (like gallery wall photos) on her blog. It's a great way to get a ton of ideas on a specific theme (ie: spring decor linky parties, easy crock pot dinner linky parties, etc.).

Enjoy!

New Addition: Inspiration Posts

I'd like to introduce a new type of post to my blog: inspirational pictures and ideas.

I'd love to say that all of my project and decorating ideas are pure genius and entirely original, but alas, I cannot. Most of them come from seeing something I like and then copying/mimicking/using that idea as a jumping off point for my own version. I truly believe that when it comes to design, imitation is the highest form of flattery.

While we always seem to have some type of project going on here, I always have about 15 more rattling around in my brain. Mostly, they'll never get done, and that's okay. But it's fun to dream!

I'd love to share some of the photos and ideas that inspire me (and hopefully inspire you, too!).

Here's what I've been musing on as off late: plants!

Photo Credit

 Photo Credit

Photo Credit

I know the plant in the second photo is way off to the left hand side, but isn't it cute sitting there in that teal bowl?

I'm not sure what has happened to me this year: I normally kind of hate dislike non-floral house plants. It must be this ridiculously long and drawn out winter we've had (still snow in the front yard, people!). I'm craving everything and anything spring. And plants are such wonderful sign of life.

Board and Batten: Finished!

We finished! I absolutely LOVE how the board and batten turned out- it gave our entryway a complete face lift. Of course, it ended taking more time and money than I anticipated (as do all house projects, it seems...) but the end result was worth it.

My favorite part is the hardware, the hooks and the glass knobs. Especially the glass knobs... they are like door jewelery for the closet. I was embarrassingly excited when they arrived in the mail, and they are my favorite part of the entire project. I'm that lame person who gets excited about things like door knobs.

It was a lot of work (much more time consuming than I thought!) but I'm so glad now that it's all finished. Here's the other side:

I based this project off of Centsational Girl's guidelines. You can find them here. There are dozens of tutorials online, but hers worked the best for me. (PS. I promise I didn't copy her hooks, I just happened to love these and then realized she used the same ones. What can I say, we've both got great taste :)

If you already have your own tools (a miter saw, nail gun, and air compressor), this is an inexpensive project. Home depot rents all of these for a pretty reasonable price. In total, it probably took 15 hours over the course of a week and a half.

There you have it! Finished board and batten!