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8.11.2016

project homeward: lovin' the laundry room

Since there are limited projects I can undertake right now, 
I'm focusing more on the 'organizing' part than the 'decorative'.
I try to work some decorating into everything, though ;) 

That was the case with the laundry room project... 
make it work well, AND make it pretty!
...and can I just say first what a JOY and a BLESSING it is to HAVE a laundry room?!
To not have to schlep everything out into the garage where the dust bunnies reign?
After spending a lifetime doing just that, my Mom is positively giddy over having this room!

Up above you see a 'before' on the left and an 'after' on the right.
It's small stuff, really it is - it just all adds up to a big change. And I did it all in one day!

I cleaned up the exposed shelves, arranging the contents as uniformly and neatly as I could,
many of them contained by function in simple plastic containers from Dollar Tree.
Then it was time to make it LOOK good!
I began with the tall cabinet... three coats of some white semi-gloss paint 
(which was the trim paint that we brought with us from the old house)
and it looks fresh and new - and also looks less 'heavy' in the small laundry room.
It now holds reusable fabric shopping bags and stuff we take to the pool!

You may remember that cabinet from this Thrifty Tropical Makeover post,
where it's shown out on the back patio at my parent's old house:
We're just re-purposing what we already have, saving money and being creative!
(Yes, we brought the patio furniture and the swing, too... more of them soon)

So as long as I had the paint out, I decided to get creative...

That space over the shelves is HUGE and needed a decorative touch.
I went into the garage and grabbed one of four vintage cabinet doors that I've had for a few years
(found them by a dumpster near my former storage unit!)
and painted a vintage-looking sign:
blank door, cleaned up                                   measured & penciled lettering  

 painted lettering first coat                           second coat, with more detail added

...and my BIG TIP? Use a 'Magic Eraser' sponge to erase the pencil marks! ;)
It won't leave marks or affect the paint finish like an actual eraser does. 

PS: yes, I freehand stuff like this. 
I've had years of practice painting things - from signs to furniture to murals - 
and I frankly don't want my signs to have a computer font that everyone else uses from a template.

The sign took me about half an hour, start to finish.
It fills in this big space, adding some contrast, visual punch, and graphic interest to the room.
It's actually the first thing you see when you look through the doorway...
Because I knew that there would be items sitting in front of the sign here,
I didn't make it complicated. Just simple letters.

After that sign was done, I made another one... using an old sign from one of my show booths...
 I repainted it white, sanded the edges to rough it up, and added the letters and graphic. 
I like the way it LOOKS - but I like the way it WORKS even better:
The hand towels hanging on it cover the unsightly box where the water hoses connect! 
(The washer & dryer sit opposite the shelves shown in the other photos.)

In a plastic storage bin out in the garage
(you've figured out that the garage is basically a storage unit filled with boxes, right?! No cars yet!)
I found bags of  heavenly handmade soaps and bath products from Tamila at Urban Farm . 
These were in my beautiful island farmhouse - in storage since I left it five years ago. 
They smell SO good, and look so gorgeous -  I knew I wanted them on display again.
And then I remembered the jars! Mom saves jars. BIG jars.
(we eat a lot of Kalamata Olives, what can I say?!)
I grabbed the jars, and quickly cut some stickers to cover up the original labels.
No, it's not cheating to not remove the original labels, OK?! 
It's lazy, but it's not cheating!


When I filled the jars with the soaps and bath salts, and put them on the shelf,
the room just bloomed with beautiful scents. It really does smell as good as it looks!
Plus, dig that sweet little label that was on one of the bath salt bags - JOY. uh huh.

You see some wrapping paper in there, along with a few plastic bags too...
AND a tiny tin can  - this is his backside. 
His front is a Pumpkin Face - one of my original Painted Pails.
The 'bucket' holding the plant on top of the cabinet is a stack of plastic pumpkin buckets, facing backward.

This stuff is here simply because it's orange...
I'm a sucker for a color story!

shared online:

cupcakes & crinoline | project inspire{d}

8.04.2016

'pretty up' the pantry

The other day I went to the pantry to grab a snack, and just stood there staring. 
It was ugly. And disorganized. And did I say ugly? I was tired of looking at it.


It was TIME to DO something about it.


But there's no money to just go buy a bunch of containers and jars. Nope. 
So I did that thing I DO: I went foraging around the house looking for things to use!

PRETTY things. Things like baskets and trays and containers that would corral items
while bringing some style to the pantry - without spending a CENT.



What I found was baskets. Lord, does my Mom love baskets!

I found an entire wardrobe packing box and two other large moving boxes FULL of baskets out in the garage.
Up on the top of some shelves, I spied the wood harvest baskets
that I used to stage photos of my Sweet Sweater Pumpkins TM over the years 
along with a wood fruit crate.

I grabbed them ALL and got busy....


Here's how it went
(which is par for the course on anything relating to this house, I swear...):
I took a 'before' pic of the messy pantry. Then I emptied it, and took another photo.
THAT photo has disappeared. It's just....GONE. 
So the only 'empty' photo I have to show you is from earlier in the building process.
It took two tries to get the pantry the way I wanted it...
I ran out of containers the first time around, so I used the white plastic bins. HATE them.
Went into the guest room, the linen closet, the party supply boxes 
and found a few more baskets holding other things.
Swapped them out for the plastic bins, and was much happier with the result here.
There were items that I consider to be 'messes waiting to happen': molasses, syrup, honey.
To head off a disaster, I searched around for trays that I could put them in...

and I found some metal baking pans that don't get used very often. So I used them!
(why NOT? they are just gonna' sit in the cabinet doing nothing....)

On the top shelf, which has a TON of space, I wanted something really pretty...
So I arranged the crate, two large baskets, a few kitchen pots,
and a funky branch in a wood bowl up there to add some interest.
This isn't one of those high-style pantry photos you see staged to within an inch of its life
on Pinterest, or in a glossy magazine photo.
It's not the result of a bank-balance-breaking shopping trip at The Container Store.

It's just a pantry prettied up by using what was on hand... baskets. crates. baking pans. 

I'm not decanting the pasta into jars with chalkboard labels. 

I'm not covering the cake boxes with paper to match my color scheme.

I'm just opening those doors and smiling my head off 

at the order, organization, and style that I was able to add in about an hour
without spending a single cent.

7.22.2016

Paper Flower Power!

  Don't know what it is lately, but apparently I have blossoms on the brain!
I recently saw some gorgeous photos of brightly-colored paper flowers on Instagram,
posted by 'BloomBox_oc' - I tried to save an image to share here, but it wouldn't work.

Their photos reminded me of a paper flower that I won at an event, 
so I dug through some of my (still packed) boxes and found it...
it's the middle flower in that image above, made from old book pages and tissue paper
by a very creative vintage show vendor named Becky, from 'Whimsies'.

All that flower power inspired me,
 so I dug out a bunch of my own vintage paper and made myself some:
It was fun!
I haven't spent a lot of time doing creative things for myself lately, 
and this was a nice way to spend the hottest part of the day - 106 degrees. YIPES.

And when I was done, I had a buncha' blooms to put on my studio/office wall:
I haven't made time to do many creative things for myself lately, 
and this one just made me smile.
Just in case that photo above doesn't make the scale clear, here's a reference shot:
Yeah, these babies are HUGE!

This project was was fun, easy, and I already had everything I needed to make them -
which is pretty much how most of my projects come about, anyway:
I get inspired and then dig through what I have to 'make it work'!

Through the process, I snapped some photos and put together a simple tutorial:








Looks like I'll be making more in the near future, too...
my Mom saw these on my wall and asked
"I think these are exactly what I need for the wall over my bed!
Can you make some in aqua and tan and white, to match my linens?
"
Why, yes, Mom, I sure can!  see more of these here!

Shared Online:

Cupcakes & Crinoline | Project Inspire{d}


7.11.2016

By The Numbers...

by the numbers house number refresh homewardfounddecor
 This post was prompted by a FABulous project
that I saw at my youngest daughter's home...

She wanted to give her curb appeal a jolt of style  -without spending a lot.
(sounds like all of us, right?)
so she bought picture frames at the Dollar Tree, a can of black spray paint from Ace Hardware, 
took her porch lights and house numbers off the wall... 
and painted them all!

The lights & numbers went back up, then the frames were hung -
which pops from her gray siding and draws attention to the numbers:

There's one arrangement by her front door, and one beside her garage door.
She told me it took her no more than two hours, start to finish.

Now THAT's 'Fast, Cheap, and Easy' for you! ;)
__________________________________________

Those of us who decorate 'differently' than the mainstream often get comments
that are confused, bewildered, and less than complimentary. 
You know what I mean, right?
'Why did you build a headboard out of DOORS when you can buy a perfectly good headboard?!!'
and that sort of thing....
Well, I used to hear those comments from my KIDS. Oh, yeah. 
Mom embarrassed them by hanging old windows on the side of the garage,
by refurbishing garage sale finds, by making planters from old restaurant tin cans.
They did NOT appreciate my 'recycle, reuse, reimagine' philosophy.
[where did I go wrong??!!! LOL

Over the years, as my daughters and son have grown up and furnished & decorated homes of their own,
guess what they discovered?
oh, just that making use of what they have on hand or can get inexpensively (or FREE)
isn't such a BAD thing after all - and it can look pretty impressive!

(Is this where I get to say 'I told you so!'???!!!)

7.07.2016

Singin' the Blues...

Nope, I'm not sad that it's summer!
It's just that as the days heat up, the color blue can REALLY cool off our homes...
a shot of blue hues can bring calming energy and a cool (literally!) vibe to your decor.


Find some true blue hue inspiration for your summer rooms here:

Don't be blue, baby! Just use it to decorate with ;)