My favorite Robert Frost Poem

Pin It When I made this pallet frame, like the PB one from the spring catalog, I found a great tutorial from The Lettered Cottage.  Find their instructions on their blog here.

Well, I made the frame and stained in Early American.  Then it sat for a few weeks while I decided on what to put on it.

Actually, I'm not really big on poetry, but I've always loved a Robert Frost poem.  I couldn't remember the name of it, but I had it memorized.  So I googled it and printed it out.

Two weeks past as I made sure that was something I would want on my wall for awhile.

Thank you!

Pin It After three weeks of blogging at The Quaint Cottage, there are now 21 google followers and 48 facebook followers.  More surprisingly to me is the fact that the blog sees an average of 500 page views a day.  So even if you haven't decided to follow yet, I still know you are checking out the blog and leaving such positive comments.  There are so many great people in the blogworld and it has been such a pleasure to connect with several of you.

Envelope Pillows - If you love pillows and hate to sew zippers, this is for you!

Pin It I've always loved pillows and hated the prices of pillow covers.  So I've made my own.  Not only is it inexpensive, but you can match the colors you need to fit your rooms.  Perfect right?  Well, not if you can't stand to sew those little pesky zippers that you may not use but twice.

My solution? 

To Pinterest...or not to Pinterest?

Pin It After hearing all the hype about Pinterest and hearing the days people had lost on their life due to the addiction, I decided to check it out tonight.

My initial thought is - pretty cool.  Everytime you see a photo of something you love on the internet, you can "pin it" to your board.  You create as many different boards, labeling them for your theme, as you need.  In my case, it is awesome since I'm always wondering where I saw that great idea.  One click and you pin the photo to a board on your account.

Google Sketch Up

Pin It Last night, I sat down and I read Ana White's tutorial on her website on how to use Google Sketch Up to draw out furniture plans onto a step-by-step cad program.  Ana uses the program to create great tutorials for furniture pieces to make yourself.

Photo courtesy of sketchmodels.blogspot.com

Update on the Stairway Wall Molding

Pin It I finished filling the nail holes, sanding and painting the grid wall on the stairway.  Here is the finished photo with the paint.

DIY Copy Cat Nesting End Table - Part 1

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Last week, I found an awesome finish on the PB website as an inspiration for a narrow end table I built for my family room.  When I started building a second end table for the family room, I decided to do a table similar to the one I saw.

Here is the inspiration piece (unfortunately, the yellow color wouldn't work for my color scheme):

Aged Finish - Narrow DIY End Table

Pin It This weekend, I made this little table to fit at the end of my couch.  In case you missed it, you can find the link here!

Did you see the final photo of the $400 Pottery Barn tables?  Well, I loved the aged finish and loved the yellow.  However, when I sat in my room I realized the yellow wouldn't work for my color scheme of beiges and browns.

Here is what I came up with:

New Molding for the Stairway

Pin It I've been wanting to add square molding to the staircase for some time now.  And today, I did!

I spent several hours removing some old molding, patching, painting the upstairs wall (Behr Cottonseed - the yellow color at the top of the wall) and then installed primed MDF 1x3" boards in a grid pattern.

Here is a preview picture. 

DIY Simple End Table for Small Spaces

Pin It We have end tables that are too tall for our couches.  The tops of the tables are about three or four inches taller than the arm of the couch.  The fact they are tall wouldn't be so bad, except we can see the unfinished back of the table over the arm of the chair.

I measured the arm of the couch and it was only 22" tall.  I think most end tables are 24" tall or taller.

So, I made a little (and narrow) table to fit the needs of my small room.

Here it is without the finish.  Small, narrow and just the right height for my short arm couches.

New Camera is on the way!

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It's been over a year since my camera broke.  I have been using my iphone for all of my pictures while I tried to decide on a new camera, but the process was slow going.  I think it boiled down to too many choices - is that really a problem?  Well, in my mind I'm thinking it is a big investment and I want something I can use for several years.  But, my budget doesn't want to think that far ahead.  The price ranges, features, functions and quality are endless.  But, I kept going back and forth between my final two selections - Canon Rebel and Olympus Pen.

The Olympus won the battle.  Both Canon and Olympus had very similar features...great features (at least for my needs), but the Olympus was my choice over the Canon for one simple reason - the size.  The Canon was too big to carry around without looking like a tourist.  I figured the Olympus was even small enough to take in my purse to concerts or outdoor events.  Oh, and it had a flash too!  The Canon didn't have one, but I've never liked red eyes and washed out faces on my family anyway :) 

The Olympus is being shipped today and should arrive on Wednesday.  FINALLY, I will take pictures with a camera.  I actually love having my iphone camera, but obviously the quality isn't what a regular camera can achieve.  Although, some of the effects are pretty cool.

Check back next week for some (hopefully) great new pictures!  I'm so excited.  Yay!!!

Karen

~ Shim Art...Do Over! ~

Pin It Well, after I got the stain on my little shim art project...I had to admit, I was not in love with it.

See the original post here.

Back to the drawing board.  Er, the spray paint board?

Here it is with a coat of primer (better already):

Anyway, I was just outside spray painting a lamp and my shim art project was just sitting there.  Actually, it was calling to me.  "Karen...Karen..."  hahahaha  But, I listened and I think I love the way it looks now.  I could still be high on the spray paint fumes, so final vote won't be until tomorrow.  I'll have to see how it looks inside.  The way it looks now, it might just have to sit on the table (leaning up against the wall) behind the lamp I spray painted.

Here is the "final" (unless I don't love it tomorrow) look:

I think it has just enough texture and rustic appeal.  And the darker stain kind of weighed it down a bit.  My bedroom already has dark furniture, so the accent pieces need to balance all the heavy.

Thoughts?

Distressed Wall Art

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I bought a wall decal (this one) from Amazon.com with the plan to stick it to the wall.  However, after I thought about it and the constant need to have to change the wall colors...I decided to create a piece of wall art instead.

I grabbed a few pieces of scrap wood and set out to build a flat surface to use.  I then added a 1"x2" (mitered corners) strip of wood around the edge to frame the boards.

See the back:

Then I painted the boards and frame with a sandy-yellow color paint.  When it was dry, I sanded some raw spots and roughed up the edges.  After I wiped the dust, I glazed with Jacobean stain and wiped and rubbed to create an aged look.  I attached a simple hanger on the back:

Here is the finished project:



Dining Room Progress - Crown Molding

Pin It As I mentioned earlier here.  I removed the old crown molding to make it look like the crown molding I did in the breakfast room and kitchen.

Here is a picture of what the finished crown molding looks like:

As you see, the stacked crown molding has much more of an impact on the ceiling over the single piece of crown molding.

Here is a picture of the teeny tiny hallway outside the half bath (this little hallway separates the kitchen from the dining room) progress:

How I did the stacked crown molding.  See in the picture how I put the baseboard on the wall upside down?  I used my four foot level which just happens to be two inches wide and the perfect distance to space the baseboad from the ceiling.  Then, I repeated the same space on the ceiling with the level and drew a pencil line.  On the ceiling, the baseboard is set up with the top toward the middle of the room. 

Here is the dining room progress.  I still need to install the actual crown molding strip, fill the holes, caulk the seams and paint...but once it is finished, it will look just as great as the kitchen.  It is so much work, but so worth it in the end.

Here is where the dining room started (for this redesign...you can see the Ryegrass wall color wasn't the first color).  See the small crown molding?:

Have you done any interesting stacked crown molding?  I'd love to see your work.

Thanks for visiting.  Check back later this week to see the new breakfast room table.

~ The Art of Shim Wall Art ~

Pin It New Wall Art...

My room needs a large piece of artwork to hang over my bed.  It has to add a huge visual element to the wall without the major dollar signs that tend to go along with art.  After seaching for that perfect piece or pieces (without much success - even simple large frames or large mirrors seem to be quite expensive), I was playing with wood shims in my shop one day and a thought came to me.

I set out and searched the internet to see if a similar wood shim art piece had already been done...it has!  I didn't know if I should feel bummed that I wasn't as creative as I had thought or if I should revel in the fact that there are others out there with great ideas and who aren't afraid to share them with the world. 

Kudos to a terrific art piece by Stephanie at Under The Table and Dreaming in creating this piece:

I continued to see what else could be done with wood shims and some imagination.  I stumbled upon Kevin and Layla's blog called The Lettered Cottage.  They created a huge impact art piece with just shims and a mirror.  Don't you just love their light and airy decorating style?

Then I found this picture on Ready Made and WOW!!!!  What an impact.

I had been thinking about using old wooden pallet boards to create a wall like this, but the shims are so fun.

Anyway, I have my shims laid out and ready to attach to the board (like the first piece of art above).  I'm going to assemble it tonight and let you know how it turns out.  I hope it is as easy as her tutorial makes it look.  Wish me luck.  :)  Top photo is of the stained Shim Art after I finished putting it together and staining it.

Here are the photos of the layout (finished tonight):

I started with a 1/4 inch 24" x 24" of precut plywood from Home Depot and laid out about five packs of shims.  I used some scrap 1/4 strips for the border.

Made sure I liked the staggered joints and had one row stacked in one direction and the next row in the opposite direction.  The shims are just stacked right on top of each other and spaced out uniformly in a pattern.  Then, I glued them to the plywood with wood glue-a lot of wood glue to make sure they would stay.

I'm really loving the layout and the pattern.

I used Early American stain color.  Here it is after one coat.

Hall Closet Organize

Pin It This horrible mess was known as my coat closet and a place for the kids to throw their board games.  When I say throw, I mean literally - THROW!  It is kind of embarrassing to show it in this condition, but it makes the after so much better.

I am pretty sure there is something living back there.  A huge dust bunny named Damien is my first guess.

Above the shelf was three feet of unused vacant space.

See all of that wasted space?

I had the kids help me clear out the small closet.  They went through the toys and games and eliminated many of those with missing pieces or the ones they no longer used.

I removed the old wire shelf - one single shelf.  Filled the holes and painted the closet.  I'm sure no one will ever care that the closet is painted (except for me), but it looks so much better without the scuff marks.

I installed four shelves up to the top of the closet.  The bottom shelf/coat hanger was just high enough to allow the room for the coats.  I lowered it so the kids could hang their own coats and not throw them on the dining room chairs when they come home from school.

And guess what?  Now that the kiddos can find their games and more importantly put them back...it has stayed clean and organized.  Yay!  Yippeeeeee!

As you can see, now I don't even have enough stuff to fill the upper shelves.  I love it when that happens.

Thanks for visiting,

Karen

Linked to:
The CSI Project

Breakfast Room Ideas...

Pin It I am building a new and much smaller table to fit in my tiny breakfast room.  I found a nice farmhouse style table on Ana White's website.  Simple enough to build and easy to adjust to fit my needs.

Then I stumbled upon The Graphics Fairy website and had the idea of incorporating an aged looking stencil to the table top like this.  With the right amount of stain, paint and light sanding, the table top can like like a salvaged piece from long ago.

I hope it turns out as great as I'm picturing it in my head...

Ana White

The Graphics Fairy

I'm also thinking about building a built in bench with open areas underneath to put all the cookbooks.  Like this from Southern Living

New Deck Project

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I'll admit it. I have let the deck go. I mean it doesn't help that it faces west and we have little trees that don't offer much in the shade department yet. Needless to say, I don't like to sit out there much in the summer because it gets really hot.

But, it was time to give the deck the attention it needed.

I sanded and sanded and powerwashed and sanded some more. I did get some paint on the deck too.

I thought I needed some other furniture and make the deck into a lounging area and not a table and chairs area. I took this furiture to the lower patio and wire brushed the rust and spray painted the furniture with a brown color. More on that later.

But first, I had to figure out the new seating for the deck....and found an amazing site http://www.ana-white.com/ for people like me who love to make their own things.
Ana White made a wonderful outdoor bench that I thought would be perfect for my deck. However, I made mine eight feet long instead of the six feet. It is perfect for lounging outside and napping.

I need to finish it up and find cushions, but I will post the final project when it is done. Just in time for the 100 degree heat :)

I found these pictures on the internet which would work perfectly for the sun issue.

Chair Do Over

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Found these old restaurant chairs on ebay a couple of years ago.  Very sturdy.  Yes, that is a lovely maroon vinyl seat.

  I covered the seats with these pottery barn cushions, but even that didn't really help.

Found some cute fabric to recover the seats.  The fabric was actually an inexpensive sheet set from Walmart.  The colors matched the breakfast room perfectly and since I had to cover six chairs, it was affordable.

Spray painted the chairs with black.  Added extra cushion and batting to the seats to make them more comfy.