Happy Tuesday!  I wanted to share a really simple DIY Furniture makeover with you today.  For the longest time I have been wanting to re-do a few pieces of furniture that Mike and I have had for ages.  I chose to first go with an easy project that I could complete the fastest.  Figured it would give me the confidence I need to tackle some of the harder projects (like painting an entire bedroom set…ha).

Mike has had this modern looking console table since he was in college.   He used to use it as a computer desk and when we moved in together years ago we used it for the same purpose.   A couple of years ago, I got a real computer desk.  One that matched our decor and wasn’t sticking out like a sore thumb like this one did.  And so out into the garage it went.  But I knew it had potential.

The lines of this table just scream MODERN and we have a semi-modern feel to our family room so I hoped I would be able to blend the piece in.  I knew the black had to go and since our couch is a steel grey and most of our accents are silver and white, I headed in that direction.   The top of the table is actually 2 slabs of thin, dark granite that are removable.  I decided to cover the granite slabs with a grey marble adhesive film, spray paint the actual base of the table, and hope for the best.

Here’s how I did it:

1) I removed the granite slabs and researched 100 ways to lay this adhesive film without getting bubbles.  After watching all the youtube videos I could find, I felt ready to go.  First I unrolled the roll of film and turned my granite slab upside down on top of it.  I traced the amount of film I would need to cover the slab with a pen.  Then I took the slab and moved it and cut the piece of film to fit.

The first time I placed the film I had a ton of bubbles.  I tried to push them out by using a squeegee and a ruler but wasn’t having much luck.  However, the film does peel off pretty easily for you to try again.   (confession, I tried 4 times.  And only the last time did I tear the film.  Luckily I had enough of the roll to still cover my 2 pieces of granite, but be careful!)

2) I read about placing the film down with a “wet” method.  Basically you will spray windex onto the surface and then carefully unroll the film onto it.  You will squeegee as you go.  The wet allows the film to slide around a bit and helps when you use the ruler to squeeze out any bubbles.  That method worked the best.  (And I hope that made sense!)

3) Once the granite pieces were covered, I took the table into the garage and spray painted the entire thing.  Word to the wise, I wanted to use up a small bottle of spray paint and then had to get 3 more small bottles to cover the table because I couldn’t find a large bottle to match.  I would suggest using the Rust-Oleum Universal spray paint in the color of your choice.  (How pretty is that brass color that I linked?  I think I’m going to have to get another project going with that!)

4) After waiting the 24 hour drying time for the paint, I used Martha Stewart’s Gloss spray paint to finish it up.  Again, had to wait 24 hours for that coat to dry but then it was finished!   I inserted the granite (turned marble) slabs into the table and moved it back into the house.

I am so happy with how this table turned out.  I am still working on styling it, but I think it blends perfectly with our family room.   Unfortunately for Mike, who will have to spend the next year of his life dragging pieces of furniture into the garage for me to makeover, I totally have confidence now to do some of our other pieces!

I know the whole applying film process can be hard and confusing (trust me, I spend a great deal of time and research getting it just right!) so comment here or email me if you have any questions.  I’d love to help if I can.

Here’s some more photos of the console table all finished

XO Danielle

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Hi everyone!  I just wanted to share a fun DIY to add a little something extra to your Christmas decor.  I actually made this burlap tree skirt a couple of Christmas’s ago and never got around to sharing how easy it is!

I used my existing tree skirt as a base which helped a ton.   That way I didn’t have to guess and measure how big I wanted the skirt.   Also, our older skirt was padded and it added a nice under-layer for the burlap skirt.

Here’s what you’ll need:

Tree skirt (for a base)

Ivory fabric (felt, fleece, whatever you can find on sale)

Burlap

Hot glue gun + Glue

Lay out the ivory fabric and place the old tree skirt on top.  (FYI this will ruin the old skirt since we will be gluing the 2 together).  Trace a circle following the guide of the old skirt onto the ivory fabric leaving about an inch of overhang for the ivory.  Once it is traced, cut along the line so you have 2 circles, the old skirt and the new piece of fabric.

Using the hot glue gun, glue the old skirt to the new fabric.

Take the burlap and cut it into 3″ wide strips.  You are going to start lining the ivory fabric with burlap from the outside of the tree skirt and work your way into the center.   The ivory fabric will help if there are any spots that you can see through the burlap and it will serve as a layer to blend the colors.  That worked especially good in my case since the old skirt I used was red.

You are going to hot glue the burlap down in the strips.  Glue a few inches and then fold the burlap creating a ruffle, glue that piece down.  Then glue another few inches and keep ruffling.  Layer each row with an inch overlap to create a full look.

Once you get to the center you’re all done!  I was even able to use the old tree skirt buttons to hook my new skirt closed once I placed it around the tree.

This was a super easy project that took only a couple of hours!  And because all I had to purchase the fabric, it cost under $10!

Hope you are having a fun, festive December!

XO Danielle

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Here is a super quick, easy and best of all CHEAP diy project for ya.  About a year ago I became obsessed with portrait silhouettes.  I love the way they capture children’s profiles and I knew I wanted to have them made for my kids.  After doing a bunch of research, I found out that you can have these hand cut in Disney’s Magic Kingdom while you are there.  And it is only $8!!  Say what???  I couldn’t believe it.  But it is true.  There is actually a small kiosk on main street (down a side street off of main street) and you can have them done there.  In literally 5 minutes.  It is truly the greatest souvenir I have ever gotten at Disney.

Normally you see these framed in small, black, oval frames.  It is the classic way to showcase them.  Yeah, that was not going to happen here.  We needed bigger.  Bolder.  Dare I say..snazzier?

I had the idea to frame them in black frames with a big white mat.  I got the frames at Ikea and loved the size of them.  There was a large gap though since the silhouettes I got from Disney are not that large.  To make up the space I decided to grab some scrapbook paper and layer it.  I chose gold glitter because I just loved it.  But honestly.  Every time I am in the craft store I see another paper that I think would look so gorgeous layered in this frame.

It was super easy to create this look.  I had to cut down the scrapbook paper just a little.  I used double stick tape to adhere the silhouette to the paper and then made sure it was centered in the frame.  Taped the scrapbook paper to the mat and then sealed it all up.  I used command strips to hang them, so if I do decide to change out the paper it will be very easy.

I ended up hanging the frames on the wall in the kids hallway.  Between their rooms and their shared bathroom.  I love that I can see Joey’s little picture poking out while I am working in the kitchen.  I am super pleased with how this project came out.  It was cheap (total cost for both was just about $40.00) and really simple.  I love the modern twist on the classic old silhouette photos.

Oh and just to add, even if you don’t have a trip to Disney planned in the future, there are different ways to get the silhouettes created for you.  I have seen many DIY projects on pinterest and many cities have artists that specialize in this.  Good luck!  Let me know if you make one!

XO Danielle

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We had such a great time celebrating Joey’s first birthday yesterday!  I still can’t believe I have a one year old!  I wanted his party to be sweet and fun.   I loved the idea of a dessert only party.  Simple, easy and full of sugar.  I decided to base the theme around Cookies + Milk.  There are SO many cute ideas on how to make this theme unique.  From milk jugs to cookie buffets, it is adorable.

I love to make desserts so this theme was right up my alley.  I must have baked (and ate) a billion chocolate chip cookies!  I dipped everything under the sun in chocolate.

Strawberries + Pretzels + Marshmallows + Oreos.

Seriously, everything is better when it’s covered in chocolate.   I threw in some cannolis and cream puffs to round out the table.  Absolute sugar perfection.

In the past I have designed all the invitations/cupcake toppers/water bottle labels/etc myself.  I wanted to take an easier approach with this party because we have just been so busy travelling and with school and work that I didn’t want to go crazy trying to pull this all together.  I found an incredibly sweet Etsy shop that had this printable party pack ready to go for me.  Um, why did I not know about this before?  I love a good DIY as you know, but time has been limited these days, so this option worked perfectly!  The party pack had everything I needed to create the perfect party!

I was able to spend some time creating the dessert stands that you see pictured.

It is a super easy DIY to do for parties.  Simply wrap canned food items in white cardstock.  I use cardboard cake plates for the top.  Glue down a piece of scrapbook paper in the color of your theme.  I chose this plaid to add some extra colors to the light blue/brown of the theme.  Glue a thick ribbon to the edge and there you have it.  Super simple party stands made to match any table and seriously cost next to nothing to make.  The 3 stands took about 15 minutes of time with my glue gun.  Love an easy project. 

We had such a great afternoon celebrating with some of our friends.

I couldn’t have wished for a more perfect party for my sweet one year old.

Happy Birthday Joey.

I am absolutely in love with my latest $20 DIY project.  You may have read about the first wall hanging DIY I created in our last home.

Well this time I wanted to go for something a little more rustic to hang in our dining room.  I have been obsessing over burlap since last Christmas and I just can’t seem to shake it.  And well, we all know how popular lumberjack and buffalo plaid are this season.  So wah lah.  My latest project was born.

TIME: 30 minutes

COST: $20.00

MATERIALS:

Foam board

Plaid fabric

Burlap fabric (cut into 3 in strips)

Hot glue gun

Staple gun

First things first.  Lay out the plaid fabric on a large flat surface (my dining room table).  Place the foam board on top of it (already cut to size).  Trim around the foam board leaving an approx. 3 in border.  Pull the fabric around the foam board and use the staple gun to secure it in place.

Flip your newly covered foam board over and lay the burlap strips where you want them.  I chose to do 3 rows of 2 layers with room for the plain to stick out between each row.  I was originally contemplating leaving 10 in of plaid on top and just making burlap ruffles on the bottom half.  There are plenty of options, so do whatever you think will look best.

Using your glue gun, slowly and carefully glue the burlap down to the plaid fabric.  Every 3 in bunch a piece and place glue to make it appear ruffled.  I cannot stress enough that your fingers will get burned if you are not careful.  The burlap fabric naturally has holes in it so as you press down the hot glue will seep through those holes and burn your fingers.  Please be careful.  I have been nursing burns ever since hanging this project.

Once you have glued all of the burlap in place, wrap the remaining burlap strip around the back of the foam and staple gun it to the back.  Then trim the burlap if any of the layers started to shed.

I hung my hanging with 1 command strip.  Easy peasy.  I love the color it adds to the wall.  I love the fabric.  I love that it only cost about $20 (I had a leftover foam scrap) so if I decide in a couple of years I don’t like it I can always take it down or change it without feeling too badly about it.

All in all it’s a great project.  Play around with different fabrics.  Move the burlap around.  Experiment.  I love that I created this.  It is nothing you would find in a store.  Be creative.  Go for it.  XO

Ok, this project is honestly a lot easier than it looks.  I have wanted a headboard for our bed for the longest time.   I always see gorgeous headboards at Z Gallery, but I can find better ways to spend $700.   Even TjMaxx and Homegoods charge $299-$499 when they have them.  Never gonna happen.

I decided to turn my headboard dreams into my next DIY.   And by do it myself, I mean…I made Mike do it.

I helped.  I instructed.  I picked materials.  I got him water.  I told him what he was doing wrong.  I honestly could have done it myself.  I was just lazy.

We, (he) did a damn good job, if I do say so myself.  The project was completed during naptime, which means that it didn’t take longer than 1.5 hours start to finish.   You can totally do this.  I promise.

Here’s what you need.

1 Big piece of plywood (measure the length of width of your bed and how tall you want it to stand)  Remember, the base of the headboard starts just a few inches lower than the top of the mattress, in other words, it does not start at the floor.  Our measurements were 62 (width of bed + 1 in on each side), 48 (from where I wanted it to start and end).

1 2×4 piece of wood (have it cut in half to make 2 pieces, these are the “legs”)

Foam (I got mine at Joann Fabrics, I picked a thick piece and had the ladies there cut it into 3 pieces that would fit my size plywood perfectly when lined up next to each other)

Batting (again, Joann Fabics, came in a big bag, rolled up.  Once unrolled it covered my plywood perfectly)

Fabric (Please note that fabrics that have design need to be lined up correctly so the design shows straight.  For example, if you are a first time DIY-er, I wouldn’t suggest stripes)

Staple Gun

Spray adhesive

Power drill + screws

Here’s what you do:

Go out into the garage (I don’t want you to spray the adhesive in your living room.  Your husband will never forgive you.  Mark my words).  We placed our plywood on a huge box so we could work on it.  We sprayed the adhesive all over the plywood and laid out the foam so that it covered it in it’s entirety.

Then unroll your batting.  Lay it over the foam.  Carefully flip the plywood over so you are looking at the back.  Pull the batting taught and staple it to the back of the plywood.  Do this all the way around.   Pay attention to the corners.  You don’t want lumps and bumps on the front.  This is good practice, because the fabric part comes next.

Now lay the fabric over the batting and do that same thing with the fabric.  Again, close attention to the corners.  Mike thinks he is amazing at corners.  He’s not.  But whatever.  He says its like wrapping a Christmas present.  I don’t know when he does that, because mine usually come wrapped straight from the Bloomingdale’s customer service department.  Now, they know corners.

Now that the hard part is finished.  Make your wife go get you water.  Oh wait, that was me.  Go get your whining husband some water.  Flip the plywood over and admire the handiwork.  Looks good right?  Impressed yourself?  Almost done.

Take your 2 wooden legs (2×4’s) and use the power drill to drill the legs into the headboard.  There.  Now you are done.  Try to carry it up the stairs without knocking it into the walls and waking Mini.

After we finally got it into position behind the bed, Mike asks how come we never do any HS projects.  I’m like HS?? What the hell is that.  He says, you know…Hire Someone.  I told him I did.  I hired him.

He agreed that the project came together very quickly and easily.

Nice, right???  Saved myself a WHOLE lot of money.  The entire project came out to approx $75.00.  I already had a staple gun, power drill, and spray adhesive.  Also, being the couponing whore that I am, I bought the foam, batting and fabric all on sale with coupons from Joann’s.  Please don’t ever spend full price at Joann’s.  I will think you are an idiot.   I don’t want to think that.  Trust me, they don’t need the money.  Joann is doing just fine

ENJOY!  Hope I made sense.  Hope you try to make one.  Just do it already.  You know you want to.

I have a confession.  I love sparkly things.  Sequins, glitter, diamonds you name it.  If it shines, I must have it.   I have been wanting to redo a couple of gold candlestick holders to match my new grey/turquoise bedroom.   I was originally going to paint them either turquoise or silver but when I saw the container of glitter I knew what I had to do.

Here’s what I used:

2 old candlesticks (free)

2 wiffle balls ($1 for 4 at the dollar store)

Glitter ($4.00)

Random fake flowers ($7.00)

Elmer’s glue

Sponge brush

Glue gun

 Line the table in paper.  Or do this project in the garage.  Glitter makes a mess.  A beautiful mess.  Not a mess Mike wants to step in.

Start at the base of the candle sticks and paint glue around about 1 inch at a time.  After the glue is painted, pour glitter over the area covered in glue.  Keep moving up the candlestick until it is entirely covered in glitter.

In the meantime, convince your ever-so-crafty husband to create the flower ball.  Pour him wine.  Lots of wine.  Insist that this is a bonding experience.  Teach him how to use the hot glue gun.  Pretend not to hear him curse when he burns himself.

The flower ball is easy.  Pluck all the flowers off the stems, then hot glue around the circle openings on the ball and place the flower in the hole.

Once the flower balls are done, place them on the side.  When the glitter is all dry on the candlesticks take them outside and spray them with clear spray paint to seal the job.

Now, you can glue the flower balls to the candlestick but I am just placing them there for now.  I might change the flowers into something that is more rounded.  I might even decide to use candles.  Either way, these are going to look adorable on my dresser!

This DIY is seriously one of the easiest projects I have ever done.  It cost under $30.00 and I love the impact it makes in the house.

The best part about this is that it is completely removable.  When we leave the West Coast, my artwork gets to come with us.  I think projects like this are such a great way to dress up a rental property.   The thought of painting walls, and then having to paint them back to their original color makes me nauseous.  By creating large, removable wall hangings of any type, you can easily add color and pattern to any space.

The basic list of materials is as follows:

Foam board  4 feet x 8 feet

Elmer’s spray adhesive

Fabric of your choice (I went to Joann’s and there were tons of great prints to choose from, all different color schemes, textures, etc.  They can run up to $50.00+/yard, so make sure you bring a coupon!)

Those were the only things I had to purchase for this project.  I already had a staple gun.  If you do not, you will need to get one.  It will change your life.

*Beware of buying the foam with a toddler.  A toddler who is still wearing her Easter dress because I decided to stop at the store for the piece of foam “real quick” after I took her to see the Easter Bunny.

Here’s how this went down…Miss Mini (who refuses to sit in a shopping cart) followed me all the way to the back of the store to pick out the foam.  Once I selected it, I had to carry it back to the front while making sure she stayed next to me.  I ended up having her just hold the back end of the foam as if she was helping me carry it.  Seriously the foam weighs like 2 lbs.  She probably could have carried it herself.  If it wasn’t 4 x 8 feet big.  This foam was massive.  Every person I walked by offered to help.  Nope, this proud Mama’s got it.  All bad ass, with my tremendous piece of foam and pink tulle covered toddler.  Got this.  Thanks anyways.  We were doing great.  They opened up a separate line for us so we could pay and get out quickly.  We were causing quite a scene.  Not sure if it was Mini’s dress or the foam.  Turning down help left and right I took a step out the front doors.  I told Mini to grab my hand while we walked the 50 feet to the car.  I was totally unprepared for what happened next.  With the foam in one hand and Mini hanging on the the other, a big gust of wind blew by.  And there I was, in all my proud glory, holding on to my foam for dear life, watching it buckle over my head, with my arm streched upwards, and praying it would not snap in half.  Because I am not sure what is more mortifying, having to literally wind surf my foam to my car, Mini in tow, or have it break.  At this point, a kind older lady comes over and says, “Sweetheart, I’ll hold your daughter’s hand and walk next to you.  You better hold that puppy with 2 hands before it gets away from you!”  We finally get to the car, and the next thing out of the ladies mouth is, “did you measure this to make sure it will fit?”.  Shoot me.  By now, Mini is spazzing out in her party dress in the middle of the parking lot, I am standing there like an asshole with a piece of foam that is larger than life and the helpful lady is slowing backing away muttering “good luck sweetie”.   Thank goodness for the kind mother and son that came to my rescue and offered to follow me home with the foam in the bed of their Ford F250.  I will not go into detail about how the foam did fly out on the first attempt of leaving the parking lot and soared 3 rows away.  The son was absolutely cursing me and his mother the entire time he helped.  And if he wasn’t, he should have been.  Regardless, thanks to the nicest of folks here on the West Coast   I finally got home with my foam and my daughter.  All safe and sound.  Moral of the story, go to the store alone.  Better yet, make your husband deal with picking up the supplies.

So you wanna know how I made it???  That’s the easy part!

Cut your foam board to the size you want.   (I cut mine 2 feet wide x 4 feet long)

Place a piece of foam onto your fabric and cut the fabric around the foam leaving approx 2-3 inches of extra fabric around the entire perimeter.

Once all your foam and fabric are cut, start with once piece.  I had Mike help me actually because I wanted it to be lined up right and I needed an extra set of hands.   Who am I kidding, he loved using the staple gun.  I sprayed my foam board with the spray adhesive and quickly and carefully laid the fabric right on top of the foam.  I pressed down evenly to get out any bubbles that were created.  Then we carefully flipped the foam and took the excess fabric and folded it over and stapled away.

I was able to hang these with command hooks because they are so light.

Seriously easy.  Even easier because Mike was so helpful.   Do it.  You wont be disappointed.  I think it would be great to even cover 10×10 canvases with different prints of fabric to make a wall collage.  You can come up with a ton of ideas.  I love the impact it has on my walls, and you will too.

I didn’t want it too bright.

I didn’t want it right smack out on the wall in the living room.

I didn’t want to spend a lot of money.

And lastly, I did NOT want to finish creating something, convince Mike to finally hang it, and then end up hating it.

That however, is not the case here.  I am so in love with this latest DIY.  Check out the details below!

I must say it was by far one of the easiest projects I have ever done, and in my opinion has the greatest impact!  I’m sorry the pictures don’t do it the justice it deserves.  The stairs don’t really get natural light…and I don’t know how to use my fancy camera…

Here’s the quick breakdown:

Supplies:  Large wooden letters (Mine are the 3d light brown ones from JoAnn Fabrics, and they weigh all of 2 oz each), Acrylic paint in any color you choose (I chose FolkArt #320 Jamaican Sea, its a cross between a minty green and sea foam blue…makes sense I’m sure), GLITTER, Clear spray paint (which I used as a sealer to keep the glitter from falling off everywhere, and Elmer’s glue (or whatever liquid glue you have on hand)

The directions are simple:

1) Paint the letters, the front, the bottoms, the sides, inside the cut outs and all.  Don’t worry about the back, but you want it to be a finished piece no matter what angle people look at it from.  Being as mine is on the stairs, I see glitter when I am going down the stairs, up the stairs, etc.. Let dry completely, I did 2 coats.  Acrylic paint dries seriously fast so this took about 40 minutes.

2) With a sponge brush, paint glue around the outside of the letters (on the pop out part).  Add glitter as you go, working a little bit at a time so the glue doesn’t dry up on you.  This part can get tricky because it is hard to get the glitter in allll the creavases, like on the M.  Remember the more glitter the better.  I just kept shaking off the excess onto a piece of huge paper and dumping it back into the paper plate I was working with.

3) Lay flat until completely dry.  Remember go easy on the glue.  Too much glue and the glitter will look clumpy, gross and will start to drip.

4) Go outside on your driveway in your pajamas at 7 am in the morning and spray paint the shit out of the entire project while waving bye, with no bra on to your neighbors, who probably think you are bat shit crazy.

5) Hang on the wall, or lean up against a wall on the nightstand, put them wherever you want.  I am dying to make Juliana’s name in complete glitter to hang vertically in her room, but perhaps one glittered wall hanging is enough for now.  We used command velcro pieces to hang these and it was perfect.  Just stick them to the letters and pop them on the wall.  So easy, and will make it easy to take them down.

Make one, I dare you.  You will love it.  Grab a friend, (my sister was in town and helped me with mine), and a glass of wine and just go for it!  And if you think it’s too hard, I’ll make one for you, because I had a great time doing it!