Holiday Ombre Pinecone Wreath

Gather up some pinecones, I've got a pretty holiday idea for you!  I'm going to be honest, this is not one of my quick and simple crafts that I normally like to do.  It's a bit of a chore, but its so worth it!

I came across this wreath idea via BH&G (Better Homes and Garden) and I "needed" one too!  It was not only beautiful, but it was a perfect color scheme for my freshly painted front door.

My Mama has two giant pine trees in her front yard and at almost any given time you can gather up quite a few pinecones for crafting.  We happen to have several bags full because I'm always "going to make something" with them and then I don't.  Sound familiar?

If you have just picked up your pinecones, you may want to de-bug and fully open them, see how by clicking here.  I've had mine for over a year so they are all open and buggie free!

You will need the following items to make your own wreath:

18" Grapevine Wreath (I usually get mine at Goodwill or thrift stores)
Lots of pinecones (I used 42), the smaller the better.  The larger ones are harder to work with.
Spray Paint - Colors of your choice.  I used three colors, Aqua, Destiny and Silver Fox but more is fine too.
Hot glue gun
Glue sticks

I picked out all the small pinecones I had, but I did end up using some of the larger ones because I needed more in the end.  I ended up having three different paint sessions because I kept needing more pinecones.

Here are my paint colors.  The Aqua I already had left over from my thrifty lamp makeover.  You can see that post by clicking here.  The other two, Destiny and Silver Fox, I picked up at Lowes for about $4 each.  To be honest the Valspar paints are really pretty and all but the sprayer button itself needs some revision.  It's extremely hard to press down and get to start spraying!  Not even joking when I tell you my forearm muscle is sore after using them.

Here is my set up for painting.  I set up on our work bench and I laid down a big piece of cardboard so I didn't get paint all over everything.  You could also use a drop cloth or plastic.

NOTE: Please wear gloves and a mask to protect yourself.  The mask is a definite necessity because you DO NOT want to breath those paint fumes into your lungs.

I'm sure I don't have to tell you how hard it is to use a hot glue gun and snap pictures all by yourself, but to assemble your wreath, start out with one color of pinecones adding them to your grapevine wreath here and there and then go on to the next color and so forth and so on until you have your wreath looking the way you want it.....three paint sessions later even! lol!

Please click here for the BH&G video tutorial, its awesome!

It looks like Piper is standing on her head here, but she's actually playing with a piece of pinecone that fell to the floor as I was hanging the wreath.  Anytime I start taking pictures, all the kitties show up, especially Piper!

I really love how the wreath looks on our freshly painted blue door!  If you haven't read my post on Painting a Paneled Door you can click right here.  Its easier than you think!

The best thing about this wreath is that we can leave it up all Winter long! Yay!

It doesn't have to be done all at once.  It is a slow process in the works! C-ya next time!

I'm Linking to:
These lovely and FUN parties!
Between Naps on the Porch
The Dedicated House  - (I was featured)

Painting a Paneled Door with a Window

Painting a paneled door with a window is really easy and I have no idea why I waited 6 long years to do it!  Ok, the reason was because I could not decide on a color....yep, couldn't make up my mind yall! I even asked you back here on this post and I got a lot of great ideas!

I did this project the weekend before Halloween so our spooky decor was still up for the pictures.  How do you like it? I love it!

A plain white metal door.  This is what we looked at for 6 years yall!  Honestly I don't think I thought much about it until we started to make over the entry hall. Links will be below for those details if you'd like to see them.

The first step to every good painting job is to use your blue painter's tape and tape off everything you do not want paint on.  Since my honey was at work this day, I chose to tape up the hardware and paint around it instead of taking it all off.  That oblong oval window was a booger bear to tape off, but I did it!  Also, lay down your drop cloth if you're a messy painter like me! *wink*

Gather your supplies.  Hmm, looks like I've used these items for LOTS of paint jobs!  I always use a canvas drop cloth, gloves, paint tray lined with foil for easy clean up and my angle brush.  Since I was painting a door, I chose a smooth foam roller for this paint job.

The paint I chose with the help of the friendly Lowe's people was Valspar Duramax Exterior paint in the color SEA CREATURE, its a Sherwin Williams color.  This paint is great because its a paint and primer all in one and I only needed two coats for my door.

STEP 1:
Using a brush, paint the inside panels making sure to get in all the crevasses. 

Since our door has a window in it, we only had three inside panels to paint.  Two small ones and one large one around the window.

STEP 2:
Still using your paint brush, paint the window frame and the area around your door knob and dead lock.  These areas don't allow the roller to be used properly.

STEP 3:
Using your foam roller, with a thin even coat of paint, paint all the flat surfaces of your panels.

Tah Dah! This is going great at this point except for the fact that our new kitten Piper is trying her best to make blue kitten foot prints in my new entry hall!

STEP 4:
Still using your roller and a thin even coat of paint, starting at the top and moving downward, paint all the rest of your door.

The first coat of paint is going to be very uneven and patchy looking.  It's ok! Let it dry for about 30 minutes and then move on to the next coat. Oh and be sure to put up your paint, brush and roller so your kitten doesn't have a finger/paw paint party while you're outside planting a new flower! lol! That didn't happen, but it could have if I hadn't picked it all up before going outside.  She was very persistent!

STEP 5:
For the second coat, paint it all over again with another thin even coat of paint starting at step one and moving through all the steps until you're finished.  It may look a bit patchy again, but that is just because the paint is still drying.  Be patient and wait for the paint to dry.  I'm telling you this because this is what I ran into because I'm the most impatient person in the world!  Depending on the paint and color you choose, you could need more than two coats.

When you're sure your paint is mostly dried, carefully remove all of the painter's tape, clean up your area and then step back and marvel at your awesome painting talents!  It's so awesome to have that blue pop of color in the hallway now.  It's like having a brand new door!

If you saw any thing in the first and last picture you'd like to know more about, I'm going to try and link it all below, but if you don't see what you're looking for, just ask and I'll be happy to answer.

Halloween Accent Wall - click HERE
Chevron Burlap Fall Wreath - click HERE
Spooky Skeleton Wreath - click HERE
DIY Barn Wood Light Fixture - click HERE
Porcelain Wood Look Tile Floor - click HERE
Builder Grade Door Makeover - click HERE
DIY Perfect Basboards - click HERE
2 x 4 Pumpkin - click HERE

It doesn't have to be done all at once.  It is a slow process in the works! C-ya next time!

I'm Linking to:
These lovely and FUN parties!
Between Naps on the Porch
The Dedicated House  - (I was featured)

Halloween Accent Wall

I'm not going to lie,  I just put up my Halloween decorations today.  I just have to be in the mood to do certain things and decorating is certainly one of them.  Now, if you're like me then you love the cute and easy kind of DIY decor that doesn't end up costing an arm and a leg.  This is one of those kind of easy crafts for sure!

I'm probably going to keep using this idea for years to come.  I'm really loving it and I'm already trying to figure out how to make it continue out the front door and on to the front porch.

You will need very few supplies for this little craft.

Scissors - Find mine here, they are the best for paper crafting!
Black card stock or construction paper, I used 8 1/2" x 11" card stock.
Bat template that you can grab HERE. Thank you for the awesome template Dana!

Fold your card stock in half and then place your template down and cut it out.  EASY! I was able to get two bats from each piece of card stock.  I made a bazillion. lol!

TIP: I used a piece of double sided tape on the back of my template to hold it in place as I cut it out each time.

Apply them to the wall how you think bats would fly.  They normally fly in groups in sort of a line all together, so that's the look I went with.

First I tried using double sided tape to attach them to the wall, but that was a fail.  I snapped one picture and one by one they started falling down! The cats loved it, it was just a game to them! lol!  I also tried some scrapbook adhesive, nope.....same falling off the wall thing again.

Finally, and some of you are probably going to cringe, but I grabbed my desk stapler and stapled those little dudes to the wall.  Then the staples were glowing at me against the black, so I grabbed a sharpie and colored them all black.  Guess what?  Not one bat has fallen to the floor since then! Ha! I win!

If you've created a bat wall before, how did you adhere yours to the wall?

Want to see more of my Fall Decorating? Look HERE.

It doesn't have to be done all at once.  It is a slow process in the works! C-ya next time!

I'm Linking to:
These lovely and FUN parties!
Between Naps on the Porch
The Dedicated House  - (I was featured)

Easy to Make Fancy Hand Lettered Sign

If you've ever wanted one of those cute wooden signs you've seen all over the internet,  here's an easy way to make your very own.  You can be fancy too!

I ended up framing mine with a very simple frame, but the sign would be cute without the frame as well.

To recreate my sign, you will need:
A piece of wood cut to the size of sign you are wanting.  (Mine is 13 1/4" x 5 3/4")
Bromello font - download it for free HERE.
Paint of your choice and black for the lettering
Foam paint brush
Fine/small paint brush
Pencil
Optional for the Frame:
1 x 2 wood
Wood Stain of your choice
Chop saw
Nail Gun

For my size sign, I used the Bromello font and printed it at 288 points using my home printer.  It did not fit all on one page, so I pieced it together using some scotch tape.

I used an acrylic paint for my base coat and a chalk paint for the top coat.  I don't suppose it matters what type of paint you use, its just what I had on hand, so that's what I used.  By the way, this chalk paint is what I used to color the inside of the drawers of my bedside table.  Check that out HERE.

Using the lighter color paint and a foam brush, I painted a really good covering of paint over the entire top surface of the wood.  Let that dry well.

Next, using the chalk paint, I painted on a light coat so that some of the lighter color would show through.  I wanted two colors because I like to distress my projects, its just a preference, not a must! :)

You can see above how I pieced the printed letters together to make one long word.  With your printed letters flipped to the back side, grab a pencil and heavily color over the printed letters.

WARNING: The printed letters will transfer to whatever they are laying on. Luckily mine was on my hutch top which is porcelain, so it came right off.  You may want to put something down under the letters when doing this step.

After you have the backside covered with pencil, carefully position your letters on your painted board and secure with a small amount of scotch tape to hold it in place.

Using a pencil, trace the outside perimeter of each letter pressing firmly as you go.

Carefully remove the printed letters and you should have traced the word you chose on to your board.  If needed, go back in with your pencil and fill in any spots that didn't transfer well.

The part where I overlapped the paper while piecing it together, didn't do to well, so I just went over it so I could see it better.  Next time, I will try and make the paper piecing a lot less thick and not have so much overlapping itself. Lesson learned!

Now for the fun part, painting the letters.  Use a fine tipped paint brush and black acrylic paint and fill in the traced lines of the word.

The reason I chose the Bromello font is because its edges are not crisp and true, they are shaky and uneven...just like my painting skills! Ha!

You can leave your sign just like this, or you can follow my lead and distress it and add a frame.

To distress my sign, I took it out to the shop and used our mouse sanders with a very fine grit paper and went over top of it and all around the edges so that some of the lighter color paint would show through.

The frame is so easy. Just measure your sign from side to side.  Mine is 13 1/4" so I cut two pieces of 1 x 2 at that length.  Then, lay the sign and your two cut long pieces down and measure top to bottom.  Mine measures 7 1/4" so I cut two pieces of 1 x 2 at that length.  Now, stain or paint your frame if you'd like.  Lastly, using the nail gun, I asked my honey to nail it all together for me because I did not want to ruin my sign after all my hard work! I'm not the best with the nail gun yet. :)

Want to see what we've been up to recently at The Clover House?
Porcelain Wood Look Tile Floor
Builder Grade Door Makeover
DIY Perfect Baseboards
DIY Barn Wood Light Fixture

It doesn't have to be done all at once.  It is a slow process in the works! C-ya next time!

DIY Barn Wood Light Fixture

I believe this is the fourth post I've done all about our newly remodeled entry hall and there is still so much to do!  Today its all about the lighting.  Just a note before we get started, as usual when I say "we" in this post, I mostly mean my honey because he's the one who does most of the work.  I'm just his helper!

Since before we moved in and scraped all the popcorn ceilings off, the light fixture in here was literally dangling by the wiring, from the ceiling with no type of covering over the bulb.....not even joking.....yall, that was 6 years ago!

Sorry, I didn't snap a before picture but just imagine an old shiny brass fixture with ceiling spackle all over it just hanging there from its wires.  Yep, that was it! Lovely, huh?

Anywho.....we used blue painters tape to get to the size of fixture we wanted.  After a few attempts, we ended up with a 28" x 14" fixture.

Next we went out to our stash of wood, we have lots.  This wood is special though, its over 100 years old and it came from my honey's family's barn.  Its very rustic and that's how we like it!  Read more about that HERE.  We chose one piece for the base and one for the sides.

This is the mini pendant light set up we bought at Lowe's in French Bronze.  If you click HERE you can see that we totally disassembled it to create our light.  While we were at Lowe's, we also picked out 3 light shades too.  Click HERE to see the details on those.  We got them for 1/2 price. Bargain!

This fixture is basically a very shallow box.  It's just deep enough to allow for the wiring inside.  First we cut the base down to size.  Allowing for the sides, it ended up being 12-1/2" wide by 26-1/4" long.

Next using the smaller piece of wood he made the sides, or the part that would be closest to the ceiling.  This wood is 3/4" thick.  (2) of them are cut at 28" long x 2" tall and (2) of them are cut at 14" long x 2" tall.

We used the chop saw set on the 45 degree angle to form the corners so that they would meet up like a frame for the base.

We used gorilla wood glue along the edges were wood touches wood.  This helps hold everything firm and secure.

We held everything together using our nail gun being careful to stay right on the line where the two wood pieces met.

Next we took it in to see if the box fit in our space.  Of course it did!  We loved it and ,moved on to the next step, wiring the pendants in.

We used a 3/8" drill bit to make three holes for the wire to thread through.  We found the center of the box and made one hole there and then center again between the first hole and the edge for each end hole.

Like I said earlier, we disassembled the pendant light we bought.  These are the little pieces (strain relief connectors, I looked that up for us. lol!) that held the wiring to the metal base originally.  We used more wood glue to lock them in place.

After those fittings had dried and were tight, we threaded the wiring through and cut them to length.  This will be your own preference of course.  Just make sure you leave yourself enough length to work with so you get the look you want.

The next step was documented with a picture, but it was very blurry and I didn't want to use it, sorry about that!  That's what I get for not wearing my glasses.  Grrrrr!
But what we did was use the little clear plastic fitting that originally held the wiring in place on the store bought fixture to make sure the wire would stay in place against the wood on the inside of the box.  It made the wire unable to slip, or in other words, it held on to the wire so it couldn't move around or pull through from the outside..

As for the actual wiring together of the pendants, after stripping the covering off the ends of each wire, join all white wires together and join all black wires together.  I didn't get step by step pictures on this part because my honey does this daily and I couldn't keep up to be honest, but go HERE for an excellent tutorial on all that wiring stuff.  Thanks Suesan!

Here's what it looked like and the lengths of each pendant light when he was finished.  The center is 10" long and the ends are 7" long.

Of course I couldn't snap pictures of the step where we connected the fixture to the ceiling because I was helping hold up this heavy monster up so my honey could wire it up (making sure the power is OFF!) and get it screwed into the ceiling securely.  We used two screws that measured 2 1/2" long to hold the fixture to the ceiling.  Please make sure you're screwing into a stud board or your beautiful creation will come down and that would be awful!

This is what the entry hall looks like in natural light that comes in through the front door.

This is how it looks with the new light fixture turned on.  I picked out three 60 watt LED bulbs in the natural light version.  I love it and can't stop looking at it!

Have you ever made your own light fixture? If so, what kind did you make?

Want to see what else we've done in our Entry Hall Makeover?
Porcelain Wood Look Tile Floor
Builder Grade Door Makeover
DIY Perfect Baseboards

It doesn't have to be done all at once.  It is a slow process in the works! C-ya next time!

I'm Linking to:
These lovely and FUN parties!
Between Naps on the Porch
The Dedicated House  - (I was featured)