wine & redesign -

QUICK TIP: Flea Market Art

Today I went “flea marketing” looking for some affordable art to adorn my walls. I was hoping for the best but really only expected the typical 80’s beach scene with a mauve mat board and black plastic frame. I was pleasantly surprised. FLEA MARKETS ARE WHERE IT’S AT! The one I visited had multiple original oil paintings in thick wooden frames ranging from $15-$89 depending on the size. Here are some of my favorites:

This oil painting was about 3’ across with a beveled canvas inner frame. Guess how much it was listed … $39! Can you believe it? And that’s not even after bargaining, (always know you can bargain with the seller at a flea market).

This one was my favorite and I’m currently in “negotiations” with the seller. It’s a beautiful original oil painting with an interesting wooden frame that had wavy chunks cut out that mimicked the artist’s brush strokes. It too was about 3’ across. I love the use of green tones. It was priced at $89, but I’m hoping to get it for $60, (wish me luck)!

This painting was beautiful. Once again - an original oil painting with a substantial frame and intricate brush strokes. This was about 3.5’ across - so a very large painting for a home. It’s price was, I believe, around $60. Considering that all these paintings are real and have beautiful frames, (the frames alone at craft stores cost about as much), they’re a steal of a deal!

The verdict is in - I’m hooked on flea market art. If the frame seems outdated, keep in mind you can always jazz it up by masking over the art and painting the frame a different color. Again, the framing alone sometimes can cost as much as $40, so if you like the art, it’s well worth it.

I’m still waiting for that seller to call me back….come on….give a girl a call!

CHEERS!

PROJECT: Silverware Pillows

A while ago I stumbled upon these really cute pillows by Beth Cummings at her Etsy Shop FourEyesHandmade.

I decided I would need something like this for my breakfast nook. Although these pillows are adorable, I needed a different size and color. I also wanted to try my hand at screen printing with an at-home solution. So, here’s my first try:

Here’s how I did it:

1) First, measure your pillow and add an inch on either side.

2) Cut out the pattern pieces based on the pillow’s measurements. I created an envelope-style pattern. You can see how I make the pattern on another post of mine, Slipcovers for Your Pillows.

3) Create stencils for your artwork. Once complete, I print them out and trace them with a permanent marker on a plastic sheet, ( for the plastic sheet I destroyed a couple old folders I wasn’t using anymore).

4) After cutting out your shape, center it on your front pillow pattern piece. Tape it down on the sides, so it doesn’t slip away, and then blot the empty shape with your paint using a sponge. The sponge texture actually gives the artwork a worn look. Make sure to dab on top of the stencil and don’t rub. This helps keep the shape of your stencil.

5) Remove the plastic sheet and let the pattern pieces dry.

6) After the fronts of the pillows are dry, sew your pillows together.

My breakfast nook is still a work in progress, but these three pillows add a touch of cute to the space.

Here’s the BEFORE (with seller’s furniture):

My next project will be to re-finish the table.

Now it’s time to celebrate!

CELEBRATORY WINE: Penfolds Koonunga Hill Shiraz Cabernet, $10. This is a great wine for the price! It had just enough berry along with the rich, deep taste that comes with a cab. I selected this to go with today’s project because combining two things, (ie. screen printing DIY and sewing DIY) can be a good thing. CHEERS!

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The house is no longer orange!

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Good-bye orange house! In two weeks you will be the color November Rain - my husband picked it out because it was the name of a Guns n’ Roses song - go figure. Ohhh, there will be a red door too - I’ve always wanted a red door! Check back in a couple weeks to see the AFTER. And CHEERS to that!

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I just bought these pillow cases from Etsy shop Yiayias. I sort of have a thing these days for cobalt blue prints. This ikat print is beautiful, and I couldn’t find it anywhere, (or else I would have made my own pillows), and I plan to put a couple of these in my breakfast nook. Truth be told, sometimes a girl needs to succomb to the marketplace to give herself a break from all the projects.

Happy shopping, and CHEERS!

Source: etsy.com

QUICK TIP: Extended Curtains

One issue I have found with moving is that you always need different lengths of curtains for each new place. The first home my husband and I lived in, the standard 84” length was perfect, so most of my curtains are 84” long. Then I moved to San Antonio. I needed about 100” curtains. Now we are in another home in Colorado and I need anywhere from 100-140”. Crazy! I can’t keep up with it! Then I had an idea …

I pinned two of my 84” curtains together and concealed where I pinned them with a matching tie-back cord. I love how the fabric billows on the floor - very elegant!

Make sure to align the pattern of each panel together when you’re pinning. This plaid was easy to match up. My finger is peeling back the end of one panel in the below picture so you can get a better look:

Safety pinning the curtains together is faster than sewing and you can always take out the pins if you move again and need 84”. Also, stores don’t really sell lengths longer than 120”, (if you’re even lucky enough to find that length in the pattern you want). Furthermore, paying a seamstress to make extended curtains like this would get VERY pricey…let alone the price of the fabric. I purchased the tie-back cords for $3 each at Hobby Lobby and I already had the curtains. Hope this inspires you to take out those “too short” curtains and make them work.

CHEERS!

PROJECT: Deer Art

I’ve mentioned this before, but I’ll mention it again … I’m obsessed with deer! I have to really edit myself from decorating EVERYTHING in deer decor. “Simmer, Anne, you don’t want your house to look like Rudolph’s family reunion!”

Anyhoo, I had this great idea for an art piece in my music room. It’s super easy and I did it in about 1-1.5 hours, (while waiting for the moving truck to arrive).

First, you start with two vertical canvases that will fit your space side by side. I purchased my canvases at Michael’s because they were having a half-off sale.

Materials:

2 vertical canvases

Paint for Antlers

Paint for Background

2 pieces of Frisket about the same size as your canvas, (frisket is basically painter’s tape and stencils in one)

Pen

Scissors

Paint Roller

1. Place one piece of frisket on top of your canvas. Trace one of the antlers. I had a faux antler I used as reference. Once you are happy with your traced shape, cut it out and set it aside for later.

2. Paint the entire top of the canvases the color you want your antlers. I wanted mine a very light “griege,” (grey/beige). Set your canvases in a place to dry.

3. Once the canvases are dry, peel of the backing from the antler-stenciled frisket and place it on one of the canvases. I started from the bottom of the canvas and slowly stuck/peeled my way up. Think, “cell phone screen protector.” You don’t want any bubbles - especially on the edges.

4. Now that the design is stuck to one of the canvases, use the leftover antler-stenciled frisket backing paper to trace the same antler reversed. I added a couple more branches to differentiate it from the other one. Here’s an image of the antler-stenciled frisket backings once I cut and peeled each sticky piece to the canvas. I will most likely save these non-sticky backing pieces for reference for future projects.

5. With both antlers stuck to the canvas, you can now paint the entire canvas, including the sides, with your background paint. I chose a brownish gunmetal metallic paint. I used a roller with a lot of nap on it to create texture.

6. Once the paint is dry to semi-dry, you can peel off the antler stencil. My edges were a little hairy, so I touched them up a bit.

Here’s the finished product in my music room:

This project is fast, easy, and, of course, cheap!

CELEBRATORY WINE: La Crema Chardonnay, $10-15. This is your typical California chardonnay with its popular oak/butter taste. Chardonnay and deer may be in abundance, but I’m not complaining. CHEERS!

PROJECT: Mirror Makeover

Recently I purchased a Groupon for this great used furniture store in Colorado Springs called Platte Furniture. They had a ton of interesting things, but I fell in love with this old, gigantic mirror:

The mirror was priced at $150; however, with my Groupon it ended up costing me $40 - not bad for a HUGE, intricate mirror. I always think a good mirror can make a room. Recently I’ve been seeing a lot of intricate mirrors like this with white frames:

Below is an example from One Kings Lane. This mirror is actually much smaller than the one I purchased: but, as you can see from the price, it’s quite a bit more expensive.

No worries - this is an EASY fix. The first step is to clean the mirror.

After you are done cleaning the frame, grab some painter’s tape and newspaper to mask off your mirror. I also put a large board on top just for added protection, but thick layers of newspaper should work as long as you tape off ALL gaps. In an open area that’s exposed to outside air, go ahead and spray paint the frame with a primer spray paint.

Allow the primer to dry and then apply your first coat of the final spray paint color. Spray paint is really perfect for this job because the frame is so detailed.

Also, don’t feel you have to go with white. I’ve seen some cool rooms where the majority of the room is neutral and then they add pizazz with a cool pop of color. Something like this (click on picture to go to source):

And here’s the finished product …

I’m still working on my dining room. I want to add drapes and some candle sconces on the wall. One project at a time, though! If you want to see how I made-over the dresser below, click here.

CELEBRATORY WINE: Ecco Domani Pinot Grigio, $9.00. This is a light and airy wine at a great cost, (just like my mirror)! It’s also a great summer wine. CHEERS!

PROJECT: Dresser Makeover

I made a bargain with my brother that he could have my cool American flag by Tommy Hilfiger in exchange for his beat-up bedroom dresser. I think I got the better end of the deal, (after the makeover of course), but I’ll let you all be the judge of that! Here’s the before, (complete with nasty brother stains on the inside like shaving cream and gum).

So, I went to work …

First on the list was to remove the handles.

After all the handles and knobs were removed I got out my power sander and began to sand.

After sanding, I cleaned the piece off with some all-purpose cleaner. This removed the dust from the sanding as well as brother germs.

The next step was to start painting and staining. For this piece, I was inspired by the furniture that was both stained and painted. Something like these:

After sanding the top, drawers, and all sides, I stained the top of the dresser. I wanted a really dark stain, so I had to apply three coats. The below picture shows two coats.

While I waited for the coats of stain to dry, I started painting the drawers with a small hand-held roller. I found that there was no need to prime these if you sanded them well.

Possibly the most fun about making-over a furniture piece is picking new knobs. I fell in love with some contemporary knobs by Martha Stewart featured at Home Depot.

You can also see my mirror that I madeover above it. Click here to see how I made the mirror.

CELEBRATORY WINE: A to Z Wineworks Pinot Gris, $13. I LOVE Oregon wine, especially their whites … I also like taking something that’s free and making it look expensive. Here’s to bargaining with brothers and making their stuff beautiful again! CHEERS!

PROJECT: Master Bedroom “House” & Bookshelves

This past week I had the pleasure of having my handy father-in-law stay with me at my new house. We decided that we would spend his visit working away. Here’s a picture of Daddy Klein helping me conquer my fear of, (drum roll) - THE TABLE SAW.

Let me back up and explain why TABLE SAW came into play. Here’s a before pic with the previous owner’s set-up.

I had no idea what to do with the turquoise “house” inlet in the wall as well as the glass shelving to the left of it. I knew I wanted to replace the light fixtures within the “house,” but that was about it. It wasn’t until a talented family friend and interior designer, Dee, gave me some great tips. First, she told me to turn the “house” inlet into a regular rectangle or arch. Then, replace the glass shelving with wooden shelves, (in comes TABLE SAW). I still was not sure how this would look so she sent me to this fabulous interior design website, SuzanneKasler.com. There, Dee referenced one of the bookshelves shown on Suzanne’s site:

Pretty dreamy, right? I showed Daddy Klein the picture and he was up for the challenge, (he’s kind of like a fairy godmother, but in a rugged way with tools). So, we set to work!

We measured out the size of the inlet and then sketched out a rough spec of it. After purchasing the wood, I painted each piece with a white paint/primer combo, (while Daddy Klein was using the infamous TABLE SAW)!

My cat, Atom, is not amused here. He’s mad because I disciplined him about jumping up on the freshly painted wood pieces. Here’s my evidence of his mischief:

After all the pieces were cut and painted, we started to assemble the bookshelf. Then, we placed it into the inlet, (while holding our breath and hoping our measurements were accurate). SIGH! - IT FIT!

We added trim on the exterior. I picked something that reminded me of columns and accented it with another base trim piece to take it even further. Presto chango, here’s what it looks like now:

Daddy Klein also got rid of the “house” inlet. I think it makes the room look larger. I replaced the sconces with some that I found on clearance at Restoration Hardware. The mirrored furniture piece I found at Marshall’s for $170, (pieces like this are priced at $400 and up)! I’m still working on dressing up the room, but I think we made big steps!

Normally, I’d celebrate with wine, but Daddy Klein prefers Iced Tea. This was his daily fuel:

CHEERS!