Office Shelves.

After my Office Re-Do I posted about on Friday. We were left with a big blank wall in the office due to furniture rearranging craziness. I really love open shelves but new that we did not have much money in the ol'budget to buy any. So, here is my very cheap solution....see that would laying around on the floor....

It's old wood my Dad had laying around his shop. I tell you that man has everything. After we pulled out a couple of the best pieces we cut them all to the desired size. They all had tons of age and character...which made them perfect for our abode....

 We didn't do anything else to them....just cut measured and Tal hung them evenly on the wall....

I have the hardest time with wall art...I think it is because I like to change stuff up so much that I do not like to do anything very permanent. I love these shelves. #1. Because I could move them to any room in my house and they would look awesome. #2. I can change the art/pictures/accessories out on them at any time.

 Like right now it looks like this...but I already semi-hate it and I am sure it will be different next week... 

I guess it will always give me something to do. Anybody else getting crazy with old wood? This is a great inexpensive shelving solution. I also could easily paint the wood if I ever thought I wanted a not so barn yard look...right now I am really loving the rustic feel. Happy Monday!

Office Re-Do

Remember when not to long ago I painted this stencil wall in my office? Well, I decided I wanted to paint over it. I'm the queen of doing things more than once. It's very strange. 

 It's not that I didn't like the stenciled wall paper. It was more the color of the room. It was a lot darker than all of the other rooms in our house. The stencil also had a TON of imperfections since I did the entire thing by hand. You couldn't see them unless you got close up - but I noticed them every time I walked in the room.

First I chose a new paint color. I set out to find a lighter color gray that would flow better with the entire house. Both of the below paint swatches are Martha Stewart. We went for the top one. Bedford Gray. I can't remember the name of the lighter color on bottom. 

After the room was painted. It was not easy painting over the stencil. Stung a little bit. Even though I had plans to replace it with something very similar. After searching the internet I ordered a stencil from Royal Studio Designs. I actually ordered one that was too small at first and had to send it back. So, if you are thinking about doing a full wall make sure to order a large stencil. Once I got the right one in the mail (they ship really quickly) I was able to get started. This is when I only thought I had a few hours of stenciling ahead of me....

A day and half later....

And compared to the hand stencil....it was a breeze. But really...it was hard. Like I wanted to quit on several occasions and just paint the wall gray again. The ceiling and edges were most definitely the hardest part. I never got the hang of it and honestly never want to. I have no more stencil plans in my future:)

My main goal was accomplished. It lighted the room up and now it flows much better with the rest of the house.

The professional stencil eliminated a lot of errors...making the finished product look much more seamless.

The change isn't that dramatic. Just a little bit lighter with a different pattern. Another suggestion I would give if you are thinking about venturing in to stenciling would be to choose a base paint color that is not that different from your stencil color. It took a lot of pressing with the paint roller to cover the white paint over the gray. So, what do you guys think about the change? Did you know that after I painted this room...I had painted every single room in our house in 2011 (including bathrooms). And then stenciled the same wall twice. Does that make me crazy?

Christmas Bling.

I know that yesterday I said I was ready to move on to Thanksgiving. Ya know, since it is the closer holiday and all? But one more thing before that. Our office...all decked out with Christmas bling....I bought this star last year at Lowe's after Christmas for pennies. I've made a promise to myself to only buy Christmas decor in the weeks after Christmas. It's ridiculously inexpensive then.Lots of silver tidings for this one little tree...Including disco balls...every tree needs a disco ball.And a bowl full of bling for the other side to even all that blingeness out.
Now seriously....on to Thanksgiving:)

Drum Roll...I mean Shade...Please

I've been drooling over the drum shade light fixtures that are every where for a good year now. Specifically, this one at West Elm and this one at Crate and Barrel. Those both come with very high price tags. Like 150-200 dollas. Not going to happen on the Woods budget. So, when Tal and I were strolling through IKEA, on my birthday Atlanta trip that I talked about here, and saw this drum shade.... I turned to Talon and almost screamed "can we make a light fixture out of it???" And of course he said yes. It's obviously just a lamp shade...but we knew we could work with it. I couldn't find it on the IKEA website but they had plenty in stock in Atlanta. We bought this pendant light kit at Lowe's for around $10.00.... We also bought a ceiling medallion to fancy it up a little bit. You can find these at Lowe's or Home Depot from any where around 7 bucks to 50. Just depends on how big you want to go....As always, I'm not sure of all the details of how it got hung up there. That's Talon's department. I do know that for less than 50 bucks we have the drum shade light fixture I've been wanting for what feels like foooooooooo-eva. Isn't she great? I'm officially obsessed with IKEA. You find the greatest {and cheapest} things there. Sometimes you just have to think out of the box a little bit...

What do you think? Does it compete with West Elm or Crate and Barrel? Probably not....but I still love it!

Painted Wallpaper Tutorial

Did you think the Painted Wallpaper project killed me? Well, it almost did. 5 days later and it is done son. (Note: I could only work on it the few hours I had after work) Thank you Jesus. It was hard - but not too hard - so anyone thinking of doing it do not be discouraged. You can totally do it and it is totally worth it! I started by printing and cutting out the template from Jones Design Company here. Then I traced and traced and traced and traced some more.This process took 2 of the 5 days. I posted photos where my tracing got wobbly.....just so if you are doing it and yours does -- do not worry - you can make a come back when you paint. I searched and searched on the Internet and didn't see anything about anyone having problems with their tracing. I'm here to tell you....your going to but keep on trucking on. You can do it!After two days of tracing I was FINALLY ready to start painting. I used 1/4 inch artist brush {I think they size it as a 2 at most craft stores}. This is all I accomplished on Day 3....It takes a lot longer than you would think to trace all those darn lines. Note: The double lines are tricky - read Jones Design Company's hints here. I suggest practicing on a chalkboard or large piece of paper first. By Day 4 I had gotten the hang of it and I also stayed up WAY past my bedtime to get it here. SO close. Day 5 I was able to finish it up and move everything back in to it's place. Mine is no where near as perfect as Jones Design Company's {Not sure how hers is so darn perfect}. If you look close you can see the imperfections...if you do not...you can't :). Overall, I am not sure it wouldn't just be easier to buy wallpaper I really loved and put it up BUT this was basically free because I already had the paint. No worries...I made up for it in labor hours put in to the project. So, there you have it...how I spent 5 days of my life painting one wall of my house.

Has anyone else painted wallpaper? The best part about it....I can paint over it if I decide I do not like it. Chances are = I'm not painting over it. Tooooooooooooo much hard work!

Ouch.

My hand hurts and I've only made it this far....Going home straight after work to finish it up....hopefully. So far, honestly, it hasn't been too bad. I've managed to stencil the entire pattern and begin the painting process all in the few hours after work I have to tackle it. So, I'm making darn good progress. Even though my hand really does hurt like crap. You may be asking yourself why did she put the photo in black and white? Or maybe you weren't but I'm going to tell you anyway. I do not want you to see all the greatness just yet! And it's an iPhone photo that looks like crap. There you have it. Stencil mania at the Woods home. Just in case you were wondering...while I'm stenciling away...Tillie has been doing this...Moping around. Her walks/runs have gotten pushed to the back burner due to my stenciling craziness. Therefore, she's pissed. Anybody else doing any projects that are taking over their life??