Double Dipper

Happy Tueday! If you follow me on Instagram you have seen a few clues to todays project. Maybe a gray and white striped chair leg and a pic of ikat fabric??  Well you probably guessed I was working on a little chair redo.  Back in my early DIY days I re did this chair from a cherry finish to the black paint you see now.

I have changed the cover a few times, but this pic shows it in its beautiful original moss green velvet. I know you are probably saying why would she even want to touch that beauty?? But as you can see it is far past its glory days!  As you have noticed I have been working on my office and this chair sits in here as an extra.  I knew that I wanted to paint the chair white, but I also knew I wanted to give it some character. I am loving the dipped leg chair trend and I found a picture of a double dipped leg I loved on Pinterest!!  So began my quest to come up with something similar.  I sanded, primed and spray painted the chair in a white semi gloss. 

At this point it was starting to really look promising.  This is when it gets a little trickier. I tried two different methods for the leg dipping. The first was to tape off the legs approx. 12 inches up and wrapping the part I wanted to stay white white in garbage bags.

This was not exact and or perfect as you can clearly see.  This worked pretty well except for a few stray spots that didn't get fully covered by the plastic bags. I resprayed a few small spots, but here it is with just the gray legs.

After two days of fully drying I decided to attempt the metallic champagne portion. I found a beautiful color that was not to gold and not to silver.  Hence the champagne name.  I taped off the legs leaving approimately two inches of the grey showing and lightly sanded the portion I would be spraying.

Then on a beautiful afternoon off from work I sat out on my deck and painted the legs.  It took quite a few coats, but it seemed to cover really well.  The tape came off ok. I did have one spot pull a little of the champagne part off, but I was able to touch it up relatively easily. Aren't these some beautiful legs!!! I have to say I was extremely pleased with the color and how they turned out.

Here are the paints I used on the frame.

Now, on to the seat cover. I searched the fabric store as well as a few T.J.'s and I brought home a shower curtain, a yard of fabric and a king duvet cover.  All would have been great options, but the ikat duvet was perfect!!! It had a little gold/yellow, a pop of blue and an almost identical dark gray to match the legs.  I used the front to one of the shams so I still have a duvet cover, and another sham if I ever want to use the fabric again.  Which may happen because I have fallen madly in love with it!!

Beautiful right?? A few staples to the back and she was ready to be reunited with her beautiful dip dyed frame.  Here she is...

So you don't have to scroll all the way back to the top here is the before and after.

I think it adds the perfect pop of color to my office. What do you think? Are you into the dip dyed trend?

Cork Board 101

I have been working on a number of projects for my office lately and one that seems never ending is my cork board.  Do you ever do a project and it never seems to be right??  Well I have now redone my cork board above my desk at least three times.... in the last week. Ughh!  I tried spraying the frame from black to white and leaving the cork as is

I tried using the awesome new Frog Tape in chevron and spraying the cork board gray

and last but not least I ended up with this!

I saw something similar on Pinterest and there was no corresponding tutorial so I bought the supplies and away I went.  I love the result!! It turned out to be the perfect graphic for the space.  I will share the full tutorial next week, but wanted to see what you all thought.  Do you like where I ended up? What have you done for your cork boards? Happy Thursday!

Printables: A number of people have mentioned to me the cute P on my desk and the Love pennant banner and if you can believe it they were both free printables!!!! Amazing right?? They both came from the amazing Shanty 2 Chic.

Letter Printable
Love Pennant Banner

Update: Here is a link to the tutorial.

Rehearsal Dinner Sign

So, as promised I wanted to elaborate on one of the projects that we created for the Poolside Rehearsal Dinner post that I wrote about here. I have an absolute love for a great chalkboard sign and knew that we wanted to create a large scale one for the evening. The inspiration came from a wood sign my MIL found on Pinterest.  We loved the saying, but wanted to translate it to chalkboard art!  First I needed to find a frame and after raiding my mothers attic (you can't even imagine all of the goodies up there!) I found this old frame that my mother was no longer using.

A few coats of white spray paint and it was like new again!!

I have worked with the Etsy shop 163 Design Company before for custom chalkboard prints and once again they did not disappoint. I sent them an inspiration image and within a day I received a large scale print. Off to Office Max it went where I asked them to print it as a large engineering print. And for $2.38 I had completed chalkboard art.

I love when you get a frame for free, use leftover spray paint a $2.38 print and you get a statement piece for a party!

Instaboard: Instagram as Art

I hope you all are loving Instagram as much as I am lately!  It seems to capture life so well and I love scrolling back through my pictures and seeing so many different friends, memories and a little piece of life.  Now that I have captured all of these wonderful moments I wanted to be able to get them printed and put up in my office, but wasn't sure how to get it done.  I recently downloaded the new Shutterfly ipad app and was amazed to find it connected directly to Instagram and I could order perfect 4x4 pictures. So easy!!

Once I received my little package of joy I began my search for how to display these beauties.  I thought of stringing ribbon on a frame and hanging them with a clothespin or making a square collage on the wall. Then it came to me!  I have a very simple piece of art hanging on my office wall and it is metal!!  It is a sculpture of over sized paperclips. Very office appropriate right??

I decided I should find a way to get the photos to hang on the paper clips. Maybe tape, or a hole punch with ribbon but then tested a magnet. Guess what?? It held!!  My Instagram display was born.

I also tested it on a sunburst I have in my bathroom just in case you have one of those hanging around!

The magnets are from Target and I like them, but would love to make something more custom down the road or maybe even order a cute set from Etsy. What have you all done with your Instagram photos? Make sure to follow my Instagram board in the upper right!

Poolside Rehearsal Dinner

A few weeks ago my MIL and  I had the privilege of decorating for my hubby's cousins Grooms Dinner or as others call it, their Rehearsal Dinner.  Is Grooms Dinner a MN thing?  Anyway, let me first tell you how absolutely adorable and loving this couple is. Below is the Bride and Groom with the Grooms wonderful parents.

Nick, the groom grew up in Brazil so his parents wanted to have a traditional Brazilian BBQ for him poolside at his grandparents house.  They hired a few Brazilian ladies to make a lot of the traditional fare and had a few Brazilian missionary friends grilling. Let me tell you the food did not disappoint!!!

On to the decor. We really wanted the rehearsal to feel intimate and to utilize as much of the space as possible.  It was supposed to rain on the day of so we had tents put up.  At first we were a little bummed, but in the end they ended up adding beautiful ambiance with the lights and hanging lanterns.

We stuck with the brides colors of coral and had picked up a number of the napkins for her bridal shower at Target on clearance.  Have I mentioned yet that I love Target??  It must be a hometown thing. 

We included a drink station, food area and sitting areas for eating.

At night after the sun went down the guests sat around and told stories about the couple.

It was such a magical night and like I often say, the people and the joy that was in the room was what made the party so special! The decor was just a fun added ambiance.  I will share a separate post with more decor details. What do you all do for Grooms/ Rehearsal Dinners?

Half of these pictures were taken by the Brides Father who is a wonderful photographer. You can find him here. Picture Place Photography

Confession...

Ok, so I have a confession to make. Do you see this beauty below.

It has never been hooked up until today!! I have had an nonfunctional vanity in our master bathroom for 4 years. I am virtually hearing all of your gasps, but I can take it and feel better that I have gotten it off my chest. See, as proclaimed DIYers we are always trying to figure something out ourselves before heading to the experts. My amazing father-in-law tried and tried again, but eventually it was decided it must be done by an expert.  So today was the day, and the first time I turned on that water to brush my teeth using this ohh so shiny an beautiful bathroom vanity was a hallelujah kind of moment :)

Before

After

Isn't she pretty??

Gallery Wall

For a very long time I have been wanting to create a gallery wall on our stairway.  However I wanted to create something that included items other than just pictures. I started by laying out the frames on the floor to get a feel for arrangement.

Next I created paper templates and hung them on the wall to make sure the placement was right and that all the gaps were filled. All in all I liked the paper arrangement and started hanging!

After hanging all of the pictures and mirrors I still felt like something was missing and added in the wooden key I had recently purchased from Target.  What a perfect addition!! I felt like it kept things a little unexpected.

Here is the view coming down the stairs.

I love that this is a wall that I can keep adding to and growing.  I would love to add a few different shapes into the gallery such as oval and maybe even a few different objects.  Here is the before, middle and after from move in to today!!