Decoupaged wicker chair

I found six of these chairs on the side of the road. I wanted to use four for my patio, gave one to my mom, and wanted the last one for my room. I originally had planned on just spray painting the chair for my room white. I did that but decided I wanted to try and decoupage it anyway. 

My mom introduced me to this printed napkin from the Dollar tree which I am obsessed with. 

The first part of this process was removing the second sheet since it was a two-ply napkin.

I used my own decoupage recipe which is just equal parts water and glue. 

After the white spray paint dried, I painted a section of the chair with the decoupage mixture. I then applied a napkin and painted another coat of decoupage over that. I continued the whole process until I was done. And now I have an awesome, one of a kind chair in my room : ) 

Thanks for checking out my blog and please check back every Friday for a new post.

-And remember, anyone can DIY. You just have to be willing to give it a try!

Make your own decoupage

 My mom told me that she had done some decoupage projects so I thought that I would try it out and see what all of the fuss was about. I tried it and would decoupage EVERYTHING if I could!!!!! I am all about saving money whenever I can. I decided that I would make my own because I refuse to pay $7 for Mod podge. 

 I used equal parts water and glue, and that's all folks!!!! Super simple and super cheap. And trust me, a little goes a loooong way. You simply apply the mixture where you want to place the paper or tissue with a paint brush, put the paper on the glue, then paint the the mixture right on top of the image you just put down again. 

I decided that I would decoupage one of the six chairs that  rescued from being thrown away and I have to say I think it came out AMAZING!

I also painted the metal a silver and the chair looks great in my room. Because the chair is wicker, the wicker took the decoupage really great. I actually do sit on the chair and the tissue has not come up. 

Another project that I decoupaged. 

I decoupaged this Batman image on the pallet board book case I built for my boys. 

I also decoupaged my pallet head board. 

Thanks for checking out my blog and please check back every Friday for a new post.

-And remember, anyone can DIY. You just have to be willing to give it a try!

Pallet board book case

I have been wanting to make my boys a bookcase for a while now. The only problem was that their room was not big enough for a bookcase. I had planned on putting one right outside their room in the hallway but it would have been a very small bookcase. I was hesitant to put one there because it was not going to fit all of their books. After some time had passed, I decided that I would put one on the second landing of the stairs. 

I wanted to get rid of the left over pallet boards that I had sitting in my backyard, so I thought that this would be the perfect project for that. I literally used up all of the wood that I had left over.

 First I measured how much space I would have in the landing and laid out the boards according to how wide and tall I wanted it.

After everything was laid out, I labeled what was going to go where, i.e. bottom shelf and backboard. 

After I labeled everything I made my cuts.

I used these mending braces to attach the shelves together and some of the boards on the back (these things are awesome!)

Before I painted I sanded the bookcase down with an 80 grit paper.

 I painted the bookcase with a chalk paint that I made. 

I applied two coats of paint. When the paint was dry I decoupaged a Batman figure that I cut out from a poster. I used my own decoupage mixture. 

I purchased this lantern for $5 at Five Below. I wanted a light to go on top of the book case so we would be able to see it at night when we are going up or down the stairs. The boys and I are a bit clumsy sometimes so I wanted to make sure we wouldn't be running in to it!

 Although the bookcase does sit on the floor, I wanted to make sure that it was secure and would not topple over onto one of the boys. I purchased this picture hanger from Hobby Lobby for about $4 with a 40% off coupon. It holds up to 100 lbs but they also sell one that holds up to 200 lbs. I attached it to the back of the back case and mounted it onto the wall.

 It does sit on the floor but I slightly tilted it back to attach it to the back base. 

Now we have an awesome and safe bookcase!

Thanks for checking out my blog and please check back every Friday for a new post.

-And remember, anyone can DIY. You just have to be willing to give it a try!

Shabby chic pallet head baord

This is one of my favorite pallet projects I've done so far...actually I'm not sure that I have a favorite because I'm obsessed with all of them! But anyway, this one required only several cuts. I started out with two pallets but cut one in half. I used the other half to make a wine rack.

This is before I cut the pallet. I used the support blocks from another pallet so the head frame would sit higher up (that's what's in front of the pallets.

One of my neighbors is moving and had a whole bunch of stuff on the curb to be thrown away. I had to go see what I could "rescue". The beams that you see leaning against the wall is what I grabbed from my neighbors junk pile. Those are the beams that go across the bottom of a bed frame to support the mattress.

Lucky for me they fit perfectly in between my pallet boards!

This is one of the Heat Treated symbols you need to look for when choosing pallets. I'll do a whole other post on how to chose pallets.

One of my friends came over to help me with this project. In this picture she already sanded them down. But before that, I simply took my extra pieces of wood, filled the gaps, glued, nailed, and cut. 

I left three gaps at the top half because I wanted to create shelves. I wanted my headboard to serve a functional purpose. 

After she sanded the pallets down, I made my own decoupage mixture and used it to line the top of the pallets and the shelves as well with napkins from the Dollar tree. I even decoupaged the beam at the bottom that will raise the pallets up.

I lined some of the inside with a vinyl adhesive that I got from the Dollar tree for another project. 

I then painted the pallets with a chalk paint that I also made myself. I applied two coats. I then stenciled PARIS FRANCE and 75017 (Paris zip code).

I added two hooks for my mason jars candles which I decorated. I pre drilled the holes in the pallet and then screwed the hooks in.

I made sure that the outlet was still accessible so we could plug up our phones at night.

The head board is not permanently mounted to the wall. My husband and I simply pushed the bed up against the pallet as much as we could.

I'm so happy with how it came out. This was a simple and cheap project! And the best part is that no else has one just like it : )

Thanks for checking out my blog and please check back every Friday for a new post.

-And remember, anyone can DIY. You just have to be willing to give it a try!

DIY wood stain; steel wool and vinegar solution

This wood stain took several attempts before I got it right. I first tried a tea stain but that did not work out well. 

This is the tea stain that I attempted three times (fail!)

This is the second  attempt at the steel wool. The first time I used a steel Brillo pad; it was not wool so it didn't work out (fail!) In this jar is a Brillo steel wool that already had the soap in it. I figured if I just washed out all of the soap it would work (fail!)

I found this one at Hobby Lobby and thought for sure that this one would work out because it says steel wool. WRONG! Epic fail, again. 

I did not want to go all the way to Lowes for this but had no choice. This is the one that many people use when I did my research. So I went out and got it. And it worked! FINALLY!  I only used one steel wool (the package comes with 12) and 8 oz. of white distilled vinegar. You need at least 24 hours before you can use it but I waited a week. 

When I was ready to stain my buffet table made from pallet boards, I added 8 oz. of water to the mixture. I simply used a rag to apply the stain. 

I used the same solution for several projects but found that after a couple of weeks the color is not as rich any more so I will be making another batch.

Wood stain, super cheap and easy!

Thanks for checking out my blog and please check back every Friday for a new post.

-And remember, anyone can DIY. You just have to be willing to give it a try!