Jute wrapped Letter

I have been working on a little gallery wall for the boys room. I have a letter for each of them. Actually the A for my oldest will be redone as it was originally done when he was just a baby. The letter C for my youngest is new. I decided to cover the C with jute. I like the texture and the color goes well with the mostly browns and greys in their room.

I get these paper letters from Hobby Lobby. I think they are $2.99 without a coupon.

I started by covering the ends the opposite way I was going to wrap the rest of the letter.



I just cut small lengths and hot glued them on.

Then I started my wrapping of the jute around the letter. I started in the back, gluing it in place. I used the hot glue some, but not entirely around where I was wrapping. Just enough to hold it. I had difficulty when I got to the corner. What I came up with is shown in the photos below.

1. I divided the corner into 2 sections.



2. I cut small pieces and put 2 on either side of the center line and then worked my way in from the edges.







That last photo shows how well all the ends were hidden. No tricks, just glue and putting the puzzle together!

Once I figured this out, it was smooth sailing from there. Glue....wrap....glue...wrap.....break up fight between boys....glue....wrap.... you get the point!

Almost done......



All done! Easy, but it did take some time. You can see I was drinking coffee and playing with the boys at the table while I did this. If being a mother had a job description it would include, "Must be an excellent MULTITASKER".




I bought this frame at hobby lobby for $4.00. It was a tabletop frame but was missing the back and the glass. Perfect for me! I would not have spent $4.00 if I was going to have to paint it (that is true!) but I loved the color for their room and was planning to use it as is. My idea is to hang the C on the wall inside of the empty frame. Like This......



Happy Monday and have an excellent week!



Linking up to:

I Gotta Try That
Create with Joy: Live with Passion
Keeping It Simple
Between Naps on the Porch

Chair Part 2

Before I start the post I just want to say that I had wanted to do this post a few days ago. However, I just could not get it done, I was too sad. My little one and I watched the Boston Marathon on a live stream on the computer and were following my friend who was running, online. I was so happy, explaining to my son how I ran it a LONG time ago, and how we always went to watch it when I was a child/young adult/adult and how amazing it is to watch the elites come through, and they look as if running on fluffy clouds. Then how equally amazing it is to see everyone else come by and see how hard they are working, and usually they have smiles on their faces. How amazing it is that every spot along the entire route has people cheering for the runners. Anyways, that all changed with the bombings. I have cried a lot thinking about what happened and all who were injured. My heart breaks for the families of the 3 dead. My heart aches for all the injured people and their families and friends. However, my heart lightens when I think about all the rescue, police, volunteers, runners, spectators who pulled together in an instant and helped others who were in critical need. It lightens when I think about my friend, an ER nurse, who was working in the city Monday and all her co-workers who came together as a team to help all the victims they received from EMS. I pray for anyone and everyone affected by this terrible event.


When we left off I had fixed the chair's issues and removed all the fabric from the seat. Of course that was well over one two three weeks ago...... My problem was finding the right material. I went to several stores more than once each. The first material I found I love, but I got it home and did not like it at all (of course I mistakenly did NOT take the chair with me when I bought that). Luckily it looks great with the material I did use and I plan to make a little bolster pillow with it. I like the material that I finally found, but not sure if I love it on the chair or not. Time will tell and I can always replace it in the future using it for another project. My other difficulty is that I don't know where I am going to use the chair yet, so I want to have a neutral fabric so that I can be flexible on my placement of my new chair.

Here is the chair primed with grey spray primer (I did a light sand of the entire chair first). This photo shows only 1 coat, I did 2 coats to cover the red.



To get the specifics up to this point see Chair Part 1

For the finish I was hoping for an aged look, with greys and browns with a hint of gold. Kind of Frenchy maybe? Not really like anything in my home now, but I am hoping to lighten some of the furniture up in the near future.

Here is how I painted the chair:

After the primer went on, I dry brushed a lighter grey color. It was a BM color and probably Cumulus Cloud (the wall color in my boys' room). Next I dry brushed brown paint over it. I want to emphasize DRY brushed, because it is easy to get too much on. I really did not use much paint at all. Last, I took it outside and sprayed a gold spray paint around it to just hit it with a tint of gold. I love how that turned out. It is a little more blue grey than I would like and I think that is due to the grey tinted primer. I will probably not use that next time. But I do like the overall effect. Different than most my current furniture, but I still like it!




Here is how I recovered the seat, replacing the foam:

I started out with the foam. I used the old foam as a template, as well as the wooden seat. The old foam was about 2" thick, but in bad shape. My choices for replacement were 2" and 4". I chose the 4" thick foam, remembering that the chair when I found it was not very comfortable. After using a sharpie marker to mark my foam I used a large serrated bread knife to cut it. I have read that it is easiest with an electric carving knife, but I don't have one. Using the knife I did was so easy, just like cutting with a hand saw. I was relieved at how easy it was.



Then I put the batting on the floor and put the foam and seat on top of that, lining them up.





Next I knelt on it and pulled the batting evenly up over the wood and stapled. I find that kneeling on it gives the foam just enough squish (does that make sense?!?) that the finished product comes out nice and formed looking with material taut.



Next I covered the foam and batting with the new material the same way as outlined for with the batting. It is just more difficult due to the thickness of the fabric and I had a few staples that did not actually catch the wood and I had to redo with more pressure. I used staples freely so that I will not have to redo it anytime soon! I did not take pics of this process....

Here is my finished chair! It is surprisingly comfortable. Everyone in our house, large adults and small children all agree and love it too.






Just ignore that clothes pin holder hanging on the line in one photo. I can't believe I did not catch that! I line dry when I can and had been doing laundry earlier and did not move it....oh well....
Thanks for visiting today!


I'm linking up to these parties:

Wall Ruler

Hope everyone is having a great weekend. I am enjoying doing my thing while the boys all watch golf! Everyone in the house is happy....

In my house growing up we had a door frame where the height of my siblings and I and ALL of our friends are recorded. It has never been cleaned off and my parents have lived there for almost 30 years! It is so fun to go visit them and read the wall and now my boys want their height recorded there too. I hope they never move, or if they do they will have to take the door frame with them!

I have my own version of this. It is not my idea, in fact I have seen several different blogs and a magazine with pictures of this. This is my version and how I did it.



I started with a scrap piece of wood - I have mentioned before that my scrap pile is really pileS and I have lots of stuff :-). It is a piece of pine with lots of knots which I was fine with. It is a 1 X 10 in a 6 ft length. Which means it measures 3/4" x 9 1/4"...... I remember my Dad explaining that to me when I was in junior high and it did not make sense then and it still does not.... anyways...it had been on the wall as a shelf that the previous owner installed. That is why some areas look lighter. That was against wood and not exposed to air. The other side is painted white and I did not want to use that side because it would be too much work to strip the paint. If I'm being honest!!!



I sanded it down and then cleaned it up. I used wood conditioner, which I rarely use, because of the discoloration in the wood. I also used a new stain color for me. Dark Walnut is what I chose. It is a little blacker that I thought it would be. Almost with a charcoal or ashy undertone. I usually prefer something that has warmer undertones, like a honey color, but I like this too.


Disclaimer: I am just an itty bitty newbie blogger and do not have any products I sponsor (or sponsor me??)... I just like to share what I used and how it worked, or did not work

So I applied the wood conditioner and stain as the directions on the can state. I used a clean rag (an old white cotton shirt cut up) to apply both. I also worked in the garage for ventilation purposes. After letting it sit for a day or so (cause I was working) I brought it in the house to add all the lines to it. I love the fact that when I walk into the family room carrying a 6 foot board and sit on the chair with it across my lap my hubby does not make a peep: no questions, no reaction, no raised eyebrows or funny looks no nothing. I guess he just knows me well!! I used a pencil and ruler to put the lines on, then went over them with a black sharpie. Yup, no painting......just a sharpie. I printed out numbers 1 - 6 in Microsoft word. I used 175 size font in American Typewriter. Then traced over the letter to make a slight indent (pine is very soft) and then colored it in. That is it.







The wood is far from perfect....there is a piece missing from the bottom below the 1. There is also a random red mark down there too. The stain took darker in some areas (as you can see in the photo above), but I love the imperfectness of it.



I started the numbers where I did so that I can hang it several inches off the floor and will just check the measurements when I hang it so that it is at actual height (if that makes sense). If I started at 1" (a little mark - not the 1' mark) I would have had to sit it on the floor to be an accurate measurement. I want to hang it on the wall and clear the baseboard by several inches and still be accurate height measurement.



Hope you have a great rest of your weekend and Happy Patriots Day to all my Massachusetts readers!!!




Linking up to:
Funky Junk Interiors

Black Door

This idea is old.....it had been percolating in my head for several years but I finally decided to just do it. I have seen so many inspirational photos on the internet of black interior doors and love the look of them, but did not think it would look right in my home. I think the shade of black, and the sheen, have a lot to do with the finished product.

Here are a few pretties....


Credit: The Yellow Cape Cod


Credit: Honey We're Home

There are lots more to ooh and aah at. The first one shows a door with glass in it, like my front door. The other two show different shades of black.

After oohing and ahhing for too long, I finally made up my mind (about 4-6 months ago...I move slowly with these things) after looking through the Pottery Barn catalog. It was filled with black framed windows. I loved the contrast of lighter walls and the black windows. I do not have much black in my house at all but decided to give it a try.

I used a can of Benjamin Moore paint called Black Iron. I had a coupon for 2 free quart sizes and got 2 different blacks, and liked Black Iron the best.





What do you think? I think I love it, but am not sure. I can't decide if I should tone down the shiny brassy dead bolt.....

Have you painted any doors black yet?

Thank you for visiting and have a fantastic day!!


I'm linking up to these great blogs:
Mom4Real

Cozy Little House

Savvy Southern Style

Stone Gable

Pennant Banner in Boys Room

Hope you all had a great Easter.

I can't believe it has been a week since my last post. We started spring break in the middle of last week and are still on break. We also had family visiting for a week, so we had lots to do and catch up on.

I have to share these roses that I bought at Costco for the holiday and to brighten the house up. We have had so much rain and grey weather that I needed a burst of sunshine in here! My favorite flowers are peonies and roses.




My chair is still not done, you can read Part 1 here. I have searched for fabric and still have not found any I like. I last told you I had fabric that I wanted to paint, but have not found a stencil yet. I will share it when I do.

Onto today's post. Here is a picture of the pennant banner (is that what it is called?!) on the wall.



This is how I did it:

I have been wanting to make a banner for the boys room for a while. I just needed to get organized. While I had all my fabric bins out (desperately searching for fabric for the chair since I can't find any in a store) I pulled out a bunch of left over fabric that would coordinate with the boys room.

I made a triangle shaped template out of cardboard. Sidenote: all the cardboard things that come on the bottom of paper stacks are the best for things like this. Anyways, I cut out a bunch of triangles. I ironed the edges leading to the point in and sewed them all with the same color thread. I left the top edge unfolded and unsewn.

I bought a large spool of jute from Hobby Lobby, with 40% off, OF COURSE!

I laid them all out on the floor so I could adjust the order of them based on pattern and color, then put them in order in a pile.



Then I glued them to the jute, keeping them evenly spaced at 2 inches apart.




It is hard to get a picture of the span once on the wall. It probably covers at least 10 feet, maybe a little more.





Hope you have a great day!!!



I'm Linking up to: House of Hepworths
Savvy Southern Style