Closet turned sewing room!

Hello everyone!

A while back I went home to visit my family that live a couple hours away from me and we stayed at my mom's house. Every time I go there I just want to help her with her next DIY project. Well, I seen some of the closet/office redo's and thought it would work perfect in her library/sewing room. When I say library I mean like over 1000 books in there and she has read every last one of the them.

I showed her some of the pictures I had found and she really liked them. A couple of weeks went by and we were talking on the phone and she said she wanted me to help her make this happen. Oh I was so excited!

I told her we needed to redo the entire room because the paint color was too dark and some things needed to be rearranged or thrown out. I sketched up a simple idea and told her all the plans. (well what I had so far)

Here is what the room looked like before. Too much stuff and unorganized!

The bookshelves didn't match and that green thing is just plain ugly in there! (my dog always seems to get into the pictures)

The closet just had a ton of clothes that she didn't wear except for a few things that we sorted out. 

This was her sewing table for the longest time until the door broke so now it just stored the supplies but wasn't actually functional!

We started with some really light yellow paint on three walls and a couple shades darker on the fourth wall where we plan to stencil the wall.

We bought some wood to make a desk top and split the old shelf in half to make two and painted them white.

 Added some beautiful Ikea boxes and basket! We still need to paint the desk top, but that is ok.

I also got her a second white shelf to match. We found these white drapes at Ikea. She is going to hem them eventually.

So that is the progress so far! I love the look of the boxes on the shelves and there is way more storage than she needs now! Hopefully we make some more progress the next time I visit!

Updating a thrift store lamp!

Hello everyone!

So I have been in nursing school for the past year and haven't posted anything since then. This makes me really sad...well it makes me more sad that I don't have much time to do very many projects, but that will come soon.

Anyways, I did find a little time to fit a few projects in over a longer period of time and just haven't found the time to post them. I picked up an old lamp from a thrift store a while back...I believe it was Goodwill but 100% sure. I have a lot of furniture and decorative things from thrift stores that I revamp for plan to anyways. Here is what I found:

 It's actually not a terrible color (mint green) but it wasn't what I was look for but I love the shape.

 I taped off the top and the cord where the meet the green and picked up a can of Heirloom white spray paint by Rust-oleum. Gave it a couple of coats and ended up with this beauty!

 I got the lamp shade in the above picture from Target on sale but it lives on a different lamp in the living room. I found an inexpensive neutral lamp shade from Wal-mart that I really like as well. This can be seen in the picture below.

The lamp lives in our guest/craft room on the Goodwill end table that needs repainting or staining (who knows when that will happen). I think it looks pretty good! And you can do this to any interesting lamp base and make a beautiful custom lamp for any room!

Thanks for reading! Hope you enjoyed it!

DIY: Makeup Brush Holder!!!

Hey everyone! I would just like to first thank my mother-in-law for being my very first official "follower"! I got super excited when I saw it! It means a lot to me!

Anywho, the reason I am posting today! I only use makeup brushes. I don't use sponges or any of the applicators that come with makeup! They just don't really put makeup on like a brush can. I have all different brands of brushes, so they are all different heights. This makes it difficult to keep them all in the same jar or cup. 

I have seen the technique on many makeup blogs and finally did it for myself. It is so inexpensive and easy to do! Like really easy! Probably the easiest thing I have I my blog so far! 

First you want to find a jar you like. I just had this glass one that I was already using for my brushes and cleaned it out. 

 Super simple but still pretty! Next you go to Michael's and get this plant filler. It is for fake flowers! They are with all of those other pebbles and stuff for plant jars. Hobby lobby might have this stuff but I'm not sure. I know Wal-mart doesn't carry it and I don't think Target does either. You will have to go to a craft store or buy it online. 

 One bag should be plenty! Next you pour the bag of beady things in to your jar. I ended up putting some of it in a smaller jar for my eye brushes. It really only needs to be at least half full.

Next, you can put in your brushes! Did I mention how easy this project was? lol!

 Voila!!!

 They all stand up straight! You can easily add a ribbon or something but I like it simple like this! 

Hope you enjoyed this little project and maybe it will help you get your brushes in order! 

~Jamie

Goodwill projects!

Hello all! Hope you had a good weekend and made it through Monday alright! 

These are the final weeks of the semester so my projects have slowed down for the moment. I did start repainting my bedroom furniture but am looking for hardware so I will have that post up soon. 

Anywho, I have two projects to show you today! The first one I finished right after I finished the headboard but I have just been too lazy to post it until now. 

I think you might remember the chair I bought a while back from a thrift store for a couple bucks! 

 It is quite dated and ugly! It smelled funny too. So I painted it white after we moved but had been trying to decide what color fabric I wanted to use for the cushion. I could not figure it out. Well, after I made my headboard I had just enough fabric to double cover the new and thicker cushion.

So I stapled it on real quick and ended up with this!

 I slapped a button on there that I already had and there you have it! My new chair that cost maybe $20 to make! I love it! What do you think?

The next little project I have I also put together real quick. I pinned a monogram project that had a white frame, white letter, and burlap background. I did something similar.

I started with a cheap frame from goodwill. It took a while to find one that was just the frame and big enough. They always charge so much for a frame when it has a picture in it even if its of some ugly ducks or something. 

I found this one. 

 Luckily since it was a poster picture and didn't have glass it was only $2.

I then turned the picture over and hot glued the burlap to the cardboard. I painted the frame first and the "C".

I thought the whole thing was too plain so I decided to draw some stuff on the "C". 

 Here is the final result plus a little frame I did all the same stuff to except made a paper flower for it. 

 This wall is huge and empty! I plan to make a couple more frames with little things like this to fill it. I use pictures on all the other wall we have and keep this one different! 

Have a great day!

DIY Upholsterd Headboard!

Yay! I am soooo freakin excited about this post! I did the biggest project yet! 

When me and my husband bought our bedroom furniture, it was from a friend and had everything but the headboard. I was totally cool with that since all I really needed were some drawers for all my clothes. I knew I could just find some other headboard or something later on. 

Well it is now later on...I am changing up our entire bedroom! If you saw my last post you will get an idea of what I'm going for. I want to keep everything light since I will be painting the dressers and nightstands black! 

First you want to measure how long of a piece of wood you will need!...Ours was about 64 in with a little hanging out on each side. Then how tall you want it. We had to keep it about 37 in because that was the biggest that would fit into my car! Plus keep in mind that fabric only comes so wide. I just pick a piece of wood that was about $15. It doesn't need to be pretty or anything. Next have the guy at the store cut it to your measurements. 

Next I picked up all of the other supplies. 

 A staple gun with staples and the bracket to hold it on the wall. I will explain that later. I got the fabric, batting and button making stuff at Hobby Lobby. And a twin sized bed pad at Walmart (should have gone with the double). 

I forgot to get the other half to the button making kit that makes it easier but I managed and did that first. 

Next I measured where I wanted my 12 buttons to go and marked the spots. Make sure they are level and straight or you will notice in the end. 

Then I layered everything on top evenly and stapled the batting down first and then the fabric. I should have gotten the double mattress pad because the twin was just a little too short, so when I stapled everything down it shifted from the top a little and I can tell it shifted because the fabric is so light. Lesson learned for next time. 

Next you can thread your upholstery thread to your long needle and sew on your buttons. You will just pull back tight and staple the back. 

You might be able to see that I went all different directions, if you don't the thread will just slip from the staple. 

 Yay! You can see on the bottom where it doesn't cover the whole piece of wood but that part will be cover by the mattress so its ok! 

Next you want to attach the bracket thing to the back. It is made for hanging large frames or mirrors. I bought and attached two so that I would stay even and level. One part goes on the wall and the other goes on the headboard and they just slide into each other. 

Here is the finished product! Pretty awesome! I'm in love with it! If you have any questions just leave me a comment and I will get back to you! Hope you like it!

~Jamie

Someone's trash! My treasure!

Hello all! 

I finally have a new post! This is something that I am really excited about sharing with you. I went into a thrift store about 2 months ago just to look around and I found this piece of crap dresser!

 They actually labeled the tag as "3 drawer dresser with side storage"! Can you believe that? I thought it was hilarious, but at least they didn't just toss it because I decided I would make something beautiful with it! I needed some extra hideaway storage in my craft room, which the drawers would be used for! I knew I could figure out something for the "side storage".

First I bought some satin black paint from Home Depot. And then painted the dresser.

The part with the basket took like 3 coats because it was the exposed mdf that would usually be hidden by drawers. After those coats it looked great! I love the finish of the satin. 

Although, it really needs a coat of poly or something because as soon as I set something on it, it chipped! I suppose that has something to do with the fact that I didn't sand it or prime it! It is just a dresser to give me storage until something better comes along. Oh well, I know for next time! I plan to put a clear coat on though. 

Next I wanted baskets but big ones are just not in my budget...well I guess they could be! So instead I bought a pack of 3 bankers boxes for 9 bucks at Wally-world and got some burlap from Hobby Lobby. I covered the boxes in white paper and then hot glued the burlap to the boxes. 

Ta-Da! Cute boxes that can actually hold quite a bit of stuff! They aren't full and now I have room to grow if I need. I only have that red table runner on there until I clear coat it. I don't know if I like the original hardware but that is another expense I need to save a little for. We will see if it changes. It might grow on me.

The finished project looks great though! I love the "side storage" I might even put shelves in it one day! There are other things I would like to tackle first though! 

Hope you enjoyed! Have a great weekend! 

-Jamie