Faux Barn Door Shutters

I've had this post ready for a while now, blogging just hasn't been a priority.  I feel the need to share today. :)  This "build along" is by no means the "proper" way to do anything-this is not intended for people who actually have building skills!! :)


I hope this little project is inspiring for all you self proclaimed "non-crafters", because I am not a great "builder."  I have been wanting these for a looong time, and I will be using this as a practice project for our cedar shutters on the exterior of our home.

You don't need fancy supplies for this, but you will need some lumber of choice, a ruler or tape measure, pen or pencil(or crayon in my case), a hand saw,   something a bit sturdy to brace your lumber while you saw(a large table and set of clamps is ideal for this, but you'll soon see what I used,) hammer and nails, wood glue, paint/stain and brushes...

Generally you would want to use aged, beat up wood for this, but I didn't feel like yanking rotty planks off our fence and I think Soup might not have been very appreciative to that idea, so the kiddos and I trucked out to my second favorite store (first being hob lob) and paid somewhere around 4 bucks for the supplies.

After you have gathered your bug infested, splintering, lovely aged wood, you want to measure what size you want your shutters.  I didn't write down what size mine are.

Mark off your measurements on your boards with crayon, and place the first board on your table and secure it with the clamps.  Or if you don't have them, place your wood on a bucket and get to sawing.  :)

I like to take the saw and "gnaw" at the top and bottom of my mark to give the saw a nice guide to keep it from wandering. 

The trick is to let the saw do the work.  Don't use too much force-be gentle and very slow at first.  Start by just repeatedly pulling the saw toward you.  After a bit of a work-out, you'll have your boards cut and a nice pile of dust to clean up.

I cut three boards, laid them out, and marked where I wanted my stabilizing boards to go.  I think I put them about 2 in from the top and bottom.  I did not measure these, I set one board across the tops of the previous 3 and marked the width. 

Do the same with the diagonal board.  Then dry fit them to make sure they piece together like you want.

At this point I did move my project to the dining room table. :) You can put your bucket, saw, measuring tape and broom away now.

Slap some glue on the back of your top three stabilizing boards and secure in place with nails.  Make sure your nails are long enough that they pass through both layers of wood, but not completely through your bottom boards, or you will get a barn door shutter embellished table, and that's probably not very chic. 

If you are using new wood, you will want to stain before painting. I didn't and I don't like the looks of mine for now...

I bought enough supplies to make a set of three, but only one is completed.  I do love it, though!

The Beast

Well, the new piece I've been dying to share is FINALLY complete! I am so relieved to have this bad boy D.O.N.E! 

I love a good French Provincial, and this piece had some great lines!  I busted out my brand new pot of chalk paint and applied one single, definitely not perfect, coat of old white.  After that, I sanded all the hard edges.  I didn't play by the rules because I was experimenting, and immediately applied dark wax once the paint was dry (directions say to apply clear first).

This is how he turned out!

I am in LOVE! After all the challenges this BEAST provided, I am very happy with the end result! 

Busy, busy, busy!

My sister was visiting this weekend, so I got to have some much needed sisterly bonding(+three sick babies).  We did some shopping and some pooling and a bit of cleaning!  It was a great weekend and I was bummed to drop her off at the airport. 

A fabulous result of our shopping weekend is this beautiful sideboard.  I spotted it at an estate sale, and nearly passed it up, but my shopping partner wouldn't let us leave without it! Thanks Sis!

It looks so amazing in my dining room!  Soup is dying to try it in the living room under our TV.

Each of doors open with this precious little key-the girls, of course, LOVE that part!

One cabinet contains two storage drawers, one for silverware-how handy!

After our action packed weekend, I took a break from furniture for the day and made something for myself.  I'm a bit obsessed with monograms, so I've been wanting to make a faux grain sack monogram pillow.  It turned out so cute, and I'm sad I didn't make it sooner!

More to come!

Back in Black!

Today Soup asked me, "Why do you paint everything?"  Hmmm.  "I don't know," I said.  I didn't really have an answer.  When it comes to the "to paint or not to paint," it depends on the piece.  It depends on what the piece says to me.  I know that's corny-way corny- but it's true.   Every piece I buy, the very second I see it, I can see a different appearance.  I can see a sad little chair with tattered cloth and beaten up frame all dressed up in different upholstery and fresh color on her skin.  Mostly, I like to drastically change a piece.  So when it comes to paint or to stain, I choose paint, because of the drama!   Now, I do have to say, when I see certain pieces that need to be restained because of the integrity of the piece as a whole, then I won't hesitate to restain it!  If that makes any rambling sense at all...

Here is one of the pieces that started the whole conversation: the precious little side table.

I do believe the chair has a scripty future! :)

  

Love Letter

I had a great estate sailing day today! Here is what I picked up.

Super cool mid-century side chairs.  I see a chic black future for this pair!

And a lovely Queen Anne style bench.  I have been on the lookout for a bench for as long as I can remember!  I couldn't wait to make this girl into something completely smashing! (I'm currently reading a British novel, and I gotta say, I'm lovin the dialect!)

I LOVE this fabric.  I hope you do too, because I'll be using it-ALOT! Hope you like how she cleaned up!

Pair of chairs

I scored these beautiful chairs a couple of weeks ago.  I love the cane back, and the cute little legs! 



I did not, however, like the lovely tan fabric and blue flowers...

Out came the sand paper, primer and chic white paint.  I reupholstered in a fun medallion print, and came out with a very nice little pair of chairs!

Stuck in the 70's?

Well, our company is gone for the summer, and we have finally taken a few days to rest and have some family time!  I got to catch a couple estate sales this weekend and came out with some great finds.

After a light sand and prime, I applied two coats of Valspar Shark Loop(picked out for Little Mister's old room by Soup.)  I gave them a light distressing, and the applied two coats of poly.  I put the original hardware back on because they add a feminine, polished, look to these masculine tables. 

Soup loathed these boys the minute I brought them in.  He said they remind him of a badly decorated 70's apartment...  

So what do you think?  Did I bring them out of the 70's? Whether they won Soupy's heart or not, I love them and I think they turned out exactly the way I wanted them to!

 

Free?!?

A couple of weeks ago, the kiddos and I had a really early morning.  That tends to lead to a bit of tension and a lot of cabin fever, so I decided we need to get out of the house and take little cruise through our neighborhood.    On what is usually a routine bee-line for the local Sonic, I spotted an unusually large curbside garbage pile in the distance (our neighborhood does those monthly bulk pickups.) As I came closer to the pile, I realized it was not a garbage pile-but a furniture pile... Yes Sir.  A furniture pile.  Not a smashed up, dumped off sort of pile, but a thought out, gently placed stack of a dresser, night stand, sofa and love seat.  Now it wasn't the sofa and love seat that caught my eye.  I wanted the dresser and night stand.  Well, honestly, I've been seeing this style of dresser around blog land and I have been lusting over it BIG TIME!  Now, I gotta tell ya, I felt a little-no a lot-anxious about taking things off some one's curb.  What if the stuff was sitting there waiting to be picked up by someone else? I felt like I needed to ask permission, so I asked for their junk... The woman looked at me like I was a bit loopy and said "Um, yeah, go ahead and take it..."  I felt like I had just won the lottery!  I practically skipped back to the pickup, and then it hit me.  Here is a full sized dresser and little ole me to get it into the back of a jacked up pick up??  Yep, I'm gonna make it happen even if I break a foot doin it... :) To make a long story short- I got that dresser AND night stand into my pickup, took my babies to Sonic for a milkshake and went home to get to work.  However, I did leave my finds in the pickup to unload when Soup got home.

In usual "Brittney fashion" I didn't get before pictures, even though this sat in my living room, behind my couch for quite some time...

I am so.very.happy. with the way they turned out.

 

And the days get shorter...

 Well, we've picked out a preschool for our oldest Little Miss. :(  I am not ready to let her into the world, but I do understand that it is best to help her little personality flourish.

  The girls have picked up an new hobby...

  The Little Mister mastered crawling and taught himself to pull up on things, practically in the same week.

  We have nearly completed our kitchen reno.  Work is progressing in the sun room, dining room, and living room.  I hit the mother load a an awesome estate sale this week.  We have just been flat out busy in general over the past two months.  I thought summer time was a time for relaxing and vacationing, but that hasn't happened for us yet! Four more weeks til school starts? Boooooo. 

Here is what I've been working on. 

This piece was in really great shape, but I had somewhere specific to place it, so it naturally needed to be painted.  This is going in Little Sis' room.  I received her pillowcases, which will be the focal point of her "design."  After Soup gets her lovely wallpaper textured over, I can slap some paint on those shabby walls.... I can't wait!

Croctastic!

I was strollin through a local craft store a couple of days ago brainstorming for a desk that I refinished a few years back.  On the scrapbook paper aisle I came upon an UH-MAZING find.  Faux croc paper.  This stuff looks sooooo REAL! SCORE!  The minute I saw it, I knew exactly what I would do.

To add to my freakish, over the top, excitement for this project, I was rocking the Little Mister during The Nate Show (soo addicted to) yesterday and low and behold what is he chatting about?  A $12,000 Ralph Lauren croc cocktail table and how you too can get this look... YEAH BABY! 
Well I forgot to take before pics because I was way too excited to get this underway.  Here ya go...

Soup and I also did a little work in our back yard as well.  The pool area is supposed to be calm and relaxing.  Ours is just down right stressing me out.  I feel like I need to close my eyes every time I walk out, but that wouldn't be a good idea because I would totally trip over one of the stinkin posts jutting up out of the concrete.  The previous owners needed MAJOR protection around the pool, and I get that, but I think they went a little over board.  Anyway, we have a looong list of things to do back here, starting with this lovely dirt bed here.  Before I took this photo, I removed the rock garden that previously lived here.  In all honesty, I do NOT qualify a pile of cement squares and quartz rock to be a "garden," but that's just me. 

We added some tropical plants, some oleander (which I'll be sure not to let my little ones munch on, it's poisonous), and some other little purple flowered creeper that Big Sis picked out.  Soup lined the bed with some really pretty stones so that all the dirt and mulch doesn't seep out into the walk.  I think it finished up nicely, can't wait to get crackin on the other areas!

I'm sure it will be a fabulous haven for the DISGUSTING  lizards that call our dwelling their home. YUCK!

Here is Little Sis doin some work.   As you can see our list is still in need of some check marks.  Fencing, concrete work, those stinkin posts... It could possibly never end.  :)

Linkin Up!