entertainment center transformation!

Hello blog friends! :) Everything has changed @blogger since my last post...hope I can navigate the new look and successfully share a project the hubs helped me to finish this morning. We bought this oak entertainment center about 20 years ago. As you can see, it held a big ass t.v. and lots of gaming systems (all neglected for a few years now). Housed in the basement, feeling very dusty & lonely...I thought this piece would appreciate a make-over.

Last week-end, our youngest son moved into a new apartment. Both of our sons apartments have so little storage space - our oldest son doesn't even have a closet in his bedroom! Anyway, after seeing Matt's new place last Saturday, I thought "geez, I wish I could help this kid w/some storage options." Driving home, I thought about what pieces I had in the basement that could be repurposed. Arriving home, I asked the hubs to come down to the basement w/me. "Can you take that t.v. out of there?" "I want to make this into a mobile closet for Matthew." One week later and we have a modern, very sturdy piece that will give our son some much needed clothes storage (since seriously, this guy has more clothing than 3 teenage girls, no joke.) I first cleaned the entire piece w/soap and water. I know. It was dirty. I don't dust in the basement on the regular. Next, I sanded, filled the holes left by the hardware and shelves I removed, and cleaned up again. I primed w/Zinsser 1*2*3 primer and then painted w/2 coats of Sherwin-Williams "retreat", satin finish paint. IRL, it's a sharp gray/blue, perfect for a young man. Here it is primed.

Now I was ready for some help from the hubs. He installed wood sockets and rod on the left side.

The right side originally had a slide out drawer above the television opening. He installed that back into the unit, but moved it down a foot.

Lastly, he put 4 swivel wheels on the bottom of the now closet to make it mobile.

Tomorrow the hubs and I will drive the closet up north to our son's new place. Can't wait for him to see it!

Linking up to Tatertots & Jello's week-end wrap up party. Thanks for coming by! Stay warm, patti

{...some inexpensive wall art!}

For my first ever gallery wall, I wanted to mix in something fun with the photos. Scrounging around the house, I found a plain wood plaque in my craft room stash. I had purchased a package of stencils from Hobby Lobby a few months ago. Using black and white craft paint, I taped off the plaque and painted. Once dry, I applied the stenciled image with a stencil brush, using a pouncing motion. I considered applying some poly, or wax, or sanding the piece to distress it...but then decided I like it just the way it is.

This hallway is right next to my dining room where the dominant colors are black and white. Before pics would've been too embarassing. ;) I removed the blue plaid wallpaper that was on the top portion of the walls. The wood paneling along the bottom was oak. I primed and painted it to match the wall color in my dining room. Next, the hubs tore out the old blue carpet that had been there for 20 years. He installed a floating wood laminate floor - and can I just add here how much I love this floor? Holy geez...all you need to do is swiffer this thing and you are good to go. :)

For my other no-cost piece of wall art, I gorilla glued a pretty white plate (Pier One purchase, last year) to a black dinner plate. Fancy Pants letter stickers spell out "Family".

I'm really happy with the way this narrow hallway turned out.

Linking up @At Home w/K's Terrific Under Ten Tuesdays.

Thanks for stopping by! patti

{...a twine covered lamp & shade}

Twine is one of my favorite scrapbooking embellishments. I love the old fashioned charm that it adds to any project. Brown/white twine from The Twinery was used to cover this five dollar lamp I picked up last fall at Walmart. Five bucks for a lamp? Okay then. :) I use it in my craft room for a bit of extra task lighting.
To cover the lamp base, I began with a dab of glue placed at the top, while winding the twine around the entire lamp -- all the way down to the bottom. I randomly placed small dabs of glue as I went along - not entirely covering the lamp with glue. The process took about 3 hours.
A plain shade just didn't work. I knew I wanted to paint the shade. Using brown, sky blue and white Folk Art paint, I taped off the rows and got to the painting. When dry, my scrapbooking friends, Kelly & Marti suggested I add twine to the shade. Hesitant at first...I decided I liked it once it was done. :)

Lit...

It's different and looks pretty in my craft room. {I love it.}

I've gotten a jump start on my spring cleaning this year! Last week, I cleared out my craft room to paint the walls, shelving and closet doors. The shelving is lime green and the walls are light turquoise. So springy! It is looking fresh and everything is organized. Love that! We're now waiting for our wood laminate flooring to arrive so that the hubs can remove the old gray carpet in there and replace it with clean flooring. :)
I'm sharing my lamp at Every Creative Endeavor, Tatertots and Jello's week-end wrap up party and at Domestically Speaking's Countdown to Spring. Thanks for stopping by!

hugs, patti

{gettin' ziggy with it.}

I've had the same bedside lampshades for over ten years now. Since I just paid for the new master bedroom carpeting (installation a week from today!!) yesterday, I wanted to spice up my existing shades w/out spending any more money. Originally I thought about adding trim to them...but I didn't have enough of any one ribbon or trim in my stash.

The shade(s) before...


My sewing machine is basic and will only straight stitch or zig zag stitch. I thought I could add a zig zag stitch in different colors and sizes, but wanted to keep it simple because #1, I'd never done this before and #2, I can't sew a straight line to save my life. Eyeballing it all the way...I first sewed a larger brown zig zag. Changing the thread to olive green, I then added 2 smaller zig zag lines above the brown. I like it. I like it alot! :)

...close-up w/light on~

...and off~



I'm going to share my no-cost altered shades at the following fun places ~

Every Creative Endeavor and At Home w/K's Terrific Under Ten Tuesday.

Thanks for coming by! patti

{...bedroom framed decal art}

This week-end, the hubs and I made a trip to Lowe's for some pretty moulding that we could make a frame with. I had purchased this decal from Dali Decals in a chocolate brown matt finish. It's big - just under 24" x 20" in size.

After assembly, I painted the frame the same wall color as our bedroom {Sherwin-Williams HGTV "Quietude" - it's a light turquoise}. Using 150 grit sandpaper, I lightly sanded the frame before applying a mixture of Valspar tintable glaze and chocolate brown Delta craft paint to the entire frame. I then waited about 10 minutes and wiped away the glaze with a clean cloth. I applied/wiped away 2 coats of glaze to get the depth of color I was going for. Pictures don't do this project justice. It is so pretty in real life! I love it. :)
Some close-ups. The glaze gives this piece a soft, smooth finish.

I'm linking up to Kara's "Look what I made", Saavy Southern Style's "Wow us Wednesdays", and Whatever you want Wednesday.Thanks for stopping by!
~patti

{bring on the cake!}

Hey everyone! Happy Sunday!
I'm going on my "birthday day" with my mom today - which means shopping at Target and lunch - but first, I wanted to share a birthday card that I think turned out pretty cute. :)

Melonie, at Citrus Tree Studio is having a "pink and white" challenge, so I was inspired by her to start w/some pink bazzill and gingham check jillibean pp. I machine stitched a whimsical frame around the pp. The cake pieces were punched from my Creative Memories square punch. I hand cut some icing from pink and white floral jillibean pp, and dressed them up with Glossy Accents and a bit of sprinkled doodlebug white glitter. A tiny cs candle w/white DMC floss was added to the cake top. A little pink ruffle is meant to mimic a table cloth beneath the cake. The sentiment is also from jillibean.

I'm sending to Paige for her "use a square punch" challenge at the CREATE blog too.

Thanks for coming by!! hugs, patti

...framed {love}!

Fancy Pants "love story" line is so sweet!! This black and white words in heart shapes sheet is my favorite. I just {love} it!

This is the most quick, simple project.
Cut your pp to fit the frame.
Adhere some AC thickers.
Place paper into frame and display.

That's it!
For my project I used some Alene's glue on the back of each thicker because my package was old and they weren't sticking well.

I'm linking up to Paper Issues. There's a whole lotta love over there. :)
Also linking up to Every Creative Endeavor.

Thanks for stopping by! hugs, patti