Frame Transformation

Here is the second step in my vintage key/frame transformation for the entryway wall art.  On Monday I showed you my finished entry so now I will show you how exactly I got there. 

Gotta love the Christmas Tree Shops!  The day Shanna had seen the vintage keys I had come across this beauty.  OK, not really a beauty but it had potential and I loved the wood planks on this frame so I thought I could rip all of this insanity off and create a custom frame to my liking.

This is what I started with:

Lucky for me everything was just hot glued on so I was able to rip it off and sand lightly to get a smooth finish.  Then I used Sherwin Williams dover white to paint the entire frame, took about three coats to cover all the blue writing.    I originally planned to take the mirror out and add some plexi glass with a picture but then Shanna threw out the idea of using burlap in the frame and hanging the keys on top.  LOVED THIS IDEA!

Break out the trusty spray adhesive.  This stuff is more handy than you would ever think, every household needs a can in my opinion.  So I sprayed the board that was in the frame and pressed the burlap on top.  Instead of folding the burlap over the edges I just cut it along the edge of the board, mostly because when I tried to fold it over it wouldn't fit back into the frame. 

I lightly distressed the frame and then popped the burlap back in:

Last step was to hot glue the keys down.  The glue was a perfect solution to hanging the keys, they had bumps in strange places that made pinning them down very difficult so the hot glue worked just as I had hoped.

One more time with everything hung.  Ahhhhhh, what a nice entry to come home to every day :)

Happy hump day everyone!  Any projects planned this weekend?  Do you find it easy to look past unusual decor and find a way to make it work in your home?  

See you swoon,

Yippie! An award!

Ooh goodie!  My sweet bloggie friend Kirsten at The Foreign Domestic nominated us for an award! The Liebster Blog Award!

The award is designed to promote up and coming bloggers with less than 200 followers. Jamie and I are so thrilled and touched that you thought of us!  

The rules of the award are that you copy/paste the award to your blog linking back to the one who gave it to you. Then you pick 5 blogs to pass it along to and leave a comment telling them so.  Here are my five!

Noelle at Home Preferred

Sara at The Fat Hydrangea

Nicole at Busy Girl

Maury at Life on Mars

Anna at My Design Ethos

Take a peek at these blogs - I absolutely love all of them!  And thanks again Kirsten for thinking of us at Swoon :)

See you swoon,

O Christmas Tree, O Burlap Tree ...

I know it's still November, but now that Thanksgiving is over I am ready for Christmas!

On a recent trip to the Pottery Barn Outlet in late October, Jamie and I were really, really, ridiculously excited to discover that the outlet and virtually every other store was decorated for Christmas.  I don't know if it was because we got a freak snowstorm the day before or what, but we were pretty psyched to see all the jingle bells and snowflakes and reindeer and trees.   Before we got to Pottery Barn, we hit up the nearby Christmas Tree Shops, since Jamie had such a great find there the last time.  We both spied these little fake Christmas trees in gold and silver vases.  They seemed cute ...

And at $3.99 each, well, that's a great deal.

But we weren't thrilled with them as is.  The gold and silver made them look a little cheap.  So we passed.  We put them back and set our sights on Pottery Barn.  Well, wouldn't you know, when we walked in the outlet, we saw these very same trees but wrapped in burlap and tied with a twine bow!  I don't see these on the Pottery Barn website, and I wish I had snapped a picture but the last time we did that, we got in trouble for doing so.  But rest assured, we inspected those little burlap wrapped trees and concluded they were the very same trees. We could even see the gold vases under the burlap.  But, at $14.99 a pop, we said no thank you Pottery Barn and went back to Christmas Tree Shops and snatched up three each.

Making the little burlap-wrapped trees is a snap.  Jamie and I each bought a yard of burlap at $7.00 a yard.  One yard is way too much for this project, but Jamie has plans for her extra and I can always use extra fabric and burlap.  I had the twine on hand.  And I whipped out my glue gun.

First, I just my burlap to size.  I just laid my tree down and figured out how much to cut so that the burlap covered all of the vase and a little extra on the top.

Then I frayed the edge at the top. I wanted them to look sweet and rustic, not perfect.  To do this, just grab one of the fibers and pull. It's as simple as that!

Next I glued the burlap to the vase and used a few dabs of glue around the vase as I wrapped the burlap around it until the whole vase was covered.  I cut the burlap, glued it down and folded it over like so:

Finally, I wrapped the twine around the vase twice and tied it in a little bow.

And here's the finished product!

Super cute and really inexpensive.  The three trees were $12 total plus $7 for the burlap (and I have tons and tons of that left over).  I probably only used 1/4 of a yard, which works out to $1.75 for a grand total of about $13.75.  So for less than the cost of one tree at the Pottery Barn price, I got three!

Have you copy-catted any Pottery Barn crafts lately? Please share! Tis the season!

See you swoon,

Entryway is DONE!

Yup, you heard me, the entry way is complete, welcoming, warm, and DONE!  Well, with the exception of a few pillows that I plan on adding to the bench but for now I am super happy with it.

It started here with my tufted bench cushion that I created last week:

Then I finished the vintage key frame, more on this tutorial Wednesday:

And a couple more frames to complete the arrangement and there you have it!

Pillows will help to complete the space and fill in the blank area between the bench and the pictures.  I will show you updates once I can decide on pillows.  Amazing how hard that can be!  Speaking of pillows, do you have a favorite pillow seller online?  I would love to check them out!

See you swoon,



Another Lamp Re-do: Champagne Wishes ...

... caviar dreams? Isn't that the saying from Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous? I used to love that show.

Happy Black Friday - anyone out and about hunting for deals and steals?!  Not me - I'm home decorating the new digs for Christmas!

I have lamp transformation up today!  This is another lamp that I bought from our former neighbors who moved out of state (the first lamp was featured here).  Here is today's lamp in its before state. 

This lamp is pretty substantial in size, so I had to figure out where to put it in the house.  I also had to figure out what to do with the base ... I knew I wanted to paint it, but was not sure what color.  So I waited a bit and then the answer became clear: I would put it on the desk and move the desk lamp (another redo I featured here) upstairs to the table in the hallway landing.  Here is the first lamp on the desk:

I love this lamp [I love lamp] but it felt a little too small on the desk.  Also, my color palette in this room is quickly shifting to creams, whites and soft metallics like brushed golds and nickels.  See how it is shaping up?

So, I moved the lamp out and decided to paint this lamp a soft metallic.  I went with Krylon Brushed Metallic Spray Paint in Champagne Nouveau, which I hoped would be a cross between nickel and gold.  I got it at Michaels for $5.99 and used a 40% off coupon.    

I lightly sprayed the lamp and harp and was pleased that the color, in fact, is a perfect cross between brushed nickel and brushed gold.  See?

Finding a shade for this puppy was a challenge!  But I found one where I seem to have really good luck with lampshades: Lowe's!  This one was only $10.  I needed something very tall but not too wide or flared.  This fit the bill perfectly.  And the price was terrific.  Here it is!

Much better!  It's a great spot for it, and I really just love that warm metallic finish.  This room is coming together!  I need (desperately) to get some art on the walls and to reupholster that green pleather chair.  I have the fabric (white cotton duck) and will do a distressed finish on the wood to match the cute ottoman that I picked up at Target above.  Maybe by Christmas?  mmm, maybe not.

What about you? Have you tackled any fast n' easy projects lately?  I'd love to hear!

See you swoon,

Happy Thanksgiving!

To all of our amazing friends, family, and blog family, Shanna and I want you to know how thankful we are each day for having you in our lives, we are truly blessed!

See you swoon,

Swoon-Worthy Site: Favorite Paint Colors

I'm always on the hunt for fun, useful new blogs to follow.  A few months ago, I stumbled across Favorite Paint Colors, which is absolutely perfect for a paint addict like me. 

Kristin has created the most organized (and pretty!) library of tons and tons of paint colors.  Each day, she posts a new color with a link to the source's blog, and she encourages submissions.  Each post gives the manufacturer and paint color name and whether it was adjusted (cut by 50%, 25%, etc.)  I was thrilled that she featured my den color, Sherwin Williams Mindful Gray, just the other day on her blog. 

Looking for the perfect white paint?  Kristin has the paints organized by color on her sidebar.  Looking for a paint that would look great in your bathroom? She also has paints organized room by room. Want ideas on exterior color combinations? She's got a tab for that too.  I warn you: you could spend hours clicking through this site!  I've also found a bunch of new blogs to follow through the submissions on her site.  Check her out if you are in need of paint color ideas (or if you're like me and just enjoy looking at them for fun)!  Happy painting!

So, who among us is addicted to painting like me? I know Jamie is ... though we both agree that the paint love starts to die down a bit after the second coat.  Let's share stories! 

See you swoon,

{Note: Favorite Paint Colors has not paid or otherwise comped me for this post today. I just love the blog and wanted to spread the word}

A padded entry: Part II

As promised, the second portion of my bench tutorial.  I have come to realize I love upholstery, it transforms an item from old to new, sad to happy, drab to bright.  I love instant gratification and this certainly does it for me.

So where did we leave off?  Right about here with a sneak peak at the fabric.  The batting was already on, you can read the first portion of this if you didn't catch is last week here.

Here is the picture where we left off:

Break out those staple guns again, you are going to need them.  I wanted to tuft this bench so here are the rest of the items I needed to finish off the cushion:

1. Very long needle to go through foam, batting and wood holes that I drilled.

2.  Thin twine that could withstand pulling and tugging without snapping but also go through the fabric without destroying it

3.  Button cover set, more on this in a minute

4.  Fabric for bench

That's it, you are ready to go.  First just lay out the fabric and position the cushion so that you have some extra fabric on each end to staple into the board.  The batting I used is pretty thick so there are certain spots that require pulling the material a little further so the staple will reach and grip the wood. 

You may need a helper like I did :)  Thank you Speedo!

The corners can be confusing especially if you haven't done this before.  I find it easiest to pull in the corner first and staple.  Then fold up the sides and staple, it looks like a present and pulls the fabric in nicely.

I go a little overboard with the staples, you do not have to use this many but I like knowing the fabric will stay put.

Now for the covered buttons.  When in doubt, read the directions.  I swear I did this but after cutting about eight circles and destroying the fabric trying to get it to stay in place while I jammed the metal backing on I decided to go back for another read.  Alas, there is a mold people.  A MOLD I SAY! 

This is how not to cover a button and what will happen to the fabric:

I found this round circular rubbery thing on the floor (get your minds out of the gutter).  I had no idea what it was so I examined it, read the directions and realized that instead of trying to hold all sides of the fabric in myself, this mold does it for you, genius!  Who is the genius who came up with this plan because I could kiss you right now?  I almost gave up on the tufting until I found this guy:

And in about 15 second I had this, thank goodness!

Now break out the twine and giant needle and let's get tufting.  This is the first time I ever did this but it was so easy! Just thread the twine through the needle, stick the needle through the foam going from underneath first.  This way you can staple the tail end all over the bottom to keep the line secure.  Once you have the needle and twine through the fabric, slide the button on and go back down through the fabric with the twine. 

You just want to zig-zag the twine all over and staple to hold the twine firmly in place, no knots needed here.

Are you ready for this?  TA-DA!!

So there you have it.  If any of you have any cushion tales for us please send them our way.  I have a rocking chair and Shanna has a chair to reupholster so if you have any tips for these please send them along!

See you swoon,