DIY Home Decor: Tween Bedroom!

By Sherie
Introduced by Amy

So, my sister Sherie has THE COOLEST house.  Have you seen it in her Home Stylin post?  If not, you are missing out.  Fer real.  You gotta check it out pronto.  So, after she recently re-did her daughter's bedroom I was like, "Um, this sweet room wasn't part of your home tour on SOM!  So, you must do another post." And she delivered!  My niece Livi is the coolest pre-tween ever...more into books, music, and art then boys, clothes, and shopping, so I love that this room is such a perfect fit for her.  She is close to my heart, cause we were best buddies when she was a little girl and we would always draw and dance together.  Plus, I too was more into books and the Beatles than the Disney Princesses at her age.  Her room would have been my dream. :)  I'm happy Sherie is letting us all see her hard work in this cool bedroom!
-Amy

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When Number 5 was on it's way, we decided we needed to turn the upstairs Craft/Scrapbook/Storage for anything/Black Hole into some sort of livable bedroom. It was decided that my oldest daughter Livi would get the room - banking on my motherly instincts that the baby was a girl, then girls would out-number the boys. (Motherly instincts NAILED IT.) As you can see, we let the kids have a little fun painting and writing on the walls. Why not, right? Behind the wood door is the furnace for the house… no we did not do that. The room inside would have made the sweetest closet, but alas… it holds a commercial-size furnace instead. At least her room is warm in the winter.

Here are some Before pics:

The walls had old, nasty wallpaper that was fairly easy to rip down. The kids had fun pulling it down after I soaked it with a rag. After we got off all of the loose pieces, I left the rest to just mud over. I fixed all the wood trim and repainted it, then textured the room (including the ceiling) and gave it two coats of paint. And don’t be fooled – that took weeks to accomplish.. with breaks every three hours to nurse the baby ☺. There's a big unused, chimney in the room, so we came up with the idea of making it into a tree which went perfectly with Livi's idea to put a hammock in her room. I liked the idea of very light blue paint which worked great with the look of the sky in the background.

After the walls were painted, Livi painted the trunk of the tree then I began filling in the branches, freehand. We had found the owl stickers at a craft store which roosted perfectly on the branches. My mom added the leaves afterwards.

The floor was a struggle. Originally I was going to sand the floorboards and stain them a dark brown to match the hallway. We realized the gaps between the boards were so big, we would need to put a lot of filler in between the boards and if we were to sand it and stain it, the filler would stain lighter and really stand out. So I rented a big sander and did the whole floor, then filled in the gaps one at a time with thin wood putty and sanded it with a hand-sander. There were still some gaps where the filler dried and shrunk back, so yes, I had to do the process AGAIN to fill it all in. It took hours and the sand blows all over the room and coats the walls and ceiling… plus yourself and breathing through a mask is just awfully comfortable…. But I got it all done! And yes… weeks again. We got the walls / ceiling all cleaned and I decided to paint the floor a pale yellow and seal it with a deck sealer. Thanks Sherwin Williams for the idea. Connecting the hammock to the chimney was interesting, but we just anchored it inside the chimney flue and bolted it to the other side. As long as you don’t weigh over 100 pounds, you’re good! So no, I’ve never been in it... Livi tells me it’s nice….

We had fun furnishing her room with refurbished pieces. We had a few new pieces, mostly from Ikea. Livi reads like it’s going out of style, so we set up her own bookshelf. We found an inexpensive clothes rack to hang her dresses with the rest of her clothes in the drawers under her bed. So Livi loves her room! If definitely reflects her quirky, modern style. I did almost all of the work in the room, so I was proud too! In a few years, we plan on putting a bathroom in part of her room, so the chimney/tree will come down, but we’ll have fun scheming the room out again.

Here's the room!
-Sherie

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Isn't Livi's bedroom so cool!?  I mean, who the crap doesn't want a hammock in their bedroom?  And, Sherie is pretty much the cool mom for working so hard to help Livi have an awesome room...Livi had shared a room with her younger sister for a long time (who is all about the pink! Haha!) so now she's pretty stoked to have her own space.  

So, let's hear about your bedroom growing up!  I loved mine.  I shared with my poor sister Laura till she went to college (I was a hoarder as a little kid...all sorts of "collections" of treasures -aka- weird crap that kids love, like marbles and a million crayons/pencils.  I was NOT fun to share a room with.) From middle school on, I quit my pig-sty ways and spent many hours decorating my room...I bought tons of cool records from the library basement sale and hung the covers in my room, along with a giant beatles poster, a collection of globes, and huge magazine collages I painstakingly made.  Oh, and I rigged up a string of lights and several lamps to all turn on with the same switch of a power strip.  (Lots of extension cords...haha, what a safety hazard!)  

How about you?  What was your room like?  Did you share with a sibling?  Did you do your own decorating or did your mom?  If you have kids old enough to care, do you let them have a say in their bedroom decor?  I'd love to hear. :)  Not that it's an imminent concern (my two kids are little little) but, I've wondered about how that will go down, cause I care so much about the aesthetics of my home--I'm a little leery to give a kid free-reign, ha. What if we end up with black paint or One Direction posters everywhere??  *shudder*...haha.

I hope you loved Livi's room!  Be sure to Like, Pin, Comment, etc to show the love. :)  Thanks friends!  Have a sweet fall day! 

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Llama Kitchen Art

By Amy Graham

SO...if you've been following SOM for a while, you'll remember my Napoleon Dynamite Kitchen Wall art.  And if you're new here, thanks for coming over, ya little puddin!

Be sure to "Like" or "Join This Site" to party with us! :)

So you know from my previous Napoleon art post that I am a big fan.  I love all their awkward ways (makes me feel better about myself, ha!) as well as the hilarious small farm-town Idaho humor.  Since I'm a native Idahoan, from a small town, and I'm pretty sure I know Lyle's twin, this movie speaks to me. There's so much weirdness to love!

So, it was natural to pay tribute to one of my favorite movies through art.  And, since I am a crappy, unwilling cook, I figured that my I could use this quote for my future kids.

It sounded a little bossy-pants, so I added a "please".   Ya know-- manners and all that.

For a while, I've wanted to do another piece to go with the first for my kitchen...and of course, I had to use Tina.  Ha, gotta love the pet llama.  I decided not to include, "Tina, you fat lard!" since I do NOT want the words, "fat lard" staring down at me as I eat my dinner every night.  Um...no thank you.

I figure that when I've got older kids, between these two messages, I will have pretty much everything covered...Whether they're whining about wanting a snack, or disliking what I've made for a meal, I can just point to the applicable painting on the wall, and bada bing!  Problem solved.

So, here's the process...it wasn't too fancy.  :)  (I only complete crafts that fall under the category of "freakin easy.")


The llama.  (Sorry, the lighting is crappy, cause I was working on this at like 10 at night.  I've learned that crafting when my toddler is awake=no good.)

I enlarged a pic of Tina, printed her out, and traced the sucker!  How's that for an art degree?  Ha..really, I do have one.

Words are free-handed, cause I like the home-made look.  (aka, I don't want to go look for my stencils, and vinyl is WAY beyond my crafting patience and ability.

Painted!  With some acrylic paint leftover from previously mentioned art classes.  I kinda wonder if I need to work on his face a little....does it look llamaish or like an ant-eater? Hmm...

Here's the first masterpiece....(ha, maybe masterpiece is a bit of an exaggeration...)

And masterpiece numero dos!  Along with the excellent print that I bought from an art sale on campus...I LOVE it.  E. House, your print "Call the Kettle" has inspired my entire color scheme of my kitchen.

 
Well, I hope I've inspired you to add some art to your walls that is unique to you!  It can be pretty simple, and it's fun to make people laugh whenever they come in your house. :)  Home decor doesn't have to be all beautiful and serious all the time...it's cool to add your own little quirky-ness!

Alrighty, that's it for me.  New friends, don't forget to follow along here at SOM!  You can hear lots of ladies' stores, as well as share your own!  We have a lot of fun.  :)

So, your turn!  What movie quote would you like as a piece of art?   (I also contemplated, "Get that corn outta my face!" for the kitchen, cause I love me some Nacho Libre...maybe next time. :)

In the words of Kip, "Peace out."


I'm linking up this post to the Be.You.tiful Link party!  Check it out. :)

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Quick and Easy Craft: Love Song Pillow

By Amy

My husband and I don't have "a song."

There are many we love, like, "I Won't Give Up" by Jason Mraz.  We both LOVE that song, but as our love song?  It sounds a little like we are constantly struggling in our relationship!  And we both LOVE "Awake" by Josh Groban (this is my favorite version!  It's with Idina Menzel, so duh, it's amazing.), but it's kinda sad too!  It's about a couple who has to be apart...it makes me think of couples where one spouse is in the military.  So, that doesn't really fit us, though we love it.

And, I am crazy for the Beatles, but he's not a huge fan, so none of the sweet Beatles love songs will work. :(

We just can't agree on one.  But, the lyrics to, "Till there was You" from the Music Man pretty perfectly describe my feelings for him, since I never had a serious relationship till I met him.  (Oh geez...if you watch the video I linked, you might die when they start singing in each other's faces...haha!  Gotta love musicals!)

I dealt with a lot of anxiety over dating in high school and college, but he was such a good friend, and I was finally in a good place to try having a relationship...and basically, the timing was meant to be, cause it was right when I met Patrick!  I liked him SO much, he was worth facing the fear.  And I, who made fun of everything sappy and romantic for years, was suddenly the sappiest of saps.  (You can read our ridiculous love story here)  So, at least from MY point of view, this is our song. :)

For a while, I've wanted a cool accent pillow for our bed, and I had a pillow I was tired of, so I decided to put some fun graphic letters on the back, which was just plain fabric.  And, since it was for our bedroom, I thought something a little sweet and romantical would be nice!  But it couldn't be all flowery and pink (cause I share this room with a manly man), so I figured the plain block letters would work nicely.  I used a gold fabric pen, to echo the other gold accents in our room.  I probably would choose a little darker of a color if I were to do it over again, cause it's a little more subtle than I wanted it to be, but hey!  I still like it! :)

I tried stencils, but I wanted to rip my hair out, so I freehanded it.  And I used every ounce of juice in that marker!

Finished!

It's a sweet reminder of our love story every time I walk in to the room. Yay!  (Don't tell Patrick that the Beatles covered this song...haha. :)

What do you think?  Too subtle?  Hmmmm.

Do you and your hub or boyfriend have a song?  What is it?  I'd love to hear. :)  Any other songless couples out there?

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A Tale of Two Dressers

By Amy

Anybody else out there obsessed with home decor?

For reals, if we owned cable, I would watch HGTV for days on end.  I'd have to move the toilet and fridge into the living room, so I'd never miss a nano-second of "Love it or List It" or "Property Brothers".  

HGTV was very important to me when I had cable and a 1- month-old baby.  I never got out of the house; I was either bouncing my reflux-y baby on the exercise ball or sitting on the couch, hooked up to the milk machine (breast pump..."'shudder'") while binging out on tv home remodels.  

Yeah.  It's a good thing that I haven't had cable since then.  And since we've never owned our own home yet, I have to expend all my addictive, remodel energies on decor-ing the walls of the home we're renting and re-doing furniture.

SO, here's two projects my patient husband and I finished up this summer!  They took some WORK, but they were so worth it.

Two DIY Dresser Redo's!  Enjoy! :)

Ok, so this dresser looked like a piece of crap when I saw it upside down, with the drawers out, and one leg off, in the middle of a crowded yard sale.  But I saw the cool legs and funky handles, and pounced.  I just knew it had some serious potential.  And, you can re-finish wood, so it was no big deal to me that it looked like it had been kicked off a truck and rolled down a hill!  

But, if you see something you like at a yard sale, you gotta be chill.  Act all nonchalant, like you don't really care about such a hunk of junk... "How much for this dresser thing?  (act a little disgusted by the nicks and dings...) She answers and you reply, "Oh $5?  Hmmm...well, I guess we could pay that."  (Still playing it sooo cool.)  But really, I'm so excited, I want to throttle the lady perusing purses next to me..."DID YOU HEAR THAT?  SHE SAID 5 FREAKIN DOLLARS!!!!  AHAHAHA! (maniacal laugh...)"

When we walked off with that scratched-up beauty, I felt like waving and hollering back to the yard sale shoppers "I got it SUCKERS!!! Ya'll don't know what you just MISSED!!!  IN YO FACE!"

But, no I don't holler like a football player on roids...I'm still playing it coool.  (Till the car door shuts at least.  Ha!)

The Re-do process:
Um, it took alot more time then I realized when I was gleefully victory dancing at the yard sale. (well, in my mind I was.)  But still SOOOO worth it.  Oh, so worth it.  I love this baby.  And, now we have so much storage in our kitchen for extra bowls and dishes and my art class supplies.  And Hayden can't open the drawers!!!!  WOOOO!  Toddler proofed! :)

Leg off and a sticker too! 

Lots of sanding.

My boys!

I help too, I swear--it's just I'm usually taking the pics. :)

Clear coating...4 layers of it....ughhhhhhhhh.  Then you have to wait 8 hours between each coat...suspense, people!

Hanging the boards to dry

BAM!  Oh I love it so much!  I want to weep! 

Sigh....worth the work.

Now for beauty numero dos.  This one was so wretched when we bought it off of craigslist.  It was in another city, so we had my mom pick it up.  We probably wouldn't have bought it, had we seen it in person, cause it had some damage-- but my mom didn't want to make that call, so she handed over our money and brought us the precious, heart covered dresser.  Ha!  We decided to make it work, and we are so happy with the end result!  (Thanks for picking it up mom!)

See, miracles DO exist!  Ok, back to the nast.  I'm not really going to get all detailed into the process...there was a lot of sandin', then a lot more sandi'n...the hearts were stamped on with some thick paint, so we had to sand them till they were flat, or you could see hearts through the blue.

Then several coats of paint.  I waffled back and forth on the color of the knobs 3 times, then finally spray painted them this light blue that I had left over from another project (and the sprinklers came on while they were drying on the grass in the front yard...ha, that sucked.)  and...VOILA!  It is finished!

See, there was some damage that we fixed with some wood putty.

LOVE this little trunk.  I found it at a different garage sale, and Patrick was like, "Are you kidding?!"  But he likes it on the dresser!  You'd think he'd just trust me by now.  :) 

Ha...another glamour shot of the little trunk.  Along with a little teddy bear from our japanese exchange student, some globes (I've collected them since I was in middle school) and a pic of Jesus that I love!

Sweet boy! :)

Well, that's it, friends!  Can you believe the hearts on the "before" pic!?  Ha!  Maybe if we had a girl....jk, nope!

What do you think?  I was nervous to paint such a large piece such a dark color, but I'm happy with it.

I think it's super fun to see other people's home projects too!  So, send me your before and after pics to share here on SOM! (amy.the.graham@gmail.com)  It's always nice to get a virtual high five for some hard work, right?  You can help me responsibly get my home decor re-model fix, since it's unhealthy for me to watch HGTV.  :)

And, if you're new here, be sure to LIKE "Swag on, momma!" to join the party!  We have lots of fun hanging out and discussing all sorts of important (and not so important) stuff.  We'd love to have YOU!  Just click the little "Like" button on the upper right margin...it's calling your name. :)  Or click "Join this Site" button to never miss a post!  And, if you really want to get me doing my on-roids-victory-dance...do both!  Ha! :)

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DIY Decor: String Balls....possibly THE most obnoxious craft project of all time.

Hey friends!  I'm playing craft blogger again, and it's another weird craft with no function other than hanging.  WOO! (Here's the first one for those who missed it...)

So, a while ago I had the bright idea of making a string ball.  I found this pic on Pinterest, which had them used as decor at a reception.

Source: Wedding 101

I saw this pic and thought, "Dang.  I want one of those balls in my living room." and "That's a lotta antlers."  I checked out tutorials (Pinterest is overflowing with String Ball DIYs) and geared up for what I knew would be a fabulously fun crafting fest! 

But, it actually kind of sucked.  Ya know how some crafts are pretty enjoyable to make?  Not this one...ughhh.  But, it's ok, cause I liked the end result!  Here were my steps, but in pretty vague terms (if you want a real step-by-step tutorial, there are tons out there all of which are much more detailed than mine...this one I found funny, and this one was helpful)...

First, I set up a good spot.  I did this at my parent's home while we were visiting, since they have a dining room table and a chandelier where my creation could hang undisturbed.

Supplies:
A bunch ball balloon (the round kind with the huge rubber bands)
Elmers glue and corn starch, mixed with a little water (no measurements, just mix some up)
Vaseline to coat your punch balloon with beforehand
Tinfoil, to cover your workspace (or a sheet, or newspaper, yada yada)
String
Music or a Movie to keep you sane!

Then, drag the string through the goop and start winding in around the ball!

Are you kidding me?!?  I feel like I've been winding string around this ball for ages!

Guess who woke up from his nap?

I don't really love doing this craft.  Can you tell?  Sticky, nasty mess.

Getting there....

I almost ran out of glue, so I used a pickle fork to dredge the string with.  I ran the string though the tines to keep it down to the very bottom of the tin, to soak up the last of the glue crap.

The next morning!  The balloon popped in the night and was all shriveled up on the table under the ball.  Convenient, huh?

I had to clean out some of the dried glue stuff.

Then, I took it home, and realised it was too cream--it almost disappeared against the cream ceiling and tan wall of my living room.  I needed it to be white so it could stand out and get the glory it deserved!  So, while watching a dance documentary on Netflix (I love documentaries!)  I used a sponge brush to blot on white paint.  It took a good while, but the movie kept me from going banannas.

Drumrollllll....The End Result!

Can you see it?  Ha!  Maybe I need some antlers.

I think it's subtle, but fun!  What do you think?

Have you ever made a string ball?  Did you find it tedious and kinda nasty, too?  Now I'm really glad I didn't try to make a hundred for my reception.

Ps.  Here's my new signature/pic/farewell to put at the end of posts written by me.  Do you likey?  I maxed out my Photoshopping knowledge creating this...ha!

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