DIY Decor - Thinking outside the box!

After the rooms were painted, I worked at lightning speed to put my house back together (approx 3700 mi/sec).  I was hosting a bunch of parties and I needed my house put back together ASAP.  I had a bunch of blank walls I needed to decorate along with a lot of toys that I wanted to organize.  So I decided to do a few DIY projects.  Why do I always do this to myself?  Pinterest should come with a "Cold Sore Stress" rating system.  These projects were at least 5 Cold Sores (5CS for short).

Auto Shelf.  One thing Jake and I have in common - a love for cars/racing/motors/gasoline.  Instead of buying some meaningless and expensive items to decorate our bookshelf, we decided to display all the cool auto stuff we have.  Some of the mustang pieces were gifts from his marketing group last year.  The bright red mustang mold - called a "jelly bean" - is actually pretty hard to come by and people display them on their desks as a status symbol.  Jake wants to take it to work someday, but I keep reminding him that it will probably get swiped (Swiper No Swiping!).  Side note, our old license plates are glaring in this photo - Jake did NOT want them to go on the wall.  haha!  (If you want them taken down honey, you need to bring me something cool to replace them with...)

Dot Clock.  The old dot clock had to come off before we painted, since it was mostly vinyl stickers.  The girls loved dismantling the clock.  They reminded me of that book, You Are Special.  I wanted to rip off those dots and tell them they didn't need dots or stars to be special!

 

Then Scarlett helped me put the clock back up after the paint had dried.  I don't know why I like this clock so much... probably cause it requires a lot of math, a ruler, and a protractor to assemble.

All done.  Jake didn't even notice it til I pointed it out.  I guess I did a good job matching the old one!  haha!

Bear Bins.  We love the Target brand animal cookies.  One time I put a different brand in the old Target container, but my girls weren't fooled!  I don't know what it is, but we scarf these down.  Since I know they are a temptation (for the adults), I don't buy them that often.  But every time we finish a batch, I save the plastic bear bin they come in.  The bins are just too cute!  I decided to use these to help sort some of the little toys that the girls play with.  I washed them and scraped off the labels, then used Goo Gone to get rid of the sticky gunk.  Then I made paper labels (I should have printed them, but for whatever reason I was in a drawing mood that day...)  I made labels for a few different toy bins as well.  I used clear contact paper on each side of the paper to cheaply "laminate them."  I am pretty happy with the result.  And the girls actually have been putting things away in the right bear!  Victory!!!

Kitchen "Boxes".  Do you feel the cold sore stress yet?  Cause we're not close to being done, folks!  I have been on the look out for storage boxes that would fit on the top of my kitchen shelves.  I decided that I probably would never find what I was looking for (weird dimensions, simple design, low cost).  So I decided to make them.  I was worried about making boxes that would be sturdy enough to hold glass vases and strong enough to be taken down and rummaged through often.  I had all sorts of crazy ideas until it hit me: they just need to look like boxes.  Instead of making boxes to go up there, I could make false fronts that appear to be boxes, but in fact are just flimsy pieces of cardboard.  Then the fronts could be removed without disturbing the items on the shelves.  I was really thinking (wait for it) outside the box on this one!  haha!

First I bought some heavy duty poster board and drew a diagram (my spacial reasoning skills coming in handy).  I cut it out with some extra tabs to add strength to the final design *enginerd*.  I had to piece together the cardboard to make the box the right size (but I hid the seams where you wouldn't see them in the end).

Here is the "box" after folding, but sitting upside down (my girls all wanted to do "art" with me).  And after they were in place.  They actually look like boxes up there! 

I found these chalkboard stickers at Hob Lob to finish them off.  It took a few hours (at the end each box only took 20 min to assemble, but the first one took much longer).  And they were under $5!  Boo ya!!!

Window Valance.  We put roller blinds in the toy room.  I like that the girls can't mess with them once they are open.  But I didn't like how plain they looked.  So I decided to make a window valance from a this tutorial.

I bought rigid foam insulation.  I actually only needed one sheet, so I could make a few more of these.  I wrapped it with fabric (and a white lining layer underneath) using pins to hold it in place.  Then I put Velcro Command Strips on the back and stuck it up there.  Since we put ours flat against the wall, I didn't need to make the extra support or side pieces that the tutorial suggests.  Once I put it up I realized I don't really care for the fabric.  It will be easy (and cheap) to change once I find fabric I do like (and the motivation to tear it apart and redo it).  I need to figure out what I'm going to do over their magnet board, then maybe I'll find something to coordinate with that...  But for now I think it is great.

Crossword Wall.  I wanted to put something on the wall that you see right when you walk in.  I didn't want to spend $$$ on just something random and inspiration wasn't coming.  So I finally decided I just needed to cut something out of vinyl for now.  I have thought about putting a crossword of our names up somewhere in our home, so I decided just to use the idea here.  Jake grabbed his laser level and helped me line up all the squares.  Then I put the white letters on.  I've had those black nesting storage boxes since junior high!  Glad my style hasn't changed much in the past 15 years!  Now I need to make seasonal decorations to go on those boxes.  (3CS stress rating)

Tetris Door.  Our door going downstairs to the basement drives me crazy.  I love the glass details but it ALWAYS has little tiny finger prints (and lip prints!)  Plus you can see all the junk that I store on the steps waiting to go to our food storage.  So I wanted to do something to cover it up.  While I was looking through my vinyl for the crossword wall I came up with this idea.  I had a bunch of colorful scraps (a small hallway needs color!)  I cut a bunch of squares and ...

Made a Tetris door!  It came out looking more "confetti" than I imagined - but all my fellow nerds will recognize the patterns.  The girls love to push the "buttons" and I don't mind cause they don't leave fingerprints!  We'll see how long it lasts before they figure out how to pick it off.

Light Fixture.  Finally.... We have this brass light fixture in our hallway by the back door.  So when the painter was here I had him take it down and I spray painted it black (yes, in the snow - I brought it inside to dry).  Now it matches our new color scheme.  Side note: do you like our "Remember who you are" magnet?  My dad would say that to us as we left the house, to help us remind us of our values.  Sometimes they would tease Jami and say: "Remember who you are....and act like Jenni!"  I'm sure she just thought that was hilarious!  ;-)

That's all my projects for this month.  I was discussing future projects with Jake and he said "So I saw a really cool pin on Jordan's Pinterest board..."  My heart grew 3 sizes that day!  To be fair, most of Jake and Jordan's pins are motorcycle/dirt bike/man theme.  But still... LOVE!!!