{ChicByTab}: diy

Showing posts with label diy. Show all posts

Thursday, June 4, 2015

Dark Ash and Dark Walnut Dresser

Hello. Hope your having a wonderful day. I have a great piece to share today. I haven't done much work with mixing paint and wood tones. I love how it looks when others do them, but I'm a little more hesitant to do them myself. When I first brought this piece home, I thought is was going to be a nice navy blue.

Fortunately for me, I had second thoughts. I feel a masculine yet classic grey would do it more justice. Then looking at the line features, I thought " why not leave them dark stained? ". Worse case it doesn't look as I envisioned, and I paint them afterwards.

I was right!! I love the look. I used Behr paint in Ash Grey, also using my home-made chalk paint recipe. Cheap alternative, when I want custom colors. I used a sample pot from Home Depot {$5} and some Plaster of Paris {$5-and it makes appr. 30 batches}, you really can't go wrong with that price.

I did touch up the wood finish with a little of my favorite stain, Minwax Dark Walnut. The handles didn't take as well to the traditional stain, so I went with the gel stain instead. Worked like a charm. I finished it off with Varathane Water based polyurethane finish in clear satin. Durability at its best.

See my lil succulent terrarium. Check out my post on how to create your own here. I am obsessed with succulents right now. I just picked up some more today at the green house. I'm sure you'll see them in the near future.

What do you think, hit or miss on the paint and wood tone together? I think a big fat hit. Thanks for stopping by.

Party Time!!

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Monday, June 1, 2015

DIY Bathtub Shelf Made Easy

Hello. I love Mondays. I always feel invigorated from the weekend and ready to tackle new projects. I started my week off with this super simple DIY Bathtub Shelf. This is a quick project, as in less than 20 minutes to make. That easy.

I had a couple 1x6's in my garage from my sign projects here and here. What better way to use up some left over lumber, than a simple shelf. I started by cutting one of the 1x6's in half, so each piece was 36 inches. When I measured across my tub, it was 35". Rather than make 2 cuts, I just added an inch. Next I cut my support pieces at 10"each.

under side

I pre drilled by holes, so the wood wouldn't split. Seems to make sense to me.

top side

Next I set to work staining. I like the tone of Minwax Dark Walnut. Such a nice deep and rich brown. I love how it brings warmth to any room.

That's it. I let it dry for 2 hours, and it was ready to use.

All ready for a soak tonight.

Lights are ready to be lit.

Where's the glass of wine?

Hope you loved my DIY Bathtub Shelf as much as I do. Enjoy the rest of your day.

Party Time!!
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Thursday, May 28, 2015

Nautical Theme Chalk Board

Hello. Today I tackled two projects, one I will share with you tomorrow and one for today. I have always wanted to try my hand at chalkboard art, but I wasn't very confident. So I pinned and pinned in the hopes of one day completing my own. {sigh}.

I bought this sign over a year ago, I wish I had taken pics of the before. It originated from a seafood restaurant, and had a green chalkboard color with a colorful menu. The original writing was done in permanent marker, so trying to remove it was futile. I decided to paint the new one black. Note: For some reason I'm not a fan of green chalkboards. Then after it was all dried and finished, my dream was to hang it in our front sitting room. At least I thought it was....until it was hung. Not sure why, but it just didn't jive in there. So, we took it down and it has sat in our spare bedroom for a year.

**EDIT** I feel so silly, my husband and I were chatting about the sign and had a minor disagreement about the original art work from the restaurant. He flipped the sign and low and behold. See, the darn thing is so heavy, when I lift it, I stand on the front side. I didn't even check the back. I feel so silly. I totally forgot that both sides were painted. Good news is now you get a before picture!

Inspiration hit me yesterday. Not sure what gave me the umph to start such a massive first time chalkboard project, but I went full tilt today. I started reviewing my Pinterest board for ideas. I knew I wanted something with our name or initial and the year we were married. The Nautical design jumped off my board grabbed me by the barnacles and dragged me to Michael's to get my supplies. Literally, true story. Maybe not quite, but I thought it would look great at our cabin. So, off to Michael's to get my supplies. After much debate in the isle I went with the Bitro Chalk Marker and pack of good ol' fashion chalk. Here's a picture of the Bistro marker.

You can also find it on Amazon here. I used the ol 'fashion chalk to draw out my grid and the chalk marker to do all the writing. This worked well. Actually, it worked fabulously! I used the tutorial by Kristen @ ella claire inspired to plan out the drawing. Check out her tutorial on how to blow up your image. Super easy!

After I figured out my ratio to size, I set to work. I did try using the ol' fashioned chalk at first to do the lettering, but it didn't look as good as the marker. My fear at first was that my marker would wipe off, but it did quite easily. After I conquered that fear, it was smooth sailing.

Looks pretty good in my books. For a first timer. Next we, as in my daughter and I, set to work erasing the lines.

Looks a little bare.

Much better.

Seems a little fitting, with my husband working 5 hours away and commuting on weekends. Maybe hit a little soft spot for me.

Hope I've inspired you to try your own. I promise, it's not as hard as it looks.

Thanks for stopping in. Enjoy the last of your week.

Party Time!!!

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Wednesday, May 27, 2015

Restoration Hardware DIY Hutch

Hello. I have a Restoration Hardware DIY to share with you today.

This hutch came to me from a neighbour, it was a wedding gift from her mother. So precious. My neighbour is doing this insane reno in their house, and she is getting a new office. Since she runs a fabulous little business, she wanted a matching office. Sounds right to me. Here's the hutches humble beginnings.

Now, this was a tricky piece. We had decided on making the back of the hutch Dark Walnut. The wood panelling was not real wood, but kinda like a sticker. So, typical stain wouldn't work. I love using gel stain by Minwax. It covers anything and really changes the tone of any surface. Check out their site, for a ton of info and inspiration. I started by taping off the panel board section, and laid down my first coat of gel stain. The key to using this product is dry time. Depending on the surface, anywhere from 1-3 days. Make sure it is nice a dry before adding the next coat. It took me 4 coats to cover up the yellow pine. Next I mixed up some Miss Mustard Seed Milk paint in Linen, with bonding agent (no chipping). Again, I found the yellow hard to cover, it took me 4 coats to get a solid coverage. Now hindsight, I think I was mixing the paint a little too thin. When using lighter colors, be sure to mix a bit thicker.

I love everything about this piece. The curvature on the top, right down to the flower embellishment. The hardware was picked by my neighbor. A great splurge on the hutch!

Don't forget to link up any of your projects at my chic-by-you-wednesday-linky-party! Hope to see you there.

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Thursday, May 21, 2015

6 Easy Industrial Decor DIY Ideas

Happy Friday. I'm off to visit hubby in Saskatoon. With packing and all, I ran out of time to paint. So, I decided to go with my 6 Easy Industrial Decor ideas. We have unofficially decided to decorate our new home in mid century modern with industrial flare. Here are a few of the decor items I am looking to create.

1. Industrial Shelving

Check out these easy instructions here. Can you believe this is made from wood planks and Ikea shelving?? CHEAP CHEAP CHEAP!!!!

2. Industrial Pendant Light

Drop in on Lauren from blesserhouse, her super easy Pendant light will change any room into industrial chic in no time flat.

3. Restoration Hardware Knock Off Coffee Table

No industrial living room would be perfect with out a Restoration Hardware table. Tricia at simplicityinthesouth makes this table with a few easy steps. I love how she makes it easy.

4. DIY Marquee Light

This was one of the easiest Marquee DIY's I could find. Thank you Megan at happylooksgoodonyou. I'm thinking an "M" for McCaffrey or "J&T" for mine and hubby's initials. xoxo

5. DIY Wood Pallet Clock

I've looked high and low for the simplest wall clock DIY. Look no further. Liz Marie from lizmarieblog has created this gorgeous clock. I love it! I don't want a functional one, I think the ticking would bother me.

6. DIY Truss Desk

No Industrial room would be complete without a truss desk. The girls at shanty-2-chic offer free plans to build this desk. That's where all my blogging magic would occur.

That's it! Hope you found as much inspiration in these items as I did. Check out each of these amazing posts to create your own industrial room. Can't wait to share mine!

Party Time!!

Thursday, April 30, 2015

3 Beautiful Belle's

Do you ever wonder how a day could turn out so perfectly? Where all the deals line up on Kijiji. Pick-up goes smoothly. The furniture is exactly what you were looking for.

That was my day today. Meet my 3 Beautiful Belle's.

This first one, I found yesterday on Kijiji. Great thing was, it was located 2 blocks from my work. I brought my friend from work and took a stroll over to check it out on break. Turns out this beautiful belle was being used as a prop in a high end clothing store at the mall. She was in great shape and sturdy. The store was located on the second floor, so we had to locate the elevator and the closest parking. Easy peasy lemon squeezy.

This next one, I also found on Kijiji. Upon a few email banters with the seller, I remembered buying furniture from her last year. She sells items for people online. Usually has a ton of goodies, and always willing to barter.

I scoped out her other adds and found this next gal.Perfect? It sure was.

I arranged all pick ups for today. My other friend and I grabbed my car after work, parked strategically, ran up to the second floor, placed on dolly and were back in my car in under 10 minutes. Nice work. Dresser one was on route to my house.

I really should take videos of me unloading my furniture single handed and up my front steps. My neighbors must grab their coffee and laugh in their front windows. " Honey here's Tabatha trying to get another dresser in her house. Come watch!"

Anyways, after school and haircuts for the kidlets, I ventured back to the city for the next 2. Both fit in the back {thank goodness for my Traverse} and we were back on route to my house.

Today was my day. This weekend I have colors to pick and hardware to order. Wish me luck and stay posted for the reveals next week.

Thanks for listening and have a fab weekend!

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Sunday, April 26, 2015

Anonymous Distressed Grey Sideboard

So, it's been awhile....but I'm back. I'll give my best explanation at the end of the post. Lets start with this gorgeous girl.

So this was me Thursday.

A little well known secret at our house,my husband dislikes furniture in his garage. I like my explanation. As you can see, he knows furniture all too well.

After much pulling and lifting this out of my car on my own (pat self on back), I managed to maneuvered her to the inside of our garage.

I love the unique front doors. I tried to find a name anywhere in/on the sideboard. No such luck.

For the piece I used Behr paint in the color Anonymous. I like to mix my own chalk paint, using a 2:1 ratio of paint to Plaster of Paris. I start with the Plaster of Paris in my red solo cup, and add enough water to make it thick but pourable. Then I stir in my paint, I usually let it sit for 30 minutes. After that, give it one more stir (get rid of any lumps) and it's ready to use. Don't get me wrong, I love Annie Sloan Chalk Paint. But this is much more convenient for me, as there's only one store in Edmonton that sells it with limited hours. Here's what your looking for if you want to try my technique. I buy mine at Home Depot in the wood repair section.

Another product that I love and can't live without. Is my Rub'n Buff in Gold Leaf.

Here's a nice close up of my handles. It's so easy to apply. I like to wear gloves, dab a bit on my finger tip and rub it in. Doesn't it look gorgeous?

Lastly, I sealed her up with Minwax Polyurethane Water Base in Satin Clear finish. I am seriously loving this side board.

Now on to my year hiatus... So life got busy. I couldn't hold down everything, so my painting had to hold. Good news is I have more time on my hands now. My last day at my job is Friday, and I'll be painting full time till we move. Ooops, I forgot to mention we are moving provinces to Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. I'm so excited for a new chapter in our lives. Hubby already moved in January, and the kids and I are waiting for the house to sell. I'm thinking part time work and furniture on the side. I guess we'll have to wait and see how it turns out.

Here's something funny. First picture is 9:00 am yesterday morning.