Floral Wall Decals, and Master Bedroom Facelift

Our master bedroom makeover has me all sorts of happy! It was the last room in our house to be decorated. I love the look of the vinyl flowers adorning the freshly painted walls. 

The decals are from @urbanwalls. They add a freshness you can't find with another product. 

They are the perfect balance of masculine and feminine.

This is the before. This pic is 5 years old, and nothing much had changed. We moved in to our home 10 years ago, and used the same bedding from our old house. Our curtains never fit the windows, and we always had light streaming in. Our old bedding was finally threadbare, and it was time for a change! I loved the purple, and had it in our master for nearly fifteen years, but I was ready to move on! 

First thing I did was to paint the wall.

The paint is called Chimney, and its from Home Depot.

Painting the wall made a nice difference, but I wanted to bring in a little more contrast and drama.

I got these awesome floral decals from, Urban Walls. They come in sheets. You cut loosely around each flower to separate them.

After you cut the Urban Walls Decals out, you hang them with painters tape on the wall where you want them to go. You can play around with them until you find the desired position, then you peel away the back, and stick them to the wall. You press down with a credit card, and make sure the flower is sticking to the wall, before pulling the top layer off the wall.

This was my first pic at night, after I finished. The entire project only took about four hours, start to finish. I loved how simple they were to apply and how they create such a great impact!

They are so fresh and bright, that it makes me happy every time I walk in my room.

I had priced out nice wallpaper, and it would have cost me over $1000 to do just that one wall, and would have ben a nightmare to hang. 

These decals were sooo easy to hang, that anyone could do it!

Here are a few more of the finished product photos. 

It has been quite a shock to go from a plain color on the wall all these years, to this, but I really love the way it turned out! 

I think I'll change out the bedding a bit next fall and winter, and maybe do a darker bedskirt, and some dark pillows.

I am so happy to have the pretty pink and the flowers, going into spring and summer.

*I received product from Urban Walls at a very discounted rate, but opinions are my own.

Thanks for stopping by!

Have a Happy and Creative Day!

Risa

DIY Customize Color Letterboard

I have been drooling, DROOLING over colored felt letterboards. I just haven't drooled over the price. They are expensive! I kept thinking there had to be a solution, and I've found it!

I recently found THE BEST DEAL! An 11"x16" letter board for $9.95, that comes with a set of black letters! This letterboard can be found at Walmart. I've not found it online, only in stores, and not all stores carry it, so you may want to call and check, unless you are making a trip anyway. I've found it in fabric and craft, and in stationary. The construction is okay, and the white felt looks a bit dingy, not like the Letter Folk letter boards. You can even get 2 sets of additional letters and words for $9.95.

As I mentioned, it was a little dingy, and I didn't love the color of the white. It looked more grey. I thought this would be the perfect board to turn a color!

So... an inexpensive, easy DIY solution was born! Textile medium mixed with the craft paint color of your choice, and brushed on your letter board, was the answer! You can find textile medium at any craft store, and I think most brands work just fine.

 I used Anita's on one, and Delta on the other board, and they both gave the same results.

Squirt as much paint as you need into a cup, and add the textile medium. What this does, is it thins the paint, and makes it so it doesn't dry hard. It stays soft and playable. Mix more than you need. You will need more than you think, and the felt will suck up any excess.

I found that adding a little more textile medium than paint gave me the consistency I wanted. It will be pretty thin! Kind of like pudding that's not set up.

Mix it up, and start brushing it on your letterboard. The felt will soak the color up. It feels more like a stain than a paint. I loved using the medium flat brush for this project, because it was able to get under the frame and not get paint on the frame. It went super fast! By the way... I tried to take the frame off, and couldn't bend the metal prongs back into place after, that's why I opted to just paint with the frame on. If you get paint on the frame, you can just wipe it off. You may need to add extra to the crack lines, just to make sure the color has saturated everything.

Let it dry in the sun or over night. This is very important, because the letters can leave dents in the painted felt, if you insert them before it's all the way dry.

I also made a pink one for my bedroom. I kinda want one in every room of my house!

At $9.97, there is NO EXCUSE not to buy and customize your own letterboard today!

The board says what I felt when I finished.

Now I have two more boards, one for my bedroom, and one for the powder room. Just think... you could have two more boards by the end of the day too!

Thanks for stopping by! 

Have a Happy and Creative Day. And seriously... make a painted letterboard!

Risa

Anthropologie Knock-off Plate

The thing I love most in stores like Anthropologie and World Market, is their dishes and their dishtowels. I have loved the recent trend of insects in decor. I didn't want to spend money on something that was so trendy, and I would likely be tired of in 6 months, but still wanted to bring the look into my home for a fraction of the cost.

You cannot eat on these. They are decorative only. They are beautiful for plate walls, could be darling in a nursery, with a date, or picture. They would be awesome to display at Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas... any holiday, really. I love the insects for summer. They are very unexpected, and a fun conversation piece. They would be fun for a child, teenage, or adult craft night to make a jewelry dish. They are super customizable!

You will need (affiliate links):

Water Slide Decal Paper

Dishes (most of mine were thrifted)

Krylon Acrylic Spray

Scissors

Water

Find the images you want to use. I prefer getting my images from Etsy, because they come with clear backgrounds if you use a png file, so you can cram more on your page. You can search any image you want. (You can also follow me there, to see what I am favoriting.) I used picmonkey to creamy collages. If you are unsure how to create a collage sheet, you can use THIS TUTORIAL. I tried to fit as many as I could on each page. Print your images onto your Water Slide sheets.

Wait for the ink to dry.

Spray each sheet with 3-4 coats of the acrylic spray, waiting 20 minutes, or until dry between each coat. This step is very important, probably the most important. If you don't do it, your image will not stay intact enough to transfer to your plate.

Cut the image you plan to use out of your sheet.

Place it in water for 30-60 seconds.  It will curl a little. That's okay.

After the allotted time, simply slide the paper off the back. The acrylic coating is what makes the decal stay intact.

Place your decal on your plate, and smooth it to get the excess water and bubbles out.

You are left with a beautiful and totally custom plate! These are example of plates I made. Some of the plates I used already had flowers on them, and others were plain. 

Thanks for stopping by.

Have a Happy and Creative Day!

Risa

DIY Faux Fur Stools

Fur footstools and chairs have been all over Pinterest lately, and I just had to get in on the trend. I have had fur pillows in my home for years, but never furniture. I love the texture and interest that bringing fur into your decor adds. It gives a little softness, and a bohemian vibe.

I searched high and low to find a base for my stools. I wanted vintage, but clean lines and not super decorative. I am not kidding when I say, I went to 12 stores in my search for perfect bases, 12! I found little tables that would be perfect, but I didn't want to pay $60-$100 each, because for my space, I wanted a pair. and if I am paying that much, I may as well not have to DIY anything!

I came home first with side tables, that I planned to put a wooden top on, but they were too high, and didn't make sense. I went to the hardware store, thinking I would just hook legs to a round piece of wood, and the legs were all too decorative, if they were tall enough, and the legs I liked weren't tall enough, like only 3-5 inches. It was very frustrating! I knew I wanted them to flank my table, and not be too huge.

I found these little chairs at my last stop, a local thrift store, called Deseret Industries, here in Utah. They were $10 each. They were perfect. I can't tell you how happy I was!

They thing that attracted me to them, was the base. The color is lovely, a goldish taupe, with shiny gold trim. 

 I loved the legs, and loved the fact that I could screw the whole bottom off. My son was excited to sit in the chair tops, and told me how nice they were.

I had originally intended to throw the chair tops away, and use round wooden discs from Home Depot (one of the 12 stores I visited) for the seats.

I was all ready to go out and spend a bunch of money on foam, when I was like, DUH! I'll just use the bases that came with the chairs! They are not perfectly symmetrical, but you would never know, because the fur is so forgiving.

I did buy a piece of foam from store number 13, Joann's. It was $7 on sale.

I also like the fur from Joann's the best. It was $39/yard, but I used a 50% off coupon, and an additional $5 off coupon, and was able to really bring the price down. I picked up some other fur from Hancock fabrics earlier, but it was shorter than I was hoping for.

I taped the foam in place. It really wasn't moving. I used 1 yard of fur to do both chairs, and still had some left over. Then, I just stapled the fur in place! It took under 5 minutes per chair. I likes the cool vintage writing on the bottom of the chair.

The fur is super forgiving, but sheds like crazy! Night time pics sure are different than day time styled pics!

I love how they turned out!

They add a little whimsy, and texture to my space.

My teenage daughter thinks they are, "pretty fabulous," so that's a bonus!

They provide more seating, without taking up a ton of visual space.

And really, they are just pretty cool!

Thanks for stopping by.

Have a Happy and Creative Day!

Risa