Paint Chip Art

Paint chip art is popping up everywhere these days.

From Pinterest

And since we've collected quite a few paint chips this year at Home Depot, we thought we'd give it a try too!  We haven't changed up the pictures in our apartment for a few years so we were both looking forward to something new.  Young House Love and Bower Power's current Pinterest Challenge was definitely a motivator too!

We spent a lot of time coming up with a design.  Our paint chips were all variations of three colors: pink, green, and blue.  So we decided we wanted some sort of swirl pattern out of the pink-toned paint chips and that the blue and green would be filler colors.  It took some playing around with different patterns but we eventually came up with something we liked:

After determining the layout, we flipped each paint chip over individually, cut them to ensure they were all the same size, and taped them together on the back.  The cuts weren't perfect (I really wish I had one of those paper cutters that teachers use) but that's okay - it looks homemade!

Next we waited until I found the perfect frame - at Unique!  Unique is an awesome thrift store in Northern Virginia.  I was there with friends to find 80s clothes for a costume and just happened to walk by a $3.99 picture frame that looked like the perfect size.  Hooray!

After I cleaned it up with Windex I realized that there was no way to take the frame apart.  Well, there probably is but I couldn't figure it out!  So my husband used an knife to cut open the cardboard in the back and pull it out of the frame.  Except it wasn't just cardboard!  There were plastic layers between different layers of really thick, unbendable cardboard.

But eventually we got it and were able to slip our art inside.  Then we just taped one layer of cardboard on the back to keep our art in place.  Here's the final product:

Easter Basket to Anytime Basket

Last Easter I was feeling pretty blue.  We weren't able to go to church because my hubby couldn't be in big crowds yet (and church is always crowded on Easter) and we couldn't visit our families either.  Two awesome things happened though: we watched an amazing live church service from Mars Hill Church and Pastor Mark Driscoll, and my husband surprised me with an Easter egg hunt that culminated in this special Easter basket filled with treats:

After 6 months admiring it and being reminded of my Easter surprise, I decided that I needed to do a little updating to make it match our decor a little better. 

First, I un-threaded the orange and gold ribbon that ran around the middle of the basket.  It actually wasn't even glued in so it was very easy to do!  Then I pulled out my set of craft paints and painted over the butterflies and the pink strips.  It took multiple coats (and a very small paint brush) but this is the end result:

And now for a close-up:

I love how it matches my bookshelf and that I can now enjoy it in all seasons!

I'm still not sure what to do with the extra baskets sitting inside of it - and I'm hoping to make some fabric flowers to put in that vase... eventually!

$1 Bookcase Re-do

I found this bookcase on the side of the road last week!  I've been wanting one of these for a while now and then poof!  There it was!

I rescued it right before heavy rain started to fall.

It's made out of particle board but the back on three of the squares was really cheap cardboard.  So I ripped it off.

 

 

Which left this:

It might be less trendy than the original, but I don't really like trendy things because they go out of fashion too fast for me to keep up with.  This way it's more of a classic bookshelf that will always be in fashion.

To spruce it up I added many thin layers of $1 "oops" paint from Home Depot.  We bought it a while back for another project and had half a can left.  I really like the color and me and the hubby thought it'd look great in our bedroom. 

The first few layers were applied with a small roller brush.  Then I used a tiny craft brush to fill in along the edges.  I chose not to sand it at all before painting since it is particle board and I didn't want it to start disintegrating, but it did make it hard to get the paint to stick.  I ended up applying my final layers with a foam brush which gave me more even coverage.

 

And one more time without books...

Total cost?  Less than $1!

Bookcase Makeover

I love books - and I love books with lovely covers.  But for the longest time I didn't have a lovely bookcase to put them on.  Since we're both book-lovers, my husband and I have "his and hers" bookcases.  

His is an old one that was his grandfather's - made of pretty dark wood that has some character to it.  Mine is from Target, made of particle board, and void of character.  

For a long time I'd lamented the ugliness of my bookshelf.  But I couldn't justify buying a new one.  We try not to spend money on furniture (almost everything we own was a given to us) and the bookcases that we did find in stores (that weren't as characterless as my current one) were way too expensive!

Thankfully I came across this post from Young House Love.  I never would've thought of redoing my bookshelf myself!

The first issue that needed to be addressed was how weak the bookcase was.  After being moved to 4 different locations and holding lots and lots of books, the shelves were warped and the whole thing was leaning to the side. 

We went to Home Depot and bought four 2" x 4" x 6' boards.  My husband nailed one board on each side of the bookcase and two boards on the back.  He strategically placed the nails so that they lined up with the shelves, thus reinforcing the shelves as well.  It worked wonderfully and made the bookcase very sturdy - no more swaying and bowing!

While at Home Depot we found 2 small containers of paint in the "oops paint" section.  They were only 50 cents each!  After lots of time spent painting and some spray-on lacquer we ended up with this:

And here's a close-up:

The whole project only cost us around $40 (much less than we would've paid for a new bookcase!).  I love having a custom-made bookcase that I know will last for years.  And I love how lovely my books look now!

Ready for a before and after?