Posts Tagged ‘home decor’

Burlap Wreath, Take Two

Way, way back Grace showed you how she made her easy Burlap Bubble Wreath. I too have made a burlap wreath, but mine is quite different than hers. I wanted it to look something like this wreath here, but I must have been a bad student and not followed the directions quite right. That’s okay though, because I actually like how mine turned out!         

What you need:

Burlap—mine was from burlapfabric.com

Wreath- I found that the one with compressed hay worked best—leave the plastic wrapping on!

Ruler

Scissor

Pins- at least 100

 

Step 1:

Cut your burlap. I cut my burlap into 3” x 3” squares. Be ready for a whole lot of burlap shedding—I found it easiest to cut my burlap over a large sheet of old wrapping paper. This way I could just crumple it up and toss it (and all burlap hairs) out. You need tons of squares, so make sure you have something entertaining to watch/listen to!

 

Step 2:

With wreath, pins, and burlap in hand, you’re ready to start assembling the wreath. You will fold each burlap square into a triangle:

square to triangle

From there, you fold it again into a loosely-shaped triangle:

loosely shaped triangle

 

Step 3:

Begin pinning your triangles into the wreath. I found it easiest to start on the inside of the wreath and work my way to the outside part. The last pin for the outer area is on the bottom edge of the actual wreath, so it’s nicely tucked away.

Overlap your triangles so no wreath shows through and rotate the wreath as you go. You can see that my triangles are very tightly packed.

pinning wreath

 

Step 4:

Continue to pin all the way around the wreath. It took me about 150 pins, 1 per burlap square. If you make your squares bigger to start with and want a looser look, then you will use way less.

 

Step 5:

Grab some ribbon and hang up the wreath.

 finished wreath

I like this wreath because it has a very simple look to it. I’ve hung it up as is, but have also stuck a small grouping similar to these wooden flowers in there as well during the very early fall:

image taken from angelaromatics.com

image taken from angelaromatics.com

 

Another victory for our old friend burlap.

 

 

 

Ikea Hack: Armoire Storage Upgrade, Part Two

Awhile ago I shared with you how we took an IKEA clothing armoire and added shelving to customize it to our storage needs.

We last left off with our armoire ready to be primed and painted. As this is a large piece of furniture, we used a paint sprayer for the very first time. Before we started, we had to construct a painting lair in our garage. We taped plastic drop cloths from the ceiling to the ground, making as big a square as our garage space would allow. We used the massive cardboard box that the armoire came in as temporary flooring and hoisted the armoire up onto a dolly so it could be spun around. While we did a great job with the plastic spraying den, I can’t help but think it belongs in some horror related movie or TV Show…

lair

We also chose to tape up the front of the armoire/space on the back because we wanted the inside to be kept the pine color. We liked the natural look for the inside, and boy does it smell like Christmas in there.

taped up

With our prep work done, it was time to spray. For the first time, my husband became the painter in our house (I love to paint, so walls, furniture, cabinets, etc. have all been on me up to this point). Plus, the oil based primer that he chose was a no-no for me to be around. I think he looks pretty snazzy in his painting outfit—safety and cleanliness first people!

neal

We chose to prime the armoire with Sherwin Williams Fast Drying Interior/Exterior Oil Based Primer. As the piece is pine, we didn’t want the knots leaching through the paint color, so 2 coats of primer were applied. It only took my husband about 10 minutes to spray each coat of primer, with 35 minutes of dry time in between. Needless to say, he’s a big fan of the expediency of a paint sprayer.

After the primer was dry, it was time to apply the top coat. This piece is going on the first floor of our house, which has a palette of creams, blues, and greens. We could have played it safe and gone with a creamy color, but we decided to be bold for once and go with blue. We chose Sherwin Williams Moody Blue.

taken from google images

taken from Google images

After spraying 2 coats of paint, it was time to hang the freshly primed/painted doors.

Before attaching the doors, we constructed a spot to hang ribbon. We used two pieces of square shaped pine boards, some wood dowels that we cut to the width that we wanted, and curtain hooks for this.

After deciding how many ‘rows’ of ribbon holders we wanted per door and doing some quick math to make sure the layout was even, we were set to begin.

We used screws to secure the 2 pine pieces to the insides of the armoire doors. We then marked where our hooks would go and affixed those as well using smaller screws.

This was super easy and a good use of that blank door space!

ribbon joined

 

Here it is, my new craft space, all tucked away neatly out of sight:

open and ajarclosed and finishedI’m sure I’ll think of other ways to customize the other nooks and crannies of the armoire, but for now I’m happy that all craft supplies are corralled in one place.

I’d love to know how you store your crafting gear!

 

 

 

 

 

Button Tree on Burlap

You know that saying, you are the company which you keep?

When it comes to my friends this is sooooo true. 

All my friends are gorgeous, smart, and kind, so, therefore, I must be, too. Natch. 

Not only are all my friends lovely, but they are also talented in so many ways. The best part is it is not at all competitive (and if you know me, I know this is hard to believe). Instead, I enjoy and celebrate the talents my friends possess because remember I am the company I keep, and you best believe I’m gonna try to emulate their crafts.  Yesterday, my sister-in-law Courtney (gorg, smart, and sweet, obvi) sent me a text of her latest craft. I absolutely adore it. I gushed over it, and decided to share it with you all. 

Best of all, it is a quick craft, it uses BURLAP (holler!), and it’s perfect for the holiday season. 

IMG_5806
btree
IMG_8746

Isn’t it darling?

While a tutorial probably isn’t necessary for this cute button tree on burlap, I’ll give you a quick run down of materials and directions. 

 

Here’s what you’ll need for the button tree on burlap:

- burlap (burlapfabric.com is my choice supplier of burlap because, yes, one has to have a choice supplier of burlap)

- Buttons

- a glue gun with glue sticks

- a frame— without the glass

 

Here’s what you’ll do:

- Cut the appropriate size of burlap for your frame.

- Adhere/secure the burlap onto the mdf backing of the frame

- Arrange and then glue the buttons. 

 

 

So quick, so easy, yet, so cute. You could adapt this craft for other winter shapes, such as a snowflake or even a wreath. Better yet, you may be able to think of additional designs for other seasons.

 

Thanks for sharing this one, Courtney. Now, excuse me while I whip up one of these button trees on burlap!

 

 

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