What's Your Sign

No I am not into astrology and all of the non-sense (although I think I am an aries if you are interested) but I have had an idea for a while for my kitchen that I finally finished:

Often Philip will call me and say "Hey good lookin'..." . It always triggers the Jimmy Buffet song that says "hey good lookin', what ya got cookin? How's about cookin' something up with me?" I think that it is a funny song and would be great sign to put up in our kitchen. So for the last couple of months I have been on the lookout for some scrap wood. I have seen fence pickets laying on the side of the road and pallets thrown out, but I needed one larger, solid piece of wood for my vision. Then my friend Toni said that she had some old cabinet facing that she could give me that she had picked up at the Canton Flea Market (1st Monday). Thank you Toni.

Here is the step by step of what I did:

1.)I put picture hangers (2) on the back of the board so that I could hang it on the wall.

2.) I designed the lay out on the computer (ie fonts and size). I am sure there is a more scientific way to make sure that it will fit on the board but I am more of a "guess and check" kind of girl. I rarely do anything very exactly. I then printed the wording off on a Word document. I had to do a little cutting and taping to get the spacing the way I wanted.

        (tip: i used the underline button so that I could make sure that I taped the pieces together straight)

3.) Then I took mylar and laid it over the Word print out (you can find mylar at your local craft store. I think I got mine at Hobby Lobby-aka better name would be Hobby Heaven). I taped it down securely and then took an exacto knife and began to cut out my stencil. Make sure that when doing this step that you do not completely cut out the whole letter if there is a hole in the middle (ie and "o" or an "A"). You have to leave a sliver of the letter still attached.

4.) Next, I laid my homemade stencil on the board and secured it with painter's tape and push pins.

5.) Use a stencil brush ( i am not sure what you call them but it is the flat brush that you just dab) and paint in the stencil. Toni has taught me that you dab on the paint and then on a napkin or paper plate dab off almost all of the paint. Then you are ready to go. Too much paint on your brush will cause the paint to bleed under your stencil.

6.) Let dry for a few minutes (it doesn't take long because you didn't use a lot of paint) and then hang on your wall! 

I love it. I even surprised myself how well it turned out. I did another stencil project earlier in the year for my sister's wedding present and I had to go back and do a lot of touch ups because I am not a good stencil-er. But practice makes perfect (and helpful advice always helps).

Now that you know how to make your own stencil, the possibilities are endless. Good luck!

Dining Room Redo

Sorry that it has been a few weeks since I posted last. I have about three blogs 95% done but I just haven't finished any of them. So I thought that it was about time to show everyone how the dining room ended up.

As you know, my sweet husband asked me what I wanted for my birthday. I told him either laser hair removal or to redo the dining room. I finally decided vanity would have to wait and the dining room was going to get my makeover. I had seen several rooms online that I liked that had board and batten. So Philip (the analytical one) did a bunch of research and watched several "you tube" videos on how to install board and batten and before we knew it we were at Lowe's (for our FIRST trip) buying supplies. 

We decided to spend the extra money and purchase primed wood. One of the best decisions ever. Then Philip borrowed a nail gun from a friend at church and a miter saw from my dad... and we were in business.

The first step that we did was decide at what proportion we would split the room. A design rule that i learned in college is that you never want to cut a room in half. So thirds are much better. We decided that 72 inches off the ground would work and then we put painter's tape up to be sure. The next couple of days were spent painting. I found a red color that I loved and so I painted that on the top 1/3. Then I found a white paint that was a bit shinier and painted it on the bottom 2/3. 

Thank goodness for that drop cloth. It kind of looks like a crime scene (or is it just me who watches too much Law and Order?)

After several coats of paint we started by adding moulding around our windows. We figured that it would look funny having the boards hitting the windows without it so we splurged for some extra trim. Philip mastered the mitered cuts while putting up this stage of moulding. And honestly we think the trim around the windows made the biggest difference (now I want to add it to all of our windows...baby steps). Then Philip started putting up the header boards. We bought 6" slats to be the header and an additional moulding to add on top of it. Philip mitered all the corners at a 45 degree angle (hard work but he did great).

Then came the hardest task-trying to figure out the spacing of the vertical slats. Our goal was to space it out well so that none of the slats would hit an electrical outlet. Now I am sure there is some sort of math formula that would have made this process easier, but math has never really been my thing. So we started taping it off with painter's tape. We would make it about half way around the room and bam, we'd hit an outlet. So then you would have to start over and move everything over an inch. After about three times of doing this I had a genious idea. I would do an architectural drawing and space it out. I was so happy that I was going to be able to contribute. Then it came time to apply the boards. And about three boards in we hit an outlet. I couldn't believe it. Then Philip explained to me that the boards were called 1x4 but they were actually only 1x 3 1/2. Big WHOOPS! So that is when we decided to fly by the seat of our pants. We had to fudge a half inch here and there but I don't think anyone would ever notice. (side note: we/Philip also had to cut the bottom of the vertical slats at a 45 degree angle to hit flush with the base boards).

After all the vertical slats were put up we went back and put in the second row of horizontal slats. This is when we started getting super excited. The second row of slats were the icing on the cake. This step went pretty fast.

Then we went back and calked all the gaps and filled the nail holes. We went back and sanded everything down to make sure that everything was super smooth.

 The final step was to go back and put two more coats of white paint on the wall and slats.

Here are the before pics:

And the final after pics: