Back of the House gets a BIG Transformation!

Posted on July 26, 2009 by Roeshel

I’m participating in
Met Monday hosted by Susan at Between Naps on the Porch.

Submitted by Roeshel from Evangeline’s Vine (that’s me! lol)

Finally! I can share the transformation of the back of our home! Here is our progress in pictures… Our home when we bought it.

Hard to see from the distance, there were two single doors with awnings. Ugly. But I could see potential which is a good thing most of the time, except that “potential” doesn’t happen over night! Right away, we installed two sets of French doors. I love them! It changes the entire look of the back of our house. However, the old sidewalks didn’t line up and we lived with it for 2 years.

And take a look at the old light fixtures. Yuck!

So…this spring, we decided to put in a concrete patio. However – the concrete part wasn’t DIY. It was way too big of an area and required professionals.
See that progress here. We got some new furniture (the table/chairs go under the grape arbor when it’s completed). Mr. DIY changed out the lights for me to give it an updated fresh look.

Edited to add: Here’s the link to my DIY candle jars! 🙂
http://thediyshowoff.blogspot.com/2009/07/copper-penny-jar-candles.html

We also hung window boxes to help disguise the upstairs windows which need replaced (another project for another time) and pull the main level and upper level together.

Again – before:
Now:

You can’t see the window boxes well in the pictures…but here is what they looked like before they were hung:

Okay – I’m getting a little camera-happy…but I just can’t believe the change in the back of our home. This is where everyone enters our house, so no more being embarrassed or giving “please watch your step” reminders!

All that’s left to do is fix the siding below were the old concrete ramp/sidewalk met the old single doors and plant grass!

What do you think? We are SO happy it’s just about done. It’s going to be a great area for entertaining! Being The DIY Show Off Feature is so much fun – it feels so good to show the world our hard work, doesn’t it?

(Still working on the covered/barn patio and grape arbor – almost done! Then we can ENJOY summer, right?)

Julia's DIY Upholstered Headboard & Guest Bedroom Makeover

Posted on July 17, 2009 by Roeshel

Julia from Pugs Not Drugs submitted her beautiful DIY upholstered headboard. She did a great job and all her hard work deserves a “show off”! Here it is:

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“So last night we upholstered a headboard for our guest room! Took less than 30 minutes! The most intensive part was shopping for the materials, finding the right fabric and the right size batting and plywood. We were fortunate that my father in law had a piece of plywood in the exact dimensions we wanted! We do not have a vehicle big enough for bringing a 60” wide piece of wood home so we were grateful for his help! There are many ways to do this project, some use foam to make a thicker headboard, I couldn’t find foam in the right size so I settled for one layer of batting only. You can use plywood, mdf, or just a square frame if you want it to be more lightweight. You can put legs on it, attach it to your bed, or hang it on the wall. Ours was the right height so that we could just set it behind the bed and push the frame up against it to hold it in place. As long as nobody gets jiggy on our guest bed I think it will be fine

Project materials & budget breakdown:

60” x 48” plywood: free
2 yards of upholstery fabric: $35 (I splurged a bit, although it was on sale at Hobby Lobby)
queen size quilt batting, extra thick: $15
staple gun & staples: $20

TOTAL COST: $70

and I will use that staple gun again and again, love it!!

Directions:

1. Assemble your materials, cut plywood or mdf to the desired size.

2. Lay batting on the floor, set wood on top (warning, pugs find quilt batting QUITE delicious)

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3. Fold batting over and staple into place. (at this point you should probably put your pug outside)

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4. Take extra care at the corners to fold everything over so you get squared edges

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5. Take a break and admire your handiwork thus far

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6. (no pics of this step, sorry). Iron your fabric, don’t be lazy like me and just throw it in the dryer to release the wrinkles, that doesn’t really work.

7. (again no pictures, Tyler and I were both busy during this step). Lay the fabric on the floor, set plywood on top, and staple the fabric just like you did the batting

8. Install headboard via your chosen method (hanging on wall, setting on legs, attaching to bed, wedging between wall and bed, etc). Then step back and admire your handiwork. Congrats, you just DIY’d a headboard!”

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And here is her guest room. I love the soothing light colors and every detail.

“We love having visitors, so one of the rooms I was most excited about decorating in our house is the guest room. We had a guest room/office in our old apartment but it was pretty much just a mish-mash of (way too much) furniture. In this room we went with a neutral wall color and have filled the room with blue, white, cream, and brown accents. We wanted to keep the room light since there is no overhead light fixture. The window and lamps are the only source of light! So far we’ve had good feedback from our guests, I’m sure we will keep tweaking the room over time to make it more cozy and comfortable for our visitors!

Here’s a reminder of the BEFORE:

previous owner apparantly liked his office to be very VERY dark. There were no lights in this room people! And the walls were dark blue!

And our AFTER:

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paint color: Sherwin Williams nantucket dune
bedding set from TJMaxx, came with skirt, sheets, pillow & sham cases, comforter, and decorative pillows, a great value!
curtains, decorative pillow, wall art, and picture frames from Target
bedside lamp from Pier One, capiz lamp from craigslist
upholstered headboard: DIY!
mirrors from Hobby Lobby
glass pitcher from Homegoods

Budget breakdown:

paint/primer/supplies: $50
upholstered headboard: $50 (not including the staple gun)
bedding set: $120
mirrors: $36
curtains, wall art, frames, pillow from Target: $75
lamps: $60
bentwood rocking chair: hand me down from the in laws!
pottery barn bedside table (not pictured): $5!
new frame for the painting given to us by Tyler’s grandma: $15

TOTAL: $378!

This room is essentially finished, all I have left to do is put a new coat of paint on the bedside table and put it in the room! We’ve had two guests try out the room already, who wants to be next??”

Waving my hands over here! Julia – I’m next! With so much going on here…I’m looking for a retreat and your guest bedroom looks so peaceful. Great job! Thank you so much for sharing!

Copper Penny Jar Candles

Posted on July 2, 2009 by Roeshel

Today = rainy. Perfect. Here are my pennies I was saving for a rainy day!
I constructed some decorative candles for our patio.
Our back patio will have copper/dark brown light fixtures (still a work in progress) and accessories. The grape arbor is also mostly an aged bronze color. I wanted to coordinate some romantic lighting and accessories. I love candles in canning and jelly jars and these are perfect. I love them!Look! A money tree! 🙂
Tucked in amongst the herbs:
Use as a vase too!
Pretty and inexpensive. Total cost for 12 candles = $20. I bought new jelly jars, but if you found recycled ones…it’d be even cheaper.

Tutorial

Materials & Tools:
Pennies
12 Small Canning or Jelly Jars (approx. $7 for 12 pack)
12 pack of votive candles in jars ($7.99
Raffia Ribbon (or any decorative ribbon) (mine was $2.49)
Wire ($2.99)
Wire Cutters
Scissors
Tape Measure

1.) Cut wire into about 21 inch pieces (x 12 for 12 candles)
2.) Wrap wire around lip of jar and one end twist to secure.
3.) Loop wire to the other side, slide under wire on lip and twist to secure.
Now you have a handle!
4.) Cut raffia ribbon about 30 inches.
5.) Tie around the jar. I doubled up for a fuller look and placed it lower on the jar. Snip ends to even up.
6.) Place votive inside and slide pennies between the glass votive and glass jar.
Ta-da: Pretty hanging copper penny lantern.
I also saved the box from the jars for easy storage. And you can skip the wire if you don’t need to hang them.