RH Inspired Zinc Dresser at Freckled Laundry (and Niski update)

Posted on July 27, 2010 by Roeshel

I fell in love with a nightstand. And a blog. I want this…

in my house, beside my bed stacked with my decor magazines and scented candle. (Since I’m dreaming, we’ll nix the alarm clock.) I NEED it there. Did I ever mention I’m using a cardboard box as a night stand? Can you understand my longing for this?

Jami from

linked up to the DIY Project Parade last week with this beauty:

If I can’t have it, can I be inspired by it? Can I copy it?

Yes. And Yes!

What about that GORGEOUS paint treatment?

I‘d love to copy/paste her tutorial but instead, I’ll send you over to check it out. Click HERE to see her faux zinc painting tutorial. Thanks for sharing your creativity, Jami!

Thanks for your sweet comments about Niski. She is slowly improving. She’s not walking or standing longer than a few seconds.

She is still on crate rest and meds but…she wanted to take a minute from her crate in order to show you how she is doing.
Please forgive my poor DIY video skills with bad lighting and sample audio clip.
I’m just a beginner with no technical skills whatsoever and still learning! Only the 2nd video in my entire life.

I spent more time than I would like to admit to even show you this much and when the screen goes black, that’s the end, despite the fact that it plays a lot longer – oops.
For right now – I don’t let her walk. It’s too soon but I wanted to give you an update. When crate rest is over, we will use a scarf under her tummy to help her walk when permitted. 🙂

And if you can’t see it …I apologize. I don’t know what I’m doing!

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DIY Project Parade

Posted on July 25, 2010 by Roeshel

I have so many DIY projects planned and can’t wait to actually get busy and share. For this week, I have a little one. My daughter, Bri, and I gave some old lamp shades a new look. I loved the burlap texture before (and seriously considered buying her new ones so I could snag these but I didn’t get around to it in time. Darn!) Her style is different so here is what we did.

$1 yard sale lamp shades before:

We ripped off the old trim and laid it out on the new fabric. Using a light marker, we rolled the lamp shade on the fabric, tracing the bottom then top shape. These lamp shades had a slight taper, so this is the best way to ensure the new fabric covering is the right shape/size.

Niski was partricularly interested in this step. “Are you making me a dress?”

She says she’s a DIY doxie and should be included in this post because the D in DIY is for distraction according to doxies.

Back to the lamps (sorry Niski)…

Cut out the shape BUT cut about 2 inches from the line drawn to create the fabric so that you have an allowance to fold over the top and bottom of the lamp shade. Our fabric was folded so 1 pattern = 2 new fabric cutouts for the 2 lamp shades.

This is how it looks (pardon the chandelier checking her reflection in the glass top table).

Iron a hem on one of the side seams.

Sew the hem.

Next, we used spray adhesive to attach the fabric to the lamp shade.

Now, we do not recommend that you get distracted by the ‘fun’ part of making the lamp shade pretty and by one of these (pictured below) and abandon the camera.

But here are the next steps:

Wrap the lampshade in the new fabric, using the hemmed side to cover the unhemmed side.
Clip the overhang on the tops and bottoms so that they can be folded on the inside and lie flat. Use hot glue to secure.
Using hot glue, decorate with ribbon and/or fringe.

Lamps were $5/pair at used furniture store! Great thrifty find!

All done:

(More to come soon on where these are going!)

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And some amazing highlights from last week’s DIY Project Parade! Click the links for more details.

So pretty –
a drawer turned candle holder at Decor Chick

Pretty monogrammed nesting tables at The White City Project

More pretty nesting tables – numbered! at Posh Pieces

Beautiful chandelier makeover at Thrifty Miss Priss

Creative curtain headboard at Pregnant with Power Tools

There are more highlights I want to share with you – I’ll do it sometime this week!

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So...What have you been up to? Feel free to link up!

If you’d like to link YOUR DIY project post to The DIY Show Off Project Parade:

You must use the button above and link to this post to share the linky love.
Include your name or blog name and project title. Add your permalink (not your blog url, but your DIY project post url). Feel free to link a Past Post, just invite your readers in a current post with a quick note.
Or email your link to thediyshowoff@gmail.com and I will add it for you.
If you notice your link has disappeared – pleaseadd the link back to The DIY Show Off to your post today with a quick note to your readers about the party and try again! I love when everyone participates and readers check out everyone’s links, but I think the return favor of linking back is the nice thing to do so everyone plays fair and enjoys all of the projects and links. Also – this blog party is for DIY projects only. Links not related to DIY will be deleted.

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Brought to you by

UK Bathrooms supply high quality bathroom accessories

DIY Chippy Window Box

Posted on July 23, 2010 by Roeshel

I love making new blog friends! You knew that right? Have you ever met Sandy from My Shabby Streamside Studio? I love this DIY project of hers! Take a look then click over to see her beautiful, shabby, romantic studio too!

My Chippy White Window Box

Back in April, I spent a weekend creating a window box for my front porch.

Window before

I ran out of spare rough-hewn boards for the façade of my studio last fall,

and now that the weather’s mild I tackled this.

Just a piece of old plywood sufficed.

Then, I screwed the $8 window boxes I bought at the

Price Chopper grocery store on to get an idea where to build the ‘holder’.

It really helps to have a drill bit to pre-drill holes for screws.

The wood doesn’t split as easily and it hastens the fastening of the screws.

It’s easier to back them out as opposed to pulling nails if you make a mistake, too.

I make a lot of mistakes, so I’m always at Dubben’s Hardware in Delhi

getting half pounds of screws measured out on their antique scale.

I’m very lucky to have a lot of scrap wood left over from other projects.

My appliqués are handy, as is my rose-pattered china bowl of odd screws and tools.

The sides are cut with a circular saw, and go up courtesy of my pneumatic nailer

with 18 gauge nails, ($75 plus the $200 for the air compressor,

bought nearly 10 years ago when we began the huge renovation on our first house

saving us THOUSANDS in contractor bills).

It’s there in the corner of the picture with its long orange hose.

Then, the trim and appliqués go on (with wood glue and a few pneumatic nails)

and the plastic window box inserts go in.

This is my favorite part of any project:

the moment it actually looks like something you had in mind!

Sunday morning, I am encouraged by Saturday’s progress,

and I hope to put that step to the door up at long last, too.

My little Maltese dogs can’t have ingress and egress without my assistance, you see.

Set up to paint with my pneumatic paint sprayer ($40) that attaches to my air compressor.

Actually, the sprayer cost $20 at Tractor Supply’s big Memorial Day sale last year,

and I thought I was getting a huge deal because they’re normally $40.

And then I learned I had to buy extra fittings at Auto Parts Plus to make it work,

so it was 40 bucks anyway.

And, your paint has to be thinned to use a sprayer, so you save on paint.

It’s great for chippy things because the chips don’t come off the

way they do when you use a paint brush or roller.

The set up and clean up is the longest part: the spraying took maybe a minute or two.

I set in my Bobo Pink myosotis – pink Forget-Me-Nots,

bought at my favorite farmstand Hanover’s of Mount Tremper, NY on Rt. 28.

April is way too cold to plant these fresh-from-the-greenhouse beauties.

I kept these indoors at night.

When mid-May arrived I finally planted some lilac-white petunias

(two hanging baskets I split in half, then planted in each window box)

and this new annual that looks like self-seeded white alyssum!

The bluets (Houstonia) are kept in their container so that I can plant them

in the grass after they finish blooming. I wish I had the money for a whole flat of them,

but they were $4 each. I grabbed some other goodies, like a lilac flowered,

variegated leaf pulmonaria (Jacob’s Ladder), and som
e stachys byzantina (Lamb’s Ears).

I at least can say I pumped a lot of money into the local economy.

I have no self control when it comes to plants!

Isn’t it lovely? I love the chippy paint and the shabby elegance!

Thanks for sharing, Sandy!

DIY Show Off ™ – DIY Decorating and Home Improvement Blog

DIYShowOff – Budget Friendly Do-It-Yourself Home Improvement and Decorating blog

Monthly Archives: July 2010

RH Inspired Zinc Dresser at Freckled Laundry (and Niski update)

DIY Project Parade

DIY Chippy Window Box

My Chippy White Window Box