Roeshel's Life Archives - Page 36 of 36 - DIY Show Off ™ - DIY Decorating and Home Improvement BlogDIY Show Off ™ – DIY Decorating and Home Improvement Blog

I have another post prepared, but I’ll share that treat with you sometime later in my next post. Make sure you check back because you won’t want to miss an awesome introduction. I promise it’s worth stopping back for.

But first,

I‘m digging around in the DIY archives tonight (so you may have seen this once already, but humor me and looky again, please?) and came up with this:

Why?
Because, this, dear friends “I did this all by myself!”

Prepare yourself: Remember our house is an old farmhouse, a foreclosure – so the before pictures are a little frightening. Don’t say I didn’t warn ya! If I didn’t have the ability to see the potential…we would have been running the other direction.

Let’s take a walk up my stairs beforehand and after turning the corner and a few more stairs, here is what it looked like before. Hairy Scary! I don’t even want to know WHAT that stain is. Hurry! Look past it. Bring your eyes up. The old baseboard trim is pretty, isn’t it? (And looky there – another bathroom that needs a makeover, wanna help?)

Then, after the carpet was torn out, here we go up the gouged staircase…
Staples. Tons of them. Not a riser-friendly project. 🙁

And turning the corner at the top of the stairs. Look at that dresser. It’s about 50 years old. Yikes! It holds extra toiletry supplies and clean towels. (Yes, the hardwood floor was underneath that nasty carpet. Hurray!)

Nice paint here, huh? What a mess!
Also in this project is this little storage cube (before):
Cute…but full of memories and buried in a closet.

Now, let’s take that same path today after some sanding, woodfiller and paint:

No fear of tetanus now on bare tootsies!

And this is the new landing. A little paint (Ralph Lauren mahogany) and new knobs give the dresser a cleaner and more modern look.

Again, before:

And now. Really – it’s the same dresser!

Even the storage cube gets a magic makeover. I sewed a cover and cushion. All covered and pretty. Perfect for sitting to put on socks or piling up clean towels to be put away. (Hey, clean laundry making it up the stairs is a rare accomplishment. Don’t judge…I did put it away for the photo shoot.)

I also sewed a table runner to help protect the top since a lot of things accumulate here too. This is where I leave my daughter’s lunch money and she leaves me notes.

The spheres on the glass candle holders are styrofoam.
1. Mod Podge and vintage looking scrapbook paper then tied with twine.
2. Buttons and pins with a few decorative brads thrown in (buttons are secured with straight pins). AND no more hunting in the junk drawers for a button!

What a great idea and I am loving ALL of the inspiration. I’m not quite ready for fall, but what a lovely way to prepare myself. Head over and check out all of the fall fun!

Here’s my post:

I know. I know. It’s a little early….
I don’t know what your weather is like, but here in PA, it’s beginning to feel a lot like Autumn. It’s still August for goodness sake! But chillier temps (currently 59 degrees!) and a trip to Michael’s where Halloween and fall have already been on display for a few weeks = autumn on the brain. (I didn’t procrastinate this year!)

(Note: I AM NOT ready for the summer to end just yet…where’d it go?)

Last fall my daughter and I got crafty and I decided to make it a tradition. I’ll share that project with you next month some time but now for Met Monday hosted by Susan at Between Naps on the Porch, I want to show you what we did this weekend.

Remember my house number flower pots? Well, soon those flowers are going to flower-heaven as fall frost gets closer, right? Then what? Well…introducing my House Number Funkins (faux pumpkins) with glow in the dark glittered numbers (which look so cool glowing but photographing in the dark is a little tricky):

I haven’t put them out yet. I’m not quite ready to say good bye to summer and my petunias are still soaking up the last of summer but I’ll be all ready when it’s time.

Here’s what I did.1. In Microsoft Word, I enlarged my house numbers in a font I liked. (heavy heap). I printed them on old card stock.

2. Then I cut out the numbers to create stencils.
3. I traced them onto my pumpkins. Using the actual number instead of stencil worked a little better since it’s not a flat surface. (I didn’t take a before picture…but this is pretty much what it looked like before. You’ve seen a faux pumpkin…kind of boring and plain.)
4. I painted them using metallic craft paint. This took a couple of coats. Fun project in front of a movie since it’s time consuming and repetitive. I just did stripes on mine with house numbers since they’ll mostly only be seen from the road.
5. After the paint was dry, I used a cheap, small paint brush to apply glue to the numbers.
6. Then I poured on Martha Stewart’s glow-in-the-dark glitter.
(Nestie friends – D&R Halloween Nightmare II – Return of the Glitter Pumpkins)

My daughter painted this one:

That’s as far as I got today. But I will also:7. Spray a protective coat of matte lacquer over my pumpkins and the glittered numbers for outdoor durability.
8. Cut a hole in the top so that I can add sand or rocks to give them weight (to prevent blowing away when it’s windy). That’s it. I’m really happy with how they turned out and can’t wait to update this little area about the 2nd week of September. They will go here: