Sunday, June 24, 2012

Curb appeal... garage door

This is one of my favorite projects. Probably because it was all mine. It took a bit of a detour for me to get to this version of it, but I'm completely in love with the finished product. Adam didn't see this one. He just didn't think it would work well, but I figured it was just paint and I'd paint it all white again if I crashed and burned. No biggie right?

It started with carriage door hardware. About a year ago a friend of mine told me I should put it on the garage door to dress it up. I have no idea what re-sparked that in my brain (more than likely it was Pinterest) but I Tweeted this randomness a few weeks ago-


I got a few questions about how I was going to paint followed with some encouragement to "do it" coming right behind this Tweet-


With the idea in my mind that I wanted the boring, white, metal door too look like wood I, of course, turned to Google. I found several really great tutorials, and then I found it. The PERFECT idea. So with a plan brewing in my brain I ordered these.

Even though I thought I knew what I wanted, eBay offered up more options than I knew existed. You can even get magnetic strips that look like these or stencils to paint them on. I decided to go with the 3 dimensional, metal version. Just because it's a faux treatment doesn't mean I want it to look that way.

Generic white, metal garage door. Boooorrring!
 I scrubbed the top panels and down the center really well.

Next, the top row gets taped off around the outside of each panel to create the windows, and sectioned off with a thinner tape to give them panes.




We also taped of and painted a center line to create the illusion that our carriage doors will open.


I'm THRILLED with the results! 


xoxo

Lissa

Sunday, June 3, 2012

A little bragging

I'm gonna do a little bragging here. We do alot of projects around here- home improvement and crafting goes on weekly. So when Danee said she had salvaged an old leather arm chair and was going to turn it into a reading chair for Myla's room, I got a little excited. I also thought it would take a LONG time. But she moved moved right along with it and knocked it out. I have to say, I don't know if I would have seen the potential in this that she did. She Googled the name on the plate and it was a company that closed in the 70's, so it's pretty old.

I don't have a tutorial for this. She read some instructional blogs and watched some YouTube. And, of course, there was quite a bit of wingin' it. What I do have are the really dramatic before, during and after pics she took. 

Saved from a moving neighbor's garbage. A diamond in the rough.

They had cats don't you think?
Foot stool

Over 600 upholstery tacks removed with a flat head screw driver and pliers. 



Bare bones

Black for the chair and pink for accent pieces 

Painted black
My favorite detail- all those upholstery tacks 

Finished product! 
Amazing right? She kicks some serious butt in the restoration department!

xoxo

Lissa