Hello Fall!

This being my first year in my own home, I don't have a lot of seasonal decor, but I've slowly been creating some to fill the void.  I think at this point my poor boyfriend has had enough of me spending hours in craft/decor stores just wandering the aisles looking for inspiration to strike me.  Sometimes I have an idea in mind before I get there (those trips are notably shorter), but lately I've been going shopping with a clear mind and letting the store's stock guide/inspire me.  (Besides, nothing is worse than having an idea and not being able to find the items to create it anywhere!)

Well, on a recent foray into a local home decor store, I found a cute iron pumpkin candle holder that I knew would look great in the middle of our dining room table.  So, I scoured for a candle ring to add a little something to make it a true centerpiece, unfortunately the selection was lacking.  There was, however, a vast array of silk florals - some better than others.  After about 30 minutes of picking through the flowers, I decided on some gold berry picks, a bouquet of these gorgeous rust orange flowers and berry bunches in an autumnal palette. 

Back at home, I spent about an hour weaving the pieces together to form an ellipse rather than just a ring for some added appeal. When I was done, the boyfriend questioned, "How did you know how much of each that you'd need?"  If you've ever watched Project Runway you'll know the quintessential Tim Gunn phrase "Make it work!"  That tends to be what happens, though I can usually gauge things pretty well, if I happen to be off, I'll figure out a solution.  I added a flameless candle and voila!  The piece cost me about $20 in total, including the candle.

Next on the list was something for our front door.  I've seen a lot of wreaths at the store, but nothing I was truly in love with, so in typical Megan-style, I set out to create my own.  I ran to one of my favorite local craft stores after work one day and picked up a few things.  (I apparently have a fascination with gold berry picks, this was the second time I picked them up!)

This piece took me about two hours, sitting at the dining room table weaving leaves and gold berries through the wire star form.  Despite it taking a bit longer and my hands being scratched up from the wire, I was pretty pleased with the result. For a focal point, I added a large cream colored flower to the bottom right.  Total cost: approximately $8.

 

 I could still probably use 2-3 more pieces of fall decor, but with needing to get some regular decor done and some art on the walls, these two pieces will have to do for now.

Craiglist Trash to Treasure: Bench

I've been looking for a bench for our entry for some time now, never quite loving anything that I've found.  Big surprise, I know.  So, I decided to peruse Craigslist and see if I could find anything with potential.  Sure enough, about 35 minutes from our townhouse was a bench for sale for $30.  I'm sure other people would look at this and say, "ummm what were you thinking, Megan?"  I'm pretty sure that was on my boyfriend's mind as he hauled it into his suv. But, I knew I could rescue it!

The bench was in rough shape: the finish was worn in spots (I wasn't originally planning on painting the bench, but as you can see, we have a mix of woods in the entry already and with the spindles on the stairs, the bench seemed a little lost), the seat fabric was disgusting, and to be honest the whole thing smelled a little, but those things can and would be fixed.

The first task was getting rid of the fabric on the seat. Luckily the seat is held on the bench by 4 screws, so removal was a breeze. Now if only I could say that for the rest of the rehab project! A flat-head screwdriver, some patience, and an hour later and it was bye-bye ugly grey fabric.  Unfortunately, that exposed an even uglier choice- the original red vinyl - complete with dust, dog dander, and a huge gaping tear.  Back to the screwdriver for a bit and that too was gone.  For good measure I also trashed the original foam (goodbye weird smell!) and replaced it with fresh, clean batting. This is not the most comfortable choice, but foam was super expensive and it's not like we're going to be lounging on this bench anyway, so I went to economical route.

I must have spent two hours staring at the fabric at Joann's, I kinda knew what I wanted but couldn't really find anything that fit that idea.  Finally, I ended up choosing a brown floral decor fabric with hints of teal and green for the base of the seat and a coordinating fabric to make an accent pillow.  To finish it off, I bought a darker teal green trim to fill the gap between the bench and the seat, this would help give it a clean finished line.  Little did I know that this decision would also be a trial.  Every time I would staple a section of the trim on the seat and then try to put the bench in place, the trim was either too long or too short.  After a lot of trial and error, wasted staples, and some frustration I finally figured it out - tape is your friend!  I put the seat in place on the bench and then tucked the trim in until it was sitting right where I wanted it, then I simply taped it in place, removed the bench and stapled the trim where it fell on the backside of the seat. 

Refinishing the wood on the bench was not as easy as recovering the seat, however.  I wanted a clean look that would help it to stand out from the other wood in the entry, so I decided to go for a white or ivory finish.  Armed with mineral spirits, I cleaned the bench- twice, and still there was more dirt and crud to be found.  After I was finally satisfied with the cleanliness, I attacked the bench with spray primer, which is uber sticky and gets everywhere (including the boyfriend's new grill cover, oops!)  The bench absolutely ate the paint, every coat I put on it just seeped into the bench with no end in sight.  Once I had finally exhausted the primer, I let it dry and then started to coat it with the actual spray paint.  It was splotchy, not at all the look I wanted and I was uber frustrated.  So I let it dry completely and pulled it back into the house.  What was I going to do?  I didn't want to buy more spray paint, nor was I keen on inhaling any more of it.

I remembered the set of test paint I bought, and if you know me well enough you'll find this funny- they are Martha Stewart paints.  Yep, Martha Stewart saved the day!  There happened to be a color- Heavy Cream, that was exactly what I was looking for.  So, while I really didn't want to hand-paint the entire bench, I broke down and did it.  It worked beautifully.  Three coats with a foam brush (so there would be no bristle marks) and I was done.   Here's another tip, if you know you'll need to do multiple coats on something, put your paint brush in a plastic sandwich or storage bag and seal it, this will keep the brush from drying out and save you from having to wash it between coats.

Last step was to put the seat back on the bench and place the finished project in the entry.  I added a simple pillow (envelope pillow covers are the easiest to make in the world!), oh and some pumpkins as part of my fall decor.  I'm totally please with the finished project and the fact it cost me less than $50. 

On another note, I recently joined CreatingTheHive.com on a recommendation from another crafty friend.  Got a blog or an interest in crafting in general?  Head over to their site and join- connect with other crafters to learn something new and share your talent too!

The shower doors have got to go!

When I purchased my townhouse there were a few decor elements that I wouldn't have necessarily chosen, one of which was glass doors in the bathroom showers.  I'm sure a lot of people love these things, I am not one of them.

Ick!

Of the past two owners, I don't think anyone wanted to take on the task of removing the shower doors in the bathrooms.  Maybe they thought it was going to be a more intensive task than it was.  All I know is, the doors were absolutely hideous and they had to go!

I did some research online and most posts assured me that the removal shouldn't be too bad or take too long, unless the doors were installed incorrectly.  So, I crossed my fingers and went for it.   I figured that if I ruined the tub, I'd just get a new one since I want to do some additional work to the master bath anyway.

I started the demolition at 10PM one evening; I just couldn't stand the the doors anymore! After finagling with one of the doors, I was able to lift it off of the top rail and remove it completely.  The other door, however, was attached to the bottom rail with two screws.  After fighting them for a little while, I was able to free that door as well. Next, I popped the top rail off (by far the easiest part!) and started to remove the six screws (3 on each) that held the side rails in place.  The side and bottom rails were unfortunately attached to the tub with latex caulking.  After a good bit of slicing with a razor blade and prying with a caulk remover tool, I was able to remove all of the rails.  Unfortunately, they left behind a lot of the caulking, which wasn't the easiest to remove. At first I thought the bottom rail had completely destroyed the tub because of the black patch I found that appeared to get worse as I scrubbed at it.  I did find out by accident that rubbing alcohol breaks the caulk down, so the spot came up with ease, thank goodness! Once the caulking was all cleaned up, I was able to cap off the holes that remained in the tub wall from the screws.  Job mostly done!

Add a shower rod and curtain and presto!

Note: Bathroom makeover still in progess!

 The guest bathroom's shower wasn't used nearly as much as the master one, so it was a lot easier to clean up.  I'm so glad I don't have any icky shower doors that are impossible to fully clean anymore!

A craft command center like no other...

It seems as though I've never had a desk big enough to work on all of the crafts that I seem to get myself into or enough storage space for all of my materials.  So, I started to shop around for a new desk for my craft room, but still couldn't find exactly what I was looking for.  I'm sure you know where this is going... I decided to take of the task of building one myself.  Hey, how else do you get exactly what you need?
 
There's been a trend lately of cube bookcases; many different brands manufacture them most notably- Closetmaid.  Being that space is a concern (I share my craft room with the "office") I knew from the start that I wanted to use the cube bookcases (I ended up with the 2x3 units- $40 each) to add storage below my desk while serving as a base for the desktop. I love things that serve dual-purposes!

I count myself lucky to live a mere five miles from an Ikea.  Why do I love Ikea?  Well, for someone like me that needs to put my own spin on everything, their cost-effective (a.k.a. cheap) products allow me to push my creative limit without fear of wasting too much money if the end result is not what I was hoping for.

As far as desks, Ikea has started to sell pieces of desks, specifically different size tops and legs, that allow you to customize. I wanted to maximize the available space by creating an L-shape desk. To do so, I attached two different-sized desk tops together, securing with some steel brackets.  I also purchased two sets of 6 inch legs, total expenditure of about $40.  

So, as you see above, I turned the bookcases on their sides and added the 6in legs from Ikea to the top to create some additional storage and to raise the height of the desktop so that I could work from a standing position as well.

Now, of course, I can't stand a plain white desk, so the next step was to customize some doors to add some color. It was important to me to make sure that however I chose to customize the desk it would not be permanent.  I change my mind and my style a lot.  I knew it would be easier to simply peel a temporary cover off of each door rather than to scrape and sand whatever design. 

I ended up using 3M's spray adhesive, which is permanent if you adhere both surfaces immediately, or temporary if you let the sprayed surface dry slightly before affixing it.  Because the doors are around 11 inches tall and wide, I was able to use standard 12x12 scrapbook paper to adorn the doors. I chose to use a different design for each door, but stuck with a teal blue theme for a unified look.  You can see my high-tech spray booth above.

One of the finished doors with the door pull attached.

The process was a bit tedious, as each door needed to be wrapped and the corners glued to ensure a smooth finish.  After about 2 hours I had all 6 doors done and attached to the book cases.  I'm really happy with the final result! The total cost for this custom desk was around $150, so not too bad. 

I've added a few more baskets since this picture was taken to help organize some of my high-demand supplies.  All in all, it's a perfect craft command center for me, now I just need to get to work doing some more crafting!

What's your "Crafting POV"?

If you've ever seen Food Network's "Next Food Network Star" you'll know that the judges are always hounding people to figure out what their culinary point of view is, but why? Well, because that's what makes a consistent and lasting brand.  A person's POV drives their creations and ultimately their success because all of their ideas are based around this core belief.

The "POV Theory" has really come into play in my life lately.  As you may, or may not, know, I've been considering starting a small Etsy business, so that I can share my craftiness with others and hey, if I can make a buck or two, that'd be pretty sweet!  I have so many ideas of things that I could make running through my head, it's quite dizzying.  So to get a handle of where I should start, I focused on why I began crafting in the first place.

A lot of the reason my crafting obsession started was that I often see a design or idea in my head, but can't find anywhere to get it, so I'd make it instead.  I have always liked having things that I know no one else has. I like things that are, well, Simply ME. 

That epiphany resulted in the title of this blog, as well as my Etsy business (coming soon!)  Simply ME is as much about allowing me to craft and create my own designs, but to also provide my blog readers and my customers the opportunity to take what I've done and really make it their own.  At the end of the day, I'd want someone to think "this is simply me" and be referring to themselves.

I think I've always known all along what my crafting POV was, but now being able to put it into words and to own it- I feel that I have better direction for my Etsy future. 

So, stay tuned as this venture unfolds!  (If house decorating calms down, items should be listed in September.)

I got a chandelier for free!

Well, sort of anyway.  How did I do it?  I managed to flip one item to buy another, which was really easy! You can do it too, you just have to be on the lookout for a good deal.

Despite my first home being considered "move-in ready," I have to put my own stamp on the place.  Is anyone surprised by this? Well, I decided that I wanted to spruce up some of the fixtures, cause honestly, the original 18-year old brass chandelier that is currently marring my dining room has got to go.  The boyfriend and I have been looking for a while and trying to decide what we want. Well, we had finally decided on this nice modern one from Lowes.

Photo borrowed from Lowes.com

So, despite really liking this one, we've still been looking at other options until we get to the point that we've finished the rest of the dining room. (Which will be this weekend, most likely) Well, during a recent shopping trip with my mom at Lowes, I found this $198 chandelier for, get this, $20!!

Yeah, not a typo there, it was really only $20. Not sure how this fixture made it through two price reductions, but hey I recognize a good deal when I see one!  I really didn't want a traditional style chandelier, but I liked the scroll work so I figured I'd give it a try.  Unfortunately, the picture on the box is very deceiving- this chandelier is huge and way too big for our dining room, especially when placed over a gathering-height dining table.

So, being the businesswoman that I am, I decided that instead of returning the chandelier to Lowes, I would sell it on Craigslist. (People will buy anything, really.)  All I wanted was to make enough money to cover the cost of the fixture that we liked, a mere $56 bucks after using a coupon Lowes sent us.  Now, there are a lot of chandeliers on Craigslist in the Pittsburgh area, so I wasn't sure if listing it for $90 would get any interest.  Well, within the first day I had a woman who wanted it and wanted it immediately! 

I've covered the cost of the original chandelier, have enough to buy the chandelier I want, and have pocketed an additional $14. I'll definitely be keeping my eyes out for more bargains that I can flip on craigslist.  Who knows, maybe I'll be able to decorate some other rooms for free :)

Remind me why I paint rooms...

It seems that every time I paint a room, I remember what a chore it really is and how long it actually takes.  So much so, that I never want to paint again.  But then a few weeks or months or even years go by and I forget my disdain for painting and I am right back in there, brush in hand.

Well, Sherwin Williams had a 40% off sale on Saturday, which I could not pass up.  I love Sherwin Williams paint, it is a far superior quality to what you get at a big box store.  But that quality also comes at a hefty price, so when you see a 40% off sale, you jump on it! 

I've been staring at my living and dining rooms walls for the past month, loving the color one minute, hating it the next.  These rooms are a mystery to me, depending on the light and time of the day, the walls (which are a dark yellowish green) either look more blue or more yellow.  The worst part about the color is that when the sun goes down it is extremely dark in there.  (The dark flooring doesn't help that much, either.)

So, I decided to lighten the green up (yep, I painted over one green with a different green). My townhouse has an open layout, so the living room and dining room don't have a full wall of separation, but just columns.  I wanted to make the spaces feel more distinctive, but to still flow, so I've decided to keep the previous green on the lower 1/3rd of the wall in the dining room and repaint the entire living room and the top 2/3rds of the dining room with a lighter color.  Once that's done I'll install chair rail between the two colors in the dining room.  I chose a pretty color called "Clary Sage" and it goes well with the current dark green. 

Painting in progress

I have a coat of paint up so far, which took me just about 6 hours by myself.  Hopefully this week I'll muster the motivation to finish the 2nd coat.  I hate having furniture misplaced so I'm sure it'll get done soon so that all can go back to normal!

Check back soon for the final "After" pictures when I get the chair rail in place and some stuff on the walls!