Yep, magnets too

I told you, if it stands still, it gets painted.

When we first moved into this house, we put gray countertops in and added tin to the cabinets doors to alter their look. I also painted a faux tile backsplash in shades of gray. To help pull thing together I made these refrigerator magnets.

I bought a package of wood disks and a package of magnets from the craft store. I used hot glue to attach the magnets to the backs of the wood disks and then I painted the fronts to coordinate with the kitchen. I used the same paint from the tile backsplash. I had some stamps that I used to embellish the tile so I used the same ones for the magnets.

Here's what they used to look like.

For the makeover, I used some leftover wall paint and the same stamps.

Paint the base color first. Then put a few drops of paint on a paper plate and smooth it out with a brayer. (It’s like a rolling pin for paint) Then push your stamp into the paint and onto the magnet.

This re-do project took me about 15 minutes. It’s just one more detail to help me pull everything together.

What do you use to accent your rooms?

I'm working on pillows next...

Fun with paint (part 2)

Here’s another fun room to paint. I did the same thing as before and collected some random colors from the discounted section of paints at the home improvement store. I bought a gallon of purple for $4.00, a quart of blue for $1.50 and the orange I was able to get for 50 cents thanks to my hubby. He complained to the paint guy about what an awful color it was and that he wasn’t going to pay $1.50, “could ya give me a break on this” he says as I turn three shades of red. (I mean come on, it’s already discounted and I want it, just get it and stop giving this guy a hard time) So far the hubby has not yet learned to read my mind.

Anyway, I already had some greens at home that I mixed to get that lovely shade and some left over yellow was still available as well. This time around, I took some extra time to tape off a stripe pattern on the top half of the room. On the wall behind the bed the stripes are vertical and on the other walls the stripes are diagonal. The whole top of the room was painted purple then taped for the green stripes to be added.

On the bottom half of the room I used contact paper to mark off some circles then painted the walls blue. I traced different sized bowls and skillet lids onto contact paper to get the shapes. Then I cut those out and made a cut in the center of each circle (to get it off the wall later). Then I stuck the contact paper on the wall to keep an area designated for the yellow dots. After the blue paint was finished, I used the cut in the middle of each circle to peel the paper off the wall. Now that gave me a clean circle to go back in and paint with the yellow paint.

The room still seemed too subdued for the child that lives there so I needed to do something fun with the orange. I marked off a random zigzag shape around the door that kind of reminds me of the Flintstones. A few of the dresser drawers are also orange as is the comforter on the bed.

Over on the windows I tried a simple window treatment. I used those roll down shades and attached some orange fabric to them. With the shade unrolled and across the bed I was able to cut the fabric to fit using pinking shears. (Those scissors that cut a zigzag pattern) It keeps the edge of the fabric from unraveling and keeps you from having to sew a hem. Then I used some embroidery floss to tie the fabric to the shade in several random spots. It added an extra pop of color to the room and some extra sun protection. (I know, you’re thinking… “That room needed an extra pop of color????”) But trust me, it all seems to work and the kids love the way their rooms look.

Hmmm, I wonder what I will be painting next????

Fun with paint (part 1)

When it comes to decorating a kid’s room, I like to forget the rules and just have fun. This room has a ton of colors and if you’ve bought paint you might think it would cost a fortune to paint this way. Believe it or not, the paint for this room cost $4.00. OK, so most of the colors were left over from some other projects. There wasn’t enough of any one color to do the whole room but with some creativity, I came up with a design that would use up old paints and make a fun unique room. The yellow, blue and green colors were from other rooms and most were created out of a variety of left overs that I mixed into one can. The magenta was a miss-tint. If you go to the paint department in your local home improvement store, ask if they have any miss-tints. These are paints that were mixed incorrectly and never sold. They are usually drastically marked down so they can be sold and don’t become a total loss for the store. I was able to get a gallon of magenta for $4.00. I used it in each corner of the room to look like some curtains have been pulled back. I used a roll of wrapping paper to draw the shape I wanted and then I traced that shape around the room.

On two walls I painted stripes with the yellow and blue. To make things easy, the stripes are a roller’s width and they have rough edges. I think it adds to the character of the room and it was a time saver to not have to tape off each color.

The other two walls are green. Using acrylic craft paint I put some ladybugs and purple swirls on the walls for some added interest. I made my own stencils for each. The ladybugs are just ovals cut out of paper then traced onto the wall and filled in with red craft paint. I traced coins for their dots and colored them with a marker. To make the swirl, I cut the shape out on cardboard then traced it onto the walls in different areas. The swirls were all filled in with purple craft paint.

Finding green fabric for the curtains was just a fluke. I covered a paint stick with all the colors and took it with me to the fabric store. I just got lucky that there happened to be something in the same green color. I would have been happy with anything that matched any one of the colors. For an easy sew project I used the bias edge for each side. Then a simple hem at the top and bottom and my sewing was finished. I found curtain rings that just pinch the top of the fabric and slide onto the rod. I covered the rings with decorative patches. I bought a pack of butterflies and a pack of flowers while at the fabric store. The patches are taped onto the rings.

This was a fun room to decorate.
Wait until you see what the other room looks like….