Wood Pallet Wall Plaque

After posting my Valentine's Vignette, I had quite a few questions about this new addition to my living room. Apparently, I can't slip anything past you guys. No really though, I'm glad you noticed it and liked it enough to ask about it, because it's one of my new favorite parts of the living room!

Adam always comes home with more pallets. I'm not really sure where they come from, but we've got quite the collection of them in our basement, and I love the look of a good pallet wall. I have allowed a pallet wall to consume my thoughts for so long, but I just don't seem to have anywhere to put one in our home. 

Instead of a entire pallet wall, I decided a small "pallet wall" would look great over our buffet. I've never really loved anything that I've put above the buffet, and always just seemed to be putting things there to fill the empty space... until this pallet wall plaque! 

Adam built this for me because he made the mistake of mentioning he was "itching for a project" so unfortunately I can't take the credit. But I can tell you how he made it! 

He started with pulling apart the pallets and arranging them in an aesthetically pleasing way. He then had me approve his design before building a frame on the back. 

Here is the frame he put in the back. All of the pallets have been individually glued onto the frame with wood glue. As you can tell, the frame isn't centered from top to bottom. This was purposeful, so the plaque could hang on the wall by the frame, but the bottom still had as much support as possible.

We decided to leave all the nails in the wood to create an even more rustic look, so some of the nails needed the backs cut so they didn't hit the wall. 

He stained it with Minwax's Wood Finish in Provincial. 

For one final touch, he added a nail in the top center of the plaque so I could hang my wreaths.

I would love to find an incredibly inexpensive boxwood wreath to hang here this spring/summer, but so far I haven't had much luck. So for now, the burlap wreath is a great replacement. 

Come back next week to see my Spring Vignette for this space!

projects in this post:

burlap bubble wreath | white & whimsical chalk paint buffet

A White & Whimsical Buffet Makeover

Ahh, it's been a while since I had a big project to show off, and it feels so refreshing to have finished this one! When we moved into our first apartment together, we got all kinds of hand-me-downs that still fill our home today. This buffet was own by my grandparents, followed by my parents, and then passed on to us about 5 years ago.

I really liked it in our living room, especially all the storage it offered. BUT, I wasn't really loving the look of it anymore. I felt like it didn't really match the living room or my vision for my home. I didn't want to get rid of it, but I didn't want to keep it the way it was. I debated for a while, and then I finally got out my chalk paint and went to town!

The process of chalk painting is really quite simple. While this gem required 3 coats of chalk paint, it dries within about an hour, so I was easily able to get it done in little to no time! After sanding and waxing, I picked out some new knobs and this piece was good as new! 

I found these blue knobs at Hobby Lobby and fell in love!

I now have the urge to attack every piece of furniture I own with some a paint brush and some chalk paint! I'm not crazy, I swear!

What fun projects have you been up to lately? Have you fallen under the chalk paint spell yet?

Basketweave Crochet Baby Blanket

Ever since my best friend told me she was pregnant, I knew I wanted to crochet her a baby blanket. They decided from the start that they were not going to find out the gender, so I went with a gender neutral mint green color. I purchased the yarn months ago and set out to find the perfect blanket pattern. I knew I didn't want to do a typical pattern that looks the same as every other pattern out there, I wanted something unique! After months of searching, I came across this pattern from Little Monkeys Crochet of her Basketweave Throw Pillow. I knew instantly that this would be the perfect pattern  for a baby blanket. 

Since I wanted the blanket to be larger, I had to modify the pattern a little bit. To add to this pattern, start by chaining to desired width in multiples of 4 and then and 1 chain. (example: 27x4= 108, 108+1=109). For the full pattern, head on over to Little Monkeys Crochet.

I love how my blanket turned out! And it was a pretty simple pattern as well.

I think baby blankets will be my new go-to shower gift, a new pattern every time!

What are some of your favorite baby blanket patterns?

DIY Wood Shelves

My living room has always puzzled me. It is a decent size, rectangular in shape, and the center of our whole home. I have redecorated it about a thousand times, yet I never seem to be able to get it right. I have always loved everything that I put in the living room, I just never seemed to love everything once I put them all together.

First: I didn't like the paint color when we first moved in, so we painted it slightly darker.

Second, I made this Burlap Rosette Heart for over the couch, which I loved for a long time, but I'm ready for a change.

Then, I decided it needed a bench under the window, but now I sometimes think it makes it look too crammed.

Next, I thought it was too dark, so I lighted it up with lighter curtains and a white entertainment center.

After that, I made a wood plank coffee table to make the room a little more unique.

Even after all of that, I always felt like something was missing, that "WOW" factor.

I've changed my pillow covers about 12 times thinking that I just needed to change up the colors.

And then I saw Shanty 2 Chic's DIY Floating Shelves (Check out her full tutorial). They seem to have these shelves, or something similar all over their houses and I love them! My husband was nice enough to build some for me and I am seriously obsessed! He followed Ashley's instructions, but tweaked them a little. Here's what he did differently:

• created the E-shaped frame of 2x4's and attached the wood top to the E with pocket holes.
• attached the 1x6 side pieces with pocket holes as well. 
• pre-drilled everything to make sure it all fit together nicely. 
• We decided to stain the shelves before hanging them to make sure the stain didn't get all over the house (we used 2 coats of Minwax Provincial)
• Then he hung the shelves first putting on the E-shaped with the top, then attaching the sides, and finally screwing in the bottom.

We hung the shelves 14 inches apart, which has worked out perfectly for us. 

Here is our final project:

Okay, one last look...

What do you guys think? I want to build these for every room of my house!

Happy October!!

Metallic Gold Pumpkins

Happy first day of Fall!

These pumpkins are super simple to make, once you see what I did you will want to scatter them throughout your house! 

This year, I decided to go with simple, subtle, and neutral tones for my fall decor. I began collecting pumpkins of all shapes and sizes from various craft stores and then headed to Home Depot to pick out some metallic paint colors. I decided on Rustoleum Metallics in Champagne Mist, Pearl Mist, and Aged Copper.

For the littler pumpkins, I was able to twist off the stems and spray paint those as well, using Rustoleum Metallic Oul Rubbed Bronze. They twisted right back on to the pumpkins with no problem! For the larger pumpkins, I wrapped the stems with yarn before painting.

I gave everything a base coat in the cheapest white spray paint I could find, and then I gave them all two coats of color.

Didn't they turn out great?!

I love how versatile they are, making it easy to scatter them anywhere throughout the house for a little extra touch of Fall.

What's your favorite way to decorate for Fall?

Burlap Bubble Wreath

I have always loved burlap bubble wreaths, but have always been scared to make one. I have always thought they would be too complicated, but as it turns out they are one of the simplest wreaths I've made. I followed this tutorial over at Craftaholics Anonymous, painted the monogram "Baby Pink" and then added the bow and monogram to the top of the wreath. 

I love how the wreath looks on our new blue door, and it was about time to take down the Fourth of July wreath. Yep, huge slacker over here! 

Also, that last picture shows a sneak peek of our new front siding we DIYed. 

I'm hoping to share more of the details next week!

DIY Bottle Garden Markers {and my vegetable garden}

When I planted my garden this year, I knew I wanted some bright garden markers. I began scouring Pinterest to find something fun to make. I found some brightly painted stir sticks, some wine bottle labels, those adorable engraved spoons, and so much more.

I wasn't set on any one of those, but I liked the paint sticks and the wine bottle ideas the best. Since I don't normally have 10 empty wine bottles lying around (despite the contents of my recycling bin currently), I decided to use beer bottles instead. 

After removing the labels, I spray painted each one a different color. I made the label by cutting out vinyl with my Cricut. Once I stuck all the vinyl lettering on the bottles, they were ready for the garden.

So what's in my garden you ask?
This year, we decided to switch things up a bit from last year.
+We ended up with sooo many tomatoes last year, so we decided to go from 6 plants to 4 tomato plants this year.

+We also had plenty of cucumbers last year, so we stayed with our 2 cucumber plants.

+I most certainly did not feel like we had enough peppers last year, so this year we have 4 green pepper plants and 4 jalapeno pepper plants.

+We decided to give our onions another chance this year, because I was certain it was gardener trouble lastyear. I think we planted upwards of 12 onion bulbs this year, instead of buying an onion plant.

+ We decided to try strawberries this year, and so far they are doing pretty well. I had heard not to expect any berries in the first year, but so far we have one red berry and a handful more starting to grow. We planted 3 strawberry plants.

+ Adam really wanted to try growing sweet corn this year, so we planted 3 corn stalks. So far, we have at least past the test, because our stalks were knee high by the 4th of July!

+ I couldn't do without my cilantro and parsley to use in my guacamole and salsa, so we have those growing as well. Last year, I had all kinds of cilantro at the beginning of the summer, but as I cut it, the remaining plant started to brown. I haven't had the guts to cut it yet, but ti sure is growing like crazy. Any tips to prevent this from happening again?

Well, there you have it, our 2015 Vegetable Garden! Everything has really started to take off in the last week, and I can't wait to be picking veggies from my own back yard soon enough :)