No Soliciting sign

So I have this no soliciting sign on my front door, and it has worked for years, but is was ugly and boring. (it was just a print out from my computer) so I thought I would dress it up with an awesome frame from Hobby Lobby.

We get tons of people coming by to try and sell us things, or to sign a petition. The college students like to come to our neighborhood because the houses are close together and it is easy to talk to more people. But when I get people ringing my doorbell every night of the week it gets a little old. Hence the sign.

Now, we love Girl Scout cookies, so every Girl Scout is welcome to come by and sell, I will probably buy some cookies (who can resist, not me) and since my son is a Boy Scout I figure it is only fair to include their popcorn in the exception list. (not to mention it is yummy as well).

So, to attach it my husband just screwed it to the wall and we were good to go. I think it looks very pretty and a nice way to dress up a sign.

What do you think? Suggestion, questions, improvements? Free free to use it and make it even better.

DIY lantern

I have been noticing that lanterns are all the rage, and I love them. What a great way to add texture and candles to a shelf. So as I was wondering around in blog land I found someone who too old outdoor lights and painted them and made them into lanterns. It was a fantastic idea!
I loved it so much that I had to try it. I am sorry to say, but I don’t remember who I got the idea from, but if it is you then let me know and I will link back to you!

As you might remember from a while ago I got these free outdoor lights off of Craigslist. Well, we only needed 2, so that left 2 for me to play with!

 And here is the ugly outdoor lights that we removed.

 

After cleaning them and painting them with Oil Rubbed Bronze, my husband took out the electrical parts and the back piece that holds it to the wall. Then, I put felt on the bottom and put a pillar candle inside! (the candle is on a candle plate) and that is it! Here is the finished product, what do you think?

Ok, ignore the paint line… We are in the middle of painting our house and I am not sure on colors so I am experimenting and seeing this works…

Lessons learned:
The most important lesson I learned is to bookmark and write down where I get ideas in case I want to copy them, that way I can give proper credit to the right person!

 

Restoration Hardware Chandelier

I am in love with Restoration Hardware! I love everything in their stores, online, and catalogs! They are amazing, but, I can’t afford most things that they offer. I saw this beautiful chandelier and I knew I had to have it. I loved the iron and crystal combination, I knew it would be perfect in my foyer! But I looked at the price…$2195! Whew, too much! So I got to to thinking, I could probably make something similar.
Here is the original:

 Isn’t it beautiful? If you want to purchase it here is the link: Restoration Hardware
Here is my version. What do you think? Is is close? I think it turned out great and all for around $150! The directions are below:

Here we go:

I started with a plain chandelier that I pick up at a local building re-use store. It was only $15, but it needed a lot of cleaning before it was ready

 Yuck, really dirty! But with a little elbow grease it cleaned up nicely and was ready to transformed into a new chandelier.

 The first thing I needed was something for the circles going around the chandelier. Since I can’t weld or bend pipes I needed a different solution. So as I was wandering around Hobby Lobby I found these hoops. I am not sure what they are used for, but they worked perfectly for me.

 I rigged up a hanging station so I could work on the chandelier. I just took my husband’s saw horse and clamped the light to hang it at a good height so I could sit a a chair and work on it.

 Now time to add the rings. I needed a way to secure them to the light, so I wire wrapped them. It seemed to work out just fine. Don’t worry too much about the colors, it will all get spray painted in the end.

Keep adding rings until you are satisfied. I think I added 5 or so.
After all the rings were added and I was happy I spray pained the entire chandelier in Oil Rubbed Bronze from Rustoleum. This is my favorite, I use it all the time.

 Once it is all spray painted you could stop there before adding crystals. There is a version without crystals on Restoration Hardware and it looks amazing. But if you want to add crystals read on.

I found crystals I liked at Save on Crafts.com. There are a ton of places to find crystals.
Then I started adding. I punched holes in the cups things (don’t know what they are called) and added crystals with jump rings. The photo is blurry, but you get the idea.

I used a metal hole punch like this:

I punched holes around the top and strung crystal garlands and added teardrops to the top.

 

 I strung crystal garlands from cup to cup. Just play around and add crystals until you get the look you are going for. This is the fun part! Be creative and add until it looks right to you!

Once all the crystals are added it is time to hang it up. We were replacing a can light with the chandelier, so we used a kit to help us out.

Another photo:

 And one more. Didn’t it turn out great! So excited, can’t wait for my next hack.

 Lesson learned:

1. You can buy a chandelier with all the crystals on it and just add the rings. That might be a cheaper way to go if you can find it on sale or craigslist
2. Be patient and take your time, this does take a little while to complete.

Outdoor lights makeover

So, I got these outdoor lights from a guy on Craigslist for free. Free is always nice, but there is a price to pay. They were very dirty and needed a coat of paint, very badly! I have been wanting to change out our outdoor lights for a while now, but my DH did not want to spend any money on it. So this is our solution.  At this point I have no idea if they even work… 

Here they are before the makeover, pretty bad! (sorry the lighting on the picture is not great, these were taken in my kitchen, in the spot with not a lot of light)

Close ups, pretty dirty. They need a lot of TLC.

I took them apart, carefully. I didn’t know what condition they were in. I turns out the glass is still good and all the parts are there and everything is in tact. I have high hopes that these will turn out ok! As you can see from the various photos the colors are all different, this is not a trick of light, they really were different colors. The sun had faded some and not as much on others.

Once they were thoroughly cleaned and dried it was time to spray paint them. I used Rustoelum oil rubbed bronze (my favorite color of spray paint) I used the one with paint and primer in it. So a few coats later I was done, don’t they look much better? I love the color and finish, I know they will look great! So excited to install them.

But before we can install them the old lights have to come down. Yuck, old brass coach lights that have seen better days. I am so excited to take these down! I have plans for them in the future…

Yah!! our new light is installed, and it works, whew! I was a little worried about that, but no need, everything worked perfectly! I looks wonderful!
I got a total of 5 lights, but I only needed 3. I have plans for the other 2, stay tuned…

Lessons learned:

1. Make sure the light is cleaned inside and out!
2. If you can check to see if it works before you hang it. That way you don’t go through the trouble of cleaning, painting, and hanging only to find out that it doesn’t work.

Pantry Door Chalkboard

I have been seeing pantry doors with chalkboard paint on them all over Pinterest. So, I decided to try it out. I am hoping that as we run out of items that my son and husband will write them on the chalkboard to let me know before I head to the grocery store. Then my plan is to take a picture of it with my cell phone and head to the store. We will see if this works…..

As you can see our door is very plain, nothing special. Now time to prep the door.

 Lightly sand the door and then clean it up, making sure there is no dust left. Add tape to prevent paint from going to the parts you don’t want paint.

 I used good ole Rustoleum chalkboard paint. I did read that you can make your own paint, has anyone tried that?

 Then I applied my first coat with a foam roller (as per the instructions). Make sure you read and follow all instructions.

 It really needs a second coat of paint.

 I added the second coat and let it fully cure for 3 days. After 3 days I took off the tape and rubbed chalk over the entire board to condition it. Now it is ready to use! I can’t wait to paint something else with chalkboard paint!!

Lessons learned:

1. Read all the instructions. (I am terrible at this, but it is important to read and follow them)
2. Use a foam roller brush
3. Wait between coats. I painted on coat after work on a Monday and then after work on Tues I painted the other coat.