Lovely Things, Rustic Signs

Remember those New Year's resolutions from a few months back?  They always make me feel like a failure about two weeks into the year.  So, a couple of years ago, when I heard about taking one word and applying it to all aspects of your life, I was intrigued.

Last year, I chose the word "health" as my "word of the year".  My goal was not to lose forty pounds, give up fried foods, and run a marathon.  Rather, I made a conscious decision to apply the concept of health to decisions regarding every aspect of my life, from finances to organization to relationships.  At the end of the year, my life wasn't perfect.  It was, however, healthier.

This year I chose "beauty" as my word of the year.  This scripture from Philippians really speaks to the concept of beauty.

Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things [are] honest, whatsoever things [are] just, whatsoever things [are] pure, whatsoever things [are] lovely, whatsoever things [are] of good report; if [there be] any virtue, and if [there be] any praise, think on these things. Phil 4:8

If our thoughts are without beauty, how can we have any beauty in our lives?  As a reminder to guard my thoughts, it seemed like a good idea to create a sign that I would see every day.  Flipping through a Pottery Barn catalog, I saw this sign with an old proverb in a bedroom vignette.  Perfect inspiration!

The Pottery Barn sign has the words "Keep a green tree in your heart and perhaps a singing bird will come" stenciled on strips of wood lath.  It is lovely.  For my own sign, I wanted something a bit beachier, so I used ordinary construction stakes.  They reminded me of beach fencing.

They had serious splinters, so I gave them all a light sanding.  Then, I used a little stain to give them a weathered appearance.

Next, the stakes were laid out, face down, on my counter.  I used pieces of cardboard between the pieces as spacers.  Then, I glued extra large stir sticks to the backs, using Gorilla Glue.  I used an assortment of heavy objects to weight the stir sticks down while the glue cured.

You can add your lettering using any technique you like.  I looked at stencils and stamps, but didn't find the font I wanted, so I printed mine, cut them out and Mod Podged the letters onto the boards.  ( I really need a Silhouette!)

The final step was to distress the lettering by sanding them.

I like how it turned out.

And I like the daily reminder (trust me, I need it).
 

 

Do you have a word, a resolution, 

or a set of goals for the year?

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Under the Table and Dreaming

If You Thought Watching Paint Dry Was Fun...

... you should try stripping wallpaper!  

I just spent two days at the beach house in a sea of rotted grass cloth with these guys:

The lady at the hardware store said Dif was the best product, but she had obviously never met grasscloth.

Grasscloth is pure misery to remove.  I actually really like grasscloth, and might have left it alone, except for this:

cat scratching damage

And this:

cat and dog damage

And this:

damage from humans opening 

the coat closet every day

We got some estimates to have all the drywall replaced, but they all came in over $5000.   So, I scraped. And an hour later, it looked like this:

This is one hour of labor using Dif.

And another hour later with the same product:

At this rate, it was going to take a week just to strip the kitchen!  And the drywall was being damaged....

So, I tried Wip Chomp.  In about twenty minutes, our entryway went from this:

To this:

This wall went much faster, and with less damage to the drywall, but really, I've had more fun at the dentist's office.  There is still a lot of wallpaper left.  So much wallpaper left.  So very much.

Keeping my eyes on the prize....  enjoy what's left of your weekend!

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Stripping at the Beach This Weekend!

Uhhhmmmm, that would be wallpaper stripping.
 
Can you see all the grasscloth wallpaper in this place?  It is in all of the public spaces of the beach house.  And it needs to come down.  It is badly damaged and fraying from cats' and dogs' claws. 

It is also thirty years old, so all of the thread fibers woven through the grass have rotted, which makes it just a mess to strip! 

I have the entryway about half-way stripped, and the dining area about a quarter of the way done.  Now it's time to finish it up.  It is truly a dreadful job, and it makes me sneeze!

At least I will have this great view, to remind me how truly blessed I am.

Sleeping Lofts and Beach House Dreaming

In the last post about our beach house remodel, I shared a picture of our second guest bedroom, as well as an adjacent attic space.  A few of you successfully guessed our plans for the space.  We want to add a loft to that bedroom, so that it will sleep more people.  Of course, if you count raising the house as "phase one" of our remodel, and remodeling the garage wing and kitchen as "phase two", adding this loft falls somewhere around "phase 37" in the scheme of things -- but it's fun to dream, and plan, and prepare....

Here are a few sleeping loft images we've collected for inspiration.   I love this first image of a boathouse sleeping loft.

House Beautiful

House Beautiful

This loft has several bunks, and plenty of headroom.

urbanist design

The nautical detailing on this 2004 Southern Accents Watersound Beach Showhouse is striking.  the design is by Suzanne Kasler.

via

via

This darling little sleeping loft in an outbuilding in the Catskills is pure fantasy.

 

source

How about this fun design for a kid's room?  I like the pipe rails.

contemporary kids design by hawaii interior designer Philpotts Interiors

This space is very modern, but still feels warm and inviting.

modern bedroom design by san francisco architect Feldman Architecture, Inc.

Okay, this loft space is quite a bit larger than ours, but I just loved the cheery colors juxtaposed against the steel framework of the space.

modern family room design by san francisco architect CCS ARCHITECTURE

The partitions and curtains in this sleeping loft give a sense of privacy.

eclectic kids design by birmingham interior designer Tracery Interiors

For a reminder, here is the bedroom we want to add a loft to....

... and here is part of the adjacent attic space we want to convert to a loft space, accessed from the bedroom.

How to do it?

We can open up the wall between the two spaces.  This is a load bearing wall, so we will need to transfer that load to the wall and I-beam below.  This can be done by using headers and columns, or possibly by just using columns, if they are placed under each of the existing roof beams. We'll have our structural engineer weigh in on this, for peace of mind.

Can you see it?

Here is a quick little diagram showing the space configuration.

Now, can you see it?

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Hiding the Ugly Chandelier

When we were decorating for my daughter's baby shower, she asked us to "please hide that fugly chandelier!"  So, we decided to cover it in masses of flowers.  Huge tissue paper flowers. 

 

We didn't completely cover the chandelier, but maybe we were able to distract the eye a little bit?

At any rate, it was fun and festive.

Here's how we made them.

We used doubled layers of tissue paper to give the flowers a little more body, and to introduce a second color.

These flowers were very inexpensive to make, and definitely added a girly feel to the baby shower!

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