Bedroom Revamp: Reclaimed Wood Headboard and Wax Paper Chandelier

 Our bedroom has been a work in progress. It actually started about two summers ago.(You can see what I worked on back then by clicking here and here.)

I had been wanting a cool headboard for a while, and a search through Pinterest led me to love the idea of nailing reclaimed wood into the walls. So, this spring, my husband found a pile of free untreated (chemical-free) wood planks. It doesn't get any better than free!

So, my husband measured and cut them to size, then drilled them into our wall panel in this cool pattern. I love it against the pale yellow walls! It reminds me of a barn door-so rustic and unrefined. And, the feminine part was added by me. I made the faux capiz shell chandelier-also seen all over Pinterest. It was the fifth one I've made-so I'm pretty much an expert by now! (for pictures of the other chandeliers and the tutorial-click here) 

Paper Hearts and Burlap Valentine's Wreath

 

Love day is right around the corner...time to pack away Christmas decorations and put up some pretty hearts. You might have seen this same wreath last month when I posted about my  Christmas Burlap and Pom Pom Wreath: I had cut long strips of a burlap coffee bag and followed this tutorial:

I liked the ruffled burlap base of this wreath so much I wanted to keep it up all year, removing and adding embellishments with the different seasons and holidays. So, in the spirit of repurposing, that's just what I did.

Here's how I transformed this Christmas Wreath into a Valentine's Wreath:

First, I removed the yarn and pom poms, and stored them away for another crafty day.

Then, I cut out simple white paper hearts out of watercolor paper, folding down the middle.

I used a hole punch to make a hole at the top of each heart.
Then, I wrapped craft wire through the hole and around the base of the wreath.This will make it easier to remove the hearts when I'm ready to decorate for spring.

My V day wreath was done-simple and pretty white, five hearts for the five people in our family.

The rest of my Valentines decorating is a lot like this wreath-simple, natural, lots of whites and tans. I will be posting a few pictures soon along with more kitchen progress...

 I hope you'll come by again to take a peek!

Linking up with these parties.

Burlap and Pom Pom Christmas Wreath

Yes, Christmas decorating has started around here... At least for the outside of the house, since it's been perfect weather for stringing up the lights while the temperatures are still in the 50's. So, I decorated my door with this ruffly burlap wreath I made, inspired by this one. I made mine out of a burlap coffee bag I'd been saving for a while, and since it had red and green print, I thought it would look great as a Christmas wreath.

Here's what I used to make my wreath:

• burlap, cut into three inch strips (or you could use burlap ribbon)
• wire
• wire cutters
• wire wreath frame
• small pom poms, in green and white
• white yarn
• green eyelash yarn
• hot glue gun

To make the wreath, follow the tutorial at this blog.
Here are some of my personal helpful tips while making the wreath:

I didn't worry about using a single strip of fabric, it worked fine for me using several strips, and I like the frayed edges, shabby chic style. But if you want a neater look, you could use burlap ribbon on a roll. I also twisted circle of folded fabric around before securing with wire to the wreath frame.
To finish, I secured the loose ends of fabric to the wreath circle with wire so it wouldn't droop.

Then, I played around with some ribbon for a bow, but decided a bow was not what this wreath needed. No, it needed some whimsical touches-soft fuzzy white yarn, fringey green and blue eyelash yarn and green and white pom poms.

Yes, I was happy with this Christmas wreath. I loved all the texture and playfulness. I joked that it reminded me of a cat toy. The nice thing about the way I decorated this wreath is that if I want to take off the yarn and pompoms and keep the burlap for a spring or fall wreath, it could be done easily. If you like this wreath, check out last year's Remade Winter Wreath or for more of my seasonal tutorials, click here.

Thanks for visiting ReMadeSimple!

Linking up with these parties.

DIY {Reclaimed.Recycled.Repurposed.} Spring Flower

Happy Spring! We are getting ours early around here and to celebrate I have been having fun thinking up little flower projects lately-have you seen my Pincushion Flowers?

I have a really quick craft for you today that repurposes a few of my favorite things: wine corks, shutter slats and milk jug plastic.

  And I got to test out the new Martha Stewart paints and spray paint set. It would make a great kids' project too I think. Want some of your own?

Here's you'll need to make these flowers:

• clean milk jug circles (cut out of the side of a milk jug)
• wine corks
• shutter slat or thin strip of wood
• wire
• buttons
• scissors
• Martha Stewart multi purpose craft paint (or spray paint)
• Martha Stewart paint sprayer kit (or spray paint)
• low temp glue gun
• frame hanger

First, cut even slits all around three milk jug circles. 

Then, roll up the ends of them until they curl with a paint brush or pencil.

(they should look like this)

Then, cut a few inches of wire, loop the wire through the bottom flower, twisting at the base to secure.

Add a drop of hot glue to attach the second and third top circle.

Now it's time to add some color. Either use the Martha Stewart sprayer according to directions or spray paint in color of your choice to spray the center of the flowers. Allow to dry.

After the flower is dry, attach a button to the center of the flower with a hot glue gun. 

Then, attach your frame hanger with hot glue to the back of the shutter. 
Push the wire through the middle of the cork and hot glue to the shutter slat vertically.

Finally, loop a piece of wire into the shape of leaves, and connect to stem to finish.

I hung my spring flower in my tangerine jewel box half bathroom. Love how this tiny accent looks in my tiny space. (More on how we added this second bath into a corner of our house in a later post! )

I'll be decorating the house for Easter this week-can't wait to show you some of those ideas!
Hope you enjoyed this one today!

Linking up with these parties.

Shabby Fabric Chandelier

Source: crafteronabudget.blogspot.com via Kristina on Pinterest

I have been thinking about a light fixture for my bedroom for awhile now. Right now, it is

just a plain white ceiling fan, but I wanted something more unique than that.

As I was browsing through ideas for a DIY chandelier, this beautiful photo caught my eye.

I loved the look of this shabby chic style fabric chandelier-and I hear this particular

one is located in Paris. And, I was inspired to make something like this for my 

bedroom-but on a much smaller scale. 

So, I went to Scrap for Art (my favorite scrap supply store) and looked to see what I could find.

 I was so excited it cost me only $6 to fill up my bag with everything I'd need to create one

of these cool light fixtures. 

Here's what I used for my project: 

- embroidery hoops in 4 different sizes

-scraps of fabric in 4 different colors and textures

-low temp glue gun

-ribbon

-fabric scissors

-thread

First, I cut strips of fabric about 2 in. wide and 12 in. long, not

worrying about them being perfect-the shabbier the better.

Then, I hot glued the strips next to each other onto each embroidery 

hoop. 

Then, I tied 4 even lengths of thread around the largest hoop to 

connect it to the next smallest hoop, and repeated until all hoops

were connected. (Wire would also work for this).

Finally,  I glued ribbon to the edge of the largest hoop to cover over

the tops of the strips where they were glued to the hoop.

And I was done! 

I plan on hanging my chandelier in my bedroom after removing the 

fan blades of an outdated ceiling fan. I was happy that chandelier

inspiration led me to come up with a really thrifty and artistic solution
to updating my lighting. Not bad for only six dollars, huh? 

Hope you enjoyed this post and thanks for checking out ReMadeSimple! 

Linking up with these parties.

Anthropologie-Inspired Side Table Makeover

                                            Who's ready for another furniture revamp?

If you've been following along, you might know that I love to

 try new things with paint (check out my Patchwork Table

Revamp and my Pie Safe Makeover to see some of my 

latest creations.) 

Well, since the switch to yellow accents in my house, 

I have felt the need to change the rest of my painted

furniture so it doesn't look so rainbow-ey.

So where did I look for my inspiration? That gorgeous

Anthropologie catalog. Not quite in my budget to buy their 

furniture at $900 + a piece, but this DIY girl didn't mind 

getting her hands dirty to make a version of her own. 

Here are a few of their

furniture pieces that inspired me for my project:

"Twisted Roots Alter Ego Chair", Anthropologie

"Kasbah End Table", Anthropologie

I loved the distressing techniques the designers used and different

layers of paint peeking through. I had already done a patchwork paint technique before, 

so I felt confident to take a vintage thrift store find of mine to transform.

So, this is what I decided to work with, my Mod Podged Vintage Songbird Table. 

Cute, right? Now you might be thinking, why would I mess with a good thing?

Don't hate me for what I decided to do with it...

I decided to strip it. Little did I know how messy it would be

to work with. (my husband did warn me...but I can be stubborn.)   

For some reason, all of the paint wouldn't come off completely, 

even after two applications of spray stripper.

 And then the directions said to use steel wool to rub off the 

sludge but because there were so many layers of paint a 

lot of the goo still stayed on. 

I was about ready to kick this table to the curb. But after

a few days to think and take a break, I decided to 

try and sand off some of the flaky paint. 

By this time the paint had time to dry and it was much 

easier to remove with my electric sander. Yes! 

All I wanted at this point was for a somewhat smooth 

surface to work with. I also used my Dremel wire brush

 attachment to try to remove extra chunks of paint.

 (This was becoming my labor of love!) 

So after the paint was mostly smooth, I covered small sections 

in aqua, tangerine and yellow eggshell latex paint in the 

patchwork technique I had used before. 

(Sorry I don't have pictures of this part-I still wasn't sure if 

the table would survive my "surgery".) 

But, after letting my patchwork sections dry, I decided to

paint the entire table in pale gray paint. Yes, even the little

songbirds got covered. 

And after waiting a day for that to dry, turned on my 

electric sander to see if it would be a disaster or a masterpiece....

But, I was so pleasantly surprised by my results! 

So, after sanding through the top layer, the soft paint colors were revealed. 

(A lot like those Anthro pieces I loved!)

And, my Mod Podged song pages and birds were intact! After a spraying

of Deco Art acrylic sealer, my table was done! 

It reminded me of an old barn that had been painted,
then weathered by the elements for decades. 

(I think I love it even more than I did before!)

I hope you enjoyed this post and I look forward to showing you

a few more Anthropologie inspired projects I have up my sleeve! 

P.S. It's not too late to enter my huge giveaway of a gorgeous handcrafted European enamel 

house sign, if you haven't done so already. Scroll down the page to enter and winner will be announced on Fri. Feb. 10th! 

Linking up with these parties and this party.