Using My Noodle(s)

Last week some of my thought processes were

along the lines of:

"I wish I had something tall to go on either side

of the picture on the mantle for summer."

and

" I wish I had a unique decorative item

 made out of pool noodles to enter into

Debbiedoos Pool Noodle Party."

Then the thought came into MY noodle (brain)

 to combine both of those needs

together and make mini-nautical log pilings

out of cut pool noodles to go on the beach-y mantle.

The Dollar Tree was my source for cheap noodles

and for wood-looking adhesive paper to cover them.

Six noodles and three rolls of adhesive covering were

used to make these faux pilings.

The noodles were surprizingly easy to cut even

with a kitchen bread knife.

The original plan was to group five lengths of noodles

into one piling bundle but it worked out that making

two groups of three noodles on each side was better.

Working on mantle item placement

For the size of adhesive covering that I had, it took

1/2 of the width to cover a noodle.

The wood-grain covering stuck on the noodle well and

will hopefully last through the summer but I'm not

optimistic about long-term viability.  The stick-ability

even survived me painting the covering with thinned

out neutral shades of paint to make it match my brick.

If you paint yours too, be sure to thin the paint enough

that the wood grain will still show through.

The tops of my pilings won't be visible to anyone unless

they are on a ladder but I experimented with cutting out

"knots" in the adhesive covering to cover up the noodle end.

Here I did a trial run with the logs to show what the

pilings would look like if you like the natural wood

look and not the painted version.

                      

Being bundled with rope made the noodles easy

 to stand up but if you are going to make these

 to be outside, be aware that they are very lightweight.

Except for the noodles that I tried covering the ends,

none of the others of mine are finished off  'cause

you and me are the only ones who will see the

green foam of the pool noodle from up here

 on a ladder taking photos for close-ups.

I am sharing this post over at 

Snickerdoodle Sunday blog party hosted by

Meatloaf and Melodrama and other blogs

Summer of '12 Mantle

I have had so much fun with and am happy with the

DIY projects that went into this mantle vignette

 that I will probably keep it up for the

whole Summer of 2012. 

The art print reminds me so much of the beaches of

Alabama and Florida where I have spent many a

summer vacation during my life.  I guess it could look

like a pretty beach almost anywhere.

The title of the print is "Rendevous". 

I think it is a gathering of the seagulls that inspired the

artist, Carolyn Blish, to name her painting that. 

This print has been mounted on foam core and sealed.  I haven't added the brush strokes like

I did to the prints for my Winter Mantle  and for Springtime in Paris mantle, but I intend to.

The black metal firescreen that I usually keep out all

year just looked too heavy with this vignette of neutrals,

blues and greens so I took it down and added an

arrangement of houseplants, spikey Dracena

( $1 each at the garden center at Walmart )

and some tropical-looking faux leaves from

last year's Summer mantle.

The planter (from the back back back yard) got a

new coat of paint in driftwood colors.

After I saw this post on how to make your own

Japanese fishing floats on the blog Sand and Sisal,

I have been looking forward to making some for

summer decorating. 

I am so disappointed that I didn't realize that the memory card was not in my camera while I was

taking the steps I took to make these floats.  I had (I think) gorgeous shots of them drying while 

hanging in from the crepe myrtle trees.  When the morning sun hit them while they were waiting

 inside on the coffee table be placed on the mantle, they looked almost as pretty. 

I ran out of the pre-made fishnet from the craft store so

I made some twine "cages" for the faux floats.

The wooden items from craft stores also had

most of their "how to" photos made without

 a card in the camera.  Here is how the faux

lobster/crab trap floats looked before painting...

...and here is what the float/lures looked like...

....this is a group photo when I DID realize the card was not

in the camera showing the paints that were used and

most of the items before sanding...

...the fishing lures/floats in the foreground have been

sanded, the background ones have not been sanded...

...and here it is all together:

The DIY decorative log pilings are detailed in Using My Noodles(s) blog post.

I hope you have a wonderful Summer of 2012!

Opps! I don't know what "happened to" the other parties I linked this to but I am sharing also at

Seasonal Sundays @ The Tablescaper

Kitchen Mini Makeover

Faced with the fact that we needed to do

something to/with our kitchen cabinets that were

peeling and had hinges that were breaking

(after eight years ago having new of both),

we chose the cheapest option which was just

 to re-hab the cabinets we already had.

A couple of years ago, I had started following

decorator Rachel Halvorsen's blog "Nestegg"

after seeing her on the cover and inside of

the magazine Garden and Gun. On her blog she had
 recommended a Sherwin Williams paint color
 called "Urbane Bronze" as one of her favorites
 for cabinets and doors.

Click here to see kitchen cabinets she had painted in Urbane Bronze.

Click here to see a great blog post she did called "Dark Doors".
  She shows photos of dark doors from other sources and explains the
 "whys" and "hows" of using dark doors in your home.
 At the end of the post she shows her own projects
using Urbane Bronze and  SW Tricorn Black.

I'm pretty much a "color chicken" and am happy to
rely on decorators' favorite color choices that I see in
magazines and on the internet.  I bought a sample of
the "Urbane Bronze" to test on different spots on the
 kitchen cabinets (since light in one area may affect color),
decided it was as good as any I might fret over, and
called our "go-to-guy-who-can-do-most-anything"

to come over and paint the cabinets and replace the hinges.

As a point of reference, here is what the kitchen
looked like when we bought the house:

When we moved in eight years ago,

we had the walls and tile backsplash painted green,

(Georgian Green HC - 115 Benjamin Moore)

painted cabinets the darkest green available (they looked

almost black), replaced hinges with invisible ones,

replaced appliances, replaced cabinet pulls, replaced

gray formica with a granite-looking formica, took

up fake wood floor and had tile put down.

My mother hates that cabinet color and says that it is "depressing".  I still like the color but

as long as we are having the cabinets re-done, might as well try another color for fun.

Here is the same view with the new "Urbane Bronze"...

...and here is how we got there:

Our guy removed the cabinet doors to take them

to his workshop to sand and paint them and

get them ready for the new hinges.

He painted the bases and the drawers in place.

He told me not to be shocked when I saw the

primer color but it was hard not to be...so pink!

The plain expanse of plywood on the traffic side of the

peninsula has always bothered me.  Our Guy and I

worked out a design he could easily apply with pine

molding to add interest to that area.

The ends of the peninsula have angles that took a little more

consideration.  For the floating end, we decided to have one

larger molding box wrap around the angle instead of trying

to squeeze in two boxes or have none.

(oopps! that plug has GOT to be painted)

For the attached end, we decided to ignore the extra inches

that go back into a funky corner and just make that

molding box the same size as the main ones.

Here you can see how much better the real color

looks than the primer color.

There was very little "down time" for the kitchen since we

went with for cosmetic changes only.  We all just kind of

worked around each other while the changes were being made.

The paint is still wet in this photo so the cabinets look very shiny.  The cabinets were painted with oil-based

semi-gloss so they dried to a lesser shine but it  seems glossy enough for us. 

I still like the basket pulls so we just re-used them.

They actually show up better now on the lighter color.

Here are some other views of the newly painted cabinets:

Each of the stools now have their own parking place

marked by the new molding. 

When we painted the cabinets eight years ago, the stools

also got a coat of the same color.  Soon they will be getting

repainted again but for now they show us the difference

between the old and new paint colors.

I hope my mama likes the new cabinet color better.

I hope YOU like my new cabinet color too!