It may be hard to believe, but last weekend while I was at my parents' house, I actually did more than just play with crayons. I know, shocking. I'm happy to report that I was able to check a couple of projects off the ol' to-do list. The first is a bench that someone had "ordered." (It feels weird calling it that since I don't actually have a store, but they requested it, I made it, they paid for it, so that means they ordered it, right?) The bench is an Ana White plan that I'd done last fall and this particular "customer" (that's weird too) had seen it in its new home and wanted one too. Well by all means, let me jump right on that for you.
I didn't take an in-process shots, so here it is in its finished state. My customer chose the paint color; it's Nifty Turquoise by Sherwin Williams.
The top is hinged and has a little storage compartment.
I won't lie, I was pretty nervous when I opened the can of paint and saw how bright it was. Nifty? More like Welcome To Preschool, Let's Learn Our Colors Turquoise. Thankfully a dark chocolate undercoat toned things down a bit, especially after I went at it with the sander.
I haven't heard back yet if my customer is pleased or not. Doesn't matter, though, cause this store doesn't take returns. Mwahaha.
Project Numero Dos is one that my parents started a couple of weeks ago and I just helped finish it up. The inspiration was this piece of wall art that my mom and I saw at an antique store.
What you see there is a whole bunch of strips of colorful beaded board framed together and hanging on the wall. Fun, easy, genius. I mean, who doesn't love beaded board? It's cheap and super easy to get your hands on. The antique store had some of these same colored slats in longer pieces for sale. Aaaaand it just got even easier to get our hands on - we didn't even have to drive to Home Depot or Lowes.
I can't remember the price but it wasn't much. Mom went ahead and bought one long slat in each color.
I think they may have called these antique beaded board but it really isn't much different than what you can buy in the store today. These are tongue and groove pieces, not just strips from a big sheet of beaded board like we normally buy. I think the main difference is that it's a little bit thicker.
Well, it's thicker and it's already painted and distressed. Gotta love it when you can cut out a step from the get-go.
Now, these were mostly purchased so we could make some generic wall art for the beach house, but you know my mom needed something for her house too. She cut off 15 inches from each slat, and then cut those down into 3 five-inch pieces. She had a total of 21 pieces and went to town arranging them. My dad built her a frame to go around them.
Mom has a long skinny place in her den where she wanted to hang this so she couldn't follow the pattern from the inspiration photo. Instead, this is what she came up with.
It reads a little checker board-ish in this picture, but it's actually really, really cute in person. The dark colors that look kinda black in the photo are actually a darker green and brown, and you can see a lot more of the imperfections in the wood in real life.
She even managed to line up all the "beads" in the beaded board. (The slats didn't automatically line up, she had to shave a little off here and there.)
Dad and I put the hanging wires on the back and took inside to see how it'd look in it's new home. I think it looks good by the polka dot chair!
Maybe one day I'll remember to take my real camera with me so I can take some better quality pictures (these are from the iPhone). This would be really easy to recreate, and you could make it any size and color you wanted.
We also worked on another really cute, really fun project this weekend, but I can't reveal it yet because it's a birthday present. It's so hard to resist posting pics because I think it has turned out so well. I love it! Here's a hint: it involves a tree, a door, and a mailbox. Any guesses??
Just for fun, here's a picture of Lolli. This is how she spends her mornings when she thinks it's close to time for her to get in her kennel. If I even think about coming near her, she darts under the bed where I can't reach her. She's a mess, I tell ya.
