DIY Faux Stained Glass Front Door Sidelights

What started out as a temporary solution fifteen years ago has lasted through the years.  Our front door has sidelights and a transom.  For privacy reason I used Gallery Glass to created faux stained glass.  I did a leaf and floral which at this point felt really dated to me.  I started pricing new front doors.  For a new door with sidelights and a transom, I'm looking at $7,000-$8,000 installed.  Plus I have detailed moulding around the front door which would have to be removed in order to install a new door, which would then require painters to come in and repaint the foyer.  Yeah...I'm not giving that mouse a cookie just yet.

You can see in this photo that originally I did not use the Gallery Glass on the transom.

The best thing about Gallery Glass is that it last forever left untouched, but if you want to remove it, it scrapes right off.

 Okay...it doesn't scrape right off.  Three hours and two sliced fingers later, it all scraped off.   In the meantime I had some left over Gallery Glass, but not enough to do a whole project.  I wasn't even sure they made it anymore.  I'm happy to say that I found it at AC Moore so for under $20 I was able to completely restyle my front door.  I designed a pattern based on all of my favorite "new door" designs.  I taped the pattern to the outside of the front door and then traced the pattern using the faux lead.

The ready-made lead comes only in black.  I used a Sharpie pen to paint the leading gold. 

I used mostly clear paint and the etching paint with just a little gold.  It dries in a couple of hours and cures in a week or so.  I tried several things with the clear and scraped it off a few times until I finally settled on using my fingers to make swirls to create the effect I wanted. By the way, it scrapes off super easily and in big pieces if you take it off within the first hour which allowed me time to figure out exactly the pattern I wanted on the clear.  

 Here is the finished door.  I love how it came out.  I originally designed a pattern for the transom that was horizontal, but it didn't look right with white moulding cutting it up.  I had to go with what made sense and have the pattern live within the white moulding lines. 

For less than $20, I completely changed the look of the front door.  So much more updated and beautiful.  So the way I see it I saved over $7,000.  Awesome!

Can't wait to hear what you think.

Have a great day.

-Judy

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Stone Gable

MacKenzie Childs Inspired Cookie Jar

Clearly I am obsessed with MacKenzie-Childs lately.  

The MacKenzie-Childs cookie jar is another one of my favorites.  The cookie jar sells for $52.  I knew I could definitely recreate this for less.

Here are my versions-they cost me a total of $15 each.  

I found these two cookie jars at Target for $4.99 each.  They were perfect because they already had a knob that I could remove and replace.

To make the painting process easier and smudge free, I used skewers and put each of the lids over a plastic cup.  I painted several light coats of linen white.

Using the same process as with my other projects,  I marked each lid with dots to form a grid and started painting.

Once the lids were dry I added aqua highlights and then finished it all off with polyurethane.

The knobs I used were pricey at $10 each.  I found them at Anthropologie.  I could have used less expensive knobs, however these had the brass base which mimicked the MacKenzie-Childs knob.

Even at $10 per knob the whole project only cost $15/jar vs. $52/jar.  Plus I was able to have a larger and smaller cookie jar...MacKenzie-Childs only sells one size (large).

  I am loving my new cookie jars.

You can check out my MacKenzie-Childs inspired vase here...

and my MacKenzie-Childs inspired pumpkins here.

Can't wait to hear what you think.

-Judy

MacKenzie Childs Inspired Vase

After making my Mackenzie-Childs inspired pumpkins the other day, I found myself searching through their website and finding more and more things to swoon over.  They have a pattern called Parchment which is absolutely beautiful and coordinates with my decor.  

  

I literally used the same paints and technique as I used for my pumpkins.

I painted each square of the grid pattern using one easy step.  I squeeze a drop of each of the colors I am using next to each other and load up my brush as shown.  That way when I paint the shading is already done.  After everything is dry I coated the piece with polyurethane to give it the same shiny look.  

Not bad for a free project.

Can't wait to hear what you think.

-Judy

Going Gold

A while back I bought an unfinished tray and used chalk paint and decoupage to turn it into something a bit more special.  Lately I have found myself being drawn to objects made of brass and gold.  For a while I wouldn't even look at something with a gold tone.  What's old is new again.  

  I was debating between gold leafing the tray and painting it.  I opted to paint it mainly because I already had the paint in the house and to gold leaf it would have required a trip to the store. I mixed two different tones of gold to get the effect I was looking for. 

It painted out easily with two light coats.  The old scrapbook paper worked fine, but if I was going gold, I really wanted to go gold.

So I added this gold and white geometric print scrapbook paper instead.  

Here's what it looked like before...

Here it is after.  It looks way more fancy now.  

I love how a little paint and paper completely transformed my little tray to give it a much more sophisticated look.  

Can't wait to hear what you think.

Don't forget to stop back tonight at 8pm EST for my Winter Blues Wednesday link party.

Hope to see you then.

-Judy

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Ready, Set, Go

This disaster can only mean one thing...

We have picked a paint color for the living room and dining room!  

I know that they say "it's just paint", but honestly it's going to take hours to just empty the rooms and hours to put it back together.   I am actually a good painter and enjoy painting, but these two rooms are large and there is so much cutting in with all of the moldings that it would take more time than I have to to do the right job.  So...I've called in the professionals.  They will be here Tuesday morning.  

Let's hope I love the color as much once it's on the wall - you will have to wait until the big reveal for the paint color.  

Have a great weekend (and wish me luck emptying out the rest of the room).  

-Judy

Trying to Find the Perfect Green Gray Paint Color

I think I am finally going to actually pull the trigger and change out the color in my living room and dining room.  I've been talking about it for years, but have struggled to figure out exactly what direction I would like to see the rooms go in.

One of the main issues has been that the living room and dining room are one big room only separated by columns, so the color really needs to be the same in both rooms.

It has made it difficult to settle in on a color.  I have been leaning toward a green/gray paint color. 

 I think I have narrowed it down to three choices, all Benjamin Moore colors:

Camouflage

Benjamin Moore Gray Horse

Gray Horse

Craftsman Living Room by Bellevue Home Stagers Lisa Lucas Design - Gray Mirage

I have painted samples on large sheets of poster board and keep moving them to different parts of the room.  I think I am leaning toward grey mirage, but I'm still not sure.  It's one of Candice Olson's favorite paint picks.  Candice says that grey mirage is a "can’t lose color  - a misty gray green is a great foundation for any space."  Maybe that should be enough for me.  
Anyone have any suggestions for the perfect grey/green?

-Judy

How to Paint Upholstery

Yes!  You can paint upholstery.  

Honestly this is one of the most amazing discoveries I have made in a while.  

I never thought it would work so well.

Let me remind you all where this project began.

Yep...I was able to transform Craigslist chairs that were badly stained from clearly way too many parties involving wine.  

It was really very easy.  

All you need is:

Latex paint in your choice of color (I picked a color close to the original fabric color)

Fabric Medium (I used Martha Stewart fabric medium from Michaels)

Water

Sponge brush

spray bottle with water

I mixed equal parts of paint, fabric medium and water and mixed it all together in a plastic cup.  It will be extremely watery, but that is the right consistency.  Spray the upholstery with water until it is fairly wet.  This will allow the paint to be absorbed in the fabric rather than sit on top of the fabric.  Then just paint the fabric.  I used a wide brush and brushed along the grain of the fabric.  I used a smaller sponge brush for the cording along the edges and I wiped up any paint that dripped on the wood as I went along.  

This is what it looked like after one coat.  I did the same with the other two chairs.

I let the paint dry overnight and the next day mixed up a second batch of paint, fabric medium and water...again in equal parts.  I sprayed down the upholstery again with water and painted a second coat.

I let that dry overnight again. 

You can see that the wood had yellowed in many spots on the chairs, so after the second coat of upholstery paint dried, I painted the wood using Annie Sloan old white and then finished it off with a clear wax.  

After everything was dry, I went back and used a 220 grit sandpaper and lightly sanded the upholstery focusing on any rough spots I found where the paint didn't soak in as well.  

The fabric is surprisingly soft and doesn't feel at all like I painted it.  It almost has the feel of drop cloth fabric, but a little softer.  I can't get over how well it worked.

Has anyone else ever painted upholstery?  If you haven't, you have got to try it.

Can't wait to hear what you think.

Have a great weekend!

-Judy

Virtual Painting

It has been at least two years now that I have been debating painting my living room and dining room.  They are connected so they both have to be painted the same color.

The burgundy wall color was beautiful and dramatic and our first bold color on the walls.  But... it's dark and I would really like to lighten and brighten both spaces.  

A few weeks ago we were at a party at a banquet hall and they had the most perfect color in their grand foyer.  I called the hall the next day and found out the name of the color.  It is Benjamin Moore's Soft Fern.  I went and brought home a few paint chips and taped them together to try and get a better idea of how it would look in my space.  It definitely reads very differently than I remember it at the banquet hall (so much so that I feel obligated to make a trip to the banquet hall with paint chips in hand to see if it really is the same color).  It's extremely difficult to pick a paint color from a paint swatch.  Before I start to paint anything on the wall, I thought I would try some virtual painting.  First I tried to use the Benjamin Moore virtual painter, but it kept telling me my photos were too large.  Valspar has a similar website and theirs worked perfectly.  In a few minutes I was able to test out similar colors to Soft Fern to see how I would like it in our living room and dining room.

I tried several different shades of green.  This one seemed closest to Soft Fern.  You can see already how much bigger the room appears.

This one is a little more blue green.

This one a bit too bright.  

While I was at it, I tried a couple of neutral gold colors.

I am going to keep playing and see if I can come up with the perfect color.  Once I find it, watch out...I'll be emptying these rooms and painting them.  

Have you tried virtual painting?