Chop Chop!

I'm sad to admit I had a less than productive weekend.  I attempted to work on my Pinterest Challenge artwork, but a social life got in the way (I'm as shocked as you are).  Pre-existing plans took up more of my weekend than I anticipated and that darn metal wall art was a LOT more stubborn to chop apart than I expected.  For 'made in China' mass-produced wall art, those plates were holding on to the frame and each other for dear life!  Some plates let go relatively unscathed, but others decided they needed to leave holes.  No worries, I patched the holes and those are the ones I'll paint... tonight hopefully... if it doesn't rain... I think I finally have them all separated and rough edges sanded (Hubby's most excited that I wont be hack-sawing or filing metal in our living room anymore).  I also purchased a few actual plates to get mixed in with the existing (to-be)painted and non painted metal ones- 5 have been purchased, and probably 3 are destined to make it to the wall, just not sure which ones I want yet.  I'm trying not to get anxious thinking about all the work I have to do on it to finish it for the end of the challenge tomorrow AM.  I promise you, there will be a result to show!

My mom, however, was FAR more productive with her Pinterest Challenge DIY project over the weekend.  (I totally have my mom addicted to pinterest too)

Her Pinterest inspiration image:

And her fantastic finished result:

Go Mom!  Now that you've perfected the art of the roman shade, you can show me when it comes time to making one for my large kitchen window.

How's your Pinterest Challenge project progressing?

Challenge Accepted!

What do you do when your favorite bloggers join forces and issue a design challenge based on one of your website addictions? [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nepysk5rOf4]

Emily Henderson from my favorite HGTV show Secrets from a Stylist, Sherry from Young House Love, Katie from Bower Power Blog, and Lana from Joey and Lana Make a House a Home have issued a Pinterest Challenge!

You should totally go over to the link above and check out the hilarious video that explains the challenge.  And check out their blogs while you're at it, because they're all fantastic and someone could loose hours poking around (in theory of course, because I would never do that... yeah, lets go with that.)

Basically they've all decided to take on a DIY project THIS WEEK based on an inspiration image from pinterest and challenged all their readers to do the same.  You bet your pants I'm joining in the fun!

I have one project in mind that I was hoping to tackle soon anyway, so why not do it before next Tuesday?  I may even get ambitious and try to get to more than one.  Maybe.

Anyway, here is my chosen Pinterest inspiration image:

A plate wall/custom wall art.  I know it's not a HUGE undertaking, but I'm planning to repurpose wall art that I already have to make this happen.

I have this piece of mass-produced metal art.  We got it for the (pictured) kitchen in the apartment and have had it for almost 2 years.  I still like it, but I do not like seeing it in everyone else's houses too. (That's the design snob in me talking again.)

The metal art as it is existing is going to be chopped apart and if I can pull some free time out of my hat, I'll play with paint on a few of them too.  I have more ideas of how to make this project super special and totally new and improved, but you'll just have to wait and see what happens!!

Do you have any pinterest inspired DIY projects you've been wanting to do?  Now's the perfect time to jump in!  Not on pinterest yet?  What are you waiting for?!?!

Living Room Progress!

One of my personal rules to live by is:

You aren't allowed to complain about something if you're not doing anything to change it.

For example: you can't complain about the size of your rear if you don't get up off of it and work out.  (the exception is things you can't change of course, but if you can't change something, you can change how you look at it and stop complaining anyway).

Hubby pointed out to me that Friday's post was a laundry list of complaints about the living room so I figured I should practice what I preach and put my $$ where my mouth is and whatever other cheesy cliche's apply.

So I did.

I've been far too ADD with design ideas lately, so I just need to focus on one room at a time.  I'm putting jewelry organization/display and some other projects on hold and focus on the room that irks me the most: the living room.

2 notable changes were made over the weekend.

#1. Harry Potter's room has a new door!  No, Harry Potter does NOT live with me, however we do have an awkward closet that spans the entire space under the stairs.  We call this Harry Potter's room, or the hall closet, whichever you prefer.  The bi-fold door to this space was the only non-white door in the entire house and was a very awkward orangey wood tone that was not finished well in the first place.  Since the hall is wide open to the living room, I consider them 1 large space.

Pre-primed white doors with paneling similar to the other doors in the house were less than $50 at my friendly local Home Depot, so I was on the ground running.  I'll spare you the enthralling progress shot of painting white primed doors white satin and I'll jump to the after.

As a finishing touch, I picked up a mercury-glass knob from Anthropologie and put up a mirror from HomeGoods to give the space more presence.

You like?  So much better if I do say so myself!

__________________________________________

Weekend Project #2:  New vignette/storage.

I've been hunting for some type of table to put against the stair wall, but am challenged by the narrow space.  While looking at HomeGoods, I fell in love with a small asian style cabinet that was too deep.  After re-measuring the area several times (hoping that somehow the space would multiply- no luck), I decided to bring it home anyway.

It worked as I was hoping next to the chair (which Hubby is all about replacing now, yay!).  I took down the brown curtains (not the hardware yet though) and styled the new cabinet with a new "&" sign, Starry Night (removed from the opposite wall), a few tag-sale books, and Archimedes the owl.

I'm so pleased to see the living room finally start evolving!