DIY Decor & Crafts

Three Things

Published on June 21, 2013June 21, 2013 by Our Humble Abode12 Comments

Three things to share today. First order of business, the winner of a Sanus Full Motion TV Mount is Erica. Congrats!

Second on the agenda, sharing a super cheap and über easy way to frame out a canvas. Wanting to finish off the painted canvas I made for Ben, I stopped in Home Depot to pick up 2 eight foot pieces of 1 by 2 pine.

To fit these in my car, I cut each into two pieces, five feet and three feet so I had a little wiggle room when cutting at home. Before making my mitered cuts, I sanded the rough wood using 150 grit paper.

Rather than relying on precise measurements, I brought my canvas out to my work table. Yes, I measure the girly (maybe lazy is more appropriate) way. But, it made it so easy. I just marked the edges of the canvas on the inside of my frame, then used a square to mark the top as well. These lines became the inside of my angled cuts, just lined the edge of the saw blade at the corner and cut.

Before attaching my frame to the canvas, I first applied a coat of Dark Walnut stain and two coats of Minwax Polycrylic (both already in my stash). I debated the attachment method.

First I though I’d nail from behind the canvas, shooting into the canvas frame and then into the pine. But Ben said poplar can have weird knots and it might angle and shoot through my canvas. Um, not the look I’m going for.

Instead I used an 18 gauge nailer to go through the pine and into the canvas frame. Worked like a charm, although I did angle my first shot too severely (fearing a blowout on my canvas) and it went into my work table. Lesson learned. While the nail holes are on the outside of the frame, they’re barely visible. You know, until I take a close up shot.

Now the canvas looks finished, with a slim, modern wood frame.

Oh, and I worked up the courage to deal with the ceiling. Not done yet (this is dragging on!), but looking a little better. Especially when the can lights aren’t hanging down like Halloween zombie eyeballs.

One of my favorite things about this frame is the price. Two 8 foot sections of 1 by 2 pine set me back $2.50. I mean, how can you beat three bucks for a huge frame?!

My second favorite thing about this frame is the depth. It sits flush with the canvas back, but has another 3/4 inch depth beyond. I think it’s a nice touch.

Of course I love how quick and easy it was, too. Took between and hour and two of active time to make. Because this frame was so easy, I want to make two more to finish off these embroidered constellations.

Item number three; last but certainly not least. We’re celebrating yesterday’s summer solstice with a big sale. Now through Friday, July 5, use the code STARTSUMMER to save 50% on everything in our shop!

Oh, how about a number four? Have a wonderful weekend!

Shoulda Been Father’s Day Gift

Published on June 17, 2013June 17, 2013 by Our Humble Abode15 Comments

I hope everyone had a wonderful Father’s Day! Ben is a tough guy to get gifts for. He’s not interested in techy things, doesn’t need dressy clothes, and is extremely practical. Because he mentioned wanting one large item on the family room mantel, I decided to make him a huge painting.

Actually, I came up with the idea after seeing two foot by four foot canvases at Michael’s for 30 bucks. Better yet, I had a 50% off coupon. Inspired by Karen Smidth’s paintings, I set out to make a semi abstract landscape painting based on this photo I took several years ago in western Montana.

We’ve been there several times as a quick weekend getaway and have always really enjoyed ourselves, so it seemed perfect. Using acrylic paints I had in my craft stash, I started painting. Then Ben came home earlier than I expected and saw what I was working on. Luckily, he really liked it, but I’m not totally in love with it.

Some of the details I like. Like the snow-capped mountains and grass.

And the size is great. What seemed huge carrying around the store now looks perfectly normal on the mantel.

The overall look is kind of a minimal abstract mixed with Grandma Moses folksy.

But the colors make me smile and the intended recipent likes it, so that’s what really matters, right?! That’s what I’ll keep telling myself, anyway. Who knows though, it could grow on me. Or I could get the urge to change some things. I didn’t bother painting the sides because I want to build wood frame to finish it off.

And there’s still the ceiling to finish. Ugh, I can’t work up the desire to sand it smooth.

In other news, our bathroom is featured in the current issue of Kitchen + Bath Makeovers!!

Ahh, so crazy to see our faces and home smiling back at us.

Is your guy a tough one to buy for? I considered getting a bocce ball set because we’re building a court out front, but that didn’t seem as personal. Do you have a go to dude gift?

Getting Preppy

Published on June 12, 2013June 12, 2013 by Our Humble Abode12 Comments

Finally having the ugly popcorn off the boys ceiling feels great, but that was the easy part. The texture came off rather smoothly and easily, but that doesn’t mean the ceiling is primer or paint worthy. Because we’ve had a few ‘what to do after scraping’ questions, I’m back to share my steps. Our sheet rock is held in place with nails (the quick way to hang it) and every nail hole needed filling.

A few areas had scrapes from my spatula and some minor popcorn residue was still on the ceiling. Before I could break out the primer, I first filled every nail hole (twice), filled in any scratches, then sanded the whole ceiling smooth. I started with a drywall pole sander (like this one) but quickly got frusterated with it.

Lacking serious upper arm strength, I couldn’t keep the sander head flat on the ceiling with enough pressure to do much. Instead, it kept flipping over, causing more damage. So I ditched it, filled in the scratches from it, and used a sanding sponge to get ‘er done. Oh, and I taped off the door to contain the dusty mess. Also, wear glasses and a mask because the dust is everywhere.

Use a fine grit paper and sand until smooth to the touch. Carefully, sanding through the tape can be a serious pain in the butt. Drywall mud should sand easily off, as will the popcorn residue.

Sanding drywall, it’s a dirty job (said as Mike Rowe).

It was annoying to use a small sanding block, moving a chair all around the room, but it’s done. Even primed and painted. Looking gloriously smooth.

Unfortunately for me, the ceiling wasn’t the only wall needing attention, sanding, and spackling. I’m 99% sure the two outside walls had wall paper. Wall paper was all over this house: the kitchen, previously in the family room and guest room (found pieces behind outlet covers), and some painted over in our master bedroom (which will make it super easy to remove, I’m sure). Either this paper really stuck on or someone was especially careless when removing, leaving big triangular gouges behind. That’s bound to happen. Then the chunks were filled, but apparently not sanded before painting over. Behind Everett’s crib was the worst spot.

So I’m currently tending to the walls before we can prime and paint. First I used a metal putty knife to scrape off the uneven areas, filled, sanded, even primed the problem areas. But the moisture of the primer made the surrounding paint bubble. I scraped again, making the area larger, sanding smooth, and filling again with mud. Annoyingly, the wet mud made more paint bubble. You guessed it, more scraping, sanding, and filling. Now I’ve got this to work with:

Hopefully (key word here!) I’ve gotten the flaky paint off and I can carry on with my plans. Which should include new door trim, crown, and base boards before a few coats of Anjou Pear paint.

It’s exciting to take another virtually untouched since we’ve moved in room and make it ‘us’. Kind of getting sick of feeling like I’m living in someone else’s house, you know what I mean? So tell me, what’s the strangest thing a previous home owner has done to your house? Something that has you wondering, “why in the world did that happen?!”

Pop Off Popcorn

Published on June 10, 2013June 10, 2013 by Our Humble Abode4 Comments

Disclaimer: Before I get to the details, it’s super important to know if your ceiling has asbestos. You can buy a test kit to do yourself, or call a professional to check. If your ceiling tests positive for asbestos, leave this job to the pros. If your ceiling doesn’t have asbestos, read on.

As I mentioned last week, scraping the popcorn off our ceiling was easier than I expected. Lucky for us, these ceilings hadn’t been painted over, allowing the texture to absorb more water. If you’ve got a ceiling you want to smooth, get a weed sprayer, wide metal spatula, hot water, and white vinegar. You’ll also want safety glasses or goggles, a mask, and probably a hat.

If your floors are finished (or just for easy clean up), tape plastic over floors and finished walls. Fill the weed sprayer with the hottest water you can get from your faucet. No need to boil or anything, just hot. Add in vinegar. I poured about 1 to 1 1/2 cups in the sprayer. Start spraying the ceiling and don’t be stingy! Note, I’m not sure if the vinegar really helped because I didn’t do a side by side test, but vinegar did help with wall paper removal…

Spray a large area (the wet areas should be noticeably different from the dry ceiling – see along the back wall?), then test scrape. If it comes off easily, keep on going. Be careful to have your spatula at an angle so you don’t gouge the sheet rock below.

If it doesn’t come off, spray again, let it soak a few minutes then try. If your ceilings are painted, scraping the outermost layer off to expose fresh texture, then spraying again could really help.

Also, when you come up to a taped seam, scrape along it, not against it. This way you won’t tear the tape leaving a cracked ceiling behind. I worked toward the center, leaving my light up. When I got close, I pulled down the canopy, covered the electrical box with plastic, carefully sprayed around the box, and scraped off the rest.

Clean up was pretty easy thanks to the protective plastic layer, but the water did loosen the tape in some spots. After rolling up the sheeting, I hauled the shop vac in to get the rest off the floors.

The actual scraping took only an hour, which is about 23 shorter than I expected. Ha! Now I’ve got to fill a few holes to get ready for paint, which is always the tedius part.

Light Switches

Published on May 22, 2013May 22, 2013 by Our Humble Abode10 Comments

Completely out of Montana norms, it rained all weekend. Rain outside meant little time for work outdoors. Instead, we had a lunch date, relaxed, and hung up two light fixtures. The first, the PVC icosahedron pendant I made to replace the too low, never used ceiling fan.

I looked for a cheap pendant and canopy at home improvement and thrift stores, but didn’t find anything. Soooooo, I decided to steal the $6 thrift store pendant from the dining room. Ditched the shade, using only the guts. We had a few metal down rods from other pendants, so I covered the cord with a small piece.

While it may not stay forever, I’m super happy with the open, modern, geometric shape.

I still might replace the top and bottom points, just to make the peaks a little more obvious.

While Ben had the supplies out, I asked him to install a new light in the boys’ room, too. Snagged this one at ReStore for eight bucks. A quick scrub and ready to go. Wish I would have thought about this before and painted the gold canopy. Ahh well. Still better than the boob light that was there.

Bonus, we could raise chickens in here with a light like that. Not that it’ll happen, but we could. And I just might be able to start (and hopefully finish!) scraping the popcorn off the ceiling. Handy Sammy will be out-of-town for a month, so we can shift the boys to his room, giving me a month of time to get it done. Without disturbing him. Woo to the hoo, I’m ready for this. At least I am in my head, my arm might hate me by the end of it.