Showing posts with label DIY. Show all posts
Showing posts with label DIY. Show all posts

Thursday, 25 April 2013

Weekend project: Paint dipped stool

It's been a busy few weeks around here, but not with renovating! We've been confirming our itinerary and booking accommodation for our July Europe trip.  I'm getting really excited about it but I have to say that I find the whole planning caper exhausting and frustrating! However it's mostly done now and now I can relax a bit.

Amongst all the planning, I managed to squeeze in a trip to the op shop where I came across this little stool for $5! Did I actually need a stool you ask? Well, no but come on it was $5 and it had project written all over it!  With my little stool (which in my head was lovingly handmade by a local Nonno for his grandchildren!) secured in the boot, I headed off to Bunnings to buy some new paint.

After much deliberation over the colours, I decided that I would paint dip the bottom of the legs in Taubmans Painted Parrot (Turquoise) and the rest in Taubmans Summer Splash (Yellow) so I got a sample pot of each of the colours.

 I gave the stool a clean and a really light sand and then got painting.  I started on the Summer Splash first (I just realised that it's actually someones job to  make up these paint names!), and then with some help from painters tape taped up the legs at the height I wanted the Painted Parrot to start.

It was a bit tricky to get the tape straight on the round legs, but I did ok.  If I was a patient person (hmmmm!) I probably would have painted the whole thing yellow, waited for it to dry completely and then tape it at the right height and paint the dipped part.

But I'm not patient and it was the first time I've ever done anything like this and I guess it's all about trial and error. So I did it the hard way and had to do some detailed paint work where there was some gaps between the two paint colours (you can see the gap in the picture (left)- I had to re-tape it at the yellow level).

That being said, it ended up coming out quite well and after three coats of each of the colours I finished it off with two coats of clear lacquer.


Here it is inside- it still doesn't have a proper home yet, but it's in our bedroom until the next furniture shuffle!



As usual, I got a bit excited about the paint and also decided to paint these little planter pots that I picked up from Aldi for $10! That's including the 3 pots, the tray, little chalk board tags, dirt and seeds- bargain! The paint just went straight on and again, I did three coats of colour and finished off with a coat of the clear lacquer.




Happy ANZAC day to all the Aussies and Kiwis- I hope you've had a lovely day off today and took some time to stop and think about all those who have fought for us.  I'm sure the smart ones are also taking tomorrow off, but not me! Although, I can't really complain too much about going back for a day then off again for the weekend!

Erin xx

Sunday, 7 April 2013

Weekend project: Paper bunting

After visiting the The Finders Keepers market yesterday and seeing lots of cute things, I realised that I have no bunting in my house!

On a mission to fix that (and figuring that it can't be too difficult even for a non-crafter like me!) I googled it to get some clues on what to do.  I came across a blog called Daily Suze, where you can download 4 templates to make bunting. What a perfect way to get started!

It was as easy as this- I printed off the templates cut them out, glued them together, threaded them on string and hey presto....bunting!

I've hung it up in my study and it looks really good. Not only that, it only took me about an hour from printing to hanging- talk about quick, cheap and easy decoration!

As you can see from the picture of the template (top left), there are also tiny little flags which Daily Suze recommends attaching to toothpicks as decoration for cupcakes, however you can see in the bottom right photo I've used them for wrapping baby presents. They look super cute and I'm pretty impressed with myself for coming up with that idea!

Now that I've got a feel for what I'm doing, I'm going to use some wrapping paper that I've got to make more and gradually get adventurous with the size and maybe even shapes.

This is not a usual post for me, but it was so easy that I wanted to share.  If I can do it, anyone can!