Mom News
Christmas Wall Decor: Reindeer String Art Tutorial
Hope everyone is recovering nicely from their big ole’ Thanksgiving meal! We had a great time visiting with friends and family in our hometown.
I have a little confession to make. Since I knew that we would be going out of town for Thanksgiving, I wanted to make sure we wouldn’t be so overwhelmed with getting all the decorations out and putting up the tree and doing the outdoor lights and …….. well, you get the idea.
So! I decided to start decorating a week or so in advance. Before you go, “girl is crazy!”……
Don’t worry! I only started messing around with the inside. 😉
Since this was a new house and I wasn’t sure where I wanted everything, I wanted to take my time and figure it out. Also, don’t forget the most important part of me being able to change up the theme this year. Only took me 5 years to convince the hubster, but still, finally got my way this year.
I really wanted some wall art for the house, but I couldn’t find what I really wanted and I knew that it was also going to cost me a bit because I had so much room to fill over the breakfast nook. Remember how big Penelope and Bessie are?
They are 36 x 36 and I love how they fill the space without making the wall look too cluttered with pictures.
I am going with more of a Rustic Theme this year and I have really been drawn to reindeers for some reason. I started looking everywhere, but I just couldn’t find what I really wanted.
So, I knew I was going to have to make it. LORD, HELP ME!
First things first.
I sort of had in my head what I wanted the background to look like. I wanted it to look rustic and I thought I was going to have to stain the wood to look that way, but the hubster and I happened to go by Home Depot and found these boards already made to have the appearance of EXACTLY what I was going to do to the unfinished wood I planned on using.
The boards were originally 1 x 6 x 8 ft. so we had to cut them down to the size I wanted. Since the pictures I was replacing were 36×36, I wanted the Christmas ones to be as close as possible to them. In the end, I ended up getting 3 projects out of all the boards we purchased. P.S. Look for a video tutorial to follow on the second String Art project we did to go with this one.
We purchased 7 of the Shiplap Boards, total. Then, we cut the pieces down to 33.75 in. each. Now lets do some math: we took each board, cut it down and got 2 boards in 33.75in. length with scrap left over of 27.5in. So, in the end, I am getting wall projects for the breakfast nook and 1 project for the outside because I just can’ t let that “scrap” go to waste.
The boards are tongue and groove so when we assembled them next to each other, they fit nicely and tight.
Might I add that the back of the wood has a pretty interesting finish to it? It almost looks like water droplets coming down, so if you were looking to be more artistic with it, that is something to think about. Using the back instead of the front.
We also purchased (2) 1 x 3 x 8ft. pieces of plain white wood for the back supports seen here.
After placing all the boards side by side and into the tongue and groove area, we placed the white boards, which we cut down to 32 in. each to fit the space and laid them across the shiplap boards. Each 8ft space gave us 3 boards, with no left over scrap. This means that when I go to make my third piece, I will have to buy another 8ft. piece of wood. No worries though, because each 8ft. piece was only $ 1.48 !!!! That’s right! Cheap, y’all!
One more thing I wanted to mention before moving forward is this. Each piece of the shiplap board is tongue and groove, like I mentioned before. So, naturally, at some point, you are going to have an end piece that has an extra piece of wood sticking out. Now, you can either keep that, which would look just fine OR you can rip it down and get rid of it. We happened to have the tools to do this, but a great thing that your local home improvement store offers if cutting your boards for you!
That’s right, y’all!
They will cut them for you. I believe it is a small fee, if any and that way, you don’t have to say you can’t do a project like this because you don’t happen to have these tools at the house. With the company that we have, we just happened to have what we needed. Otherwise, I would have completely used that service at the store.
So, back to ripping the board down.
Z was feeling very helpful that day and offered to do it for me so I wouldn’t lose my thumbs, or fingers, or arm or……….
Back to attaching the boards. To make sure they were secure, we hammered a finishing nail into each board .
I just left the tags on the back of the shiplap because, well, that’s just how I roll. Yup. That’s it.
Here are the finishing nails we used for the back and also for the front for the string art. 1 box did it for this one, but I will probably have to purchase another for the second piece just to make sure I have enough. (It is a little more detailed)
This is all three pieces of white wood attached.
Love how it turned out.
I found a reindeer silhouette that I really liked, but there was no way for me to enlarge it on my own computer to the size I needed, so I had Fedex enlarge it for me. I ended up going with a size of 18x24in. print.
I trimmed the piece and centered it the best I could.
Next,
I secured it with a small piece of tape and started nailing away. You hammer the finishing nails in by tracing the outline of the silhouette.
Try to keep them spaced as evenly as possible. I started to angle the ones that were in the corners so that when I applied the string, I could create softer edges for the face.
Almost done. I have to admit that this can be a little time consuming. However, things go much faster when you have two people hammering. 🙂
Nails are all in!
And here is a closeup.
Remove tape and pull paper silhouette off. It should come off pretty easily, but may leave behind a few small papers around the nail heads. If this happens, you can simply remove with tweezers.
I had this jute twine already, but you can pick this up at your local craft store for about $5.00. *Use your 50% off coupon and get it for less!
You really can’t mess it up, but one thing I will suggest is to do something I didn’t, especially when doing the antlers because when you are looking at a bunch of nails, you can forget the pattern. When doing my second project, I will definitely outline the picture FIRST with the twine! I went back afterwards and did it so it would stick out more, but that made it more difficult during the process. I saved the original image of the silhouette and just looked at that on my laptop for guidance, but if I did it to begin with, which is probably the way you are SUPPOSED TO DO String Art, it would have been easier. LOL! Oh well!
Getting there!
Now, you could simply let the reindeer be a reindeer, but since I was doing this for Christmas, my reindeer couldn’t just be any reindeer. No sir.
Mine had to be the one with the red nose……. The sparkly red nose in this case.
We attached these large picture hangers to the back for extra support because this big boy is quite heavy.
This was what the originally finished project looked like and
there really isn’t anything wrong with it.
BUT!
The more I looked at it, the more I felt like it started to look more like a “reindeer MUMMY” instead of a “rudolph, the red nosed reindeer”.
SO, my OCD made me go back over it and smooth out the lines a little more.
I like this version a lot more.
In fact, I like it so much, that I decided to do another one. But different. Not a reindeer. But Christmas. ANYWAY!
Really quickly, here is the price breakdown in case you want to try this for yourself:
Remember though, I made more than one project out of this! If you are only making the one, I will do my best to adjust:
- 1 x 6 x 8 shiplap boards from Home Depot: $ 11.97 per board (Need 7 Boards total to make more than one project. However, if only making one project, you would only need 4 Boards!)
- 1 x 3 x 8 white wood strips for back supports $ 1.48 ea.
- 1 1/4in. box of finishing nails (Shiny ones) $ 3.47
- Enlarged Reindeer head Silhouette $ 2.25
- Jute twine $ 5.99 (*Use 50% off coupon at AC Moore or Michaels to make $ 2.99)
- Picture Hangers $ 2.39
*All wood material was purchased from Home Depot for reference, including picture hangers.
Stay tuned! and
Season’s Greetings, y’all!
XOXO,
Esther
House Tour: Kitchen and Butler’s Pantry
Do you remember on the MTV Cribs show where they would come to the Master Bedroom part of the tour…… and they always say, “And this is where all the magic happens!” insert: Gross puke face .
I always get grossed out at that part and if one of the people they are showing chooses not to say that part, I instantly like them much more.
Well, for me, I would have to say that about my Kitchen. Sorry, husband.
It’s true! I think my kitchen is by far the favorite spot in the house for me. Lets be honest ladies, we practically live there and have thought at one point or another about how hard it might be to incorporate some kind of sleeping area into the design.
Even though, with our house, we had to choose the same cabinets throughout the house, I was determined to inject character and texture into the space.
I really love to cook and I have collected a fair amount of cookbooks over the years. This picture doesn’t actually truly reflect the amount of cookbooks I have. I am slowly going through our storage unit and haven’t brought them all into the house yet, but I really wanted a space that was solely for them.
I initially got the idea to add something like this when I became a fan of Last Man Standing starring Tim Allen. In the show, they have something like this on the end of their kitchen island that looks like it was built with the island to begin with.
I didn’t have the luxury of extending the island counter top over the cookbook unit, but I really like how it turned out in the end.
I called who else but my local go to craftsman, Steve Egloff from The Wandering Woodshop and together, we came up with the idea of using reclaimed wood. I told him what I wanted it used for and he designed the perfect piece. He actually surprised me with the finish by taking the same color we used on our accent wall in the living room (Benjamin Moore’s Labrador Blue) and watered it down to create the wash he used over the wood.
The end result was perfect!
Some areas of the unit come through bluer than others and it’s awesome!
As you can see, the height is just a step down from the top of the counter top. Look at how pretty the knots of the wood come through! I heart reclaimed wood! Can you tell? 😉
Moving on to the barstools. Or should I say, counter stools? The reason I say this is because when looking for chairs, it’s important to know this. I literally almost made the mistake of ordering barstool height as opposed to the counter height stools. I was so used to just getting bar height in the past, that I never stopped to think about it.
Since we decided to go with the island top being all one level and not staggered, it made the height of the counters, well counter height. So, keep this in mind when shopping for stools. I purchased these from Target. I have been very happy so far. The only gripe is with 3 messy eating kids, I have to use the attachment of the vacuum that allows me to get small crumbs out of the nooks and crannies of the rattan instead of just wiping it off.
Love the texture it lends to the area.
I’ve posted about some of the hardware I chose to go with before in other parts of the house, but I decided to go with this again in the kitchen. I mixed and matched knobs so that nothing was too matchy matchy. I have been asked in the past how to make a space looked lived in and cozy from the start. I feel like this is one of the best secrets to doing this. Nothing should match to much. You should try to mix and match finishes, colors, textures that compliment each other. With the hardware I chose, the finishes match. However, the styles do not. It creates the same effect.
I went with a glass knob for the upper cabinets and a chrome look for lower cabinets, mixing circular knobs and squared off knobs.
I also used different sizes of the same bar style hardware pulls that I purchased from The Home Depot.
I didn’t realize that the fridge area would have a cabinet surround at first and I am happy that I decided to wait before purchasing the fridge for the space. It would have looked funny if we hadn’t purchased a counter depth fridge instead of a standard one. The standard one would have stuck out way too far and looked too large for the space. The counter depth was perfect!
We purchased ours from Home Depot and at first, I wanted a Frigidaire that had the bar bell handles like the hardware I chose for the cabinets and that stinkin fridge was almost $3000!!!!!!! Girlfriend, say WHAT????
I just figured I couldn’t get it until I was surfing the internet and found a Maytag version for significantly less, which sidebar: Aren’t they a Frigidaire company? Y’all ain’t fullin anyone! (See mom? Private school really DID pay off!)
Well, I ended up paying 1/2 that price for the one we got and it looks just like the one I originally saw! Yeahhh doggie! SCORE!
I probably should mention another thing. I meant to write a blog post about the kitchen WAY before it got close to decorating for Christmas. Oops!
This hopefully explains why you see a lot of red and perhaps a christmas tree or wreath. LOL! There will be much more to follow that in the coming days. I finally got my way this year and I get to change up the decor a little. For the longest time, we have had a Grinch Who Stole Christmas type of theme. I finally get to do my Rustic Cabin Christmas theme this year! Look for a tutorial on wall decor, coming soon.
Speaking of Rustic Christmas decor’. Have you seen Target’s dollar spot this year? They have a fantastic selection of christmas stuff this year. Especially if you are swaying towards the same type of theme that I am.
I picked these kitchen towels up there the other day for only $3. I love the plaid!
Another thing we did in the kitchen to give it some character was paint the vent hood. All the cabinets were the same color originally. A sort of off white/cream white. I asked Steve to add the two wood trim pieces that are coming down the center. He did that by simply gluing them in place. Then, we went back in and painted the hood the same color as the island. (*Benjamin Moore’s Fieldstone Gray)
I used the same color in my previous home on the bottom cabinets. Here is the blog post I wrote about painting the kitchen cabinets in that home.
Another way to add character and insert your own style is by changing out your light fixtures. We decided to go with the cheapest lighting package the builder offered because we knew we were going to change them out anyway over time. I bought these from Lowes and are from their Allen and Roth line. I had saw a pair of light fixtures that Joanna Gaines used in a home she did on Fixer Upper and I absolutely loved them……. until the cheapest pair I could find were over $200 each. Since we were having to do a lot of different projects to the house and I knew that buying two that price would eat up my budget, I decided to go with these instead. To be honest, they reminded me a lot of the ones I loved and I wasn’t the least bit sad that I chose to go with them.
They have a blown glass look and go perfect with the craftsman detail in the house.
I also wanted to share something with you that makes me smile every single day! I love this part of the house. You guessed it, the Butler’s pantry. I have always wanted one of these. I mean, like, ALWAYS!!!!!!!
Over the years, I have kept a running list of things I would want in my dream home and this was at the top of the list.
It is a small room off the kitchen that connects to the dining room. It’s the perfect spot to store things that you use frequently, but do not want to necessarily have out all the time. I keep our things like our coffee pot in here and my mixer.
There is a built in area for wine bottles. We store canned items above that and we keep things like wine glasses and coffee mugs in the center area.
I carried the look of the same hardware into this area too. I love these, if you can’t tell. 🙂
On the other wall of the Butler’s Pantry is the regular pantry (which I am going to go more into detail at a later date. You will see why. 🙂 )
Another thing on this wall is our magnet board.
Steve made this for me as well as a few more for the kids rooms.
I keep important reminders as well as school craft papers the kiddos bring home. I also keep a weekly calendar there as well and pretty much anything that might have ended up on the fridge, ends up here instead.
Back in the kitchen, another detail we added was the same type of wood work we used throughout the wall detail in the house. It is the simple squared off look that we used before. Afterwards, we went back and painted it the same color as the hood. (*Benjamin Moore’s Fieldstone Gray). I think it makes the island look more like a piece of furniture.
One more thing I wanted to mention is the counter tops. Since we went with a nation wide builder, we only had a few choices when it came to the granite. We decided to go with this color. The color is called Santa Cecelia. I must have Pinterest searched this color a million different ways so that I could see it with every possible color combo for the cabinets (etc.).
I am really happy with our choice.
Well folks, that’s all for today. I hope you enjoyed walking through my kitchen with me. I am so happy that you chose to spend a little time with me today. If you have any questions regarding any of the items you have seen in this post, please comment below and I will make sure to answer them.
Please make sure to check back regularly for more posts on our new home. It’s Christmas time, so I will be sharing decorating ideas and diy projects very soon!
XOXO,
Esther
New House: Dining Room and Foyer
Mornin, Y’all!
Hope your day is going well so far………..
Today, I wanted to share a few pics from our new Dining Room. I should probably mention that in our last house, we had a very open floor plan that had our kitchen, living room, and dining room all in one room. While the new house also has an open floor plan, the dining room is now in it’s own separate space.
In case you haven’t seen it, here is a quick pic of our last dining room:
While I really loved all the space that we had, it was really difficult for me to decorate that space because it always had to compliment both the living room and kitchen and very easily became cluttered all the time.
In our new house, I decided that even though the dining room now had it’s own space, I really like the simplicity of having a simple looking dining room without a lot of clutter. (*I’m thinking the last house did that to me. LOL!)
Here is our new dining room:
I was so excited when I got to take our chandelier with us and heard that the new homeowners didn’t want it. SCORE for me! I was able to pick up the curtains for the space at Homegoods. The best thing about picking up your curtains from somewhere like this is they usually sell the curtain panels in packs of two. Most stores try to sell you their curtains and charge per panel, so getting two is definitely a deal. Basically, I picked up two for the price of one. 😉
I searched high and low for this chandelier when I first purchased it and thought all the work I did looking for it and finding a deal was going to go down the drain, but nope! I’m really happy with how it looks in it’s new space. (*Side note: Color on walls is Light French Gray by Sherwin Williams)
I have had the star for quite some time now. It has mostly been outside on exterior walls, but I thought it might go well on the wall. I bought it from the flea market where I used to live for about $50. While I was in Homegoods looking for the curtains, I saw this awesome picture that went fantastic with the star.
I just love this picture so much. I also love how it is the first thing you see when you enter into our home.
You know I love painting ceilings! I mean, it is the “5th wall” afterall. 😉
We decided to paint only the highest tray ceiling area a different color. It’s only a personal preference, but for me, when you paint the both areas of double molded tray ceilings, I feel like it begins to look “choppy”. So basically, you would have color, white crown trim, color, white crown trim. I felt like painting only the highest ceiling and keeping the rest white, drew your eye up better and made the ceilings feel higher. (*Does my rambling make sense? ) The color we decided to go with is Iced Cube Silver by Benjamin Moore.
Please excuse all the lighting in the following pictures, but I didn’t take these until today and I’m not sure if you have heard, but apparently Joaquin Pheonix is reaking havoc on our coast line…….. I mean, Hurricane Joaquin. My bad, I had Joaquin Pheonix on the brain again.
ANYHOO!
This is why the lighting is not as great and my decor has changed a bit, thanks to my youngest chica. (*She loves Halloween, but really, what kid doesn’t?)
This is a better full pic of the dining room.
Just in case, for reference sake on where I got all the items are:
• Chandelier: Pottery Barn – sorry! not sure they still carry it. 🙁
• Metal Star: Flea Market – $50
• Roman Shades: Home Depot – Color: Driftwood
• Curtains: Homegoods – Tommy Hilfiger Brand – $ 26.99 for set of 2
• Table: Pottery Barn – Sumter Style – (Is a two leaf table that seats up to 10 total)
• White Chairs : IKEA – $ 50 each : IN STOCK
• Bench: Homegoods
• Rug: Grandin Road – $ 115 (Bought on sale)
While I’m at it, I thought I would share a bit about our front door. Originally, I was told that we could have our front door stained, which sent me over the moon excited. I have always wanted a stained front door. I love stained front doors. They always look so inviting and warm.
Well, it didn’t end up turning out that way unfortunately. (SAD FACE)
The sales team for our house was mistaken because the door actually came primed.
SO!
It was on to plan B!
I looked and looked at different doors on Pinterest and finally came up with the color I loved. I had to make sure that it would go well with our gray exterior color and black shutters.
The WINNER!!!!!!?????????
“Hale Navy” by Benjamin Moore.
In the light, it looks like the color above.
In the dark or less lighting, it looks more like this:
Which I’m very happy with, because I really did want the color to take on a darker hue on the inside.
And last but surely not least, this is the full view of the front foyer/hall/entry way.
I must have tried a million different pieces of furniture in that space the bench is occupying. Everything just seemed to eat up a lot of the floor space and make that area seem cramped. All but the bench that I ended up sticking with in the space. This bench actually used to be the bench that was used in the dining area at our last house. (*You may notice it in the first picture above)
I felt that it had a better place in the foyer though. The black top really seems to mimic the look of the front door (even though the front door isn’t really black).
The walls in the hall are somewhat empty right now. I know what I would like to do there, I just don’t have the budget to do it right now.
I’m hoping to wait patiently and snag a good deal on a few large canvas prints so I can fill that space with really big pics of my kiddos! Until then, it will just have to stay empty.
Items in the foyer:
• Front Door Color: Hale Navy by Benjamin Moore
• Wall Color: Revere Pewter by Benjamin Moore
• Bench: Grandin Road from 2 seasons ago.
• Flushmount Lights: Purchased at Home Depot – Hampton Bay Brand (*Cheaper than Lowes Brand)
• Throw Pillows: Color: Linen – TJ MAX – $ 10 each
Ok, my loves! Thank you so much for stopping by and spending time with me again!
I hope you enjoyed taking a look at the dining room and foyer. Next week, the incredible Steve Egloff makes an appearance again! *Or, at least his awesome work does. 😉
Next week, I plan on continuing with my tour of the downstairs and sharing our living room pics and ideas!
It includes built in cabinets and something called a “planning center”!
What is that, you ask?
Guess you will just have to check back to find out!
Until next week!
XOXO!
Esther
New House Sneak Peek! (Breakfast Nook)
Hello, my favorite people!
Today, I wanted to give you a sneak peek of our new house. I have had multiple people ask for pictures and I wanted to share with you, some of the things we have done.
This is probably one of my favorite spots in the whole house! It’s so cozy and I just love it. To start with, none of the built ins were here.
I knew I wanted to put the built ins here before we even moved in. I had scoured Pinterest and searched and searched and once I had found the look I wanted, I called the only person I knew who could make it all come to life! His name is Steve Egloff from The Wandering Woodshop. Steve is a true craftsman. He loves what he does and it shows in everything he does.
If you live in the Myrtle Beach area and need any kind of wood work done, he is your man! You can check out his Facebook page here.
Be forewarned! I will be bragging about Steve again in the upcoming weeks as I share all the projects he has done at our New Home. 🙂
We have a mudroom area right off our garage that has a built in bench already and I really wanted the space in the breakfast nook to look like it had always been there and wasn’t an addition on our part. I had Steve mimic the look of that here.
It turned out EXACTLY how I wanted!
I asked him to have it function just like the other one and works perfectly.
He even put felt stoppers in between the closing areas so that it wouldn’t slam shut. Because of this, it shuts very smoothly.
We purchased the table while we were still in the apartment. I picked it up from World Market. I believe they still have them in stock. The chairs are from Ikea and stay in stock.
Then there is Penelope and Bessie. My new pets. Probably as close to actual pets as I will ever get. (Insert tears here) I love these paintings. I received a catalog from Grandin Road before we moved in and I couldn’t think of anything else for this wall space. I even based how high I wanted my Batten Board on the wall because I knew I would be ordering these.
They are 36 in. sq. and are the smaller of the two sizes they offered. Can you believe that? They stole my heart from day one.
Towards the back side of the house, we have a little nook that I had Steve build another bench on. This serves as multiple things in our house. It is our quiet spot, reading nook, time out corner, sometimes blogging nook and I love it. 😉
Even though it was tempting to have this bench open for storage, we decided instead to keep it stationary.
We also decided to keep it simple with the moldings on the front and mimic the detail from the breakfast nook slightly to have it all look cohesive.
Well, there you go, my friends! The first look into our new house and few comfy spots that we love. I hope you liked taking a little peek into our house with me.
If you enjoyed this post, make sure you check back next week, as I plan on sharing a few dining room pics with you.
I was ecstatic when I was able to keep my chandelier from the old house when the new homeowners weren’t interested in keeping it. It returns next week to it’s rightful home!
Have a wonderful weekend, EVERYONE!
xoxo,
esther
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