Adventures in DIY: June 2011

Monday, June 27, 2011

Garden Update

We posted a couple of months ago about how we built a garden box. Well, here is an update:

Tomatoes, cucumbers, strawberries, basil, and pumpkin are all alive, well, thriving, and fighting each other for space. No actual fruit or veggies yet but the tomatoes and pumpkin are flowering and tiny cucumbers have sprouted. The basil is out of control, we could have a whole basil salad, I need to find more things to make with basil!

I also added some garden stakes (99 cents each at KMart) but well need a better garden trellis system.

Looking back on the build of this little box I am quite pleased on how well the newspaper lining is working. We didn't remove any sod from inside the box (skipped this step in favor of laziness!) and instead put a thick lining of newspaper followed by the garden soil. I haven't seen any weeds (grass) popping through that liner.

Wednesday, June 8, 2011

Patio Furniture Facelift

We have this patio set thats old but in really great shape. While I would love a new set I can't justify spending $$ on it right now. So, I decided to try some paint to see if I could make it look a little better.

You see, I am a little envious of my neighbor's set:

I am NOT a good spray painter. I wish I was. I hear about the wonders of spray paint all over blogland and see the beautiful before and afters. They make it sound so easy! I got some tan colored Krylon (don't remember the color) and sprayed the sling. I sprayed and sprayed. Paint was everywhere, including all over me! After I used the entire can, most of the blue was covered. I swear that I read the directions and many blogs about how to spray paint and I am really trying to follow along.

For the frame I got a can of oil rubbed bronze. I love this color! It took me the whole can to get the majority of the frame painted (I have to go back and finish). Here is the preliminary result. What do you think?

Daughter's Bed Room--A Work in Process

Did I mention that we moved into our house less than a year ago, August 2010? It took me a good 6 months to get settled in enough to start thinking about decor. Younger daughter loves green, art projects, crafting, and anything messy (kind of goes along with art and crafting). I wish that I could say these pictures are her room at its worst but in general, this is how it looks on a daily basis (sigh).

So, here is the starting point for younger daughter's room. I found some green fabric at the store and made some curtains. I am not crazy about them, but she loves them and they serve the vital purpose of keeping monsters out of her room at night. I did my best to find a complimentary green for the walls (you can see some test swatches in the background). The green I chose (with daughter's input) is Martha Stewart's sea glass. Its very bright. To try and minimize the impact of this color, I decided to only paint the bottom 4/5th of the wall.

Before:

She also wanted her canopy put up and wants curtains to enclose the whole thing (did I mention that she is really big on fort building?). I am worried about how ridiculous this room will look with the bed all curtained up.

Painted+Canopy:

Before:

Painted and moved dresser:

Before:

Painted:

So, they say that you start designing a room with an inspiration piece that will lead to a colorscheme. Of course I didn't do that here and I'm telling myself that this is a learning process.

Next up is moulding, bedding, maybe curtains for her canopy.

Duck Tape Fun

Older daughter asked for some duck-tape the other day while we were in HD buying paint. Wow, duck tape sure has come a long way. There are so many colors available! And, at $3.50 a roll, not bad for a craft supply.