DIY painting

Is it Monday already? I spent the whole weekend with my hands looking like this.

I wish it looked like more progress had been made. Don't you hate that? Work your buns off all weekend and it doesn't look like much has changed? It's like, I remember painting, and doing all this stuff, why does it all look the same? Blah.

One thing I did finish, however, is a painting for the living room.

Some day I'll get around to showing you the whole room. The only reason I haven't done it yet is because it's usually too embarrassingly messy to photograph. Some day, SOME DAY, however I will keep it clean enough for 2 seconds to make it photograph worthy.

Some day. Some day?

I'm liking the colors and the subtle textures and colors of my new painting.

The canvas is homemade. It's a wood frame with drop cloth stapled to it. Next you use primer or gesso to seal the cloth. Let it dry. Then it's ready to create your masterpiece! ha!

I just used leftover wall paint and dabbed in on with a rag. Old fashioned faux painting style!

Use lots of paint and lots of colors. The texture creates interest. I used a blue-gray color, a green gray color, a green, a turquoise, white and black in this painting.

Oh hang on, I gotta break up a fight.

Ok. I'm back. Isn't he pathetic? Sweet, but pathetic.

Detail shot.

Nice, right? Not hard. Give it a shot!

Linking to some of these super, duper DIY blog link parties.

Vermicomposting for Earth Day

Happy Earth Day! Here's a neat Earth Day project, vermicomposting.

It wasn't that long ago I heard about vermicomposting for the first time. What is vermicomposting? Well, in short, worms eat your garbage! How cool is that?

Do you feel as guilty as I do when I throw compost-able garbage in the trash? I felt like I was throwing away something that wasn't really trash. I knew that food scraps even had the potential for environmental benefits, if I only knew how to compost and turn it into fertilizer. The problem was I didn't really know how to start. And I was afraid of a big smelly pile in my backyard. I have heard if you do it right, it's not supposed to smell. Well, I didn't really know how to do it, so there you go. It seemed like a risky, long and smelly experiment.

Then I met someone who had a somewhat expensive store bought vermicomposting bin. She composted indoors, in a little compact area. No smell. The reason there was no smell is the food she threw in there would be gone--gone--in hours. And it left her with incredible fertilizer (humus). What is humus exactly? Well humus is technically worm poop. But it's not, um, poopy. It looks and smells just like soil. It basically is soil. Very nutrient rich soil. Some reports show plants grown with humus perform 126% better than those with commercial fertilizer!

Ahem, perfect for the seeds I started the other day!

I was sold! But I still couldn't justify the expense for a store bought system (about $80, plus shipping, plus worms. Probably $130 total). There had to be a way to do it cheaper.

Luckily I learned more about it at a free session at our local public library a couple days ago. I'll show you how to do it. It's very, very easy!

Supplies:

Container of choice

Drill, or another device to make air holes

Chlorine free water

Newspaper or computer paper

Handful of soil (from the yard is fine!)

Red Wiggler worms

Food scraps

Optional: Corn meal

I found this bin at Target for about $5. You need about twice as much surface area as depth, and you can see this container is quite tall. No big deal, we just won't fill it all the way to the top. The reason is, these types of worms don't like to burrow very deep, so if you have a lot of depth it reduces the chances they'll get to all your scraps.

Worms also don't like light, so it's helpful if your container has a lid to keep out the light.

Worms breathe oxygen just like we do, so you'll have to make air holes. Using 1/8" drill bit, drill a couple rows of holes all the way around your bin, about 2-3 inches apart. No reason to measure or get uptight about it, just drill away. Avoid holes on the bottom, which will let moisture leak out. Avoid holes on the very top, which might let in light.

Now you'll need to create the bedding for your new worm friends. Newspaper is cheap and easy bedding. Rip it or shred it. You'll also need to make it damp. Not soaking wet (you never want standing water in your bin), not too dry. But beware, the water you use to dampen your newspaper must be free of chlorine.

Municipal water systems use a lot of chlorine to get rid of germs in the water system. So if you have city water you can do one of two things. Let a container of water sit out overnight. The chlorine will off-gas and the remaining water will be chlorine-free. Or buy a gallon of distilled water.

Put the water in a bowl and dip in handfuls of shredded paper, taking care not to get it too wet. Alternatively, you could also dampen your paper with a squirt bottle. Whatever you feel is easiest.

Take your ripped or shredded damp newspaper and throw it in your bin. For a container my size, I added about 12-18 inches of newspaper.

Why shredded and why damp? Worms breathe through their skin. They need air pockets and moisture to be able to breathe. Why no chlorine? As I said, worms breathe through their skin. You know how your eyes get irritated if you open them in a pool? Yeah. Same idea.

Next add a handful of dirt.

Dirt from the yard is fine. There are two things we're accomplishing by adding soil. One is beneficial microbes which aid in the breakdown of your scraps. Second, worms need the actual grit from the dirt to help with digestion.

This next step is optional, add 1-3 tablespoons of plain cornmeal (not a mix).

According to the vermicomposting specialist at the library, worms love corn meal. It's a real "wake up call".

Of course no vermicomposting system is complete without WORMS!

You'll need a type of worms known as Eisenia fetida. All of the sources I read says these are commonly known as "Red Wigglers." For the instant-gratification factor I went to a bait shop and asked for Red Wigglers. I was told this is a southern nickname, that we don't call them Red Wigglers in the North. Then he handed me a container of "Big Reds". So Red Wigglers, or Big Reds, you need a specific type of worm.

Red Wigglers are ideal because they do well in close quarters, don't burrow deeply and they eat a lot. If you use regular earthworms it may still work, but it will take a looooong time. Red Wigglers eat up to half their body weight every day. So figure it out with me. If you have a pound of worms (1 pound of worms = approx 1000 worms) in your bin, they'll eat 1/2 pound of garbage every day. SWEET, right? You'll be left with NO trash sitting around, getting stinky.

To get the worm/food scrap ratio right, you might want to keep track of how much food scrap you make each day for a week or so. Then you'll know exactly how many worms to buy. I didn't do this. I just winged it.

Also keep in mind that worms reproduce. Your worm population will double every 90 days or so. So it is possible to start small and work your way up.

The cheapest way to buy worms in bulk is online. Try redwigglerworms.com. One pound of worms (1000 quantity) will be shipped to your door for about $30 including shipping.

For instant gratification, nothing beats your local bait shop. I found one by googling "Live Bait" and my city name. However, you'll pay more per worm this way. I bought two packages of 36 worms yesterday for about $7. I paid approximately 10¢ per worm, when I could probably get them for about 3¢ per worm online. In case you wanted to know. ha! Plus I probably have about 1/10 of the worms I need to eat all my food trash. There are a couple things I can do about this. I can see how it goes and let them reproduce on their own, buy more worms at the bait shop, or buy a package of worms online. I haven't decided yet.

After all this explanation, go ahead and add your worms. Nestle them in all snug-like in their new home.

All they need now is some food to munch. Add your scraps! Some people recommend putting scraps 1-2 inches under the bedding, so they are easier for the worms to reach.

You can add pretty much any food scraps, but here are some things to avoid: meat, citrus, eggs (egg shells are fine), dairy, anything very oily or fatty. Pretty much anything else is fine! Even natural cloth like cotton can be composted!

All there is left to do is put the lid on.

It's perfectly fine to put this in the house, or leave it outside. However, worms do best in temperatures between 40º and 90ºF, so if you leave it outside, be sure to bring it in during periods of extreme temperatures. I put mine in my basement. My very own worm farm. Feeling very eco-friendly this Earth Day.

Wanna learn more? Check out this article from How Stuff Works.

Or buy the book Worms Eat my Garbage.

I hope you give it a try! Still have questions? Leave a comment and I'll answer them.

I'm going to try to link to some of these link parties and hope I don't get kicked off! ha!

Update: I bought more worms! Read all about it here.

Easy Peasy Chevron Pattern

101 followers?! Who are you people? I only told 4 people in real life about this blog (and not even my own mother). To think there are 101 people who don't know me, but who are interested in what is going on here is mindblowing. HOORAY! Welcome!

On to the good stuff...

Check out how I made this tray over with a chevron pattern.

I found this tray at Goodwill for $5.99.

Those ottomans had a makeover too. Check them out here.

This is what the tray looks like now.

After a light sand, I painted this sucker with some turquoise paint. It was just one of those $3 samples I used for some other projects.

After a couple coats I had a bright, pretty, clean slate.

This tray is going on my heavily patterned ottomans, so I wanted this chevron nice and large so it wouldn't compete. A smaller pattern on a smaller pattern would probably be too busy.

I came up with a pretty easy way to do a chevron pattern. Let's get to it.

I cut out a section of posterboard that measured 3" x 9".

I thought it might be fun to angle the pattern a bit, so I placed my template randomly on my tray.

I outlined the rectangle lightly with pencil.

Next I flipped the template 90º and traced again.

I did this over and over until my tray was filled with the chevron pattern.

Next I decided which areas I wanted to be my accent color (my favorite green, Meadowlands by Valspar). I used FrogTape brand painters tape (super duper awesome stuff) to tape inside the lines I wanted to remain turquoise.

Then I painted the areas I wanted to be green.

Let it dry and painted again.

While the second coat was still damp, I removed the tape. I am really impressed with this tape. The lines are really crisp.

I let my tray dry overnight. The next day I used a damp cloth to remove the pencil marks.

Then I gave it a coat of Flat protective spray to preserve my hard work. After all, before too long this will probably be used for cocktails in my mom cave.

ha! Yeah, right. It's probably more like this.

Sippies and bottles.

Ah well. Let's pretend my life is glamorous for 2 seconds and that I have people over for cocktails.

Give this chevron technique a try, then tell me how it went!

One more before and after.

Linking to some of these great parties.

Now go make something!

Chair Makeover

This could also be called "Seat Recovering 101".

Here's a pretty chair that has made the rounds.

It was originally part of a set that my mom bought for our dining room when I was a young teenager. She found them in the classifieds section of our local paper.

They served us find for years. My mom eventually bought a new dining set right around the time that I got my first apartment, so the old dining set (a 70s table and 5 redone antique chairs) came with me. Shabby Chic was just become the thing at the time, so I remade the chairs with distressed minty green paint and softly colored plaid seats.

Eventually I bought a new dining set, so the table and 4 of the chairs went in a garage sale. But I kept this captains chair (the other 4 were armless). I use it primarily at my crafting/sewing work table. It still sports the paint scheme I gave it 13ish years ago.

I gotta say, I'm pleased it's not that out-of-date. It still looks ok to me. But my tastes are changing slightly. I still like time-worn finishes, but I like bolder and more modern things too. So it's time for a makeover.

True confessions time. I bought too much black and white fabric.

I only needed 3 1/3 yards for my ottoman makeover. I was nervous about that project and bought 5 yards. Normally I'd pick out a new fabric for this chair, but the cheap side of me is just going to use what I already have. I'm sure it will be fine, it will just be a little more matchy-matchy than I originally wanted.

(channeling my kids' whiney voice) But I don't like match-matchy.

I'm trying to get over it.

Have you ever recovered a chair with a fabric seat? Don't be intimidated. It's super easy. Flip the chair over. You'll see 4 screws.

See the black dots in the cross braces? Those are the screws.

Take out the screws, and the seat will pop right out.

Cut out a piece of fabric large enough to wrap around the back.

You'll be wrapping the fabric around the back and stapling it.

I alternate opposite sides when stapling. For instance, I'll do a row of staples across the top, then I'll staple the bottom (while holding the fabric taught). Then a row across the left side, then the right (stretching fabric taught again).

Alternate sides when stapling.

Leave corners for last.

When you're finished, just screw the seat back in. A couple coats of white semi gloss finish off this chair makeover.

Before:

After:

Did you notice my work table got a makeover too? More on that tomorrow.

In the meantime, linking to some of these great parties.

Now go make something!

Painters Tape Wallpaper

I decided I needed some wall pattern down in the ol' mom cave. But I didn't want to spend tons of cash on a wallpaper. I didn't even want to spend $50 on a stencil. Still, I wanted something modern, yet whimsical. Finally I decided to make my own pattern with painters tape.

Stick with me here, it's going to be a long one.

This is what my wall looked like before. A blank slate.

This is what it looks like now.

What I did:

First I measured the wall to find the center of the room. Starting at the center (actually 1/2 inch left of center, since my tape is 1 inch wide), I used a large level to mark 12 inch vertical stripes across the wall. I marked the 12 inch stripes lightly with a pencil, then I put Frog Brand painters tape along the pencil lines I drew (PS, that Frog tape is AWESOME. It seals very well with no bleeding).

Marking 12 inch vertical lines with a level and a pencil.

Wall taped at 12" intervals.

Next I made a rectangle template out of cheap posterboard. My template is 4" x 16". I chose 4" x 16" because my painters tape is 1 inch wide and I wanted the final size to be 6" x 18".

4" x 16" template

I marked guide lines at the top and bottom, so I'd know where the tape would line up. I also cut out a random rectangle area on the top and bottom and put painters tape across it. This would hold my template to the wall.

Cutouts with painters tape applied will hold stencil to the wall.

I stuck the template on my wall and after checking it was straight with a small hand level, I taped around it.

Template stuck to wall.

Guides ensure template is centered. I also checked to make sure it was vertical with a small hand level.

The easiest way to make straight corners was to overlap the tape, then score lightly with a knife. Remove excess tape.

Tape around template, overlapping at corners. Then score lightly and remove excess.

Next I removed the template and scored lightly again to remove the tape inside the rectangle.

Remove template.

Score lightly to remove tape inside rectangle area.

First one done!

First row done!

I made rectangles on every other row, checking with a level to make sure they were even.

Lastly I connected the rectangles with horizontal tape lines. I made these the same way as I did the vertical ones. I measured where they needed to go, then used a large level to draw light pencil lines. Then I taped next to the pencil lines.

Connect rectangles with horizontal tape lines the same way as vertical tape lines were made. Mark a starting point. Draw a line with a pencil and a level. Tape along the line.

Tape is finished!

Once the tape was done I painted over top everything with a coordinating wall color. I did this exactly the same as if the tape weren't there. First I cut in, then I rolled. Waited 2 hours for everything to dry. Then I cut in again and rolled again.

Here is everything painted.

While the second coat was still damp, I removed the tape.

There were a couple of spots that I scored too heavily, and a bit of the undercoat of paint chipped off.

A cheap plastic children's watercolor brush (or q-tip) dipped in some paint took care of that in literally a couple minutes.

This is where I originally intended to stop.

I thought it looked nice. But then the more I looked at it, the more I thought it needed... something. It's a perfectly nice geometric. But this is the mom cave. The mom cave, man! It's in our unfinished basement. No one will see this space, unless they're coming down to do laundry. It sounds selfish to say this, but it's really all for me. No one else cares or will probably ever see it (except you, dear internets), so let's push it to a level beyond "safe" to extraordinary.

This is supposed to be an inspiring space.

A creative space.

A fun space.

A whimsical space.

A witty space.

All the attributes I strive to be, frankly.

This is where I told my perfectionist self to go to lunch or take a nap (or have a drink), while the funky side figured this thing out.

I took a silver paint marker (by Sharpie) and freehand outlined the entire design. Was it perfect? Oh no. Quite imperfect. But that's what makes it fun! It's what gives the pattern it's whimsy.

This is oil based paint in marker, and there were a few times I royally messed up.

Oh no! What shall I do?

A q-tip dipped in paint thinner took care of all my goofs.

Hooray!

The final reveal!

Before:

After:

Just for fun, here's a progression of the same wall.

Interested in what I did to that green dresser? Find out about that project here.

Linking to some of these great parties.

Now go make something!

This project was featured on Addicted 2 Decorating and Chic on a Shoestring.