The shed at our house is super creepy- I always feel like there are spiders crawling all over me when I'm in there. However, I was brave yesterday while I was cleaning out the garage, because I wanted to clear a lot of stuff out into the shed. Then I ended cleaning a lot of stuff out of the shed. There's some real potential for some of these, I think. Look:
I'm going to throw the plastic top away, it just snaps on. Then I'll attach a new tabletop and paint it an awesome color.
Chairs were a great find. Patio furniture isn't a priority on the budget, but I would like to have people outside and not have to haul the kitchen chairs out. I love the old folding kind, they remind me of the 4th of July at my Gramma Harper's house. I plan on painting the dark green ones some sort of fun color, too.
This old drum is what inspired the rest of the hunt through the shed. Here's a close-up of the lettering:
1 POT SMOKE FLOATING. I have no idea.
This thing was so dusty (and full of creepy stuff)- I was delighted when I sprayed it off with the hose.
I made a smaller one of these that I found into a planter (pictured in the previous post), but these are big, wash basin size. I figured out what to do with one, but I don't know about the other, even bigger one. You know these?
Now I have my version:
Pardon the lawn. I can't wait for the sprinkler system to be reinstalled in the front yard, so I won't have to haul a hose clear from the shed to water everything. I'm also excited that I have such a great place to keep my hose out front now. What should I do with the other shed finds? Planters are my first thought, but I want to think through my other options before I just go ahead and punch holes in the bottom of everything. Any ideas for the pot smoke drum, the wood box, or the even bigger wash basin?
Doesn't my front door look friendly? Check out the view as you approach:
Look at that columbine bush. Look at it. Doesn't all that yellow make you feel even more cheerful? The snow flattened it out, but I was able to perk it up some (I keep trying, too. I feel like I'm a physical therapist for plants). There are marigolds in the black planter, too. Then, in a month or so, the hollyhocks behind it will bloom, as well as the daisy plant next to it. Ahhhhh. So, six bucks for the wreath. Months ago I was at the Dollar Tree and they had bunches of gerbera daisies that I thought didn't look too bad. I think I got 3 bunches. A few days after that, I started making this wreath and realized I would not have enough. So back to the Dollar Tree, where I got the last 3 bunches. Whew. To make it, all I did was take a straw wreath I had lying around (it seems like craft stores always run out of them, so I bought three last time I saw them), used needle nose pliers to trim the flower stems to 3 or 4 inches, and then just stuck them in the wreath form. I didn't even use glue. I did another thing pretty recently-
So, this is already after I painted it the first time. I love the big ceramic planters. Oh, I love them so much. But they cost about a million dollars (or they might as well). So this is a cheap plastic urn from Lowe's that was originally light gray. My big idea was to try and paint it so I would look like a glazed ceramic. I used two shades of blue and then a brownish metallic color, which is what the picture is above. I didn't do too bad of a job, but I ended up not liking it as much as I thought I would. Then, I remembered a few days ago that I had some leftover blue ocean breeze (you know, the color I would marry).
Boo to making it look real. I love the robin's egg blue and red combo, so I love this next to the house. Also, you can see why I wanted a big planter in this spot. Mike tore out the wood staircase early this year (or maybe late last year) and the spots that were covered by it before are now exposed and ugly. Since we're not repainting until the fall, hopefully the plants in that blue planter will grow and cover that yucky spot. I'll cover the other yucky spot under the door with a board.
I am all about spray painting planters. That yellow one used to be almost the same boring gray as the urn. Speaking of which, I found a much better place for one of the shades of blue that participated in its faux ceramic look:
I love these. And other similar items. I decided to make some for my new nephew, baby Hugh, but first I did a tester for Mim.
It was a lot trickier than I planned (that's why there will no closeups- it's not super neat). I even used a nice machine, my mom's Bernina. I have some idea for altering my approach for the ones for baby Hugh, but if any of the three of you out there reading this have ever had success with any machine appliqueing technique, let me know.
So, I love the robin's egg blue color that is so popular on so many blogs right now. However, it's not something that would really work for any of the rooms I have upstairs (except Mim's room, which is going to happen). But inspiration struck when Mike and I got a new dresser and moved the old one downstairs. I realized I could paint it any color I wanted, since it was going to stay in the basement and provide fabric storage, until someday it becomes Mim's big girl room dresser. So, the before:
Yikes. I didn't take the picture until I had already started emptying things out. And after:
After I painted, I sanded and rubbed it over with Minwax walnut gel stain. I wish I had practiced on some scrap wood first, I made some mistakes as I figured out how to get the best results with it. My original plan was to replace the hardware (I was thinking white ceramic, or possibly crystal on the top and bin pulls on the large drawers), but I decided to keep this as a super cheap project. I spray painted the old stuff black, though. It is pretty cool.
They look less like the batman symbol close up. I just had an idea. How cool would it be to someday turn this into a hutch? Turn the bottom 2 drawers into a cupboards and build a hutch over the top. Ooooo. Here's the color I used, by the way:
I finished the quilt top for my friend's baby. I'm going to bind it in the red polka dot and back it with a plain white.
I imitated a quilt I saw at Broadbent's. I didn't buy the kit for it, though, because I wanted to stick to red, pink, and green, which are the colors Ang plans on using in the nursery.
Close up.
This is my very favorite fabric in the quilt. Oh, it's gorgeous. Now I just need to get the batting and the backing and I plan on sending it out to get quilted. I want a very close quilting pattern on it, so it gets all rumply. Mmmmm. Rumply quilts.
With our tax return, Mike and I bought two dressers to replace the one small one we shared (which is now becoming awesome). However, the dressers we bought didn't come with a mirror, so I decided to paint the one that had been connected to our old dresser. The dresser is black, obviously, but if you see it real life, you can actually tell it's a black stain and not actually painted. Because it's a stain, the grain is visible and there are lighter bits. So to match, instead of just painting the mirror frame (it was a orange-y stain), I watered down the paint so it go on a lot thinner and leave streaks of the old color. I'm not explaining this well. Whatever. I'm really happy with how it turned out. See?
In the close up, you can see what I explained so horribly above. You can also see the reflection of the matching dresser in the reflection. So, it's awesome to not have to cram our stuff into one dresser anymore. I like putting away laundry now.
That's the garbage can. It's silly how expensive nice trash cans are. Nice trash cans is sort of an incongruous phrase. Anyway, I covered a 3 dollar white trash can with burlap. I first spray painted the white a tan color I had, so you wouldn't see bright white in the gaps of the burlap weave. Any way, I just hot glued it on and added that bow, which I'm now reconsidering. Probably a band of ribbon would have been better.
