Monday, July 25, 2016

My BLUE Front Door

Welcome to my new blue front door!
I've always wanted to paint my front door blue
but was rejected twice by our HOA. Not one 
to give up, I went to their next meeting armed 
with pictures of other doors painted in the 
neighborhood that were red, green, brown, 
and black. I also brought my navy color paint
 chip as well chocolate chips...cookies that is 
to pass around in my navy lined Longaberger
 basket, while wearing my navy dress. 
Subtlety was not an option. It was all well 
received and they made an exception for 
my color choice and thought it would be 
very pretty. Larry and I left soon thereafter 
before they could change their minds. 
The color is Naval by Sherwin-Williams.
Picking just the right shade of blue without
going too bright is not easy. I got inspiration 
via blogland, my favorite source. Ann over at
On Sutton Place, painted her door this blue.
It looked perfect. She loved the color so 
much she even painted some of her kitchen
 cabinets. Hmmm...keeping in mind when
 I need want to paint the kitchen island 
or whatever else needs to be blue.
I had to do a Waterlogue app version.
 Here's the white door before.
 Trying it with my
  blue and white fabric scrap wreath.
Here with the spring floral wreath.
I love it every time I walk up to it! 
I'm in blue heaven!

Cheers!

Thursday, July 21, 2016

Bed & Breakfast Sign

I made a new sign, but it's not for inside
 the house. It's for our travel van. 
We feel like our Roadtrek van is our own
little bed and breakfast that we can take
 everywhere.
So naturally it needed a sign we could hang
when we were parked at a campsite.
 This sign needed to be lightweight so that
it could hang from the awning. I used a piece
of scrap beadboard. The back had a nice
wood tone that I was going for. 
I wanted it to be neutral,
shabby, vintage looking. To add stability and
give it a "sign" look I added molding pieces
all around to frame it.
 Luckily I had just enough
scrap of one style without an inch to spare.
Imperfections are part of the charm.
Plus I don't like to fuss. That's no fun.
Here's the finished sign. 
 I use the same method I do for all my signs,
  HERE. The font on this one is
The Blue Cabin, size 225, outline.
Print it out. Use carbon paper to trace it.
 Paint the letters using a Sharpie.
Same 'ol tricks. 
After the lettering was dry 
I lightly rubbed on  mineral oil to 
bring out the wood tones.
Laid out the salvaged trim pieces.
Filled in the corner gaps with putty.
Touch up with white paint.
I also painted the edges.
When not hanging from our traveling
Bed & Breakfast I can "store" it in
my guest room.

Cheers!


Thursday, July 14, 2016

Twin Trellises For The Entry

We recently added these twin trellises to
our front entry patio area.
I love the look of a trellis and 
 try to sneak them in wherever I can. 
This makes a total of 5 against the 
outside walls around the house and 
3 trellis arbors in our yard.
See those projects HERE, and HERE.
Here's the front entry before.
These jasmine pots on either side of my
front entry French doors were just starting
 to grow long enough to begin their trail up.
First we measured for the center and 
height we would use. I needed to consider
 what size we could build using the scrap 
pieces of 1x1 wood we had in the garage 
for this project. I'm all about
 using what we have. 
We use this simple trellis design because we
 can easily customize the size for our needs.
 Larry cut the pieces angling the end cuts
as we have in the other trellis projects.
The right side before. I will need to find 
another spot for this "M" monogram sign
board I made a few years ago HERE.
The right side after. We painted the
trellis using leftover exterior house
paint so that it would blend in. 
The jasmine is now filling in nicely.
The left side after.
The left side filling in. 
The jasmine has grown quite a bit since 
we first installed something for them to 
make their climb. I fiddle with the fast
 growing wine, tucking it in, over, and
 under as needed. Tweeking. 
Our next project was to paint our front
door. Guess what color? Next post!

Cheers!


Monday, July 4, 2016

How To Make A Sign - July

It's so easy to make a sign anytime I want.
I love changing the signs in my kitchen 
almost every month. For the summer
 and especially July I wanted to make 
one that was patriotic but also fun.
I make all  my signs out of whatever I have
in the house and garage, so they cost me 
nothing but a little time.
 Once I decide what my sign will say 
 I try to find a font that works best.
Using Word on the computer I chose
the font. This one is Mountain Christmas. 
I then find the size that will work best. 
In this case it was 225 and I also use 
the outline setting because it uses less 
ink and prints faster.
I line it up on my scrap wood. Larry cuts it to 
size. This is a piece of baseboard molding 
from this re-do project.
 The easiest way to transfer letters is using
carbon paper and tracing. You can see why 
the outline setting makes so much sense. 
I used a black Sharpie to paint in the letters.
lI used leftover paint from the kitchen
 island re-do to paint the bottom curve.
I use 2 screw eyes to attach them to the 
existing cup hooks under the cabinet where
all my kitchen signs hang.
 It needed something. 
Stars! Of course!
I punched out stars on white paper and used 
a dab of glue to attach to the bottom. 
Before and after adding stars.
 I also painted the side and top red using a big
 Sharpie, allowing a little red to show on the 
front edge for an accent.
Hers's my sign, American Pie.

 Bye...Bye!