Painting a Fridge

During a recent garage clean out at my parent's house(next blog post) I came up with the idea of painting their disgusting fridge in their garage.  It had really gross stains and rust all over it.  At first I was going to paint the entire fridge but then my mom told me that she plans on replacing her kitchen fridge soon so that would eventually bump this fridge out to the trash.  Soooooo... I decided to have a little fun and JUST paint the right side with chalkboard paint. I figured my mom could use it to make shopping lists for outdoor stuff or my little nieces and nephews could leave cute messages on the board every time they go out to the garage to fetch us all our drinks. 

(kiddie slaves..j/k..no i'm not)

Here is a before shot...

I had some leftover paint in the house that ended up being just enough for 3 coats. 

After the 1st coat I started to have a panic attack because I didn't think it was sticking but then it dried really fast and my 2nd coat went on so smoothly= SCORE! I did read about painting with chalkboard paint and how you should use the magnetic primer to really get the paint to adhere but I was being lazy and I didn't feel like priming considering this fridge is a piece of junk.  

Looking so good after the 2nd coat....

I kept getting distracted by this little cutie who kept knocking on the door saying "ushy (shushy) open the dur"...LOL!  I love how she says my name. She was prancing around in her adorable gymnastics leotard on a day that she did not have "nastics" (as we call it).  She loves to dress up and God forbid you tell her she can't.  

After the 3rd and final coat I was so stoked!

It looks so much cleaner now. 

And then my nieces got their hands dirty and went to town.

Then it was my turn to get my hands dirty in a super neat and clean way.
I am obsessed with making lists. 

Side note: even though I didn't use the magnetic primer, the fridge is still functional as a magnet. 

This small change has transformed the garage, everyone and their mother has complimented it.   

Has anyone else painted a refrigerator lately?  If so, please tell me about it. I am loving this transformation, mainly because this fridge was a real eye sore but now it's such a feature.  

Well, watchya think?

 Pretty cool eh?

Mother's Day Gift For My Sister

I have been dying to share this DIY Mother's Day Gift but I didn't want to spoil the surprise for my sister.  I wanted to give her something special for all of the support she has given me and her family in the past year.  I really admire her as a mother and she is the one who inspired me to finally have kids.  She has grieved just as much as I have over the loss of my Micah but she has ALSO loved her own kids a ton more because of my situation.  I just want her to know how much I love her as a sister and EVEN MORE as a friend. I wouldn't have survived this year if it wasn't for her and her adorable kids making me smile EVERY day. 

So here is what I came up with:  I printed out a cute graphic that I made to look like a chalkboard with one of my favorite sayings on it and I bought the rest from Jo Ann Fabrics. I picked up an unfinished piece of wood in a really cute ornate shape (which I love), some cute girly ribbon, decorative nails and I printed a really old photo of the two of us.  

I began staining the wood and it went on so smooth. 

After 3 coats, it was the exact color I was looking for...

Next step was attaching my artwork to the wood. I used decorative nails to pin down the paper.  Then I hot glued the ribbon and a cute pink button to really give the board a feminine touch. 

Last touch was adhering a precious photo of the two us driving around town in our sweet ride. ( I used a spray adhesive) We always did enjoy each other's company and STILL DO! (even though we went through a rough patch in our teen years where we fought CONSTANTLY...who didn't?!?!)

Here it is all finished. I also added some hardware to the back of the wood so she can hang it anywhere she would like. 

This was such a fun DIY project and what makes it even better is I KNOW my sister appreciates it.  She is a phenomenal mom and an even better friend/sister =) Love you HOL! 

Happy Mother's Day to all of you Momma's out there!  

I hope your day is full of happiness and love. 

For anyone who is struggling because they can't be with their SPECIAL loved one today, I will pray for peace within your hearts.

<3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3

Painting Stripes on Curtain Panels

Say what?!?! You can paint curtain panels with actual regular wall paint? 

O yes my friends...it can be done!  

I recently convinced my cousin to let me paint some bold stripes on her son's boring white curtain panels.  Jack's room has a bold navy blue color up top (old navy by ben moore) and then a fresh clean white underneath the chair rail.  I've been dying to experiment with painting curtain panels for a while now and I thought this would be the perfect time to do it. So glad my cuz gave me the GO! We knew we would never find the right "navy blue" colored  panels to match her son's walls so that's when I decided to use the leftover paint from the room to paint some big thick stripes on the existing panels. 

Check out the process....

I laid out each panel and began taping. We knew we wanted 7 stripes (4 blue, 3 white) so we did some math and figured out that an 11.5 inch stripe would be the perfect size for these 84" panels. 

I threw some small pieces of tape on the stripes that I had planned on painting just so I didn't totally screw the pot and paint the wrong section. That would have sucked! 

If you plan on trying this at home, I would definitely suggest using a foam roller and really make sure to press down your painter's tape before you throw the paint on.  I know that sounds like it would be common sense but you really have to make sure the tape has adhered to the fabric. I would also suggest hanging the curtains to dry.  Dry time was cut in half because the panels were able to breath once they were lifted off the ground.  

It took 2 coats of laying it on sorta thin.  

Here is a shot of one of the windows before....

After....

2nd window before....

After....

I love what just a little painter's tape and some paint can do to a boring window treatment. 

Jack's older brother Joey was chatting with me as I took some after shots. 

I LOVE LOVE LOVE how clean my lines came out.  I was shocked at how much the blue tape worked on the fabric.  TOTAL SUCCESS!!!!

I'll be back to show you the final touches on Jack's room.  We still have a long way to go but little by little we are getting there. Anyone else planning on painting curtains anytime soon?  If so, please share your blog and/or photos!