DIY Flower Crate

I love my zinnias in the summer, and I love any creative and beautiful way I can think to display them.  The latest way is in a summer "flower crate."

A few days ago, Lucy at Craftberry Bush created a beautiful Faux French Vegetable Crate, and I fell in love immediately. 

I set out a few days ago to make my own crate of sorts.  This is the first time I've ever "built" anything, and there are definitely a few flaws in the design and final product, but overall, it came out beautifully, even better than I'd hoped!

I started with small poplar planks from Lowe's.  They were only $.94 each.  I cut them to the sizes I needed with a handsaw, and then I sanded and painted each with Valspar's "Luxurious Linen."  After they had dried, I added swipes and smears of Valspar's antiquing glaze to add the distressed look I love.

I then constructed the bottom and "walls" with small black tacs (just a dollor or so at Lowe's).

(I also cheated and used some Gorilla Glue here and there, wink wink!)

Once assembled and filled with flowers in bottles and jars, my crate made me feel like a master carpenter.

It looks like it was simple made for holding zinnias....

....and really, it was!



To see what parties I'm linking to, see my Blog Parties tab! I'm also linking to:
Passionately Artistic

Goodwill Candlesticks Makeover

I'm still on a painting and glazing kick.  There is no end in sight.

Here's the before.  Uglies from the 80s.

I painted them mint green (also known as Valspar's "Summer Sigh"), and then glazed them.  Look at the difference the glaze makes!  It really does make them, I think.

It gets into all those crevices and "dirties" them up just the right amount.

You can find these in my Etsy shop.  Perfectly shabby!

Gone to Market

My husband's grandfather was tearing down parts of an old fence at his cattle farm in Georgia.

Of course, I snatched some up.

Now we have a piece of Madison.  The wear and tear the fence saw shows through the new paint.

Many sunrises, sunsets.  Many years.

Something natural, given new life.

May it's character grow.

Chicken Wire Initial Art

I love plaques, and I love monograms, and I love chicken wire (and not just because I grew up on a farm where it was used regularly)!

This little plaque was created using a board I cut down, sanded, and coated with bright blue acrylic paint (I knew that it would later be dulled by the glaze, so that's why I like to start out with a really bright color on projects like this).

I got out my Valspar antiquing glaze (I can't stop using it.  I just used it yesterday on my coffee table) and gave the whole piece a light wash.  The B was made with a stencil. I just invested in a set of letters, as hand-painting them takes a while, let me tell you!  Then I used wire cutters to cut a small section of chicken wire, which I bent and folded around the plaque and fastened to the back with wood joiners (althrough I'm sure you could use carpentry tacs).  The last step is hanging with a black satin ribbon.

I love how it turned out, althought I must say, getting chicken wire to cooperate isn't entirely simple. Or painless.

Perfect in my blue kitchen!

In addition to the parties on my blog parties tab, I'm linking to:
Under $100
Thrifty Thursday
Feathered Nest Friday
Show and Tell Friday
Fantastic Friday
Craftomaniac Monday

Coffee Table Re-redo

I've been so unhappy with my coffee table.  Part of it is the color.  It's way too white.  Part of it is the fact that my husband absolutely cannot be persuaded not to put his feet on it.

Gross, right?

So of course I went window shopping online. I love this lift-top coffee table, which is a lot like the one my parents have, and they love it.  This is a great storage end table (which would be great because our den is tiny!).  Or we could go for the whole coffee table set. 

While I dream of different furniture and different and bigger dens, I decided to redo our current coffee table.  It's actually been redone before, as you can see here.

Step one was painting it "luxurious linen."  I got it as a free sample from Valspar!  It came with a small can of paint, tray, and roller.  (You can find out when they do another free sample promotion by liking them on Facebook!)  The color came out beautiful--no more stark white.

I also used Valspar antiquing glaze to add a little character.

Then for the fun part: deciding what to put on top.  I chose a tray I refinished....

 a silver creamer with moss and two fabric rosettes...

and vintage mason jar with chicken wire.

Clean and simple!