Before and after of diamond tufted settee
I showed you here how I cheated my tufts on the headboard. When I got this settee at an estate sale for $50, I knew my cheating method was out of the question.
This settee needed the real deal, diamond tufting. That is something I didn’t want to tackle. I knew I was going to have to send her out to be professionally upholstered. But first the finish needed to be changed, which was right up my alley. Once I ordered my fabrics from Calico Corners,
Robert Allen Showtime Velvet in Steel
I made the decision to gold leaf the frame. Have you ever gold leafed anything before? It is messy to say the least. I pulled off the old grungy cording so that I could get the leaf around the whole frame. Then I gathered my supplies
The raw umber acrylic paint in a tube is my NEW go to for glazing. You just put a dab of it on a paper plate, add a bit of water and you have a glaze. The acrylic in a tube is thicker than the regular acrylic paint, so you can make it as thick or thin as you want.
This site has wonderful video tutorials on gold leafing that are easy to understand and follow Gilded Planet.com They explain how to gold leaf way better than I could, and not to mention it is a video so you can pause and rewind if you don’t understand a step.
Tutorial on how to make the tufted headboard
The tufted headboard tutorial is finally done. It was way harder than I thought it would be, which is why I am late on getting the post up. I think it was harder to make this tutorial than it was to make the tufted headboard! I can not say that my instructions are perfect, which is why I am going to give you links at the bottom of this post of excellent DIY instructions on how to make a tufted headboard.
My headboard is not the norm by the way. I have decided to call it the Pin & Tuck style tufting. The way I do tufting is no way near as precise and time consuming as the standard Diamond Tufting that is done. Don’t get me wrong, I love me a good diamond tufting, with the deep tufts all laid out in a beautiful diamond pattern, you can’t get any classier than that. But I am way too impatient and too much of a perfectionist to do that method. So I came up with my own style, kind of a free style. Maybe some day I will take the time and really do a real diamond tufted headboard, but for now, this method works for me.
Just to keep everyone up to speed in case you missed my last post, this is the before
And this is the after
{the damask drapes are from Anthropologie and they still have them in stock}
Velvet tufted headboard finally done
It has only been a year and a half, but I finally got my inspiration headboard done for Shannon and Nate’s guest bedroom.
This picture was my inspiration picture I found back in October 2010
I was so excited when I found the same shaped headboard on Craig’s list for $60
I knew this headboard would work perfectly for my inspiration picture. But I needed to find the perfect fabric. When I saw this Thom Flicia turquoise velvet fabric at Calico Corners I was in love.
The color was a perfect match for the room, so I quickly ordered the fabric and anticipated it’s arrival to start this project.
So what took me so long to actually make the headboard? Getting the fabric. First it was back ordered, then out of stock and then lost in transit for 9 months. I didn’t think I was ever going to finish this project! {nor did Shannon and Nate, their guest room sat with a blank wall behind the bed the whole time I was waiting for this fabric} I was so set on using this fabric so I just waited, and waited and waited…but it was so worth the wait!
It turned out just as I had imagined, and just finishes off the room {the damask drapes are from Anthropologie}
Oh, so worth the wait right? My grandson Carter even can’t stop staring at it
Never Get So Busy Making a Living..stencil giveaway
Life seems to just whoosh by doesn’t it? When I saw this saying on Pinterest, it really made me think of how true it really does, like where has February already gone?
This weekend my daughter and her friends came over to have me teach them how to make a sign. I thought that using this saying would be perfect first sign for them to make. We easily forget sometimes in our daily grind to stop and take time to make a life, so having a little sign to remind us of this can’t hurt right?
I already had the wood leftover from another project, and the patina on it was so pretty that we left it as is.
It was a simple sign to make. I just pulled out my Silhouette machine to make the stencil on white contact paper. The boards we used where 5 1/2″ wide by 14″ long. I used the font Calisto MT and changed the size to 91.4
Here is a screen shot
And I made a short tutorial on how we made the sign
Pull off your stencil and your done! You could seal it with a sealer if you want, but it isn’t necessary. This is the one my daughter Shannon did in mustard. I distressed my letters a bit, but again that is optional. Shannon didn’t distress hers and it looks just as good.
Christmas Subway Style Sign
I am getting to know my Silhouette machine a little better. It really is a fun machine to play with, especially to make signs. Which I recently did this last weekend, and I must say, it is addicting once you get the hang of it.
Subway style Christmas signs and printables are all over blogland and Pinterest, and I was itching to make one myself. I am also loving the use of turquoise and red everyone is using for decorating this year.
I had some leftover oak cabinet fronts that were perfect to use for this project. My original plan was to stencil the letters in white, but I really liked the look of the white contact paper that I used, so I just went that route. If you have a Silhouette machine, I highly recommend buying a roll of white contact paper to use for your vinyl. It is way cheaper, easy to use and goes a long way.
This is the sign I made for myself
I bought the actual words from the Silhouette on line store when they were having their .50 sale after Thanksgiving. It took the guess work out of trying to find the right font for a saying. Plus I can use them again next year for another sign or project.
Painting a faux {fake} stone bbq island
First of all, I want to thank you guys so much for voting for my entry in the Apartment Therapy Color contest! The voting continues until November 21st, so if you didn’t get a chance to vote you can go here, to “fav” my entry. There are still a lot of votes to get. My daughters, Shannon, Tara and Tiffany have really worked hard on getting their friends, co-workers and who ever else they can think of to vote for me. It is so sweet, they really want their mom to win. Just melts my heart.
Back to the post…I finally finished painting the BBQ faux stone that we had purchased from Costco 3 years ago. It took me awhile due to weather, plus it wasn’t such a smart idea to start this project in the fall. The days weren’t warm enough to let my layers dry, and we had some rain lately (San Diego get rain? yeah we freak when it rains here, don’t ask).
Here is what it looked like before in all it blah white state
Here is what it looks like now
Major difference huh? Even close up it looks pretty good. The highs and lows were already there, but since it had faded so much you couldn’t see them anymore. I used glazes and some dry brushing to get the overall effect. Then sealed it with a satin polyurethane.
Pantry Revived
Have you been watching the Hoarders TV show on A&E lately? It really motivates you to clean up and clean out doesn’t it? That is how I felt about my pantry. It was a mess and so unorganized it drove me crazy! These pictures are embarrassing and I can not believe I am showing you them, but I am so proud of the end result it just wouldn’t be the same if you hadn’t seen how it looked before. 
I thought that the producer of Hoarders might be calling me soon if I didn’t do something about it. 
You know how it is, so many things to do and so little time! I just put it on the back burner for that a some day project. A couple of bloggers got me inspired when I saw these posts
And this post
Aren’t those amazing! But I had other projects to complete before I started this one. Then…we had a visitor. A visitor you don’t want to see, the kind that are uninvited but show up anyway. I won’t show you any disgusting pictures, it wasn’t that bad, but it was enough to get me motivated to halt all other projects and get this pantry into tip top shape.
Since this is just a pantry, I decided this would be a good time to attempt something that I have been wanting to try. Putting fabric on the walls using starch.
You Have My Whole Heart Sign Finished
I finally finished my sign! Whew, glad that is done. I like the way it turned out, but it was such a challenge for me to figure out how to do the lettering. It took a couple of different tries before I found a system that worked.
I bought 3 pieces of wood fencing that were 6 feet long and had the wonderful guys at Home Depot cut them in half for me {I love this service}.
I found these 5″ stencils at Home Depot while browsing for the wood. As it turned out, they were the same letters my inspiration picture used!
I then bought pine 1 x 2′s and had them cut to size for the back to make a frame. {I kinda guessed the sizes of the lengths while I was in the store, and in the end I had to trim an inch or two off in order for them to fit} But this is how I put the frame together.
I pre-drilled wholes on the 1 x 2′s on each board and across the top and bottom { tip, this helps from the pine from splitting when you screw in your screws}. Then I screwed in 1 1/4″ screws to secure the boards to the frame. At this time I also screwed in heavy duty picture frame hooks and wire. {sorry I forgot to take a picture of the screws and wire on the frame}
