A New Project for the Mountain Cottage Attic Bedroom

Hello Friends!

Our Mountain Cottage attic bedroom was one of our first projects at our mountain cottage. I'll put a link to the before and after at the bottom of the post.

 If you remember, we had country blue wallpaper on every wall that had to be removed. We painted the walls a soft grey. Mr. DIY built the platform bed for much needed storage and we brought up my grandmother's chair and found a great mid century dresser at a local shop. Wall decor was the last  to be added. 

We may soon be doing a long awaited building project in the attic bedroom at our mountain cottage may.  
For as long as I can remember, Mr. DIY and I have wanted to build a shiplap wall behind the bed since the knee wall is so low. By the time we add pillows to the back so we can sit up without bonking our head on the ceiling, our feet are at the end of the bed. (and we aren't tall people).

This pic shows how low the knee wall is. 

As  with all our projects, Mr. DIY and I have gone back and forth about design and how it will be built. 
Should it be a plank wall or shiplap ...
stained or painted? 
Should the shiplap be horizontal or vertical...etc. etc. etc. 

Since we have the room, the faux wall will most likely come out 8 to 10 inches, and raise the height of the knee wall above the pillows. I think it will look much better. And, of course, behind the faux wall will give us more much needed storage. 

As promised, HERE is the link to the first before and after for the Mountain Cottage Attic bedroom. 

Go to THIS LINK if you'd like to see lots of projects that we've done at our mountain cottage. 

Thanks for stopping by!

Pam

Solar Lights For The Deck Stairs

This post contains affiliate links, which means I'll make a small commission, should you purchase something through one of these links. 

Hey Friends!

I have a simple and relatively inexpensive (under $50) project to share with you today.

We have a 6ft high crawl space below the main level of our home, so that means we have a few stairs to walk down to get to our backyard. Sometimes Mr. DIY needs to go down to the crawl space at night and those stairs are really dark  and there isn’t a light that shines onto that area, so we set out to do something about it.

I couldn’t take a photo of the stairs at night, because it was too dark, so here’s how it looked after the sun set over the trees…

We planned to put a light on every other stair, one on the landings and two on the bottom stairs, for a total of 8.


We ordered these stainless steel solar lights from Amazon:


Mr. DIY made a template out of paper, then pre-drilled some holes where each would go. Here’s what the back of the solar light looks like:


Here’s the after:

You can see how dark the stairs are in the following pic…

It's a little brighter than this when the light on the screened porch is on.


 
We plan to install the two solar lights we have left at the mountain cottage steps. It’s super dark there when we arrive at night in the Fall. The solar lights will definitely help.
I’m so glad this easy project is finished. Now when we have to go down to the crawl space, the solar lights make it a lot safer!

Thanks for stopping by,

Pam

Cafe Curtains For The Mountain Cottage Kitchen

This post contains affiliate links, which means if you purchase something from one of these links, I'll make a small commission. 

We spent the last week at the Mountain Cottage. Except for a couple of periods of rain, the weather was beautiful!

The week before, I spent several days sewing cushion covers and pillow covers for the banquette and Cafe’ curtains for the Mountain Cottage kitchen.
It feels so good to add some finishing touches  and softness to the kitchen.


Sorry about the blue tape on the cabinet...Mr. DIY was touching up paint.


I'm loving how the range hood looks in the kitchen between the open shelves. 



The cafe curtains are very simple and are hung on a tension rod.
We found the tension rod at Lowes and found the fabric at Fabric.com 


I found the faux wreath for the window on Amazon.com. The link is below on the left.

Next time, I’ll share with you the cushion covers and the pillow covers that adorn the banquette!

Thanks for stopping by.

Pam

Galvanized Wall Pocket Floral

Happy Saturday Friends!

Today I’m sharing a galvanized wall pocket floral I put together today. 
It’s an easy project that can be done in 30 minutes if you have all the supplies.

I purchased the large, creamy hydrangeas from Save On Crafts online and found the galvanized wall pocket from one of my trips to HomeGoods.

The galvanized wall pocket sat in the office gathering dust and papers that needed to be filed and today, I claimed it to make a  pretty floral that eventually, will be brought up to the mountain cottage.

Supplies include :
Flowers
Wall Pocket
Ribbon
Floral Tape
Wire 
Wire Cutters



The first thing I did as cut the stems (with wire cutters) on the hydrangeas to where the flowers looked good in the wall pocket.


I tied a bow around one of the cut off stems.

Then I cut about a 12” piece of 24 gauge wire


I poked a hole in the leaf that I cut off when I cut the stems, put the wire in the hole, doubling the wire and twisting it.


I then wrapped the doubled up wire with floral tape.

I made four of these.


This is what the finished product looks like:

 

Hopefully, it will make it to the Mountain Cottage!

Pam

Painting A Framed Chalkboard

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Hello Friends!
You know when you’ve had a project in mind for a long time and every time you walk by 
it speaks to you? Maybe it’s just me.

This is one of those projects.
I really wanted a framed, distressed white chalkboard ever sine I found a fancy framed mirror on Craigslist, way back when. 
Well, I finally got around to painting it white.

This is how it looked before. I bought it before gold was back in vogue. I've always loved gold, but felt the gold was a little too brassy.
But, I left it. Every time I walked by it or took a photo of it, the words “this would look so much better painted white” would come to mind.

So, a couple of weeks ago, I had Mr. DIY move the chalkboard to the dining room talbe on top of a drop cloth I went outside to get my Annie Sloan Chalk Paint and supplies. I thought I had an off white ASCP, but it was bright white. I thought I had painted some candlesticks with the ASCP, but if I had checked my blog, I would have found out that I painted those candlesticks with craft paint. 

Hmmm. I got online to order some chalk paint and found Rustoleum has a chalked paint now and I though I’d try it.  Do It Best had some listed online for $10.99 a quart. I thought it was a typo, since everyone else had it for $16.98 or more. I ordered some and had it delivered to my nearest Ace Hardware to save on shipping. I think Do It Best caught their mistake because it’s now listed for $18.99, which is still a great price!
I ordered white linen, thinking it would be a nice off white, but it was white. I decided to go ahead and paint it anyway.
Taking out the chalkboard panel was too much trouble, so I taped it up with some recycled paper from a shipping box.

  After painting the frame with one coat, I decided to paint a second coat because some of the gold still showed through. 

I didn't have any dark wax, and that wasn't really the look I wanted, so I used some Minwax Provincial stain mixed with Rustoleum's Driftwood stain. I wanted an old, painted and distressed kind of look. If you want a fancy, really beautiful heirloom look- this isn't it. For that look, see the Annie Sloan website for how to achieve different finished.  I wanted an old, I've been painted a few times and worn, imperfect kind of look. The stain was sufficient to achieve what I wanted.

Then, I used a dry brush technique over the stain with the chalk paint.

After that, I sanded some of the edges to expose the gold finishe. I used a flexible sanding block to do this.

Here's how the mirror looks now:

 
A slightly darker wall color (it's on the project list), will make the distressed painted chalkboard really stand out.

And you know every time I walk past the foyer, I’ll be thinking we need to paint it!

The projects never end!

Pam

You can see how we changed our Craigslist find mirror into a chalkboard HERE.

If you'd like to see how I gave the candlestick a paint makeover, you can find it HERE.


*affiliate links mean that I'll make a small commission on a product should you purchase through one of the links on my page.

Farmhouse Chandeliers Found On Amazon

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I've been looking for a chandelier for both our breakfast area and our dining room. I've searched on many different sites and surprisingly, Amazon has a great selection of chandeliers that would would look fabulous in many a farmhouse décor. 

There are so many different styles of chandeliers that would fit within a dining room that is farmhouse style. You could choose, industrial, rustic, elegant or French. I'm sure there are a few more, but the style of a chandelier sets the mood for the whole room. 

In addition to style, a chandelier should be the right size for the room. To determine the right size chandelier for a room, add up the two dimensions of the room. For example, if a room is 12 x 14, add up 12 + 14 and you get 26. So the chandelier should be about 26". For the height, measure the height from floor to ceiling and multiply by 2.5 to 3. If your ceiling height is 9 feet, multiply 9 x 2.5 to 9 x 3. So the best height of your chandelier would be 22.5" to 27" tall.  

For a heavier chandelier such as the first one below, you could err on the side of a smaller chandelier... (click on the name of the chandelier in RED to go to the link)

Rustic Cottage Chic Sculpted Wooden 6-Light Chandelier

 and likewise, if it's a lighter, like this orb chandelier, you could go larger.

Industrial Vintage Retro Globe Chandelier

For a long rectangular table,  a rectangular  "chandelier" could be chosen if you like a more rustic style.

LALUZ Wood Rectangle Chandeliers

LNC Vintage 8-Light Chandelier

Docheer 5-Light Vintage Rust Iron Wood Chandelier 

I love the combination of the traditional candelabra in a less refined orb. I think it’s so stylish.

Contemporary Metal And Wood Frame Orb Chandelier

 4 Light Wood Orb Chandelier

This one is so very interesting.

 Socorro Four-Light Chandelier

Metal Chandelier with Wood Beads

Vintage Black Metal Globe Chandelier

I tend to be drawn to the more traditional curvy candle type chandeliers

Iron 8-light Black Chandelier

I love this one, but it's too large for my breakfast room and I'd like a fancier chandelier in our formal dining room.

Industrial Vintage 6-lights Candle Chandeliers

There are so many great French style chandeliers that would look great in any home with farmhouse style.

Shabby Chic French Country Chandelier 

This one is the right width and height for our breakfast area, but I'm still pondering.

Feiss 5 - Light Chandelier

Thanks for stopping by!

Pam

*this post contains affiliate links, which means, I'll make a small commission should you purchase something from one of these links.