creative little daisy

Where does she keep finding things to paint?

I'm sure that thought has run through the minds of my next door neighbors. At least once. It seems every time I'm out there spray painting, either Ronald or Loretta will be outside and see me. Dang it, busted again! I'm sure they shake their heads and get that look, you know the one, half pity, half disgust. There she is again with that spay paint. She needs to get herself into a program. Go to some meetings. Get herself together, for the family's sake. It's a disease, I tell you and if you have the disease, one can is never enough.
Here's the ugly proof~

I have deep cabinet in the garage, three shelves high, stacked and spilling over with paint and painting paraphernalia.

Can you see how deep it is? Five or six cans deep. It's a cluttered, unorganized mess and I'm not proud.

I just can't help myself.
I've been on a binge this week. Today's victim, door knobs.
All the door hardware in our house is was brass. About a year ago I painted most of the interior knobs using Rustoleum  Hammered paint in black. It's held up beautifully.

I finally got around to painting the exterior doors in the kitchen. This time I'm using oil rubbed bronze. 

I really like the look and now need to repaint the others to match. See, I can always find something to paint. It's an illness.

I have a question about hinges. I painted the knobs, but the hinges remain brass. That really bugs me, but I worried about paint sticking, since hinges have oil in them.  I know sometimes people paint right over their hinges when they paint doors, how does it hold up?

Mom, you sure can bring home some JUNK!

Junk? Not in my eyes. No, when I brought this lovely (cheap) stuff home, I saw not junk, but potential.  Some folks are farsighted, some nearsighted, I guess I'm potentialsighted.

For fun, see how much junk you can spot. Some are obvious, others maybe not as much and not all the junk has realized its potential, just yet.

Were you able to spot the junk? Some required nothing more than some soap and water, like the sugar dish in the photo above. Others like the bird and nest on the branch and  the bunny planter just got a coat of paint.  Two of the silver(ish) trays were paired with candle holders to form.... what do you call them? Pedestal trays... servers? For those I painted them flat black and white washed them slightly with very watered down craft paint.  I was going for that blackened pewter (?) kinda look.  The straw handbag got a face lift by removing the aquarium scene that was glued to the front and replacing it with a monogrammed piece of black burlap . I finished it off with some trim and a fluffy flower made from linen.
The lovely hydrangeas were cut from my neighbors yard (with permission). A few things that were already here also got the spray paint treatment, like the green lamp and the white birdhouse.  The shade for the green lamp got a new monogrammed cover which led me to make matching (minus the monogram) covers for the chandelier shades.
 

Oh how I love me some thrifty transformations. How about you?

Thursday is DIY Day at A Soft Place To Land. So much inspiration, so little time. Sigh...

I'm glad to have that bee out of my bonnet!

Did I mention I wanted to paint my lower kitchen cabinets black? Not sure what put that proverbial bee in my bonnet, but it wouldn't go away.  So, what's a girl to do?

Get herself some black paint, that's what.   

(the end of the tall cabinet is painted with chalk board paint- just haven't written on it yet)

Part of my plan to paint the lower cabinets black was to cover the back of the bar with beadboard. Then I saw this.  I ordered a roll and decided to give it a try. I LOVE this stuff! It was easy to apply, and I've never put up wallpaper. Took a whole bunch down, but never put any up. In fact, after taking down every inch that was ever in my  house, I swore to never even think the word wallpaper. Never say never.

The trim still has to be applied and looking at this picture, I see that towel bar isn't going to work black.

The wallpaper comes in a creamy white color and is paintable. When I first put it on and saw the difference in the color of the paper and my cabinets, which were supposed to be creamy white it presented a dilemma. Paint the bit of wallpaper that would show on the upper cabinets to match- just the ends of two cabinets, or paint all the upper cabinets to match the wallpaper. Guess which route I took.

  

 

I painted the upper cabinets. The creamy white on the paper was what I wanted. Next to it, my cabinets looked yellow. What's another 10 or so hours of work in the grand scheme anyway? What else would I be doing with my weekend, sitting on the couch eating bonbons? Maybe next weekend, but I doubt it. 

I also swapped out the ugly built in desk with my walmart buffet. Love the change!

 

I want to find baskets to put those pet food containers in- or I may frost the doors.

First I have some matchstick blinds to hang before someone wakes from her nap. 

 

I added this post and the previous post to the DIY party over at A Soft Place To Land. If you want some inspiration overload, head on over. Be warned, it will induce an overwhelming desire to spray paint something. Anything.

Not quite finished, but what the heck...

I've been working on the back porch. I  do it every year, tweak this, paint that,*  but this time, I think I'm really, really happy. Ever since I stumbled upon this porch, I've had sheers on my mind. Hmmm... that might explain the foggy state of my brain lately, but I digress. Where was I? Sheers!
 

I...ahem, Mitch and I put sheers on the back porch. Mitch, I might add, has not had sheers on his mind and could care less if the porch has sheers or not, but he was oh so helpful in putting them up.
In addition to the sheers we hung matchstick blinds to soften some of the bright afternoon light this porch gets.

It's hard to get a good photo, they look better in person. I'll try later in the day to get a better shot. Our porch sits in an L at the back of the house and is accessible from the kitchen and the living room. In the above photo I'm standing just outside the living room door. Those windows are in the kitchen, the door is out of sight to the left of the screen.  The windows you can see outside the porch are to the master bedroom.
The porch floor is concrete. We stained it years ago and it's one of the most satisfying diy projects we've ever done. It was fairly easy, just involved a lot of measuring and taping, on Mitch's part, it was not expensive and it's held up for years. We used concrete stain from Sherwin Williams. Rolled on the terracotta color and sponged a sand color on top. Mitch taped it off with 1/4 inch automotive tape.

I've been seeing lots of burlap used in home decor lately,  and thought it would work nicely for the porch. I added some instructions using my much neglected embroidery machine and a little ric-rac for fun.

The wicker chairs got a fresh coat of spray paint. This year they went Mediterranean Blue- Valspar from Lowe's.
I like the burlap pillows, a lot, but I really, really like this pillow. The design is so sweet and happy. It just makes me smile every time I look at it.

If you have an embroidery machine or like to hand embroider, you must visit this site. 

That little table up there, $15 on clearance at Walmart.  Also got this clock for ten bucks.

OK, that's what I've been up to. Now I've got to go spray paint a flower pot, this porch isn't quite finished yet.  Have a lovely Saturday, friends.

** Looking back at past photos of the porch, the bright colors photograph better. Some of you may be thinking it looked better before, you should have left well enough alone, some of you in addition to my husband.  To me it feels more like a room now.  Not as bright and cheery as in past years, but the soft neautral palate is calming and serene. Just what a back porch needs to be at the end of the day.

 

Guess what?

A little creating has been happening around here! I know, I can't believe it either. I'm so excited, I could bust. I'm not finished, but I'll share a little peak. It involves sheers, a porch, and a little burlap.


That's all I've got for now. I just couldn't wait to show you that creativelittledaisy still has a little creativity.