Guest Bathroom Redo: Rope Framed Canvas

 

My grandfather was an artist, and a great one at that. He's done a few portraits, but most of his work was of gorgeous scenery - houses, building, lakes, cars, etc. Whenever we visited, he was always in the middle of painting a number of canvases and the walls in his home in Kensington were covered in his finished pieces. He passed away when I was in college and I made it a point to get a number of his art pieces (that hadn't already been split between his two daughters and nine grandchildren). I adore the paintings my grandfather made. While I have tons of memories of him, I love having these physical paintings to help me still feel close to him. I even have a few personal ones in my collection - one is a painting of my fifth grade school photo (the actual photo of me is unfortunate, but I love the painting) and the other was a bouquet of flowers I specifically asked him to paint. I haven't really hung Pop's paintings in our home. I have no reason for this and that's something I want to change. I want to proudly display them because I am proud of them and they mean a lot to me.

 

When planning the wall in the bathroom I remembered one particular painting of my grandfather's that I knew would be perfect in the space.  

 

One of my favorite details of Pop's paintings is that sometimes he would sneak our names somewhere into the picture. In this particular one, he named the ships after my brothers and me (they read 'Nicki', 'Dave W' and 'Jessica').  

 

 

I wanted the painting to look a little more finished before I hung it since the staples along the edge of the canvas were visible.

 

 

With a spool of jute rope, my glue gun and just ten minutes, I had a new rope frame around my canvas.

 

Not only did is make the painting look more complete and ready to hang, but the rope ties nicely into the theme of the guest bathroom.

 

Pop's painting now hangs proudly on the wall for all our guests to see. Just another tiny peek at the almost finished wall in the guest bathroom.

 

 

Guest Bathroom Redo: Refinished Oar

The guest room is moving along very nicely. The room is painted, my shower curtain finally arrived, textiles have been swapped and I've already started hanging some decor on the walls. Looks like it's going to be finished sooner than expected. One of the changes I'm making in the bathroom is to create a gallery wall on the far wall behind the toilet. My idea was to hang some nice wooden and metal frames along with some fun decorative pieces.

Several years ago I bought these two wooden oars from Ross on sale for $6.99 each. I had absolutely no idea what I wanted to do with them. It was in the beginning of my blogging kick where I started avidly reading DIY blogs like The Lettered Cottage and immediately decided that I needed to have my own little farmhouse cottage with vintage rustic decor (Hence the herb crate purchase, which by the way will be coming down from the wall in favor of a recent animal art piece. More on that later.)

When planning the gallery wall in the guest bathroom I remembered I had these oars stuffed in our basement somewhere. Since my navy and white guest bathroom had taken a somewhat unexpected nautical themed twist, I decided that hanging one of these on the wall with a few of the other things I have been collecting would fit nicely into my theme. As you can see they came with these handpainted scenic designs. Nice and all, but not quite the look I'm going for.

It took maybe 2 hours to completely sand down the oar and remove all the paint. Of course I did all this by hand because we don't have an electric sander. If we did, it probably would have taken half the time. I lucked out that Lucy decided to take a marathon nap that day so I was able to tackle it all in one sitting (with time to spare for a shower afterward, too!).

Once finished, I was pleased with how great the condition was on the bare wood oar. It was so smooth and there was little to no residue from the paint.

Staining needed to wait for another day and another naptime for Lucy. Luckily I treated myself to a three day weekend so the next day was perfect. I grabbed some stain I already owned (I have a few different colors from prior projects and opted for the 'middle' shade) along with my other supplies and got to work. After the mess of staining the wine crate, I learned that a mask and rubber gloves are a must when staining. That stuff does not come off your hands easily.

After a coat of the first color I liked how it looked, but wanted more. I decided to take a darker color that I also had from another project and do a few random streaky spots around the oar. Much better!

Once finished, I let the oar dry overnight and used a few coats of my acrylic sealer (Seen here. I love this stuff.) to set the stain. Another day and another nap (I swear now that she's walking this girl naps like a champ) gave me time to hang my newly stained oar on the wall along with some other items, which I will share more about later.

Because the oar is actually pretty light, I attached a simple picture hanger attachment thing(technical word) to the back of it, near the top.  I decided that I wanted to hang it vertically with the heaver side towards the bottom. Heavy isn't even the right word because the wood is pretty lightweight.

Here is a sneak peek at the corner of bathroom where I hung the oar. Just a sneak peek, though, because I'm not quite finished. While all the frames and accessories are up on the wall, I'm still working to fill those frames and don't want to share it all until the room is complete.

 

Tomorrow I'll share with you how I took a sentimental piece of art and added a little something for $0 to dress it up for the bathroom gallery wall.

Pinned It, Did It: Miniature Animal Menagerie

I love Pinterest. Who doesn't? It provides you with all the ideas that you wish you thought up on your own, and allows you to 'steal' those ideas for yourself. Ok, maybe steal is a harsh word, but I think you all know what I mean. I have no shame in my Pinterest game and this project is proof of that. Plus I'm always willing to give credit where credit is due.

I pinned this Miniature Mounted Menagerie just over a week ago and I immediately knew I had to do it.. and soon. Last weekend I gathered my supplies and got to work. The great thing about this project is it cost me next to nothing and took just one day to complete. The only things I needed to purchase were the plastic toy animals (a bag of 12 animals found in the Target party favor section for $3.00) and a can of metallic gold spray paint (maybe $5?). I already had the white spray paint and the frame was from an old wooden 'paint by number' piece that my mom was going to donate to Goodwill. I snagged it knowing I could chuck the print and use the frame. Good thing I did. 

Similar to the author of the original post, I found the hardest part of this project to be cutting the animals in half. I used a sharp knife as we don't have any sort of tool that could be used. It wasn't until my last two animals that I finally found a good method for cutting them in half easier. Oh well.

A few quick coats of white spray paint on both the frame and cardboard it came with and some gold on my freshly halved zoo friends and all I needed to do was glue the animals to the framed cardboard.

I love it! It looks pretty similar to the original, although since I had a larger frame I opted to use all 12 of the animals. I have yet to hang the animals although I already know where they are going to go. I just need to take a few things down and patch up the wall space before I reveal the home for this little art piece.

Do you have a Pinterest project you just had to do as soon as you pinned?

Shabby Apple Giveaway Winner Announced!

I'm so excited to announce the winner of my very first giveaway: Amy! She has won a $50 gift card to Shabby Apple. Congratulations, Amy! You will be contacted by Shabby Apple to redeem your prize. Thanks to all of you for participating!!

Even if you didn't win, don't forget Shabby Apple is offering my readers 10% off any order when you use the code 'simplekindoflife10off'. 

Click here to start shopping. But hurry, this offer is only valid for a limited time.

Friday "What I Wore" Roundup

Ok, this might actually be two weeks worth of scattered outfits crammed together. Obviously I haven't taken a picture everyday, but most days I attempt to snap a shot on my way out the door for work or dinner. Here is my weekly 'What I Wore' roundup, starting with today's outfit.

 

 

Left: top, Urban Outfitters | pants, H&M | shoes, Madden Girl

Right: necklace, Forever21

 

 

Left: top, Urban Outfitters | jeans, Abercrombie | shoes, Madden Girl | necklaces, Forever21 & Lia Sophia

Right: dress, Urban Outfitters | watch, Michael Kors

 

Left: top, H&M | pants, H&M | shoes, Jessica Simpson (at TJMaxx)

Right: top, Forever21 | pants, Gap | shoes, Target | necklace, Anthropologie | watch, Michael Kors

 

Left: dress, Urban Outfitters | bracelet, Forever21 | watch, Michael Kors

Right: tank, Forever21 | feather jacket, Forever21

 

Left: sweater, ShopBop | tank, Urban Outfitters | skirt, Urban Outfitters

Right: top, H&M | jeans, Abercrombie | shoes, Target

 

The sweater from ShopBop in the above picture was actually one that I found on Pinterest. I'm sure you can tell that the left photo isn't me. Within about 5 minutes of me pinning that photo, Jordan snuck online and bought the sweater for me. Bonus points to the hubby for paying attention!

 

Happy Friday!