Handy House Tip: Paint Spills

No matter how hard I try, I always manage to spill a bit of paint. I take pains to be careful about it but it always happens. Enter my new favorite friend: All-purpose Cleaner. Simply spray on paper towel, and wipe away paint spill! Works great on woodwork.

Handy House Tip: Paint Brushes

Here’s a handy little tip for painting. I hate having to rinse my brushes in between coats, I feel like its just such a waste of time but until now I did not know to how keep my brushes wet. Well it turns out it is quiet simple, just wrap them in tin foil! Tin foil keeps them wet overnight even. The trick is to wrap them real tight in the foil, making sure there aren’t any spots for air to get in. Happy Painting!

Housewarming Gift: Cake Platter

        
  A cake platter can be a great gift, especially if there are some home baked goodies inside. I highly recommend Brie Bites or Strawberry Cookies. I got this cake platter for my birthday, when I got this also! I decided though beautiful the cake platter was a bit to dull for my tastes. It need a touch of gold. And out came my handy dandy paint pen! I watched an episode of trash tv (Don’t judge me on my RHOBH obsession), while carefully painting the outer edge gold. It took a few layers (3) but in the end it gave it that perfect touch of class! Now the cake platter looks more expensive too, and you can’t beat that!



   
   Happy First Day of October! How do you plan to celebrate the coming of fall?

50 Dollar Fix: Trunk Love

 

      Remember that shocking pink trunk I bought here? Yeah, well I finally got around to doing something with it. The hot pink color did not exactly match the rest of my living room. So a little fixin' was in order. Here's what I did:

      First, I decided to paint it. Originally I thought about black but then I realized I had this great olive green color. I had picked it up at home depot at their reject paint section. If you haven't been to it, go! They have basically returned paint for about 1 dollar a quart which is a HUGE savings. Why not profit off someone else's indecisiveness.


 

So as I started to paint the top of the trunk, I realized the trunk is plastic, i.e. hard to paint. The green paint kept letting the pink show through. At first, I was quite upset and tried my best to cover it up. But then I realized I kind of liked the effect. So I left it.

 

   
     Once it was all covered, I had to decide what to do next. I thought about tracing a pattern all over it but I am quite lazy. Instead I went off to Michael's to purchase a stencil. I found the perfect one for about 4 dollars and got a gold paint pen to trace it because again, I am too lazy to paint it. I was also too lazy to completely line up everything, so I just kind of eyeballed it. I figure it gives it a nice old hand-painted look. Also, I now realize why DIY-ers are always talking about TV shows they just watched, it's because when you are doing a project it's nice to have the TV on as background noise.


 

      I simply love the way it turned out, I am so happy with it. The muted pink and green look great against the pop of gold pattern. Here's a breakdown of my costs:


 

My arm did get a bit of gold treatment as well...

Costs:

Trunk $26

Green Paint $1

Gold Paint Pen $3

Stencil $4________

Total : $34


What's your favorite DIY project?

 

 

TV Table Update

      Everyone has some sort of skill, and maybe I just have yet to find mine, but I definitely know what Lily's skill is. Give her a picture and a pencil then move back. She can copy it almost exactly. The other day she was over and a bit bored, apparently I am not stimulating enough company. She was feeling kind of crafty, so I let her loose on the table with a pretty Indian pattern I had. She did an amazing job, and it was all freehand. I do not know if I should add anything to the table, like color or just let it be. Let me know what you think!