A Splash of Color for an Old Piano

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I love this daring move from Lisa at The Pennington Point. She transformed this blah piano...

...into something so fun!

It takes guts and a vision to pull this off, and I think it looks wonderful! For more pictures of this project, please visit The Pennington Point

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Fake Wainscotting, from Decor Chick

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Yes, you read the title of this post right! I am loving this idea from Decor Chick- so simple and inexpensive. Take a look at the finished result of this wall:

Emily will show you how to get this entire look HERE.

For more of her amazing inspiration, please visit

To have your ideas featured on Crazy Domestic, click HERE

Stenciled Ceiling from Not Just a Housewife

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This project makes my jaw drop! Take a look at what Stacy did to her ceiling:

Her thinking: "Why should walls have all the fun?!"

I LOVE THIS!

See her entire post all about it HERE

and become even more inspired by Stacy's ideas on Not Just a Housewife

 To have your ideas featured on Crazy Domestic, click HERE

Old Tv Transformation with Home Hinges

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I'm absolutely in love with this project I found by April of Home Hinges. I was so excited I stumbled across her blog, she actually shares it with her four sisters! How fun is that? All the girls contribute with their current projects and great ideas, seriously a fun, fun blog! Here's April with her amazing TV transformation!

Here’s a teaser of the final product. But this isn’t what it originally looked like. In fact it looked very, very different.

My fist impression was that someone had left their garbage in the front yard with the hope someone would take it. The box sat there for several days because who in their right mind would want THAT.

It was an OLD TV. Like the kind I remember from when I was five. The kind you actually had to walk up to in order to turn the dial to change the channels.

This kind of TV that only had 13 or 14 channels and only half had a signal.

I was not initially inspired, thus I too drove past it on my merry way for several days. But I recently saw Beckie’s transformation of a similar piece on her blog Infarrantly Creative , which got my little brain churning. If she could do it… What’s to lose? So in the middle of a horrific rain storm, the kind we only get two or three times a year, I zoomed over to the curb on which this pathetic thing sat.

I’m the polite kind of scrounger so I ran up to the door, still in my exercise clothes, my hair barely brushed and in a pony tail, and rang the doorbell. They said I could have it for free as well as a gun cabinet they had just thrown in a dumpster in the driveway. See its transformation into a dining room hutch here.

The couple at the home were getting ready to move and getting rid of a lot of stuff. They were happy to help me load my finds into the back of my minivan. The only problem, particularly with the TV was that it was too heavy to get out of the car by myself.

Like it was full of rocks, REALLY HEAVY.

Not wanting to wait until my sweet Sports Addict got home (because he would think I had finally lost my mind), I decided to just start gutting it right there in the car with the hope that once it was gutted I could muscle the frame out myself.

After about a bazillion screws and cutting lots of wires it came.

Some of the guts

After about an hour’s worth of work and just a few scratches, I successfully extracted the shell from the minivan. Remember a lot of this was going on in intermittent rain. No worries though. My neighbors already know I’m nuts.

At this point I was just hoping this wasn’t a huge mistake. But if Beckie could do it…

Thus pushing ahead I used scraps of materials in the garage to make a box inside the shell. Since I thought it would be nice to use for piano music I decided to put in vertical dividers. I just hate it when books fall over into a pile and I’ve found vertical dividers on shelves really help with this. It also made sense since sheet music is often very tall.

Vertical dividers before getting their front edge trim

I also trimmed out the front to hide the plastic molding used to attach the TV to the frame.

Molding to hide the unsightly edges of the TV shell

So after caulking it was finally ready to prime and paint.

I didn’t put the back on until the end so I could paint from both the front and back. It made it easier to paint the interior. I used some Kilz 2 primer I had on hand and some “oops” paint I mixed together to get this lovely grayish-blue.

Once that was dry I went over the whole piece with a cream color I used on my roadside mirror. I just dry brushed on the cream color, highlighting the molding of the old TV shell and giving it a little bit of a brushed over look.

In the end my wonderful Sports Addict is no longer questioning my sanity, and I have a beautiful new hutch for holding all the piano music that used to be spilling over the top of the piano.

The best part though it that it was 100% FREE.

I didn’t spend a single cent on this. Everything I used was already in the garage either from old projects or left from previous owners of the home. Not only did I save at least part of the TV from the landfill, but I reused items that might have eventually been thrown away in the garage. Free and better for the environment. I’m just going to go pat myself on the back again as I admire my new living room furniture.

April

CAUTION: I’ve been told there is a part in some of these old TV’s that may hold a charge even if the TV has been unplugged for a while. Taking one of these apart could result in electrocution.

Here are some more great posts from the ladies of Home Hinges

Gun Cabinet turned Dining Hutch

Treasures from Great Granpa's Warehouse

A look at Real Life

Thanks April, for sharing with us today!

To have your ideas featured on Crazy Domestic, click HERE

Distressed EAT Sign- from Craft by Amanda

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This was one of the amazing projects linked to our party that I instantly fell in love with!

How cool is this?

Amanda gives a step by step tutorial on her site to show you how to get the look. She tells you the paint colors she used and shows you some distressing secrets.

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How cool is that?! To see the entire tutorial, click here.
See more crafty inspiration at Crafts by Amanda

Chalkboard Paint

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It's nothing new, we've all seen a million walls, tables, etc done with chalkboard paint, but check out these fresh ideas! I'm loving all of them!

This project makes me what to go out and get myself a piano, I've seen several of them on craigslist for FREE...now if I only had the space in my house! Check it out @ The Modern Hive

Make your own custom colored chalkboard paint! Find out how @ Martha Stewart

What a cool way to organize! I love that you can change the contents of the box and name on the label so easily! See it over @ Less Than Perfect Life of Bliss

I love everything over @ First A Dream, see how she transformed a screen door into this chalkboard! I love the size and how it frames it out!

The always impressive Amy @ The Idea Room has done it again, check out her chalkboard notebook!

These chalk rocks from Pottery Barn would be super simple to make yourself! I love to think of the endless possibilities these have!

Globes turned chalkboards over @ Natalie Putnam. She used these for a Star Wars party to let the kids "create their own planets"! How cute is that?

Now I just need to get over to Home Depot to pick up some chalkboard paint!

To have your ideas featured on Crazy Domestic, click HERE

Whitewash Table with Frugal Farmhouse Design

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The other day, I somehow stumbled across Lori's amazing blog: Frugal Farmhouse Design and I'm so glad I did! She has amazing style and taste! When I saw this tutorial on how to mix paint to achieve a whitewash effect, I fell in love! I have been wanting to do something like this to a side table I have, but couldn't figure out exactly how to do it! I was beyond thrilled when Lori agreed to share this technique with our readers! Here's Lori!

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I have been playing and experimenting with paint this week. There are two things that I mix really well. One is paint the other is I can make a killer margarita. I had a custom order for a farm table that I needed to get done. The request was that the paint have shades of aqua and blues with a white wash - not to bright and make it look old and original like it has been on the farm table for 100 years. OK - I can do that

I used these great latex flat paint colors by

BENJAMIN MOORE

1.summer basket green

2. florida keys blue

3. navajo white

the table was made from an old pine farmhouse door that had yellow paint as the original finish

I painted the entire table with a quick coat of FLORIDA KEYS BLUE using a small paint roller, it does not have to be perfect or even (you will see why)

Next - mix up a ratio of approximately 70% water with 30% paint in you next color choice that you would like to layer on (paint should be the consistency of skim milk) I chose SUMMER BASKET GREEN because it was a nice compliment to the blue. Roll it on, right on top of the blue. Again it does not have to be perfect.

Once it is dry it was time for the white wash. Apply one more layer using the same watered down mixture of 70% water with 30% paint give or take a little. I chose NAVAJO WHITE to use as the last layer and to add the look of the white wash.

here is what the white wash looks like being rolled on

when the paint is dry give it a good overall sanding with 250 to 320 grit sand paper. I use an orbital sander. What this does is remove some of the white on the surface and expose the paint colors underneath plus it gives the table a nice overall distressed look.

you can see the original yellow paint as well as the pine wood peeking out

lastly I coated the table with a layer of acrylic to seal the finish

I know it sounds complicated, but the process went along at a pretty fast pace. Using the mini roller makes the paint go on super fast. Because of the sanding at the end, it really did not matter that the paint be perfectly applied. It actually looks better if you are a little messy.

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I love the way this turned out! Thanks Lori for sharing your tutorial with us!
Don't forget to go check out Lori's blog HERE!

To have your ideas featured on Crazy Domestic, click HERE

Glazing 101 with My Repurposed Life

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I have glazed several items lately and I really like the following technique best:

Supplies to gather:

1. Project piece
2. Primer
3. Spray Paint
4. Glaze (I used Burnt Umber)
5. Brush (I used small foam brush)
6. Water and something to mix glaze and water in (I used small plastic tray)
7. Rag (I used paper towel)

I sprayed my candlestick with primer. I use the cheapo primer from Meijer, it’s a little over a dollar a can. Let dry.

I typically use Rustoleum Heirloom White, however I use it so often that I didn’t have any for this project.

I do recommend satin finish over semi-gloss or gloss. In my opinion, the glaze does not adhere to the slicker finishes.When I spray paint, I like to spray paint both right-side up and upside down. It helps to get in the crevices. If you paint something, turn it upside down and you will see small places that were missed. Let dry.

I bought this at Walmart for less than $1.00. It has lasted forever because I only use a dollop.

It’s hard to see, but I already had some water in this little tray when I added the dollop of Burnt Umber.

Can you see how little water there is? It is very shallow.

I mix the paint with the water so that it is thinned.

I start brushing on the diluted paint. I let it set for 30-45 seconds.

Then I wipe it off with the paper towel. You can see how it naturally falls into the crevices.

I work in small areas so the paint doesn’t dry too much. I don’t think enough of the glaze “took” on the bottom section . . .

. . . so I added some more.

I wiped it a little, let it set . . .

...then wiped a little more off.

At this point you can stop (as I did) or you can go over it again if you want more detail.

Here it is in the place of honor on my mantel.

Here it is close up next to my finial. You can see how different they look even though I used the same technique on both. The finial did have Heirloom White, and the glaze was a little thicker.

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See more of Gail's creativity on her site My Repurposed Life

To have your ideas featured on Crazy Domestic, click HERE