A Chalkboard Calendar

Earlier this year once we finally found out we'd be moving into our very first house I did a little thrift store shopping. OK I did a lot of thrift store shopping. Call me crazy but I was an excited soon-to-be-new-homeowner and couldn't wait to start all kinds of projects for our place. This was the time to REALLY decorate! And so I was planning. That's what I call it, all my thrifting, planning for the new house. A girl has to be prepared for these kinds of things right?

During that shopping I found these paintings at a garage sale. They were $2 each and I knew they would make some good art projects, so I grabbed them up.

I've always wanted to make a calendar for the kitchen and knew that large painting would be perfect for the job so I got to work.

First I chalked it up. Three and a half coats of chalkboard paint went on the painting. I say half because there were some touch ups to make it just right.

The frame got some coats of white of course, with a little distressing in there for fun.

I tried to stain the distressed parts with a darker wood stain but it didn't quite work. I think because it still had poly on the wood color from it's previous life and I didn't sand it off before I spray painted it. Maybe I'll try that on another piece.

So I put things all back together and got to work on my calendar. {See that important day on the 18th? It's coming up quick!}

I found those Chalk Ink markers at Michaels that everyone talks about. If it helps you find them, they are in the aisle with the feather boas and foam crafts parts - you know the aisle.

Since it was the 2nd last week in August when I did this, I make the calendar 6 weeks long. I used regular chalk for this to vary the texture on the calendar. Then I planned to write in the events with the chalk ink.

Here is my finished calendar. The fiance likes to cross off the dates passed. That's his calendar job :-)

I've put it in the kitchen which is where we are often like most households.

It's on the long wall with the beadboard. As you can see the other parts of the wall need decorating.

That's my new craft for the week. I'd love to change out the graph colors for the season and think of more fun ways to spice it up. Hope you like it, thanks for visiting.



This calendar is making its debut at Transformation Thursday at The Shabby Chic Cottage. Go take a look at all the fabulous things over there.

And at Frugalicious Friday at Finding Fabulous. It's my first visit this this meet up - so many fun gals at this one!

And Making Monday Marvelous at CRAFT.

If you like what you see, please follow me! Decor Adventures is on Facebook, Twitter and FeedBurner.

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Dining Room Dilemma

So we've got this dining room right. In a 110 year old Colonial house. Image what it looks like before I show you the pictures.

There's some of dark wood which is all over the rest of the house too, 4 windows total, entrance into the living room and kitchen, and overall it 's a big space.

For the most part, I just don't have any clue how to decorate this room. I have some ideas, don't get me wrong, but it has some well, challenges.

I'll stop blabbeling and let you see. Here it is, our dining room in all it's glory.

All around the room is a plate rail, which I think is what this is called since it is plate height and not chair height.

Below the plate rail are vertical wood slats about 12 inches apart. {That is the previous owners wall hanging not mine.}

It's a really good sized room, but when I first saw it, those slats just did not appeal to me. So I've tried to think of what to do about them. We won't take them out or paint them. Will wallpaper in between work, should we paint the space in between a darker color to reduce the contrast, can I do something fun with paint otherwise?

The slats have really got me stumped. Except for that there are some nice features including the shiny floors.

There's also a fun window bench which even has storage, there is a door that opens. It's like our own secret passage way. To nowhere I guess! I haven't put anything in it, but it will be great for dishes or movies or ....

To be honest decorating this room hasn't been a priority because we wanted to get some other spaces done, and the dining room is the only place left that still has unpacked boxes and decorations yet to find a home.

As far a feel or style I'd like this room to me, well that's still up in the air.

Something is compelling me to use this chair as inspiration.

A friend gave it to me and I like it's color and sophistication. It could be something classy for the dining room, bold and sexy don't you think?

I came across this set on Houzz the other week and am loving it. This room also has a blue chair! And dark wood and wood floors like mine!

living room design by los angeles interior designer Vanessa De Vargas

Plus I love the wild horses art, I've always wanted that in my home. I might have to find some. And the patterns on the textiles. I have to bring more pattern into my life for sure.

living room design by los angeles interior designer Vanessa De Vargas

I've also thought about those frame risers from Pottery Barn that allow you to hang a photo a few inches off the wall. Those might allow me to hang items over the rail and break up the top and bottom look a bit.

I think the dining room is a chance to play a bit, have some fun, do something daring, don't you think? After all it's where all the dinner parties will be and entertaining will happen.

But there the dining room sits. A sad and lonely pass through that barely has furniture or decorations, except my dollar store hurricanes.

We definitely want to paint it. I've thought of glossy light grey or white on the ceiling and some other colors on the walls, perhaps the living room color on the bottom and something fun above the plate rail. As a note we will not be painting the wood. That 110-year-old oak will stay as it is, shiny and new. I love white trim and all, but not a stitch of it in the house is painted and we kind of like it that way. I'm going to bring back the dark wood!

What do you think of this space? Any ideas? Something you think would work really well in here? A dining room decor project you've always wanted to try in your dining room?

Please help with the dining room dilemma, it needs some decorating expertise!

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Bare Walls

Sadly the walls in our house are pretty bare these days. That's because we've only been in the place for about 2 months and in between planning the wedding we work, cook, eat, clean, visit with family and sometimes sleep. So I haven't done much hanging of anything.

What I'm actually doing is preparing to hang things and deciding what goes where. With 1800 square feet, there's lots of walls and I do have some ideas of what I'd like to put where, but not much of it has been done yet :-(

You want to see out oh-so-naked walls? Here goes :-)

The hallway to the upstairs looks like this.

Here's part of the living room.

The foyer

Bathroom. I'd like to find some unique decor to put here above the toilet. We need some storage, but not a ton, so I'm open to ideas.

My office, newly painted in Dolphin by Martha Stewart. Obviously I need window treatments here also.

And lastly our bedroom in Flint Smoke by Behr.

Since we have plaster walls, I've though of doing a picture rail in the crown moulding {which we don't have but maybe we could install} like this.

Photo by Martha Stewart

I also love this maybe for the dining room? I like the idea of mirrors in there.

Photo by Martha Stewart

What do you have on the walls at your place? Any find ideas you want to share with me? Tell all cause I have lots of real estate to cover!

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Dollar Store Decor

Well I'm a total copycat. I've completely ripped off this idea and I fully admit it.

Dollar store hurricanes.

You've probably seen them around at Sarah's who saw them at Emily's who saw them at Anne's. Or perhaps you caught them by Robin or Melissa. See how that works? We're one big crafty blogging family :-)

This infamous total-cost-is-two-smackers project that will add some serious glamour to your space. We're talking $50 glamour, because that's how much the other versions cost at some of the stores you might be familiar with.

After seeing these across the blog-o-sphere, I had a sudden urge to run out and get the supplies to make them. There's only 3 items you need, or more depending on how many hurricanes you want to make.

Let me get right to it - Dollar store hurricanes!

My supplies are Dollar store candle sticks and glass hurricanes. $1 each friends, it can't get any cheaper.

Plus some sort of glue. Some people use hot, some use guerrilla glue, I used liquid nails clear adhesive.

After I washed and dried each piece I glued the pillar holders onto the bottom of the hurricanes. You can turn them upside down or keep them right side up, however you like, but let them dry overnight. This is important if you use the liquid nails. I'm not sure about the other adhesives, but the nails needed overnight drying time. Don't even try to test them 20 minutes later, they will still be wet and will move, so let them sit.

But the next day you'll have fabulous $2 hurricanes. My fiance didn't know what a hurricane was, I had to explain :-) But he loves them, I got a high five. His exact words were "$2? You saw that on a blog didn't you? Keep reading blogs." Of course!

I put in some rocks from an ocean beach and Spanish moss for a little fall touch, then an ivory 3x6 pillar candle.

They are currently residing on the dining room thrift dresser which I'm not yet sure what do do with. Refinish, leave it or paint it. Suggestions?

If you like these and make them, let me know. I'd love to see what you fill them with.

Happy hurricaning {that's not a word right}, but trust me, go out and get yourself some of these to make. You'll be happy you did :-)

With this project, I'm getting my craft on at Today's Creative Blog.



And relating at All Thingz Related, Anything Related.



And parading at the DIY Project Parade.

And tooting at Toot Your Horn Tuesday. So fun!

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The Foyer Before

I'm on a before kick here at DA, showing you some of the rooms in our new house in their earlier stages. Before we had our painting and minor decorating adventures. Did you see the kitchen before and the bathroom before?

Next up I want to show you the foyer. We have this room in our new home which is what you come into right when you walk in the front door. It's a lovely space with a fireplace and how do I finish this sentence so it rhymes again?

We call it the foyer and as soon as we moved in I knew it would be a spot where we needed some storage and places to put things, but I also wanted it to be comfy and welcoming of course. It's our home's first impression.

Just for fun, this is a photo of the previous owner's decor when we inspected the house. Roosters and maroon.

Here is a view from the staircase, you can see the layout of the space. The fireplace is beneath those flowers and that door leads to the front porch.

Fast forward through all that house buying stuff and here we are with an empty foyer shortly after we closed.

You can see I started stripping the wallpaper in the left corner. I only did part of it because I was not about to take on a whole room stripping project when we had so many other things to do.

When I walked over there and discovered we had a room (and ceiling) with painted-over wallpaper it was a joyous day! Who paints over wallpaper?

Thankfully that stuff was covered even if it was with paint. It came right off with my hands, that's what wallpaper will do when it's painted. Underneath is the original plaster wall.

To this room we ended up:

1. Removing that corner of wallpaper
2. Painting the fireplace brick
3. Fixing some plaster with Durabond and priming it with Kilz
4. Painting the rest of the room and
5. Moving in some of our furniture to get the decorating process rolling

Come back next week when I show you what the space looks like today.

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The Bathroom Before

Two of the rooms most need of update on our new house were the bathrooms. The upstairs one and the one in the basement. Inconveniently there is no bath on the first floor, apparently the previous owner took it out when she remodeled the kitchen in 2007. I only know this year from the 28 paint cans she left in the basement :-)

Our bathroom upstairs is typical in layout, pretty small and outdated. Take a look.


That floor is blinding! It's screaming for a makeover right?

Here's the cabinet and shiny gold light fixtures.


And the fabulous vanity!


Wait, I know you want a close up of the shell sink in particular.


Check out the wire shelves on the wall. And why are the lights angled away from the cabinet? I'm not sure.


It's sad I know. Functional but it could be prettier. I took it upon myself to make it prettier. A mini makeover of sorts.

But you'll have to come back to see what I did :-)

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Painting is Done, For Now

Since we move into our first house in mid-June, we've been painting maniacs. Almost every room got painted. Hallways, stairways, offices, you name it, it was painted. That's what new homeowners do right?

Just last Wednesday evening we finally painted our last room for now. I say for now because we're putting a hiatus on home projects until after the wedding, which is in a month holy cow!

Come on our painting tour won't you? Before you do I must warn you, these are some of the most exciting pictures on the web right now. Blank walls!

First was the ceilings. What a joy I tell ya. You know what would help when you paint the ceilings? Those airplane pillows that you put around your neck. Yep I should have whipped that baby out while I was staring overhead for hours.

We also painted my office in Dolphin by Martha Stewart. Not sure if I'm keeping that pillow or not.


The Chef's office is white because it is his studio too and you can only have white when painting. Artists, you know their quirks.


There was the kitchen. Actually this was the first room I painted. Chinchilla on top and base white on the bottom, both by Martha.


Our bedroom and the bathroom got Flint Smoke by Behr. Because we got two gallons and only needed one for the bedroom and my idea of cleaning up a room is to repaint it. That's what I did to the bathroom. I'll show its mini makeover soon.



And the foyer, living room and hallway got Creamy Mushroom by Behr.

And now, we rest from painting. Which is exciting for me because it means I get to really decorate! Have you finished a big project lately?

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