How to do a gallery wall

I love the look of gallery walls. It's a great way to display your favorite pictures, art, and other things in a way that looks artistic, intentional, and complete. My sister Adrienne just did a really cute one at her house and sent over her pictures. 

The best way to do a gallery wall is to lay it out on the ground first.  This way, you can move it around until you get it the way you want it without putting any holes in the wall. 

If you really doubt your skills on actually hanging it, you can get a piece of butcher paper, newspaper, or card board and trace around the items. Use this as a pattern to tape on the wall and mark where the holes go with a thumb tac. 

So cute, right? Good job, Adrienne!  I have also done a gallery wall recently. 

Frames don't necessarily need pictures to look good. Especially these great vintage frames that are artwork in and of themselves. You can also use larger frames to go around smaller ones. This makes all these different pieces look like one collection. 

For a more formal look, use all black and whites or sepia tones. You can also do a very modern look using the same method with sleek black frames and black and wite photographs. 

Have fun putting together your gallery wall!

-LeeAnn

A good ol' fashioned guest room.

I am blessed to have extra room in the basement of our house. My husband and father in law finished it a few years ago and it's been so nice! I love having guests and I want them to feel at home and comfortable in their surroundings. I finished decorating it a while ago and finally got around to posting it! 

Since it's in a basement, I wanted it to feel very bright and cheery. So I chose yellow for the walls and ceiling. I wanted it to have a cozy cottage feel and felt like a quilt would be a really nice touch. I found this quilt and pillow set at Walmart for $20. Score! I already had the other items and I made the decorative pillow from extra material. 

I picked up this vintage dresser when I was 16. Yes, I have loved furniture and design forever. Lol. It's great for company who is staying for a long period of time so they don't have to live out of a suitcase. It's also nice as an additional space for company to get ready with the mirror. 

It's also nice to have a little message board with important info- like wifi password! 

I was using my phone, so the lighting is kinda funky. This is a dollar store project. Baskets nailed to a wall. Seriously anyone can accomplish this! I didn't really have a budget for this room ( as is the case with most of my decorating) so this worked out great. Simple, cute, and cheap. My three favorite things. 

The artwork above the bed is my husband's grandfather's hymnal from his pulpit when he was a Pastor in Michigan.

The room is pretty small so night stands would just make it too crowded. I will probably end up doing some small shelving mounted on the wall like in my master bedroom. 

Hope this inspired you to set up your guest space! 

Thanks!

LeeAnn 

Vintage Inspired Play Kitchen

 I picked up this sad and dirty little kitchen at a storage unit sale.

When I say sad and dirty...I mean vile. Filthy. Spider eggs. It smelled...weird.

 

 The storage company had a bunch of people that were delinquent on their payments, so they sell all the stuff in the unit. Its sad that people lose their stuff this way....  But I'm not going to lie.... You get awesome deals from these types of sales. I felt like I was in an episode of Storage Wars or American Pickers. I scored a lot of really cool stuff for pretty cheap.

This was my first project using chalk paint and wax. I used a recipe I found online and went to town. It was so easy to use, although very time consuming compared to my usual technique of spraying. The bones of this little kitchen were pretty good, but the lower cabinets were in really rough shape so I decided to bag them (after about an hour of trying to get them to fit right, and level, and stay closed...grrr).

 Here is the finished project. I modge-podged paper doilies to the backsplash, added little hooks for teacups in the upper cabinet, used chalkboard paint on the inside of the cabinet doors, changed the pulls, and used vintage tea towels for the curtains. Several hours... but worth it.

I LOVE the way it turned out. This kitchen sold to a very nice lady :)

-LeeAnn

Shabby Chic Trunk!

In my house- if it doesn't move- it gets spray painted. I love spray paint. It transforms anything. I picked up this trunk at a yard sale the other day. It was just a normal grey color with silver hinges. I love the color yellow and decided to paint and glaze this. However- I already have a giant trunk in my house that I painted turquoise. (and I am trying to raise money for Disneyland :) ) SO THIS ONE IS FOR SALE. $60. The dimensions are 30" x 15 1/2" x 12"  (LWH). Perfect for home decor, storage, or a child's toy box in their room.

SOLD!

       -LeeAnn

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Magnetic Photo Frame Tutorial

One of my New Year's resolutions is to get organized. I am trying to tackle one drawer or cabinet per day. Today I was working on the spice cabinet when I glanced over and noticed the hodge podge of photos, invites, memos, etc. all over my fridge. There must be a more esthetically pleasing way to display these things, right? So I checked out Pinterest and found these adorable magnetic frames. They were so easy! After I made the first two, I could pretty much make one from start to finish in less than 10 minutes. Cheap, easy, quick and cute. Try it out!

Materials Needed

Foam Core Board
Scrapbook Photo Frames made from cardstock (optional)
Poster Board (if you are making your own templates, also optional)
Scrapbook Paper
Magnetic Tape Strips
Sharp Craft Knife
Sharpie Marker
Spray Adhesive
Glue
Fine Grit Sand Paper
Craft Paint
Foam Brushes

Step 1

If you are making your own frame templates, draw or trace them out on to the poster board. After I purchased the poster board, I raided my scrapbook box and found a bunch of frames made from card stock so I used those instead of the poster board. Using my Sharpie (well, after I finally found my Sharpie anyway...), I just traced them directly on to the foam core board. After tracing several of these, I then had a light bulb moment. Why not just go grab a picture frame from the hallway and take the back off and glass out and trace that? So I did. And it worked AWESOME. This is especially great if you want to make a bigger frame or you have a cool shaped frame you can trace.

















Step 2
Put a cutting board under where you will be cutting. Using your craft knife, cut out the outer and inner frame of the board.













Step 3
Choose the scrapbook paper that you would like to cover your frame with and cut paper slightly bigger in size than the frame. Next, spray your frame with the spray adhesive (I go outside on the lawn for this part). Stick the scrapbook paper design side up on top of the frame. Now turn it design face down on the cutting board so you can see the overlap of paper and trim the excess off all outer sides.

















Step 4
Cut an X from corners to corners on the inside of the frame. It should look like this-



















Step 5-
Using a foam brush, dab it in glue (I used Mod Podge Decopauge Glue) and brush the inside of one side of the frame. Fold over the paper flap onto the back and hold until secure, smoothing out any wrinkles or bubbles. Glue all 4 sides. Trim off an excess corners that overlap the edge. Here is a pic of the back after I glued it.


















Step 6
Lightly sand the rough edges of the frame. This hides any uneven cuts or bumps from the foam board.

Step 7
Using a coordinating craft paint that will complement your paper, brush all 4 edges of the frame. I used a dark brown for mine. Some of the paint might get on the front edges of the frame. I just lightly wiped it with a damp paper towel and it gave it kind of an antiqued look that I really liked! (As you can see, I need a manicure STAT!)














Step 8
After the paint has dried, peel and stick the magnet strips on the back of the frame. You may need to cut the strips depending on the size of your frame.













Step 9
Find a cute picture, child's art work, school note, ect., keeping in mind that it needs to be slightly larger than the opening in the center, so the edges of the photo/paper will be hidden under the frame. Now go stick it on the fridge! (These frames are also perfect for filing cabinets, memo boards, ect.)





- Nicole