Before & After Home Tour (Part 5) : The Little Girl's Room

  I love how this blog inspires me to get more of my projects done so I can tell you about them. It's wonderful motivation!

  My little princess & I cleaned up her room & hung some new pictures this week. She says, "My room is awesome!" :) I quickly took some pictures to share with you.

  It went from bo-ring to bright & cheery.

  This was actually one of the better rooms in our home when we moved in. It was just bland. We removed the carpet & old navy blind.

  We painted it a pretty pink for our princess-in-training. She wanted a pink & purple bedroom. When I heard that I cringed. I was imagining a hideous, neon shaded room. Fortunately, things didn't turn out that way. Lots of white with only small splashes of purple helped pull this off.

And because we all love a before & after:

  On another note, this weekend is the Fall Festival I've been working so hard to prepare for. If you'd like to see some of the goodies I'll be selling at my booth this weekend, click here, here, here, & here. I'll let you know how things went on Monday. I hope you'll join me.

Enjoy your day!

Linkin' Up:

The Creative Paige

Tatertots & Jello

Playful Decor

Before & After Home Tour (Part 4)

  It's been awhile since I've blogged about our house, so today I'm adding the newest addition to the Home Tour Series. Our master bedroom. I was a little tentative about posting this with the room the way it is. But let's be real... life isn't always perfect & neither are our houses. This is how the room looks right now. But there are still some changes to take place.

  When we bought the house, the master bedroom was done in a faux stainless steel look complete with a silver painted shade, upholstery tacks in the walls, & old shag carpet.

We painted, pulled out the carpet, put down laminate, put up new window coverings & things are looking much more welcoming.

Here's the part I wasn't crazy about revealing: The dresser in our room leaves something to be desired. Another word to describe it is B-O-R-I-N-G. I've got plans for it. It's on my to-do list. I promise once it gets finished, I'll post pics. Here's an idea for it:

Source

I love the stripes.

What's on your project list this week? Leave me a comment to tell me. I'm all about reader interaction. :)

Enjoy your day!

Linkin' Up:

Tuesday Talent Show

Ta-da Tuesday

Tatertots & Jello

From Green to Grey

  Happy Monday! How was your weekend? We tackled our painting project this weekend & I'm here to show you the results.

  Our main floor hallway needed some freshening up. When we bought the house, the hallway was a drab beige colour with dated gold veined mirrors on the far wall. Before we moved in, we removed the old mirrors & painted it a light, cheery green. After 4 years of little fingers & just life in general, it was in need of a fresh coat of paint. We were out of the original paint we used & had to purchase paint to get the job done. So we figured if we were going to make a change, now's the time! I chose a pretty grey from General Paint called "Windblown". After two coats, the deed is done! And I LOVE the results! It looks sophisticated & is fabulous next to my "Camelot" walls in the Living Room.

  I looked through all of our pictures from when we bought the house & sadly, I didn't take one of the hallway. This is the closest to a hallway before picture... the hall linen closet. One really great thing about this house is the fact that it has lots of closets! We have 8 now & there were 10 when we bought the house. We took one out when we renovated the kitchen / dining area / living room & we took out the one in the basement bathroom to redo the shower. The shower is still incomplete but there will probably be a small storage cupboard going in the plans. Anywoo... the old hallway closet...

The hallway closet now:

And here is the green that the hall & back entry have been the past 4 years:

AFTER shots:

I also quite like how the art work I have looks against the grey. 

  My weekend also consisted of copious amounts of laundry, mending a pile of toys & books, cleaning off my craft table, & a few other random cleaning tasks. What kept you occupied this weekend?

  I also added a new tab to the menu bar here at Silver Boxes. "Come Tour My Home!" is up & running. I'll be adding more rooms as I blog about them, but feel free to poke around my house & have a look. :)

  Stay tuned this week for a yummy recipe involving marshmallows, my bulletin board project, papercrafts, & some household tips. I'm also excited to be attending the semi annual flea market here in Saskatoon on Saturday! I'll be posting about that next week. But for now, we'll focus on the week ahead. :) Have a great one!

Enjoy your day!

Linkin' Up:

Tater Tots & Jello

Pinspiration

  As I told you last week, I have joined Pinterest. What a wealth of inspiration it's been! There are so many decorating ideas, crafts, recipes, fashion trends... the list is endless. 

  Here are several of my favourite finds. I will break them into categories so they (hopefully) don't overwhelm. I hope you enjoy & are inspired by these images. (Disclaimer: I do not own these images. I will link back to the source provided on Pinterest.)

Ideas for the home:

I love this plate arrangement on the wall as well as the amazing turquoise the piano has been painted. I don't think I would have the courage to paint my old friend (my piano), but I might if I came across one thats wood was in bad shape. The thing is, I don't NEED a piano. But that colour would be pretty somewhere else, perhaps? 

See? Pinterest = inspiration! 

Classy Clutter

Okay, I love pretty much everything about this kitchen. The turquoise ceiling, the awesome backsplash, the very cool hardware on the cabinets, & the fact that the cabinets go all the way up to the ceiling. 

This one is staying in my "dream home" file. 

Canadian House & Home

I am IN LOVE with the colour combo grey & yellow. 

Southern Living

I'm thinking I may try this yellow stripe in my basement bathroom. 

houzz

Desire to Inspire

Craft ideas:

Look at this lovely wreath made of old book pages. Thrift shops are full of cheap 2nd hand books!

Brassy Apple

Wood letters covered in old maps. You could even use maps you brought home from a trip. 

Pinterest

House number pumpkins. Such a great idea!

Lookie What I Did

Cookie Recipes 

(a.k.a. get out a napkin 

because you're going to start drooling):

Salted Caramel Pretzel Chocolate Chip Cookies

The Diary Of Dave's Wife

Caramel Stuffed Apple Cider Cookies... are you kidding me?!

Scrambled Henfruit

Mint Chocolate Chip Cookies

Flickr

Makeover Goodness:

Adorable painted school desk

Brown Paper Packages

Union Jack Packing Palett Table

Tres Chere

Pink bedside tables - how cute!

Natty By Design

I even have a whole folder (on Pinterest it's called a "Board") of just Owls. 

Cuz you know I love me some Owls:

I think I may have to attempt these Christmas tree owls

Juicy Bits

AMAZING owl cake

Cake Wrecks

A Pumpkin owl is perfect at this time of year

Sara's Party Perfect

 Well, does that get your mojo flowing? These are just the tip of the Pinterest iceburg! I'm pumped & ready to do something to make our home a nicer place. This weekend, we're tackling the painting of our main floor hallway & back entry. What's on your to do list? 

Enjoy your weekend!

Linkiin' up with: Two Things In Common

"Gilded" Pumpkins & Squash Tutorial

  What do water, pumpkins, & spray paint have in common? Well, for today they are three of the objects needed for the "gilded" pumpkin & squash project I made yesterday.

  First of all, let me tell you that this project is super fast! It only took me 10 minutes plus drying time.

Here's what you need:

-Pumpkins and/or squash. I used the mini ornamentals that you can buy this time of year at the grocery store.
-A bucket of water
-Metallic spray paint (I had some silver spray paint left over from my silver side table project)
-Rubber gloves
-Newspaper or cardboard to place pumpkins on while they are drying

1) Fill your bucket with water almost to the top for easy dipping.

2) Shake your spray paint & generously spray a layer of paint onto the surface of the water. Spray paint floats because it's oil based.

3) Dip your pumpkins / squash into the water & paint mixture. You may want to dip a few times to get the desired amount of "gilding". I found that I could dip 2 pumpkins / squash & then I had to add more spray paint to the water.

4) Allow the "gilding" to dry. Mine took about 2 hours to dry.

5) Display & enjoy!

How easy is that?! I think they are so pretty. They would also be pretty in a display with a few different metallics... silver, gold, & bronze, for instance. If you give it a try, be sure to link me up with your pictures so I can see your results!

Enjoy your day!

Linking up to: Nest of Posies Fall Festival & Someday Crafts

What a Little Spray Paint Can Do!

  There is power in a can of spray paint. Well, not literally, but think of all the wonderful projects you've done that involve spray paint. It's a wonderful thing. And the colours that are out there these days are truly beautiful.

  If you've been intimidated by spray paint in the past, don't be. It's so simple to use. Go pick up a can in a colour that you love, make a trip to the thrift store & buy something with good lines but bad colour. Then, break out the spray paint! 

  Here are some such projects that I've done over the past several years. I sadly was not blogging then so I don't have any before photos to show you. You'll have to use your imagination. :)

  The first one I'll show you is a set of canisters that were given to me several years ago. They were originally a 70's avocado green. A little black spray paint & Shazam! They're back in business!

  The second one I'll show you was actually painted by my mom & given to me. My wonderful mom is a real life interior decorator & I'm blessed enough to be able to pick her brain for ideas & suggestions. This mirror was originally in a gold frame. Not so much my taste. Look how unexpectedly fun a coat of hot pink paint makes it!

  

  Number three is one of a set of wall candle sconces that my mom bought for me from an antique show. They were originally painted gold, but again I broke out the black spray paint. Now these beauties have a place of honour in my living room.

  So are you feeling inspired to go paint something? What colour would you choose & what do you have in mind? Spill the beans & share your blog links. I'd love to see YOUR spray paint makeovers!

  On a side note, if you've tried commenting on my blog before without success, please give it another shot. I've recently switched my commenting format & it is now quick & easy!

  If you'd like to see more projects I've done involving spray paint see: My silver table & my thrift shop owl.

Enjoy your day!