first home

dearbaby:

I love reading blogs with these beautiful, well design do it yourself project tutorials. I’m always so impressed by other’s crafting/refurb abilities but my problem is I don’t have the patience or time to complete all the gorgeous DIY’s I keep pinning to Pinterest. I once started one of those yarn-wrap wreaths. I got halfway through, decided it was taking too long and banished the project to the basement where it still sits today.  Also, I don’t sew… so that cuts out like half of the available projects out there. So I’ve decided I want to start a series called DIY PROJECTS FOR SEMI CRAFTY NON PERFECTIONISTS.

Do you fit into this group? If so, I challenge you to put up your own “embrace the mistakes” how-tos and share your link here. If your idea of “sewing” is glueing the heck out of something with your glue gun, then come in my darling, this blog series is for you.

So to start things off… I said I would put up a how-to on Arlo’s wardrobe on the blog, but then I started thinking that just by looking at it, 99% of you smarty pants could figure out how to do this on your own. But, eh, here’s my tutorial anyway.

First things first - Let’s restate the obvious: I’m not a perfectionist. Like, at all. So I didn’t care if the lines were exactly the same degree of slant or if everything lined up exactly so. I’m a big fan of the “eye-ball it” method. Tape, stand back, if it looks right then move on, if it doesn’t then adjust.  I used zero measuring tapes for this project.

Materials: Furniture piece, painters tape, paint, screwdriver to remove handles

Total Project Time: 35 minutes of effort, 2 hours of waiting for paint to dry.

Pro tip: (ha! pro! ha!) Don’t use this kind of tape. Use painters tape. I didn’t have any and was too impatient to wait until I could pick some up. This masking tape allowed for a little bit of bleed that required me to do a touch up afterwards.

The fun part!!!

I was so impatient waiting for it to dry. I wanted to rip the paint off well sooner than I should have so to keep me from going in there to poke at it to see if it was dry a dozen times, we left and went to visit some friends. When we came home the paint was dry and my masterpiece was revealed. (Yes it’s slightly off… around this house, we call that “charm”)

Now I need a new project! I’ll be scouring Pinterest for stuff I can do without an art degree or ten hours of time (because basically I’ve got 30 minutes, 7 pipe cleaners, and some washi tape). I feel like I have the potential to be like the Semi-homemade lady on the Food Network who makes meals out of canned food & store bought cake mix - except with crafts and painting stuff.  I may embrace her mindset and add a signature cocktail drink to go along with these projects - the possibilities are endless.

Let’s make (easy) stuff together.

Love,

M