Fall Table Display

I thought I'd mix it up a little this year with my fall table display. Instead of the traditional fall colors, I'm going with Black, White and Silver in my dining room.
Follow along and you'll see how I came about this unique and easy arrangement.

 I love Target and I love a deal, that's why I shop the inside aisles.
My eyes perk up when I see the red and white clearance stickers!
The wheels of creativity start brewing and
I've got my next DIY home decor project in the works.

 I picked up a couple of this large candle holders.

 I wasn't crazy about the color, but I could stand it for the price because spray paint is my friend!

 I also grabbed a couple clearance pillar candles.

I pulled out my favorite spray paint, and you guessed it...

I transformed them! Much better!

Next up, A C O R N S.
I had asked a friend if she had any acorns in her yard.
She sent me this picture of her deck and swept some up for me.

 Before I did anything with the acorns, I brushed each of them lightly with a paper towel
and then baked them at a low temperature for a couple hours.
Just to ensure they were nice and dried out (we don't need any critters crawling out!)
Some of the tops had separated from the acorns, so with a little hot glue we were as good as new!

Onto the fun stuff!
Using the same silver spray paint,
I laid my acorns in a shoe box and did a couple coats of paint,
rotating every 20 minutes or so.

I threw down this great black and white buffalo check runner I made.
Really it's just a piece of fabric from IKEA and I ironed down the edges
with no-sew tape (or stitch witchery).

I added a couple white ceramic pumpkins that I already had,
my new silver acorns to the ensemble and my great new pillar candles holders.

How great and simple are these classy silver acorns?! I just love them!

Happy Fall Y'all!

Bottle Lamp

I've gone crazy DIY-ing my own light fixtures and lamps!

I crafted up in the bottle lamp in no time! It's super easy and I'll show you how I did it.

 I found this bottle on clearance at Target (I always shop the clearance inside aisles first!)

 And I bought this bottle kit at Lowes...

 I followed the instructions on the back.

And in no time I had a brand new, less than $20.00 lamp!

The cord dangles down the outside back of the bottle.

I loved the way it turned out!

I may just make another one!

Easy 20 minute DIY Pizza Pan Chalkboard

This has got to be one of the most inexpensive, easiest and best DIY Home Projects I've ever done!

My sister-in-law was in town for the weekend and she wanted to create something for her new home. 

We decided she needed a little chalkboard for her kitchen.

 We grabbed a couple supplies from the Dollar Store (metal pizza pan ) and Target (chalk and twine from the One Spot) and of course I already had the Chalkboard Paint (Lowes) and a foam brush.

 Before got crazy with the paint, I drilled two small holes at the top of the pizza pan, 

so we could run twine through them in order to hang it on the wall.

 We put 2-3 coats of the chalkboard paint straight on the pizza pan. Drying in between each coat.

After the paint was dry we "seasoned" our new chalkboard by running regular white chalk over the entire surface. For a full tutorial on chalkboard art, see my post here.

We threaded the twine through the two holes and hung it up.

 It will be great for daily reminders, verse of the day or maybe even the weekly menu!

Twiggy Basket

Spring has finally arrived! At least in the South where I live!

I love this super easy and inexpensive Twiggy Basket on my front door.

It's so simple and really the only supplies you need to buy are 

flowers, burlap ribbon and a little bit of moss.

 

Start by gathering up some twigs from your yard or your neighbors yard (they'll be so grateful!)

I purchased several stems of flowers at Hobby Lobby. I wasn't sure exactly how many I'd need, 

so I bought more than enough because I knew I could always return what I didn't use.

This is my favorite brand at Hobby Lobby.

And if you buy them when the floral department is on sale, they turn out to be quite a steal!

Now here goes the fun part, find something in your recycling. Really anything with do, this will determine the shape of your basket. A cereal box cut in half would work great too!

I took apart the box and turned it inside out and then taped up the edges. 

This leaves us with a good neutral background.

I started by laying out my twigs on the box, breaking them with my hands, to the desired lengths.

Next I used a hot glue gun to adhere all the twigs to the box (don't forget the sides too!)

You could probably fill in the gaps with smaller twigs, but I like the idea of wedging some moss in between the gaps. Again I used a little hot glue.

I glued a piece of felt to the back of the cardboard, 

I did this to protect my door and it makes the project look a little more "finished."

I added my flowers and arranged them. I didn't cut any stems, 

just bent them so they'd fit in the box nicely (and if I choose to do a different arrangement some day I can use these flowers in something else).

What a beautiful natural display on my front door!

Before I added my burlap ribbon, I took a double layer of brown yarn and wrapped it all the way around the box. You can see it in the above picture and...

...how it wraps around the side of the box/basket.

The yarn wrapped around helps keep the basket from falling forward 

and it gives you something to attach the burlap ribbon to.

It's the perfect spring pop of color my front door needs.

My friends liked this idea so much we had a little craft party and they each made one.

We decided a big burlap bow on the front was a fun touch.

 The yellow flowers in the brown twiggy basket looks so great on this Farm House white door.

And really looks good just about anywhere!

Plate Wall Art

I have a large wall in my dining room that needed just the right art work. I searched through catalogs, my favorite home stores and I even thought about creating my own abstract painting. 

It wasn't until I saw some pictures of cute plate displays that inspired me. 

But I wanted to take it up a notch and do something a little more "untraditional."

 My walls are black, yes black! So I decided to start collecting white plates (with black, gold and silver accents), I texted my mom and a couple friends and asked them to keep a look out for some plates that might work for my new project.

My plates came from all kinds of different plates, thrift shops, 

Home Goods, Marshall's, Pier One, Target and some I already had!

I would not let myself spend more than $5.00 on any one single plate.

I found these great plate hangers that adhere to the backs of plates and can be removed later. 

I bought them at Hobby Lobby, but they are also available on Amazon here.

After washing and drying all the plates, I adhered the hangers to the backs. 

I then traced each plate onto paper, 

cut them out and made little mark where the hook was so I would know where to hang the nails.

I arranged all the plates on the floor below the wall where I was planning to hang them. I made several revisions and got the opinions from my daughter and husband. I moved things around, a lot, and then finally took a picture when I thought I had everything where I wanted it. Looking back now, I think I ended up changing the position again when I hung them on the wall.

 I hung the templates of my plates on to the wall.  

And then used the smallest nails I could find to hang each of my plates. 

I hung up the nails directly through the paper to keep everything in the right place.

 My china rarely get's used, so I thought it would be good to add a piece to the wall!

It was fun for me to gather different shapes and sizes of plate. 

This one above from Pier One, on clearance!

 This little treasure was 99 cents at an antique store!

I bought a set of these Issac Mizrahi dishes last year at Christmas. 

One of each design made it onto the wall.

I love this small oval Threshold platter from Target. 

It's fun to mix up not only the sizes but the shapes too!

And finally this plate came from a tea cup set from Home Goods. I bought it specifically for this purpose and then decided to use the tea cup as a candle (that's another blog post for another time!)

I love the big impact my new collection has made. 

They stand out on the dark wall and I get so many compliments when people walk in the room!