Decorating Archives - Page 62 of 67

Decorating, Destinations, Door, Home Decor, inspiration, painting, Painting & Antiquing Techniques

Go Bold or Go Home! Show Your True Colors.

Bright and Bold Colorful Front Doors Social Media Image

33 Colorful Front Doors

I am drawn to homes that have unique front door colors. I crave something beyond the normal white, black or burgundy. Give me a unique color that tells me something about its occupants! I love being able to say, we’re the only house on the street with the purple doors. In my book, you need to Go Bold or Go Home! Get out that paintbrush and show your true colors. Here are 33 Bright & Bold Colorful Front Doors:

Our front door. Purple Honor 8906N by Duron

Cameron Park is one of my favorite neighborhoods in Raleigh. It is tucked between Oberlin & Hillsborough Street (two very busy roads). The houses are old and the trees are ancient. But, there seems to be an ongoing competition for the boldest and brightest front doors. I spent an hour just walking around the neighborhood snapping pictures of these louder than words portals.

I used a Sherwin Williams color deck to choose an approximate match for each door. If you are considering painting your door with any of these colors, be sure to paint a large sample on poster board and hold it up to your door first. Keep in mind, some of the colors may need two coats before you see the true color.

Colorful front doors

Chartreuse SW0073

Blue Peacock SW0064

Halfway between Danube SW6803 and Dignity SW6804

Slick Blue SW6949

Open Seas SW6500

Crabby Apple SW7592

Atmospheric SW6505

Aqua Tint SW6939

Indulgent SW6969

Bee SW6683

Swimming SW6764

Fabulous Grape SW6293

Cloudless SW6786

Lobelia SW6809

Honorable Blue SW6811

Copper Pot SW7709

Sapphire SW6963

Wild Currant SW7583

Ebbtide SW6493

Lantern Yellow SW6687

Nautilus SW6780

Lei Flower SW6613

And just in case you have a lust for the international palette, these are a few doors I spotted in the UK:

Frank Blue SW6987 – Obviously this door has a weathered look though.

Fine Wine SW6307

Blue Chip SW6959

Nifty Turquoise SW6941

Blue Blood SW6965

Heart Throb SW6866

Talk about WOW factor! I found this green door online HERE.

Outrageous Green SW6922

And if that isn’t enough to catch your attention, look what Allison Cosmos did to this door:

eclectic entry design by chicago interior designer Allison Cosmos

This is my all time favorite front door photo from The Impatient Gardener. Could you tell that I’m drawn to blues?

Blue Chip SW6959

Back at the Pretty Handy Girl abode, my home’s doors were purple for over 7 years. I decided to add some vibrancy and paint the front doors an amazing green (Benjamin Moore Perennial Green). The front doors are beautiful now, but this project turned out to be the DIY project from HELL! If you ever need to strip paint off your front door, I have some tips and a tutorial for you.

Friends don’t let friends have boring front doors. Be sure to pin this graphic to share these colorful inspiring doors with your friends!

I hope you have been inspired! Now Go Bold or Go Home!

Speaking of painting, I have painted almost every room in our home now. Make that almost every room in two homes! You could say that over the years I’ve learned a few tricks of the trade. If you’re planning to paint, I recommend these favorite painting tools that I pull out for every painting job.

July 3, 2011/by Brittany Bailey

decor, Decorating, Do It Yourself, Giveaway, graphic letters and numbers, Home Decor, Master Bedroom

Leen the Graphics Queen and Installing Wall Vinyl

I had the opportunity to meet Leen the Graphics Queen last week when she, her husband and her two sweet boys were in town. We met at Monkey Joe’s (an inflatable playground) and our boys had a fun and energetic afternoon playing together. If you haven’t heard of Leen, she is widely known in the decorating blog circles as the go-to gal for wall decals and vinyl. She helped Layla & Kevin install an ENTIRE wall of words for a beach cottage makeover.

Beautiful, don’t you think?!

I asked Leen to make me a custom quote for our bedroom wall, the one where I had agonized over what phrase to put. After months of thinking about quotes, one came to me and I knew it was the quote for us. You see Pretty Handy Guy and I are HUGE Dave Matthews Band fans, and this lyric has special meaning to us:

Leen sent me a few samples of vinyl colors to help me decide. I fell in love with the silver vinyl which changes color depending on the lighting and where you are standing in the room (as shown above.)

If you’ve never installed vinyl before, it isn’t terribly difficult, but it does help to know a few tricks of the trade. Here is how I learned to install vinyl (back in the days when I worked for the sign and banner company):

Materials:

(I’ve included affiliate links for your convenience. I earn a small percentage from a purchase using these links. There is no additional cost to you. You can read more about affiliate links here.)

Wall decal
Level
Pencil with eraser
Painter’s tape
Old gift card
Spray bottle filled with water

Installing a Wall Quote:

Start by hanging your vinyl (front, lettering, backing and all) on the wall using painter’s tape to hold it. Adjust the location until you like where the decal will rest.

Set a level up against the bottom of the middle line of text. Adjust the placement of your decal until the type is level.

Draw a level horizontal line across the paper and let the line extend slightly onto the wall. Make a vertical line that is plumb (level up and down) and be sure to extend your line slightly off the paper and onto the wall.

You should now have intersecting lines that run vertical and horizontal on your wall graphic and four small tick marks extending onto the wall.

Remove your wall quote and lay it on a flat surface. Begin to remove the opaque shiny backing paper (it may have a grid or lettering on it.) Your decal should stick to the clear semi-transparent sticky sheet that was on top of the quote. If some letters come up, simply lay the paper back down and rub it firmly with the gift card and try again.

Continue peeling off the backing paper.

Be careful not to touch any of the lettering (or they can stick to your fingers and won’t remain in proper placement.)

You are now looking at your lettering in reverse on a sticky sheet. Good job, the hard part is over. Well, almost over.

Carefully pick up your quote and turn it so the sticky side faces your wall. Line up your lines with the tick marks still on the wall being VERY CAREFUL not to rest the sticky paper onto the wall. (If it accidentally sticks, carefully pull it off being sure that the letters come off with the sticky paper.)

When all four tick marks are lined up with your horizontal and vertical lines, gently press your decal down. Starting from the center, rub your hand from the center out to the edges to adhere the quote and the sticky paper to your wall.

Lightly spray water all over the sticky paper. This will loosen the sticky paper and release the vinyl decal.

Use your gift card to burnish (sign shop lingo) the letters onto the wall. Use firm pressure and be sure to rub all the letters with the card.

Carefully begin to peel the sticky paper off the wall. If the letters start to peel off with the paper, lay the paper back down over that letter and rub your finger on top of the paper to press the letter back onto the wall.

When the paper backing has been removed. Erase your tick marks.

Now stand back and admire your new wall quote!

Thank you Leen for helping me complete my bedroom makeover! I LOVE IT!

Take a few minute to browse through some of Leen the Graphics Queen‘s beautiful decals in her website.

Some of my favorites are:

Home Decor Accents

Trees and Flowers

June 20, 2011/126 Comments/by Brittany Bailey

Before and After, contact paper, Decorating, organizational tips

How to Use Contact Paper and Pimp My Closet

For the past six weeks I’ve been taking the Simplify101 workshop: Organizing101. Aby has been a great instructor, and it has motivated me to take back my home!

A few of the projects I’ve completed are:

Bathroom Vanity Drawers

Underneath the Kitchen Sink

Hall Coat Closet

AND…

…Duh, du, duuuunnnn. Our linen closet:

This abyss is 5 feet deep with no light…I wasn’t sure what I’d find in there. Did I just see E.T. hiding in that closet?

Per Aby’s instructions, I emptied the entire closet.

Uh huh, all that stuff was in that one closet! I told you it was an abyss. Check out that tail in the upper right hand corner, Pretty Handy Dog is coming to the rescue.

Wow, look at all that room. I can store…two little boys? Does this photo remind anyone else of Hansel and Gretel?

Once I had the closet emptied, I cleaned the shelves with some Shaklee Basic H2 cleaner (still liking this stuff!)

Now comes the fun part! I got to pretty up those ugly painted shelves with decorative contact paper (found at Target.)

When I worked for a sign and banner shop (oh about 22 years ago), I learned how to lay down vinyl without bubbles and wrinkles. The same method works well for contact paper as well.

Materials:

Contact paper
Scissors
X-acto knife
Staple gun
Safety Goggles

Instructions:

Begin by laying the contact paper on the shelf.

Cut it about 2 inches longer than the front of the shelf.

Flip the contact paper over and peel back about 3-4 inches and fold the backing down.

Now turn the contact paper back over so the adhesive is facing down. Line the paper up with the back edge and the wall. And press it down with your finger.

Gently pull the backing off the contact paper a few inches at a time.

At the same time press your hand in the middle of the paper and smooth the paper from the center to the outside edges. The goal is to push any air pockets out to the edge.

Pull the backing out a few more inches and use your hand to smooth forward and towards the sides again.

Repeat until the backing is completely removed.

If you need to, cut a notch out of the contact paper around the shelf supports.

Then fold the paper underneath the shelf.

Tack the paper in with the staple gun, one or two staples should hold it. Be very careful that the staple gun is shooting into the wood and not towards your face. In fact, Meri-K would tell you that you should be wearing eye protection while using a staple gun.

I chose to label the edges of my shelves (so Pretty Handsome Guy would obey the new closet organization rules!) I used some decorative baskets and bins to hold other odds and ends.

At the last minute I decided to add a plug-in style under-the-counter florescent light beside the door frame. I can’t tell you how wonderful it is to have a light in this closet now! No more boogie men hiding in there.

And they all lived happily ever after with their newly organized linen closet.

Check back bright and early Saturday morning. I have an important announcement for y’all! Get those noise makers, party hats and confetti ready. It’s PARTY TIME!

June 17, 2011/20 Comments/by Brittany Bailey

Before and After, Decorating, Home Tour

Screen Porch Tour

You know the saying about not waiting for your house to be perfect to invite people over? Well, I realized that even though my porch is not 100% complete, I shouldn’t wait to invite y’all over.

I have wanted to spruce up our screened porch for 3 years now. Screen porches like Between Naps on the Porch have beckoned me from afar. I always knew I wanted to do something similar to Susan’s porch.

So, after living here for 4 years, I finally got around to giving the screen porch a much needed makeover.

This is basically a representative “before” picture taken the month before we bought the house.

After we moved in, it stayed the same except we had a white square table and chairs for meals on the porch. Slowly I have been furnishing and decorating the porch with fixtures and accessories like: Ladder Display Shelves, Beachy Coffee Table, Minnow Trap Lights, Bamboo Painted Rug, Dream Big Butterfly Window, and my Garden Bench. My budget for this makeover was next to nothing, which presented a little bit of a challenge.

So, are you ready? Here is a tall glass of sweet tea with lemonade. Please come join me on my porch:

The two side chairs are actually from the table and chairs set. I just dressed them up with IKEA throw pillows. Someday I want to buy some wicker rockers to put in their place.

Remember the disgusting moldy coffee table I saved from the trash? There she is!

My favorite spot on the weekend. My Dad gave me this hammock for my 30th birthday and it is still in good shape after 10 years! Thanks Dad!

My semi-famous ladder display shelves I built from a $15 rickety old ladder.

The minnow trap pendant lights add the perfect amount of light after dark.

Were you wondering where I hung my Dream Big Butterfly window? Here she is:

That chippy little cabinet is the most expensive piece of furniture on the porch! I paid $85 for it at the flea market. It used to be a table, but someone cut off the legs and nailed boards to the sides and added a door to the front.

Such a great spot for catching up on my favorite magazines: Country Living, Better Homes and Gardens and Flea Market Style (the issue Layla and Kevin were recently in.)

Can you believe a neighbor was trying to get rid of this little decorator table? I gladly sprinted over to her house to pick it up. Then I draped a clearance shower curtain from Target over it. Yup,that is a shower curtain!

{Sigh} My favorite flower, blue hydrangeas.

Remember that purple garden bench? Well, she wasn’t weathering the constantly changing weather conditions, so I brought her in the porch and gave her some TLC and a few coats of paint. I just need to sew a cushion for her.

Thank you so much for coming over. I enjoyed our time together. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have a date with a hammock. Zzzzzzz.

June 9, 2011/87 Comments/by Brittany Bailey

Decorating, DIY, Do It Yourself, framing, leveling

Hanging Objects on a Wall the Right Way (the First Time)

It’s a jolly good day, wouldn’t you say?! Did you watch the Royal Wedding this morning? Or did you DVR it to watch later (like I did.) I hope you enjoyed my photos from London and didn’t mind the diversion.

Now I’m back into DIY tutorial mode for the time being. Today you can get a double dose of Pretty Handy Girl! Can I get a “WOOT!”

First up I will be showing you how to make Cubby Shelves out of a Bread Crate and a wooden pallet.

And the best part about this project is it doesn’t require any nails or screws! To view this tutorial you will want to head over to visit with the very lovely and very beautiful Amy from Positively Splendid.

Not only is she as beautiful as Kate Middleton, but she also possesses the talent to create a royal wedding gown. Too bad Kate didn’t call her to design her dress. Amy is a sweetheart and a fellow blogger I met at Blissdom. You will just love her blog!

After you have read my tutorial (and gobbled up several of Amy’s tutorials) you can slip back over here to learn how to hang almost anything on the wall perfectly level and plumb the first time. I’ll be showing you how I hung my bread crate cubby shelves in the tutorial.

Let’s begin, shall we?

Materials:

Picture Hangers (be sure to check weight limit)

Hammer

Level

Pencil

If your object doesn’t have hooks or a wire yet, you will likely need:

D-ring hooks

Screwdriver or Drill with a screwdriver bit.

If you have had misadventures hanging pictures, I have the tutorial for you! Hanging anything on the wall successfully doesn’t have to be hard. All you need are the right hangers and the right technique.

Because my crate didn’t have any hangers attached to it, I needed to add D-ring hooks. Starting on the left, I carefully measured 3″ down from the top of my object. Then made a mark 4″ in from the side. I repeated the same steps on the right side making sure the hooks would be the same distance in from the edges and 3″ from the top edge.

Then I screwed the D-ring hooks into the back of the crate.

Hanging something heavy requires using some different hangers that are rated for the weight of the object you are hanging. Bulldog Hardware sent me some of their rubberized picture hanging hooks to try. These have rubberized tips to keep pictures from shifting or moving (like when my son rushes inside slamming the door behind him.)

In my case, my crate weighs about 12 lbs. filled up. So, I reached for two 50 lb. hangers (Did you forget I have boys that can exert up to 100 lbs. of pressure on anything in my home?)

Start by holding your object up against the wall where you want to hang it.

Make a pencil mark at the top of your object. Set your object down.

Now determine what you want to center your object on. For example: centering the object on a wall; centering it between two windows; or centering your object on another object. In my case I am centering my shelf on the toilet.

Find the center and make a pencil mark.