painting Archives - Page 8 of 33

DIY Produce Rack

Hey everyone! It’s Katie from Addicted 2 DIY again! I’ve got a great project to share with you all to store your summer bounty. I’ve been looking for a way to store fresh produce for a while. It was driving me crazy storing everything on my kitchen counter or having it get lost in the pantry. Forgotten potatoes start to smell pretty bad after a while. I stumbled across some adorable wire baskets in the Target dollar spot a few months ago for only $3 apiece! At that price, I bought several and figured I’d find some way to use them. I thought they would be perfect to store fruit and vegetables, so I built this simple DIY produce rack using some scrap wood in the garage.

Supplies:

1 – 1×6 @ 6′ long
1 – 1×4 @ 8′ long
2 – 5 gallon paint sticks
miter saw
staple gun
3/4″ staples
wood glue
wood stain
chalk paint
adhesive vinyl
Farmer’s Market Silhouette cut file
wire baskets
screw eyes
drywall anchors and screws (I used 75lb anchors)
D-ring picture hangers

Cut the 1×6 into two 31″ pieces and the 1×4 into one 31″ piece. Cut the paint sticks in half.

Glue and nail the paint sticks to the back of the boards using 3/4″ staples. You can also use a brad nailer and 5/8″ brad nails if you don’t have a staple gun.

For a weathered finish, stain the boards with a dark stain and then dry brushed chalk paint onto the wood until satisfied with the look. Allow the stain to dry overnight and then you can dry brush it the next day.

To dry brush, add a tiny amount of paint to your paint brush and dab the excess off onto a paper towel, then brush it in even strokes on your wood. It is a great technique to make your new wood look decades old. Read more

June 24, 2015/19 Comments/by Addicted 2 DIY

art, arts and craft, Before and After, Build It, Crafts, kids art, Paintbrushes, painting, Trash to Treasure, Upcycling

Little Playhouse for Ollie {Mystery Thrift Off}

I love giving my boys creative freedom on projects. Frequently I let them have access to my scrap pile. Inevitably they build little houses for their stuffed animals. This little house was designed and painted by my 8 year old for Ollie (his little stuffed octopus.) I helped him build it. If you want to build a little playhouse for your child to paint, follow along.

Before we begin, I need to back up and tell you that this project is part of The Mystery Thrift Off.

#TheMysteryThriftOff is the brainchild of Lindsey from Better After. She chose a handful of people to take part in this challenge. After scouring her local thrift shops for ugly and hopeless items, she shipped off the chosen items to those of us in the challenge. I signed up—because frankly—I love a challenge. And, I love saving ugly items from the landfill. Be sure to see some of the other Mystery Thrift Off transformations at Better After and vote for your favorite.

But, when the box arrived from Lindsey, I was terrified to open it up! I mean what if she had sent me a ceramic scabies bear! Yikes. You can imagine my relief when I opened the box to reveal this dated Christmas village.

Not too bad looking is it.? Truth be told, it was falling apart and the colors were hunter green, colonial blue, mauve and fleshy tan.

I quickly pulled the three houses apart and began to transform them into A Chalkboard Arrow Sign, a Housewarming Gift Caddy and the Little Playhouse I’m going to show you today.

I began by removing some of the embellishments.

I saved them for a future project.

Next I sanded off the glue.

Here’s where you can pick up the tutorial. Start by cutting a house shape into a piece of plywood or scrap wood. Cut out a doorway (the Dremel Multi-Max worked perfect for this task.)

Flip the house shape over and attach hinges to one side of the door and the house.

Cut two pieces for the sides of the house (1″ x 4″ lumber) and a back piece the same height as the house front.

Clamp the back of the house to a solid surface and attach the sides of the house with glue and finish nails. Read more

June 12, 2015/2 Comments/by Brittany Bailey

art, arts and craft, Before and After, Birthday Gift, Build It, Crafts, decor, Gift Ideas, gift wrapping, gifts, painting, Trash to Treasure, Upcycling

Housewarming Gift Caddy {Mystery Thrift Off}

Housewarming Gift Crate | Pretty Handy Girl

Do you have a new neighbor or know someone who just moved? It’s time to celebrate with them by giving them a housewarming gift caddy! This is an easy gift tote that you can customize to any size you like. Plus, the recipient can use the caddy for storage or display after the gift has been enjoyed.

Before we begin, I need to back up and tell you that this project is part of The Mystery Thrift Off.

#TheMysteryThriftOff is the brainchild of Lindsey from Better After. She chose a handful of people to take part in this challenge. After scouring her local thrift shops for ugly and hopeless items, she shipped off the chosen items to those of us in the challenge. I signed up—because frankly—I love a challenge. And, I love saving ugly items from the landfill. Be sure to see some of the other Mystery Thrift Off transformations at Better After and vote for your favorite.

But, when the box arrived from Lindsey, I was terrified to open it up! I mean what if she had sent me a ceramic scabies bear! Yikes. You can imagine my relief when I opened the box to reveal this dated Christmas village.

Not too bad looking is it.? Truth be told, it was falling apart and the colors were hunter green, colonial blue, mauve and fleshy tan.

I quickly pulled the three houses apart and began to transform them into A Chalkboard Arrow Sign, a Little Playhouse and the Housewarming Gift Caddy I’m going to show you today.

Before I got started, I removed some nails from the house on the right. And then I was ready to get building.

Ready to create your own caddy? Let’s get to it.

Materials:

1″ x 6″ board
Wood glue
Finish nails
1″ x 1″ square dowel
1/2″ lattice trim (or other decorative trim)
2″ screws
Spray primer
Paint (used Botanical Home Decor Paint)
Craft paint
Paintbrushes
Patch-plus-primer
Putty knife
Sandpaper

Instructions:

Cut the 1″ x 6″ into 5 pieces:

2 – 6″ x 15″sides
1 – 6″ x 15″ base
2 – 6″ x 11″ front & back pieces with a 45 degree corners cut into the tops

Add a line of glue along the bottom of the front and back of the caddy. Attach them to the base with finish nails.

Add a line of glue to cut ends of the sides and add a line of glue to the bottom of the sides. Attach the front to the sides with finish nails. Repeat for the back piece.

Attach the sides by nailing through the bottom and into the sides.

Pre-drill a hole into each end of the 1″ x 1″ square dowel. Attach the square dowel to the top of the front and back pieces with the 2″ screws.

The completely assembled crate should look like this:

Spray the caddy with spray primer inside and out.

Paint caddy with a solid color first. (I used a new paint and love the texture and coverage. Botanicals Home Decor Paint in Peony went on smoothly like chalky paints.)

Use the craft paints to paint details like windows, shutters and a door onto the front of the caddy. If you’re feeling truly artistic, you can paint the back too.

Nail the lattice trim pieces to the sides of the caddy for a little decoration.

Putty all nail holes.

Sand the putty smooth after it has dried. Touch up paint the putty holes.

Fill your caddy with wine, flowers, food or other goodies to celebrate the new homeowners.

The recipient will be tickled pink. Haha, get it, a little pink house?

Pin for later!

June 10, 2015/1 Comment/by Brittany Bailey

Aged, antiques, Before and After, dining room, distressing, faux finish, Furniture, Glaze, painting, Painting & Antiquing Techniques

Aging and Antiquing Furniture Legs

Aging and Antiquing Furniture | Pretty Handy Girl

Aging and antiquing furniture legs is an easy task if you want to fake age on a table or chairs. With some stain, paint and glaze you can fool most people into believing that your new furniture is an antique.

There are many ways to age and antique furniture. This tutorial will show you my favorite technique for table and chair legs.

If you’re just stumbling upon this post, I shared the tutorial for building a table last week. The table legs I used are the rope twist legs from Osborne Wood Products. I worked with Osborne Wood Products and custom designed the legs, so you won’t find them anywhere else. I do think they should have named them the “Brittany” legs or “Pretty Handy Legs.” LOL. I’m just excited that they provided me with a set for my table at no charge. 😉

This tutorial works best with unfinished wood, but you can skip the staining step if you have pre-finished furniture.

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.)

Furniture
Minwax Early American Wood Stain
White Chalky Paint (I used Farmhouse Paint)
Miss Mustard Seed Milk Paint (Linen)
Modern Masters Tintable Glaze
Modern Masters Van Dyke Brown
Modern Masters Coffee Bean
Rag
Paintbrush
Sander
Sanding discs
Miss Mustard Seed’s Furniture Wax

Instructions:

Stain your furniture leg with the dark stain. Follow up with a second coat if you desire. Allow the stain to dry.

Paint the legs with white chalky paint. Add a second coat if you need more coverage.

Mix up the Miss Mustard Seed Milk Linen colored paint and brush on a layer of milk paint on top of the white paint. (For more variety, you could use a contrasting color instead of linen.) Read more

April 29, 2015/7 Comments/by Brittany Bailey

Before and After, bloggers, cabinet, chalk paint, Closet renovation, Contributor, DIY, DIY tools, DIYCourage, Do It Yourself, Home Decor, Home Office, painting, Painting & Antiquing Techniques, renovation, Spray paint metal, storage, Upcycling

File Cabinet Makeover Using Chalk Paint

Hey there everyone! I’m working in my craft room to give it a major overhaul and make it a much more functional and creative space. It also doubles as an office that I share with my husband. It’s not always the easiest thing to do, partly because of a lack of organization. One of the biggest projects we’re taking on is completely making over the closet. I’ve already replaced the closet doors with curtains and I love how much easier it has made it to get to things in the closet.

File Cabinet Makeover Using Chalk Paint

This file cabinet is one of the things that goes in that closet. When we finish making over the closet, it will be moved to a more prominent location that will be more visible, especially if the curtains are left open. Because of that, I decided that the boring beige color had to go and I gave it a quick and SUPER cheap makeover!

Here’s what you’ll need to do this project yourself!

File Cabinet Makeover Using Chalk Paint Materials:

Paint Sprayer or paint brushes
2 – sample sized containers of paint (I used Valspar Cut Ruby)
1 – container BB Frösch Chalk Paint Powder
1 – container BB Frösch Premium Finishing Wax (clear)
1 – wax brush or lint free wax cloth

File Cabinet Makeover Using Chalk Paint Instructions:

Unless you plan on painting it, you want to remove all of the hardware off of your file cabinet. I wasn’t quite sure how this would go, but it was extremely easy to remove everything. Just a couple of bolts and I was pretty much done!

To protect the inside of the cabinet from overspray or paint dripping through, cover all of the holes from the inside using masking or painter’s tape.

Time to mix your chalk paint. What I love so much about BB Frösch Chalk Paint Powder is that there’s virtually no waste. You mix as you go. I like using the sample-sized paint containers because they’re cheap and if it’s a project where I’m not sure how much paint I’ll need, at least I know I won’t go way over by buying a quart. The other amazing thing is that there’s virtually no prep work.

Wipe down the file cabinet with a wet cloth and that is it!

If you choose to paint your cabinet using a roller or paint brush, you can get started from this point. If you plan to use a paint sprayer, you’ll need to prep the paint. First and foremost, strain your paint! Lowe’s sells little cone paint strainers (they look like coffee filters) for $.98 a four pack. Once your paint is strained, you need to thin it with water. The HomeRight paint sprayer that I use comes with everything you need to do this, plus great instructions. Read more

April 22, 2015/6 Comments/by Addicted 2 DIY