Rugs are Expensive!

So Andrew and I are in the process of painting all our new spaces... one of the first areas we had to tackel was our kitchen... when we bought the house the kitchen was this mauve-y purple color called Poker Face by Behr...

So in the process of choosing our new color I ended up with 4 different sample bottles of paint... and they're all mostly full... seems a little bit wasteful!

And... our beautiful tile floors were seeming a bit bare.... so I decided to search for a green rug... and I found this beauty...

The rug is by Anthropologie  ... It's 4' by 6' and costs a whopping $298!!!

So it is too big and way to expensive... and then I saw some pretty cool tutorials on Tatortots & Jello and House of Smiths on painting and Ikea rug...

Since I already had a bunch of sample paint I only had to pick up a few more cans and the rug...

This is the Egeby Rug from Ikea - $25.00

Each sample can of paint cost $2.94.... and I got:

Cyan - Behr

Blades of Grass - Disney

Bonsai - Martha

Gone Bananas - Valspar

In addition to the ones I already own:

Ryegrass - Behr

Oolong Tea - Martha

Retro Avacado - Behr

After taping off the edges I layed the rug down on some plastic in the garage and got to painting...

The first layer did not go well... I wasn't sure quite how to get the stripe effect... so I started by just pouring the paint on to the rug in lines and blending the paint from the 1/2" poured paint to about a 2" stripe...I wasn't really worried about overlapping the stripes or too much blending... it really in not about perfection... 

Anyways, the first layer just got soaked up by the rug and was realllllllly washed out.

Oh... and then, when I went to paint the second layer there was water leaking from the ceiling... yikes! A few hours later and a huge hole in my garage ceiling... we figured out that the water line to the fridge had a hole in it and has been filling the space above my car with water and finally burst...

So Yay! We get to replace the insulation and dry wall.... but at least {after the 2nd coat} we ended up with this beauty:

 It is not an exact match {smaller and has a border}... but I think it is a pretty close match...

And it is a fun touch of color for our kitchen... either in front of the sink

OR

Or by the sliding glass door...

It still needs the sanding step... the rug is pretty stiff... once it dries a bit more I will sand it to soften it up...

 

   

A Touch of Spring

So this is my latest creation... I have been wanting a new wreath for our front door... something green, something fresh... and not insanely expensive!

I started out with the following supplies:

1 - Pair of wire cutters (free, thanks Andrew!)

1 - Roll of 26(?) gauge green floral wire ($1.99 - 40% = $1.27 after tax)

1 - 18" Floral Wreath ($2.99 - 40% = $1.85 after tax)

14 - Green Hydrangea Silk Flowers ( $5.99 each - 40% sale - 20% coupon = $2.85ea or $41 after tax)

I get all my supplies from Michaels - and never shop without a coupon... The flowers were my Vday gift and were already on sale, plus we used a 20% off your entire purchase coupon to make them less than half the original price. I arranged them loosely on the wreath in the store and 14 looked about right for me.

Total cost: $45  - which we think is a pretty fair price for such a large wreath - plus it is exactly what we want.



I started by pulling all the 'buds' off the the fake stems. I decided that it would help let the wreath sit flat against our door if I removed the buds from the flower and attached everything individually - rather than have the bottom of the stem poking out behind the wreath.

The I used floral wire, in a twist-tie fashion to secure the buds to the wreath. Be Careful! The wire is sharp! After tying the buds on, I trimmed the wire and rolled the sharp sides in towards the flowers so they wouldn't poke out the back. I also pre-cut the wire into 2" strips so I did not have to start and stop over and over to cut my wire.

Attaching the flowers took FOREVER! I recommend counting how many buds you have and dividing them equally per section of the wreath - for this wreath I had 9 sections (based on the wreath wires) and 46 buds - so I did ~ 5 per section to make sure they were evenly dispersed.

Once I was finished I hung the wreath on our front door. The previous owners had attached a clasp to the door so I did not need a wreath hanger or ribbon - but you may need those things.

Linking to: