Painted Fan Blades

We saw the idea and decided to really go for it. We had decided on Tuscan Yellow for the fan blades, but it became "Deep Yellow." Again, we live in Georgia so the fan is always on. We were going for massive color so we decided to paint the entire fan rather than just chevron like the original website.

Where I got the idea from: Design Sponge

Time: 2 hours (unless you have issues screwing in the blades)

Shopping List:

2 colors of arcylic paint ($8)

Painters tape

Foam Brush

Ladder & Screw driver

Instructions

1. Prep: Unscrew the fan blades...this didn't take too long and did show some much needed dusting TLC. We washed the blades off quickly and dried them.

2. More Prep: Then we took off the attachments from the blade to the fan (what that is called escapes me). It wasn't too difficult as those screws were very large.

3. Paint Base: We painted the fans yellow, using a foam brush. This took two coats. Be sure to get the sides of the fan. If you have a spot or two, no one is going to notice (and we'll have to paint these back white anyway when we decide to sell). The blades kind of looked like duck feet!

4. Paint Accent: After that thoroughly dried (thank you Georgia sun!) we went for the red. This is the same red as the coffee table to help tie in all of the reds. I let Alex pick out the designs, since this was "his project." I was skeptical at how far apart he had his lines, but in the end they turned out okay.So for the red paint, we taped off the area we wanted to keep yellow, and thickly painted the red lines. We were running out of time/sunlight/red paint so we went for one thick application rather than two thinner applications. The only difficult part was the edges of the fan blade. I would paint those first, so the paint doesn't bulge up on the sides causing you to resmooth out the paint on the blades.

5. Reassembly: We let these dry and screwed on the white fan blade attachments

 
6. The Damn Screws: Screwing the fan blades back into the ceiling fan resulted in a few drinks...With one ladder, you need two people, but two people can't reach the fan. So this is what I finally did, which saved us from a Monday Morning Hangover. Take the fan blade, put the screw into the fan blade, and put the screw driver into the screw. Be sure you're holding the handle of the screw and not the top. Put all pieces together into the blade and screw into the holes. I am right handed and so I used my right hand to screw the blade in, and held my arm up bent kinda like a chicken to hold the fan blade in place so it would stop spinning. It may be easier to unscrew the bulbs first, but at this point it would have taken longer to do that!

Ultimately, the colors kind of look like we're big Harry Potter Gryffindor fans. But as I said earlier, the fan is always spinning, so now it just has some cool rings to it. It also ties in a lot of the colors!

Painting the Ottoman

We purchased an ottoman like this (but it came with 4 tiny collapsible mini ottoman seats) from Bed Bath & Beyond a few years ago to replace the giant glass one we had borrowed from my in-laws. We liked the glass, but it was heavy & huge. So to tie in the red, we painted the bottom of the table red (we figured if we didn't like it, we can always flip the ottoman & just have the cushion top!). 

Where I got the idea from: myself?

Time: 2 hours

Shopping List: 

Acrylic Paint - $3

Gloss Finish - $2

Paint Brush - $1

Instructions:

1. Initial note: The trick here is letting it dry. This was our first attempt with a finish. It didn't turn out great, but it was okay. 

2. Prep: Alex wiped down the ottoman (we have 4 animals...their fur is EVERYWHERE). He then taped off the sides. 

3. Paint: We used two coats of paint to get the color we wanted and let that dry (we set them outside in the sun, because it was super hot this weekend!). 

4. Gloss Finish: After that dried completely, he painted a coat of the finish. This was not done as neatly as possible (lesson learned). We have to make sure it's even. Alex did a second coat, but it still was a little splotchy. 

The centerpiece & remotes, mostly cover the splotchy parts. It's not bad for our first attempt with a finish, but it's probably my least favorite. All in all, it does help add color to the room, it just looks a bit DIY beginner. 

You can really side the sides on this one where the varnish didn't quite make it...

Hanging Curtains

Initially I thought I'd make curtains, but well when Target sells each panel for $25...it was going to be much more cost effective to just purchase the curtain. We got a new rod from Target, because I'm pretty sure Alex threw out the old one (although he just claims it's in a closet somewhere). 

Where I got the idea from: Life? Didn't have an inspiration on this one

Time: 45 minutes

Shopping List

Curtains = $50 ($25 x 2 curtains)

Curtain Rod = $25 (Target)

Gold Tie Backs = $8 ($4 x 2, they were on sale at Joann's...)

Screws (for the Tie Backs)

Cordless Drill

Level

Ladder

Instructions

1. Prep: The curtain rod should come with screws. I measured out on each side how far I wanted the curtain rods. I actually couldn't find my level, so I used the molding around the window as a guide...and uh construction paper that I marked for a ruler....I'm actually stunned they came out straight.

2. Mollys & Screws: The curtain rod attachment came with mollys, which was great. I put in the mollys then screwed the remaining screws in. There were instructions on the box, so that wasn't too difficult.

3. Hang the Curtains: Ordinarily, I'd iron or fluff the curtains in the dyer. However, the material we got was burlapish, so it didn't need to be ironed (Phew!). I hung the curtain rod with the drapes, only dropping the cordless drill from the ladder a few times (it was a long day).

4. Tie Backs: The tie backs were easy enough. I screwed a screw into the molding and just tied them back. I used the blinds to measure (screwed at the top of one blind & did the same on the other side! There really wasn't a whole lot to that. 

We need to add shelves or something next to it, because the space is kinda bare, however the red from the fireplace & curtains adds a lot of warmth to the room. The cats have used the ottoman sides quite a bit.

Here's the transformation pictures: Yes, I'm sure the window treatment before was relatively expensive, but it just was a bit more stuffy than we wanted. It looked "old person" to me at least.

We moved the giant TV to the basement & moved the other TV in front of the window. It opened the room up, but we wanted to go back to the original. So this was the next reiteration...clearly leaving a giant gap where we needed to do SOMETHING with the blinds:

Painted Stair Rails

The next project was pretty easy. My mother had painted her stair rails black and the stairs popped. She has nice exposed stairs so you can see the railings all the way up. We just have a little. So Sunday morning, we taped & painted the railings black! This was a quick project with a big impact. The railings had been painted before, so we just painted over the white.

Who I got the idea from: My Mother

Time: 90 minutes

Shopping List:

Black Acrylic Paint - $3 (We had some left over from the Organizational Board)

Painters Tape - $3 (We had some around)

Paint Brush - $12

Foam Paint Brush Touch Ups - $1

 
Instructions:

1. Prep: First, tape off the stairs. The sections by the base were easy, since those were straight lines. The upper part, I ended up tearing small pieces to put around the top. EVEN if you/your helper thinks they can paint around...make sure you tape extra. Alex used a large paint brush which got everywhere.

2. Paint: We did two coats over the rails & did touch ups with a small foam brush. Obviously, let the paint dry between coats. Keeping tweedle dee & tweedle dumb  Gus & Lucy from licking the stairs was a bit of a challenge. 

3. Touch Up: Remove the painters tape & if need be touch up any areas where you may have dripped black paint. We had a few...

We're going to paint the railing up the stairs black too, but for right now, I think they turned out really nice!

Here's what they looked like before:

UPDATED: See the update here!

Birthday Photo Collage

Busy weekend!

So the first project was a present for my father-in-law's 65th birthday. A friend of mine made the number 4 with pictures of her son for his 4th birthday. It was really cute. I wasn't sure putting a big 65 was a great idea, so we were going to spell out his name or one of his "phrases." We ended up just making a giant collage.

Who I got the idea from: Friend 

Time: 4 hours

Shopping List:

Science Poster Board - $4

At least 200 (probably closer to 250) pictures - $25 (if you do them mail in rather than 1 hour)

Glue or Rubber Cement - $3 (I think that's how much it cost? I had some on hand)

A few pieces of construction paper (optional)

Popsicle sticks (optional)

Tape (optional)

A few years ago I had scanned all of their pictures from baby pictures to a few years ago, so I had a lot to work with. I'll say this...plan ahead...printing 300 pictures at one-hour photo is double the cost of site-to-store or home delivery. Better yet, Snapfish & Shutterfly generally have sales for prints. My sister-in-law purchased a poster board and we started from there. We probably used at least 200 of the pictures. It definitely took longer than we thought.

You think oh we can just slap a whole lot of pictures for the background & clip over them. Nope...doesn't work that way!

Instructions:

1. Prep: So we sorted the pictures into "background" and "cut out," although those piles became merged.

2. Layout: We originally were going to lay out a background then put additional pictures on. This didn't work as we had hoped, so we started in a corner and worked our way out. This let us vary the sizes and shapes so it didn't look like several pictures all in a line. If you need to adjust, you have plenty of time since the glue stick/rubber cement doesn't dry immediately.

3. Letters: We cut out construction paper & taped it to the back to say "Happy Ron." It's a family thing not to say Happy Birthday (my Mother-in-law didn't have enough room on a cheesecake she made me one year so she wrote Happy Lindsay...so it stuck." If you are going to tape things to the back, I suggest getting Popsicle sticks to hold them up.

My father-in-law absolutely loved it! I will make one other recommendation: don't just cut out the heads of the person. They tend to look weird.