Antler Project! - the Finale. (Finally)

A while back I traded some cotton candy sugar for a set of antlers. Yes, you read that right! Cotton candy for antlers! I had a project in mind for them, and well, that project turned into something else, and then something else again but now, finally, I have them mounted on the wall!

First I spray painted the antlers with a gold sparkle spray paint. I love the glamour a little sparkle adds, even to something like deer antlers!! This is the first time I used the Rustoleum Glitter paint but I have to say I loved it! It covered great and doesn't come off when being handled nearly as much as I feared. I've only seen a sparkle or two anywhere since I started!

I decided to mount it to pieces of pallet, just to make it a little rustic feeling. I cut six pieces the same length, then cut 45° angles at the ends of each piece. After that I put the pieces together in a chevron pattern with some glue, and nailed on some braces across the back. 

Once I got them together I realized it was much too big so I cut the bottom two off and went with 4 pieces instead. (Yep, good ole trial and error! Ha!) Next I used three screws to secure the antlers into the wood.

I found some super cute poppies in a vase at Walmart and cut them out and hot glued them to cover the center of the antlers, so you couldn't see where I screwed them into the wood. What I really like is that I can pop the flowers off seasonally, or just whenever I want to update! Maybe I will find some pretty real touch flowers down the road for a more permanent solution!

 I used a picture hanging kit on the back to add wire so I would be able to hang it on the wall. Here is the final product, hanging proudly in my living room. Love it!!

Feel free to share! And don't forget to follow to see what we're up to next!

"If you want an adventure, take a step outside"

Making sure that our Minty Green Dream house had the same character on the outside as  we were trying to get on the inside was super important to me, so, after living here for about a year I finally settled way to make it more 'us'! 

The deck needed a major clean up! We stripped off the lattice, closed it in underneath with vertical deck boards, put on new treads and risers, and finally sanded and stained the whole thing! For colours I used Benjamin Moores Arborcoat solid stain in Chantilly Lace (OC-65) on the railings, spindles and risers and Chelsea Gray (HC-168) on the floorboards. For the front door and accent colour I went with Raspberry Blush (2008-30). Such a pretty coral colour!!

Just to add a little pizzazz I painted a chevron stripe in my accent colour on one of the risers, and added our house number to the same riser in a modern font from Home Depot. They didn't have the house number in the colour I wanted so I brought them home and spray painted (again, Krylon is my go-to!) them with a flat black. Absolutely love the way these turned out! So much so that I did the same with the door handle, reusing the one that had been on the door previously! Cost savings!! 

The lights are from Kent Building Supplies and made by Moonrays.They have to be wired in, but they turn on by photo sensor. We put two on every second stair just to add a little bit of light, and to show off the stripe of course! It looks pretty and it adds to the safety of our visitors, afterall, there are a lot of stairs to climb! I should also add that I painted these too... I love flat black! I even found a flat black light that I didnt have to paint, matched perfectly and was much more modern looking then the one that was on the house before! Another awesome Kent find! 

My front door I found completely by mistake searching around the Habitat for Humanity ReStore in Dartmouth. I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw the EXACT door I had been looking for completely untouched and in brand new condition for 80 bucks! I was so excited I called Brett to come pick it up on his lunch break and painted it that night! I even painted an old chair and I found on kijiji to match!

The only thing holding us back from being head over heels in love with the yard was the yard itself so we got the fine folks at Elmsdale Landscaping to come and give it a makeover! They completely tore up the old front yard, pulled out the snowball tree, resodded and planted two beautiful sugar maples!

Before - So many weeds and dead areas!

After - So fresh and so GREEN GREEN!

Easton, pretty proud of his new trees!

Now that all is said and done I can finally say I love it! And I'm super proud to call it home. 

Project Nursery for Baby K 2.0!

Hands-down-my-favourite-room-ever!

When I was planning a nursery at first I thought I would pick a girl scheme, a boy scheme and then play the waiting game for 9 months before getting started on the room. Anyone who knows me knows that would never happen!

I was wandering around Home Sense, like I did almost every day before work (If I wasn't at target) and I found my perfect jumping off point for my gender neutral nursery!

I fell in love immediately but still was thinking I would wait and see. After almost 2 weeks of sleepless nights thinking about it, I went back and YAY! it was still there!

We stripped out the carpet, laid down some warm laminate, prepped the walls, and let the paint fly!

 I went with a creamy white for the walls, Acadia White (OC-38) Its so warm, and cozy! We painted the walls in a low-sheen eggshell so it wouldn't be so shiny, and painted the doors and trim in the same Acadia White in a pearl finish. Painting the walls, doors and trim the same colour made the room feel cozy and so sweet. I am so glad we decided to do that! Inside closet I went with Clearest Ocean Blue (Benjamin Moore 2064-40), just to be a little bold. Closets can be so boring and I knew the doors would be open more then that would be closed. 

For furniture I thought about new, but I decided to reuse what we had from Easton. We painted his old crib with my favourite spray paint, Krylon, in Field Green. It covered amazingly, added a punch of colour and looked great up against the Acadia White.

 Then we re-painted his change table Chili Pepper (Benjamin Moore, 2004-20. I love this colour! So warm, a little tiny bit coral-y and again, such a nice pop on the white! 

Next to bring in the yellow I added a rug from Home Sense and a basket laundry hamper. The hamper was natural so I taped about a third of the way up from the bottom, painted it yellow and took the paint off. I absolutely love how it turned out!

I am so lucky to have a seamstress in the family, so for the roman blinds I had Bretts Grandma Bernice help me. Of course I made it was difficult as possible by picking a chevron pattern but shes a miracle worker and made it happen!

She inspired me to take on my own little sewing project solo so I recovered an old ottoman in a fun polkadot print! 

One thing I learned from our first babe was there is never enough time in the day for stories! And you need a comfy place to curl up to enjoy them! I designed a built in type shelf, drew it up and gave it to my handyman hubby to create. So easy! painted all the pieces, screwed in the bottom piece for stability and air nailed the second piece to hold up the books. He even filled in the nail holes and painted over them so it would be seamless! What a guy! The pictures are from here and of course the frames from here!

Here is the before, and finally the after. 

Before - The headboard was painted on the wall to cover up
decor left by previous owner.

I can't say enough how excited I was to do this room. It has so much personality for baby Cooper (yep! we had another boy!). We spend so much time in there, from changing diapers, to feedings, to reading books before bed. I couldn't be happier with the result! 

Let me know what you think!