a few of my DIY house projects…

 

Hello friends, welcome to my DIY post for those crazy folks (like me) who enjoy tackling home projects on your spare time.

Would you like to see a few of mine?  Today I thought I’d whip out my camera and take a few photos of some of my bigger projects, only there are so many, I don’t know where to begin.

Thirteen years ago when we bought our home it was considered a fixer-upper, not only did everything look bland and dated, but the previous owners had left it in terrible shape. The photo above shows one of our first completed projects. For our living room fireplace I had a mantel built to resemble one that I loved from a magazine.

Once it was painted white, my amazingly talented Dad, lugged his tile cutter over to our house and taught me how to work with brick veneer. I chose a rustic, weathered looking brick for our hearth.

I actually love to paint, and I’ve had lots of practice over the years transforming all of the 80s-looking oak cabinetry to various shades of creamy white. This bookshelf was tricky because there were so many shelves.

This is a house that’s currently for sale in our neighborhood, here you can see the color of the Oak cabinets that were everywhere in our house.

This used to be an Oak hutch. I removed the glass panels from the upper doors and replaced them with chicken wire—then I painted the hutch and added some leftover tumbled marble to the countertop. It’s hard to tell, but the tumbled marble is mostly black with a few white veins. I applied it directly to the wood and I’ve never had a problem. 

This is one of my favorite projects because I simply love this color. I was on my way to pick up my son from soccer practice when I saw this old, brown sideboard at a garage sale. It was in surprisingly great shape, sturdy and well built, so I bought it for eighty dollars. Once I got it home, I stripped it, painted it this cool shade of turquoise, and refinished the wood on top. I love those legs don’t you?

Back to the bricks again. Same bricks. Different project. This is our family room and it’s tough to tell from this shot, but this is one high wall. Once again, my Dad lead the way with the heavy duty calculating and cutting of the bricks. I was the simple bricklayer along for the ride. I’m not sure I would ever do this much brick work again, but we love our cozy room.

And here’s a little weekend project. Both of these were garage sale purchases. I bought this old ottoman that I spruced up with some animal print fabric. And I stripped and painted the frame of this French chair. It was boring brown, and I painted it glossy white. Then I had it recovered in a fabric that looks like leather. It was my big splurge, and it turned out perfect.

And here’s one patio project I did…This is a small corner garden and it’s the first thing you see when you step into our patio. I decided to paint a message here. I simply used a computer font and cut out my own homemade stencils. Then I taped the paper to the wall, used a pencil to outline the letters first, then I painted. It’s not hard, it just takes a little patience.

But it’s a nice reminder to have when you step into a garden, don’t you think?

Well, there’s still two bathroom tile projects, the upstairs bar area tile, and my stripes on my wall. Whew, I’m tired just telling you all that. It’s hard to believe we actually did all that work. But I’ll have to take more photos for you.

In the meantime, if you want to see how I fixed up my ugly backyard corner on a budget, you can click on the link.

How bout you? What are you working on these days?

xoxo

Leslie

 

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