Wine? Yes, Please!

Im probably not the only person out there that loves wine, right!? This next DIY project involves my love for all things wine. You can either save all your wine bottles after consuming them, or score big at a yard sale like I did ;) 

My yard sale find. Entire bin of about 30 old wine bottles of various sizes only $5 total!!  All they needed was a good cleaning.

All you need to do is find long candle sticks (you may have to shave down the bottoms a bit like I did), and put then in the bottle. Light the candle and let it burn for a few minutes, and voila!

Another photo of my wine bottle candle holders, not completely finished with all of the bottles but wanted to get a picture up to share :)

 A few wine bottle DIY photos that I found on Pinterest. Such great ideas, and the list goes way beyond these photos of all the things you can make with old wine bottles!

Chalkboard LOVE

Hi, my name is Mallory and I am addicted to chalkboard walls.... Yes I know, silly right? When I was younger I always loved to draw on walls. I guess its a fascination of every child's though right? Well below I have posted some eye candy for those of you who have not jumped on the chalkboard wall bandwagon. The last photo is the chalkboard wall I painted in my breakfast room... Enjoy!

Love that they painted the door also!

Fantastic kids room

Wish I had a curved entry way like this one, this is just fabulous!

No caption needed... Love the wine bottle racks in the middle of the wall

Going to paint a stripe like this around my little man's wall in his room. 

Here is my chalkboard wall that I painted in my breakfast room. This was taken when I was in the process of painting the breakfast area and kitchen this lovely grey color. I simply purchased one small can of chalkboard paint at Home Depot, painted three coats and framed out the section I painted so that it looks like I hung an actual chalkboard on the wall. This has been such a great addition to our kitchen. We write reminders, love letters, grocery lists and of course our little man LOVES writing on the wall :)

Burlap Wreath DIY

I am obsessed with everything burlap! Seriously, you should see my house at Christmas time! I use burlap for everything from putting it on my Christmas tree as garland, to using it on my mantel and even wrapping gifts! It adds so much texture and detail to anything you want to create. There are many tutorials out there for making your own burlap garland wreath, so there is not right or wrong way to do it. I believe my way is one of the simplest you can do though. I started with a wire coat hanger. Yes, those ugly wire hangers that we all have tons of but refuse to use them even if they are the only coat hangers left...those wire hangers... All you need to do it take apart the hanger and re-bend it into a circle. It does not have to be perfect because the garland is very forgiving. I had my burlap garland left over from last year, but I purchased it at Michaels for about $6 per roll. You get a lot of garland for your money also. I used 4 rolls for my wreath. The amount you use depends on the size of the wreath you want. After shaping the hanger into a circle, start by weaving the garland in and out, sort of in a fan shape (like how you make a fan out of a piece of paper that you fold back and forth, if this makes any sense). Keep doing this until you cover the entire hanger with garland. Twist the two ends of the wire hanger together (i used pliers for this part) so that the garland does not come off. Tie a small piece of garland, or ribbon to the top of the wreath and hang! Voila! This wreath took me about 3 minutes to make and cost about $10 (Michaels coupons included).

My burlap garland wreath on my front door

Renovation of a Dining Room

My dining room before was dark, boring and needed some color in its life! I saw many examples of this "board and batten" style that I wanted to recreate in my dining room on various blogs and on my oh so fav website, Pinterest. I thought that my goal at first was a far out one, especially since I was going to attempt this all by myself. GASP! So you see, my husband HATES and I mean HATES any kind of DIY projects. I constantly dream up more renovations and projects that I want to do and frankly I think it drives him nuts. He says I can do whatever I want to the house, as long as I finish it without him! hahahaha!! Sounds mean huh? Well, he would rather hire someone than to do it himself, but I am the complete opposite. I love the reward and satisfaction I get after completing a project and the amazement on everyone's faces when they say, "You did this all by yourself!?".... Ahhhh :)

My dining room before, after the majority of furniture had been removed. See how dark and small the area looks?

Primer up on the wall. This took about three coats to the bottom half where the dark brown once was.

Top color on. Misty Morn (Semi gloss)  by Behr.

Boards going up on the wall. Used liquid nail on the back and two small finishing nails to secure in place.

Finished product! The curtains were not in yet, but I purchased two panels from Ballard Designs,  they are the burlap style curtains and look fabulous in this space.

My table scape :)

So here is the breakdown of the items used:

*2 sheets of 0.5in thick MDF board- purchased from Home Depot at about $22 a sheet. Also had all my measurements and Home Depot cut all the boards for me :) Major time saver! They only cut straight boards, no angle cuts, so this is something to keep in mind. My battens (the vertical boards) were cut at 59" long, using 0.5" thick MDF board. My boards (the horizontal board on top) were cut at various lengths, depending on your wall measurements but were 6" wide, using the same 0.5" thick MDF board. I managed to get all my cuts out of only 2 large MDF sheets. WOW!!

*Liquid nail

*paintable white caulk

*Wood filler

*finishing nails and a nail driver

*sandpaper to sand down the wood filler over the nails you drive into the boards

*3 gallons of Kiltz primer

*1 gallon of Behr Ultra Pure White in Semi Gloss, for the bottom wall color and boards and batten

*1 gallon of Behr Misty Morn in Semi Gloss for the top blue/grey color

Basic Instructions:

Start by priming your wall with about 2 or 3 coats, depending on the wall color you are covering, and prime all your boards and batten that you are using (this will be easier for you when they are up on the wall so that you only have to do touch ups to the paint). Paint the top color, any color you prefer, make sure you know your batten measurements before you do this part to ensure you are going down far enough! Once all your coats have dried and your entire wall is covered evenly, you can start putting up your batten. I put my battens up 12" apart. If an outlet or light switch happens to land exactly 12" apart from a batten then simply move the batten over a smidge, trust me, you wont be able to notice! I used liquid nail on the back of my battens and 2 finishing nails, one in the top and one in the bottom once they were up. I later drove in the nails with a nail driver, used wood filler to fill the hole and painted the Behr Ultra White over it. Once the battens are up, the boards are very simple to install since they lay on top of the battens. Use the same liquid nail and finishing nails then make sure to caulk where the board and batten meets to ensure a nice seamless flow of all you boards. 

I hope this tutorial was easy to follow. Please leave a comment with any questions or suggestions. Thanks!

My Art. My Life. My Blog

Welcome to my new blog! I am a lover of all things design, fashion, art, and a big advocate of doing things yourself. I find inspiration through other blogs and websites, then recreate ideas into my own. I frequently get asked how did you make that? Where did you buy that? So, I figured what better way then to blog about all my projects and findings. I hope to at least peek the interest of one of my readers and hopefully encourage everyone to create!