Art on the Walls

I haven't done any more painting on my living room, but I did finally put some art on the walls.

Above the couch, I hung two prints that I bought from artists on Etsy. I'd like to own originals at some point, but prints are so much more affordable, and I think they still look nice.

The print on the left was purchased from Beautiful Messy By Emma.

The print on the right was purchased from Jessica Illustration, which has a lot of prints that I liked.  The actual print that I received was much darker than this picture, which you can kind of tell above, but I still liked it.

You really can't see any of the art in this picture, but I couldn't do much better than this. The picture on the right is the chalk drawing of the woman that I did.  The one in the middle is just something I bought at Meijer, but I can't find a picture of it online.

This is the print that is on the left. The original was encaustic, and the print was purchased from Sue Simpson.

More fun with art supplies

I decided to play with my art supplies again this weekend. I also organized all my art supplies, which included dumping out all of my PrismaColor pencils and organizing them by product number.  I'm pretty sure that was a valuable use of my time.

The first picture is encaustics (painting with wax) again, but I didn't do it this weekend. I made my friend Sarah paint with me when I went to visit her. I didn't take a picture of hers, otherwise I would post it here, with or without permission.

This one I actually kind of like, besides the fact that it was fun. I mean, you shouldn't look to closely or you might notice her oven mitt hands or the fact that her body doesn't exactly follow the law of physics. But if you squint, I think it's OK. =) I actually started it in high school, but only got to the face and part of the arm. It's done with really nice chalk pastels that just feel nice to use -- they are so smooth.

And this is just done with acrylic paint. The paints weren't too terrible, although they had separated some. But I used gesso to prime the canvas and oooooweeee, that was some chemically, stinky stuff. It probably always smelled a little of chemicals, but leave it there for 10 years, and it really has time to fester. I almost fell off my chair.

Dining Room/Living Room (In Progress)

I am continuing to work on my living room/dining room.  I know this yellow won't be everyone's cup of tea, but I enjoy it.  I really need to get some art for the walls though, that is for sure.

Dining Room/Living Room (In Progress)

I am working on painting my living room & dining room.  It will probably take me forever to paint the whole thing, so I figured I would post in progress pictures.  Since I already started, I'm going to use the same paint on the whole thing, but in the future, I will invest better paint.  It has taken a gajillion coats, and I'm just covering cream paint!  Anyway, here is the dining room area.

Window Mirror

As discussed previously, I inherited a tendency to pick up "treasures" that other people might refer to as "trash."  Several years ago, a few windows were picked up, by me or my mom or somebody -- I don't remember.  Anyway, I've had them, and I've had various half-formed ideas about what to do with them.

I decided it was finally time to do something, and I discovered this paint spray that creates a mirror-like surface.  (And in case you haven't noticed, I'm really into spray paint right now.)

I forgot to take pictures of my progress, but you spray the paint on the opposite side of the glass that is going to be the "mirror," and once the several coats have dried, it looks like an old mirror.  I sanded the surface and painted it.  I decided not to tape -- I scraped instead.  I find razoring off the paint to be oddly enjoyable. You probably can't tell, but the window mechanism at the top is spray painted silver, like my kitchen hardware.

Kitchen Before-and-After

As most of you know, I love a red kitchen. And I really do like the red I chose for my kitchen. Unfortunately, it's really for some other kitchen. Some larger, more airy kitchen. I think it would be a definite fail if I had painted the cabinets the color I intended. As it is, I think the white off-sets some of the darkness. It's still a little dark for the kitchen, but it's OK. I think I'm going to get some rope lights and put them on top of cabinets to cast more light on the red.

Kitchen Cabinets

I have repainted my kitchen a vaguely questionable color. I'll post pictures of the whole thing in a second, but I thought I'd focus on the cabinets first. They are super cheap cabinets that are a mix of wood (a small mix), paneling, and particle board.

I meant to paint them off-white, but the store failed to actually tint my paint.  Being the bright creature that I am, I didn't notice until half way through the second coat.  But it actually worked out -- I think it makes my questionable wall color slightly (though not entirely) less questionable.

However, because of the paneling and particle board, I first had to paint it with a primer.  I used Zissner, which is the same stuff I used on The Thing. Below is what they looked like after the primer.

The hardware on my cabinets was also atrocious.  The collection in the tupperware is the original stuff.  The stainless steel on the left is what I contemplated changing it to, but that nonsense costs money.  Kind of a lot, even for something relatively cheap.  Those suckers add up.  So then I tried using the spray paint that we used on my lighting, but I didn't really like it.

Well, then I saw this instant chrome stuff (below was the only picture online I could find), and I thought to myself, man, that is klassy.  So, naturally, I got it.

First, I lined them up and primed them all.

Of course, I was a total doofus and I didn't protect my hands, so I had these zombie fingers.  Very clever, Reavis.

Then I used my brain piece and put on gloves.

Aces!

Then it was time for the chrome.  It dried really fast -- almost immediately, in fact.  No doubt lots of cancer-causing chemicals responsible for that.

Shiny!

So, anyways, this is what I ended up with.  It's far from ideal, but it's free.  I'm willing to live with a lot when it's free.  But I want to know what you think!  Is it just ticky, totally tacky, or full-blown ticky tacky?  Let me know, because after the picture is the first ever Gracewood Eats poll.  Answer it!

Home Project - The Thing

I have this thing in my kitchen -- I never know what to call it. It's a shelf, pantry-type thing. I generally refer to it as, "that thing in my kitchen." Thing is, the thing is pretty ugly.

See? Ugly.   But functional! So I decided I should paint it.

Of course, in addition to being ugly, it's also cheap (read: particle board). Luckily, there is a primer you can use on particle board. It's this Zinsser stuff.

Then I painted it a greenish color similar to my welcome sign.  The paint is called "Quaking Grass."

The finished product. You might still think it's kind of ugly.  But you'd be wrong and nobody asked you anyway.

The end.

Kitchen Chalk Board

I sprung forth from the kind of people who just love to pick trash up on the side of the road and call it a "treasure" -- in general, I have accepted this particular fate. I found this shelf door a long time ago. Or, maybe my mom found it and I stole it from her basement? Who knows. Anyway, I had some vague vision about what it could become. My vision was considerably more awesome than what I actually ended up doing, but that's OK too.

First I sanded the whole thing down. I didn't sand it perfectly, because I wanted the texture to show through. Also, I'm pretty lazy.

Then I painted it with magnetic paint.  As usual, I painted first, then read the directions.  The directions pretty clearly state that the surface needs to be extra special smooth for magnets to work.  Due to my creative (lazy) plan to leave a rough finish, the magnetic quality is pretty weak.   Next I painted it with this stuff, which is paint that turns any surface into a blackboard.

I painted the border a similar green to the original, but you can't really see it in the picture. Now it hangs in my kitchen, welcoming all to my humble home! =)

Lighting "Upgrade"

I had some really hideous, old-person lighting in my house that I upgraded to slightly less hideous (but free!) lighting.  Also, you'll see from the pictures that "I" didn't really do that much at all...

Hideous, cheap lighting fixture

Mom getting rid of hideous lighting fixture

Fairly hideous lighting fixture.  What is it with that fake brass/gold crap?

Fear not!  Rustoleum is here to save the day!

After a quick coat of spray paint

All installed!