This is a little project which was inspired by this post on Bower Power. The front door of our house has a big, paned glass window which was NOT very private. Anyone walking by could see straight into the house and look at me sitting in my chair upstairs. We wanted enough privacy so that the view was blurred, but we could still see out if we needed to. 

The Goods: Martha Stewart Frost Etching Effect paint, stencil brushes....

And of course the Martha Stewart stencils! These things can all be found at Michael's.

I started on the center pane, and worked my way up and out. The key is to get a VERY thin layer of paint on the brush so there's no seepage.

As one pane dried, I would re-align the stencil and move on to the next.

Here's the finished view looking upstairs.

Here's the view from outside. It's enough to blur the view looking in but not completely frost it out.

And a final close-up.

Placemat Art

The wall above our bed has been bare since the day we moved in. We'd just never been able to find the perfect not too big, not too busy, piece of art to hang up there. Cue these placemats from TJ Maxx. I know right, placemats?!

These red beauties came in a 4 pack. I also bought a pack of black ones because I loved the geometric pattern so much. Aren't they fun? Our bedroom's color scheme is black, white and red so I decided to frame them up for some cheap and easy art.

Pardon Harry, he was helping :) So all I had to do to create my "artwork" was cut each placemat in half and place it in a black frame (from Wal-Mart BTW). The white background is just the generic picture frame filler flipped around to the plain side. P.S. The spoon was for lifting up and pushing down the metal tabs on the back of the frames, those suckers hurt the fingers after a while.

Here they are in all their framed glory on the wall above our bed. I decided to only use the red ones since our whole bedroom set is black already. You can't see them in this photo but our curtains are this same deep red. We are really loving how they turned out.

And another shot with some nighttime lamp ambiance. :)

For now I arranged the black placemats in a flowerburst (is that even a word?) pattern on our kitchen table underneath the pears. They will come in handy for our next get-together. :)

So that's my latest project...here's some stats for you math peeps:

1 4pk of red placemats from TJ Maxx: $7.99

6 black glass front frames from Wal-Mart: $30

Total cost: $37.99*


*B would like me to add that his labor/mental anguish costs for hanging and aligning these/dealing with me obsessing over their placement would at LEAST double that amount.

Gallery Wall

Here's the gallery wall we painted and hung the weekend before vacation. I give B most of the credit for this one, he is good with measurements and making sure everything is spaced evenly.

I knew I wanted a "frame" painted on the wall for all our pictures to hang in. We measured and taped it off, then painted using the trim paint we had leftover from when our house was built.

We used the method of measuring out the frames using pieces of paper, then taping them to the wall to figure out placement. This step definitely made things easier and helped us avoid a lot of nail holes.

Here's the finished gallery wall! It's hard to get a good angle of the entire thing since it's in our upstairs hallway. We used matching black frames of all different sizes.

For now we have all the frames filled with our engagement photos, but we will probably switch some out once I print off some more family and friends pictures. B is afraid people might think we're weirdos for having a wall full of photos of ourselves. But hey I say it's OUR house. :) The middle print is something I found on Pinterest. It's a listing of significant dates for us (our birthdays, wedding date, first date, and engagement date). You can check them out here.

Project Weekend

Last weekend we tackled a couple of random projects around the house. The first was a gallery wall for our engagement pictures in the upstairs hallway, and the second was an easy necklace organizer for my side of the closet. The gallery wall is still a work in progress so for now here's the necklace organizer.

I found this idea here on Pinterest. As soon as I saw it, I knew I had to do it. There is just no good way to organize all my long necklaces. Some have been tucked in a jewelry box for a while now, getting tangled and ruined and a few others were just hanging from a hanger in my closet. Not very pretty to look at either!

So off to Target I went after work on Friday, and after spending $6.99 on a towel rack and $5.99 on shower curtain clips I have a whole new necklace organization system. I found clips that actually hinge together and pull apart and I really love them. I was afraid with some of my heavier necklaces that the open hooks might fall off or be easier to brush against and pull off the rack. Lots prettier to look at too! :)