Building a Platform Bed (Part 1)

Posted on July 17, 2012 by kimscornerdecor

This post is about building a platform bed. I am building a platform bed for my daughters Queen size mattress. At some point the younger kids decided to use it as a trampoline and the box spring and frame broke. Thus a replacement was needed. She saw this on Pinterest and decided that it was what she wanted.

So I decided that I could build it. (It turned out to be more difficult than I thought, but not impossible.) While talking about it my oldest son decided that he would like to help, maybe that’s why it was more difficult I don’t know.

First we took 4 2x8x8 and cut two of them down to 60 inches and 2 down to 80 inches.

Then we took and drilled pocket holes in the ends of each of the 60 inch boards.

I finally got to use my Kreg Jig© Jr. or really my oldest son got to use it. It made pretty little pocket holes. I really do love this tool, it is SUPER easy to use. You can get them at Home Depot or Lowe’s. Did I mention that I love it? (No, I’m not getting paid to say that.) I have longed for this tool for years and I did get a free one at the Haven Conference, now I wish I had bought one sooner.

Then we made a box. Our first mistake was to assemble the box standing on it’s side. It should have been assembled on the ground where it would have been easier to tell if it was square or not. Our second mistake was to not paint the boards before assembly. My third mistake was thinking this was going to be easy, teehee. Now I am going back to the drawing board to take apart and reassemble the monster. Wish me luck.

Now go out there and find you try, try again inspiration!

Found objects room

Posted on July 14, 2012 by kimscornerdecor

This is a room from a local home show. Love it!

Shopping Louisville Tapestry of Truth

Posted on July 14, 2012 by kimscornerdecor

This series is about my favorite places to shop in Louisville for Home Decor. Although this website is for a Louisville based company you can shop thier website from anywhere in the country.

Tapestry of Truth

My friend Jackie is an amazing person.

She loves life, her family, her husband and her animals, but most of all Jackie loves God. In 2005 Jackie purchased a house and was looking for something unique to do with her walls. Enter Bible verses. Yep, she got the idea from a scripture painted on the wall at her church. Here’s what Jackie had to say about it.

“Then a scripture painted on my church’s wall came to mind. Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine. Ephesians 3:20. How could I have a scripture painted onto my own wall? It wasn’t going to happen with me and a paint brush. Who would I call on for a project like this? Then it occurred to me! Why not produce scriptures?! Different fonts, colors and sizes! Now that’s a great idea!! And what an awesome way to bring beauty to the Word and your home! The rest, as they say, is history.”

Jackie produces high quality easy to apply vinyl lettering for the just about any application you can imagine, and her prices are so very reasonable. You wouldn’t believe me if I told you.

For the next two weeks, here in the Louisville area, is an event called Homearama. It is a tour of new homes, showcasing the latest in home design and interior decorating. And guess what? Jackie has her words on a wall in one of the homes.

Designers and home decorating companies showcase the very best at Homearama. So it goes without saying that Jackie is quite proud of her accomplishment. I’m proud of her too.

I have my inspiration word, “Believe” beside my bathroom mirror so I see it every morning.

I love these words and Jackie is such a sweet lady. If you are looking for a really cool idea for some blank walls, or a word for beside your bathroom mirror, or even a way to place scripture in a prominent place in your home go check out Jackie’s website. Tapestry of Truth.

Now go out there and find your words of inspiration!

Bird on a Barbed Wire

Posted on July 11, 2012 by kimscornerdecor

Thrift Store Score

Barbed Wire? Today I went to one of my FAVORITE Thrift Stores Tickled Pink (you can read more about them here), and boy did I score. I found a reel of barbed wire. You may think to yourself “barbed wire”? What is she going to do with that. Well I have visions of projects dancing through my little brain of barbed wire chandeliers, barbed wire spheres, barbed wire wrapped candles, barbed wire Halloween decorations. I even bought a pair of gloves for the barbed wire fun.

Wouldn’t this add amazing texture to any dining room or entry way? Instead of candles I’m thinking you could wire it up with white Christmas lights. Sometimes in decorating it’s all about doing one unexpected thing in a room. That’s what created the gasp factor.

What about for Halloween? Wouldn’t this pumpkin be great on the front porch or sitting on top of a topiary pot?

Or even as a sphere? See how amazing these look?

In the garden or in front of a house as sculptural details. The possibilities are endless. I know that barbed wire is meant to keep people out, but the sculptures really are inviting, don’t you think?

In this age of upcycling and recycling, we have so many opportunities to create beauty out of what would have been thrown away in the past. It is truly exciting to see the world with different eyes. To view it, and think can I make anything useful with that before I throw it out.

I never knew that this creativity was in me. I have always been the one who wanted to make art, but couldn’t draw, now I don’t have to. I can make art that I like, from things I find and thrift. Decorating your home, while it does include attention to space planning and color theory, is a place to let your creativity fly. Make your home what you want it to be, not what someone else thinks it should be.

Now go out there and find your wired inspiration!

Shopping Louisville, My Favorite Thrift Stores

Posted on July 7, 2012 by kimscornerdecor

Tickled Pink

The first store to be featured in this new blog series of My Favorite Thrift Stores is Tickled Pink Tickled is a vintage store that has been in business since 1987. Located at 3269 Taylor Blvd., Louisville, KY, they are filled with treasures on all 3 floors of a converted house. It always smells nice (not like some of the other thrift stores I visit). It is clean and cool and best of all EVERYTHING is for sale. That’s right even the displays are for sale.

Inside they have treasure after treasure. Most prices are under $9.99. Somethings are more expensive, but overall the prices are amazing. If you visit I bet they will become one of you favorite places to thrift too.

I saw this Casablanca poster sitting by the front door. I’m a nut for old movies and it caught my eye immediately. Wouldn’t it look great in a TV or media room.

A pile of aluminum trays on the second floor. I’ve seen a pinterest pin where they hang these up on the wall, and it looks awesome.

All you shabby chic enthusiasts out there just look at these white roosters. Wouldn’t they look amazing on top of some white cabinets or sitting in a lovely chippy white china cabinet?

I am absolutely in LOVE with these chairs. If my basement wasn’t full of unfinished projects I would have snapped them up in a second!

The owners Russ & Tony are just about the nicest people you want to meet.

They are open Sunday – Thursday (they spend Friday and Saturday finding things to stock the store with).

My Favorite part of the store is the rough room. It is full of “rough” pieces of furniture to repaint, fix up, restain or use as is. The possibilities are endless.

I usually end up at Tickled Pink at least once a week. My favorite day is Sunday, but I rarely get to go on Sundays. I usually try to shop there on Wednesday and I almost always find something.

Go visit, you will be glad you did!

Now go out there and find your thrifting inspiration!

Large Copper Painting

Posted on July 6, 2012 by kimscornerdecor

Recycle Canvas Paintings

I wanted something different, something like a large piece of copper hanging on the wall. But, copper is heavy, and copper is expensive, and I didn’t want to spend ANY money. So I looked around, I had some copper spray paint and some green paint. I decided that I could recycle an old canvas painting. So I decided to see what I could do. What do you think?

What you will need:

a canvas
copper paint, or gold paint (spray paint or brush on will work)
green paint
paper towel 8 to 10
black paint
white paint
a paint brush
a small container or a paper plate

First I took an old picture which I was no longer using.

Next I took my copper spray paint.

I sprayed the canvas, with two coats of the copper spray paint. Next I took 3 paper towels, two I got wet and wrung out until almost dry, the other I left dry. I wadded up all the towels and so I could use them to pounce. I dipped a wet paper towel into some green paint I had. A very small container is all you will need. If you have a bottle of acrylic paint you could do this using my trusty old friend a paper plate. Dip and pounce and dip and pounce. The second wet paper towel is used to remove a little paint if you feel like you are getting too much paint onto the canvas. The dry paper towel is to soak up any extra wet paint, or to remove a lot of paint.

After you feel like you have gotten enough of the first color, add a little black.

Pounce a little bit of this color on until you like the look. Then add a little more black to your paint. Pounce a little bit of this color on.

Then pounce a little black on (very little and be sure your towel is pretty wet). Then pounce some of the green over the black.

In between the pounced colors I took an artist brush and put a little paint on it and hit the brush against my thumb to make some speckles (I wanted it to look like the piece of copper had been outside in the rain.) Then I dabbed at the speckles with a paper towel so they didn’t look like perfect little round circles.

After I finished with all the green I wanted then I dipped my paint brush into a little ASCP Old White and then dipped the paint brush into some water and speckled the old white over the whole canvas. Then sat the canvas up on it’s side and let the white speckled run just a little bit (not much) and dabbed a little again.

The more colors you use the more it will look like actual tarnish. This is what it looked like after the first coat of green.

Now go out there and find your canvas inspiration!

Chalk Painted Coastal Blue Table

Posted on July 5, 2012 by kimscornerdecor

Here is one of my creations. It is painted in a custom mix of ASCP. I say custom because I accidentally dropped the Greek Blue I was using into the last half of my can of Old White and instead of throwing out the Old White, (that stuff is expensive) I added a little more of the Greek Blue and made “Accidental Coastal Blue”.

The drawer fronts are painted in Old White. Luckily they were the first thing to be painted. The drawer pulls are from Hobby Lobby. The suitcase is painted in ASCP, Old White. (I saw one similar to it on Design Stars on HGTV, Tuesday night 7/3/12).

The whole thing is distressed and then topped off with 2 coats of clear wax.

Stay tuned for updates from the Living Room redo, and a new series of places to shop for unique decor in Louisville. This week Tickled Pink Memorabilia Mall.

Now go out there and find your accidental inspiration!

Linking to:

myrepurposedlife

5 Tips on Successful Bartering

Posted on June 30, 2012 by kimscornerdecor

5 Tips On How to Barter Successfully.

With the popularity of the new A&E program Barter Kings many people who may have never considered bartering are jumping on the bandwagon.

Bartering is as old as time. You have a horse, I have a farm, you need food and I need manure so we trade.

1. Understand the value of your trade. I cannot stress this enough, you cannot trade “up” every time. This is not Hollywood, Barter Kings is a TV show, they don’t show the “even” trades. That wouldn’t make for good TV. Be realistic, I’m probably not going to trade you my $2000 motorcycle for your $800 trailer. (Unless I really, really need a trailer, and don’t mind the loss.) I would probably just sell my motorcycle and buy a trailer and keep the extra $1200.

That being said there are many ways to barter successfully. Currently, I am trading with another person in my area. She has extra produce from her garden and eggs from her chickens. I bake once a week and will provide her with a cake or pie. I get fresh produce to feed my growing family and she gets a cake she may not have the time to make for herself. This is a pretty even trade.

My husband traded a shotgun for a mini bike and an air gun. The values were pretty even.

2. Have a clear idea of what you want ahead of time and make it clear in your ad. I use Craigslist.org to barter, simply because more people know what Craigslist is and use it. The majority of ads are not good. Sometimes, it is difficult to know if what I have is something you will be interested in. An ad that says “I’ll trade my XYZ for anything let me know.” When I read this, I really have no idea if what I have is something you would be interested in. My time is valuable and so is yours. Make it clear what type of things you would be interested in. You don’t have to be specific, but a general idea is very helpful. For example the person I am trading fresh produce with said that last year she traded for homemade bread, that let me know what type of things she was looking for.

3. Take GOOD pictures. Just like with a blog, etsy shop, or ebay listing, good pictures sell (or in this case trade). There are many tutorials on the web that explain how to make your pictures look good. One of my favorites is Funky Junk Interiors Photo Tutorial. Although it is geared towards blogs it is helpful for any photo that you are going to post.

4. Be Safe. As with any time you are putting personal information on the web, be cautious. Don’t meet with people alone. Craigslist.org suggests the following precautions:

When meeting someone for the first time, please remember to:

Insist on a public meeting place like a cafe
Do not meet in a secluded place, or invite strangers into your home
Be especially careful when buying/selling high value items
Tell a friend or family member where you’re going
Take your cell phone along if you have one
Consider having a friend accompany you
Trust your instincts

5. Don’t forget the tax implications. So far I have only written about like trades, there are many other ways to barter. Service for service, service for goods, etc. You can read what the IRS says about bartering here IRS topics: Barter Income.

Remember Bartering can be fun. Don’t take it too seriously, you have the right to say no as does the other person, don’t take it personally. Bartering is a good way to build new realtionships, maybe even friendships.

Living Room update

Posted on June 29, 2012 by kimscornerdecor

I am sooooo glad that I decided to put off the deck. I know everyone is hot and we shouldn’t complain, but I just can’t help it. I’m in the air conditioning and I want to slap someone, I can’t imagine what it would be like to have to work outside.

So I have been working in the Living Room Update. Got the carpet pulled up, it only took less than 30 minutes. Painted the accent wall, it only took a couple of hours including dry time. But the staples, (insert explicative here) they took me ALL day yesterday. Oh the difference pulling up the carpet made. It already looks better in there.

I really like the new color on the accent wall, it still needs a bit of touch up. I’m thinking of using ASCP Barcelona Orange for an accent table, and other accent pieces.

So let me know what you think.