painting

DIY “Create” Sign for Craft Room

November 12, 2018 by Tracy Lynn DeGarmo 6 Comments

To celebrate the success I have achieved in my Craft Room Transformation project so far, I decided to make a Create sign to hang in my craft room, just something small, inspirational, and just for me. I stenciled this using a stencil cut from vinyl on my Cricut. This is a one-time throw-away stencil and a perfect use for vinyl you can get for free.

Learn how you can inspire yourself to be creative!

Material and Supplies

(This post contains affiliate links to one or more of the items I used in this project – which means, if you make a purchase after clicking a link I will earn a small commission. There is no added cost to you!)

Wood Oval
Paint for basecoat (I used latex paint from painting my craft room walls)
Paint for accent (latex paint from painting my craft room trim)
Paint for the stenciling (artist acrylics)
Paint brushes
Stencil brushes
Design (in my Resource Library)

I bought birch ovals so I could make signs to give as gifts. With several in the stack, I have enough to make a Create sign for myself. They are a nice size. The information says that they are 12-1/2″ x 7-3/4″ but mine measures 12-3/4″ along the longest measurement.

Prepare and Paint the Wood

The birch ovals are nicely cut and only needed a light sanding to smooth out the edges. Once sanded, I applied two coats of the wall paint that I used when I painted my craft room. Latex paint takes longer to dry than acrylics. If you use wall paint like I did, be sure to let the basecoat dry a day before using a vinyl stencil on it.

To give the edge of the Create sign some contrast from the walls, I painted the edge and a border on the face of the sign in bright white. To draw a consistent border around the edge, there a few ways you can do this.

You can use a drawing compass. Set the spacing between the point and the pencil to the border depth you want. You also need to move the pencil up into the clamp. Lay the side of the point/pin against the vertical edge of the sign and set the pencil point onto the surface of the sign. Then, just draw the compass around the sign.
You can use a seamstress hem measuring tool. Set the slider to the depth of the border you want to paint and mark all around the face of the sign. You could also use a ruler to measure in your border width.
Rig up your own tool with tape, a pencil and another item that will give you the spacing you need. For my example, I used two pencils and a chopstick.

Once the border was drawn, I started the border with a fine liner brush.

Using a larger brush, I filled in the border, including the vertical edges.

Create the Stencil

You can hand-cut the stencil or you can cut in on a craft machine.

For your project you can choose one of the following:

Machine cut: Download the zip file from my Resource Library, extract the .SVG file and upload it to your craft machine design software. Cut the vinyl, weed it, then apply the transfer material.
Hand cut: Download the PDF file from my Resource Library, print page 2 on legal (8-1/2″x14″) paper, hand cut from stencil film.

This was going to be a one-time stencil so I decided to cut it on my Cricut from a low tack vinyl. The design is laid out to be cut from a single sheet of vinyl. You can separate the objects to different pieces of vinyl if you prefer.

Note: If you want to learn how to acquire vinyl for free when you need vinyl for a stencil (that you will just throw away anyway), you can read my post about how to talk to a sign shop to acquire their vinyl scraps. They throw away scraps that are larger than your cutting mat.

Apply the Stencil for the “Create” Sign

The stencil is designed to fit within the border on the sign. Not all pre-fabricated oval signs will be the exact same size so you may need to guess a little when placing the stencil.

Remove the backing from the vinyl
Holding the transfer material, center the stencil inside the border
Burnish the vinyl to the board to get a good seal
Remove the transfer material

If you hand-cut your stencil, center the stencil within the border and tape the stencil to the board.

Stenciling the Create Sign

You are now ready to stencil the sign. The video below is a sped-up version of the stenciling I did of this design. If you want some details about how to do the stenciling, watch the video in this blog post: https://www.tracylynncrafts.com/stenciled-tote-bag

Complete!

Your new inspirational sign is now complete and ready for you to hang in your craft room or wherever you want to be inspired to be creative! This also makes a great gift for the creative friends in your life.

Save this to your favorite Pinterest board so you can make it for yourself or as a gift.

Craft Room Organization – Stage 3 – Prepare for Painting

May 4, 2018 by Tracy Lynn DeGarmo 2 Comments

Before I can paint my craft room, I have to prepare for painting. That is going to involve the following tasks:

Repairing a hole in the wall
Repairing blemishes
Prepare the trim
Prepare the baseboards
Miscellaneous items

(This post contains affiliate links to some of the items I used in this project. It just means that you will help to support my blog if you make a purchase after clicking the links. There is no added cost to you!)

Repairing a Hole in the Wall

The hole in the wall was a door bell and intercom system that was here when we moved in but doesn’t really work. It’s old and yellowed and I don’t really need it in the craft room. We decided it needed to go. When we removed it from the wall, we found that the hole was as large as the device. That meant a drywall patch.

Time to learn a new skill to prepare for painting!

After watching several YouTube videos on various methods and knowing that this patch would sit behind my new pegboard, we chose the following method to repair the drywall to prepare for painting the room.

Trimming the hole

The hole was a little irregular so we needed to trim it for a good fit of the drywall patch.

We first cut a piece of scrap drywall to 5″ x 7″. This is a little larger than the current hole in the wall. After measuring and marking, we used a box knife to score the paper layer of the drywall, then to make repeated cuts to work through the drywall.

Holding the patch over the hole in the wall, we traced around the edge of the patch piece then scored the wall with a box knife. Using a straight-edge and repeated cuts, we cut the hole to fit the plug.

Inserting the Plug

The metal frame of the doorbell/intercom is attached on the right side to a stud. The left side is not attached to anything. We ran a bead of Liquid Nails around the frame then carefully pushed the plug into the space so that it was just beneath the surface of the wall. This required some light rapping all around. Don’t push too hard or you will have to try to retrieve the plug from the opening.

Patching the Drywall Plug

To give some strength to the joining of the drywall plug to the rest of the wall, we used an aluminum mesh drywall patch and spackling. The mesh patch was self-adhesive. We simply centered it over the drywall plug and lightly rubbed it to make it stick to the wall.

The spackling I bought is pink when it goes on and turns white when dry. These pink-while-wet products have been around for quite a while but this is the first time I used one. The color reminds me of bubble gum.

Once it turned white, I sanded it with 80 grit sand paper until I could feel no ridges in the spackling. I sanded until I could just start to see the impression of the mesh. Using the same spackling, I applied another coat, though this one was a very thin coat. Once dry, I sanded again. To remove all the dust from sanding, I vacuumed with the brush attachment then used a slightly damp towel.

Repairing Blemishes

By blemishes, I mean gouges from the previous owners, dings from when we moved in, or the cold air return that was painted to the wall. These all needed to be done to prepare for painting.

Cold Air Return

Why do painters just paint over the vents in a room? This just bugs me. I had to cut around the cold air return in the craft room to “disconnect” it from the paint on the walls, dig through the paint on the screws so the screwdriver could do its job, then remove the cold air return without ripping the paper layer of the drywall. Once it was off, I had to sand down the painted edge so the painting would go on smoothly.

Prepare the Trim

When we bought this house, it was about 20 years old. It doesn’t appear that the previous owners really cared too much for the upkeep of the house. The trim has some wear from what appears to be windows left open during rain storms. No matter what the plan for this room, we had to prepare the trim for for finishing.

Giving the trim a light sanding also helps to give the surface some “tooth” so the paint will adhere better.

With the contours of the trim, I chose to go with the newer types of spongy sanding blocks that can conform to the shape and contour of the trim. They also are supposed to cut down on the amount of build-up in the sanding surface. It made faster work of the sanding than having to get sandpaper into the grooves in the trim. After sanding, I first used the brush attaching of my vacuum to remove sanding dust then used a damp rag to wipe down the surface to remove any remaining dust.

Prepare the Baseboards

The baseboards were in bad shape. It looks like they were not cleaned before the latest coat of wall paint. Against the top of the baseboard was a layer of caulk. On top of that was a layer of accumulated dust, grime and cigarette smoke over which the flippers painted and added more caulk. I decided to scrape all that off, which added a lot of time to prepare the room. I’m glad I got rid of the old. I will “feel” better in that room knowing how much attention I have given it to do a good job. I followed the scraping with sanding.

Here is a little segue: I don’t tape off a room too much when I paint so you won’t see much tape in my pictures. I’ve gotten pretty good at painting over the years and actually like it. In my post on painting, I will give you some of the tips that I have learned. For me, painting is an opportunity to queue up some podcasts or some favorite music and just be in my own head for a time. My husband can’t stand painting. He avoids it and is quite happy to let me do all the painting. We are planning to give his home office a makeover and I have offered to paint it for him.

Miscellaneous Items

The last couple of items to prepare for painting were the phone jack and the cable jack in this room.

We don’t have a “land line” in our house. We have a house phone but it is VoIP (Voice over IP) and we use the Ooma Service (this is not an affiliate link) and have no need for the old phone jacks. I cut the wires from that, taped the ends, and will cover it with a flat outlet cover (the kind with no openings).

The cable jack is a coax cable and just needed to be unscrewed. The cable will remain in the wall. That will also receive a flat outlet cover.

Ready for Paint

With the above complete, I swept the ceiling (lightly brushed it with a broom), wiped down the walls, and vacuumed all the carpeting.

I used heavy paper to tuck under the baseboards to protect the carpeting and I taped some of the trim.

With the above preparations complete, I’m finally ready to paint!

I hope you were able to learn some techniques to help you when you need to prepare a room for painting. In my next post, I will prime and paint. I will do the ceiling, walls, trim, baseboards, and the ceiling fan blades. I’m excited to see how it will look!

Remember to pin this so you can remember the steps to prepare for your next painting project!

Stenciled Tudor Rose Box

April 18, 2018 by Tracy Lynn DeGarmo 7 Comments

Several years ago, a friend made me an awesome necklace made of Tudor Rose shaped beads and gave it to me in a wood box. I have been meaning to stencil that box all these years and finally did it this week. To reflect the design of the necklace, I made this a Stenciled Tudor Rose Box. I cut my stencils from vinyl on my Cricut. Because the stencils were single-use stencils I cut them from the vinyl that I get for free.

Materials and Supplies for the Stenciled Tudor Rose Box

Wood “Cigar” Box – You can find these at most craft stores or online
Stencil Pattern – You will have to cut this yourself using a craft machine or by hand. The design files are in my free Resource Library
Stencil Paints – I used craft acrylics
Stencil brushes
Masking tape

About the Multi-Layer Stencil

There are a couple of reasons why it is handy to use a multi-layer stencil.

Color Separation

By placing elements of the stencil design that are all of the same color on a single layer of the stencil, you do not need to mask off parts of the design as you stencil. For the stencil design used in this stenciled Tudor Rose box project, all the green leaves are on one layer, all the red petals are on a separate layer, etc.

Bridgeless Design

Most stenciling is recognizable by the bridges separating the elements of the design. Below is a Tudor rose stencil design with bridges. This could be cut from one layer of stencil. It would be more of a challenge to paint because you’d have mask off areas of the stencil as you do each color.

Bridgeless stenciling is called Theorem Stenciling and is traditionally (19th century) done on velvet/velveteen.

This next image is a Tudor Rose stencil design without bridges.

This is accomplished by using multiple layers of stencils. For this project, these are the four layers of the Stenciled Tudor Rose design.

The files in my Resource Library include all five layers. You may need to adjust the scale of the files once you bring them in to your design software. You can cut these from vinyl, card stock, or stenciling Mylar (3 mil to 10 mil). Vinyl and card stock will be single-use stencils. You can reuse Mylar stencils.

You can cut the designs by hand using the PDF in my Resource Library. The designs in the PDF fit the box I stenciled. If your box is a different size, you will have to scale the images before cutting.

Border Stencil – Adjust the scale of this to fit your box. The dimensions of the top of the wood box in my project is 8.5″ wide by 8.125″ tall.

The four Tudor Rose Stencils need to all be the same size as each other. For my wood box, the outer square of each stencil layer is 5.6″ wide. If you make all four layers 5.6″ wide and retain the aspect ratio, the layers should work correctly for you.

Preparing the Wood Box

Depending on your starting point, you may need to do some work to the box before you begin stenciling. You may need to lightly sand it. You may want to add a light polyurethane coating to it before stenciling to protect the bare wood. My wood box had been a gift, so all of that was already done when I received it.

If you give the wood a coating of some sort before stenciling, let it dry several hours before proceeding.

Stenciling the Tudor Rose Box

Layer 1 – The Fleur de Lis Border

This project has five layers. There are the four layers that make up the stenciled Tudor rose and a layer that creates a border and background by masking the edge of the box with a fleur de lis design.

I wanted the stenciled Tudor rose to be on a painted background and I also wanted a fleur de lis somewhere in this design. I didn’t want the corners of the box painted. That is where the box gets handled the most. Leaving that as the exposed wood would mean less paint wear. The result is this edge mask.

Apply the border stencil to the wood box.

The white you see in the picture above is white vinyl I cut on a Cricut.

I then laid some painters masking tape along each edge before stenciling. I was concerned the bristles could paint the sides of the box as I stenciled.

Stencil the box. I wanted a nice white background so I stenciled two layers of the white.

Remove the masking tape and the stencil.

Let this layer dry for at least an hour.

Layer 2 – The Leaves

Technically, the next four layers can go on in any order. It suits me best to work from the background to the foreground, even though they are all painted directly onto the background color.

I cut all four of the Tudor Rose layers from a single 12″ x 12″ sheet of vinyl.

Center the leaves layer on the box with the triangle-shaped registration mark in the lower left corner. Very lightly touch it to the box so that it doesn’t shift around but don’t “adhere” it yet. Lift up each corner and place a piece of painters tape under each of the four corner registration marks. Now you can lightly adhere the vinyl to the box. This is not to be a permanent application of the vinyl. Do not burnish it too firmly or you may pull off paint as you remove the vinyl.

Since the edges of the leaves are a bit close to the edge of the stencil, it’s a good idea to lay some masking tape along the edges.

Stencil the leaves. Stencil the registration marks in the four corners onto the masking tape.

Remove the stencil but leave the masking tape that is in the four corners where you stenciled the registration marks.

Layer 3 – The Red Petals

Using the layer for the red stencils, line up the registration openings to the stenciled registration marks and apply the stencil.

I had forgotten to cut the stencil mask where the registration holes are on this stencil. The stencil mask I use is not clear. It is more like masking tape. So, I couldn’t line it up very well. I wanted to remove the stencil again and get it perfectly aligned but I was worried I might pull off the green paint from the leaves layer if I tried too many times.

I decided to leave it here so I can show you later how you can correct the stenciling if this happens to you.

Stencil the layer. Do not re-stencil the registration marks. Remove the stencil layer.

Layer 4 – The White Petals

Repeat the steps from the previous layer using the layer for the white petals. If you used a bright white background layer, you could skip this layer. I did this layer anyway to make the white just a little bit more opaque and bright.

layer 5 – The Yellow Center

Repeat the steps from the previous layer using the layer for the yellow center.

Repairs to the Project

Fixing Shifts in the Stenciling

I said I would tell you how to fix it when one of your layers is a little off. I actually have three methods you can use.

Using a craft painter’s paint pen or a fine tip Sharpie, outline the entire design.
Use a fine liner brush to paint a line of the appropriate color of paint over the exposed white line
Re-stencil

For this project, I chose method #3. I cut the red petal stencil layer from some card stock to fix the stenciling.

Once cut, I laid the card stock stencil onto the project, exposing those areas that should have been painted, and re-stenciled them

Fixing Damaged Paint

I don’t usually use vinyl for multi-layer stencils on something like wood (they work great on fabric) because of the risk of pulling off previous layers of paint. However, there are some ways to decrease the chance of this happening, such as tapping the sticky side of the stencil vinyl onto a short-nap cotton fabric to decrease the stickiness (because the vinyl grabs some of the cotton fibers). That has risks of its own because you can get the fibers into your project.

I managed to pull up some of the background paint with one of my vinyl layers. I touched it up by using a small paint brush and tapping it over the damaged paint.

Embellishing the Design

Embellishing the design is optional. You may get to this point and decide it is done. I wanted to do a little more touch-up and some hand-finishing of the design. The remainder of this was done with liner brushes.

Once complete, I applied a couple of coats of a matte spray-on polyurethane to protect the paint.

What did you learn?

Did you know about multi-layer stencils?
Have you ever heard of Theorem Stenciling?
Have you ever hand-embellished your stenciling projects?

If this inspired you to try something new, come on over to Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/groups/TracyLynnCrafts) and share pictures of your project.

I hope you learned something new from following along with this Stenciled Tudor Rose craft. I can’t wait to show my friend how I adorned the box she gave me. 🙂

Remember to pin this to your favorite crafting board so you can remember to try this project!

Royally Etched and Painted Crown Bottles

March 30, 2018 by Tracy Lynn DeGarmo 9 Comments

After a party at our house a few months ago, the Crown Royal bottle was finished. What a cool-looking bottle, right? I decided it was not going into the recycling. I headed over to Pinterest to see what everyone else was doing with these bottles and came up with a plan for an etched and painted Crown Royal bottle. In the months since that party, the other size bottle has also been emptied and now I can make a matched set of etched and painted Crown Royal bottles. The etching stencils were cut on my Cricut from the vinyl I get for free since they were to be thrown away.

Materials and Supplies

Empty Crown Royal Bottle(s)
Vinyl Stencil (See info below)
Glass Etching Compound: Armor Etch
Sponge Brush
Rubbing Alcohol
Paper Towel
Tape
Glass Enamel Paints
Paint Brushes

About Some of the Supplies

Vinyl Stencil: In this project, I assume you have access to a craft machine, such as the Cricut, to cut your own vinyl stencil.

This post does not describe how to cut vinyl on a craft machine. I assume you are familiar with your machine and design software. The .SVG file format seems to be one of the most universally accepted formats. If you have a new Cricut and want to learn how to use it, check out the Love Your Cricut Mini Course at the JenniferMaker site.

Whether it is your own machine or a friend’s machine, I have provided the .SVG files (containing the two sizes) for the fleur-de-lis design used in this etched and painted Crown Royal bottle project. The files are in my Resource Library. Note, you may need to resize the shape after uploading to your design software.

Glass Etching Compound: The only brand I have ever used is Armor Etch. I can find it at my local craft stores and online.

Glass Enamel Paints: The common brands of craft acrylics usually have an “enamel” paint that can be used on glass and ceramic. The ones I used in this project are Folk Art.

About the Design

The design for this project has two sizes to fit both the small and large size Crown Royal bottles. I set up the design with the outline for that flat empty space where the label used to be specifically to help in placement of the vinyl stencil.

I have only tested the design in the Cricut Design Space but all the craft machines indicate they accept .SVG files.

If you are only cutting one size, when you add the file to your project, ungroup the images and delete the size you don’t need.

Etched and Painted Crown Bottles — The Etching Phase

The first part of this project is to etch the fleur-de-lis design into the glass bottles.

Prepare the Glass

Remove the labels from the glass. I do this by soaking in hot water with dish soap overnight. In the morning, the labels peel off. I then use a scrubber to remove any glue residue.

Use rubbing alcohol on the surface where you plan to apply the vinyl stencil. This will remove any oils from handling the glass. You want a good seal of the vinyl against the glass.

Apply the Vinyl Stencil

I made this design to fit exactly into the space on two sizes of Crown Royal bottles. Before you cut the vinyl stencil, check to see if you need to resize the stencil in your design software. The outer edge of the vinyl fits into the space to help with alignment.

Press the vinyl onto the glass and smooth from the center to the outer edges. Use a burnishing tool (or the edge of a credit card) to make a good seal between the vinyl and the glass. Burnish in multiple directions to help get a good seal.

Repeat the application for the other bottle.

Peel off the transfer mask.

You will want to apply masking tape around the edge of the vinyl.

Because of the way I designed it, the fleur-de-lis is close to the edge of the vinyl. You won’t want any of the etching compound to get onto the glass except through the holes of the stencil.

Apply the Etching Compound

I use a cheap foam brush that I have trimmed to fit just inside the opening of the etching compound bottle.

Brush the etching compound onto the stencil covering all the openings of the stencil.

Let it sit for one whole minute — these are the instructions for the Armor Etch brand of etching cream (follow the instructions for whatever product you use). If you go over the minute, that’s okay. I once left some on a different project for five minutes and had no issues. You will need to leave it on for at least one minute. At the end of that minute, rinse off the etching compound under running water.

Reveal the Etching

Peel off the tape then peel off the stencil.

Give it another quick rinse. Once dry, the etching will be more pronounced.

You have completed the first phase of the etched and painted Crown Royal bottle.

You can choose to stop here and enjoy the etched glass or you can move on to the painting part of this project.

Etched and Painted Crown Bottles — The Painting Phase

It is now time to paint the glass bottles.

Glass is a very smooth surface. When you brush the paint onto the glass, you will see brush stokes.

I intend to paint the bottoms of the glass so I need to work on the bottles one side at a time.

To create an opaque look will require multiple coats of paint.

If you want to cover the entire bottle with paint, mask off the etched area and the threads for the bottle cap and use an enamel spray paint. I wanted to accent the points at the top of the design, which meant painting by hand, and multiple coats. I just left the bottles and paint sitting out in my work-space. After painting a coat, I’d clean my brushes then go work on a different project and come back for another coat of paint. Eventually, I got the bottles painted to the degree I wanted.

Accenting the Etched and Painted Crown Royal Bottle

The blue paint is just my base coat. I wanted to highlight some of the designs in the glass by accenting with white and gold paint.

For the diamond shapes molded into the glass, I accented those in white. Instead of using a brush, which would have required multiple coats, I used a squeeze bottle. I have these little squeeze bottles with fine tips for applying gutta onto silk (I’ll write a post on silk painting soon).

Here is a close-up of the white accent paint as applied with the squeeze bottle.

With the gold paint, I added some more accents until I decided they were done.

Setting the Paint

The craft enamels are set if you let them set for somewhere around a month. Or, you can bake them according to your paint manufacturer’s instructions. Set the painted glass on a oven-safe pan and place in a cool oven. Do not keep the plastic bottle caps on the bottles while baking. Do NOT pre-heat the oven. Once in the oven, set the temperature to whatever is recommended by the brand of paint you used. This allows the glass to come up to temperature slowly. Bake for the amount of time indicated by the brand of paint you used. When the time has passed, turn off the oven but do not open the oven door. You want the glass to cool off slowly. I usually do this at night so I can go to bed with the oven cooling down and I’m not tempted to go open the oven door too soon.

Once the glass is cool, remove it from the oven. I usually give it a quick hand-wash and then they are ready to use.

Enjoy Your New Crafting Skills!

By making the etched and painted Crown Royal bottles, you now know how to do two new crafts! You know how to do glass etching and glass painting. Both etching and painting on glass can be applied to other craft projects for home improvement and for gifts. One year for Christmas, I etched the underside of a 9×13 glass pan for each of my daughters. The etching was their first names and could be read as you looked into the pan – which meant the stencils had to be cut in reverse. I have etched designs into the glass of picture frames. I have painted wine glasses and the back side of glass plates.

You can pin this post so you can remember it when you want to etch and paint your own crown bottles.

Home Office DIY Remodeling from Drab to Exciting and Colorful

February 2, 2018 by Tracy Lynn DeGarmo 3 Comments

I want to share with you the remodeling journey of my home office. I went from something drab to the exciting and colorful workspace that it is today. Maybe I will inspire you to do your own DIY home office remodeling project.

My Home Office Starting Point

When we moved into our house, I chose a spare bedroom on the walk-out lower level to be my office. The whole house had plain white walls and light brown carpeting.

Six months after moving in, we had a water issue… a major issue. We slept in shifts to keep the water from flooding into the rest of the house until we could get a crew in to fix the problem.

We hired a company to break up the concrete to put in drain tiles and a sump pump.

Yes, that is a big pile of sand in my home office they dug out from under the foundation!

Thankfully, the repair worked and there has been no issue since. I spent a lot of time cleaning the floor and walls because, it’s not clean until I say it’s clean. Concrete dust gets everywhere!

Planning the Home Office Remodel

My husband has home design software because he likes to tinker with designs. We talked through my vision and he made that vision appear on-screen.

In the final design, we removed the two sets of bifold door closets and replaced with a single square closet (for the sump pump) and a built-in sitting area with book shelves and a pull-out queen-sized bed.

Building the New Walls

The closet is a square that encloses the sump pump. We insulated the walls and the pipes to cut down on the sound of the pump.

We framed in and hung the drywall on the rest of the former-closet-space to become the space for the bookshelves and sitting area.

Time for paint!

I love to paint. It is such a joy to watch the new-ness come to life. I focused on the Lily of the Valley as the inspiration for my decorating. I chose two colors of green and a blue for the walls. The trim is white and I even repainted the ceiling.

When painting my office, I also painted the closet door and blades of the ceiling fan. The ceiling fan blades were a dark brown. I primed them and painted then the light green color.

I found a cable management system to hide where the Internet enters our home and painted it to match the wall.

Flooring Options

A sump pump means humidity and we didn’t want to ruin carpeting if there were ever any more water problems so the floor of the closet is inexpensive vinyl flooring we picked up at the hardware store.

For the main floor in the office, I decided I didn’t want carpeting. If the sump pump ever failed, I didn’t want to rip out and throw away more carpeting. This is where I spent the most money on the project. It’s a cork-backed floating wood-look vinyl tile system — it’s not adhered to the floor. I love the wood look because it helps to warm the feel of my office.

Building the Convertible Seat and Bed System

The rule we joke about here is that all sitting areas need to convert to sleeping areas so friends and family always have a place to crash.

I turned to Pinterest for ideas and found a system that someone built inside their van to convert a bench seat into a bed. My husband (designer) and brother (builder) took my vision and built a plan.

The bed is a standard queen-size and has storage underneath. The bed is not attached to the wall and it is on casters. It is possible to rotate it 90 degrees to make it more accessible for those who may have accessibility problems climbing over a sleeping partner to get out of bed during the night.

Using the handles on the front, the couch pulls out to a queen-sized bed.

Making the Cushions and Mattress

The mattress for the bed/couch is a three-layer queen-sized foam mattress that I bought on Amazon. The bottom layer is a standard foam and has two densities of memory foam on top.

We let the mattress “rest” for a few days, as instructed, before cutting it. It is very easy to cut foam with an electric knife. I was surprised that it didn’t make a mess all over the floor. It was a very clean process.

We cut the mattress so that the biggest piece is the one that is the seat when the bed is in the collapsed state. The remaining section we cut into two equal pieces. They are the seat-back when collapsed. When the bed is pulled out, they all lie next to each other to completely fill the space.

Covering the Cushions

I covered each piece of foam with a zip-on canvas cover that I made. I chose cotton canvas because it is durable, breathes, and is washable. Each is also covered in a decorative fabric that can be removed for cleaning.

The green in the decorative covers is a perfect match to the light green paint on the walls.

Adding the Bookshelves in the Sitting Space

What’s a sitting area without being surrounded by books? We added as many shelves as the space would permit. I have space for all my craft books, my photo albums of my kids, various pieces of art, and cherished memory items.

The bottom “shelf” is the cover of the walled in area. We set it up so that no one would have to deal with dangling cords. There are holes in the top through which we can drop in cords for small lamps and an access panel for reaching the outlets.

DIY Pinch-Pleated Curtains for Window Treatments

I wanted to make my own pinch-pleated curtains on a traverse rod. I found a blue drapery fabric that is a near match to the blue in the sitting area. It has been several years since I made pinch-pleated curtains. I found instructions online and had to tweak the instructions just a bit to force my pleats to align with the vertical stripes in the fabric. They turned out perfect and balance the colors in the room.

The Rest of the Story

The remaining things to do in the office were to move everything back in and decorate. My computer sits in the corner opposite the sitting area.

I had these old shelf-style candle sconces that were stained a dark brown (because that’s what people did in the 70s). With a couple of coats of primer and a gloss-white paint, they help to decorate the wall on either side of the seat. I added electric candles that I wrapped in a green ribbon to match the light green walls and blue flower that matches the blue walls.

This cute foot stool I found on Amazon but the cover was not attractive. I ran across a piece of scrap leather that was astonishingly close to the color of my walls and replaced the cover. I lined the lid with fabric that has Lily of the Valley flowers — the original inspiration for my home office remodel!

One wall is my Family Wall. That is where I put pictures of my family and other items that are special to me.

One of the walls is my Art Wall. Some of the art was created by me, some for me, and some bought for me.

I hope you enjoyed the journey.

DIY “Create” Sign for Craft Room

Material and Supplies

Prepare and Paint the Wood

Create the Stencil

Apply the Stencil for the “Create” Sign

Stenciling the Create Sign

Complete!

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Craft Room Organization – Stage 3 – Prepare for Painting

Repairing a Hole in the Wall

Trimming the hole

Inserting the Plug

Patching the Drywall Plug

Repairing Blemishes

Cold Air Return

Prepare the Trim

Prepare the Baseboards

Miscellaneous Items

Ready for Paint

Remember to pin this so you can remember the steps to prepare for your next painting project!

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Home Office DIY Remodeling from Drab to Exciting and Colorful

My Home Office Starting Point

Planning the Home Office Remodel

Building the New Walls

Time for paint!

Flooring Options

Building the Convertible Seat and Bed System

Making the Cushions and Mattress

Covering the Cushions

Adding the Bookshelves in the Sitting Space

DIY Pinch-Pleated Curtains for Window Treatments

The Rest of the Story

If you would like to remember what I did to help inspire you, pin my Home Office DIY Remodeling from Drab to Exciting and Colorful post.

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painting

Material and Supplies

Prepare and Paint the Wood

Create the Stencil

Apply the Stencil for the “Create” Sign

Stenciling the Create Sign

Complete!

Other Posts About Cutting Vinyl

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Repairing a Hole in the Wall

Trimming the hole

Inserting the Plug

Patching the Drywall Plug

Repairing Blemishes

Cold Air Return

Prepare the Trim

Prepare the Baseboards

Miscellaneous Items

Ready for Paint

Remember to pin this so you can remember the steps to prepare for your next painting project!

Like this:

Materials and Supplies for the Stenciled Tudor Rose Box

About the Multi-Layer Stencil

Color Separation

Bridgeless Design

Preparing the Wood Box

Stenciling the Tudor Rose Box

Layer 1 – The Fleur de Lis Border

Layer 2 – The Leaves

Layer 3 – The Red Petals

Layer 4 – The White Petals

layer 5 – The Yellow Center

Repairs to the Project

Fixing Shifts in the Stenciling

Fixing Damaged Paint

Embellishing the Design

What did you learn?

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Materials and Supplies

About Some of the Supplies

About the Design

Etched and Painted Crown Bottles — The Etching Phase

Prepare the Glass

Apply the Vinyl Stencil

Apply the Etching Compound

Reveal the Etching

Etched and Painted Crown Bottles — The Painting Phase

Accenting the Etched and Painted Crown Royal Bottle

Setting the Paint

Enjoy Your New Crafting Skills!

You can pin this post so you can remember it when you want to etch and paint your own crown bottles.

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Like this:

My Home Office Starting Point

Planning the Home Office Remodel

Building the New Walls

Time for paint!

Flooring Options

Building the Convertible Seat and Bed System

Making the Cushions and Mattress

Covering the Cushions

Adding the Bookshelves in the Sitting Space

DIY Pinch-Pleated Curtains for Window Treatments

The Rest of the Story

If you would like to remember what I did to help inspire you, pin my Home Office DIY Remodeling from Drab to Exciting and Colorful post.

Like this:

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