$5 wall treatment

We have a semi awkward hallway in our home that leads to our bathroom and 2 bedrooms. It also can be seen from the kitchen. Last night, I was laying in bed decor dreaming... Yes...It happens all the time. Ive been eyeballing a beautiful roll of contact paper at the dollar tree for quite sometime, but I never had a good plan for it, until last night. I decided to use it as wallpaper, because I change my home decor faster than people change their underwear, I thought it was a great solution. I bought 6 rolls of paper and put them up in about 45 minutes. Here is the process in photos:

It was super quick and has made a giant impact on the flow of that area. 

Easy mud cloth DIY

I've noticed a recent trend in the home decor world... I've noticed a lot actually, but that has nothing to do with this ... Ha! 3 words: Mud. Cloth. Pillows.

They have a unique texture and can be put into any style of home to add a geometric element. All of that to say ... I love love love them! So, I sat down and whipped one up really quick.

Supplies needed:
Plain cream or white pillow cover
Sharpie marker or black fabric paint
Imagination or inspo photos

Lay your pillow cover out flat on the table and start drawing a pattern to your liking. It's so so easy! Keep in mind that the sharpie will probably bleed when washing it, so this will be a decoration only pillow .. wink wink. 

You can add tassels or pom poms to the corners or sides to give it even more texture! Now hurry up and make your own mud cloth.

How to create rustic wood

I don't know about you, but I love the look of rustic wood. My biggest issues are that 1 I can never find it without having to sell my first born and 2 I do not have the patience for stain. A few years back I realized that I can make a stain out of watered down acrylic and latex paints. Some people call it a wash I call it a faux stain 😉. So today, I wanted to share a tutorial on how to create weathered wood using paints. You will need:
1. Brown acrylic paint
2. WATERED down black acrylic
3. White acrylic or latex paint
4. Bristle brush
5. Sand paper

Start by dry brushing white paint (meaning take your brush and dab most of the paint off of it and paint lightly across your piece of wood).

Next you are going to put a little black and a little brow on your brush, again dab most of the paint off, and using the dry brushing apply the paint.

Whoah! That looks crazy, right?! Now this is where the sand paper comes into play. Wait about 10 minutes and lightly sand the wood. 

Your piece will look similar to this once you have it sanded...

And now you get to make a choice. You can either keep this look or repeat the steps until you reach your desired effect. 

Here is my finished product:

Ombrè Wall for $9!

When I painted our base cabinets in our kitchen dark grey it threw off the balance of our house a bit. The kitchen was catapulted into a specific style and the rest of our house felt basic. I was stumped, so when we cleared out our home to sand the floors I felt some inspiration. I knew I needed a strong accent wall, one that toned down the blue/grey and tied in the kitchen. I started Pinteresting (is that a word) searching for dark accent walls. I settled on a few looks which included black board and batten, but just didn't feel convinced. I then I saw this inspo picture and stopped dead in my scroll.

Yep. I went straight to the hardware store and picked out my paint colors. I found a paint strip that complimented my current wall colors. I then had the bottom 3 colors on the strip mixed in test pot size. It only cost $9 for all of the paint!! The 4th color was a mixture of my current wall color and the lightest test pot color. 

I started by rolling the darkest color onto the bottom of the wall all the way across. You have to work SUPER FAST and start rolling the next shade above it. Then you take a wet paint brush and BLEND the 2 layers together, you can also use a damp paper towel and in a circular motion to blend the layers together. This ombrè effect is like a 100 meter race you have to run at the same sprinting pace the whole time. My biggest piece of advice is to keep going even when you feel like it isn't going well. 

Now here is the artistic part. This is where you have to get creative with blending and mixing. Take a little bit of each color that meet one another and mix them together. Yes. Do it. This will create your ombrè. You are going to take that mixed paint and dry brush it onto the wall where the color layers meet For example in this photo you would put your new mixed color on top of where the charcoal grey and medium grey touch. Now get your lightly wet paint brush and start your sprint of blending. I used a quick swirling motion. This wall paint is completely open to interpretation. The best part is that it will be unique to you! 

Feel free to comment or email me with any questions. 

Finally, Family Photos and Spring!

I am so excited for spring, but I am most excited to spend the Easter holiday with our family back home. It is always a treat to go and visit them! I also have been wanting some new family photos taken, because the other day as I was digging through my files, and I couldn't find a recent photo of my family together. Its crazy how life gets away from you. A few weeks ago, Jord Wood Watches contacted me to partner with them on giving one of my amazing followers an opportunity to win a $100 gift card to their store.

The most exciting part about this partnership with Jord is that I have been eyeballing this watch for my husband for a few years. The thing that drew me to it the most was the wood aspect! I seriously had never seen anything like it. It has been so fun to watch this all come full circle for our family. So, I thought, what a great time it would be to take some photos of our family and share with you all how awesome this watch really is!

The watch is incredibly lightweight, but still offers an extremely sturdy structure. It has a stunning,  unique wood design, that is very eye-catching. The watch that is pictured can be found here. My other favorite thing about the watch was how it was packaged. It was shipped really quickly in a wood box. Cool right?! So, here's where your chance to win a gift card comes in.. click here and fill out the short form to be entered. Every person who enters will walk away with a $25 shop credit.  

Watch Gift Ideas

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