There are so many gorgeous painted furniture makeovers floating around on Pinterest that I've fallen in love with and most of them include fun pops of color. From green and aqua to yellow and mint, I love them all and I'm itching to start a new painted furniture makeover! 

If you've been thinking of making over a piece in your home you will love this list of Color Inspiration for Painted Furniture I put together, shall we get started... 

DIY Painted Tribal Bookcase

If you have been following along on Instagram and Facebook, then you saw the little sneak peeks that I posted last weekend of the fun and crazy DIY project I have been working on. This was my first time painting furniture and working with power tools so bear with me and come along for the ride of my DIY painted tribal bookcase project!

I have been on the hunt for a while now for a really nice bookcase, but I just couldn't find one that had the details I wanted. I was looking for more than just your standard bookcase. 

That's when, at about the six local thrift store location we went to, my husband spotted this little gem. I was in love, look at how cute she is with the little scroll detail at the top and bottom and the shelf bar across the top. 

So the next thing to do after finally finding the perfect bookcase was to gather up some supplies.

• Behr Paint in Spirited Green, Purple Paradise, and Charm
• 3M Pro Grade Sand Paper #80 (Coarse)
• ScotchBlue™ Painter's Tape

I decided on the mint color after seeing this gorgeous night stand from Making Home Base, isn't she gorgeous! 

I was sent the ScotchBlue™ Painter's Tape from a PR company along with a few inspiration photos of fun Spring DIY projects and fell in love with this idea from Dream Green DIY, but more on that later though first we have to talk about sanding!

Luckily my husband was already equipped with a Black & Decker® power sander, he's a pretty handy guy to have around and he's all mine ladies! 

Wow, sanding is not fun, but my husband insisted that the nasty stain on the bookcase needed it before we moved on to painting. There is paint out there you can use to skip this step called chalk paint, which I have seen a lot of DIY bloggers use. However, I didn't see any at our local Home Depot so sanding was a must. Also, after sanding make sure to wipe down your furniture with a wet and dry cloth before painting. 

So, remember the charming details that I loved about my bookcase? Well I kept looking at her and wasn't so sure about a few things after others suggested that the scroll was a little dated looking. I needed to see what it actually looked like with a few items on the shelves and after toying with a few looks I finally settled on keeping the scroll but removing the shelf bar. When we removed the bar there were holes in the top shelf for the dowels, so that's when my handy husband grabbed wood putty to fill in the holes before sanding over them. 

THEN IT WAS FINALLY TIME TO PAINT!!! 

Look how pretty! I just love this color, what about you? Is mint a color you would use in your home or on furniture? 

One thing I learned from Monica and Jess of East Coast Creative blog that I took to heart was to not be afraid to try and not to be afraid to fail. There are so many awesome bookcases out there with gorgeous painted shelves, but the color palette I chose just wasn't working together. 

Note: We had already started to paint over the "Charm" purple paint when I realized I should take a photo of the fail!

So after cleaning her up and giving her two to three coats of the Spirited Green paint and letting her dry over night, it was time to figure out what design I wanted to create with the ScotchBlue™ painter's tape. 

After staring at the tribal background on my cell phone for a good minute or two this cool idea popped in my head of what to create.

But first I had to head back to Home Depot to pick up a few other colors, I really love these little sample jars! The two other colors I used along with the Purple Paradise were Bali Bliss and Jackfruit (such fun names!). 

The ScotchBlue™ painter's tape was pretty wide, so to get the triangle design look I wanted I had to cut each piece of tape in half (split down the middle). This was not a quick task, and at first I taped one triangle design, painted it, then laid out the tape for the next one. That's when a light bulb went on in my head and I realized I should tape out each design then paint them all at once! 

As you can see I didn't like the light purple on the inside of the shelves, but the darker purple (Purple Paradise) was a great color to add to the bottom feet. Although for some reason in this photo it looks like a different tint ( in Pic Monkey it wasn't this color but when I uploaded it to blogger it changed!). 

I'm so happy with the way she turned out; the mint, the pop of purple at the bottom, and the tribal design on the side, it's just a fun piece. Well, what do you guys think? 

I hope my DIY painted tribal bookcase inspires you to have fun with color, use power tools for the first time, and try something you have always wanted to do before. Don't be afraid to fail! 

Thanks for stopping by, have a great weekend!

PS, I'm linking up at The 36th Avenue for Desiree's Best DIY Projects and Recipes Party!

DIY Painted Vintage Owl Lamp

I shared this little vintage owl lamp on my Facebook and Instagram pages a few weeks ago and asked you guys what I should do with him... "To Spray or not to Spray Paint?"....

On Instagram everyone said to spray; some suggested that a white or gold would look good and Monica from East Coast Creative said spray then glaze him! However, on Facebook the ruling went a bit differently; three said to leave as is, while two said to SPRAY, SPRAY, SPRAY! 

Can you believe we actually left him in this condition for a few years?! 

Well after thinking about it a little while longer and consulting my aunt Eileen, who was his first owner, I decided that spray painting him wasn't the way to go. We didn't want an allover color, nor did we want to lose his awesome features. So instead we decided to use Testors Acrylic modeling paint...

I'm not sure how long my husband has been keeping these around for, but before we met he used to paint model trucks as a hobby and these little bottles have been sitting in the garage just waiting to be used again. 

The paint colors we used were a glossy black, yellow, gold, and a ghost grey that Mike (my husband!) mixed with the black to get a darker grey tone for the face and stomach of the owl. 

As you can see he was very excited to help me with this DIY project, hmm maybe for Father's Day I should stop at Michaels Stores to buy him a model truck or car he can paint!

 In the top right photo you'll notice that at first we kept the black spots on Mr. Owl's belly, but I really wasn't loving the look. 

We went back and forth about the spots, he loved them and I didn't. So I figured we could paint his stomach completely grey and if we wanted to add the spots back on we could! Well, I won that round...the black spots stayed away!  

I really love his transformation and I'm so happy that we decided to hand paint his makeover instead of just spraying one overall color on him. What I love even more is that my husband and I did this together and I can't wait for more DIY projects to tackle with him. 

So, what do you guys think? Would you have spray painted him allover, or do you like what we did? The eyes were the most difficult to hand-paint, we wanted them to be exact but it can be tough to get the shape and size to match up perfectly. The final look of his eyes are probably the tenth pair we gave him!

Remember my owl bookends that I spray painted...

Well, they definitely need an overall color makeover, but I'm not sure that I'm digging the white any more. I wonder how a turquoise or navy blue would look?! 

What are some DIY paint projects you have been up to lately? 

Thanks for stopping by today, have a safe and Happy Memorial Day weekend, don't forget to remember and honor our troops. 

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Geometric Painted Planter DIY

My husband joked around that he wanted chocolate and flowers for our anniversary, well I just had to deliver his request, right?! Joke, or no joke I had a really fun time putting this last minute idea together for him and was really proud of the way my DIY project turned out. 

I give you my version of the ever trending Geometric Painted Planter DIY...

So, I have a really awesome Canon Power Shot camera, however I am still learning how to take indoor photos. I have finally learned how to set up my shots for the blog using a white poster board for my backdrop, but the lighting isn't that great in my craft room/home office. For now, it is what it is!

Our Anniversary was on Thursday, April 24th and that Monday I had planned on going over to The Home Depot to pick up a flower pot for my husband that I could update with a fun little paint DIY project. Well, I didn't make it to the store until Wednesday after trying on clothes for the fashion show I was in. 

By the time I got there and brought everything home, it was only about another hour or so until my husband would get home from work. So you see, I didn't have much time to prep, paint, and take photos...I was in a mad dash!

OK, back to The Home Depot! They have an amazing selection in their Garden Center, which is why I can't wait to see what Monica over at East Coast Creative shares during the Garden Party she is hosting this Saturday, May 3rd in NYC at the Flat Iron Plaza! If you can't make the party, follow along on Instagram with the hashtag #SpringMadeSimple. You really can't go wrong with buying your garden supplies there, if you're like me you might even have a difficult time choosing the one you want to take home with you, there were just so many beautiful plants to pick from!

I had previously purchased the ScotchBlue™ painters tape at Home Depot for my stenciled lamp shade  and knew it would be a perfect way to free hand a geometric design onto the terra cotta flower pot. I was also inspired to free hand my design with the painters tape from the geometric tote bag my friend Busy Bee Kate made for my birthday, stop by her blog to see the tutorial for that! 

When I took the first photo I realized, "Hey I better tape off the top of the pot too!".... or I would have a DIY blogger fail! 

So, I just eyed where I was placing the tape and made sure the open spaces were in the shapes I was going for and started painting. This was my first time free handing a design and like I said before, I was in a mad dash to get this done before my guy got home from work...as noted by the imperfections of the paint! 

However, I am pretty impressed with my little flower pot and my husband was too, which is what matters here right?! I made him something by hand, with love! 

We celebrated with dinner at Bonefish Grill plus he surprised me with a bottle of my favorite wine, a box of Asher's chocolates and a new Lolita wine glass! 

What are some things you love to buy or make for your significant other for your anniversary? 

Thanks for stopping by today, have a great weekend!

How to Spray Paint Brass Owl Bookends...

I'm so glad you guys loved my stencil lamp shade I posted about yesterday, I'm really happy that I went with stenciling it instead of one of the other ideas I was considering. It's a timeless look that won't go out of style or one I won't get bored with! As promised, today I'm going to share with you another DIY adventure I took with brass owl bookends.

My husband bought the brass owl bookends for me at Christmas, said he was searching our local antique store for owls and almost gave up when he stumbled upon them! The two love birds look so sweet perched on the branch, but the brass color just wasn't my style and didn't fit with any decor we have in our home. 

They were on my shelf above my work desk in my home office, however I learned the hard way that these guys were a bit too heavy to be sitting on that shelf! Luckily, my laptop wasn't on my desk at the time the shelf came crashing down and there wasn't anything that broke that was sitting on the desk or shelf!

What was I going to do with these things? We only have a small book shelf in our computer room, so I knew they weren't going there. Even if, I still didn't love the brass color! So, this weekend I shared a photo of them on Instagram and asked how I could give them a makeover. My DIY girl Katie over at Busy Bee Kate  tweeted back that I should use some steel wool, self-etching primer, and spray paint. 

While we were out at Michaels Craft Store searching for what to do with the lamp, I looked for the items Katie mentioned. I found the steel wool, but I couldn't find any paint labeled self-etching primer. That's when I found Krylon® Brand Dual Paint + Primer, which works great for Metals, Wicker, Glass, Ceramic, Fabric, Masonry, Concrete, and Wood. Plus the can I grabbed was also a super bond, bonus! 

I took them out to the garage and my husband helped me set up a little space on his work bench so I wouldn't get the spray paint on anything but my owls! I took out the steel wool and got to work removing some of the brass. Steel wool actually comes in different textures, who knew?! You want coarse for tougher jobs like removing paint, and softer for polishing. Ladies, make sure you are wearing gloves to handle the steel wool, it's a little scratchy! Next, it was time to spray paint. 

Well, apparently I don't know the correct way to spray paint, because what I was doing was causing the paint to drip...and we don't want that. That's where my husband came in and showed me the back and forth technique, he's a pro ladies and he's all mine!

At first, he thought we should apply a second coat, but if you take a look at the heavy spraying I was doing at the bottom it looks thick and takes away the details. I loved the way the feathers were showing through and didn't want them to look too caked with paint. 

I love how they turned out and can't wait to get my hands on another item in the house that needs a spray paint makeover! They are currently sitting on the cedar chest in my office, which is probably the only thing that is going to handle the weight of these guys.

What are some home decor items you have spray painted before? 

Thanks for stopping by, have a great day! 

The Adventures of a Lamp Shade Makeover!

How was everyone's weekend? Well, I said I was going to clean and do some DIY projects this weekend and that's what I did! I feel like if I share these ideas with the world, then it kind of pushes me and inspires me to actually get them done! So, if you remember two weeks ago I shared with you our lovely, yet boring lamp shade...

We've had this lamp for about three or four years now, and for the last year or so I kept looking at it and thinking that there must be something I could do so it wouldn't be so dull and boring. In my first post about the shade I shared a few ideas I like; one using Shape Tape™ to create a wave design, writing a love note around it, or perhaps forgo a shade to give the lamp an industrial look.

Well, after seeing this post on my friend Katie's blog Busy Bee Kate, I was at first inspired to find fabric tape to decorate the shade the easy way. So, I ventured to Michaels Arts & Crafts Store yesterday and could not find any fabric tape...perhaps I was looking in the wrong place? Any how, I did stumble upon the Martha Stewart aisle, which I love...and who doesn't...and that's where I found her beautiful stencils. Right then and there I knew that was the DIY project for my lamp shade...

Did I mention that my brave hubby came along for this DIY adventure with me? We could not decide on a pattern and kept comparing them and trying to figure out the perfect stencil for our style. That's when we found the Martha Stewart Crafts™ Geometric Patterns that had a stenciled lamp shade on the cover! I was done, even if he wasn't...I was! 

It's funny I was going to title my post, "How to Stencil a Lamp Shade", as you can see in my photo above, but I came to the conclusion that, "The Adventures of a Lamp Shade Makeover" was more suitable! As you'll see below, I forgot to grab some painter's tape or as I just learned on Michaels' website, Martha Stewart Crafts™ Stencil Tape!

Do you recognize the type of tape I tried to use to hold my stencil in place? Yep, that's washi tape! It wasn't a very successful choice, so while the first line of geometric shapes were drying I ventured over to Home Depot for ScotchBlue™ painter's tape. I was surprised to find out that painter's tape wasn't sticking to the shade either, was I doing something wrong?! 

The paint we chose was Martha Stewart Crafts™ Multi-Surface Satin Acrylic in Deep Sea. I used a stencil foam pouncer as they call it, to dab on the paint. 

Here she is, the before and after! What do you think? It was an interesting adventure in giving a lamp shade a makeover, but I'm really glad I pushed myself to not be afraid to try something new. I really love the way it turned out, the color works perfectly too. The stencil job isn't perfect, but it doesn't have to be! For my first stencil work on a lamp shade, I'm pretty proud of her! 

I have a few DIY bloggers who inspired me that I want to thank. One of them, or two I should say, is Monica and Jess from East Coast Creative. I went to a local ladies' night event they were hosting before I became their blog assistant and something they said stuck with me. It's not word for word but it was something about the biggest obstacle we have in DIY and home decor, is being afraid to fail, being afraid to try, and just having fear of jumping in. So, ladies lets get rid of that fear and pick up a paint brush!

Another blogger I would like to thank is my friend Tairalyn over at Little Miss Mama. She is one amazing woman. She's a mom to an almost three year old, and blogs about motherhood, fashion, homemade recipes, sewing her own gorgeous tulle skirts...she does it all! We "met" online a few years ago and she has since become a top Vancouver Mama Blogger and top Fashion blogger. She inspires me to want more out of my own blog and out of myself. YOU ROCK GIRL!

I also want to thank my girl Katie over at Busy Bee Kate, have you checked us out on Facebook? When we reach 100 likes we're hosting a blog giveaway together! Katie introduced me to a local women's business group when I first moved to the area a few years ago and I would be lost without it and her! 

One more is my sweet girl Heather over at High Heels & Flip-Flops! She's a night owl like myself, so whenever I'm up late and need to talk she's always there to listen. She's an amazing friend, I'm so glad we got the chance to meet in person last year. I can't wait to hang out again. 

OK, so enough talk from me...I want to hear from you! What do you think about my lamp shade makeover? Would you consider using a stencil on your boring lamp shade, have you stenciled a home decor item before? 

Thanks for stopping by, have a great day! Stop back tomorrow for the adventure I took with my brass owl bookends makeover! 

I'm linking my project up with The Party Bunch over on The 36th Avenue!