How To Prime & Paint Solid Wood Doors {and a FREE Printable!!}

Don't forget to look for the free HOW TO Printable at the end!

When we made our big to do list, we talked about adding doors to our Master Bedroom. (Yes, we bought a house without doors to our bedroom). I laugh because it has been 3 months and Ty and I have gotten use to having entire conversations from the living room to our bedroom with no problem. We are excited to have some privacy when guests come, and to stop tip toeing around in the morning when one of us gets up before the other. Because of the archway, these doors needed to be custom so we contacted a contractor in our area and had him come out to measure and create a template for the doors. 6 weeks later they arrived at our home to be installed. Our next step is to paint the doors. We did a similar door painting project on an exterior door in our last house, but this one is much easier since we have a fresh slab of wood rather than a door caked in years of paint. Here is how we painted our solid wood doors (and how you can do it too!).

How To Paint Solid Wood Doors

1// Remove door from frame. Remove all door hardware including hinges. This will give you a clear surface to paint and keep your hardware paint-free!

2// Lay your doors flat! This is key in avoiding drip marks during the painting process and while the doors dry.

3// Gather your supplies. We found that a foam roller brush gives the smoothest finish on doors and cabinets.You will also need a primer made for bare wood if your doors did not come primed. We chose Valspar bare wood. You will also need a foam sander block. This is essential for sanding between coats of primer. Depending on the finish of your doors you will need fine or a moderate grit sanding block. We bought both just in case. These are great for other sanding projects around the house too. Lastly, you will need a tack cloth to clean off the sanding debris, and your choice of paint for the door. 

4// Time to prime. Our doors were sanded well and smooth from the beginning so we did not sand prior to our first coat of primer. If your doors are uneven or have layers of paint, you will want to thoroughly sand them prior to priming. Using our foam roller we applied one coat of primer to each door and allowed it to dry for 2 hours  per the directions on the primer can.

5// Now that the primer is dried, its time to sand. We lightly sanded each door until the surface was smooth. Using a tack cloth, we then wiped the door of all sanding debris. This part is essential to keeping debris out of your paint and off of your roller.

6// (Optional) Depending on how well your primer went on and how porous your wood surface is, you may or may not want to coat with a second layer of primer. If so, repeat steps #4 & #5. We opted to move forward with painting at this point rather than a second coat of primer.

7// With the surface clean and dry, its time to paint. We really like Sherwin Williams ProClassic paint for trim and doors in our last house, so we went with it again. We also chose a semi-gloss finish in a custom white for the door. Using our foam rollers again, we rolled one coat of paint on to the door surface and allowed it to dry for 45 minutes.

8// Repeat step #7 until you have achieved an even coat throughout. We did three coats of paint total.

9// Once paint is completely dry, flip the doors and repeat steps 4-8.

10// Rehang newly painted doors. Replace hardware and hinges. Enjoy your newly painted wood doors!  (Before & After of our newly finished doors coming soon!)

Enjoy this FREE Printable:

Turning a Mirror into a Headboard

The office has been more of a storage room for the first couple of months in our new home. With the change in my job hours to nightshift, we bumped this room up on the list of to dos. This room will now serve the dual purpose of office & nightshift sleeping room. I am excited to have a cozy little nook to doze in during the day.

The walls are now painted a neutral grey rather than bright green. Last weekend we added roll down blackout shades and a light fixture that actually works. We finally sifted through and sold most of our excess furniture via Craigslist. And this weekend we readied the bed for all of my daytime sleeping by turning a mirror into a headboard (oh, and Ty's deer also found his place).

In our first house, this mirror was the perfect addition to our hallway. During Christmastime, we even used it to display all of our Christmas cards. In the second house, it was a great floor length mirror in our guest room. And in this house we are re-purposing it for a headboard.

The mirror already had the proper brackets in place which made this project super easy. I tied picture wire to the the brackets and it was ready to mount (the twine is just leftover from the card project!)

Then I placed the mirror behind the pillows to determine the correct height. I wanted the wood frame to sit above the pillows while the pillows covered the mirrored portion. Admittedly, I nailed three holes in the wall before I got the height just right. Maybe next time I will use a tape measure instead of eye balling it (duh!)

I love how it turned out. The room is small and so finding a way to have a headboard without making the bed stick out further into the room was essential. I love the contrast of the wood and the walls and the pillows. I also really like that this project was free and made use of a mirror that we really like but couldn't seem to find a place for.

This nightshift haven is coming together slowly but surely. We still need to install curtains, find a proper desk, mount the TV, and find some storage solutions for our office supplies. More to come in the next few weeks. 

Have you guys re-purposed any home items lately? What did you do?

How to make Lifesize Jenga

It wouldn't be a holiday for us without a little DIY projecting. Ty built life-size Jenga for our 4th of July festivities and it was a hit! Here is HOW he made the game.

Supplies:

6 - 96" inch 2x4s

Miter Saw

Tape Measure

Marking Pencil

Step 1: Measure and mark 10.5" inches from the end of one 2x4. 

Step 2: Cut at 10.5" mark on 2x4

Step 3: Measure your first cut to ensure it is the proper 10.5" length.

Step 4: Using the first cut as a guide, repeat steps 1 -3 until you have 54- 10.5" blocks.

Step 5: Stack the blocks in rows of three in alternating directions for a total of 18 rows. 

You are ready to PLAY!

Lifesize Jenga Rules 

{courtesy of GiantJenga.blogspot.com}

Setup:

1.  Using 54 blocks make a 18 story tower, with 3 blocks per story.  Each story being perpendicular to the stores above and below it.

Rules:
1. Remove one block from any row below the highest completed story and stack the block on top perpendicular to the story below. (Some play only removing blocks below the top three stories)
2. Remove and stack one block per turn (Using only one hand at a time)
3. You are allows to tap blocks to find loose one for removal, but if you move one that you don't intend to remove, you must put it back before removing another.
4. Always complete each story with 3 blocks, before starting a new story.
5. Your turn lasts 10 seconds after you place your block on top of the tower or when the next player touches the tower.

Winning:
1. Keep taking turns untill someone topples the tower.  The last player to stack a block without toppling the tower wins!

Be careful ....
A tower built of 2x4's can't hurt if it lands on you, especially when wearing open toe shoes.

Creating DIY Art from Fancy Paper

With the chair debacle of 2014 resolved, I wanted to focus on decorating the mantle to finish up the living room. I looked for art at antique malls, garage sales, and even did some online shopping but I still could not find what I wanted for the living room. I really liked this piece from Ballard Designs. It is colorful and abstract... but too large for our space. 

I wanted to create something similar but I was nervous about doing something abstract on such a large scale. In the past, I did some abstract art for our kitchen, but it was more of a whimsy and fun look rather than the more formal look I wanted for the living room. 

I have also seen some amazing marble wrapping papers lately and thought using one of those sheets as art would be fun. I went to a fancy paper supplier here in Nashville and while I was looking at the marble papers, I stumbled upon this Ombre Paper that was a perfect fit for our living room.

Originally I thought that I was going to do to frames side by side on the mantle, so I bought two. It is $6 a sheet - for art this is a cheap risk to take, for wrapping paper it about kills me to purchase it (I digress). I had two frames from botanical prints I was using in the dining room (more on that change up later). I decided to use those frames ($25 each on clearance at TJMaxx) for my art to make an easy DIY Custom Framed Art for only $30.

First, I took the brown kraft paper backing off of the frame. It was super easy. I used an xacto knife to pierce a small shallow hole in the back, and then I ripped off the thin paper backing.

 Next, I had to pry up each staple holding the matte board in place. I lost a lot of staples along the way, but did try to be gentle as I went so that I could use them again to secure the matting when I replaced it with the new artwork. 

Once the staples were open, I could easily remove the matte board and artwork.

The matte board and artwork were glued together - surprise! I did not anticipate this, but using an xacto knife I was able to gently separate the matte board from the artwork. I did not worry about messing up the old art and focused on keeping the matte board intact.

Once separated, I placed the matte over my Ombre Paper. Fortunately, the paper was the exact size I needed. But if it had been too large, I would have used an xacto knife and metal ruler to cut it to the correct size for the matte. 

The matte still had some sticky back lefts so it secured easily to the new artwork. I then placed the new matted art back in the frame, and secured the staples that were left. Voila! New art!! You could also opt to replace the paper back board but with my flare for change and decorating, I figure its only a matter of time before I want to try something new.

How To Plant an Herb Garden

I planted my very first herb garden this spring. Here's HOW I did it!

1. Choose a planter and the herbs you would like to plant. 

I chose Basil (to make yummy pesto!), Rosemary, Parsley, and Cilantro.

2. Prepare the soil.

I accidentaly purchased enriched soil instead of potting soil. (This may explain why my front porch plant didn't make it) Oops! So we used some of this enriched soil as filler and then used some of the fertile dirt already in the flower bed. We mixed that together to create a rich environment for the herbs to take root. 

Moral of the story: BUY POTTING SOIL

3. Evenly space your herbs within the pot or bed. 

4. Dig a hole the width and depth of the herb to be planted. 

5. Place herb in the hole. 

I used herbs that did not have to be un-potted for planting. 

I simply had to tear the bottom of the biodegradable pot off the 

bottom and place those remnants in the hole. 

6. Tightly pack the herbs in place ensuring that the base of the herb is even with the soil line.

7. Water!

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Planting Privacy Trees

We told someone we were planting trees in our yard. He said "that is so nice to pay it forward like that." I never thought of it that way --- and it is a nice thing, endearing in fact. But in case you missed our confession post last week, I'll just go ahead and fess up to this too: 

These are PRIVACY trees, NOT pay-it-forward trees. 

I digress. These puppies were planted a few weekends back. In the summer when the yard is flourishing we have great coverage from the road, but this winter we noticed it was a little bare. You guys know we are always operating on a budget, and this time we REALLY needed to find the biggest bang for our buck - insert: Green Giant Trees. 

These trees are estimated to grow THREE FEET per year and are sure to block out noise, traffic view, neighbors, peeping toms.  Not only that, they are hardy and do not require much care. They also are not prone to bugs/insects/disease like some trees are. So hopefully this view will be much more private by next year. 

Down to Planting: HOW WE DID IT! Originally we thought we would need an auger, but when we saw how large a four-foot tree actually is, Ty quickly realized that a shovel would do. (Pocketed $60 bones right there!) 

1. Determine placement. These particular trees get huge. It is recommended  to plant each tree 5 to 10 feet apart. We chose 6 feet.

2.  Dig a whole as deep as the bulb and twice as wide.

3. Place the root ball into the hole, ensuring that the truck of the tree is above or equal to the soil line 

(aka ground level). 

4. Pack in the soil tightly around each tree.

5. Cut binding around tree and water each tree for 20 seconds per day for the first few weeks until the trees are established.

6. Use pine straw or mulch around each tree to help the trees retain moisture.

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