{HELP! Wood Glaze, Anyone?}

So, I have been busy on another wood project. This is just your teaser. It's built, painted, sanded, and sitting in the garage waiting for some glaze. I'd have that on it too if I had the glaze. I am trying to decide what to even use. It needs to be a medium dark glaze. Not as dark as chocolate, but not much lighter. Anyone out there have a favorite glaze that they use?

{Shadow Box Wall Paneling Tutorial}

I promised to show you what I did this last weekend, so here is the

BIG reveal!!!

This project was first inspired by a visit to my aunt and uncle's house shortly after they moved into a beautiful, newly built home. Every detail had been thought out when it was built, and there is truly some eye-catching custom work showcased there. As I walked in the front door, I immediately saw the ivory shadow box paneling installed 2 feet up on all four walls of what was the piano room.

Because my aunt did not design the home but purchased it just after it was built, she didn't know what this paneling was called. I didn't even know where to start looking online for DIY instructions and honestly thought that it was one of those design elements impossible to have unless it was installed as the house was being built. So I filed the idea in my "one day when I build my own custom home" (Really? Hah.) "I want but will never have in my home" part of my brain.

• • • Fast forward two years. • • •

I have sat at my computer screen the last several months and drooled over other bloggers' board and batten walls that they have installed themselves over an existing wall in a short 1-3 day process. I decided that I was going to jump on the bandwagon and poured over all the blog tutorials I could find. I was convinced I could do it, until I realized that it was going to be a lot of work for the wall I really wanted to do. First of all, I have nice 6-inch, detailed moulding for baseboards. I really didn't want to tear it off to replace it with a smooth board needed for the true board and batten look. I also didn't want to try to match my vertical strips up to the baseboard because that would involve more intricate cutting and that really wasn't the look I wanted anyway. On top of all of this, I had a VERY small budget to work with-mainly because we are trying to sell our house and with the economy the way it is, I really don't want to dump a bunch of money into a house we will not get paid back for. On that note, however, this has caused me to become more creative trying to spruce up our house to give it that one-of-a-kind custom look, without the price. Decorating tips anyone? :)

Back to the drawing board. Then it dawned on me. The real look that I wanted was the shadow box paneling. However, I still didn't know it was called that. I scoured online and finally found a few images from some contractor's websites that confirmed the name. After that I pretty much made up the process on how to put it together. I'm sure other people have done this, but I wasn't able to find any tutorials online for it. So here is my version:

BEFORE:

(Neither of my kids' beds have bedskirts-don't judge :). My excuse is that I haven't found the right fabric to make some yet.)

This is one of those projects where there are are steps within steps. So I am going to break the process down into two parts:

1. Building the Shadow Boxes (which I will refer to as FRAMES from here on out because they are similar to a basic picture frame) and

2. Painting/Wall Construction.

I did this project with my father-in-law helping me because it would have been a longer and much harder process with only one person and one set of hands, especially with kiddos running around like wild indians destroying the rest of my house (which they did anyway) :). So it only took me one day from start to finish. Don't get discouraged if it takes you two if you are working by yourself. My FIL started building my frames while I taped the wall off and painted. That gave the paint plenty of time to dry by the time the frames were built and I didn't have to wait to install them on the wall.

PLANNING STEPS:

1. Measure your wall and figure out frame placement and dimensions. I ended up having 4" in the vertical spaces: between the tops and bottoms of frames to the baseboard and chair rail. I ended up having 5" in the horizontal spaces: between sides of frames and window moulding and adjoining walls. Some tips:

• Make sure your overall height including your top chair rail doesn't cut your room in half. Rule of thumb is to stick to 1/3 or 2/3 of your wall. Standard chair rail is 48" from the floor. I have a 6" baseboard so I measured up 42" from the top of the baseboard.

• Take into consideration any outlets or light switches you have already on your wall. I had two outlets that I wanted INSIDE the frames. You could choose to have them on the outside, just make sure you figure enough clearance for the covers so that you don't have to cut your frame, etc. Make sense? I also have a window in the middle of my wall that is not centered horizontally, so I had a really hard time figuring out dimensions that would work for both sides of the wall.

OPTIONAL: Once you figure out your dimensions, use blue painters tape to mark out your design and make sure you like it. Next step is purchasing wood (list of what I used at the end of this post).

{PART ONE: BUILDING YOUR FRAMES}

1. Measure height of first box to cut vertical side. Mine were 30.5" long. Notice the pencil mark is along the top of the moulding (fat, rounded part). This ensured an accurate measurement.

2. Take a metal square and make a 45 degree angle from that first pencil mark. In order to get an accurate cut, make sure your square is angling IN from your outside pencil mark. Otherwise your angles will be going the wrong direction. See how the bottom of the metal square is flush with the bottom of the moulding?

3. Using a compound miter saw, set at the 45 degree angle, make your cut where your pencil mark is. You will have to alternate from the LEFT 45 degree mark to the RIGHT 45 degree mark on your saw. If you own one of these, you should know what I am talking about. If you don't have a saw, you can use a miter saw box. I saw them at Home Depot for about $8. I have never used one, but I don't want you to think that you have to have power tools for this project (although it makes it much faster and easier!)

Make sure you align your saw blade up with your pencil mark so you don't get it too short!!

• REPEAT steps 1 thru 3 as necessary to cut two boards for your height and two boards for your width for one frame.

4. Put a little bit of glue on the angled piece of wood, and press the two corners together. Use a nail gun (my was my FIL's and was a brad nailer-this worked great because we could get short, small brad nails that didn't split the wood since the moulding I chose was so thin.) and shoot a brad nail through the corner to hold the two pieces together. Do this on all four sides. Right before you nail the fourth side together, place that metal square you saw above in the corner across from the one you are about to nail and adjust until the edges meet up and you know your frame is square. (I hope this makes sense-I kept forgetting to take pictures of these small steps.)

•REPEAT steps 1 thru 4 (the entire process mentioned above) for all of your wood frames. I had seven frames total for my wall. Then take your frames in and check to see that they are similar to what you had taped off earlier.

{PART TWO: PAINTING/WALL CONSTRUCTION}

1. Mark horizontally across wall where the TOP of your chair rail will go (in my case it was 42" from the TOP of the baseboard.) Then mark a line horizontally about one inch below-this will be your painting line. You also need to find your studs. My FIL helped me mark them above the chair rail line and also on the baseboard. (I did take a picture of all the markings but it was so blown out it wouldn't do you any good to see it.) MAKE SURE YOU DO THIS! It will be much easier to install your frames if you have a mark on the baseboard so you aren't trying to hold the frame to the wall, hold the nail gun, plus try to see your mark on your wall 4 feet above you, all at the same time! TRUST ME!

2. Tape off adjoining walls. I used (for the first time) FROG tape I had found at Home Depot. It was more expensive than the regular blue painters tape, but I was told it would give me a much cleaner line. You have to activate the tape-place it on the wall and dip your finger in water and run it along the tape. Once it's wet it activates the "gel" which creates a bond to the wall-smooth or textured!!

SIDENOTE: I was also SPECIFICALLY told to take the tape off immediately after painting and don't let the paint dry. Once I started painting I realized I was going to have to do two coats to cover the brown wall. What I SHOULD have done was get a good heavy coat on the edges by the tape with my brush and then taken the tape off. I didn't, however, and so although it only took me about 10 minutes for the first coat and I immediately did my second coat, and then peeled off the tape, it was too late. I could see the nice straight smooth line from the second coat, but where I had let the first coat dry, there was a little bit of bleeding onto the other brown wall. Don't get me wrong. This tape is still WAY better than the blue tape (and no I am not getting anything from the company for saying that). Just make sure you get a good coat and take it off immediately and you shouldn't have to do ANY touch up!

I also put a blue piece of tape up so that my roller wouldn't hit the brown wall. I didn't tape my baseboards because I was using the exact same white paint that they had, plus I wanted to touch them up when I was all done-they had a few scuff marks from playing kids. :)

3. Don't forget to take off any outlet/light switch covers!

4. Paint your wall-mine took two coats. Let your wall dry. Ideally, if you were doing this by yourself, I would recommend painting and then building your frames while it was drying.

{INSTALLING YOUR FRAMES ON YOUR WALL}

At this point you can either take your measuring tape and mark out your horizontal and vertical spots for your frames so you know where to glue them on. I didn't want to worry about erasing or painting over pencil marks. I had some leftover pine boards from another project so I cut two pieces that were the dimensions for my horizontal space and vertical space (since mine were 4" vertical and 5" horizontal) and used them as a spacer guide as we hung each frame (see photo below).

1. Run your caulk along the back side of your frame-all four sides.

2. As one person holds the frame up close to the wall, have the other person set the spacer blocks up so you can place it where it needs to go. (I had to take a photo after we really did this because of time constraints with the caulking-so don't mind the already painted frames. They really shouldn't be painted at this stage.) One spacer block goes against the baseboard, and the other spacer block goes in between the wall and the frame (for the first one), or next to the previous frame (after you install the first one).

(These are awful photos. However, I didn't realize this until after the fact so I guess this is as good as you will get.)

3. After you glue on all the frames, go back and use your nail gun to nail the frames-make sure you get a nail where the studs are, plus a few other spots for some extra reinforcement.

4. Caulking: You do NOT want to skip this step. Your frames will have a tiny gap between them and the wall, and it will be really obvious after you paint. So, run a small amount of the caulk along one edge and smooth it with your finger. Only do one side at a time so that it doesn't dry before you get it nice and smooth.

See how smooth it looks? Here is a little trick to getting it to look THAT smooth, courtesy of my FIL: after you run your finger over it, take a wet sponge and run it along the edge to get the excess off and push the caulking in nice and tight to that space.

•REPEAT this until every side has been caulked.

5. Fill all the nail holes with the caulk and let it dry.

6. Hang your chair rail. I painted mine first so that I wouldn't have to worry about taping off the wall again where it met the chair rail. I didn't get a photo of this. Sorry, just too much going on and my hands were needed to help. Make sure you get a few nails in the studs. Use the caulk to fill those holes and touch up with paint as necessary.

7. After everything is dry go back and paint all your frames with a brush. I did two coats. I didn't worry about using primer, but I also had enough paint that I wasn't worried about two coats. I then went back and did one last coat with my roller on the empty wall space (making it 3 coats total on the wall itself).

8. Paint your baseboard if necessary.

9. After everything is dry you can put your outlet/light switch covers back in place.

YOU ARE DONE! Well, not quite. If you are like me then you had to put furniture back where it belonged. Or rearrange :) I didn't want to cover all that hard work up with the dresser that was there before, so I moved it to the other side.

AFTER:

I tried to explain everything with all the details I wasn't sure about when I was planning this project. If you have any questions or are unclear about anything, don't hesitate to email me.

{LIST OF SUPPLIES}

WOOD (Purchased from Home Depot):

• Small 3/4" or 1" panel molding (each strip was 8' long) 6 pieces @ $4.79 = $33.53

There were a lot of decorative pieces, but this was the only one that looked like the true shadow box style and matched the rest of my molding. Make sure you figure in a little bit extra in case you make some mistakes on cutting your 45 degree angles.

• 1 chair rail 3.5" wide $1.35/foot = $12.72

I got a 9' 4" piece that we cut down at home to fit the two sides and only had a few inches left over. I found a piece that matched what I already had for the window trim in my entire house. It was priced by the foot, so I didn't want to get a bunch of extra. This piece was the only piece of pressed wood that was primed. The only reason I got that is because they didn't have a matching design in real solid wood.

• Frog tape $7.77

• Brad Nails $4.72

• Fasteners (Another Brad Nail-one was short and one was longer) $3.79

• Wood Glue (Only because I couldn't find my other bottle of it) $2.97

• Caulk 2@$2.99 = $5.98

Total I spent for this project: $71.48

My budget was $75 for this project so I was THRILLED!

Now, I did have to buy a couple other things but here is why I didn't figure them into my budget:

A. Paint-we had leftover paint from the rest of our house trim, but the last painter that used it stuck some random metal screen in the can and left it. So the paint was ruined and I had to buy more. But I figure I wouldn't have normally had to count on this!

B. 2 Foldable Plastic sawhorses- These are really nice! I needed something to make a workbench with anyways, and also to put my new compound miter saw on, so I figured that was an investment. Plus if/when we move I will be able to take those with me-so they don't count! :)

C. One sheet of plywood-Part of my workbench I needed anyway.

D. Paint Tray and Roller-Mine were trashed so I picked up a new one since I was already there. They will be used for other projects now.

I have to say a big THANK YOU to my father-in-law who drove down to help me specifically for this project. Not to mention the help with the kids and also for his company. Sorry for the sore knees and indecisive shopping for wood! :)

{Weekend DIY Home Project}

Wanna know what I spent my weekend doing?

Uh huh. Oh yah. That's right. SHADOW BOX PANELING.

Did I mention I did it in ONE day? Because that's important for moms. Who don't have husbands with a lot of free time that want to spend it doing home projects for their wives. :)

I had a really hard time finding any information about it online, so I made my own tutorial. With pictures. I will post the ENTIRE thing with my witty comments alongside photos, tomorrow. :) I bet you just can't wait.

{CHOCOLATE! Oh Yeah, and Gold Coins}

Today when Little Miss M woke up I told her that she needed to wear something green so no one would pinch her. She marched right over to her dresser and picked out her clothes. She was somewhat disappointed because she didn't have green pants to wear, but settled for the ruffly skirt. All day she kept saying, "Mom, I am wearing green for Patrick's Day. Now no one can pinch me, not even a leprechaun!" She made sure that Baby S and I both had on our green shirts as well.

I made some of those satin flower hair clips that you see everywhere online just for the occasion, and they were SUPER easy! Maybe I will link up to a bunch of great tutorials if anyone wants to know more about them. After making them, I am having some wreath ideas for Little Miss M's room that I will be doing some re-decorating on in the next few weeks. So stay tuned. . . .

The second Miss K got home from school, Little Miss M started talking about going on the treasure hunt the leprechauns left. She was so sure that the treasure would be gold coins, but not just ANY gold coins.

{Reading the first clue on the front door, and then following the other clover clues}

Little Miss M: "Mom, the leprechauns leave special gold coins that have CHOCOLATE inside!" Good thing those leprechauns know their stuff, otherwise we would have been in trouble. :)

The entire time on their treasure hunt, Little Miss M kept pointing out that all the clues were on LUCKY four-leaf clovers, or "flovers" according to how she said it. I don't even know where she learned about the difference of regular 3-leafed ones and lucky four-leafed ones. . . certainly not from me.

The treasure hunt was a huge success with the girls! I think this is the beginning of a new tradition! What fun things did you do for St. Patrick's Day?

St. Patrick's Day Treasure Hunt

So I never grew up doing anything extra for St. Patrick's Day other than wearing the green shirt or socks to school so I wouldn't get pinched by some nerdy boy I didn't like. I've seen a lot of crafty things in blogland that people have made for St. Patrick's Day. Banners, applique shirts, candy baskets, wreaths, topiaries-you name it, someone has made it.

I decided to jump on the bandwagon and do something fun for my kiddos. Last week I saw a cute and easy idea that Jamie over at The Crafting Chicks said she was going to do for her pre-school kids, and she was even nice enough to share a downloadable file for those of us too busy lazy to make our own.



What three-year-old doesn't like a treasure hunt? I don't know of any-especially when sugary treats are involved! I'm going to hide these in our house and leave a treasure box full of treasure (check back later to see what it is) for my girls! Head on over and get your rainbow colored shamrocks for your own St. Patty's day celebration!

Also, I will be posting some other fun St. Patrick's Day stuff in a little while!

Blogging in my Head!

Okay, so I have tossed the idea of starting a blog around for quite some time now. Up until now I have kept myself occupied viewing/reading everyone else's blogs. Call it procrastination, because that's all it really has been. It finally hit me that I needed to buckle down and make my own when I found myself doing other household tasks or crafts, and even cooking family meals and I was "writing" a tutorial in my head!! I have found A LOT of cool things on other blogs, and if nothing else, I want to create a link so you can find all those crafty, thrifty, and just plain cute ideas. Because it can be overwhelming to look at 50 different concepts for one thing and then try to remember which site you liked the best three days later. So here it is. It will be scattered. It will be random. I won't promise that I will write every day. I won't promise that you will always understand it. But I will promise to post useful (I hope you will think so) tips and tricks that can help ease the life of a self-employed, stay at home mom and wife. And there might be some random humor along the way. If you're lucky.