Teacher Podium Makeover

I'm a first year teacher.  I know, I know.  I need to write a post explaining how all that came about.  I'll put that on my to-blog list. Back to this post - I am a first year teacher and I started in the middle of the school year so my classroom was/is full of stuff and I am doing my best to make it my own a little bit at a time.  This podium doesn't get a whole lot of use in my classroom but it has been a bit of an eye sore for me and I knew it needed some kind of makeover.  This is how it started out looking - yellow and black with a poor spray paint job.  So I loaded it up one day after school and brought it home where it sat for a week or two while I was deciding on colors. 

 

 

I really wanted to give it a pop of color but ultimately I decided to go with white.  It took several coats of spray paint to cover up the black.  Fun Fact: As my husband and I were spray painting the podium we noticed a name with class of '66 carved into it.  I knew this thing was old but wowzers! I added some vinyl to it and it looks like a totally different podium.  I am very happy with the end product and can't wait to take it to school tomorrow.  It will be making a little trip to the Engineering class first so they can fix the bottom of it - after all it is OLD! :) 

 

DIY Teacher Gift : Valentine's Day

Here's how these things usually go down.  I spend weeks thinking of what I want to do for a gift.  I spend lots of nights pinning away while my husband sleeps beside me.  I get ideas, I plan for them.  I usually even start them weeks in advance.  And then.........I stop.  I think about how much time I have and I tell myself I'll finish it up in a couple of days.  And then........I don't.  And then I spend the day (or night) before stressing to finish everything! That's just the way I operate with pretty much everything and it works for me, most of the time! :) 

Finding a gift for my sons' teachers followed this suit as well.  I decided about a month before Valentine's Day that I wanted to give their teachers flowers.  There's just something about little boys turning into gentlemen and giving out flowers that melts my heart.  So I headed straight to Pinterest and checked out my "One Day Projects" board and decided to make vases out of jars I had around the house.  I used Prego Spaghetti Sauce jars but you can use any jars.  I used Goo Gone to get all the sticky glue left after peeling the label off.  I washed the jars and dried them really well.  I wanted a super pale pink so I mixed lots of white into an already light pink to create the color I wanted and then I started painting.  I used a foam brush but quickly decided that a paint brush would be much better and it really was better.  I painted the outside of the jars, let them dry, and then put on a second coat.  I left the jars alone to dry overnight and after 24 hours I lightly sanded them until I was happy with how distressed they looked.  I sprayed them with a protective coating.  I only had a gloss protective spray on hand.  I recommend using a Matte spray over the gloss.  The gloss made the jars too shiny and that took away from the shabby look a bit.  I let them dry overnight outside to get rid of the strong smell.  As you can see, patience is key in this project! Once the smell had diminished and I was able to bring the jars inside I wrapped burlap around the jars and tied a bow.  I added some beautiful flowers, a yummy chocolate cupcake, and voila! A beautiful, homemade, Valentine gift that anyone would love to receive! I had all the supplies on hand to create the jars - jars, paint, sandpaper, protective coating, paintbrushes - so the only thing I had to buy for this project was the flowers and cupcakes.  Simple, easy, and beautiful! I will be making myself some of these beautiful jars just as soon as I can collect more. 

The Wills Boys: Teacher Gifts

I absolutely love giving gifts.  When my boys started preschool I was super excited to be able to give two teacher gifts.  I knew I wanted to do something creative, inexpensive, and fun.  I found this on pinterest and it was my inspiration.  I do have a craft business so I already had some mason jar tumblers on hand.  I created a fun chalkboard vinyl decal, included a piece of chalk, and a gift certificate to a local coffee shop in our town. This was an easy and adorable gift.  I love how they turned out and I hope their teachers loved them too!

 

 

 

DIY Headboard: Reveal

My goal was to have Walker's room completely finished by Monday.  It's Wednesday and I can tell you that it did not happen but it is so close to being done and I can't wait to share the whole room with you once it is complete. This past weekend we worked on his dresser  (you can see that post here) and his bed.  I had planned to build him a pallet bed but after doing some research on the chemicals in pallets I decided not to go that way.  You can do your own research on that topic and decide what's best for you and your family.  I wanted something that was going to last a while so we made a trip to Home Depot and picked up some wood and supplies.  I had planned to do a whole tutorial and annoy my husband by taking step by step pictures to post here but I got a migraine Sunday after church and by the time I woke up my sweet husband had finished the headboard.  Here are the pictures I gave him for my inspiration:

     

(Note: These are NOT my pictures and are pictures I pinned from Pinterest.  If these are your photos, please let me know and I will be glad to give you credit.)

After looking at A LOT of pictures of these types of headboards I found that the ones I liked had two things in common.  The first was the height of the headboard.  I wanted it to be tall enough to really see it even when the bed is made and the pillows are against it.  The second thing is that I wanted it to be framed.  The frame of the headboard gives it a bit of dimension and gives it a neat and completed look.

 

Here is what the headboard looked like before it was finished and stained.  If you follow me on Instagram you probably saw this sneak peek! We did end up cutting the legs about two inches after this picture to get it to the perfect height.

These pictures above are after the sanding, staining, and protective coating.  Can anyone guess what I said to that handyman hottie to make him look at me that way?! :)  I told him I was taking his picture to put on the blog and that is the look I got. And, finally, the big reveal.  I could not be happier with the finished product.  It looks so perfect with his new fire truck bedding.  I think he likes it! His room is really coming together and I hope to be able to show the completed room very soon.

 

Homemade Chalk Paint: Dresser Makeover

I have seen some pretty amazing furniture makeovers using chalk paint and I have pinned them and awed over them hoping they would give me some inspiration to do my own makeover whenever I found the right piece of furniture.  Luckily my mom is always on the lookout and spotted a dresser that someone was throwing out and brought it home.  There was absolutely nothing wrong with the dresser.  It is in great shape and I still wonder why someone decided to just toss it but I am thankful they did.  It was the perfect piece for my very first experience with chalk paint.  I looked into purchasing chalk paint but it was pretty expensive and there are lots of homemade recipes out there so I decided to try one (or two) of them out.  Here are the pictures I took before I started:

I found a lot of different recipes online.  Some used Plaster of Paris and others used Unsanded Grout.  I started out using the Unsanded Grout recipe because that is what I found first at Lowe's. 

 

1 Tablespoon Unsanded Grout

1 Tablespoon Water

Mix the above together and then add

1 Cup Flat Latex Paint

Blend well

                                    

                                          

 I followed the instructions I found online but I was sure I was doing it wrong because all of the recipes I found talked about how thick the paint was and how quickly it dried up.  Some of the comments even mentioned the paint hardening into clumps of paint.  My paint looked completely normal and had me thinking I was not doing something right.  So after a few coats I decided that I must have gotten the wrong kind of grout so I headed back to the store to find Plaster of Paris.  I came home and mixed up a new batch using this recipe:

1/2 Cup Plaster of Paris

1/2 Cup Water 

Mix the above together and then add

1 Cup Flat Latex Paint

Blend well

 

This mixture looked just the same - smooth and not thick at all.  I still don't know if I did it correctly or not but I went with it anyway.  A lot of the recipes mentioned how fast it will dry up but I left it in this open container for hours without it drying up at all.  It did not harden in the slightest.  I did have to do A LOT of coats to get it completely covered.  One of the great things about chalk paint is that it does not require sanding or priming.  However, I WOULD recommend sanding if the piece has been previously painted.  If it is solid wood without any paint skip the sanding and priming and get straight to painting!

I had planned to use polyurethane to seal and protect the dresser but after reading about it yellowing in time I decided to go with Minwax Paste Finishing Wax in Natural.  This was easy to find in the paint section right beside the stains.  I followed the directions and used cheesecloth to wipe the wax on the dresser.  By the time I was finished putting the wax on I had used up all my cheesecloth so I used an old cotton burp cloth to rub the wax in and the burp cloth worked much better than the cheesecloth. 

As I was waxing my fingernail snagged a piece of the raised design on the top drawer.  At first I was SUPER bummed because at that point I had been working on the dresser for ten hours and I was ready to be done but when I saw the white peeking through it was like it was just begging to be distressed.  I got the finest sand paper I could find and went along the edges and eventually all over.  The dresser is going in my three year old's new firetruck room (more on that later!) and distressing it will definitely keep this Momma from stressing out every time it gets a knick or scratch because let's face it, three year olds are tough on just about everything!

 

I love the lines and the shape of this dresser.  It has a retro feel that I really like and the curves at the bottom are perfect. After some new hardware and lots of work, someone else's trash definitely became a treasure - thanks Mom! This was my first experience with DIY chalk paint but it definitely will not be my last.  I already have a couple of ideas for my next chalk paint project. Have YOU ever tried chalk paint? What is your favorite recipe? I'd love to see some of your treasures!