Tuesday, October 28, 2014

{Home}: DIYs Around the House

I have been wanting to share some home decor posts for months now (we have been in our new place for a little over 3 months), but nothing is finished to my complete liking so I have been waiting. Well I think I have come to realize that in my crazy OCD mind no room will ever be completely done. Some areas I am at a total loss and need some advice (an upcoming post), but mostly it's just that I am not not finding exactly what I want.

I have finally gotten a few projects done in the past couple weeks and I have a couple more currently in the works. The sad part is all of these projects are for Myles' rooms (playroom and bedroom). For some reason, those areas are the easiest for me to decide on decor for.  And they are way more fun than any other room in the house to put together. I will do a full playroom post soon, when I am some how able to keep it clean for more than 30 seconds. For now here are a couple of the things I have been working on:

Gallery Wall in the playroom: 

I started this project like 2 months ago! It took me a long time to decide on what exactly I wanted to have on the wall. Then I had to pick out colors.... From there I couldn't decide which color I wanted on which item... then I had to actually paint them (which took the longest time)... and finally I picked my favorite layout. I moved them around at least 25 times. Then I slept on it and woke up the next day and changed it another 15 times. I am really happy with my final choice. I love the way it looks currently, but I am also able to add more if I want to later. 

The colors come from the rug in his room (which I forgot to take a picture of this time). The first thing I bought for the room was the rug and then designed the whole room around the colors in it.

From top left going clockwise: 
1. A canvas that I wrapped in fabric (same fabric I used for the chairs of his Ikea play table). I painted the 'M' (from Micheal's) orange and glued it to the canvas. 
2. A cheap picture frame I painted and glued the clothes pins to. This will be for Myles' art. 
3. I got this shadow box at Goodwill. I painted it and attempted to put some of Myles' hot wheels in it, but he freaked out and made me take them all out. So I am still brainstorming something I can put in it.. any ideas welcome!
4. I painted this canvas and attached this free USA map printable with sticky Velcro.  
5. Chalkboard I had from who knows where that I painted.. and have yet to write on!
6. This piece is the reason I decided to make a gallery wall. I based it all around this picture. It is a picture my mother colored for my cousin when she was born. It was a color by number picture but she just did her own thing. A couple of years ago my cousin found it and gave it to me for Myles. I found a frame to put it in at Goodwill and painted it. 
7.  Canvas painted with clothes pins glued on it for Myles' art.
8. Painted frame with this free printable.


The other thing I put together in his playroom is this Toy Story corner. Myles had a Toy Story birthday party this year (still needing to blog that!) so I had a ton of Toy Story things left over. My great friend bought Myles this personalized banner! I LOVE it and knew I had to put it up in his playroom. Under that I added a white shelf to display all of his Toy Story figurines (mostly Woody and Buzz). And below that is a board I made for the die-cuts that I had left over from Myles' party. I ordered these die-cuts for center pieces on each table. I didn't want to just throw them out because they are really good quality and fun to play with. 

I started with an old poster frame we had laying around. I glued yellow fabric to the back board and attached the plastic front with blue duck tape around all of the sides. Lastly, I used sticky velcro dots to attach each die-cut to the board. That way he is able to take each one off, play with them, put them in different places, and they will always go back when he is done. We are huge Toy Story fans, so this little corner makes me happy!

The last project on today's post is something I did a while back for Myles' new dinosaur bedroom. A couple of months ago I shared some wall art the we made together (melted crayon canvas and painted puzzles). I have since almost finished his room and promise to share soon. I only have a reading chair to pick up and it will be all done! Anywho, here is his dresser with dinosaur knobs:
Sorry for the poor quality of these pictures, the lighting is horrible in his room.


I had been collecting different dinosaurs from all over (thrift stores, garage sales, etc.) for a couple weeks and when I had them how I wanted I cut them all in half. Once I did that, I took them all to the hardware store and found cheap wooden knobs that fit each one the best. Then I glued the dinosaurs to the knob/drawer. Just a fun little touch to his room! 



What kind of projects have you been working on around the house?


22 comments :

  1. Desiree @ Macke MonologuesOctober 28, 2014 at 9:08 PM

    Love the gallery wall! And, the dino knobs?! What an awesome idea!!
    We are currently trying to transition Marcus' room from nursery to big boy, and it's a lot harder than I anticipated!

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  2. Looks great! What a nice fun space for a little boy! The gallery wall is awesome!!

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  3. Wow! Looks fantastic Julia! Love the dino handles!

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  4. The dino-drawer handles are my FAVORITE!

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  5. LOVE those frames with the clips! So creative!

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  6. oh my! That dino knob idea is so cute. My kids would LOVE that!

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  7. I know! I figured I would just do it for his 2nd birthday, so I was trying to pick out a theme. I didn't want to do a character because he has commitment issues lol. My two main picks were transportation and dinosaurs. I figured at some point all boys love dinosaurs so I went with that and since then he has started to like them a lot more. Hopefully it will grow with him for a while. The knobs are definitely my favorite touch to his room!

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  8. Thanks! I am pretty happy with how it turned out. I l just love color! I want to do some more now but decorating and DIYing gets expensive :( I guess a little at a time, but I want to do it all now!

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  9. I saw something similar on Pinterest (of course!) and decided to go with it because it seemed like the easiest method to be able to change pictures out. Now I just need to get Myles to paint/draw something. He only likes to use a pen and is over colors within 15 seconds!

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  10. Thanks! I have been working on stuff forever and I am finally getting done with a little bit, but it feels like I still have so much to do and so little money lol! I have had to re-glue those handle because Myles always wants to pull and twist them! Hopefully I can get them to last!

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  11. Thanks love! I wish I could take the credit but I saw it on Pinterest. But it is definitely my favorite dinosaur touch in his room.

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  12. Thanks! I was trying to decide on what to do for Myles' new big boy room and in the end dinos seemed like the best option and I have loved decorating with that theme!

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  13. I love the dinosaur knobs! They are so adorable and add so much character to the room! I have done more in my children's rooms than in other rooms too in terms of actual decorating! I think it's easier to think about them.

    Thank you for linking up with Creative Style Linkup! Have a blessed weekend!

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  14. I love the canvas with pegs for his pictures, and the dinosaur knobs are fab too! You are giving me lots of projects to try!!

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  15. Aww..I love your wall gallery. It seems not so symmetrical and just different. I like that. I think sometimes in my decor ideas I think about matching too much like I did with clothes for the longest because that's how it was when I was younger haha. Now I see how just putting things that look well together can be nice even if they aren't the same shapes or lined up perfectly. Thanks for sharing this with us at the Creative Style Linkup! :)

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  16. It is expensive, but it looks so good afterwards!!

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  17. It is definteily my favorite part of the room. I can't wait to share the rest of it. Just have some finishing touches and it will be ready. I have loved putting his room together... living room and master bedrooms, not so much!

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  18. Thanks I've been working on these things for a while now. I feel like no room is ever complete to share the whole thing. I got a lot of ideas from Pinterest and then just changed them to fit what I had to work with! Thanks for stopping by!

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  19. I totally agree. I used to need everything to be symmetrical and and balanced on both sides. It feels good to have something a bit off and actually like it (and not freak out about it not being perfect!). I like that style is going that way now because it is so much easier to put things together and mix and match stuff for decor.

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  20. Oh gosh..those dino drawers are awesome! I love it, this is definitely the coolest little boy room I've seen!

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  21. Thanks! Of course, Myles likes to try to pull them off all the time and they aren't on there so great. In fact, right now one is off because Myles wanted to 'turn it in a circle' yay! But I do love his room and can't wait to share the rest!

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  22. Thank you so much for this!! Our son is a Dino lover & we are moving so we wanted to give a big boy room, BUT the knobs would of cost over $120 to do all his furniture!. That's crazy.. Your way is super Awesome, easy, & way cheaper.

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