The squares on my walls.

I hope you had a wonderful weekend! We had a great one -- full of marching band. ;) I swear I feel like I have 300 more children every weekend, I am so proud when I watch them perform. Sniff.

Today I'm not feeling so great -- no fever thank goodness, just general crap. Hopefully I can sleep it off tonight. I cannot stand being down and out. Gives me hives!!

So yes, this is yet another post about molding. I swear after this I won't mention it again for a whole WEEK! OK, maybe a month. Grumble. I got so many questions about determining the size of the boxes, so I thought I would answer that, and while I'm at it, show you the various ways I've used molding around our home...

The family room I worked on just weeks after the Bub was born. I was itching to get back to "normal" -- doesn't everyone feel like that? So a home improvement project was in order to scratch that itch. :) The Bub was in his bouncy seat the whole time I did this room -- and he slept through the whole thing!:

I used the foam molding in this room, and many of you who have seen pictures of our family room have asked about these boxes. I used a large stencil (I get mine from Hobby Lobby) to make the design inside the boxes. I wanted it to be really light and barely noticeable, so I used my faux iridescent paint only for the stencil.

I have loved it for years, but every once and a while I want to get rid of the swirls. They are fun and very subtle, but now I have a new look in mind. I'm thinking I'm going to paint the insides of those boxes with a color slightly darker than the walls. Stay tuned for that one!

In our chocolate powder room, I used real wood for the chair rail (I wanted it real thick and chunky) and the foam stuff for the boxes:

I never even painted them!:

Love that stuff!

The million dollar question -- how big do you make your boxes? It's a bit of math (ewwww!!) and some trial and error. First, you'll need to measure the wall. Then, decide how many inches you want between all of your boxes. I do a standard three inches all the way around:

Say your wall is 14 feet. (They are rarely a perfect number like that, for explanation purposes, let's go easy.) Fourteen feet is 168 inches. So maybe you want six boxes on that wall -- take out the three inches next to each box and figure out the final number. If we did six boxes, there would be seven three inch sections equalling 21 inches. Take 21 from 168 -- the number you have to work with is 147 inches.

Like this:

3" (box) 3" (box) 3" (box) 3" (box) 3" (box) 3" (box) 3"

Take the remaining 147 inches and divide it by six boxes -- each box will be 24.5 inches wide. Does that make sense? If you want to vary the sizes of the boxes (I do this often) -- decide on the larger size first and then figure out what you have to work with to determine the smaller sized boxes.

I highly suggest starting at each end of the wall, and working in. So if any are slightly off, it will be the middle box on the wall. If it's off just a bit, it will look like it's supposed to be, since it's in the center. This has saved me a couple of times. ;)

I also use molding to highlight parts of our home -- the columns between our living room and dining room:

Our super duper tall staircase:
And the half wall in our loft:

This molding was from Home Depot and is plastic! Can you believe it? It's in the molding area, but down at the outdoor trim area. It's got a great shape:
They cut like butta with a miter box and saw. Awesome.

Oooo, I almost for got our master bathroom!:

Told you I need a support group for this stuff. Don't worry, there are plenty of rooms in this house that don't have it. Darn it.

So I hope that helps! Did I make sense? Remember, you do not need a nail gun to do this in your home. It just makes it a heckuva lot more fun. ;) If you do it with a hammer and nails, you'll want long finishing nails and a drill bit to match. Drill into your wood first, then put the nail in and hang the molding. If you pound a nail in without a hole first, it will most likely split the wood.

Let me know if you decide to do it!! I'd love to see. You'll be hooked, watch out. Serious.

The difference molding makes.

Well it's done. Not completely, but I gave up on "completely" when the Bub was born. ;) There are a few touch ups to do, but I'm sure I'll get to them next week, next month, in a few years.

I am soooo pleased with how this project turned out. After looking at it now, I wonder why it took me so. many. years. for it to occur to me to add picture frame molding in this room. DOY.

I had done the molding in the foyer about four years ago, (using nails, a miter box and hammer, thankyouverymuch). Now, it continues throughout the whole front room and looks loverly:

On an unrelated note -- why does it take me looking at pictures to see the Halloween stuff I didn't see walking right by it 15 times? I swear I find decorations months later in random spots.

I luuuurve it under the windows too:

For this room, I wanted a very traditional look, which for me is white on white. I used white high gloss on the whole thing:

Many of you had questions about molding and how to do the finished edge, so I did another video (I think I'm hooked) to answer some of those:

So here is my favorite part...here is this room years ago, when I was trying to figure out what the heck to do with it!:
More recently, with the addition of some molding above the sofa:

Now, even though the sofa cover most of the wall, the molding just totally finishes it off. Nice.
The reason I decided to go ahead with this project right now (I swore I was not doing any other big projects till after Christmas!), was thinking how beautiful our Christmas tree will look in the corner with the molding as a backdrop. Can't you just see it?:
Uhhhh...I mean, can't you just see it?:

Uh huh. Yes. It did fall down. If you were here last year, you remember that. :)

Yep. Ugh.

Have a fantastic weekend you Squeezies!!

How to install molding (with videos, yikes!)

For a few weeks, I've been feeling like something was missing in my life...an itch that needed to be scratched. I felt a longing for something, but I couldn't put my finger on what it was. Then, one day, looking around our house, it hit me...I haven't done a molding project for EIGHT months. Good God, that's like a millennium in Sarah time.

I needed to squelch the need for molding STAT. I knew just the project to attack. I decided to add picture frame molding to the living room so it would continue around the room from our foyer. Here's what I did years ago (the pic is from years ago too):

So I took a trip to the greatest, most amazing place on earth. That most amazing place would be Lowe's. My Squeeeeee-zay Lowe's.

When I pick out molding, I lay it out on the floor to make sure it lays fairly flat and straight before I buy it:

This is the part when about 15 sweet Lowe's employees come up to me and ask it I need any help. Little do they know, I am very familiar with my lovely molding. We are tight.

I have been wanting to make a video for you all for months now, but couldn't' figure out the right topic. When I started this project, I realized it would be perfect!!

I'll have you know, I took one take each peeps. No rehearsal. No make up. It's scary.

Things you need to know before watching:

1. My eyes may look like they are as big as saucers, but they really aren't. (I don't think.) For some reason I look like I'm buggin' out. My hubby has always told me my eyes are his favorite feature of mine, but now I'm wondering what he's seeing. All I'm seeing is B.U.G.

2. I guess I have a turkey neck. It's been 34 years and I didn't know this until now. It's really, really pretty, let me tell you.

3. You'll see the back of my head for an extended period of time and my hair color looks really nice. I like it. Hope you do too.

4. I'm trying to decide if I should cut my hair again or grow it out. And it shows. ;)

OK, enough about me and my issues with the videos. The first is introducing myself, like you don't know who I am:


I showed you how to cut molding on this post back in March.

In this video, I show you how easy it is to get this stuff up on the wall:


All of the molding in our foyer was done before I had a nail gun, so you don't have to have one. It just makes the process much quicker!

I had my finger on the microphone for the next one, so I had to redo it. I'm new at this peeps, bare with me:


Whew, I need a nap. Or a drink. Or somethin'. Be kind to me people. ;)

I will show you the final result later this week! Only one more coat of paint to go and I'm done.

Countdown to Christmas!!

This another "rewind" post of sorts and it includes a couple of my all time DIY Christmas projects that I did last year. I wanted to highlight these now so you would have plenty of time to work on them if you are so inclined. :)

I'll show you a couple of my advent calendars and then show you some inspiration for advents. FUN! First up is my vinyl countdown. I had an Uppercase Living party just to get this sucker for free. (That's how I roll.) In the catalog it says to put it on a pizza pan, but I wanted something I could put anywhere in the house and a pizza pan didn't sound like it would work (more on that later!)

So, I got a round table top from Lowe's, painted it with magnetic paint, then put a coat of white over the top. After the paint was good and dry I put my vinyl on:

(You can click on most pictures to get to last year's posts.)

(Sorry for the poor quality, I'm using last year's pics!) I hot glued a fun ribbon around the edge:
Then got a little wooden tree from Hob Lob, painted it, and hot glued a magnet to the back for the countdown marker:
I love this one. It's fareeeking adorable, yes it is.

As I mentioned last year, it was a very good thing the Bub had no sense of time because I didn't finish up this next project till about 12 days before Christmas. He got day 12 a couple times, day 23 a few...you get the picture. ;)
I just took the cardboard boxes you can find at most craft stores and painted them -- half red, half green. Then I attached paper to the fronts, some fun stickers, brads and stuff. I went a little overboard with the stuff, but that's half the fun don'tchaknow...
This whole advent calendar cost less than $18, because I got the boxes on sale. If you've got older kids they could totally join in and make these with you!

I get little trinkets for the boxes from the dollar store, etc. Starting this year I'll also write down activities we can do together and put those inside. Maybe take a drive to look at Christmas lights, make cookies, watch a Christmas movie, things like that.

Of course after I did this, I saw Carrie's adorable version, that is to. die. for.:
I am considering hanging ours the same way, or even trying to get it into a Christmas tree shape. For now, I kind of like the idea of just one sitting out every morning for the Bub to open. Less temptation for him. ;)

Here are some other fun ideas I found looking around the net...

Speaking of pizza pan advents, this one turned out soooo adorable, I kinda wish I had seen this before I did our round one! Love the ribbon woven through!:

(Click pics to go to the source site.)

Something as simple as pails would be sahweeeet with some spray paint and numbers:

You could hang them anywhere!

I LURVE this idea!! Match books covered in fun paper with numbers attached:
This one would be only for written activities but I love that idea. (And how GORG to put them in an apothecary jar! Gleeee!) The site I found this on was from years ago and she got it from an old magazine, so sorry there is no source for this one.

I scanned this one from my Women's Day holiday mag -- same idea, but on a corkboard:
Oops! She did it again... Martha never fails to amaze me:

Little bubby socks! With little bitty bubby clothespins! Ack.

Here's a similar version, I think this person made the stockings herself. If you sew, this wouldn't take long at all!:

Here's another Martha version using old Christmas cards:

A cutie felt calendar with pockets:

(Which could be used for just about anything, depending on the colors you use.)

These are from an Etsy shop (click pic) but look easy enough to make on your own:

Ohhhh, I know! I know! What about doing them in red velvet or felt and adding a little bit of white fluffy trim around them to look like Santa sacks?? I'm dyin' here! Could that be any cuter??

By the way, that's a hint for an upcoming Christmas project I'll show you soon!

Have you seen any other great advent calendars out there? If so, share them in the comments!

The Before and After Party will be open and whooping it up till this weekend, so link in or visit the party! And I have a fantabulous molding project to show you later this week -- with my first video. Egads. That is, unless I find my senses and decide to nix that part. We'll see... ;)

Before and After Party!

It's a par-tay people!!

I feel like I should title this post "Lamp Pass and Lamp BIG FAT FAIL." I recently redid two lamps and only one turned out like I had hoped. The other...well...notsogood. The first started when I found this cutie little drum shade at Goodwill for $2.99:

I am quickly becoming obsessed with drum shades. I just think they are uber cool. I had been wanting a new shade for the lamp on my self-made sofa table in our living room for ages. The shade I had there was just so GINORMOUS:I was just going to cover the denim, but when I went to remove the trim, it all came off pretty easy. Then I realized I could just peel the fabric right off the shade. Who knew?:

I had some extra fabric from try No. 2 with our dining room drapes years ago, and I covered the shade with it like I showed you here.

Drum shades are easy peasy to cover, no angles to worry about. ;)

For the unfinished edges on the inside, I always add a little trim (also from another project):

A little hot glue does the trick!

The trim also helps to cover the uneven fabric that you wrap around the top and bottom. The fabric looks fine without trim covering it until you turn on the light -- then it shows all the edges.

Loverly!:

This one is a pass, right? I think so. I absolutely love it!

The next one...well. I'm not so sure about. I wanted a new lamp for our dresser in the bedroom and was on the lookout for something with a cool shape at Goodwill. I found this one for $7.99, brand new with tags:I LOVED the shape and size. The color of the wood, not really. I already have three spray painted lamps in our bedroom, so I was really hoping to stain this one instead.

I sanded this sucker down with my electric sander because the finish would just not. come. off. otherwise:

I was so stinking excited, thinking how GORG it would be with my walnut stain!

Uhhhhhh....no. It looked like total butt. It was so uneven and just grody. I didn't even take a picture because I was so totally annoyed I had just spent all that time sanding the blasted thing.

So, once a spray painter, always a spray painter I guess:

Oh yeah, I know it looks OK from afar. I sprayed it with my oil rubbed bronze paint, and it's OK. But oh my goodness, the finish is SO uneven. It's a Mona Lisa -- you know the type. Looks good from far away but when you get close...ewwww...

It's not the crack that bothers me, I like that. Dang it! The pictures don't do this thing justice. For the first time in eternity, the picture looks BETTER than real life. How often does that happen? Usually it's the other way around. I am OK with it...it's staying so when I get over my tiff with this one, I'll work on it more... ;)

So what before and afters have you got to show off today? I can't wait to see!

You know the drill -- use the link from that post, not to your blog, to link to the party. (I have to delete those -- and I don't like bein' mean!!) :)