![]() Holy cow! It had felt like I haven't made a blog post in a week, but here we are 3 months later. I'M SO SORRY. Things have been really crazy during this stay at home order. My husband and I still are working and we are trying to catch up on other things around the house and it's been a whirlwind. I got a lot of questions as to where I got the house numbers and such so I'll try to explain what I did. I looked through my phone because I took pictures and videos butttt I'm not sure what happened to those. Again, I'M SORRY, OKAY! These house numbers add such a modern touch to the exterior of the house and I'm obsessed. The old numbers were so outdated and were blocked by a tree- LOL. Don't even ask. Every time I though I'd be doing a SIMPLE project- it turns out to be a nightmare and I have to put my thinking cap on. After I unscrewed the old numbers from the trim I noticed that they were pretty small. I took one of the new numbers and held it up where I wanted and the numbers were too freaking long for the wood trim. I could have maybe moved the number up but there was like 1.5" of plastic siding came down from under the roof that I maybe could have drilled into but I didn't want to risk jacking that up. So here I am with too freaking long of address number figuring what the heck to do. I thought about drilling them into the side of the house on the stucco, but it really didn't look right to me (& my husband didn't want me to drill into the side of the house which is understandable). I also thought about putting them onto wood and then putting it on the side of the house (again, I'd have to drill into the stucco). I then wandered in my garage to see what I could find to put these numbers on and then I remembered I had extra wood from the mantle! I grabbed the piece of wood, arranged how I wanted my numbers, and then marked where I would make the cut with my circular saw. After I made my cut with the wood, it was time to place the numbers and use the drill bit to pre-drill the holes for the numbers. I used the template the package came with of each number in hopes that the holes were the perfect distance apart. Of course, they weren't. When we went to put the numbers into the wood I literally had to McGivor the numbers into the holes. Ok anyways, after I used the drill bit to pre-mark the holes, I used a polyurethane to seal the wood so it wouldn't get damaged from the elements. After sealing it with 3 layers, it was time to put the numbers in. Before I put in each number, I filled the hole with some clear exterior, waterproof caulk to block out any mold, etc. Then I shoved the numbers into the hole. This is when I realized the holes weren't exactly the perfect distance. I didn't have a rubber mallet to bang them into the holes so I used a cheap plastic softball that was in the garage and that literally did the trick. I used my finger to clean up and smooth and caulk that spewed out of the sides and it makes sure all the sides were sealed. I did that to every number. I then used my drill bit to drill on the top to make holes for eye hooks to attach the chain so I could hang it on the eye hooks that were attached to the trim. I also used the caulk to make sure they would not get moldy/rusty. Once that was done, viola! A cute way, to modernize the exterior of your house! It's such a small thing to do, yet it makes such an impact! ![]() - Wood - Caulk - House numbers - Hanging Chains This project only cost us about $30! If you have any questions please ask them in the comment box! Stay crafty, Kimberly
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I've gotten so many questions about my sitting nook and the photo frames used for my gallery wall and where I got my pictures printed. So I decided to make a post about everything in this area and link all of the goods! A couple of these pieces I'm unable to link because I got them at a discount warehouse called Treasure Hunt (formerly known as CCM), but I will link the original source. ![]() - Picture frames (I got them for 50% during a sale) - Printed my pictures from Costco - Lounge Chairs - Pouf (I only paid $20 @ Treasure Hunt) - Black Lumbar Pillow (I got at Treasure Hunt and cannot find original source) - Leather Lumbar Pillow - Side Table (I was able to purchase just one- I believe it was $50) - Mid Century Lamp - Tea Lights I hope this was helpful and you create your own, awesome gallery wall. If you create your own gallery wall, tag me on instagram at @the.amateur.diy.er so I can see your masterpiece! To help me hang the gallery wall, I used a laser level. It's not perfect, but it definitely helped me line the pictures up easier. Stay crafty my friends, Kimberly ![]() Woooowwwwie!!! It's been a minute since I've written a post. Everything has been so crazy in my household since we have been quarantining. My husband and I are both working from home, plus 3 dogs, plus home Renos...it's been nuts! I really wanted to mix it up in the house and I feel like my front room was so blah and I couldn't decide what I wanted to do for an accent wall. I was having a hard time if I wanted wallpaper, just paint, or a cool wood feature. Nothing really felt right but then I looked at the fireplace and new I wanted to give it a make over. The white on the fireplace was a different white than both the walls and the baseboards (which is also a project on the to-do list). I didn't know how I wanted to do it so I went to my trusty IG polls to ask if I should just change the mantel to a nice wood pice or go fucking ham and paint it all black. Surprisingly, a lot of people wanted to see it black, but majority of people wanted to see a new mantel. I think a lot of people are scared of black as it will make rooms feel dark- which is true to an extent. You have to take into consideration the amount of natural light and the size of the room. Putting black in a small room that doesn't have much natural light will definitely make it seem smaller. Since all of the bedrooms in my house are very small, I sadly, should not paint an all black wall in one of them. But the fire place was perfect because we have pretty much an entire wall of windows that runs parallel so the space never really feels "too dark". When I ran it past my husband, he really wasn't entirely sure of the idea, but I told him to trust me (yeah, that'll show em)! So, the very next day I started to sand the mantel because I figured I would just keep the existing one and just sand it down to get rid of the 5 layers of paint they had on there. After literally 2 full days of sanding and my husband getting pissed at me for turning the house into a sand box, I asked if we could just rip it out and replace it ourselves. He gladly agreed. The very next day I went to work on it, not knowing what was underneath. What I found underneath was really weird and I didn't understand why they did the things they did until this whole project was done. ![]() See the reddish "bricks"? Those were actually cut 2x4's instead of actual brick. And these were even bricks, they were grey cement bricks. I don't know anything about brick but this didn't look like my parent's brick fireplace. I was like wtf why would they do that? More on that later. There wasn't any bricks we could find that matched the size of the existing ones so we decided to just do the same thing- cut 2x4's and drill them into the cement. We then went to Home Depot to pick out a piece of wood we liked for the mantel....without measuring the depth we would want. Needless to say, we bought a board that would have stuck out too far so we went back to return it. We learned our lesson and measured the existing board to roughly get the same size. We then found the right board and attempted to cut a 45 degree angle ourself with a SKIL saw. LOLOLOLOL. It was kinda?????? close and figured we could use wood filler to close the gaps. We then took the old boards and marked their length on the new board for an "easy" cut. Figures that my husband cut it way too short and wondered why the measurement was off. I'm not sure why he didn't just measure the size we needed?!?!? Anyways. We then had to spend another $15 on another board. Instead of making an angled cut we decided to just make a butt joint instead and have Home Depot cut it to our desired length. What a relief we came up with such a brilliant idea. I also picked up some masonry paint from Home Depot in the Color "Carbon" knowing damn well I wanted a true black. So I first cleaned the fireplace with a TSP solvent and then I got to work painting. The first coat didn't cover all the way. Which was fine, I wasn't expecting it too anyways. Half way through painting, I thought to myself "man this color looks awfully a lot like charcoal. I don't think I like this...oh well!" And continued to paint the fireplace a color I wasn't 100% happy with. Why would I do this? I.DONT.FUCKING.KNOW. Why are you asking me such hard questions? Shit, let me make things difficult for myself. Once I was completely don't painting it the color I wasn't happy with I finally told my husband that I didn't like it and wanted to go buy another gallon in a true black. He was clearly confused as to why I didn't stop and I didn't have an answer to that. Maybe I hoped it would magically turn pure black? Who knows. Not me. So I went BACK to Home Depot to spend another $25 on paint. However, once I was done paining it the color I originally wanted, I was extremely happy that I spent the extra money to make it how I wanted. On to installation of the mantel. I first wanted to leave the mantel wood and stain it a nice walnut color but I don't think I stain right and when I brought in a piece to see how it would look, it looked awful. So I decided to paint it black. Then, I wasn't happy with the finish on the wood because it still looked grainy even though I painted it. I then remembered, I didn't freaking prime the bare wood. FML. So I then sanded down the black paint (with sealer on top) and painted it with a primer. Once that dried, I painted it black again and what a difference. I'm also glad I did the extra work to get it how I wanted. Like I said, I like making things hard on myself. After painting it (unsealed), we brought the mantel in and drilled it down into the concrete. Pretty easy (my husband would say otherwise). We did have to use our special drill bit made for concrete and stucco, FYI). I was cleaning up the dust and was vacuuming and it kept scuffing the paint and then I chipped the paint with my vacuum. I mean, could this project be any more annoying??? So I went back to Home Depot to buy a small can of sealant so it wouldn't chip any further. I got done sealing 3/4 of the fireplace when I ran out and had to go back to Home Depot and bought the big can this time. WHY AM I THE WAY THAT I AM. Then I read the damn can and it said 2-3 coats recommenced. WTF. Ok fine. I bought the matte finish btw cause I don't like shiny things. Just glittery things. And matte. This time around I used a staining brush to paint the sealant on which made the can go a lot farther. The first time I used a regular paint brush and I think it soaked up a lot of the sealant. I finally finished sealing the whole fireplace 3 times and was so happy about the finish. Oh and those 2x4's? I ended up getting Quickrete and slabbed some of that over to make them look like bricks. It was a decent job and I was happy about it. The previous owners had put crown molding over that part to cover it, but I didn't like that because it looked too bulky. Another thing were were perplexed on, why on top of those 2x4's, were pieces of cardboard? While we were installing the mantel it was slanting forward due to it obviously not being even. I then realized the owners had put that cardboard there to help it before more even. So, I shoved cardboard between the mantel and the 2x4's/bricks. Then I did my awesome masonry job. Then painted. Then sealed. Then calling it quits forever. And sadly yes, I now know I also need to paint the inside with a high temp-paint. Holy hell, after what seemed like 2973457 days (it was really only 3), I was finally done with the whole damn project. Would I do it again? Yes, but I would definitely stick with my gut on the things I liked and MEASURE MEASURE MEASURE. Damnit. I think it turned out pretty damn cute and was the PERFECT accent piece to this room! And ok, these tile pops are everythingggggggg.
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