A lot of painting going on....

Hi Everyone!  I had a helper today.  My mom came out to the farm to help me paint some items.

 The first thing she did was paint four boards to match the walls in the front room....

 ...once they were dry, she helped me hang them....

 ...so now there are picture rails to hang items from without filling the walls with nail holes.

 Then she painted the base coat of the window shutters...I still have to do the top treatment to give them an aged look.

 Then I put her to work painting the base coat of some signs I'm making...and painting frames...

 ...four different ones...now I know it looks like I wasn't doing anything while my mom painted, but I was busy in the shop cutting the boards for the signs, hanging the picture rails, taking the shutters down, and taking apart the frames so they could be painted.

 I also put the finishing touches on this set of dandelion paintings and I stained the long board for a custom sign that a client ordered.

I also painted the final code of red on this sign.  Now I just need to finish the signs, rehang the shutters and put away all the mess.  Thanks for all your help Mom!  And tomorrow they should be starting on my roof.  So what did you today?  Thanks for stopping by.

Studio in progress...

Hi Everyone!  It has been so hot out lately that I haven't been able to work out in the shop so my studio has progressed a little slower than I would have liked.  So I don't have anything "finished" to share with you.  But I thought I'd show you a few sneak peeks.

 One wall is painted blue and the other three are a grayish blue.

 I moved the large shutters I made to hide a walk through and put them so they flanked the large picture window.  And I really like them there.

 A small bookcase to store some of my more frequently used paints.

 This is part of the table leg that I made for the large table in the center of the room.

 And this is the other end.  I reused a small bookcase for the other end.

Another table. 

That's all I'm going to show you today.  I know it isn't much of a peek but I hope it peeked your interest a bit.  Thanks for stopping by!

Shutter update...

Hi Everyone.  I thought I would update you on the shutters I made.  In case you have forgotten, this is my inspiration picture.  Notice the green shutters.

Pottery Barn

I love those shutters.  I love the color and size of them.  So I made my own.

And I tried painting them white.  Here they are painted but not distressed.

I like them, but they just sort of disappear.  So I decided to go bold.  I mixed up some paint and painted them what I'm calling barn red.

They don't disappear now! 

I have waxed them with clear wax.  But I didn't sand them at all.  I didn't want them to take on a pink effect which is what usually happens when I sand red.

The one on the right has had an antique treatment put on it and appears to be darker.  I think I might have to put that treatment on the left one.

I liked them painted white, but they just disappeared and they need to stand out.  I like the bold statement they make.  Now I just need to put the hardware on and get them hung up.  But I just had to share them with you.  Thanks for stopping by.

Linking to:
http://www.atthepicketfence.com/2012/03/welcome-to-inspiration-friday-no-54.html 
http://redoux.blogspot.com/2012/03/friday-link-up-party-45-and-les.html 
http://www.mysimplehomelife.com/2012/03/features-simply-creations-link-party-47.html 
http://www.myrepurposedlife.net/2012/03/catch-as-catch-can-63.html 
http://missmustardseed.com/2012/03/furniture-feature-friday-a-link-party-2/ 
http://www.thegingerbreadblog.com/2012/03/sweet-saturday-link-party-v29.html 
http://too-much-time.com/2012/03/get-schooled-saturday-12.html 
http://lollyjaneboutique.blogspot.com/2012/03/wgw-53.html 
http://funkyjunkinteriors.blogspot.com/2012/03/sat-nite-special-123-link-party.html 
http://staceyembracingchange.blogspot.com/2012/02/inspired-creations-linky-party-3.html 
http://boogieboardcottage.blogspot.com/2012/03/welcome-to-62nd-masterpiece-monday.html 
http://www.serendipityandspice.com/2012/03/manic-monday-8.html 
http://www.thekurtzcorner.com/2012/03/tuesday-tutorials-link-party-no-26.html 

An unfinished project....part two...

Hi everyone!  If you've been following along, yesterday I showed you a shutter project that I had started and had planned on finishing last night.  If you need to get caught up, check out part one here.  My dilemma was what color to paint the shutters.

So here's a picture of the shutters before I painted them.  I couldn't decide if I should paint them a color or white.  I'm planning on distressing or antiquing them.  My living room is a mix of colors including sage green, chocolate brown, white/cream/beige and pops of red.  So I'm wondering if I should paint them barn red.  Or should I play it safe and paint them white.  All the trim is white.

So here's what I decided to do....I painted them white...for now.  I painted them with ASCP in Old White.

I'm going to live with them this way for a few days and then decide if I'm going to keep them white or try a different color.

And if I decide to keep them white, then I'll distress them.  I'm hoping to make a decision on the color by this weekend.  Hope you have a great day.  Thanks for stopping by.

Linking to:
http://www.mysimplehomelife.com/2012/02/features-simply-creations-link-party-45.html 
http://www.atthepicketfence.com/2012/02/welcome-to-inspiration-friday-no-52.html 
http://redoux.blogspot.com/2012/02/friday-link-up-party-43-and-les.html 
http://www.504main.com/2012/02/tickled-pink-no-86.html
http://funkyjunkinteriors.blogspot.com/2012/02/sat-nite-special-121-antique-old-tools.html 
http://www.positivelysplendid.com/2012/02/saturday-seven-party-no-14.html 
http://missmustardseed.com/2012/02/furniture-feature-friday-a-feature-a-link-party/ 

An unfinished project....part one...

Hi Everyone!  Happy Wednesday.  Yesterday was my day off.  The weather wasn't bad so I was able to work out in the shop.  Oh it's been too long since I've had a good shop day.  I made two visits to my local lumber yard.  There are a couple of guys there that are great and make it a point to get me nice boards that are straight and not wonky.

So I'm working on about five projects at once.  And unfortunately, I don't have any completed projects to share with you.  But I thought I would show you one of the projects that I started yesterday.  Have you seen the Pottery Barn catalog lately.  I love to look at it.  Not just at the items they have for sale, but the items they have staged in the room too.  In fact, it's usually these items that I get most excited by.  As was the case with the most recent catalog.

Pottery Barn

Have you seen this page in the catalog?  The two things that draw my eye and my attention are not for sale.  It's the two shutters.  I love the color of them.  I love the size of them.  They make a statement.  So while I was out in the shop today, I was thinking about those shutters.

I came back inside and measured....I live in a farmhouse that was built in the 1880's.  Shutters would be perfect in this house.  I would love to put them up at the picture window instead of the curtains.  And then I turned around and saw the doorway....the doorway I have blocked off.  Despite the age of my home, it is an open floor plan with three archways.  And the new addition is completely open to the original part of the house.  Which is great most of the time, but I'd like to have a few walls.  So I blocked off one of the smaller openings (not one of the archways) with an armoire.  But that means the other side has to look at the back of the armoire which is not very attractive.  I could dress it up or I could cover it up.

 So this is one of the two shutters I put together.  See the curtain.  I had put that up in the doorway so I wouldn't have to see the back side of the armoire, but I don't really like looking at that either.

And there are the two shutters.  I ran out of time painting them.  Partly because I was still trying to work on the other projects and partly because I wasn't sure what color to paint them.  I love the color in the catalog, but that color wouldn't fit into my living room.  So now I'm thinking about painting them white and then distressing them.  Right now they are just sitting on the floor, leaned up against the opening but my idea is to actually hang them and put a couple of eye and hook closures on it.  I'm hoping to have it completed to show you tomorrow.  Would you put something like this in your house?  And how would you paint them?  Thanks for stopping by. 

Linking to:
http://aweemeenit.blogspot.com/2012/02/welcome-to-link-party-5-wait-wee-meenit.html 

A window to nowhere...

Hi Everyone!  Happy Friday!  I'm still in the middle of a couple of projects and don't have anything new to share.  But I was looking through some pictures trying to find some of my step-nephew when I came across some pictures of the farm the spring of my second year here.  So I thought I would share with you one of the things I made. 

There was a shed up by the back side of the house that everyone called the cat shed.  Grandpa stored things in it and Grandma feed the cats in it.  There was a small cut out in the door where the cats would enter.  That shed has since been moved (my first year here I discovered a family of skunks living under it and had to take matters into my own hands to eliminate that problem, but that's a story for another time).  But inside that shed I found an old window.  I don't know where it came from because it didn't match the windows on the house (one of the original windows is still upstairs as it's the only way to get furniture in and out of the second floor).

And my mom's double cousin (I'll refer to her as my aunt) (in case you don't know what a double cousin is - it's someone that is related on both sides of your family tree - in this case twin sisters married brothers and their offspring are cousins on both sides) was redoing her father's home and had removed the shutters he had made and so kindly offered them to me.  So I took them apart and used some of the wood to make my own shutters.

Then I found some scrap plywood and built a planter box (it's hard to see in this picture).  Painted it all and hung it on the side of the garage.  Way back when, this garage had two windows on this side (I remember them as a child) and my grandpa covered them up after one of them broke.  It was such a plain wall that I had to do something to dress it up.

I also added the pavers and the retaining blocks to make a tree ring.  Partly because I wanted to dress the area up and partly because it was a hassle to mow.  And the hard scape changed that, plus gave a path to the backdoor.

And here it is now.  The paint is chipping off which just adds to it's character.  In fact, I like it better this way.  I don't have any plants in the box because they don't do very well there, plus the cats trample them as they like to lay across the box. 

I need to go exploring in the barn or the shed and find some old rusty items to put in the box.....I'll add that to my to do it.  Thanks for stopping by.