Sweet Dreams~~~~ A New Pallet Headboard

It all started 

 my son, his Dream, 4 Pallets and a piece of plywood........

Oh Happy Day!



My son and daughter-in-law just moved into their new home, expecting their first baby boy July 6th!



With that said you know there is much to do and little time.............



When my son sets his mind on doing something their is no waiting........


                   he jumps all in, excited with anticipation  

He decided he wanted to make a pallet headboard for the master bedroom in the new home.



I know you have seen them.......



Pallets are all the rage!




He knew mom ( that's me) had all the tools he needed to make this job happen quickly and efficiently.

Plus he knows I love a DIY project and




             ..................I have a love for Pallets

So he brought over 4 new pallets (not aged) to make this beaut!

When I saw the new pallet's 

            ..............I knew we had to put our creative hats on to make these look aged

First order was to take all the pallets apart

He originally tried to pry these apart

he quickly found out that was just too much work

...........Ain't nobody got time for that..........

he was in a hurry

..........I mean he has got a baby on the way........

so he came over to mom and dads to put to use a power tool 

...........A sawzall........

                               This is a remarkable tool {a reciprocating saw}.........

If my son were writing this post he would tell you.........

tell you that "it is his best friend" :)      OH HAPPY DAY!

...............tell you "how much precious time this power tool saved him".........

he would tell you that "you should never ever do a pallet project without a sawzall"

SERIOUSLY!!

lastly he would SAY" every DIY'er should own a sawzall"

Once you use it you will be so happy

 so happy you bought one, I mean you can do so much with them.

Within 30 minutes he all all the boards cut off the pallets ready to sand and stain.

After that a light sanding to knock down the roughness of the wood

NO SPLINTER"S ...........right!

now the fun part, we laid on the stain............


the stain colors we used were...............

• Special Walnut
• Dark Walnut
• English Walnut
• Ebony

I know your wondering how we got those new boards to look so weathered.


Well I got this idea............



with the use of some watered down paint



I lightly gave the new board {before stain}



..................................a light washing with paint



then over the top of that we applied the stain.

the different paint colors we used were a blue, cream, mustard, grey, red



we got some beautiful manmade weathered looking boards


                                       ...............I was in creative heaven............



I mean you should have seen the three of us, I mean the four, me, my son his wife and little baby in the oven,Trenton Samuel

we were doing a project as a family and having a blast being creative



                                                          "TOGETHER"



I mean that's what life is all about, making memories with those you cherish and love,

While watching a beautiful piece of art emerge.....



                                   After all the boards were stained




Brad, my son took a piece of 4x8 plywood and had it cut to 4x7, stained it with ebony stain



then we proceeded to place all the boards on the plywood like a puzzle

He did not want the boards seams to line up in each row


 so he put them in a lovely mismatched order, like hardwood floors


I & his wifey helped decide where the different color boards went within this beautiful work of Art

I could see the look of satisfaction on his face from building his very first project,


the satisfaction like when he was a little boy


                          and caught his first fish


                                   ................like when he hit his first home-run :)


ah, those precious memories.



With determination we pressed on, he was determined to get this project headboard up on his wall the same day!

I mean he is so much like his momma!



                      excited & can't wait to see the end reveal in it's new home




We all three, I mean four finished off the headboard by sealing it with a satin Polyurethane.



Step-dad took it over in his truck and then proceeded to helped him put it up on the wall.



Once it was on the wall with some heafty screw making sure it was in the studs,


We all stood back and looked in awe..........


                                         at how beautiful this looked with it all put together.



Brad still had one thing to do before this was marked



                                                             .........COMPLETE


 he made a trip to Ikea.......



                             He wanted to shed a little light on the subject 

Do the lights not look beautiful against the wood!!


After a day of fun filled project Pallet headboard,


at sunset, we all sat down to a grilled steak dinner in their new home, with a new DIY pallet headboard installed and a look of accomplishment on my sweet little boys face.



"SWEET MOMENTS"


have you done a pallet headboard?


   If so please share.




Transforming Life,

Roadside Rescue Dresser Turned Entertainment Stand

Have you ever been on your way somewhere and you spot a discarded piece of treasure on the side of the road?

Then you have to rush home and figure out how you're going to ask your loving hubby to take the truck and make a trip to grab it before some other DIY'er nabs it?

Well that is what happened....

He said seriously honey, not again......dont you have enough projects going on?

He graciously agreed and off we went.

All he could say as we were loading it is babe, this is a piece of garbage.

I said It may be a laminate top but I would not call it garbage......just help me load it.

So he did and off we went with a big smile on my face!!

As you can see it was missing all the drawers except for two and I put those on the bottom.

The dresser was not solid wood

but that is OK I saw some potential and I had never painted a laminate piece before so I wanted to dig in and get some practice.

 I took my favorite tool, my sander and sanded all the laminate until it was dull.

I have read that laminate has to be primed so out with the primer.

I wanted a grey undertone since I wanted to paint it barn red and have some grey color showing through after I distressed it.

So I added some black acrylic paint to the primer to turn it grey.

Here she is with the first coat of primer........

Now the second coat of primer just to make sure the laminate is good and covered

after a light sanding .....

it was time for a purdy coat of barn red paint

Once I had the two coast of red paint on

 I lightly sanded..........

I love the way glazing on furniture looks

It gives it a rich antique look

It makes the color pop as well

I chose to Mod-Podge a cool woodsy turquoise paneling scrapbook paper onto the backboard of the dresser/entertainment center.

This is not easy to do for someone who likes things perfect......

because when the paper gets wet those of you that have done this know exactly what I am getting ready to say.

it wrinkles and bubbles up............

you have to be be patient and work it and work it to get out the bubbles and wrinkles.

I have learned to get the worst out and the rest will usually take care of itself once it dries.

I distressed it with some sandpaper so some of the grey would show through.

The inside walls were painted a pretty turquoise color to match the scrapbook paper I put on the back.

I ask my wonderful hubby to cut me some pallet boards down so we could make rustic shelving to replace the missing drawers.

I Love me some pallets that you can get free at so many places.

These come in handy when you need some rustic wood.

I stained and added a semi-gloss poly on them to bring out the grain of the wood.

can you say beautiful!!

All the sliders were removed of course from the side walls when I paint the the yummy turquoise color.

I used the original hardware and spray painted them a color that contrasted with the inside of the dresser/entertainment center.

With a little hard-work and creativity this roadside find turned out beautiful.


My girlfriend Kaye moved into her new home and I gave this to her as a housewarming gift.

She loves it!!

She has it in her living room with her TV on top and all her goodies nestled inside this warm trash turned to treasure.




What have you rescued from the side of the road lately?



Until next time,

She's about To POP....A Baby Shower For Ashley & Aaron

Caution warning: this post is picture heavy..... view at your own risk :)

I am going to be a Nonna' a second time!!

My son Aaron and his wife Ashley are expecting any day now the arrival of our newest member of the family Sophie Ella!

......................We are waiting with excited anticipation for her birth.

We celebrated with a baby shower for the proud parents to be at my home.

I helped host with Ashley's sister-in-law, Cecily this fun party.......My job was to do the decorating, my favorite part.....can you say fun, fun......

I worked for weeks planning and putting together the decor......I was so pleased how it all turned out.

The first thing I did was make a cute sign for the mommy and daddy out of some left over pallets

.........yes my favorite thing to use.  Then I gave it to them take it home for the baby room.

They really loved it.

See the baby with the cute little headband?

Yeah the one holding the bottle.......

I found a picture on the internet printed, traced onto a piece of wood then had Mr. DIY cut it out for me.

 I painted her and made a cute flower out of a paper towel.

I then took a hair tie and hot glued it on....... cut a notch in the wood and stretched it around for a finishing touch.

The other flowers you see on the sign I made out of paper towels and glued them on to fancy it up a bit.

I found a pot that we were not using wrapped some burlap around it filled it with dirt and stuck in the sign.

 Love....... love how it turned out!!


~~~~~~

I had to have center pieces for the tables, of course....I mean every table needs a pretty center piece......

............Hummm what to do.

I got an idea to make table center pieces out of four..... 5ft boards.

........I needed (4) centerpieces for the guest tables

What I did was find some scrap 5ft boards in my wood project pile.....

I measured the distance I wanted to place each of my handmade flowers .......then  had Mr. DIY drill holes in the board.

 I painted the boards white.

 I made these cute flowers out of paper egg cartons........ painted them pink, white, yellow and aqua.

 I found some wooden dowels at Walmart to use for the stems, painted them green, tied some string and burlap around the base of the flower . Too cute!

I bought some moss from the dollar store and hot glued it down on the board.......

............WA LA....... I had 4 table centerpieces all for $2.99 the cost of the wooden dowels and moss

CHA.... CHING!!

This is my son Aaron (daddy) sporting one of the gifts from the shower...he is such a ham!!!

Here is Ashley (mommy) opening gifts with Sophie's big sister Kinley.

Beautiful Ashley

Aaron & Ashley

can you say POP ART!!!!!!!

I had an old frame that I took off the kitchen wall that was just outdated.....

Goodbye wall art you have done your due diligence over the years but you had to go.........

I took out the print.... painted the frame added some chicken wire and hung to display this cute pop art!

I found this adorable curtain, pink and white check at Goodwill, hung it on a piece of wood for the rod and tied it up with some gray fabric for a window effect.

I made two burlap banners for the shower. One with Sophie's name given to Ashley to hang in Sophie's room after the shower.

I glued them to the twine but added the stained clothespins for a little whimsy.

One with Baby!!

I took some night time shots of the decor

I just love the lighting of the night light.....

Mommy and Daddy signs were made for the parents for special seating!

I used Gimp a free photo editing program to make these, gimp is much like photoshop....... except free!!

Here I used a ladder to display some fun decor......

I covered the ladder with a curtain I bought at Goodwill.

The Party was held poolside so the guest could take advantage of the pool for a little cooling off.

I created a baby wreath  for the door out of an old grapevine wreath I had lying around.  I stuffed pink napkins in the top half and added a baby elephant toy to the bottom.

Now, let's talk FOOD......A shower is not complete with out yummy treats!!

Look at all that food.  A big thanks and shout out to Ashley's beautiful mom and her adorable sister-in-law Cecily for all their hard work to cater in all this scrumptious food.

Ashley's parents own a restaurant and catering business so they really know how to do it up right.

 ......and A Baby girl shower would not be complete without a pink lemonade sherbet punch.

 Below I made these cute little flags toppers for the cupcakes.....

some were out of fabric, others were out of pink and yellow card-stock cut with decorative crafting scissors....attached to toothpicks with some hot glue.

An about to pop party needed some yummy marshmallow pops.

Dipped in pink chocolate covered in hot pink sprinkles...... stuck on popsicle sticks!

Can you say YUMMMMMM

..................These are like chips you can't have just ONE.

The center piece here I made from a flower vase turned upside down.....I had a glass bowl, a thrift find from Goodwill......it was carefully hot glued to the vase.

A flower was made and painted pink out of a paper bag.  I had some fake pearls that I wrapped around the vase with a pretty broach clipped to the pearls and centered on the flower.

After filling the glass bowl with water I just had to have a pink color so I took some pink craft paint and added a blob and mixed it together to get this beautiful pink color.

I picked some gardenia flowers and tiny roses from my back yard and floated them in the ever so pink water.

I added a candle holder inside for some height.

And wrapped some twine around the candle for some whimsy texture.

Another centerpiece for the mommy and daddy table made from a cute white rod iron stand made out of a girl with pigtails.  I forgot to take a picture of this before I added the little pink dress over it.

 some whimsy material ripped and tied to a pink clothes hanger

Look at the tissue paper pom pom I made for the center of the gazebo , while draping pink tulle for a grand effect.

This was the special place for mommy and daddy to relax and enjoy the shower.

A thrift find from goodwill....a pier one import piece (woot, love this) made a beautiful center piece for the food table.

Filled with pink roses plus handmade/silk flowers it turned out beautiful.

So their you have it.......  We had a popping good time

Thanks for sharing this event with me.

Ashley as of today is having contractions but still not at the hospital.

She is due on June 16th.

Come on Baby Sophie we want to love on you and welcome you into our family.


Until next time,


Linking up to funkyjunkinteriors, addicted2decorating, itsoverflowing, my1929charmer.com, ishouldbemoppingthefloor