Happy Together

A DIY craft blog

Fireplace Makeover

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I’m starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel on some of our new home projects. It’s been a patience growing time for sure but it’s worth it now seeing things starting to come together. One of the very first projects I took on was this fireplace makeover. I wanted an instant gratification project to get me motivated and this fireplace makeover totally was that. The two main things I did was paint the mantle (we plan to have hardwood floors in here and with the wood beams and windows we were feeling like there was a lot of wood) and then add a white mortar to brighten up the brick. I love brick, well pretty brick, and I liked the color of the actual brick just not the yellowish tan mortar that was used on it.






Before beginning, I vacuumed the brick and wiped down the mantle. I prepped the mantle with a light sanding and did another wipe down with a deglosser. Then I taped it off so I wouldn’t get paint on the bricks. I painted it with Behr Ultra Pure White in interior semi-gloss enamel. It was straight off the shelf, but I always have them shake it up for me at the store. For a piece like this, I paint an area of it with a brush and then go over what I can with a roller so it looks nice and smooth.


It took me three coats to get the coverage I wanted. Now, I think two coats would have been okay, but I’m picky and really wanted it fully covered. I also did two coats of matte polycrylic on the top shelf to protect it from all the things that would be placed on it.


For the mortar I found this at Lowes. It was the only white mortar that wasn’t in a giant bag. I could have tried somewhere else, but I just bought it and gave it a try. I used a plastic bucket and mixed up a little bit at a time with water. This allowed me to work in small sections without it all drying up in the bucket. Oh, and as always, I went for a peanut butter consistency of the mixture before applying.


I used a small plastic spatula to put the mortar on the cracks. I thought about using a grout bag and piping in on the lines like I have done on brick backsplashes, but this was such a large area I felt this would be easier.


This method worked well and let me be a bit creative with the placement and such.


As you can see, it looks kind of messy and lumpy after first applied.


Once I had done a small area I went over the mortar with a damp sponge. I tried just dabbing it with the sponge and then I tried gently wiping over it. I ended up preferring how it looked when I gently wiped it. I was able to finish this mortar part in about four hours and that included going to pick up my kids from school. It went a lot faster than I thought it would for sure. I have done quite a few backsplashes and other similar projects so I felt really confident in what I was doing and with the material I was working with.


It brightened up the room so much and we are all so happy with it. I also like that if I wanted to add more mortar later for a german schmear look or even paint the brick I can still do that. We have had about 8 fires since I finished this and so far it’s holding up really well. I’m aware that I might have to freshen it up periodically, but I’m okay with that. That’s part of having a real fire no matter what the brick/mortar is. After I did the fireplace I painted all the trim and walls and have decorated some. We even changed out that old ceiling fan last weekend, after I took these pictures of course lol. So the last two big items is to figure out that track lighting situation above the fireplace (we are considering can lighting so it doesn’t compete with the main light) and then to get the flooring changed. My girls are loving the carpet for now though. They think it’s so soft!  And I’m glad they are enjoying the comfort of it 😉

 

Church Nursery Decor

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This post is a continuation on all of the church projects I worked on over the past two years(coffeeshop/ bathrooms/ plant wall install/ statement wall on stage/ nursery entrance plants/ student room). I think I have only two more posts after this and then all of that project will have been shared! Looking at it all now, I can’t believe how much we got done in the time frame we did. The area I’m focusing on today is what you would consider the church nursery area. This is where the babies to five year olds can go during services. This area used to be offices but it was switched to be part of the children’s wing because this area is better from a security standpoint. The entrance begins with two glass doors which I designed these window clings to go on. I didn’t get a more panned out view, but there isn’t much wall on the side of these doors to put something there, so the window clings were the perfect solution. I used a template from Vistaprint and we ordered them from there. I have to say, if you work with any type of organization or own a business, I recommend Vistaprint for signs, window clings, posters, roll down banners, postcards, etc. I have ordered so many products from them for church and even for personal projects. If you wait until they are having a sale, then you get an even better deal too.


Once you walk through the doors to the left you see this bench spot which I had shared here before here.


Then on the wall beside it I painted on the logo. I’m not a skilled painter so i used a projector to shine on the logo, then I traced it and painted it in. It’s a great inexpensive way to create a large wall statement.


Behind the front desk is a space for the volunteers to get supplies they need, etc. I built the above table to hold some of the items and made it tall enough that if any littles were nearby they couldn’t reach the top. I was able to use all kinds of left over wood I had in my garage, so I was super happy about that. I just used my knowledge from previous builds to create it and use all the random pieces I had. If you could see the top, you would see there are a few different widths represented, but it all came out wonderfully.


I found some cork boards that weren’t being used and put the other walls in this area. They give a place to share information the volunteers will need.


To make it easy to distinguish each room, I designed these room numbers. I was looking at ones you could buy premade and was amazed at how much things like that cost. So i used some thin craft wood, glued on a clear plastic picture holder(I used these and just removed the magnet), and designed a template to be used for all the rooms. It’s simple and allows anyone to know which room is which.


I worked with the nursery coordinator to create some decor for the classrooms. She gave me a theme for each room which was mostly based on the curriculum and then I shared some decor ideas for them. Then I got to work. The above picture was for a room that had a farm theme. I made short barn doors from fence pickets and added the lights to them. We secured them to the wall similarly to how I did the ones behind my daughter’s bed so these aren’t going anywhere.


This room had Southwestern-ish theme to it. I used scrap wood to create this fun wood pattern on the wall that was based on this fireplace I had seen on Design Sponge. What a great idea, isn’t it? This was another project that cost hardly anything since I used lots of leftover pieces I already had.


This room was for the really littles, so there wasn’t necessarily a theme. I added a few colorful things to the walls for them to look at. I printed out these adorable ABC cards from The Handmade Home to hang on the wood.


Also in that room, I used scrapbook paper and paper bags to create these kites. It’s an easy project to add some whimsy to the room.


The infant room had a sheep theme based on the verse Psalm 95:7. I had some other talented ladies make some things to add to this room. Those adorable sheep were made by a lovely woman who used this pattern from Purl Soho to make them. Then another lady embroidered those adorable sheep for me to add to the embroidery hoop wall. They did such a great job! To make the open embroidery hoops stretch farther, I took them apart so I could use two circles from each one.


This room had a fun dress up spot so I asked others if they had any unused frames we could have and I spray painted the ones we got. I did the color scheme based on the adorable felt ball garland I found at Hobby Lobby in the scrapbooking section (find them here online). They are such fun colors!


This room had a book theme. I used some old books to create faux succulent planters to add on the wall (here is an excellent tutorial on how to make them) and then I made a book wall using kids books. I used a 4’x8′ piece of underlayment to be the background and found the vintage kids books from the thrift store and used some that had been donated. I used a nail gun to secure the thicker books and a stapler for the thin ones. I would leave the two top open pages open and then glue them in place after nailing/stapling. Then you couldn’t see any holes or staples on the books.


This room was simple, but I absolutely adored these baby animal posters I had printed again using Vistaprint. I bought the downloads from Etsy here. I placed them in larger Ikea frames to make a statement.

For this last room I was inspired by this nursery done by Vintage Revivals. Isn’t her work amazing? First I looked online for animal and forest type silhouettes. Then I used a projector to trace them onto thin plywood and my wonderful friend cut them out with a jig saw for me. That was a blessing because I was getting close to my deadline and had a lot to get done.


All of the kiddos loved all the fun new things to look at and play with. It was so much fun to help partner on all of this. Have a wonderful and creative weekend! -jess

Barn Quilt Garden Flag Tutorial

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Have you ever seen a barn quilt? If you have not, it’s a large piece of wood that’s painted to look like a quilt or a quilt block and placed on the side of a barn. I first noticed them on a trip to Tennessee a few years ago. I thought they were so beautiful and recently I wanted to replicate it in someway. I have no barn but I have seen people create these for indoor wall art on a smaller scale. I kept thinking about ideas though. Then I thought how pretty it would be as a garden flag. I wasn’t sure how it would turn out, but I am happy to say it turned out so good! They look so pretty sitting among the plants or even on a mailbox. Though they are heavier than a fabric garden flag, the metal flag holders are stable enough to hold them. Read on for the tutorial.


Supplies:

  • Wood Cut in a Square Shape (I used a 1″ x 12″ x 4′ piece of whitewood and was able to cut four pieces out of it…. If you are not familiar with buying wood, note that they aren’t usually the width it says it is. For instance, it says this was 12″ wide but it’s really 11.25″, which means I had to cut them every 11.25″ instead of 12″)
  • Optional: Wood Stain
  • Paint (I used acrylic craft paint and chalk paint. I recommend the chalk paint as it goes on thicker. I only had to do two layers of paint with the chalk paint versus many more of acrylic to get the coverage I wanted.)
  • Small Angled Paint Brushes
  • 2 Screw Eyes (I used the #12 x 1-3/16 in size)
  • 2 S Hooks (the ones that are closed and look more like an 8…. I used size 1-5/8 in)
  • Optional: Black Spray Paint (I used Rust-Oleum Flat Protective Enamel in Black)
  • Outdoor Sealant (I used Minwax Spar Urethane Indoor/Outdoor Clear Semi-Gloss)
  • Print out of desired quilt square (Make sure it’s a square and in the size that you are making. I made mine so they were slightly under 11.25″)
  • Pen or Pencil
  • Chalk
  • Pliers
  • Other supplies: Cup with water for cleaning paint brushes/Paper Towels for clean up/Something  to protect surface where you are painting


1. Find a Quilt Square that you would like to paint. I just went on Pinterest and searched “quilt square” to find images. The simpler patterns are the easiest to paint. That pineapple one took a lot longer than the others. Save the image you want and resize it to the size of your wood. The images I found had some space on the edges so when I cut it out the paper was the same size of the wood but the image was smaller.

2. Stain the wood if desired and let it dry before the next steps. I used Minwax Dark Walnut.


3. Flip the print over and use chalk to go over all of the lines of the image.


4. Flip back over and place on top of wood. Use a pen to go over all of the lines. Press down hard but not too hard that you go through the paper or make huge dents in the wood.


When you remove the paper you will be able to see the chalk lines.


5. Paint in areas with desired colors. I found that using angled brushes make for a much easier painting job. Trust me 🙂 If you can, grab a few sizes so you can find the size you like best.


6. Flip over and repeat steps 3-5 on the other side, making sure to have the pattern and colors all the same way as the first side. Then when it’s up, it looks like the same on both sides, unless of course you want to do two different things on each side.

Note: You might find you will need to do more than one coat of paint for good coverage. I discovered I liked using chalk paint better because it had better coverage and I didn’t have to do more than two coats.

Tip: I found that I could flip the wood and place on it on these painters’ tripods after the first coat so I could start painting on the second side while I waited for the first side to dry.


7. When the paint is all dry, wipe off any extra chalk with a wet paper towel. Then you will need to add two or more coats of an outdoor sealant. You can do more coats if you want, but I think two will be sufficient. If you keep these outside often, you will probably want to reapply every few months or so. This will help protect it from the outdoor elements.


8. Spray paint the metal screw eyes and s hooks if you like. I wanted them to be black so it blended it with the black flag hook we already had.


9. When those are dry, hand twist the screw eyes into the wood. I went in two inches from each side for placement.


10. Use pliers to slightly open one end of the S hooks. This makes it easy to place the flag on but it’s still closed enough that the flag won’t fall off.


11. Place the closed ends of two S hooks on the garden flag holder. Then put the S hooks through the screw eyes and slide flag into desired placement. Make sure to bring it inside if the weather is going to be bad (ex: hurricane, snow, windy, etc).


I took the above pictures so you can kind of see how it looks with each side looking the same. The colors really pop! This is such a fun project for a craft night or to make for gifts. You can pick seasonal or holiday colors to make it festive. Please make sure to share if you make one! Share on instagram and tag me and use #happytogetherbyjess so we can all see them or share on the facebook page 🙂 Happy crafting! -jess

Church Student Room Makeover : Before and After

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If you can’t tell, I helped out with quite a few projects at our church in Louisiana. One of the bigger ones was helping spruce up the student room. This building used to be an old Kroger, so that’s where the industrial vibe comes from. Over the years there have been lots and lots of improvements (so thankful for all who helped do that!), like painting the floors, getting a new ac unit in there, etc., but it was time to take it up yet another notch to better serve the needs of the children/youth that use this room.


I yet again failed with getting the best before and after pics, but I do have some! The above picture is the before of the main countertop area. This is usually where food is set up for events and things like that.


This was my original drawing of proposed changes I turned in. As you can see, I suggested paint changes, adding a “chair rail” and baseboards, a modern bulletin board, new lights, wrap counter in wood, light up word, and a picture backdrop. They had already said they wanted to get rid of the fluorescents around the room and get ceiling lights, so to cover up that recessed space we just added painted wood trim.


These changes were very simple and very cost effective for such a large space. I was inspired by a local Starbucks for the painting scheme. They had high ceilings and had painted the bottom and very top half darker, where as the middle was lighter. It helped break up the large walls so I suggested we do something similar. It really added to the interest of the room and helped the ceiling blend in well. The lighter gray color is Sherwin Williams Icy Avalanche and the Dark Gray is Sherwin Williams Carbonized. And then for the back wall we did a green to add some color to the room.

We left the counter tops on as they were a dark gray laminate and went with the changes we were doing. We took off the galvanized metal and ripped down some plywood to create planks that we nailed on. Then we stained them in Minwax Early American and added two layers of polycrylic to protect them. This is a room where kids/youth will be, so the more durable the better!


The back wall was inspired by a project I had seen another church do that was featured on Pro Church Media. I arranged different pictures/graphics (many from Unsplash) and had them printed by Staples. I simply choose the black and white engineer prints so it cost a little over $50 for all of them. I had nailed this plywood on the wall so if they want to change this up the future the wall behind is still in good shape. I used this adhesive to keep them on. Now, you can probably tell it looks a little wrinkly…. so let’s talk about that. The reason for this is that Louisiana is super humid and this room gets the air turned off when it isn’t in use which causes paper to go crazy. But, when the air is on and it isn’t super humid it straightens back up! This type of project is definitely suited more for a temperature controlled room, but is still doable! And when some of the corners would start to peel a little, I just used a glue stick to tack it back into place.

The light fixture was a fun one to make. We bought pipe and spray painted it black. Then I used 6 plug in cord sets from Ikea to hang on it. There was an outlet on the ceiling for the previous plugged in light, so to save from having new wiring done we just plugged them all in there. And since the cords are dark and the ceiling was dark, it really isn’t noticeable at all. The lightbulbs were a variety of different Vintage style ones from Lowes.


The stage area was the corner on the other side of the room. This side had no lights besides some strung ones on the ceiling. Volunteers came and helped rip off the rest of the sheet rock on the cinder block wall, we spray painted the white pipes black so it would blend in more, that whole back wall was painted green, we re-carpeted a bunch of stages that we had and wrapped them with wood the same way we had done the counter, and added paper chains hanging from hula hoops that had been spray painted black.


When I was taking these pics, we couldn’t figure out how to do all the cool lighting so I don’t have that full effect, but it it makes the paper chains look really cool and adds to the atmosphere. The portable signs were actually non-portable ones that used to be on the main sanctuary stage. I added the supports and wheels and then cut out the word “kids” from wood and put on top of another stained piece of wood. To add a bit more color, I added some party decorations from Target across the top.


The last side to share is this back corner by the entrance. (There is still one more corner, but I sadly won’t be able to be there for the finishing of that area.) The gray paint job continued here and all galvanized metal was taken down. And although it is hard to see, we added this for baseboards. This room gets mopped so it was the most practical (and ultimately cost effective) type to use.


The bulletin board was such a fun easy thing to make! The back wood piece was from Home Depot, a 4’x8′ piece of underlayment, and I used liquid nails and also a nail gun to secure it onto the wall. Then I spray painted this rebar sheet mesh black and used screws to hold it in place. The rounded ends of the screws go over the metal bars and when strategically placed you can’t see them and this thing isn’t going anywhere.


After doing all of those projects, the back wall seemed a little bare, so one of my friend’s took our scrap wood and made these triangle shelves for me. We added some succulents for some greenery. My goal was to add even more down the road, but I wasn’t able to get to that.

Since I didn’t do the greatest on my after photos, I did find this pic from an event where you can see this corner of the room behind all the people lol.


And one more spot I totally forgot to take an after picture of! *sigh* The entrance to the room. I took this on a work day when I was putting up the lights. The door was at the end of a long long hallway and not very noticeable. I wanted it to stand out as an important room and hopefully help others who hadn’t been there before spot it more easily. I put wood all around the door which makes it stand out and also is a great place for them to post information parents/students might need to read. Then I designed this sign and Mark of City Sign & Tag Co. made it and installed it for me. This adds a little decor to the wall and makes it very clear where the student room is. Then since the ceiling lights are broken down here, I strung some lights to add some light. I ended up stapling the cord down the baseboard and under the door into the student room where they are easily plugged in.

I am forever thankful and grateful for all the people who came and helped clean out this room, paint, demo, make dump runs, and everything in between. It was a labor of love and I’m so happy that the children and youth now have a room that is even better suited for their events. As with all of my projects, I hope this inspires you to think outside of the box and know that you can create amazing things without having to spend a lot. -jess

Maddox Home: Living Room and Entryway Makeover

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As y’all know, we moved from Louisiana back in May. It was a whirlwind and there was a lot that I wasn’t able to get done before I left. One thing that didn’t happen was to take pictures of my friend’s living room and entryway that I helped her make over. Fortunately she sent me some pics she took so I can finally share some of the projects that we worked on. I have already shared her kitchen makeover (see it here) and am excited to share this part now. If you are on instagram, you can check out #maddoxhomemakeover for some in progress pics I shared on my instagram account.



My friend really loves how Joanna Gaines and the farmhouse look she creates, so we went that type of style. It flows really well with the farmhouse style kitchen which is good since they are open to each other. It is so light and airy now!


Here are the main things we did that you can see compared to the before pics (which are below):

-We painted the walls in the living room Agreeable Gray (SW7029), the faux shiplap in Alabaster (SW 7008), and the foyer walls in Silvermist (SW 7621).

-I created a faux wood beam over the drywall drop down that separated the rooms (not sure what that is technically called?). It was so easy to do and really adds a wow factor! I was inspired by this diy wood beam by Jenna Sue Design Co. The length of the wood we ended up using to create seams where they met were a little large, so I ended up just staining some wood pieces to go over those instead of using metal. I stained them with Minwax Early American which is the same stain used on the vent hood in the kitchen.

-I ripped down some of this thin plywood to create strips to make a faux shiplap wall. Here is a great tutorial on how to do all that. It only took 2 (or maybe 3?) sheets to do this one feature wall and the entryway.

-We rearranged her furniture for better flow and shopped her house for decor. She bought a few things to add, like the big clock (from Hobby Lobby) above the tv and the corner chair (from Marshalls) and foot stool (from Wayfair), but most things were just paired down from what she already had.

-I made a sofa table to go behind her sofa. This gave her a place to add some extra lighting.

-I changed out her ceiling lights for her. She picked out this one for the living room and the foyer light came from Lowes too but I can’t find it online.

-She repainted her tv cabinet with chalk paint for a quick change.

-New curtains and curtain rods were added.


Isn’t it amazing what a difference just those changes make? I forgot to get pics of the foyer before we did that, but I believe it was the same pinkish tan color as the living room. The hooks make it a lot more functional and it’s become a cute drop off zone for their shoes and coats now. My friend still has some projects she wants to do for this space (like get new flooring), but her and her family are absolutely loving the change it made. It feels so peaceful and the amount of light they get is unreal! The colors really help make that more noticeable now too. I hope this inspires you to create and get to working on that to do list 😉 -jess