A Closet Makeover

I love how my new years resolution was to be a better blogger... and that didn't turn out too well. It's been crazy in the Schulman household with lots of fun and new exciting changes! Sometimes I feel like I can't keep up with everything, and on top of it, I'm on a computer for at least 8 hours a day... The last thing I want to do is come home and use it for another hour or two... so it turns out I'm a much better blog reader than I am a blog poster :)

But it's funny how a new MacBook Pro can change things! I had no idea pictures can load so quick and blogging could be so much faster! It's taken some getting use to having never owned a Mac, but I know I haven't even come close to unleashing what this thing can really do...

Even though there hasn't been a post for quite a while, that's not to say I haven't been crafting away!

Thankfully, I finished the closet makeover a couple of months ago. This one took a lot of energy out of me and made me never want to paint again! I don't know what made me want to make a closet cute, but was determined to do something about the drab white walls. I also spend a lot more time in here than most would probably think. I start work at 5:15 in the morning, which means I get up pretty early. So I don't wake up Mr. Schulman, I go in to the closet and pretty much get ready in there.

Here is my small cute closet.... well... almost cute :)

It's a pretty small closet, but it's all mine :) Mr. Schulman has his own closet in the room as well, so it works for now!

...and I just wanted to say a quick hi to blog friends!!

I was pretty scared to start painting, mostly because I chose a dark chocolate. I wanted to paint pink stripes, but also didn't want the closet to look like it belonged to a 5 year old :)

I was pretty happy with how it turned out. I was also worried that the darker colors were going to make my already small closet look even smaller, but because we have such high ceilings, the stripes actually helped the room look even bigger.

In my previous post, I mentioned I was pretty excited about finding a certain something. Well... it was Martha Stewart's new line of Mineral Paint. It literally was just put on Home Depot's shelves the day I bought it, and they said I was the first one to try it! I felt honored...lol.

It's a bit expensive, but it's pretty awesome!

I chose a light pink to put on the ceiling... You can't tell in pictures that the ceiling has a "shimmer" to it, but it looks so pretty in person!

The last thing I did was decide I wanted Crown molding, and this is where I had a heart attack. It took me a while to figure out how to cut the crown molding, and was so disappointed when I started putting up the molding only to find out that wall's do no have 90 degree angles. Walls have 92 , 95 ish angles!!!!! I cried, and yelled, and threw things, and said words a lady shouldn't say... At this point I was so over the project that I went to home depot to find the "cheater" corners.... AND I'M PROUD OF IT!!

And here she is :)

You can't tell in the pictures, but I also switched all the plastic hangers with the nice velvet hangers and it makes a world of difference! It saves so much room, and just looks super nice.

I learned two things from this project. One was just a good reminder, but things don't always go as planned, and you have adjust and sometimes improvise. The second, is that it's okay to pay for some things.... and next time, for me anyways, we WILL pay for someone to come out and install the molding for us.

Even with all of the frustration, I am IN LOVE with how the closet turned out. I'm still on the search for cute little nick knacks but now it's at least easier to get up in the mornings!!

Linking to Thrifty Decor Chic's before and after party!

Front Porch Sign

I can't believe it's been almost two weeks since my last post! Hopefully that won't happen again. This new job has had me working during the day and then coming home to learn more about material I needed to know at night, so needless to say the fun stuff got put on hold :(

Don't worry though... I completely decorated my officle (next post) :)

Anyways... our front porch was looking dull... a little too dull... and after reading some tutorials from the Fabulous Miss Mustard Seed (Mustard Seed Creations) I decided I wanted to tackle our own sign.

A couple of months ago, a friend of mine asked me to grab some palates (we have them all over the place because of all the new houses going up). So I thought "D, you should grab one for yourself just in case." So glad that I did! I tore off some of the wood slats, glued them together, and it gave me the foundation for the sign. These boards worked great, because they were all beat up.... which is what exactly what I wanted.

Then I used the Cricut to cut own my stencil just to make sure they were the size I wanted

I then randomly brushed a "antique white" paint, to help give it a type of aged look... Just enough to where some wood was still peeking through...

Then traced on the letters...

Then PAINSTAKINGLY painted in the letters... Let me just say this... I'm a pretty patient person and typically like projects that are very meticulous in nature... but this got the best of me! I don't know how some of you sign makers do it! It took so long!

After painting in the rest of the letters, I then went ahead and sanded down in random places, then applied a coat of walnut stain over the entire sign, and it turned out exactly as I'd hoped :)

I drilled my holes and attached the signs together with hemp, then topped it off with a little garland from Hobby lobby... and got this :)

One last look!

Now here's my issue... it's too heavy...lol. Of course right?!?!? I tried using one of those 3m sticky hooks outside, but when I tried to put it on it came right off... I just talked to my dad, and pretty much said that because our house is stucco, if I try and nail or screw something in I could crack a whole piece of the stucco off...

So does anyone have any ideas?!?