the cottage journal – Page 2 – Sweet Southern Grace

Creative Thursday’s Christmas Craft

November 21, 2019November 21, 2019by sweetsoutherngraces7 Comments

This year with my collaboration with King of Christmas, I knew I would be going neutral with my Christmas decor, which meant I would need to do a complete 360 and either make or buy new Christmas stockings. I went and checked a few of my fav decor spots and they were a no go for stockings. You know when you get that picture in your head of what you want and you can’t find it anywhere? I was feeling a little defeated, until, I got the idea to make my own stockings from painters drop cloth canvases. Say what? It sounds funny, I know, but I knew I could probably make 6 stockings for under $10! I actually only spent $2.98 on the Drop cloth because it was on sale! I mean, my entire main living area of my home, has drop cloth ruffle curtains. I already had some left over drop cloths from when I made the curtains from our eat-in kitchen or i.e. playroom for our youngest daughter.

I knew I wanted fairly nice sized stockings. We have had some of our Pottery Barn Kids stockings for 17 years and they are a great size for Santa to fill! I decided to use one of those stockings for a pattern.

I basically just laid the PBK stocking on top of the canvas, that I double folded, then added about 1/2 an inch for seam allowance and cut out. I took both pieces of canvas and sewed right sides together, then turned inside out and decided on the size that I wanted the ruffles to be.

For the ruffles, I decided on the size, which was 6.5 inches in width by 20 inches in length with 1/2 inch seam allowance. I sewed down the raw edge then folded over, sewed down again and began the process of ruffling the canvas. If you have never ruffled before, its not hard, you just need set your machine to the loosest stitch and the widest stitch. Once you’ve run your stitch the whole length of your fabric, gently begin pulling the bottom (bobbin) thread.

Next, begin slowly pushing your bunched fabric towards the end of your fabric until you have the whole fabric ruffled.

Next, I made the stocking holder loop. I used a piece of 4×6 size of canvas.

First I folded down the fabric on one side to the middle and then did the same for the other side.

Next, fold over the entire piece in half.

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Then sew down the edges.

Next, I turned down the stocking and decided on the width of the cuff, then sewed the edge with a 1/2 allowance.

I decided to go ahead and attach the stocking holder, then sew on the ruffles.

Next on the agenda is sewing on the ruffle!

I also decided that I wanted to make stocking name tags! I knew we had some pine underlayment left from our faux shiplap wall we had just completed. I asked my husband to cut out 6 that were 5.75×2.75 plus drill a small hole at the top.

I decided to stain with one of my favorite colors of stain, Minwax Dark Walnut.

After lightly staining the front, back and sides of the name tags, I decided to use my Silhouette to add all of our names to each tag. I chose the font bromello then welded, printed on white vinyl then weeded (removed the negative space).

After finishing with the stocking name tags, I added twine for tying around the stockings. These cost me zero to make because I already had all of the supplies!

We are done! What do y’all think? I absolutely am loving my neutral, very budget friendly Christmas decor this year! It definitely took some time to grow on me since I’ve had traditional for the past 20 plus years but our entire family is enjoying it.

Please check out my friends to see what Christmas Crafts they have come up with for our monthly Creative Thursday’s! We have some pretty amazingly talented ladies, if I do say so myself!

Love, Shae

https://barnhousemess.wordpress.com/2019/11/19/christmas-creative-challenge

Creative Thursday ~ easy to make candy cane garland

Creative Thursday – Christmas Craft

Creative Thursday: Classic White & Gold Framed Ornaments

DIY

Budget Friendly Kitchen Renovation

October 24, 2019April 19, 2020by sweetsoutherngraces11 Comments

Hey y’all! Have you ever wanted to update your kitchen on a budget with products that don’t break the bank? The hubs and I have recently updated out kitchen with Ardex concrete countertops, a white subway back splash, a white farmhouse sink and chalk painted cabinets. It took about three weeks for all of the renovations.

We started off by replacing our kitchen sink with a white farmhouse sink from Sinkology called the Josephine .

I have had visions of white farmhouse sinks dancing in my head since we purchased our home, 5 years! Isn’t she a stunning sight!!

Next, my husband cut off the backsplash of the existing countertops because we were adding tile.

For the countertops, I used Ardex Feather Finish . Ardex is a self drying cement based finish that you mix with water and has a cake icing-like consistency.

First things first, it is best to remove everything from your cabinets, then apply a clear plastic cover and tape all the edges. Trust me, you will appreciate this later! All of the countertops will need a light sanding to help the Ardex adhere. I used a orbital sander and I also hand sanded in corners where the orbital sanded would not fit. Wipe down with a dampened cloth all your countertops.

To mix the Ardex, I used a plastic 1 gallon bucket and a paddle mixer. The directions for the Ardex is a 2:1 ratio with water. I found that was a little to thick for me and added just a bit more water. I liked it to be about the consistency of icing. I used a 12 in joint knife and a puffy knife for the smaller areas. In some areas like behind the kitchen sink, it was easiest to use my fingers with gloves on to smooth the Ardex out.

After the first coat of Ardex is applied, it will need to dry for about 24 hours before sanding. Once dry, let the sanding commence! I’m not going to lie, it’s super messy but I promise it is well worth it!! Check out the layer of dust on my arm!

I used an orbital sander because I felt like the finish it gave was smoother than a palm sander.

I can not stress enough to use plastic coverings on everything because if not, you will have a huge mess to clean up like I did! Learn from my mistake!

I sanded all the edges, corners and tight spots with a 60 grit sand paper. Next is to use a shop vac to vacuum all the dust form sanding. I also used a dampened cloth to remove any remaining dust from the countertop. I repeated these steps until I had three layers of Ardex on my countertop. After the countertop has dried for 24 hours, I applied 3 coats of Behr Low Luster Sealer with a paint brush.

I didn’t want a super shiny finish, so I made sure to purchase one that had very little shine.

Next up was the subway tile. We purchase our tile from a local tile company called Floor & Decor . They had the absolute best prices on tile! The tile was 15 cents each!!

The tile went pretty quickly in comparison to the countertops! Next up was the grout! We decided to Pearl Gray for the grout color.

The grout and mortar were also purchased from Floor & Decor.

Last but certainly not least was the painting of the kitchen cabinets. This is the 3rd time our cabinets have been painted. I used Ibis White from Sherwin Williams, previously. The interior of our cabinets had never been painted and I had dreams of painting the inside of the cabinets white. I decided to go ahead and tackle the painting of the inside and outside of the cabinets! I decided to use my DIY chalk paint recipe and use the same color Ibis White. I chose chalk paint because of its hardiness and durability!

I am am not going to lie, it was a ton of work and I could not have done it without my two oldest daughters helping me! It took us about 10 days to do it all but I still think it was so worth it! The painted 3 coats on the inside of all the oak cabinets and drawers, since they had never been painted before! In between each coat, I did a light sanding, by hand, so that it would cut down on brush strokes. After each sanding, you will needed to wipe out all the soot with a dampened cloth. Everything that we sanded was by hand only.

I also lightly distressed all of my cabinets on the inside and outside. When I distress, I like to distress where the item would naturally receive wear.

I also decided to replace the drawer pulls with brushed nickel pulls that I found on Amazon for cheap!

Ok, so I know y’all are wondering what the total cost was on our budget friendly renovation?

Here is a break down of costs:

-Drawer Pulls-$18

-Ardex-$60 (I used 2.5 bags @ $30 each. One bag was leftover from our upstairs bathroom.)

-Tile, Mortar & Grout-$90 (15 cents per tile)

-Paint, Baking Soda-$162 (Sherwin Williams paint plus 12 boxes of baking soda to make chalk paint.)

-White Farmhouse Sink-$399

Total Cost-$730

We are enjoying our kitchen and all of our hard work! You can find many of our projects saved under “highlights” on my IG page or our You Tube account. Follow along with me on IG in stories everyday, as I usually always have some sort of diy going on!

❤️-Shae

DIY

DIY Chalk Painted Furniture

February 28, 2019March 2, 2019by sweetsoutherngraces3 Comments

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Have you been searching for the perfect diy chalk paint recipe? I have a tried and true recipe right here! The best thing is it is very budget friendly for under $45!! Last week, I decided that one of our daughter’s furniture could use a face lift, per say. After all, this furniture is a good 15 years old. We have moved a few times and it had a few dings in various spots. Those natural “dings” on the furniture would be perfect for chalk painting! I could sing chalk paint praises, all day long! It is the most hardiest paint that I have ever used! I absolutely love it!

CHALK PAINT RECIPE:

1 c Latex Sherwin Williams Ibis White

1/2 c Baking Soda

1 tbsp. water

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DIRECTIONS:

Mix 1 c paint and 1/2 c baking soda very well with a plastic fork, until you see no lumps. Then your going to mix the water until incorporated well and there are no lumps.

I use a Wooster Paint Brush from Home Depot. You do not want to use a cheap paint brush because you will be left with bristles in your paint and lots of brush strokes. I can not stress this enough!

The very first thing you are going to want to do is clean your piece very well with a damp cloth. Next is lightly sanding your piece. The reason is so that it gives the chalk paint a little something to grab onto. After sanding, clean your piece really well with a damp cloth again.

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As you can see in the pic above, this was before cleaning and sanding, it definitely needed to be cleaned.

When you begin painting, paint in the direction of the grain of the wood. So, if your wood grain is horizontal, you are going to paint, horizontally. If the direction of the grain of your wood is vertical, you will be painting vertically.

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When you are painting a long piece of furniture, like a dresser, I like to have one long paint stroke, at a time. I will start at the top and go all the way down and continue until the entire top piece is finished. Chalk paint dries really quickly, so you will need to work fast. When you have the entire piece painted with one coat, the paint should be dry within a couple hours, you can lightly sand over the first coat. You are going to be sanding in the direction of the grain of the wood. I use 120 grit sand paper for sanding. I like to lightly sand in between coats because it will lessen the chance of having a lot of brush strokes. After each sanding, wipe down your piece with a lint free cloth. Most pieces are going to need three coats of chalk paint, depending on how much coverage you are wanting for your piece. I always do three coats, with light sanding in between and wiping with a clean dry cloth.

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In the above picture, I wanted to point out that sometimes when you are lightly sanding in between coats, that your piece may automatically start to kind of distress itself. That is ok, so don’t let it worry you. After you have painted all three coats with lightly sanding in between, you are now ready to distress your piece. I don’t like super heavy distressing, so my distressing is somewhere in between light to medium distressed. To distress, you are just going to take your sand paper and lightly sand in the areas of your piece, as to where it would naturally wear.

Now you are ready for your wax! Waxing provides a wonderful layer of protection for your chalk painted furniture. I always use two coats of Martha Stewart Vintage Clear Wax from Michael’s. It is under $10 with a coupon. Depending on the amount of items you are painting, will determine how much wax you will need. I needed two bottles of wax plus a little bit of another bottle. I painted six pieces of furniture. A bed with headboard and footboard, dresser with mirror, side table, desk and chair. I think it is best to use a lint free cloth with your wax. You do not want to have any dust or hair that can get trapped in the wax, as you are applying or as it is drying. To apply the wax, grab a quarter sized amount and begin waxing in a circular motion until you’ve waxed your entire piece. Allow the wax to dry for several hours and apply a second coat. Once the wax dries, I allow 4-6 weeks for the paint to cure before setting any heavy items on my chalk painted furniture.

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A6D4CF41-DD75-470A-927C-D1CFC1D155BB You can also check out our You Tube Channel for a more detailed video of how to make your own chalk paint and painting your furniture piece.

Much love~ Shae

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