DIY:: A birdcage planter

Hello, World.  Happy Thursday.

Boy oh boy.  Life has surely been turned upside down lately.  I'm finding my way through it all but wow, has it been challenging.

Thankfully, house projects can be a wonderful distraction and I've been working on quite a few of them.

So, who here likes the use of birdcages in decor?  I've got to be honest.  I'm not a big fan.  Or shall I say, I wasn't a big fan.  Until, that is, I saw this:

Hello, Bri Emery's gorgeous dining room designed by the ever-so-talented Emily Henderson.  And hey hey hey, you sweet little bird cage/planter thingy.

Okay, so let's just forget about the adorable birdcage for a second.  Regarding Bri's dining room, I think we can all safely agree on the following: a.) That lighting fixture is ah-mazing, b.) I need that over-sized photo by Max Wanger right NOW, and c.) Her table and chairs are perfection.

All in agreement, say "Aye".

Alright, now back to business.  So for me, almost always I'm going to say no to a birdcage in the house.  A gold birdcage doubling as a planter though?  Well now you have my attention.  Emily used this lil' lovely from A+R.

It's great, right?  But kind of spendy at $150+.  Now, of course, you get what you pay for and the one from A+R is super fancy and beautiful, with a porcelain base to boot.  And the description on their website?  "A twee incarnation of a bell jar."  It's like they know me & are marketing straight to my heart!

Sadly, no matter how lovely it is, I just cannot swing $160 for a decorative gold birdcage at this juncture.  What I can do though, is make one!

Spotted: Birdcages at Michael's on sale for 50% off!

For this project, I decided to get as close as possible to the A+R birdcage, so I opted for the most plain of the bunch.  I left with this birdcage & wooden base, both pieces for less than $22.

I had this can of spray paint in the garage, left over from a different DIY project and I really like this shade of metallic gold.  You should try it.

The actual spraying took about three minutes.  Seriously.

And after a few brush strokes of on-hand glossy white paint for the base, I found myself here:

I like the design/texture of the bottom of the cage, don't you?  And although it was looking super cute at that point, I totally forgot about the screw pointing out from the very top.  I needed a finial, but again, keeping the A+R design in mind, I wanted to keep things simple.  So back to Michael's I went...  And that's where I found the perfect solution for less than $5.

Finial dowel caps.  Who woulda thunk it?  I simply spray painted one of these lil guys (which took all of 2 seconds) and popped it on top.  And then, voila!

Pretty, right?!   Now, keeping it real, I should let you know that I haven't actually glued the whole thing together yet.  Soooo, if I open the top, the dowel cap falls off and when I move it, I have to be really careful because the base isn't attached either.  I know...I know... Gluing or even using teensy nails to secure the base would take all of 5 seconds to do.  It's on my list, people.

In the mean time, she's the perfect home for one of my little green friends.  And I think she's super pretty whether she's officially "finished" or not.

This lil' gilded cage and company has moved around the house quite a bit but most often she's on the coffee table in the living room or perched on the table in the newly greened up dining room.  A gold birdcage/planter is a fun pick-me-up for any room and can be yours for less than $30.  Do it!

Our Interior Garden Wall!

I guess I sort of dropped off the planet last week.  Sorry.  I've been dealing with some personal issues that have taken a lot out of me.  I'm like a little bear; sometimes I just feel the need to scurry into my humble, but well-decorated-of-course, cave and hibernate.

Honestly, I'm still not feeling that great and today has been especially challenging but I am determined to snap out of it!  So here I am.  Hello, strangers.

Let's talk about that gash durn GARDEN WALL!!!  Finally.  Well, maybe I shouldn't say "finally" as in finito, put a fork in 'er, she's done.  Because...  Well, she's not.  She's not done, that is.  Or is she?  Help me decide.

As you know from reading this post, my garden wall obsession started with our honeymoon trip to Spain last year.  Maybe someday I'll document that vacation here but for now, what I can tell you, is that Spain is AMAZING!!  I fell in love with so many different aspects of that country, but it was the city of Cordoba that served as inspiration for this latest DIY project.

The older part of Cordoba is filled with narrow, winding streets and most of the homes have lovely courtyards filled with vertical gardens showcasing impressive collections of potted plants and pretty flowers.  I tell you, I haven't been able to get those beautiful gardens off my mind for months now, so when it came time to spice things up in the dining room...I knew just what I wanted to do!

First though, I mapped out my "idea" and sat with it for a good week.  Yes.  Little pieces of green tape spotted the dining room wall for at least a week.  Maybe even two.  I change my mind so frequently with decor (I call it Design ADD) that I've found this works for me.  I just sit with my ideas for a second.



Which is what I did here and after an acceptable period of waiting...determined only by God knows what...I decided to go for it!  Well, I should say "we" actually, because Biff was a huge help with this one.  Gotta give credit where credit is due.

Okay, so after the mapping, came the shopping, painting, drilling and planting.

We decided to go with 4" pots and I painted them black.  I used Rustoleum Ultra Cover Premium Latex Paint in Flat Black.  And honestly, I just kind of slapped it on there haphazardly. As you can see from this bottom left photo, I cheated a little and didn't even go all the way to the bottom in the inside of the pots.  Yes. I'm a slacker like that. 


Once the paint was dry, Biff drilled a small hole into each of the pots.  Easy peasy. Done in 5 minutes.

Next up, came the planting.  Now, here at Camp Cham+Thom we've been known to kill a plant or two, or ten (truthfully).  Sooo, we're really just winging it here.  I'm going to try my best not to over-water or under-water and just pray these suckers live.  And well, if they don't, it's about $4 per plant to replace them.  Not that I want to do that or anything, but I'm not going to lose sleep over it.

So we bought lava rocks to help with drainage (btw this huge bag was a WAY better deal than some of the smaller bags).  Don't go for the teensy weensy pretty rocks that cost a ridiculous amount of money; no one is going to see them.

After a small scoop of the rocks, we loosened up each plant's roots and replanted them, adding the proper soil (depending on whether it was a fern variety or succulent).   That's another thing.  How did we choose the plants for the wall?  Again, we're just kind of winging it.  The dining room does get bright sun but not for very long each day; mostly the light is filtered.  Fingers and toes are crossed that our green babies survive!

Once all the plants were potted it was time to start hanging them.


Can we just talk for a second about these "Quick Hangers" we picked up from Orchard Supply Hardware?  We had no idea if they'd work; the angle was perfect but we were afraid the "stem" wouldn't be long enough.  But Bam!  They work perfectly!  Well, so far.

I do have to take them down to water them but that isn't too much of a hassle.  They go on and off their little "perch" quite easily.  I water them in the kitchen, give them some time to drain and then just put them right back up.

Hello, pretty gold and white striped sconce with your new gorgeous green friends!

Just a reminder.  This is how the dining room looked before.


And here she is now.

Pretty, right???  We think so.  Our dining room is totally open onto our main living area and I love glancing over and seeing the greenery on the wall.  The only issues are... a.) I'm not loving the "heart" shape that's happening.  And b.) Now, I WANT MORE PLANTS!!  And with a little help from Photoshop, I'm exploring my options...mapping it out, if you will.

Wait.  Is that too many?  Now that looks a bit cluttered, right?  Or does it?  See.  Design ADD.  It's a killer.

<le sigh>

Alas, perhaps I just need to sit on it for a few days.  Because that's what I do.

Well, that's it for me today, party people. Maybe you'll be inspired to get off your bum and make your own garden wall.  If you do, I'd love to see!

Garden wall teaser...

So, I guess I'm finally ready to post some pics of the interior garden wall.  I did promise after all.  This weekend I'm going to write one of my massive posts about the diy process.  In the meantime though, here's a lil' teaser.


Pretty, right???  I love the way the black pots and all that greenery pop against our white walls.  Every time I look over there it makes me happy. 
Of course, it's still a work in progress.  More plants to come?  Maaaybe...  Can we keep these plants alive?  Doubtful.  (Hmmm...that means we're going to be buying a lot of replacement plants...)  Should we buy stock in a plant nursery?  Probably.
Stay tuned!

DIY :: String Art in the Dining Room

Today's DIY project started with my dear friends, Chase & Aaron.  Aren't they a cute couple? (Biff would kill for their VW Bus.)


Of course, as usual, I've never met these people.  But still.  I came across their insanely gorgeous wedding on Green Wedding Shoes last year and fell head over heels for them and their crafty skills.  Remember, I too, got a little crafty at our wedding so maybe I think of Chase & Aaron as kindred spirits or something.

You see, when I saw their DIY fence & backdrop signage, my head just about exploded because I loved this idea so much.


SO great, right???

Well, of course that lead to hours spent on google & pinterest searching and finding tons of other inspiration images.  And, once again, I was reminded how many incredibly creative and talented people there are in the World.

Case in point:

These ballerinas have totally twirled their way into my heart.

via

This installation is super lovely too.  Megan Geckler, you are brilliant!



Hi there, pretty little tree.

via

And these stairs???  Endless amounts of gorgeousness here.

via

Oh my.  And thanks to the Jealous Curator via Emily Henderson, I'm crushing on these "Sewn Houses" (which are totally attainable btw...yay!) by artist, Hagar Vardimon-van Heummen.  Such a great name, right?

Yes.  All of these artists are aaaah-mazing.  But let's get back to the (simpler) art of string letter making.

Now, if only I had thought to look up a tutorial on-line (there are several) before I decided to start this project.  Why oh why must you make things so difficult, Cham+Thom?  No tutorials for me.  I just knew that I had the space and needed some art.   So here's what happened...

I came up with the idea to do a string art project with the word, "GATHER"; it would hang in the dining room over our table.  First I printed up the letters and simply taped them to the wall.  Truly, I probably left them up there for a week or so...just to see if this idea of mine would stick.


And it did.  So I bought myself a piece of wood, stained it and let it dry.


Next I taped my paper letters onto the piece of wood and hammered in the nails, outlining each letter.  This is where one of those online tutorials would've come in handy.  After the fact, I learned that I should've placed the nails equal distance apart all the way around the letters.  Oops.  We just randomly nailed in those suckers.  And of course, things turned out just fine in the end BUT I can see how having the nails evenly placed would've been super helpful.


I then went about removing the paper.  Hmmm... All those teensy weensy white paper dots sticking out where the nails attached to the wood?  Well, that was not planned and not good at all.  And quite frankly, a major pain in my arse.


Thank goodness for tweezers.


Once I had removed as many of the paper specs as possible, I got busy with my string.  I simply tied a knot around one of the nails and then randomly wove the string through the nails.  Of course, I'm absolutely positive that there must be a "correct" way to do this.  Again, a tutorial may've been helpful. For me though, the random pattern worked and I'm happy with it.


With Chase & Aaron's sign in mind, I started off using a thicker yarn.  Soon though, I deduced that the letters on their sign must've been way larger than mine.  For my project, I thought the yarn looked a little bulky.  So back to Michaels I went and I grabbed some Crochet Thread.

I tightly wove the thread in and out of the nails, intermittently pressing the layers of string down towards the wood base so I could gauge the thickness.  I also threaded the entire outline of the letter several times to make sure the shape was clearly defined.  
It took me forever to get to this amount of thickness and for me, it does the trick.  I suppose I could always add to it later though...if I ever feel like torturing my poor little fingers again.


In this photo I'm testing the yarn (on the "G") versus the crochet thread (on the "A").  I didn't want to unravel the "G" until I was totally sure that I wanted to go with the thread.  You can also see the difference between a completed letter (the "A") and the beginnings of weaving (on the "T").  As I mentioned earlier, I decided that the thread was the way to go.  It only took me FOREVER to re-do that "G".


What we ended up with was some rather lovely string art, folks.  I love that, at first, you don't even realize it's string and nails.


A closer look though, and all is revealed.  Hello, crooked nails.  Why must you torment me so?


It's not perfect, of course.  But here at Camp Cham+Thom, we love it.


Slowly but surely the dining room is coming together.  Next up, is the garden wall!  And perhaps one of these days, the addition of some sort of colorful window treatments?  Hmmm...  I'll keep you posted.

DIY :: Stripes meet sconces!

As we toured the main floor of the treehouse yesterday, I pointed out the bizarre wood moulding that surrounded some of the windows and doors.

I just couldn't wrap my head around why this moulding was necessary.  As I mentioned before, I can only imagine that it was there for curtains, but still.  Why???  Thankfully, we talked to Carol (our landlord) and she gave us the okay to verrrrrrry carefully remove the protruding pieces of wood.  So that's exactly what we did.  
With 2 weeks to go before moving day, we set out to do the following: 1. Remove moulding around the windows and balcony doors. 2. Patch & Sand. 3. Remove tv mounted on the wall. 4. Patch & Sand. 5. Paint a fresh coat of white paint on every surface, including fireplace front (cream colored in before pics?) and the sconces in the dining room.
During that two weeks, this happened.

And then this.  SO much better!!!!

And just one week after we moved in, the dining room looked like this:
Not bad, right?  Now due to time limitations (read: me being impatient) we decided to go the big box route for dining room furniture.  Not the norm for us, but in this case, it worked.  We pulled this look together from Cost Plus.  Instead of going super matchy matchy we purchased the table and its' matching bench, but then opted for wicker chairs for the opposite side of the table.  We use the 2 yellow chairs (also from Cost Plus) you see there in the background when we need extra seating at the ends of the table.  We've easily got seating for 8 and in a pinch, we've squeezed in 10 people.  It's fine for now but truly, I'd like to replace all of that seating.  The table is great but I'm not in love with the chairs (any of them) or the bench. Who knew benches were so uncomfortable???  All in due time I suppose...all in due time.
So that photo was a week in and it's pretty much stayed the same since.  Still no color on the walls and not a lot of art.  But, we are definitely working on that! I'm hesitant to paint in there.  Actually all of the upstairs has these crisp white walls (except for our BLACK powder room to be discussed at a later date).  The space is so open and the ceilings are peaked.  Color just doesn't feel right in there; in our upstairs living and dining areas our furniture is neutral and the color comes from the greenery outside the windows, some of our painted furniture pieces and artwork.  But hold on.  I'm getting ahead of myself again.
Right around the holidays I made the first attempt at spicing things up in the dining room.  I thought about replacing the existing sconces but in the end I decided to keep them and have some fun with paint instead.   Playing it safe, I knew that if I did anything that looked especially horrible that I could simply paint them back to white again. Now if only I hadn't had the brilliant idea to paint stripes on curved sconces.  Oh the headache!!!
I had no idea what I was doing so I kind of figured it out as I went along.  I used small pieces of 1" Frog Tape as a guide. And then I tried my best to follow those small pieces around with 1 long piece of the frog tape.  But that was WAY more challenging than I was counting on. At times I had to piece together the "sripes" with tape and tried to get the edges pressed down as much as possible to prevent seepage.  I just knew it was going to be a total shit show when I removed the tape though, so I did the best I could and planned on doing a ton of touch ups later.  I don't think it was the Frog Tape's fault (that product usually works great); I think it was just the nature of the beast really.    I used Rustoleum's Metallic Gold Paint and I love it, although I wasn't prepared for the watery consistency.  Never fear, I just glopped on a million coats and everything turned out dandy. At least I think so.  Metallic gold stripes, meet my sconces! Here you can see I've been doing some touch ups but it looks like it hasn't fully dried yet. But lookie here...  So pretty!  And they were up and ready to go just in time for our holiday party!   I may or may not be just a teensy bit in love with them.  Who wouldn't like gold striped sconces in the dining room???  Now of course, this is just Phase One of the master plan to "spice up" the dining room.  There's plenty more progress to see including a fab DIY string art project.  I'll have that for you tomorrow!