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!

The San Gabriel House :: the exterior

I have just about gone cukoo crazy with all these before and afters this week.  But I'm not done yet.  Here's another one for you.  

You see, while we were busy renovating the interior and backyard at the San Gabriel house, this happened.  And sadly, yes, those are our overgrown bushes and yes, that is a piece of plywood we were using as a garage door.

Remember I mentioned that we finally hired some help to do the weeding in the backyard?  Well, when they were done back there, they got busy on our pint-sized front yard.  Here's the house in its' still ghetto fabulous state, but it looks way better without all those weeds.

I can't even imagine what our neighbors thought was going on over at our place.  Here we are trying out some paint colors.  And yes; we painted the entire exterior.  BY OURSELVES.

You're probably not going to believe this, but we never did replace that plywood with a proper garage door.  Instead, we decided to let the new homeowners deal with that expense and in the meantime, we got a little crafty. My creative, superstar husband (who was still my boyfriend back then) had the brilliant idea that we should add some decorative molding to the plywood.  Again, our friend Google helped us out.  Do a search for "mid-century garages" and you'll find a ton of cool images.  This one stuck out to us and served as our inspiration.

So one afternoon, Biff did THIS.  Bam!  In my book, that man is seriously brilliant.

We painted the exterior of the house and as I mentioned in an earlier post, we also painted the aluminum window casings.  Scroll up and look at the before photo.  The black on the windows makes a huge difference.  Even though it was an enormous pain in the ass, it was cost effective and looked great.  

The San Gabriel reno taught me so much about myself.  I'm physically stronger than I ever believed and can handle more stress that I thought was humanly possible.  AND I love gardening!  Who knew?  

May I have a drum roll please?  Ta daaaaah!!  Here she is all cleaned up pretty.  I love the way the black mulch tied in with the window casings, house trim and garage molding.

I remember the day I took this photo.  The sun was just starting to go down and Biff and I had been working on the house all day.  We were so exhausted yet so excited.  Within a month, we had placed the house on the market.  It sold 6 days later.

A sweet family moved in...a husband and wife with two children and one on the way.  We've only driven by once since we moved.  We were over on that side of town and just couldn't help ourselves.  It was nice to see that they've been taking care of our little front yard.  And of course, they replaced that plywood garage door.  I imagine they've made some other upgrades inside the house too; hopefully they put in a sprinkler system in the backyard.  Watering back there was a total nightmare.  
Selling the San Gabriel house was a necessity and in a time when people were sitting on real estate for months, we know how fortunate we were to have made such a quick sale.  Moving from there broke my heart though.  Biff and I fell in love while fixing up that lil' disaster of a home; we created something amazing there and I like to say it's all that spackle and paint that is going to hold us together forever.  

Are you in love with where you live?  And if so, what is it about your home that you love so much? 

The San Gabriel House :: the backyard

Gardening is still on the brain today but instead of focusing on my new garden wall project like I should be, I'm wandering down memory lane again; this time, I'm obsessing over the dramatic before and afters of the San Gabriel house backyard.  See for yourself.  Oh...and try not to judge.

When I met Biff, the backyard looked like this.

Good Lord... Thank God we met and were friends first, because in a dating scenario, I'm not sure this type of yard is something I could've gotten past.  It's just sooooo bad, right?

Biff was digging up the back yard all by HIMSELF like a crazy person.  You can see in the second photo above, that he was making a raised 'bed'. When he wasn't working, he was digging.  Pure madness.  I finally convinced him that he needed some help and we hired a couple of young guys to weed the back yard and help with the planter.  So it went from what you see up top there...

To this.

Still awful, but much better.

All that digging worked; we had a huge planter bed that was sectioned off using railroad ties.  The idea was to have colorful greenery and plants in most of the raised bed with a small section saved for a garden.  We wanted sod for the grassy area, a clean and BLUE pool and knew that eventually we needed some sort of cover for the pool's pump and other components too.

In this photo we've just begun planting.  And you can see here that we've also painted a mossy green color on the cinder blocks surrounding the house.  We couldn't afford to replace the wall itself so this was the next best thing.  We couldn't believe how much of a difference it ultimately made.

The pool went from this scary monstrosity...


To this creepy crawly slime bucket.


Here I began to have hope though...


And when this happened, well, I almost died from happiness.  That pool was blue for miles and my heart was so full of joy I'm surprised it didn't explode right then and there.


The day the sod arrived was a good day too.

I've never been happier to wake up at 5am and work my butt off.

We worked SO hard... And it looked SO great.  We were quite proud of ourselves.

The kids were happy about it too.  Here we are jumping for joy! :)
And here's how the backyard looked when we sold the house.  Success!

Holy ground cover over-growth!  It looks like a certain "someone" was a little impatient and wanted instant gratification so that certain someone "may" have planted the ground cover a wee too close together.  Oopsy.

And before I forget, you've got to see the patio that leads out to this backyard space.  I wish I had a photo of how it looked in its' original state of disgust.  The photo below though, is how it looked shortly after I met Biff and I am telling you, a TON of progress had already been made (you can see another angle of all the yard overgrowth here too).  When he bought the house this was an enclosed patio.  Yep.  An enclosed patio with a fire pit. Say whaaaaat???


This is another great before and after. In addition to removing the roof and walls, we painted the beams black and the brick walls white.  We also continued the moss green color we used in the back yard on the cinder block walls. A pressure cleaner helped too, as did a lot of scrubbing on our hands and knees.  This porch was just off of the kitchen and den areas of the house and quickly became one of our favorite spots; we roasted s'mores with the kids and had countless dinners under the stars with friends.  And here's how the patio looked when we moved.

Divine!!  This backyard and patio makeover goes to show that absolutely anything is possible. Wait till you see what we did to the front of the house... :)

Gardening on the brain today...

Happy Monday, darlings.  How was your weekend?  Ours was great.  On a whim, Biff & I drove down to Santa Barbara on Saturday...for LUNCH!  I love a quick (spur of the moment) field-trip, don't you?  And who doesn't love Santa Barbara?  Could it be any more gorgeous?  I think not.

If you follow me on Instagram, you know we also made a trip to Osh.  That's right; we bought lots of little plants, terracotta pots, & a couple of drill bits.  Hmmm...


This happened too...


You see, inspiration comes when you least expect it.  Last fall we traveled to Spain and I fell in love with  the charming city of Cordoba.  Of course, all of Spain is amazing, but what really got me about Cordoba, was their patio pride. I snapped this photo while roaming the streets there.


Plants and flowers everywhere!  We noticed these garden walls all over the city and were constantly peeking our heads in to see resident's private patios.  They were all so beautiful.  Thanks to our friend Google, we learned about the city's annual Patio Festival; these Spaniards are serious about their gardening.  Every year in May (so wishing we were there right now), there's actually a competition and the whole city goes bananas with their patio decor.  People open their doors to passersby too; talk about garden pride.  I just love it.

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SO gorgeous!!

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Soooo, you guessed it.  We are making our very own teensy weensy indoor wall garden here at Casa de Cham+Thom.  We've mapped out the feature wall in the dining room and have a rough idea of where the pots will hang.  Maybe we'll get more precise on the day this all comes together but for now, I've just eyeballed it.  Initially we were going to go with super small pots or buckets that measured about 2 1/2" across.  When we mapped it out though, it looked a little too busy.  We've decided to go with 4" pots instead.

Did I mention that we're going with black pots?  It's true.  And recently I came across this image in a West Elm catalog that gave me a little more confidence in my decision to paint the pots flat black.  Our walls are white and I think the greenery in the black pots is really going to pop.  Plus, we have some other black accents in the room too; it's going to look awesome.

Right about now you might be saying, "Bridgette, it sure would be easier to just buy the pots from West Elm, don't you think?"  Yeah...Yeah...  I know.  But what fun would that be?

Today I'm painting and replanting the plants.   Stay tuned... We hope to get our wall garden hung this weekend and I'll be posting photos next week.

Have a great week!
xoxo