DIY bathroom organization + DIY stencils!



As I have posted recently, we are now currently living in a one room loft. Yes, that's right, we are ca-razy! In efforts to still have a relaxing and enjoyable home, I have really had to think outside the box to come up with unique forms of storage. Our bathroom was somewhat of a dilemma. You see, we have one very small linen closet for: bedding, blankets, curtains, table cloths, etc. Not to mention all bathroom essentials and cleaning products. The last thing I wanted to do was waste at least an entire shelf with towels, so I decided to use them as decor while they are being stored and not used!


Our bathroom is in shades of teals, grays and black, so I got the idea to roll the towles up and store them in an oversized galvanized tub. Here's what I did!

 

Step One: buy a galvanized bucket. You can generally find them this time of year at department stores. Ours, apparently, was a 'bar essential' for drinks, which I got super cheap in the clearnace section!

Obviously, this shade of green wouldn't do in our bathroom, so I put a matching coat of paint on it!
 

Step Two: using frog tape, tape off your area to be painted, making sure to push down all ends firmly so paint doesn't get underneath.
 

Step Three: Now, in order to create your own stencil, you will need a long sheet of clear contact paper. I made my stencil easily by typing it in Microsoft word, blowing it up/zooming in to my desired size, holding the contact paper up to it, and tracing the letters.

 

VIOLA!

Step Four: Now, place your tracing on a cutting mat/cardboard. I used an x-acto knife to cut my letters out. The S was a little tricky, so I used scissors. Whatever works for you!

Once you have cut out all letters, peel the back off and stick it on your surface. This was a little tricky with a rounded tub. I ended up having to cut out several letters and place them at a time, in order to make sure they are straight and in line.

Once you have your stencil placed, paint with another colors over the letters. Wait for your paint to dry at least a few hours, then remove the contact paper and you're done!
 

And this is what I  came up with! "Serviette" is French for towel. I have future plans for our bathroom that entail more French inspired decor, since my hubby is French, our last name actually meaning flower in French!

I am so happy with how it turned out! Now I have a great way of storing our towels that doesn't take up room in our linen closet, and I have made a great stencil for FREE (stencils are just disgustingly expensive!). I hope you like it too!


Thanks for reading!

DIY Painted Chevron Patterned Rug

A few days before we moved, I decided to tackle a huge project. Probably the biggest one I've accomplished since starting my blog. And that project was to paint my dining room rug. You see, we were fortunate enough to inherit a decent rug from my in laws for the dining room. But the rug was, well, shall we say: boring. Just plain off white berber.


I stumbled upon this tutorial  one day on pinterest and decided this was exactly what I needed for my dining room, so I gathered up my supplies and got to work!


What you will need (besides a boring rug, as seen below):

Supplies::

1 rug (mat, runner, area rug, whatever!)

measuring tape

frog tape ( I am not a fan of painter's tape)

any indoor pain: my project required a little over a pint for a 4.5' x 11' area rug

parchment paper

straight pins

Step One: Using frog tape, tape off finished corners of rug. Once pulled off after the painting is complete, it will give the rug a more 'finished' look.

Step Two: Create a graph on parchment paper. For example: my rug was 55 inches wide, so I divided it by 11 and created a 5 inch by 5 inch graph. This can be accomplished with a measuring tape and pencil. Trust me, if this girl can do it, you can too!


Once your graph is complete (and is as long as your rug is wide) connect the top corner to a bottom opposite corner, diagonally, as seen below. This will create your 'chevron' pattern that is super hot right now! Cut your pattern out

Step Three: Once your pattern is complete, copy it exactly onto another piece of parchment paper. I made the mistake of running out of paper and using one stencil, measuring, then moving it down the rug. This is extremely tedious and makes for many errors. So do yourself a favor and cut out at least two stencils.

Now take your stencil and pin it to one end, using straight pins, as seen below:

Step Four: Begin painting. I found that using foam brushes are the easiest and using a 'dabbing' technique versus brushing is key.

Step Five: Continue to paint between stencils. Each time you must move your stencil, measure between each painted area to make sure you are maintaining even spacing. Also, when moving your stencils down, make sure no wet paint is around the edges, this may cause some to come off and stain areas of the carpet that are not meant to be painted. In this case, keep a bottle of carpet cleaner nearby! I used mine on several occasions!

Step Six: Continue painting until entire rug is covered!

Step Seven: Let dry. This takes at least an entire day. You will find out that a lot of the paint gets absorbed into the carpet and you will find areas of rug sticking out through your paint. I actually found I really liked the look of this. It made it look somewhat worn, so I left it just like it was. If you don't want this look, you will need to add another layer of paint.

Step Eight: put in your home to enjoy!

I love our rug. It gave a whole new look to it! Now that the house is one big room, it also goes better with our red and black living room and more modern look.

A lot of people think you are only supposed to paint hard surfaces, but that is just not the case! Just the thought of painting your carpet makes some people cringe. But I love ours and am so happy  I did it! I hope this tutorial has made someone less nervous to give it a try! A fresh new coat of paint can change an entire room!

Thanks for reading everyone!

Spicy Zucchini Flatbread: 1 Recipe, 2 Ways

Well, we did it! We are in our new place! We really like it so far! Things are coming together slowly, however, since we don't get home from work until about 6. Since we have been SOOOO busy, I decided to take my lunch break today and steal some free WiFi (until we get our internet hooked up!) and blog over lunch. I am pulling this little post out of my unused arsenal! I made this recipe a few weeks before the move and love love love it! I hope you do too! (Orignal recipe, which I changed slightly, found here)

Spicy Zucchini Flatbread: Two Ways!

Ingredients:1.5 c whole wheat pastry flour
.5 c brown rice flour
2 c grated zucchini
1 tsp sesame seeds
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp coriander
1 tsp curry
2 tsp cayenne pepper
.5 tsp turmeric powder
1 tbs chopped cilantro
pinch of salt to taste
.25 cup fat free yogurt
1 tbs + olive oil for pan

Directions:

Mix all ingredients together. I had TONS of frozen zucchini from our garden in the freezer, so I thawed it, put it in the blender, and mixed it in with the rest of the ingredients.  If you use frozen zucchini, make sure to squeeze it out and remove excess water.

Once everything is mixed together, clear a space on your counter or a cookie sheet and dust with flour/whole wheat flour. Make palm sized balls or dough and flat with hands on dusted surface until the dough is about 1/4 inch thick.

Next, place the dough in a frying pan with olive oil and cook until both sides are golden brown. Now for the fun part! Serving:!

Way Number One:

With chopped veggies and hummus. Yummo!

Way Number Two:
spread a thin layer of hummus on the dough, then sprinkle feta on top, like a little pizza! Top with your choice of veggies. I made mine with black olives!


This is a great, healthy snack! A few of these actually fill me up for an entire meal! These are super good and I think are even better with hummus than pita bread! Sooooo yummy!

Well, that's all for now folks. It's time to get back to work for this girl! Can't wait to be fully settled in, get our internet hooked up, and get back to regular posting. Until then, hopefully I'll be able to pump out a few more posts this week!

Thanks for reading!

Eat Me First!

Hey guys! I'm squeezing in a quick post before work this morning. This week has been absolutely crazy with going back to working full-time and packing to move this weekend! I look forward to it, but it has been SO much work, and I feel slightly out of sorts. The end is in sight!


Anyway, today I wanted to share a quick trick that has helped reduce the food waste in our home. I'm not exactly sure where I got the idea from, more than likely pinterest, so whoever thought of this first: THANKS! It really helps us out! I love to cook, but when I do so, I purposely make extras so we can have left overs to take to work that week. We are totally left over people, and if you are too, this will help you out!

We were running into the problem of Ben grabbing whatever he found first in the fridge, or whatever sounded really good, and the rest being pushed to the back to spoil. Well, not anymore! Because I made this!

I took an old clementine container, put a coat of paint on it, stenciled in 'Eat Me First', and stuck it in the fridge.

It's so easy to just rotate the left overs through once every few days. Ben knows now that the left overs that he should be taking to work are the ones in the crate. Once those are gone or getting low, I re-supply with left overs from the shelves. And voila! WAY less food being tossed out and wasted! I hope this helps in your home too as much as it has helped up!

Thanks for reading! I will be back to regular posting (hopefully) next week!