How To Do a {Picture Wall}

Hello my beautiful bitches! That would Stay at home bitches ;) I thought today i would impart some picture wall wisdom on you. I have a had quite a few picture walls in my time, I love how they look, most of all they make a statement and depending on how you do it, it can be a BIG one. When we moved into this house I knew I wanted to dod a picture wall on the biggest tallest wall in the house, and I did. It started out smallish, only ----- frames, and the words. I cut Cooper&CO with my cricut from a roll of flat black vinyl and Voila!

That was few a years ago,and It needed spruced up! So I drew out a plan, I do this quite often to so get used to it!

I like to do a sketch plan like this, it helps get the pictures up where they need to be the first time, it basically eliminates trial and error because that happens on paper and not with a million holes in the wall. Yes, yes it's because much marital upset could be avoided by drawing some squiggly lines on a piece of paper. your welcome. Okay next step is get a ladder and get to it, or in my case rope your husband into doing you a tiny favor (yes I know I'm evil) and let him be miserable for about 20 minutes, simple as that!

Your result should be similar to this.

It is always a good idea when doing a picture wall to stick to a theme, in any interior design themes are important, my theme is obviously black frames, my style is very contemporary, so black angular frames with B&W pics are my favorite look. Heading to pinterest to gather a few ideas is always a good idea as well.

 Here are few ideas from other blogs I found on pinterest

Like this Modern chic from Tatertots and Jello

Here is more shabby chic from Lavender and Lemondrops

And a more traditional feel from Better Homes & Gardens

Planning is your friend, it has taken me a very long time to accumulate this many black frames, it won't happen overnight. Also location, location, location I would never have spent so much time and effort to do this in a back room, that would never be seen. Picture walls can be a huge task but I always feel rewarded when a new guest comes over and the first thing out of their mouth is, "Oh my gosh that's gorgeous!" "how did you do that", you know it just makes me feel all tingly inside :)

Until next time bitches!

The Stay at home Bitch

Let's make a Wood...Wall

Yep everybody is doing it, you know...installing a wood wall, like wood from a tree, why? what were you thinking?...Oooh you are naughty. Now that we are all on the same page, lets chat about wood. On pinterest you will see people calling this a "pallet wall" I didnt use any wood from pallets, so its just a wood wall. All the wood we used was from old fences, so it was all free, and the other materials you will need are:

• Hammer
• measuring tape
• table saw and/or circular saw
• 1.5" or 2" finishing nails
• paint

First if you are going to paint the adjoining walls do it before installing the wood, or you will need to tape off all the wood really carefully (such a pain in the ass) just do it before. Also another problem we ran into, was that if you are using weathered wood, which we were, it will NOT be straight, at all, so there will be gaps, we decided to paint a line of the navy blue paint between each line. Start from the TOP we did this because that's what I read to do, even though my hubby insisted on starting at the bottom I said shut it no sweetie, and after about 3 lines he realized it would have been way harder to fit the last line at the top. Anyway start at the top, and do a staggered pattern, we decided to do the wood wall on the only wall with a window for two reasons, one we would use less wood, and two the raw edges around the window makes it feel like it has always been there. This does take a few hours to complete because of all the measuring and cutting, but the finished product is beautiful!

We think it turned out pretty snazzy, my husband even admitted to thinking it's awesome!!

Keep Calm and Re-decorate the whole house

The Stay at home bitch

A {chocolate factory} birthday: Dessert Table

My oldest child Mr. Robert, insisted on having a Willy Wonka birthday party, I thought yay so much fun!, but that changed when I realized he had only ever watched the newer version with Johhny Depp and not the original (best) one with Gene Wilder. The new version is so lame and has no cool stuff, so I just went with the original version!! First I thought it would be fun to have some edible plants and suchlike in the movie, so I made these super simple by sticking flower and swirl lollipops into styrofoam balls covered in moss, and set on top of candle sticks. I loved how they looked and they were so quick and easy!

I also thought it would be super fun to have edible toadstools because that was one of my favorite parts of the movie, so I commissioned Fred Meyer, which is where I get some of my cakes made, to make me 3 cakes 2 that look like toadstools and one covered in sprinkles and gumballs! They do a really great job and are quite budget friendly.

We also had a chocolate fountain which was his only request, so I borrowed one from a friend, and it definitely made the party, everyone young and old loved the chocolate fountain! Just set up the chocolate fountain cut up all the different fruit and Viola!

Stay tuned for the rest of the party Next Week!

Until next time bitches,
The Stay at home Bitch

Homework {Station} : The Wall

For the longest time I have been wanting to take a wall in my house, and turn it into a sanctuary of learning for my boys. Slowly but surely I accumulated all of the different supplies then hubs and I got to work, and the result has been amazing, it looks just like my original drawing! The kids have been doing more drawing than homework at this point, but I'm confident that many a science project, and book report, will be screamed about at this very table!!

Here is how we did it!!

{The Wall}

 First and Foremost we had to have the wall make a statement! I had been imagining a chalkboard wall but not one you could actually draw on. So I drew up my plans (I do this for almost everything) I made this drawing from Construction paper :). Next I had to figure out what I would need to get this desired effect, I settled on flat finish black latex paint, regular chalk (or sidewalk chalk!) and a way to seal it all in, after realizing a roll on sealant would ruin the chalk art, we went with a spray.

Materials:

• {Flat} black paint - you only need a quart to do one wall! (mine was $8.35)
• Chalk (found mine at Value Village for .99!)
• Clear Polyurethane Spray Sealant Flat/Satin finish (2 cans @ 4.99ea)

Total: Time was 8 hours + drying time, Moola comes in just under $20!!

Step one:
Paint the wall black, if you need to tape off the edges do so, I invested in a really nice angled 2" brush and I will just go around and edge myself, I always do the edging first, and create a 2" wide edge so you can roll right up to it without getting super close to the adjoining wall/ceiling. Let this totally dry!

Step two:
Go chalk crazy!! I love different fonts, I have read many calligraphy books and experimented with different fonts my whole life, so I felt very comfortable grabbing a piece of chalk and going to town. I freehand drew, and wrote, all over the wall, remember you can wipe the chalk off if you mess up, so don't worry. I would also recommend trying out different fonts with a pencil on some paper beforehand. After you write on the wall make sure to blow off excess chalk, and draw over it again, plus you will want to leave this up for 24 hours before sealing it, then go back and blow off any and all excess chalk.

Step three:
Spray the wall with Sealant!
Open all the doors and windows in the house, get everybody out, and turn on the fan, because this stuff is stinky! I had my husband do this step and took the kids out of the house, we came back after 4 hours it was still a little stinky, but not too bad. He did one coat over the whole wall, one coat over just each word, and one more coat over the whole wall. That is it!!


Sincerely, 

Stay at Home Bitch

Tuscan turns Nautical in the best way possible

This is my OLD guest room.

Its Flippin Fugly I know. It used to be really amazing a long time ago when I first decorated it like this oh circa 2007. Well this tired room is getting a much needed facelift! First is the new colors Navy and Coral!!! I am obsessed with this color combination by the way!! I needed a dark enough color to cover the deep red that was there previously, and coral is everything right now, if you don't know this please come out from under that ROCK! Okay moving on to the wood wall, which I posted about, read more HERE. I wanted to do a wood wall in this room because it makes it feel rustic and totally shabby chic! I also have been using lots of gold accents to pull everything together!

I originally was just going to do really simple, with no theme just shabby chic and elegant, but as we started piecing the room together it became more and more apparent that it would be a nautical themed room. My original accent color had been aqua, but I found the most amazing lamp at Target, and gold became everything! I am still slowly piecing this room together and will be posting more and more about the room plus a couple tutorials as well, so make sure to check those out!

Til next time bitches!

The Stay at Home Bitch

I got a new {toy}

To say I have wanted a D-SLR camera for awhile, would be a gross understatement. I have been coveting a camera for so long I cant really put a number on it, but every time I have the funds I find a much more selfless way to spend it. Finally I knew there would be more than enough money to buy myself a camera, and It happened.....Finally. Now to say I have been having fun with it would also be an understatement, I want to take pictures of everything everyday, my kids are avoiding me like the plague right now! Here are some recent images from my very fun toy! Expect great things!!

Sincerely,

The Stay at Home Bitch