I am SOOOOO addicted to Pinterest. Aren't you?? I have actually done more than pinned items. I actually made some of the cool DIYs I have seen on there, can you believe it??? lol My dinning room is ok, but it needed a little love. Being that we are in a rental until our new house is ready, I have decided not to take the time to paint the walls here. I will save it for the new home. I hate white walls, but what are you going to do? I'll tell you what to do...decorate in other ways. Our table has been worn and used quite a bit over the years, but we bought it in Hawaii, when we lived there, so I kind of love the rustic, old world feeling to it. Refinishing that will have to wait for another day. First I did this cute and simple craft I saw on Pinterest. I am sure you have seen it. I changed it just a bit.
I used the same kind of candle stick holders and changed the sizes of the jars. I bought them at Hobby Lobby. I don't have a hobby lobby near me, so I ordered them online. The jars are glass with a metal top. Actually, now that I look at the picture, not sure why the middle one is leaning...I will have to check on that. :) So if you have read the Pinterest pin or seen them on many blogs basically you need this:
-3 larger size circular wooden plaques
-3 wooden candle sticks (any size or style, I used the same size and style)
-3 smaller circular wooden plaques
-3 different sized glass jars with sqrew top lids
-3wood finials.
-twine or any natural kind of rope
Check out the post I got this from at Uncommon Designs
http://www.uncommondesignsonline.com/2010/09/boo-apothecary-jars.html
Glue all the items together with E-6000 multipurpose glue you can find at craft stores. I tried hot glue...doesn't hold long, so skip the hot glue. Start with the larger plaque on the bottom, glue on the candlestick on top. Let dry. Glue the smaller plaque to the top of the candlestick. Let dry. Glue one of the jars on top of the smaller plaque and let dry. While doing that...have the lid of the jar off and glue the finial on top of that so they can dry at the same time. Once all of them are set, I would give it at least 1/2 a day, get out the paint! Any color will be great. I choose black, but I have seen white, cream, even hot pink. Once everything is painted, including the top of the lids and the finials and they all dried you can do one of two things. You can make it shiny by using a spray gloss over all of the pieces, careful not to get it on the glass of the jar, or you can do what I did and shabby them up with a sand block or sand paper.
The final steps are dressing them up. I took twine and wrapped it around the outside of the lids and hot glued it on as I went so it would look organic. Above is a better picture of that. Also this is before I shabbied the paint up, so you can see how that looks. Next the ideas are limitless. You can hang letters from them that spell out something, you can hang wood plaques, you can add bows, you can leave them as they are, whatever you like. Play with it and you can change it depending on the season. I choose to use black paint on wood and oil pastels for the words. As for what to put inside, that is endless too. I put three different types of colored beans I bought at the grocery store for very cheap. You can use nuts, you can use candy corn, fake snow, leaves, fighter fish (:)) anything really.
I LOVE coffee. Let me rephrase that, if there was a way to have a coffee keg... I would want it! On Pinterest, I saw how someone on a blog had made a coffee bar. Hers was very rustic and cute. I thought, YES!!! Coffee is so special and such a ritual it needs it's own special spot, an alter, if you will. So after looking at goodwill, salvation army, and other used furniture places I decided to go to the unfinished furniture shop. There are ALWAYS good deals to be had there. I was lucky enough to find something already finished, and on sale. SCORE! It was the only one in the store as well. So, I bought this apothecary (which I am still learning to pronounce) cabinet/ches
t. It was perfect! So I moved it into the dinning room a brought in all my coffee items. A lot of it is in the drawers to avoid a cluttered look including my french press, grinder, extra coffee pods, and mugs. I even remembered to put a small trash can next to it. I went to TJ MAX or Marshalls, can't remember and picked up this lil standing twiggy thing too. Check out the coffee bar that inspired me here at the Vintage Wren: http://thevintagewren.blogspot.com/2011/08/coffee-bar.html
You may have noticed in the picture before this one that there is a wreath hanging from the window. That I did not get from Pinterest, but I have since pinned it, if it wasn't there already. VERY EASY!!! Actually, it was so easy, my mother in law and my kids made it for me. Take a twig wreath that you can find at any craft store and buy some assorted nuts with shells and a ribbon. FYI, I could not find any nuts with shells in my area...went to 5 stores, crazy! So if you have the same problem, do what I did...go on Amazon and you can buy two HUGE bags of assorted nuts with shells. So all you do is hot glue the nuts all over the wreath and add a ribbon. Ta DA!
Hope this gives you lots of ideas and encourages you to not just pin, but create what you pin!! If you wish to follow me on pinterest, you can do it here:
http://pinterest.com/lillollipops/ or search my name under lillollipops. Please let me know if you have any "pinterest rooms". If you do, I would love to feature you on my blog or direct my readers to your blog, if you have one with an article on your creation.
