A Happy Accident!

One thing I've learned about decorating:  No matter how much measuring and planning and dreaming you do, sometimes things don't work out the way you expect them to--you may have to change things up---and it's okay!  Just keep working til it's right.

That's just what happened with this little cupboard...

The cupboard comes in two parts but my original plan was to use them together with the TV and equipment in the top and DVDs, etc. in the bottom.  Once it was in the space--it didn't look quite right so they were separated.  I moved the lower half to another location and designer Jane Coslick suggested adding legs to the upper half. 

 So I made a trip to Lowes for the furniture legs and after a quick paint job...voila!

Much better now!

Split personality! 
Have you ever had any happy accidents in decorating?  

DIY Tutorial: Stenciling With A Freebie Seahorse Stencil!

 I bought this piece to use in the living room at Doc Holiday.  I thought It would be great to put a TV, DVD player and cable box in the top and store other stuff in the bottom half.

I loved this little cupboard in all of it's rustic goodness but I decided the black was just not going to work in the color scheme I had planned, so I decided to paint it.  This is how it went down.

First the piece (or pieces--it came apart into two pieces) was sanded with a medium grit sandpaper and my friend Loretta brushed on Zinsser Cover Stain primer--the one with the gold label.  Then it was sanded lightly with a finer grit sandpaper to eliminate brushstrokes.

Next I painted the piece with Sherwin Williams' Duration acrylic interior paint in semi-gloss.  I had some left over from painting another piece of furniture for the Coral Cottage.  The blue is 

SW 6485 Raindrop and the white on the drawers is SW 7005 Pure White.  I let the first coat dry for a few hours and then applied a second coat using a good brush.

 I had a little bit of lighter blue paint--SW 6763 Retiring Blue--from painting a dresser so I decided to try putting some stripes on the white part of the cupboard doors and drawer. 

 After measuring I marked off the lines with Frog Tape, a painter's tape that would come up without damaging the fresh paint.

Next I found a free printable seahorse stencil online to use on the doors.  I printed it and my son Jordan cut the stencil for me using an exacto knife and blue transparency-type stencil "paper" that I got from Michael's. 

 

 Jordan is very meticulous and exacting in all he does and he did a 
great job getting the stencil just right!

He was supervised by Rafael and Lucy so how could he go wrong?

 I measured and placed my stencil on the cupboard door.  Then I taped it in place with 
painter's tape....

 The key to stenciling is to use paint sparingly and to apply it with an almost dry applicator.  I used a pouncer sponge but you can also use a stencil brush.

 Get as much paint off the brush as you can and then apply to the surface in an up and down motion.  If you use too much paint or brush it on in a side to side motion, paint will creep under the stencil and it won't be a clean image.

I was using latex paint and I had a little too much paint on my first attempt so it is not quite as crisp as I wish it were.  I cleaned the stencil and did a mirror image sea horse on the other door with better results.  I am still fairly happy with the overall results so I left it--after all it's handmade!

For knobs I used these glass starfish knobs from an online source.  For more info check out this recent blog post.

This is how the lower part of the cupboard turned out...you likey?

Stay tuned and I'll show you what happened with the top of the cupboard!