Guest Room REVEAL!

Well, ladies and gentlemen, we are finally done! Can you believe it?! Thank you so much for all your suggestions and input about a color choice from our inspiration photos. I think we could have decorated several rooms with all the great ideas that were shared!

Are you ready??  {Drum roll, please!}

Here is how the room looked BEFORE...

and .... AFTER! 

I absolutely LOVE it! 

We feel we were able to catch the calm beachy vibe without it appearing nautical. What do you think?

I am thrilled with the furniture and headboard we were able to build and stain specifically for the room. They really were not difficult to build.  Each piece has simple clean lines for a modern contemporary feel.

This was the photo inspiration that we settled upon. There is huge sentimental value in this Brazilian painting of fishing boats.  So, we wanted to select a color from the painting to be the color to paint the walls. 

We entered this photo into My Colortopia 's My Image Inspiration tool and began looking at their color suggestions. Our favorite was Antique Silver. My Colortopia did a great job selecting the colors from the painting. I also found it interesting that many of you noticed and recommended many of the same colors My Colortopia came up with!

I love the fact that in different lighting the color takes on different hues.  Sometimes it looks very grey, other times it has a rich blue tone.  Ah, the beauty of paint!

Glidden does an excellent job at providing a much more manageable color pallet.  There are not hundreds of colors to overwhelm you in your decision.  I could have lived with any of the colors they recommended.  We also found that the Glidden paint was GREAT to use.  We would definitely recommend their high-end selection which is paint and primer in one.

There she is... the inspiration photo in her new environment!  Now, onto more reveal photos...

Nothing says, "fun at the beach" quite like this photo.  Too bad we can't just jump in there ourselves.  Now that would make for a perfect guest retreat!

When we were accessorizing our room, I found another painting.  It sat in my parent's home and turned out to be a perfect fit for the guest room.  The new painting also brought in the wonderful burnt yellow color which was in the original painting.

Adding the burnt yellow to our color scheme was the perfect way to give our somewhat neutral palette a little burst of color.

We added some blinds, a ceiling fan and some curtains.  We did not want to do anything to inhibit the ample amount of natural window light in the room.  So, we settled on these very light and airy curtains.  They dramatically soften the mood and feel of our guest retreat.

So, there you have it!  Thank you everyone for your wonderful help.  You made my color decision easy.  Thank you also to Glidden for making this remodel possible.

Coming through North Texas anytime soon?  Come be our guests!
Wanting to see some more Glidden Paint inspirations?  Check out their Pinterest page.

"Going Places" Back to School Party {Free Printables}

My kids are so excited to go back to school.  Why not harness that energy and celebrate learning with a back to school party!?  Here is a fun party theme idea called "Going Places."

When I was a child, back-to-school was one of my favorite times of the year.  I loved getting new school supplies.  For me the thrill was in organizing the supplies and imagining how they would be put to practical use throughout the school year.  Yep, I was an organization freak and DIY'er even as a school kid.

For our back to school theme this year, we are celebrating "Going Places".  My hope is to subtly reinforce the importance of reading and learning. Though they have glimpses, my children are only beginning to grasp how much there is to learn out there.  I thought this quote was perfect for our theme.  So, I made a graphic of it.  You may download the Dr. Seuss Chalkboard Printable here.

I used an old road atlas to create the decor for the party such as these silverware holders.  Just grab an old atlas and rip out a page.  Begin with a 7" x 8 1/2" rectangle.  Fold in the sides about 2".  Make sure one side overlaps the other. Then fold the buttom up 3".  The result should be a nice little pocket for the silverware.  For the finishing touch, tie a bow with jute.

We also had fun creating these little eraser place holders.  Take an eraser and use a hobby knife to cut a shallow slit across the length of the top.  Then, slide in the name tag.  Easy!  Download the name tag template and Back to School sign here.

To get full use of our old atlas, we created this fun pinwheel garland.

And, a few more pinwheels!

So there you have it!  May you and your kids have a GREAT back-to-school this year!



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Free Printable Mason Jar Photos

Thank you so much for your great response to my laundry room reveal.  As you've requested, here are free downloads of the mason jar photo art that I used in the decor.  They are full resolution non-watermarked photos which you are welcome to download and print for your own use!  Enjoy!

 {DOWNLOAD HERE}

{DOWNLOAD HERE}

{DOWNLOAD HERE}

Laundry Room Reveal

Each file is a full-resolution image for print as large as 11x14in.  Permission to use the photo is granted under the Creative Commons license.  Please keep in mind that these images are for private not-for-profit use only as the Ball trademark belongs to it's respective owner.


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Transform an Outdated TV Cabinet into Toy Storage!

I am so excited to have a couple of my favorite bloggers sharing their creativity this week while I take a little vacation to visit family in Illinois.  Today, Rachel from Maison de Pax is visiting us!  I have enjoyed keeping up with her blog and I can't wait to have you see what she has created.

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Hi Redfly Creations readers!  Melissa's creativity and character inspire me so much, and it is truly an honor to be here.  Thank you for having me!!

My name is Rachel, and I blog at Maison de Pax, where we are busy restoring, remodeling, and redecorating our 1940 colonial while chasing two little boys, 1 and 3 years old.

As I said in my about me, our goal is to create a home where peace can be found.  It's certainly not always easy, but so far it's been pretty fun!  And I'm thrilled to get to share one of my recent projects with you...

If you want some toys to play with at Maison de Pax, look here:

I love having a sunroom right off the living room where my children can play, but I don't want to see all their toys.  So for $30 (off Craigslist), I get to look at this from my living room:

It did not look like this originally.  It was a boring, blonde, lifeless wood.  You can see a bit of the original color peeking through here:

I managed to do this project during nap time (yes, really!).  I mixed up a little homemade chalk paint using a SW Dovetail sample (the same color I used for the window frame in my bedroom and the letters above my son's crib... this $6.50 has gone a long way!) and slapped on a couple of coats.  I then lightly distressed using a sanding block and waxed the piece with Miss Mustard Seed's soft wax and antique wax.  I love MMS waxes because (though fairly pricey) they go on so smoothly and quickly; hence the nap-time accomplishment. :)

The knobs, my little bit of whimsy for the playroom, came from Hobby Lobby.  I love how they play off the coral of the walls (which, incidentally, is the only room in my home I have not painted, and I'm having a love/hate relationship with it... what do you think?  Too much off the living room?  Or just right as a pop of color and fun playroom???).

I love the hand-painted details on the knobs.

And, since it is a playroom, I decided to liven up the inside of the cabinet, as well, using Sweet Annie (by Olympic from Lowe's) since I already had some in the shed.  Again, I mixed up some homemade chalk paint to cut out any prep work.  I like how it's a subtle but fun surprise when you open the armoire.

So, not bad for $30 and an afternoon of work, right?  And just so you know, art supplies on the top shelf, cars on the bottom, and costumes in the drawer. ;)

Come play at Maison de Pax anytime!

And if you like this project, I'd love to have you follow me:
Subscribe / Facebook / Pinterest / Google+ / Twitter

Thanks again to Melissa for having me!

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Thank you, Rachel, for sharing this great transformation with us.  Everyone, be sure to come back on Friday and see what Pass the Cocoa has cooked up for us!  :)

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Chalk Board Ruler Growth Chart - Tutorial

Growing up, I loved to visit my Grandpa and Grandma's house on a farm.  There was no end to the places we could explore.  We "built" a schoolhouse in the attic and a maze in the barn.  We would race through the basement to avoid the monsters, and walked "forever" through the fields.  There was also one other special place - the pantry.  No, not because of the food, but because of the measuring stick that was against the wall.  My cousins and I marked our height with our name as we grew through the years, eager to see who had grown the most.

Those memories from my grandmother's house came flooding back each time I saw the wooden growth chart rulers found everywhere on Pinterest.  So, I planned to make one of the beautifully varnished wooden charts for our house so that our children could enjoy those same fun memories I had as a child.  The problem was that I could not imagine marking up the beautiful wood.  So, we came up with an alternative.  A chalkboard growth chart!  Now we can keep track of the kid's growth without feeling like we were destroying the chart.

We started with a 1x10 board that was 6 feet long.  The wood cost about $10 and we already had a quart of black chalkboard paint left over from an earlier project.  The other items that made this growth chart a breeze to make were a square, a paint pen and printed-out numbers.  After painting with the chalkboard paint, I took the square and created the lines of the ruler with a pencil (easy!).  The lines were exactly 1" apart.  The 3 lengths of lines were each 1/2" longer than the other.  In other words, the foot line is 3 1/2" long.  The half foot {or 6"} is 3"long; and the 1/4 foot {or inches 3 and 9} were 2 1/2" long.  The 1/8 foot line {or inches 1,2,4,5,7,8,10,11} is2" long.  After I drew the lines with a pencil I went over them again with the white paint pen.

Now for the numbers.  Each number measures just under 2" wide and under 2 1/2" tall.  If you would like to use these numbers you may download them to print here.  The trick for the numbers was to cut out the printed number and trace it onto the wood with a pencil.   The tracing caused a perfect indentation in the wood which made it easy to see for painting.  Now, take the paint pen and draw the outline of the number.  Finally, use a small paint brush and some acrylic paint to fill in the rest of each number.

There you have it!  At our house, the tradition of keeping track of growth has begun.  So far, Mommy and Daddy haven't shrunk {Whew!}, and the kiddos are growing like weeds.

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New to Redfly?  Many more great ideas to come!