diy

Custom China Plate Christmas Ornaments

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Welcome back to another DIY Christmas post! Handmade Christmas decor just seems so much more special, don’t you think?

I saw these ornaments on Instagram and knew I had to make my own with my Old Havana dishes from Anthropologie. I decided to have two trees downstairs, since I wanted to be able to see the lights from outside. I bought another 7′ pencil tree from Michaels to put in our dining room since the space is not big enough for a slim or full sized tree.

For this project you will need:

  • 3″ Acrylic Disks (with holes makes things much easier, like these)
  • Cardstock
  • Elmer’s Clear Glue
  • Water
  • Paintbrush
  • Ornament hooks or thin metal wire
  • Ribbon, optional (3/8″ is a good width)
  • Small hole punch (optional)

Now, I tried two other ways to make these: regular paper, clear round stickers, and Mod Podge. The method I’m using for this post gets the better results. Regular paper crinkles too much. The clear stickers would only work if 1) you have a printer that can print white; or 2) you are okay with semi-transparent and also a matte finish (even on glossy stickers). Mod Podge left streaks under the acrylic, where the diluted glue did not.

Choose photos of your favorite dishes. I chose options from Anthropologie, Dillard’s, Ginori, Fortnum & Mason, Famille Rose, and Halcyon Days. I selected the images, then pasted them into a Canva document using the template for PLS819. These are the 3″ round labels, but we just want the correct sizing. Remove the background of your image, then resize to just inside the circle for the template. Follow the instructions on the first two sheets to remove the cut lines for printing, otherwise your plates will have a black outline.

Let’s get started!

Here are my plates in the template:

China Ornament CanvaDownload

Print onto cardstock and then cut out each plate. Do I wish I owned a Creative Memories Circle Cutting System? Yes, yes I do. But scissors had to suffice.

At this point, you’ll have wished you removed the plastic coating on all of the disks. If you didn’t, go ahead and do that before getting your glue ready.

Now, dilute your clear Elmer’s glue with a little water – just enough to make it easily spreadable. I used a foam paintbrush to apply the glue to the face of the plate cut out, then stuck it to the back of the acrylic disk so the image shines through the disk. Turn it over and work out any air bubbles, then set aside to dry.

After they’ve dried, poke holes in the paper through the acrylic, attach your ornament hook, then tie your ribbon in a bow at the top. Voila!

Check out how adorable these are! I love that you can customize however you want to your home. Your holiday decor should reflect you!

What other crafts are you guys making this year? Let me know in the comments!

xo, Amanda

Dining Room Makeover: The Reveal!

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We have finally crossed the finish line! Months of dreaming and working and creating are finally paying off. That being said, is a room every truly finished? According to Austin, yes. According to the rest of the world? We’ll see.

You know Mr. Darcy had to have a cameo in this reveal. I love the extra something the velvet ribbon added to this lampshade. It was missing something pink in this corner, and this was an easy project to finish it all off.

I love Alexis Walter Art, and was finally able to snag some prints. I took them to Hobby Lobby to be framed in these gorgeous burl wood frames.

Such a fun project. Hope you enjoyed following along!

xo, Amanda

Dining Room Makeover: Soft Furnishings

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Finally! The wait for fabric and drapes is over.

First up, the drapes! I bought them from Neutral, an online shop that makes custom sized curtains. I was searching all over for affordable (but not cheap or requiring hemming), aqua-ish, silk drapes. Preferably pinch pleated and 50ish inches wide.

I found the perfect hue in the Rina Premium Silk Drapes in Cyan. I was torn between Cyan and Light Blue, so I ordered samples of both. What arrived was two sample books: one of all the Rina Silk options and one of all their lining options. That made the decisions so much easier! Thanks, Neutral! (Not sponsored, a girl can dream.)

I ordered them on 10/14 and they arrived 10/24. I was concerned due to recent customs issues, but they had no issue making the leap from China to me. They even came with adjustable hangers to hang them on the curtain rings.

Of course, I had to dress them up with this trim from Etsy. Even Austin agrees that the trim was a necessary addition to tie everything together. I sewed them on with just a straight stitch. So far, so good! Then I left them to train after steaming out the creases.

Next up, I ended up ordering the chevron fabric after all, much to Austin’s chagrin… he’s coming around, I promise :).

My original plan was slipcovers, but after several attempts and making 10 yards of piping, I gave up and grabbed my staple gun. All was well until I got to the back and had to reckon with my decisions. Thankfully, I was going to reupholster a different set of chairs once upon a time, and had bought this metal tack strip that saved the day. Thanks, past self. I love when that happens.

I attempted scallops. Did not go well.
Made an absolute ton of piping. Did not use.

When Austin got home, we worked on the back, and wouldn’t you believe that it actually worked?! I wish I could say I was less surprised but wow, could it all really be so easy? Ask me again in a year for how they’ve held up.

Whew, y’all. I can see the finish line. It’s still past five chairs, but it’s there. With three week until Thanksgiving. Tender mercies.

I’ll keep you posted!

xo, Amanda

Viral Hobby Lobby Advent Calendar

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Yes, I was influenced. But how cute are these tiny little houses?? Hurry and grab yours before they’re sold out again!

Do you celebrate Advent? We did our first advent devotional together last year and it was such a sweet time. We paired our devotion time with Fortnum & Mason’s Tea & Biscuits Sharing Advent Calendar. And while it was fun, and tasty, about halfway through we Americans were a little tired of tea… However, it left a lasting impression.

We decided to divide the 25 days between us, and plan little dates, activities or treats for each day. I’m so excited for some Christmas dates!

Naturally, this advent calendar would have to be done in blue, pink and green. Last year, I painted laser cut village scenes to put on top of the cabinets in our living room. This was a fun project!

You can kind of see them here, apparently I didn’t get any good photos of them on display!

I love a checkered moment, and these turned out a little Mackenzie Childs-esque.

I painted the base of each layer white, and added these number stickers to each house. Then I updated the roofs with glitter sheets from Hobby Lobby. They are on the aisle with felt sheets, not the paper section. They need to have more strength than the paper.

And then, because I didn’t appreciate my fingerprints enough, I decided to glue beads to the edges of the roofs. At first, I wanted them to be less uniform, but decided that lining them up like icicles looked the best.

I added a few more miniature brush trees and a little package for more festivity.

As others who have done this project have experienced, mine does not turn when the lights are turned on. I’ll be purchasing a rechargeable turntable from Amazon (when this hack (!) is over).

Have you made an advent calendar? I’d love to hear!

xo, Amanda

Dining Room Makeover: Wallpaper is complete!

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It’s been a busy few weeks, and I am thrilled to show you the progress!

So, we left off at putting up the trim. I then spent every day off priming, caulking and painting. I was dragging my feet and making excuses for a few days before attempting the wallpaper. After getting a $2,500 quote to hang the paper, I realized I am definitely cheap enough to try to hang it myself, and since the paper is affordable (unlike our Farrow & Ball paper in the primary bath), I figured the risk was worth it.

After watching a lot of videos on YouTube (shout out to Spencer Colgan Wallpaper & Painting, I would be lost without his instruction!), I finally worked up the courage. Per his infinite wisdom, I decided the best place to start was over the kitchen side opening. I went a little cheap with the paper, estimating that since they are 10′ panels, and my ceilings are only 9′, I could use the excess to cover the stretches of the cased openings, saving having to buy enough rolls to cover them. It worked like a charm!

First panel, I thought, “um, is it really this easy??” And then panel two…. I had to do my first match while simultaneously doing my first corner…. Tears were shed. Lots of them. And when Austin didn’t answer his phone, I sucked it up and found a roll of painter’s tape for an extra set of hands. I made changes for the next corner, for sure.

Pro Tip: I found it easier to do a corner if you only paste one part of the wall at a time. So, most of the time I pasted matching wall, then cut the paper, then pasted the adjoining wall. The third corner I chose to do backward, since it was such a small space and the panel needed to be level with no reference point.

Which brings me to my next Pro Tip: get a laser level!! It was the real MVP of this project. Since there were three areas where the pattern would have to line up without a reference point (i.e., on either sides of the window, and the cased openings), the laser level saved the day. It has both vertical and horizontal lines, and the satisfaction of having all the blue birds line up on the horizontal line is a dopamine hit like no other. So. Satisfying.

This project took 14 hours over two days. And while I could point out every area of mistake, I am proud to have completed this by myself! I took the paper to Home Depot to be color matched to fix some spots where I cut the top too short, or made scratches in the paper. Is it visible in the right light? Yes. Is it visible under the lights I’d have on for guests? Not really. I can live with that.

Don’t be afraid to step out of your comfort zone, you can learn anything!

xo, Amanda

Dining Room Makeover Part 3

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We’re back from another weekend of working on our dining room. Are we slow? Absolutely. But who cares? We can take as much time as we want, it’s our house! Feel free to take the time it needs when doing the same in your own home. It’s okay to resist the made up, social media inspired timelines for your life.

Anyway, we are so, so happy with how this is turning out. This is how we started: openings with no trim. When our house was being framed, I noticed that there were no visual breaks in the ceiling between the rooms in our wide open first floor. My husband and our contractor quickly framed out some openings before the drywall sub came out.

In order to add the trim and not look silly or have to be cut (since our thermostat is just on the other side of this little wall), we had to build them out.

Then we started on the trim boards! The amount of shims needed to make the top of these openings level was comical…

This part took the longest. But, boy was it worth it when the trim went up. When we tacked up our test pieces they lined up perfectly. Ahhhhhhh!

It took a while and a few trips to Home Depot and the lumber yard where we bought our windows and doors to figure out what trim to use. I didn’t realize our door trim came in a 5 1/4” width, and I am so glad, as it is exactly what should have been there all along.

The most tedious parts of the trim were the top pieces. It took several tries and saw-blade length cuts to get right. One piece was cut just too short. I was prepared to leave it, as it was 10pm by that point. When the question was raised, Austin said, “I’m a perfectionist. Let’s try one more board.” I knew I loved that man! And of course, perfect. Except that we needed another long board to finish and the lumber yard was closed. Still, #worthit.

While this was going on, I kept feeling that the window just didn’t match the new trim. Austin, being the sweetheart that he is, pulled the 1×2” boards off the main trim to see if it would work. And there it is! With the casing trim around the edge, it’s just like it was supposed to be.

Before
After

While we didn’t get as much finished as I’d hoped, I am so pleased with the results that I don’t even care. Enjoy the process!

xo, Amanda

Dining Room Makeover: Part 2

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Whew, we had a busy weekend working to frame out around our dining room windows!

As I stated in my previous post, I could not find an inspo pic anywhere. So, the first day was a lot of problem solving and brainstorming to get the look I wanted. I love the detailed simplicity of Greek Revival style trim. Just enough to be fancy, not enough to invoke Victorian undertones.

We settled on this design, and while I’d change the width of the outer pieces, I’m pleased! My original plan was to have the 4” boards surrounding the whole thing, with a 1×2” edge. That never looked right, so I woke up Saturday with the idea to attach the 1×2” to the 4” to look like a raised surround with a more gentle profile. If I had a do over (because, let’s face it, I did not want to make yet another trip to Home Depot), I’d do the same with maybe a 5 or 6” board. But, with the window coverings I doubt I’ll even notice when all is said and done.

Then came the filling of nail holes and priming. There were several of the brad nails that did not sink all the way, and after trying to hammer them in using some kind of metal pin and a hammer, I turned to the internet. Voila’! Take your *empty* brad nailer and shoot again over the raised nail. The mechanism in there will hit it again to go deeper. It took a few practice shots (creating bigger holes that I wanted), but it worked so well! Problem solved!

I also read that one should prime before caulking, as dry wood takes the moisture out of the caulk, compromising it.

So, first I filled and sanded. Then I primed the surrounding walls that had been skim coated with Roman Pro-999. Then I did a rough coat of Zinnser Primer on the trim that I will sand after it’s dried.

While that was going on, my fabric samples arrived! Now, Austin does get veto privileges, so we’ll see if the chevron sticks around. But aren’t these gorgeous?

Pretty good weekend for a couple of newbies!

xo, Amanda

Dining Room Makeover

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You guys, I am thrilled to share this project with you! It has been an open tab in my head for so long, and it is finally starting to come together!

We built our house in 2020. That’s right, just a couple of weeks after lockdowns, we signed for our construction loan. What felt like a really bad time to begin this project ended up being the biggest blessing. Our build required more time on site than we realized, and since Austin was working from home during that time, he was able to present when needed. I am so very thankful for that, since we normally have very busy lives.

After the build, Austin was, understandably, not open to doing projects around the house. But four years later, I’m glad to report that we have started our first, major indoor project!

Our downstairs was designed so that we can seat 20 people on a dime. If you’ve read this post, you’ll see that we had 27 seated in this space for a Friendsgiving. Being an open space, much advice was given about our dining room. I am not opposed to color drenching, wallpaper, etc., but it’s surprising how many people are! So, we started with accent walls in Inchyra Blue by Farrow & Ball. And while I love this color (also used in our upstairs guest bath), I realized our home is a Spring. You know, like the color wheels you get when you go for a color analysis. I love bright and light and cheerful. Blues, greens, and pinks.

I have always loved the chinoiserie murals of Gracie and Degournay, but they are woefully out of budget. Enter the Vining Beauty Mural from Anthropologie. I saw this shared on The Broke Brooke’s instagram and fell in love with both the print and the price. And surprisingly, after showing Austin probably 100 options for wallpaper, he agreed on this one. I’m sorry, who are you? Time to get this off the ground before he changes his mind!

We had to have our flooring replaced last week, as it started to buckle with no explanation as to why. Johnson City did not honor our warranty, so I cannot recommend their products. I can, however, recommend Gold Star Carpet One for honoring the warranty and installing the new flooring. We are so grateful to them! Our new floors are Coretec Antique Oak and we cannot love them more. Changing out the wide plank for a smaller plank makes the house feel more timeless, and I love the flush planks instead of the bevels.

Since we had to move everything out, it made sense to go ahead and start skim coating and framing things out. I decided to frame out around our windows in an attempt to stop the damage caused by our Heeler, Finn, parkouring off the walls when he gets the zoomies. I had the idea in my head, but struggled to find a photo. This was the closest I could find. Imagine a much less detailed version of this in a shaker style.

My very favorite home design tool is Planner5d. This 3D mockup tool helped me so much during our build to visualize the rooms, furniture choices, paint colors, etc. It is truly a life saver! Here is a mockup of the dining room windows trimmed out.

Now to the pretty stuff! As always, I start off making a mock up of the design. I usually use Microsoft Word, but this time I used Canva. Like I said earlier, blue and green is my favorite combination. The green background of the mural plays so nicely with the blue on our kitchen island, and doors in the living room. I have pillows and upholstered barstools in the gingham fabric. I am still debating painting the faux bamboo china cabinet, what do you think? And while chevron is so 2010, I feel like this version I’m considering for the dining chairs feels so fresh!

Similar Dining Table | Rug | Demilune Cabinet | Curtains | Chevron Fabric | Pink Fabric | Trim | Lamp | Chandelier | Bar Stools | Dining Chairs | Gingham Fabric | Mirror

We started skim coating the walls this week, and got the lumber to frame out the windows yesterday. I can’t wait to see how this turns out!

xo, Amanda

No-Sew Upholstered Headboard

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I love custom furniture! My Insta saves are full of custom upholstery and furniture design. One of my many, many dreams is a furniture line. One day…

I started my upholstery journey a few years ago with a headboard found on Facebook Marketplace. I needed a full-sized headboard for our guest room and love a unique shape. This one was perfect! Well, besides the dingey white leather…. And what are those circles??

I got it home and started to remove the old leather covering. A million and a half staples and nails later, I got down to the bones. I had watched a few videos on YouTube that said to take note of the construction in order to replicate it. If it ain’t broke…. You know.

To Hobby Lobby I went! I wanted an aqua velvet, but came home with a sort of tweed fabric, with green piping for the seams. I had zero idea how I would attach it outside of my staple gun, I just knew a needle and thread was not on the agenda.

After adding new webbing for support, I covered it with batting.

Then, started stapling the fabric to the frame. Pretty straightforward. But be sure to check periodically for wrinkling, and go side to side to keep tension. Don’t start at one side and go around.

Now, it was time for the piping. I stapled it right at the edge of the frame, where it was visible from the front.

Once that was finished, I needed to figure out how to cover the staples with the rest of the fabric. Now, I would do this a completely different way. But this was so easy, a trained monkey with a hot glue gone can do it. So that’s what I did!

I brought a cut and folded strip of fabric up to meet the piping and hot glued it down. Pro tip: use a scrap to protect the piping and front fabric from getting glue on them.

At some point, the fabric ran out due to the curved edges. I just started with another piece, folded an edge over the raw edge of the other side, and kept going.

Once you’ve got it glued down and dried, staple the rest of the fabric around! You can add a backing fabric or use the same fabric as the front to cover the back.

Y’all, it actually worked. I’ve had this in my guest room for four years and she still looks good!

Don’t let the fear of sewing get in the way of making something unique and beautiful for your home! Have you done any fun, no-sew upholstery projects around your home? I’d love to hear about it!

xo, Amanda