Living Room

Submitted by RyTurner / The Design Confidential
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We are still completely in the midst of our move and I am slowly trying to decide where things should go in our new spaces. I know for certain I have dozens of projects I have been conjuring up and will at some point perhaps even finish. This particular project was one I managed to knock out in about 30 minutes but had planned for the last few weeks, of course. I blame my lack of a ladder for the majority of the time this project actually took. If I had a ladder it would have likely been more like a 10 minute project. Still, I am entirely happy with the outcome, which is both simply and chic, if I do say so myself... oh and completely removable too since this baby is vinyl. My design ADD persona loves things that are temporary and this is perfection. One small space down, 874 to go... 

Have you guys been completing any small projects in your own spaces? I love those quick fixes...

Submitted by RyTurner / The Design Confidential
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If you follow me on Instagram you may have already seen a sneaky peaky of a few of these details... If not, then this will be fun and new for all of you! This wall needed some much needed gussying up and a store bought abstract art piece kicked off the project perfectly. I followed that beauty up with 2 DIY projects and one kiddo creation. Hopefully you can guess which is which, and if not, perhaps I need to reevaluate my skills as a Home Decor Art Creationist... eek! 

That horizontal work of genius was created by my Monster Mash boy using MDF and acrylic craft paints. Such a great way to have a unique piece with importance. If you want some tips on creating Home Decor art with kids, I will share that soon, in the meantime just consider choosing the colors you want them to use to coordinate with your decor! 

Materials: All you need for this art project is a canvas, either new or to be recycled, Black and White Acrylic Craft Paint and a Brush at least 1" wide.

A breakdown of the other pieces in this gallery wall creation go a little something like this...

1. Abstract Painting purchased at Tuesday Morning

2. Black & White Abstract created HERE in this article! Yay

3. Horizontal kiddo creation

4. DIY Neon Chalkboard Organizer

Truthfully I'm not sure I love this gallery wall in general. I think it is a bit to symetrical and a bit to matchy matchy for several of the pieces. BUT, I love the fact that this Black and White beauty is actually a fabulous before and after, if you will, since this is it's second life as a piece of art.

Behold... the beauty that once was...

I loved this when I got it 6 years ago for the colors and the landscape scene but at some point shortly after I purchased it, the canvas itself became the value rather than the painting you see before you.The fact is, I scored this beauty for $10 on sale one day at Michael's and I knew even then that once my heart grew tired of the look, the canvas would come in handy for remaking into something else! 

My friends... that day came! 

I gave this canvas a nice good double coat of White Titanium acrylic paint from DecoArt, my go to white for Home Decor paintings. It does double duty for me serving as a decent primer as well, even when you are starting with a blank canvas.

Be sure to cover your canvas thoroughly, especially if you are covering an existing painting. For this particular project a vertical brush stroke will work to your advantage, but I recommend having your first layer be horizontal and then following that up with a vertical coat (or 2 if needed). This goes right in line with the age old technique used for painting walls in a multitude of directions when laying down your base color to be sure you have proper coverage especially on a textured piece. 

Now for the fun... run a couple of lines of black paint near the bottom of your canvas.

Blend up several inches and wrap the bottom of your canvas as well as the bottom portion of the sides. This will give your piece a more finished look.

Add a bit more and drag the color up about 6 or 7 inches in a vertical irregular pattern all the way across the bottom section.

Add a bit of white just above your black section and pull it down into the top 2 inches to create a gray section and blend well using vertical brush strokes as often as possible. 

Add a bit more black just below the gray section and pull it up into the gray just a tiny bit,1 inch will do the trick. You simply want to be sure the gray overlaps the white in an irregular vertical pattern and that the black overlaps the gray in the same manner so that your painting appears to fade black to white in an upwards manner.

Note: if you want to pull down a few small streaks of black from the top as you can see I did, feel free, but this certainly isn't required.

The top portion of this gallery wall...

And the bottom portion... 

Submitted by RyTurner / The Design Confidential
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I told you guys it would take me well into the New Year to finish sharing my holiday decor, didn't I? Ya... true story. We are still on NBT here (newborn baby time) so expect EVERYTHING to take 3 times as long as it might for most normal folks! In fact, as I am writing this, I am actually mentally prepping to begin the final takedown, which I never ever enjoy. I don't know about you guys, but I adore how my home transforms for the holidays. There is something so very magical about those warm twinkly lights and most of the time I wish it wouldn't be weird to leave them up year round. I suppose that is why I might have created crafty projects this year, that have those particular twinkly lights (here and here). Perhaps I was actually thinking ahead to this moment in time when I start to mourn the loss of Christmas! Or.. perhaps it was just a happy coincidence (definitely), but either way it does make the occasion a tad less sad! Yipee...

Submitted by RyTurner / The Design Confidential
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Sooooo I didn't send out Holiday Cards this year 'in real life' so for all of you who were hoping to get one from us, a big I'm sorry in advance! A digital card of my gorgeous boys, a week late, will have to do...

By the way did I mention how hard it is to get a decent picture of a baby, while they are awake, and not laying flat? ya...hard... I finally had to settle on a solo shot with my hand in it, oh well. Baby Bird you did a marvelous job despite being a bit of a bobble head and having your mommy try and snag a picture of you before you toppled over 18 times in a row! Mommy loves you baby... you are such a good sport for this kind of torture Penn! High Fives...

Though honestly, it was my older boy Blake who was the toughest to nail down, as in squirming like his life depended on it. Every shot was a smear across the camera screen. What is it about 5 year old boys that means they can't hold still one bit? It was like I was speaking a foreign language to him, that his body couldn't handle... hold still, look at the camera, quit moving for 5 seconds... or not... even still I managed to get a couple of cute pictures, but just barely! I consider myself lucky (and grateful) for what I got! Life is certainly never dull with 2 boys! 

These pictures were snapped on Christmas Eve this year and I could just die a little for how cute Blake is with Penn. He absolutely adores him and calls him 'cutesy'. Everyone expected a bit of jealousy or some sort of negative reaction perhaps to having another star to share the spotlight with, but in all honesty it hasn't reared it's ugly head just yet (fingers crossed it stays that way). Having a new baby for Christmas this year, made this such a special holiday season for me... I hope you all had a wonderful holiday as well! Hugs from the Turner Fam!

Submitted by RyTurner / The Design Confidential
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Last year I didn't put up my standard big tree in the living room, because I simply didn't have time. I was frantic the entire month of November preparing for a live tv segment I was doing, for my local News 10 channel. Throw in the actual holidays themselves (Thanksgiving hosted at my house) and my monster mash boy Blake's birthday (also at my house) and you have one frazzled mommy blogger on crack. Ya true story...

The segment I did was on budget friendly holiday decor and I created 3 mini trees each decorated in a different color scheme. Once the segment aired I was so burned out on holiday decor that I quite literally brought the trees home and plopped them on my dining room table... all 3 of them... and I ended up loving the mini tree on the table set up so much I repeated it this year for no other reason than that I wouldn't have to rearrange furniture to fit the ginormous tree of yesteryear! yahoo...

This mini tree in shades of green is what we used for our main tree and where I put all of our family gifts. Of course I am neurotic about my decor so all of the gift wrap matches the tree... I even used a few unconventional items for wrapping this year including an old map and some fabulous printed wrapping paper I found here. It really brought the whole spread together nicely, which you can see in the images, and gave the gifts some fabulous visual interest. yay...

Stay tuned for more holiday decor from this year to come, and my holiday card to all of you (late of course)... what can I say... 

Being a brand new mommy of 2 boys has put my schedule so far behind that it will very likely take me until the end of the first week, of the new year, to finish sharing all of our Christmas adventures, but hopefully you don't hold it against me. #newbornbabymamadrama

Submitted by RyTurner / The Design Confidential
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I finished these fabulous cubby shelves (plans for them can be found here) a while back, but haven’t had a moment to snap a few pictures to share. This build is so fast, it literally goes together in about an hour, even if you have the worst selection of boards ever…which I did, thanks to my screaming, fussing, tantrum throwing monster mash of a boy. He is so distracting at the worst moments, like while I’m trying to make sure I am not purchasing warped, curved, or wavy boards..which apparently I was! 

Having faulty boards makes a build so much more difficult to perfect, I can assure you.  Getting it right the first time around would have been highly preferable with this particular project too, since most of it is dependent on one type of board, a 1x12. Since you really only need to purchase a couple of boards total to build this plan, if one or both of those boards are problematic, the entire build is problematic. But sometimes going back to fix the error isn’t an option and honestly my complete lack of patience, more often than not, means I will give it a go anyhow and just end up with a frustrating experience overall. Word of advice…leave the kiddos at home if you can (which I never can, so if you can, I’m jealous)! Ugh. you may regret it if you don’t…just sayin… Misshapen Boards = Monstrous Build All in all, it worked out moderately and I don’t notice the flaws that much, which were rather major in this instance.  Just need to pile it full of stuff! Problem Solved! I actually had a board that was wider on one side than the other by almost an inch! But to a glancing eye, not noticeable…just don’t look too closely.

Built From These Plans: 
Free Woodworking Plans to Build PotteryBarn Inspired Mitchell Cubby Organizers
Estimated Cost: 

Under $25

Length of Time: 

About a week off and on given the *ahem* problematic boards I purchased... 

Lumber Used: 

Whiteboards

Finishing Technique: 

Oolong Tea by Martha Stewart for Home Depot in Eggshell Finish with a double coat of wipe on poly in Satin finish.

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