Emerald Green

Emerald Green... The color of 2013, according to Pantone... Hmmmm.

I must admit, when I read this a few months back, I was like "really, REALLY?"  I'm not usually a "jump on the trend bandwagon" type of decor person, but after painting with it, I get it.  It literally made me smile :)   Plus... It's gender neutral!  Who doesn't love that? Here it is, finished.  It looks amazing with Rory's vintage chenille comforter.  

  
Starting at the beginning, where emerald green entered my life/home color palette.  I found a $3 framed vintage floral picture for Rory's (my daughter) bedroom makeover.  I ended up pulling the colors from there.  I didn't have emerald green anywhere else in the room, originally, but I LOVED how it looked on the yellow striped wall!  Sometimes decorating accidents are wonderful.

 

I liked the green so much that I couldn't resist adding a few more touches of it throughout the room. (Side note: I'm not done filling all of the frames. Eventually, right? Ha.) 

This week, on my monthly trip to the estate disbursal store (EDS), I came across a cute little step stool.  (Side note:  with two children under four running around, I've come to view having a step stool near every room as a necessity, and I can barely tolerate the one plastic chauncey one that we already have downstairs)  

Since Rory has a hard time getting up into her big girl bed, being 2 years old and all, we needed to give the little one a boost.  This one stylishly fit the bill for $3...

I decided to paint one more frame on that wall emerald green.  I found an oval frame, also at the EDS for $4, a few months ago.  It was gold in a past life. I primed it with spray paint primer and then emerald green chalk paint. Here is the before of both the step stool and the frame.  
 

Two coats of emerald green chalk paint.  I made the chalk paint from a $3 sample from Menard's.  I'll talk about my love affair with chalk paint in another post.  

Then I sanded and distressed with 150 grit sandpaper.  Then 220 grit to make a nice smooth finish.  With a vacuuming and a wipe off with damp paper towel, we were good to go.  I just had to let it dry before I could wax.

Not going to lie, the color was a little scary freshly sanded, but I knew the wax would get us back to a happy place.  You can see that I've waxed the bottom and not the top portion. 

It didn't quite have the dimension or antiqued look I was after, so after the coat of clear wax, I added wood stain the wax on a paper plate and mixed it.  I used that to put on a second coat of wax.  let it dry and then buff off until the clean rag doesn't pull stain color off anymore.  It shined up nicely.  

Easter Mantle

I created an Easter mantle this year. I usually just do a "spring" mantle, but...

 It all started when I scored a huge amount of plastic speckled eggs on a garage sale site.  I bought 10 boxes of 16 for $6.  I knew I HAD to make an egg wreath for next year.  Eight months later, I finally got to use them...

 I hot glued eggs to a styrofoam wreath form and then I took some burlap ribbon (the kind with rough edges) and shoved it in between the eggs to fill in any major gaps.  It looks like grass from a nest. 

 I found the blue milk can at the Habitat for Humanity Home Store for $1, the green wire basket at Goodwill for $1, the burlap is a random scrap. 

 The candle holders are both consignment finds for less than $5 each.  I painted both with Annie Sloan Chalk Paint and distressed and waxed. The boxwood topiaries are from save-on_crafts.com.  They were a splurge for me, for sure, but are very beautiful in person and will get a ton of use.  Warning: This website is super addicting! I just hope my Hubby doesn't read this and go see how much they actually cost vs. what I told him ;)

The cheese box was a vintage find for $6.  I had the flowers down in my craft room and I just sort of scattered my leftover eggs. 

Wooden Basket Updated

My first official blog post!  

I found this basket at the Goodwill Home Store.... Hello 90's.  I got ahead of myself and forgot to take a beginning picture.  Here I have already sanded it and started to stain, but you can see the "lovely" before paint job.  I gave it a good sanding so that all of the paint/ decals were flat.  They were surprisingly hard to sand off.   

 Then added stain and let it dry.

Then I gave it 2 coats of Annie Sloan Chalk Paint in "Pure White". I wasn't super particular with the paint, because I planned to distress it later. 

Then I distressed with 150 grit sand paper and then 220 grit for a smooth finish.  I vacuumed it off and put on a coat of wax (I use Annie Sloan clear wax) and let it dry and buff to a shine.  

Now it's a cute little caddy you could use in the bathroom, for toys, or with greenery.  Endless possibilities!