lovemydiyhome

DIY Summer Flower Arrangement

While on a road trip with my DH this week I picked up some clearanced (70% off) flowers and vases at Michaels in Flint, MI. Last night I put together two flower arrangements while we sat around the table and chatted at my DD and SIL’s house. 20 minutes, tops. Really, it was that easy. For this vase, I just stuck them in after cutting them at the proper length. E.A.S.Y. For the second vase I cut some foam and pushed it down to the bottom so it was secure. I cut more flowers and arranged them, bending down the bottom few and filling in the bare spots. It was that easy. Here’s something comparable at Target for $19.99. Mine cost $2.50 for the vase, 50 cents for the foam and about $3.00 for the flowers. Not only was it cheaper; I like mine better. If you DIY, you can … Read more

Properly prepare the walls for painting {Love My DIY Home}

Keeping Up With the Joneses – Preparing the Walls

The hardest part of a remodel is convincing yourself that you will soon be done and that all the chaos around you will some day make sense. After the third day you moan to yourself and say, “This is never going to end, I just want it to be over.” You might even find yourself rocking in the corner mumbling to yourself. But then you see a bit of progress, the muck lessens, the dirty nasty carpet gets torn up, the holes get filled, the primer goes on and then bingo … hope flies in and you are instantly encouraged, knowing you can come back again tomorrow. Hiring professionals, such as a Mighty Dog Roofing, for remodel projects can alleviate much of the stress and uncertainty, ensuring the job is done efficiently and effectively. Here are the before pics of the bedrooms and the progress toward newly painted and walls. … Read more

Keeping Up With the Joneses | Love My DIY Home

Keeping Up With the Joneses – Kitchen Demolition

To start, the Joneses, and other family members including moi, started ripping down and tearing up. Oh, how I enjoy kitchen demolition! Even the kids got their share of demo, which BTW, shows you and I that if a 6 and 8 year old can do it… You can do it too. But for large-scale demolition projects, it is advised to hire professional Heavy Equipment Demolition services. I’m gonna preach it till the cows come home. Too often we say, “I could never do that.” How about, “I could totally do that!” April took off the scalloped hoop-de-do above the kitchen sink. Now, hoop-de-doos aren’t necessarily bad, I recently painted a shelf with a couple of them for my mason jars and it turned out very nicely. It turned from boring to fab, but here it would only look old and outdated. So off it came and amazingly enough, made … Read more

Keeping Up With the Joneses – The Kitchen Before

Welcome to a new series: Keeping Up With the Joneses Join us as we follow the first time homebuyers Jones family as they take a foreclosed house and turn it into a warm and inviting home in just 30 days! Their goal is to have it not only livable for their family of five in just 30 days, but have a 5 year plan to bring it to perfection – to flip it and move on. Not only is this a huge job, but they have a very tight budget as well. The Kitchen Before I’ll let the pictures do the talking here – it’s pretty obvious they have their work cut out for them! Occasionally I’ll photo bomb since I’ll be out there helping from time to time. You can play the Where’s Val game (Where’s Waldo?) with me. We will show you step by step, and occasionally insert … Read more

Fifty cent tile table topper | Love My DIY Home

What Does One Do With a Fifty Cent Tile?

What does one do with a 50¢ 12X12 tile? Tile a floor (a VERY small floor) Use it as a cutting board Use it as a trivit (for a VERY big mug) Paint it with chalkboard paint and prop it against the counter top for a menu Put it beneath a plant to protect your floor Use it as a centerpiece for a bowl of fruit (8 year old Isaac’s suggestion) What did I do with a 50¢ 12X12 tile? I found this tile at Habitat for Humanity for 50 cents and I immediately thought about my antique nightstand that holds my Young Living oils diffuser. I was a little concerned the mist would damage my table top, so when I saw this tile on the cheap I snatched it up. Here it is – notice I did nothing to it before I took the picture. Real life. I am … Read more

Accidental Artist Strikes Again… DIY Mason Jar Shelf Redo

I’ve mentioned this before…sometimes my best ideas come from mistakes or accidents. This is the case of the redo. A couple of years ago our daughter, Jillian, said she wanted a shelving unit for her nail polishes – we’re talkin’ 100 bottles. Since one of my kids wanted something, of course I would spend the next few months looking for just the right shelving unit. While at an auction, the auctioneer grabbed a little wall shelf unit that from across the room looked perfect for her project. I only paid a buck! Imagine my surprise when I went to get my little nail polish shelf and it was 4X bigger what I thought it would be. Needless to say it went in the garage for two years, abandoned by this overzealous mother… Until one day the light bulb went on. I would paint it and use it to hold my … Read more

Are you tired of expensive planting supplies?

Here are two DIY planters you can make with trash. Yep, that’s right. Trash Free, easy, and green – literally. Cut the bottle in half. Remove the cap. Flip the top half and stuff it into the bottom half. Grab a coffee filter and place it in the top half. Fill it with potting soil. Plant a seed and watch it grow! See how the water drains into the bottom but no dirt falls through? Genius! You can cut off the bottom of another pop bottle and place it on top to create a green house affect. We did this back in May when we started our seeds. Here’s the little seedling I transplanted into the pop bottle planter. I used t’paper rolls for my first DIY planter. Yep. I said t’paper rolls. First, collect t’paper rolls for a few months. Pop them into a large planter and fill … Read more

Antique Chair – Better than a Hobby Lobby Hack

The front porch needed some serious help after our long winter, so the first step was to fix my antique chair, one of my first projects from last year. Welcome to my life… (no pretending to be perfect here) See it tucked in the corner behind all the big pots next to my grandson’s worm collection? We got this and two other chairs as part of an auction bundle, spray painted it and have had it on my front porch for a year. I wondered if it would survive the winter – yep, I was too lazy to take it in and just kept brushing the snow off as I passed by. The seat only had a few scratches on it, so that is easy enough to fix. It’s hiding a couple of ugly electrical boxes. I thought to just go ahead and paint the chair again before putting together … Read more

The Thirteenth Colony Antique Store | Love My DIY Home

The 13th Colony Antiques of Minoqua

We came across The 13th Colony on our way to Minoqua. WI. There are three reasons I stop to shops like this: 1. I like to support Mom & Pop shops. 2. I enjoy getting ideas for my own home, mostly on how to use what I already have in a new and different way. 3. It helps me establish what I do and don't like for my decor. I rarely buy anything at places like this because I am a DIY'er and very cheap! But I did find their prices reasonable and the selection of never before seen products was intriguing. They were kind enough to let me photograph their store. I'll let the photo essay do the talking. I’m also planning to write a short essay for this one as I find this amusing. If you also like to create beautiful essays, then … Read more

Make Arrangements to DIY – Grab and Stuff!

Psst. Pssssst. There is something you need to know. You may have never been told this before, but believe me. I know what I'm talking about. OK, I'm going to say it.. You don't have to pay anyone to do it. You don't have to take a second job to afford it. And the best part is – you can do it in 5 minutes. What am I talking about? DIY arrangements – arrangements you can copy. Easily. This has to be one of the easiest DIY's I've shared. Grab and stuff baby. GRAB . AND . STUFF . Go to Hobby Lobby, Michaels, or anywhere that has a variety of flowers and accessories like leaves, twigs, branches, sprigs, whatever – you know, the foofy stuff. Decide what you like, buy it along with some sort of vase or basket – really anything you like that … Read more