Squirrelly Girl DIY

DIY Embroidered Pegboard Hello Entryway Sign

September 20, 2018 JessyRo

I have been seeing embroidered pegboard everywhere and I’ve been dying to do a large scale piece somewhere in my home. After stumbling upon a few inspirations, I decided to do a big entryway sign with hooks to hang by my back door. I never use the front door and there is no closet near the back so this would provide a fun piece of art and a place to hang my coat at the end of the day.

This one did take a while plan but the project when fast. Since I’ve already done the hard part for you, you have no excuse not to give this one a try! Here’s what you’ll need to recreate this gem.

Things You’ll Need

20” x 30” Pegboard
1” x 2” Pine Board – 8” long
1” x 4” Pine Board – 3” long
5 Small Metal Hooks
Paint
Yarn
Wood Glue
Frame Materials – List and instructions found here

I had found a cute hello welcome hook board featured on Apartment Therapy and knew this is the way I wanted to incorporate pegboard embroidery into the house. First major change was that I wanted a script hello instead of blocks. I tried to figure out the best way to translate it to pegboard and then I found this great sign on Magic City Thistle. The look she had was perfect but it was too large. After much trial and error, I sized it down to fit on the space I had. Here is the pattern all worked out for you! Click here to download the pattern.

Now that the planning is done, it was time to start crafting! I started with a 2’ x 4’ piece of pegboard and cut it down to 20” x 30” to fit my wall. When you do this, make sure you are marking your measurements between the holes. You don’t want to cut through the holes or your edges will be messy. I will also throw off the number of holes you have to embroider in so the pattern will probably not match up. I painted mine white for a nice neutral background but pick whatever colors work best with your interiors. I did layout my hooks along the bottom to make sure I had the correct amount. I got smaller hooks so 5 was perfect but I could see doing less if you got a larger hook.

Next is time to start embroidering! I used scrap yarn I had laying around that wasn’t very thick so I doubled it up to fill it out more. A specialty, thicker yarn would be really fun for this project too but I just wanted to use up what I had. Tie off a large knot on the end of your yarn and start from the back. You’ll see on the pattern that I left 3 rows of holes along the bottom for the hooks and one row of holes along the three other sides. Double check your starting point because it’s the worst to get halfway through a project like this and realize the whole thing is off by a few holes. I often did a line of them in one direction and came back and did the cross on my way back. That seemed to help me keep count of the pattern. I also had a printed copy of the pattern in front of me to mark off what I’ve done. Just take your time and follow the pattern.

Once your all done with the embroidering, it’s time to add some stability to this sign. Peg board is kind of flimsy on it’s own so I knew I would need to add some support to it before attaching the hooks to it. I ran a 1” x 4” across the bottom length of the board and 1” x 2” around the remaining edges. The thicker board along the bottom is so I have something soiled to attach the hooks to. Attach the boards with a good quality wood glue and make sure you clamp them until they dry. You may notice some wood glue filling in some of the pegboard holes after you apply the clamps. Just take a wet q-tip and removed the extra glue.

Layout your hooks so they are evenly distributed along the bottom and attach with screws that came with he hooks. I finished the sign off by attaching a wooden frame. This is the same style that I use on my canvas art and you can find instructions for them here. The only difference is that I did add a few nails around the outside to attach the frame to the sign. I wanted to make sure it was secure since people would be hanging things on it. I used 4” long screws to attach the sign to the wall, drilling them directly into studs. I did a screw in each corner so I don’t think this thing is coming off the wall any time soon!

I am so in love with this sign & it turned out exactly how I wanted! I love that you could change out colors and get a totally different looking sign. The possibilities are endless but the result will always be great! Enjoy!

Room Reveal

Master Bedroom Reveal

July 18, 2018July 18, 2018 JessyRo

I struggled a lot with bedrooms when I was house hunting. Most ranch style homes in the area have 3 bedrooms crammed on the main floor. This creates a very tight floor plan with pretty small rooms. This house gave me exactly what I wanted with a room in the basement that could be a guest room and two bedrooms on the main floor. I have a smaller bedroom that I have dedicated as my office and a very large master bedroom.

I have neglected my master bedroom since moving in to my house. I wasn’t quite sure of what to do with it and I had so much to do in other rooms that it simply took a back burner. I didn’t hate what I had for bedding and bedroom furniture but it didn’t really work either. Having had much smaller bedrooms in the past, my small DIY night stands and my tiny 3 drawer dresser from college didn’t even begin to fill the space. My old curtains barely even covered the new windows but I figured it would be fine for now. The only new addition I made was a new huge rug that I purchased before moving in knowing that my previous dog, Rocko would have a hard time getting in and out of bed with the laminate floors. The rug is so big that it was almost wall to wall in the huge room.

That rug is ironically what prompted my unplanned bedroom update. A few weeks ago, I decided to switch it with the smaller black and white rug in the living room that I had gotten years earlier. I swapped them because the bedroom rug was too big for the space and I really just wanted the prettier rug in the living room. Much to my surprise, I loved the black and white rug in the bedroom. It was kind of crazy how a smaller rug made the room feel so much bigger! A week later, I painted the wall behind the bed charcoal black. I have always wanted a charcoal accent wall in my bedroom but have been a little scared of painting a wall basically black. I’m so happy I finally caved because it is my favorite thing in the room by far.

Over the last year, I had bought some new bedding, night stands and a dresser that worked amazing with the new wall color. Keep an eye out for a post about the IKEA hack I did on my dresser and night stands. I love the way they turned out.

I recently did a new art pieces that tied in my love for donuts and picked up a simple wall shelf for make up to put next to my mirror. I found a steal of a deal on sleek, modern curtains at home goods and I was pretty much done except for updating the lighting.

I really wanted to do the bracket pendent lighting that is so hot right now. I picked up brackets from Wal-Mart and used a few Januari lights from IKEA that was left over from a college art show. I wanted them to match the brass hardware I have on the night stands so I spray painted them a gold/brass color. I’m not really loving the final look because of the harsh, thick white cord but I love the light concept. Plus, these lights don’t have an on/off switch so I’m currently just unscrewing the light bulb to shut the light off. Haha! I’m working on a fix for it that will not only give me the look I want but will also be functional. I also have a new ceiling fan that needs to be hung in there so I’ll have to give a update once the lighting is changed out.

I had no real plans on decorating my master bedroom anytime soon but I’m so happy I did. For the first time in my life, I have a bedroom that is beautiful and peaceful. It fits my personality perfectly and brings such a sense of calming over me. It’s a perfect place to let go of the stresses of the day and relax surrounded by pretty things. Everyone deserves a happy place like that!

PS. It’s pretty much Piper’s happy place too. 😉

Tutorial

Refinishing My Basement Stairway: Part 1

June 25, 2018July 18, 2018 JessyRo

If you follow my Instagram, you know I’m in the process of updating my basement. I want to create a cozy and welcoming living room space for friends and I to hang out. The one major eye sores beyond the wood paneling and drop ceiling was the basement stairs. These were open wood stairs that I’m sure were pretty standard in ranch style homes in the ’80s. You can tell that they were installed strictly for function and there was no attempt at making them look nice. Being original to the home and over 30 year old, they had 10+ coats of paint and in there current state were dark chocolate brown. They were obviously ugly and frankly kind of scary with no outer railing when it came to small children (or adults after a few glasses of wine). I knew I wanted to make them safer and of course prettier!

My original plan was to paint the steps charcoal and the sides white thinking there was no way that I would ever get to the original wood to be able to stain. I was shocked when I took a palm sander to it and easily was able to get to down to the wood on the edges. At that point, my heart was set on staining the steps and I was going to make it happen. I’ve done a fair share of stripping and refinishing wood on furniture project in the past so I felt confident I could hand this. As always, I had no idea what I was getting myself into.

After prepping the space, I eagerly applied a thick coat of CITRISTRIP, a paint and varnish stripping gel that is safe for indoor use. This was crucial since basements tend to be poorly ventilated areas. Apply the stripper to the steps and leave for up to 24 hours for the gel to work it’s magic. The longer you leave it, the better it will work. When your ready to remove the stripper, use a stripping tool and work with the grain of the wood. It will hopefully come off in chunks of gooey mess. I don’t know how else to describe it. Haha! There will be a slight residue after you remove the stripper and this can be cleaned up with Mineral Spirits and an old rag.

Since I didn’t want to be stranded in the basement for hours, I had to awkwardly start at the bottom and work my way up. I would stand on a step, then applying the stripper on the stair below. It sucked and was so uncomfortable. DON’T DO WHAT I DID! Break the steps into odds and evens. Do all of the odd steps first, leaving you every other step to stand on. This way you can still work bottom to top but you can actually face the step your working on. Once you’re completely done with the odd steps, go back and do the whole process again on the evens. It might take a little longer but it gives you better control and puts you in way less of awkward positions. Trust me, you’re back will be thanking you!

I ended up doing 3 rounds of stripper and I still had a pretty solid layer of a light blue/gray paint. At this point I spent 8 hours hand scrapping with a razor blade and was able to get most of the paint off. It was terrible but I was so close at this point that I couldn’t give up!

That was followed with LOTS of sanding. Starting with a very course sand paper and working finer, I sanded until I removed as much of the paint as I could. Sadly, there were still some small areas that I couldn’t get the paint but you don’t notice them too much when it was all said and done.

Next I ran painters tape along the edges of the steps and wrapped them with resin paper to protect them while I worked prepping and painting the sides. The sides were in really rough shape. They had lots of dents and groves that I smoothed out with wood filler.

They also had huge gaps along where the stairs met the sides. This area I ended up filling with printable window, door and trim caulk. Some of the gaps were so big that I had to do multiple passes to fill them. The process was easier then I expected and I’m really happy with how it turned out.

Finally I was ready for paint and stain. I did all of my painting first since the steps were all wrapped up. I used a paint made for floors and porches to hold up to the foot traffic it will receive. It took 4 coats of white paint since I was going over the dark brown but if covered pretty well. I stained the stairs a dark walnut color which helped hide some of the paint I couldn’t get off the steps. I finished with 3 coats of Minwax One Coat Polyurethane in a satin finish over the stain, then stepped back to admire my beautiful work!

All in all, I probably spend 40 hours on this part of the stairs project and I would do it again in a heartbeat. None of it was particularly fun but I’m ecstatic with how well they turned out. It literately took a major eye sore in the basement and made it a focal point.

You can see that there is a partial wall going up along the outer side of the steps and that is part two of the steps project. We’re also adding risers in and updating the hand rail. I will continue to share all of the progress as we finish up these beauties!

Tutorial

Simple DIY Canvas Wood Frames

June 15, 2018July 18, 2018 JessyRo

Wall art and canvases can be so expensive so I like to make my own. I save a little money and get exactly what I want so it’s really a win-win! I usually do quotes or sayings on simple stretched canvases that you can pick up from your local craft store for a few bucks. Adding one of these simple wood frames around any canvas art will really help step up your wall art game!

Things You’ll Need

1.5” x .75” Pine board
Saw
Drill
Sandpaper
Wood Glue
1.5” Finishing Nails
Wood Stain or Paint (Optional)

Creating the frame is so easy! I used pine board because pine is very inexpensive and I love the grain it has but you could do this with any type of wood you’d like. You need to start with by cutting down you board into 4 pieces. Two will be the height of the canvas and the other two will be 1.5 inches longer then the width. For instances, the canvas I was framing was 24” by 30” so I cut my pieces 24” and 31.5”. This is so the horizontal pieces are long enough to cover the ends of the vertical boards. I cut these at home with a saw but many home improvement stores will make simple cuts like this for you for a small charge. Just remember to bring your measurements with you!

A big step that I would stress not to skip is pre-drilling your nail holes. The board is so small that putting a nail straight in may split the wood especially if you use a larger nail. I did not drill on the first frame I did and it doesn’t look great. I managed to get a few nails in just fine but I split the wood on a couple. Learn from my mistakes… pre-drill your ends. Haha! I just did two small nails on each corner to help hold it together and I only drilled the ends on the horizontal boards since that was the wood that I had the splitting problem on before.

Next step is to assemble the frame. Apply a small amount of wood glue to the end of the vertical board. Line up your horizontal pre-drilled board on the end and gently nail in your small finishing nails. You will want to make sure the nails you have chosen are long enough to go into the both pieces of wood. If you only get 1” nails, there will only be 1/4” in the second piece of wood and that won’t offer you much stability. Repeat on all 4 corners until the frame is complete. At this point, I like to tape the joints to help keep them tight until the glue dies. I just used some painters tape I had but I’m sure masking tape would work well too.

Allow the frame to sit the recommended drying time on wood glue bottle, then remove the tape and finish with your desired look. I love the light wood so I left mine completely natural. You can really customize the look with a little stain or paint to match the art and your home’s decor. After you frame is all finished, you can place the frame on the canvas. The fit will probably be tight and need some persuasion to fit. This is not a bad thing. If it’s tight on the canvas, I’ve found you don’t need to attach the canvas to the frame because it will just stay put. Not only is this easier and looks nice then having to nail the canvas to the frame, but it makes it easy to change out canvases if you want to switch up your art! If you’re anything like me, things are always changing!

So easy, right?! I’d love to see how your frames turn out if you give this project a go! Feel free to upload a picture of your own wooden frames to my Facebook page. Happy building!

Room Reveal

Jennifer Lane

May 30, 2018July 18, 2018 JessyRo

My dream home has always been a two-story, 1920s craftsman bungalow with a big porch on the front. Full of character, clean lines, gorgeous woodwork and most of all, the grand staircase that greets you as you walk in the front door. Instead, I bought a 1984 ranch style home. Trust me, I’m aware of what a huge departure this is.

It still feels weird saying that I bought a ranch because I hated ranch homes. They’re long, bland rectangles with no character & so far from what I wanted. The thing is I realized when I began house hunting, that this house I had put on a pedestal for so long was perfect but not perfect for me. All of the older homes I toured were way too big for just me and the layout was such a huge change from the cozy one bedroom apartments I had grown accustom to. This ranch home offered me everything I need except charm & character. The location is serene, it’s a large corner lot & the room layout couldn’t be more perfect. It is still totally a bland rectangle but that just means I had a blank slate to start with. I can change bland into beautiful. That I’m sure of!

The first area I really focused on was the kitchen & dinning room. I love this area of the house because it has a big sliding door to the back yard & deck that brightens the space. Unfortunately, there were upper cabinets over the peninsula blocking light and making the kitchen dark and closed off. Those cabinets lasted about 5 days before they came down & look at the difference! It not only brightened the kitchen up but it makes both spaces feel so much larger. I kept the cabinets that I took down and I’m using them in the basement. It’s a project I’m kind of geeking out over and I can’t wait to show you when it’s done!

Next thing in the kitchen was to get rid of the 80s oak and breath some life in to these cabinets with some color. I decided to go with a two-tone look with white on the top to brighten it up and a rich gray on the bottom for a bold look. I’ll be sharing a tutorial on how I painted my cabinets in the near future but lets just say it was a doozy of a project! Everyone makes it sound like it’s so easy but I have easily spent 50+ hours on these cabinets. I added sleek, modern pulls on all of the cabinets & drawers to finish off the update. They were the perfect finishing touch! As tedious as this project was, I would do it again in a heart beat. I got a whole new kitchen for under $500 and I’m so in love with it. It’s my favorite space in the house so far.

Something that didn’t fall within the $500 budget were the brand new Kitchen Aid appliances. Sadly, almost every major appliance in the house died in the first year. That’s one of those thing you think will never happen to you and then it does. It was an expense that I was hoping to avoid for a while but on the bright side, they were a much needed upgrade and they look amazing! Only appliance that was left to replace was the dishwasher and that just died two weeks ago. Oh the joys of home ownership!

Uncategorized

One Year

May 20, 2018May 26, 2018 JessyRo

Here it is… my first blog post! It feels like I’ve been working on this forever even though I really just started. I have been crafting and creating my whole life. I’ve always loved home decor and started college as an interior decorating student before switching to art my sophomore year. I love doing DIY inspired projects and I wanted to share my experiences with others for a long time. The plan was to start this blog as soon as I bought my first house and share all my projects along the way. Well, I’ve been in my home for almost a year so you can see how well that worked out. If this last year has taught me anything, it’s that life doesn’t always go as planned.

One week before I closed on my house, I unexpectedly lost my beloved dog of 9 years, Rocko. I was absolutely heart broken. I bought this house for us. I could see him playing in the backyard the first time I toured the place. I had already bought a rug for the bedroom because I know that he would struggle with the laminate floor. I never imaged that I would be moving in without my best friend. I had never lived alone but a week after the hardest day of my life, I found myself doing just that. My friends and family were amazing but nothing could bring him back. I was a mess and in no condition to be making any life changing decisions so I went out and adopted a new dog. Brilliant idea, right?

When I met Piper, she was so sweet but you could tell she was very anxious. She was a 5 year old boxer mix who was having lots of anxiety coping with her stay at the humane society. Poor thing had been adopted and returned twice because of her issues and just needed someone to love her. I looked at her and though, “I’m in rough shape. You’re in rough shape. Let’s do this together girly.” As I was impulsively filling out the adoption form, I kind of felt like I could start bawling at any minute. It hadn’t even been 2 weeks since I lost Rocko and it felt like I was trying to replace him. Then my friend Jamie, who works at the humane society and actually helped me with Rocko’s adoption 9 years earlier walked in. She asked if I was the one looking at Piper and when I said yes and she responded with a huge smile. She told me that she thought of me instantly when Piper came back but didn’t know if I would be ready for another dog yet. Her excitement helped set my mind at ease but my heart was still broken and unsure that this was really the best move.

The first few months with Piper were honestly hell. She was a sweet angel when I was home but her anxiety reeked havoc when I would leave. It created a lot of stress on both of us and plenty of household damages including but hardly limited to scratched woodwork, claw marks on walls and even a broken iMac computer screen. Potty training was rough because she would only poop in her sleep for the first few weeks. It’s almost like it was the only time she would relax enough to go. Even when I was home, she wouldn’t even think of playing with her toys. She was always so tense and just couldn’t relax. I spent so many nights in tears because I didn’t know how to help her and I felt guilty for wishing I still had Rocko instead. It was torture at times but I wasn’t willing to give up on her. Slowly over the next few months, things just started falling into place. She stopped freaking out every time I left for work. The accidents started becoming fewer and farther between once the fenced in yard was finished and she could go outside on her own. I will never forget the day she actually started playing with toys. It was about a month before the holidays so it’s needless to say she was spoiled with lots of new squeaker toys at Christmas. We still have rough days and we have plenty to work on. Even as I write this blog, she is pawing at me because I stopped paying attention to her. Haha! Knowing that she’s a happy, healthy pup means the world to me especially after how hard the beginning was for us both.

Although this blog isn’t going to be focused on my goofy dog, she did inspired the name. Piper is my squirrelly girl. She it a total nerd and she makes this house a wonderful home. She has brought a new sense of adventure to my life when I needed it most. My heart is full when I see her waiting for me from the living room window every night and she makes everyday that I miss my sweet boy, Rocko, a little easier. She may be one of the reasons that this blog launched late but sometimes life knocks you on your ass and you need a few seconds (or a year) to get back on your feet again. Despite the ups and downs of my first year of being a home owner, I did manage to do some amazing things in the house and I can’t wait to start sharing all of it with you in the weeks and months to come!