Chalk Paint Tutorial

My YouTube channel is finally here! Guys - I have been working on video content for a year now. I would film small clips of myself decorating or explaining wine to you, but I eventually deleted them and decided not to share because I thought they were low quality. I finally decided, who really cares if my videos aren't award-worthy? I'm going to film and share them anyways. ;)

I found a dresser on Facebook marketplace for FREE! I was the first person to contact this lovely lady and somehow scored this amazing find! I loved the way it looked when I got it, but the top of the dresser didn't match the original wood, there were paint drops in odd places...overall it needed some love. I decided to chalk paint this piece. 

Ya'll...confession time....this is my very first time using chalk paint. I watched a few videos and read a few articles and decided I wanted to make my own tutorial. Everyone has their own style, and I wanted my paint to look slightly aged and dimensional. 

I started off with two paint colors: an off-white and a light gray. I ended up purchasing a third color that was about 5 shades darker than the gray color, in order to achieve the distressed look I was going for. Once I was finished with my paint, I took a sander to the edges of drawers and the sides of the dresser to, once again, achieve an aged look. In this video tutorial, I will show you how to sand, paint, add dimension, and finish a piece of furniture using chalk paint.

How to Dye Leather Furniture

 

Recently, I began updating my husband's office. He works from home so I really wanted to create a nice environment for him that was masculine and timeless. Let me just tell you, it was BAD before I began working on it. He had a rickety desk with no drawers, a matching printer stand that wobbles every time he would print something, mismatched artwork, and a multi-color poster of the United States that looks like it belongs in a kid's room.

His current desk chair was given to us by a family friend, and was somehow missing a chunk on the armrest. It worked well for a while, as it is comfortable, but it was such an eye sore. With my current obsession with the decor from Patina Farm,  I really wanted to get him a great looking leather desk chair. They are so timeless and comfortable. My hope was to purchase a chair I found on Wayfair that had the perfect aged look to it. That was until I found this chair on Facebook for only $25...

This chair is 100% genuine leather, has a brass base, and is 40 years old. SCORE!

The picture on the internet made it look like the color was much more rich than it was in person. Although the color looks halfway decent in this picture, in person it was super outdated ('80s) and looked like the color of mud....not a good look.

The chair needed some love.

I started doing research and found that you can actually dye leather furniture. I couldn't find very many good tutorials on how to do it and one of the brands that many bloggers talked about from the past is no longer existent. Ergo, more research on my part.

There are 3 basic things you will need to dye a piece of furniture:

1) Deglazer (essentially this is acetone)

2) Leather dye

3) Sheen finish

My first task was to pick a color. I had a lot of anxiety over choosing the color because I didn't want the chair to be too dark. The swatches in the store were painted on a raw piece of hide, so how would it look on my already dark chair? The sales person suggested mixing two dyes together to achieve the color I wanted, but I ended up going with the color medium brown. Lucky for me, the dye remained true to color.

I am so happy I ended up going to a leather store instead of ordering them online because the colors looked so much different in person! 

For my project, I ended up only needing one, 4 oz bottle of the dye, one bottle of deglaze, and one bottle of the sheen.

Here's the chair mid-dye...looking pretty good if I do say so myself.

And the finished product!

HOW TO DYE LEATHER FURNITURE

Materials:

Deglazer or acetone

Leather dye (they come in 4 oz. and 32 oz., this project only used 4 oz.)

Sheen finish

Rags

Dye applicator (my brand came with one)

Drop sheet or paper

Rubber gloves

Instructions:

For my project, I wanted this chair to look like a true antique piece, so I distressed the chair before I dyed it. To simply dye the chair, start the video at 3:15 to see me select my dye color in the leather store. 

This video was taken from clips of my instagram stories while I was dyeing the chair. 

Better quality video DIYs to come ;)

Our Wedding: Old Hollywood Meets Southern Opulence

 In honor of Valentine's Day, I thought I would share our wedding day with you all!

Garrett and I had been dating for four years when he proposed. He got down on one knee at Canoe in Atlanta, a beautiful river-front restaurant on the Chattahoochie. Once we were engaged, I started planning the very next day.

 I desperately wanted to get married that summer, and with it being only 9 months away, I felt behind just getting started. My mother came into town that week and we started shopping venues. Originally I wanted an outdoor wedding (thank goodness we didn't because it rained on our wedding day).
I found a gorgeous spot an hour north of the city that was perfect. I kept my mind open, however to other options. One day, I had a venue in Buckhead cancel my appointment a few minutes before I was to arrive. I pulled into a parking lot and started making calls to visit another venue that could meet on such short notice. That's when "the one" fell into my lap. The gorgeous, 4-story, castle-esque Women's Club of Atlanta in Midtown welcomed me with open arms and gave me a tour within the hour. Walking through the space, I realized that everything I had desired in a location was met. It had a gorgeous bridal suite, a room for kids to stay in during the wedding, charming grooms suite, grand pianos on two floors, and arched windows in the ballroom. I was in love. So much so, I wrote a check for my deposit right then and there.

I planned my entire wedding without the help of family or a planner and it was exhausting.  We invited 250 guests and had 200 at our wedding. Planning a wedding this size takes a lot of work and a decent chunk of change. My budget was relatively small compared to the industry standard, but I stretched every dollar I could to pull off a glamorous wedding.

In order to save money:

•  I created my own centerpieces and purchased my flowers from a wholesaler (savings of $5,000)
• I purchased inexpensive wine from Trader Joe's and relabeled them with our custom label (savings of $2,000)
• We purchased a keg instead of individual bottles and served the beer in glassware provided by the caterer (savings of $400)
• Instead of getting carried away with our invitations, I ordered them through Vistaprint and received free envelopes with my order (savings of $1,500)
• I DIYed several elements of our details including signage around the room, our bar menu, rehearsal dinner invitations, groomsmen and bridesmaid gifts, and so much more. (savings of around $1,000)
• Instead of a band, I hired a piano player and saxophone player (savings of $7,000)
• Instead of a DJ for the after-party, I hired a DJ ahead of time to make a mix for me which only cost me $150! (savings of $1,300)

One of my favorite elements of our wedding was our cake! I wanted it to be a statement piece, and that is was! Sitting at 5 feet tall, it was extremely intricate and carefully planned between my cake baker and myself. I created the poetry for the bottom of the cake in photoshop and using her edible printer, we were able to have delicate script on the cake which was absolutely gorgeous and such a sweet detail that I still get teary-eyed reading. We incorporated our flowers into the design as well as our initials, and to keep things looking polished, I asked for gold jewelry-looking "drips" throughout.

Another element that wasn't photographed that I loved from our wedding was our champagne cocktails. We named them the "East Cobb Snob" and the "Buckhead Betty" (it's an Atlanta thing). The Snob was a champagne cocktail with a splash of St. Germaine and the Betty was a champagne cocktail topped with cotton candy on a pearl-ended cocktail stirrer. In the bar area, I played classic old Hollywood movies on the back wall to keep the theme alive. Scattered throughout the house were quotes from Fitzgerald (one of my favorite authors), sitting in pretty gold frames.

A special moment happened while we cut our cake. One of Garrett's groomsmen sat down at the piano and started playing the prettiest music while we tried to cut the cake without toppling it over! It was so unexpected and beautiful, it will always stay as a special moment in my mind.

You can see all of the details of our wedding below:

We started off our morning getting out hair done at DryBar

I used a cartoon artist on Etsy to create this cute caracture of us for our sign

I DIYed this bar cart by purchasing old cigar boxes from a local shop and ordered custom matches

I had a florist construct these precious kissing balls for our flowers girls using mums and a champagne ribbon.

Orchids are my favorite flower! I wanted to keep things simple and elegant by only using white orchids. I loved the way the gold chivari chairs made all of our decor pop!

The flower girls wore blush pink dresses with crystal accents...isn't she adorable?!

For the groomsmen, I purchased cut crystal lowball glasses from HomeGoods, and placed an airplane bottle of nice bourbon and a cigar in each. This way the boys get to have a drink without going overboard!

Tip: if you buy them in a pack instead of individually, they are much less expensive!

My nephew came to see me before I walked down the aisle!!

The bridesmaid dresses were blush pink with beautiful open backs. I wanted their dresses to look like a gown they could actually wear again!

For the guys, I selected ivory suit jackets with black slacks, bow ties, and vests. It just screamed old Hollywood to me!

For my bouquet, I attached small frames with pictures of loved ones we lost so they could be there in spirit. When I showed my Grandmother the image of my grandpa she started crying because she was so touched I included him. I loved being able to honor them without drawing a lot of attention.

My "something borrowed" was my sister's veil. It matched my dress perfectly.

For our first dance as husband and wife, we played You Are the Best Thing by Ray Lamontagne.

Three generations

I loved the saxophone player! He was such a hit!

Carlton's Cakes in Atlanta made this gorgeous masterpiece!

Some of the poetry I selected for my cake. I did a montage of different pieces from Fitzgerald.

Scariest moment of my life right here, folks. My husband wouldn't touch it because he thought he would tip it over!

Garrett's groomsmen playing for us while we cut the cake and did our toast!

Because we used a historic venue, several send-offs were off limits to use, including sparklers. Instead, I purchased dried rose petals on Etsy and used old sheet music wrapped into a cone to hold them. I love how the images turned out using the petals!

It's so fun to go down memory lane and look at images from the day I said yes to my soulmate. If you have any questions about where I purchased items, how to save money for your own wedding, or simply want to tell me what you think, please let me know in the comments!

Happy Valentine's Day!!

DIY Abstract Artwork

Now that our home is finally coming together, I have been hunting for artwork. Our walls feel so bare. I think for a lot of people, myself included, choosing artwork feels very intimidating. You may fall in love with a piece and find it doesn't go well in the room at all....or it makes the room feel dark, or it's too colorful, or it doesn't have enough color. Then you're out a hundred bucks because you can very seldom return original artwork. I've searched several online retailers for artwork but never seem to find anything I like. I'm a fan of abstract art, but most of the pieces I am attracted to are several hundreds of dollars. Bummer.

I kept buying mirrors to fill up wall space, but too many mirrors in your house will make you look a little self-obsessed, am I right? I started hunting for pieces I liked and noticed a trend in my selections. I clearly was in love with black and white simple abstract pieces like the one below. They go everywhere, even in a room filled with brown, and they add understated elegance to any room. Mixed with black and white photo pieces as a gallery wall, they match effortlessly. 

(Source: unknown)

I decided to paint some of my own. I wanted to use watercolors instead of oil or acrylic paint because abstract watercolor paintings tend to have a messy look, which would result in my own rookie painting looking "professional." I grabbed gold frames with a matte included from Target. Using 6x8 inch watercolor paper, I grabbed some black watercolor paint and started painting imperfect circles.

I decided to paint a few pieces with different ideas in mind, and picked my two favorite to hang in the frames. The paint takes about 1-2 hours to dry, but I waited a full day to allow the paint to dry before putting them in my frames.

My recommendation is to make each painting different, but stick with a theme. My theme was circles, so I painted some with large circles, some with little circles, some where they fit to the size of the media and some where the circles went off the page. Don't feel like there should be an exact way you make your own. The beauty is, you can make several attempts and you only have to pick a few to go in the frames! I think this project could be fun as a girl's night with a glass of wine. Who knows, maybe the more you sip the better your abstract will look! However you artwork turns out, it will be your own one-of-a-kind masterpiece!

Galentine's Spa Day

Valentine's Day is just a few weeks away and what better way to spend the day of or day before with your best gal? I decided to put together a spa cart for me and my bestie to enjoy a day of fun and relaxation before we went to dinner with our husbands. 

I grabbed some clear glass jars from Target and filled them with plain epsom salt. I love to use essential oils to relax, so I infused each jar with a different scent for different purposes. In one, I mixed 2 tbsp of dried lavender I found at the grocery store, and a few drops of lavender essential oil for relaxation. A little bit goes a long way! In another, I blended in some pink Himalayan rock salt and lemongrass for energy and detoxification. In the last one, I blended in dried rose petals with jasmine and orange blossom for the yummiest smell you've ever smelled! You can easily dry rose petals at home by popping them in the microwave in between a paper towel for about 1-2 minutes and letting them sit out.

I purchased small glass jars to fill with bubble bath, because most of the bubble bath containers on the market look like they are for kids! I wanted to keep my spa cart looking elegant and stylish. I found the spa candle at HomeGoods, and it smells amazing! It smells just like a spa, and helped us to relax.

To celebrate Galentine's Day, my bestie and I put on our coziest robe, grabbed a bottle of rose', and started off with a clay mud mask. 

We decided to spend our spa day with facials, a hair mask, and aromatherapy. To create an instant steam room, we put the shower on high and lit the spa scented candle to allow the steam to open our pores and help with deep breathing. For an easy hair mask, you can use items found in your kitchen! Our hair has been dry from the weather so we used coconut oil as a hair mask.

Here are just a few of the benefits coconut oil has on your hair:

• It gets rid of dandruff
• Protects your hair from losing protein when you wash it (result: thicker, healthier hair)
• It strengthens your hair with it's fatty acids (result: less split ends)
• Gives your hair a gorgeous shine

Simply melt 2-4 tablespoons of coconut oil and massage the mask into your hair, concentrating on the ends of your hair more than your scalp. You can also add a few drops of an essential oil to help with repairing your hair problem. Cedarwood helps with dry scalp and dandruff, while peppermint helps if you have an oily scalp and/or hair loss. 

Leave the hair mask on for anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour. It may take a few washes to get all of the oil out of your hair, but I find using castile soap helps speed up the process. Some people use an egg wash, which is just as effective.

For our facials, we used a charcoal mask with aloe to start. There's a reason activated charcoal has been getting so much hype! It draws bacteria, chemicals, and dirt out of your skin and brings them to the surface, helping you fight acne and giving you a gorgeous glow!

After our face mask, we used a homemade exfoliant:

1/2 fresh lemon

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1 tbsp honey

1 tbsp olive oil

This exfoliant is great for getting your glow on! Lemon juice brightens your skin and the olive oil helps restore moisture to dry skin from winter weather.

We followed with a light serum moisturizer and a warm, damp towel to open our pores and refresh our skin.

My skin was glowing after our spa day! Just in time for date night with my husband! Our Galentine's Spa Day was a success. We both agreed this is a must-have tradition for years to come. 

Do you have any DIY skin and hair recipes that you swear by? Let me know in the comments!

Christmas Garland Tutorial

I am so thrilled with how my first fresh greenery garland came out! I have always loved the way fresh greenery looks in homes for the holidays, but felt that it would be extremely challenging to make one myself. I was wrong. This garland only took me about 45 minutes in total to make, and you can make this just as easily for your own home!

Fresh garlands look and smell amazing! They give your home instant charm and warmth for the holidays. I love tying a thin ribbon into a big floppy bow for the top and the bottom banisters to finish the look. I feel like it gives the garland a feeling of whimsy. If you want your garland to look more polished and traditional, I'd recommend making two large bows with a few different types of ribbon, and keep the greenery tight in the garland.

For our holiday party this year, I decided to serve these delicious cranberry mojitos in wine glasses to make the drink more festive and formal. I placed them at the front entrance by my garland so guests could grab one as they enter. You can snag my recipe for them here.

HOW TO MAKE A FRESH PINE GARLAND

I looked at a few other tutorials before making my own, and saw that many other DIYers recommend using a rope. I like the idea because you can throw away the entire garland once you're done with it but I instantly realized an issue with this method. Last year for Thanksgiving, I made my very own magnolia garland using rope. I remember it being very difficult to get the garland to lay flat the way I wanted it to. Also, using this method typically requires more greenery.

I decided to use a traditional wired green garland to work the pieces of fresh greenery in and it worked great! The great thing about the wired garland is that you can continue to use it for years to come, therefore, saving yourself money in the long-run.

I began taking photos of this tutorial, but I realized it would be more confusing to use the images and explain in my writing, than it would be to just film what I did with my iPhone. I realize I'm not going to win any awards here on the quality of my video, but hey, I thought the video would help you guys out. 

Without further ado, here are my tips for putting together your very own garland.

( Also - for some reason I had the word "work wreath" on the brain...this is a work garland. )

WHAT YOU'LL NEED:

Work gloves (optional)

Shears

Florist wire

Fresh greenery

Regular faux garland

Ribbon

Christmas music playing in the background :)

I hope these little tips helped you to build your very own gorgeous garland for your staircase!