Welcome

Consider our entryway done!

Jonathan had already painted so all we needed was some kind of art on the wall.

Remember how we originally wanted to frame out the old mirror in the half bath but totally failed? Well, I didn't want to throw it out. I hoarded kept it in a closet because I wanted to reuse it. It's been in there for about six months just hanging out. Waiting. And then inspiration struck!

I had the mirror and some leftover trim from our framed monogram project so I decided to make a welcome mirror. I've seen a lot of vinyl sticker crafty things all over Pinterest and decided that would be perfect for my project. Most of the people who do those vinyl cutouts have a cricut or special die cut machine. I don't. So I shopped around on Etsy until I found one that I liked.

Another visit to my BFF, Home Depot and I picked a can of frosted spray paint. Then I gathered up my supplies and got to crafting.

First I centered and applied the sticker. I eyeballed it and as a result its a bit crooked but that just gives it character. Right? Getting the sticker onto the mirror was a little tricky. You only get one shot so I tried to go super slowly... BUT I messed it up a bit. I accidently stretched out one of the letters but managed to drag it back into place.

Then I taped off the middle part that was going to be frosted. I initially eyeballed that too. Thankfully my sister was here to tell me that it was really off and I was about the make a huge crafting boo boo. So I redid it the right way.

After that it was time to spray paint. I totally overdid it with the spray paint. I should have done thin even coats and waited for them dry. I didn't. Blame it on the heat and my impatience. As a result there are some drips. I thought that I had completely ruined the whole thing. I told Jon that I was going to have to scrape the paint off and start over. Jon said it was fine but I was feeling pretty bummed (and dramatic) about the whole thing.

When I looked at it in the sunlight the next day I felt a million times better about it. Jon said "Babe, I told you it was fine!" and I left it on the dining table for a few days....

Then I peeled off the sticker using tweezers. I had tried to use my nails and accidentally scratched off some of the paint. It's not that noticeable but I would like it better if its wasn't there. I don't really know how to fix that. I don't want to spray paint more because I think it would ruin the whole thing. So it will remain as is.

Then I built and assembled a frame for the mirror in the same way we did the monogram one but this time I did all by myself! Naturally since Jon wasn't there to help/oversee I cut the wood a little short because I measured off the broken corners of the mirror. Oops.

Next it was Jonathan's turn. I asked him to hang to the mirror but we had no way to do it. It had previously been up in the bathroom with cheap clip things. Obviously that wasn't going to work since the mirror was so much thicker now. I found these hook things at (where else?) Home Depot and got Jon's seal of I-think-this-will-work approval. He measured and marked when the holes should go.

The way they are supposed to work is by hammering in a plastic pin that acts as a nail to hang the hook. It looked really easy to do on the instructions but, of course, it wasn't. Jon had trouble with the first one and punched a hole with the second one.

Once Jon got all the yelling out of his system and patched the wall, he finished the two on the bottom.

Then we added two on the sides instead of on top. We did it that way so we could slide it in and out. It took us a little bit of effort to jam it in there but its there and we've checked off another item on our to do list.

Orange You A Failure?

We painted our teeny, tiny half bath orange. Like trick-or-treat orange. And we freaking LOVE IT.

One day I looked at Jon and said "I think we should paint the half bath orange." Jonathan "hmmmm, yeah, that could be cool." And thus the orange bathroom was born.

Once again we have the awesome people at Design Seeds to thank for our color inspiration. And Pinterest. Thank you Pinterest a million times.

I found this Autumn inspired color palette board on Pinterest.



And this cool stencil idea.



Naturally, I wanted to merge both ideas and test it out in our half bath. Why? Size. Its a small space. I think bold colors look best in tiny spaces because they're unexpected and because it's easy to fix in case it doesn't go right. Not all of my bright ideas pan out. Case in point, this bathroom. But we'll get to that in a bit.

First Jon and I went our happy place! Home Depot (Seriously, they know us there). And began comparing all the orange paint chips against the picture on my phone. I wanted to go with a terracotta orange, lighter and softer than the orange we ended up with. Jonathan selected the Halloween (that's really the name of the color) orange. All you married people know comprise is key and since I pick the general design of our projects, its only fair that Jon has final say on the color and items that go into a room.

$30, my dad's (have you noticed he's the official helper?) help and a bucket of paint later we have a super orange bathroom!

In the midst of all the paint selection (it's actually a longer process that it would seem), I found a Moroccan inspired stencil that was almost exactly what I had envisioned. Hobby Lobby loves coupons so I got it for 40% off. I. LOVE. A. DEAL.

After the painted had fully dried I went in I tried to stencil the wall. I had read on a few blogs and DIY sites that some people had just used a paint pen to outline and color in the stencil lines. I have loads of paint pens left over from my sorority days and figured this would be a time consuming but not hard project. I was mostly right. It wasn't hard but it SO did not turn out like I thought it would. See?

It all looks good from far away. Up close it looks TERRIBLE.

I'll be honest. I hated it. Jon kept saying "it looks fine honey, just rustic." I'm not really sure what he meant but that's not what I was going for. So Jonathan painted over it. Just covered up my mess and moved on.

I think it looks better this way. Really though.

Fine! To be completely honest that's what I've been telling myself to help deal with my epic failure. We could have tried to make it happen by repainting the whole room white and then stenciling with orange paint buuuut that would have required more paint and putting off finishing the bathroom for another week. And neither one of us were willing to do it. I think Jonathan would have looked at me and said "You cray cray" (he likes to quote me). Plain orange it is!

Moral of the story: one bold idea at a time. We still get compliments on the color so we must have done something right. And I'm not totally giving up on the stencil. After my massive fail I asked Jonathan if we could use the stencil in the dining room and he asked if I was going to do it. Obviously I said yes but I'm not so secretly (this is online after all) hoping that he'll continue to be the best husband ever and help me out when the time comes. Don't worry Jon, we have plenty of time!