guest house | Beneath My Heart

DIY Painted Mirror (Miss Mustard Seed Inspired!)

8:50 pm

Two years ago, I started my blog as a way to document DIY projects that my husband and I were doing in our 1968 home.

Being a stay-at-home mom, our budget is limited, so I have learned to decorate my home with very little money. I’ve learned quickly that things do not have to be expensive to be beautiful!

For example, I scored this beautiful antique vanity mirror (laying on my kitchen table) at Goodwill for only $7.50!

It was a beautiful solid wood and boy was it heavy!!

I have a certain painting technique that I use on all my furniture pieces, but this time I wanted to try something a little different.

This mirror was going to be used in my guest house, and I have been wanted to add a little bit of the color blue in the sitting area.

So I decided to give Miss Mustard Seed’s painting technique a try. However, I used Valspar products instead because I have a Lowe’s close to my home.

I had them tint sample containers in Sherwin Williams Georgian Revival Blue and Behr’s Light French Gray.

Then I had them tint the glaze in Valspar’s Journey (6010-1). (Miss Mustard Seed tints her glaze with Behr’s Expresso Beans, but Lowe’s couldn’t match that one.)

After taping the mirror, I lightly sanded the wood with a sanding sponge. Next, I painted one coat of blue with a regular paintbrush.

(I left the lightsaber swords on the table for a touch of reality.) :)

And yes, I am painting in my kitchen. It’s been too cold lately to paint anywhere else.

After that dried, I painted a layer of french gray over the blue using a dry brush technique. (Not much paint on the brush.)

When that coat was dry, I used my sanding sponge to sand all the high parts of the wood.

Lastly, I brushed a layer of the tinted glaze on top making sure in got in all the groves and crevices. I coated the whole mirror with the glaze and then used a paper towel to wipe it off.

I used my Silhouette machine to add a famous quote by Henry Van Dyke with their Premium Frosted Vinyl.

It wasn’t easy adding the vinyl letters to the mirror, but I did my best. :)

I worked on this project until almost two o’clock in the morning, (for my guest post at Tatertots and Jello) and well, let’s just say, I was looking a little something like this…

Oh yeah…I felt exactly the way I looked in that picture!

The next day, it was time to take the mirror to the guest house.

Here it is!…

I really do love the way it turned out.

The quote reads:

Time is too slow for those who wait,

too swift for those who fear,

too long for those who grieve,

too short for those who rejoice,

but for those who love,

time is eternity.

The burlap covered chair in the picture below is also a Goodwill find. I got it for $6.50, and you can read about that makeover HERE.

A touch of spring makes everything look beautiful…

If you would like to take a tour of the rest of my guest house, click HERE.

If you missed the fabulous giveaway I posted about yesterday,

for a $60.00 Gift Certificate to Art of Whimsy,

click HERE to enter!

Thanks!

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Parade of Homes (and Master Bedroom Reveal!)

11:52 pm

I am so excited to be participating in a blog Parade of Homes sponsored by Poppies at Play!

For those of you who are visiting my blog for the very first time, let me introduce myself.

My name is Traci, and I am a stay-at-home mom of four boys. I am married to a wonderful man who loves the same things in life that I do. We love sharing in this adventure called “life.”

I was an elementary teacher for 6 years before my first son was born, and it is hard to believe I have been at home with my boys for the past ten years. What a blessing!

I started my blog in March of last year after my mom kept encouraging me to. I am so glad she did. It has been a huge blessing in my life! My blog is dedicated to my mom who passed away in September of last year after a short battle with gastric cancer. Her love and her faith in God has changed my life forever. (You can read about her story by clicking on “mom” in my sidebar.)

Over the past year, I have been fixing up my house one room at a time. I just recently finished our master bedroom, and I am so excited to reveal it today!

I am not an interior decorator. I have no degree in design. I have just used the inspiration I have found in blogland this past year to decorate my home. :)

So welcome everyone to my

ol’ Kentucky home!

I like to call my home the “House of Thrifty Finds.” Almost everything in my house is from Goodwill, garage sales, or hand-me-downs. I will point my thrifty treasures out to you throughout the tour.

As you enter our home, you will see this vinyl saying that my Mom helped me put up last August.

Directly down the foyer is our kitchen and eating area.

I purchased the hutch for $75.00 at a garage sale and painted it black. You can read about that project HERE.

The white buffet on the left side of the picture below is a $55.00 find at Goodwill that I painted. You can read about that project HERE.

I love this view of my curtains through the mirror. I made the curtains from drop cloths, and I absolutely love the way they turned out. If you want to see how I made them, just click on “drop cloth projects” in my sidebar.

Our biggest renovation in our home has been the kitchen. Last fall, we tore out the soffit above our cabinets and created new, taller cabinets. You can see the complete DIY renovation by clicking HERE.

I love the glass cabinet doors and the open shelving my husband created above the microwave.

The bead board cabinet doors added to the cottage style I was striving for.

We also installed recessed lighting inside the glass cabinets and underneath the cabinets. You can never have enough light in the kitchen!

On the right side of the kitchen, I made some cafe shelves like the ones I saw in Ballard Designs catalog. You can see the tutorial of how to make them for yourself HERE.

Our master bedroom is
right off of our kitchen. I have been working on our bedroom for a couple of months now, and I am so excited to finally share the finished product.

I renovated our entire bedroom for less than $700.00, and I will be sharing a ton of Before and After photos, plus the break down of my budget, tomorrow. You won’t believe the difference, so be sure to stop back by and check it out!

Here is the view as you enter the room…

The bed was my parents, and I painted it black. I made the brown bedskirt from burlap, and I think it turned out beautifully.

I was so excited when I found this little vanity for only $25.oo! It fits perfectly beside my bed. It just needed a little TLC which you can read about HERE.

I have enjoyed accessorizing with items that are special to me, like the picture of my mom and me when I was a little girl and a decorative bird that was my mom’s.

The chandelier was my “splurge” for my room. I got it at Lowe’s and I love the way it adds a little romance to the room.

This black dresser was purchased at an antique mall, and I painted it black as well. (Can you tell I like that color?) :)

Here’s the view of the other side of the room.

I got the armoire for $40.00 at a habitat store! It needed a little work (like it was missing a back), but it works perfectly for our room now. Our tv hides in there! Click HERE to see that project.

Our master bath is really small, but can you believe it was actually smaller?! We renovated it a couple of years ago by knocking out a wall and making it a little bigger.

My husband did all the work in our bathroom. He is quite the DIY man!

One of my favorite “rooms” in our home is our covered back patio.

I love watching my boys play in the back yard and enjoying lots of cookouts with friends and family out here. Those are some of life’s sweetest moments!

See that red door in the background of the below picture?

That door leads to the guest house we built over our detached garage.

My husband built our guest house, and I got to decorate it. A winning combination!

We didn’t really have any money to decorate the guest house, so I had a ball shopping at Goodwill and garage sales. I am one of those people who think it is FUN to decorate with thrifty finds!

My hubby built me these amazing cabinets! If you want to see how he made them, click on “cottage cabinets” in my side bar labels.

I got this cute little coffee table at Goodwill for $6.50 and painted it white. It fits perfectly with the room. I also got the chair for $6.50 at Goodwill and covered it with burlap.