Welcome To Our Home! - A Custom Made Welcome Mat

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I've been trying to find an inexpensive welcome mat for sometime.  I tried cheap five dollar ones from your normal box stores, but they hardly kept any dirt from coming into the house.  Plus, they were boring, and I wanted something that reflected our family.  Then, on one of my almost weekly trips to Ikea, I found a large mat at Ikea for $6.  Then I searched for a tutorial on painting a outdoor mat, and found this great tutorial. 

To start my mat, I thought awhile about what should be on it.  Maybe something in Spanish?  Something witty or clever?  Then I had it!  Three words that reflect our family: Pray, Love, and Laugh.

As a stay at home mommy, the next big task was to find time to do my project.  The mat and paint sat in my laundry room for about a month.  I finally found some time while my oldest was at school and the baby was napping.  So I got to work!

Here was my list of supplies:

• Rustoleum High Performance Enamel
• Foam Paint Brush
• Plain Outdoor Mat
• Painters Tape
• Yard Stick or Measuring Tape
• 4" Stencils

 

The first thing I did was determine how far apart vertically I wanted the words.  Using painter's tape, I made lines so the words would be straight

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Next I made a vertical line with the tape to make sure the words all started at the same place.

 

  

Now I was all set up.  All I had to do was place the letters for each word right next to each other.  I placed the bottom of each stencil under the tape so the stencil wouldn't move while I was painting. 

Once a word was finished, I removed the line of tape, and moved onto the next row.  I left the stencils in place until the paint was dry.  Here's a picture of "Pray" and "Love".

 

 

 

After pulling off the tape and stencils, here's what my new welcome mat looks like!  I painted a cross and heart to the end of Pray and Love because the engineer in me needed symmetry. 

 

 



 I was worried about the durability of the paint, but it holds up really well.  I guess if its good enough for industrial applications, its good enough for my front porch.  Here is a picture a month later!

 



 

What to do will all the spices?

My husband is a great cook.  And by cook I'm not saying he's really good at following a recipe.  In fact, when he cooks he never uses a recipe.  He just picks a meat, some random ingredients, and voilà!  Something delicious! Since he loves to cook, we have lots of spices.  So many that we used to dedicate an entire cabinet to spices.  But then we found these magnetic storage bins.

We emptied all the different spice bottles into these bins, labeled the bins, then stuck them to the side of our refrigerator.  Our refrigerator is right next to the stove, so its easy to grab the needed spice when cooking.  And I think it adds character to our kitchen. 

 

 

 

A New Kind of Bookcase

Here's a quick little Ikea hack my husband did to store the books in our boys' rooms.  These are spice racks you can buy for $4 each.  They come in a light wood color, so while they were still disassembled, he stained the pieces.  He then assembled and hung them according to Ikea instructions.  Easy!  Here is how they look in my sons' rooms.

                            

I love these shelves, especially in my baby's room.  He loves to climb, and the idea of having a bookshelf in his room scared me.  These are perfect because he can pick out his books out on his own, and I don't have to worry about a toppling bookcase!

My genius husband also found another use for these spice racks; replacing the boring contractor towel hanger.

 

                       

 

Since the wood is easily stained, they match our bathroom décor much better than the harsh silver, and now we have more counter space!  We use these to store what used to be on our counter tops, which makes for a much cleaner looking bathroom.

 

 



How to make curtains from coffee bags - For my kitchen

I found an idea to use empty coffee bags as curtains here.  I wanted to use them in my kitchen, but wanted to use rods instead of stapling them to my dry wall.  So here's what I did:

1. First, I found several coffee bags.  I found some at a local farmers market, and was able to get some from someone at my husband's work who roasts their own coffee beans.  I also found some at my local coffee shop that brews their own beans as well.  If you are unable to find any at all, you can buy some from amazon.
   
2. I had three windows I wanted to make curtains for.  Two were right next to each other, and the third was above my kitchen sink.  So the two next to each other I wanted to match, so I found two bags that matched.  The third window I wanted to have character, so I picked a bag with two designs on it.
3. Next I unstitched the bags so  I had three long pieces of material. 
4. Now I needed to hem the edges of the bags so the edges would stop fraying.  After determining the dimensions of the curtains I wanted, I folded the edges then ironed the crease so it would stay in place.  Make sure you use steam and set the iron to its highest temperature setting.
5. I then used stitch witchery (which you can find at your local craft store in the sewing section) to both hem the edges AND seal the edges so the burlap material would not unravel.  Make sure to place the stitch witchery near the edge of the material to create a sealed edge.  Also, use one continuous piece of the stitch watcher, instead of small pieces to ensure a strong bond.
6. To make the hem permanent, I next hand stitched on top of the stitch witchery using beige thread that matched the color of the coffee bags.
7. The final step is to hang the curtains!  I used rings with clips on them to hang my new curtains.  This way I did not have to make a sleeve for the curtain rod to fit through.  Also, I found really inexpensive curtain rods and hardware at Ikea.  That's it!  The total cost for my project was $20 total, which is awesome!

 Here is my finished product: