Painting and copy cat projects

We have been painting lately! Kennedy has painted multiple "leprechaun houses" which I love and will be framing for the playroom walls! She is so cute...can't you just imagine what living inside a rainbow must be like? She can.

So. The first thing I started to paint when we moved in almost 2 months (!) ago was Grant's room. I was pretty excited to try out painting stripes. I didn't have the internet hooked up yet, which is my encyclopedia of how to do everything....so I thought "I've watched them do this on HGTV like a million times, I know what I'm doing!

Looks okay from a distance, but as soon as you REALLy look you can see that the dark triple layered chocolate stripes bled. A bloody mess to be exact. I was super frustrated because it took many many hours to get this far--leveling, taping it off straight, painting a couple layers, peeling it off...err!

I was ticked! Because the walls are textured it went through the painter's tape at every groove. Also, I bought cheap Walmart paint that was too watery. So many mistakes! Then, I was watching Color Splash on HGTV one day and they said if you ever paint stripes on a textured wall you need to do a coat of clear first so that it doesn't drip down. AHHHH!!! The answer.

So, after re-taping to make the stripes wider I used a clear acrylic paint to seal the edges before touching up the entire room. I don't have an after pic, but just visualize razor sharp lines--love it!

The next item of business was what to put on the walls? I have no clue how to decorate boy's rooms. My eye naturally goes to all things girlie! Can't help it!

I saw this tree painting on the blog Simply Modern Mom and thought I could try making one too!

Painted my teal (yes it's bright!) on some canvases and chalked a tree outline to paint ( a couple of times to get it right--why do my trees always look like a 4th grader drew them?)

Then I cut out leaves from a fun line of scrapbook paper at Michael's called "Birdwatching"that had the right colors / style and now I need to glue them down and Modge Podge this baby! It's been sitting like this for a couple days on the guest bed. I'm scared to commit. Something is bugging me about it? I think I might distress the edges a bit....never done this "style" before of anything. Ideas?

I saw this fun little sewing table at DI and decided I loved it, orange and all. I have been having so much fun thrift store, garage sale and craigslisting since we've moved to a bigger house. The other day I found a fun orange and white duvet cover ($4) and so the little table was perfect!

I've been loving this blog for re-finishing furniture and tryed out the glazing method she does to nearly everything she paints. Now I'm going around my house "what else can I glaze??"

Last thing to share...whew. I found this lovely chandelier on craigslist for $20 to replace the one in this house. It's pretty huge! The lady I bought it from said it was about 60 years old and from a french providential something or other. I love the detail on it, but had plans of spray painting it some other color...what do you think? The paint is actually in pretty decent shape and I've incorporated some more mustard colors in the decor trying to keep it!