DIY Archives - Page 5 of 10

String Light Christmas Tree Decoration

December 14, 2016/2 Comments/in DIY /by Mila

I have seen many photos of string light trees made on living room walls this season. I think they are a thing on Pinterest. Definitely a trend, so I decided to create one in my living room, in front of our mural – feeling inspired! Hint: It was not hard at all.

Difficulty (1-5): 1 Time: 20 mins Cost: $20

Here is what you need (my tree (above) is approximately 4 feet tall by 3 feet wide at the bottom)

–Small Command Hooks
–LED Starry String 20 ft Copper Wire Lights-Warm White
–Blue tape

1) Start with marking your triangle shape with blue tape. This way you make sure you get the shape right without defacing your wall with pencil. 2) Start applying the command hooks from the top – before I continue this explanation, I have to say that I am a huge fan of command hooks!!! They are perfect to hang all decorations without ruining your wall. I did not want to ruin that mural we worked so hard to paint for the One Room Challenge, so these hooks were the perfect solution. I also hung these wreaths with them. I have also used them for garlands and paintings. I bought them in all sizes so it is a command hook love fest around here. 3) Depending on how long your LED string lights are, you can decide if to go wider or closer between lines. I didn’t want a super full tree – I went for a minimalist look-, so I decided to use a 20ft string. For a fuller look, get a 30ft LED string light or longer. Also, the copper wire lights are CUTE! Copper is the new IT metal, so if you want your tree to be trendy, get the copper instead of normal string lights which are not as elegant. 4) Work your way down the blue tape, adding command hooks as you peel off the tape. 5) Turn on the lights and cry with happiness:

Ok. Now that you read that easy and fun DIY that could transform your living room into a sophisticated one in seconds, let us look at what others have been doing around the web and where I got my inspiration from:

Cox and CoxBehind The Big Green Door A Pair & A Spare AMM Motanu Home Decor IdeasTrendenser

Moma Le Blog

Some of these are pretty gorgeous, don’t you think?

About my tree, I wish my photos would have come out better. I didn’t know how to take a good picture of the lights and the mural at the same time so this is the best I could do. In truth, I don’t think the photos do this cute little LED tree justice. Everybody that comes to my place comments on how cute it looks, so, once again, you will have to take my word for it. It is much nicer than what the photos show.

Hope you liked this one and, in case you haven’t seen how the rest of my home looks for Christmas, you can take a look here.

Thanks for stopping by!

*This post contains affiliate links. If you click and buy through them, I get a small comission. Thanks for supporting Jest Cafe. Creating this content is not cheap nor easy, but it is super fun. Thanks for reading. I mean it.

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3 Cute Gold Ring Wreath DIY’s

December 12, 2016/2 Comments/in DIY /by Mila

Creating a beautiful gold ring wreath is very easy. That is a fact. If you are looking to create nice details for your home with a small budget, this is a great alternative.

I made three gold ring wreaths for this post in less than 40 minutes. How? Well, let me explain.

Difficulty (1-5): 2 Time: 15 mins each one Cost: $6 each one

For all the wreaths you will need some basic materials.

Materials

-Metal Macramé Ring-Gold 12” and or 8”

– Glue gun

– Floral wire

– Greenery and other ornaments like pinecones

– Ribbon

The most important thing about creating gold ring wreaths is to come up with the concept and design first. Arrange (and rearrange) your materials until you are happy with what you see. Once that is done, use the floral wire and glue gun to finalize the design and attach materials to the gold ring.

Pink Peppercorn Wreath

I like the droopy shape of peppercorns. The way they fall is so beautiful. I knew I wanted one of my wreaths to have that organic shape. A little bit wild but also natural. The color of the peppercorns is so beautiful, too. I like the green tone of the leaves and the pop of color that the peppers bring. With this in mind, I decided to do a gold ring wreath using leaves from this tree. (If you look carefully, you can find Peruvian pink peppercorn growing in many places in LA, no need to buy it if you live here)
1) The first step was deciding the length of the leaves. How far did I want them to fall? I didn’t want them too long, so I went for half of the ring size: around 6″. 2) Once I decided on the right length, I cut the leaves and fastened them to the gold ring with a floral wire. The idea is to do a little knot with the wire on any place of the ring – your starting point- and then wind the floral wire around the leaves to fasten them to the ring. I also used a glue gun but it was not necessary. The wire is strong enough to support the leaves. Cut out any extra greens you don’t need. Here is the result. As you can see, I went heavier on the right side to give the wreath a “falling” shape, more organic. What do you think?

Pine and succulent wreath

1) As I mentioned above, gold ring wreaths can be designed at the moment. Move your ornament and greeneries around until you are happy with your design and then attach the pieces to the ring with wire or glue.

2) I fastened the pine tree branch in this wreath with wire to the ring, but glued the succulents with the glue gun. I was impressed at the durability of this wreath. I made it two weeks ago and it still looks great. Final result:

Double ring wreath with pinecones1) For this wreath, I attached a 12″ ring to a 8″ ring. I used floral wire sprayed with gold paint to do this.
2) After attaching the two rings together with wire, I started playing with different designs. I went with a very simple design for this wreath. Just eucalyptus and pinecones. 3) I attached the greens to the ring with wire and the pinecones with glue.

4) I added small gold ornaments for an extra touch. I used fishing string to hang them from the top. Here is the result. Pretty simple.
Hope you liked this tutorial. You would be surprised at how long it takes to do these kind of posts! It is crazy, so I really appreciate you stopping by to take a look at my blog today.

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How To Throw A Successful Wreath Making Party

December 7, 2016/4 Comments/in DIY, entertain /by Mila

After our wreath making party last year, I decided to make it a Holiday tradition, so we were at it again this last weekend. 12 people came to the party. Friends brought food and drinks. I provided the greenery and materials for the wreaths. We drank, ate, and crafted for 5 hours. All in all, a wonderful day!

If you are reading this post because you are planning to throw a wreath making party, let me assure you, it is easy and FUN – No fear. Your friends will love it and you will be the super hostess hero.

What you will need for a party for 12 people:

Tools

12 – 18 in wire wreaths – one per person
1 wire cutter
12 pruning scissors – one per person
12 floral wire. 100 ft. 22 gauge.- one per person.

Basic greenery

2 big bundles or pine – I bought noble pine.
1 big bundle of cedar
1 big bundle of eucalyptus

Accents

2 bunches of holly
25 pine cones (not everybody will use them)
2 bunches of eucalyptus flowers pods
2 bunches of seeded eucalyptus

Holly

Basically, everybody had the option to use white, red, and/or brown accents, aside from the main greenery. You will need a person that knows how to do wreaths so she/he can teach the rest. In this case, I taught the workshop. I am a wreath expert by now!

For instructions to do wreaths, go here and here.

Last year, we used grapevine wreaths (18 and 24 inches). Grapevine wreaths are beautiful by themselves, so they are good if you are planning to partially cover it. If the idea is to cover the whole wreath with greenery, grapevine wreaths are NOT the way to go, because they are more expensive and you need more greenery to cover them (they are thick), that is why I decided to go with simple wire wreaths for this year’s party and the final results were better across the board. Here are the results. They all look pretty good, don’t you think? I didn’t have time to do a wreath until later because I was teaching the workshop, so I posed with the golden ring wreath I created the day before. BTW, tutorial for gold ring wreaths coming up on Monday!
I love this group of friends.

Most of them sent me photos of their wreaths hanging from their front doors or mantels – that made me happy.

Thanks for stopping by! Don’t forget to come back this Friday for the Winter Eclectic home tour where me and other bloggers show you how we decorated our homes for the Holidays.

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DIY Budget-Friendly Holiday Garland

November 28, 2016/6 Comments/in DIY /by Mila

This year I am decorating my house with natural cedar garlands for the Holidays. I want them everywhere! Because they are beautiful, chic, and smell SO good. Also, they are cheap and easy to make. This post about how to make your own garland is the proof.

(BTW, I am participating in a Holiday bloggers hop next week. Me and other bloggers are teaming up to show you how we decorate our homes for Christmas, in case you are in need of ideas. That is why this post is ONLY about how to make this cedar garland and it doesn’t show you how it would look with all the extra Holiday stuff once I decorate it- The photo above is the clean and simple version of this garland)

Without further due. Here are the instructions.

Difficulty (1-5): 2 Time: 45 mins Cost: $25

Materials:

Cedar branches (lots)
Floral Wire – I used 22 gauge.
Wire cutter
Pruning scissors

1) Make a knot on your starting branch with your floral wire.
2) Make a bunch of 3 cedar branches of smaller size. 3) Attach the bunch to the first branch with floral wire. There is no need to cut the floral wire, just keep on winding it around the branches to create your garland.4) Repeat until your garland has the desired length. 5) At the end of the garland, create another bunch of three branches and attach them with floral wire. Add them to the end of the garland in the opposite direction to the rest of the branches. This will give the end of the garland a nice cascade shape. I placed my garland on the piano. Here is the result (without extra Holiday decorations):I am very happy with the result. I wish the photo could really show how elegant the living room looks with this addition! So cheap and easy. It is surprising to see how small details like this can take your Holiday decorations to the next level. Thanks for visiting!

Also, a post about a wreath-making party, a flower workshop, and ideas on how to decorate your Christmas table.

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How To Make A Mural

November 16, 2016/16 Comments/in DIY /by Mila

Here is the promised Mural tutorial.

My obsession with murals is real. It has been for some time, so I decided to make my own in my living room for the One Room Challenge.

Regarding design, I have realized that if I am going to tackle unexplored territory, I need to take my time. I need to consider the pros and cons, all the different options, and then come to a knowledgeable conclusion. This is the only way I won’t regret the final decision (here is a project I did in a rush that had a bad result).

So, figuring out how the mural was going to look took me a long sweet time. I was going back and forth between designs and colors for 5 weeks.

First, I thought, why don’t I do a geometrical design that can be easily done with the help of blue tape? This would prevent an outspoken cyber design disaster. After a week I realized this direction was not going to do it.

What is the one room challenge if not an opportunity to make mistakes? As my friend said: the worst thing that could happen is that you have to paint that wall white again… In my mind, the worst thing that could happen was accepting in front of the whole ORC community that I had failed at creating this mural. In truth, I was fearful at times, that is why it took me so long to come up with the final concept.

Well, I am happy to say now that I didn’t completely failed, and, on the contrary, I love what we did and how it looks. The new mural gives our living room a whole new sophisticated look that not even wallpaper would be able to achieve.

Here is the tutorial on how we did this mural.

(Also, here are the links to all the weeks of the One Room Challenge, if you care to see: Week 1-The idea-; Week 2 –color palette-; Week 3 –Vintage decor-; Week 4 -Final colors-; Week 5 –White walls-; Week 6 – The reveal.)

Materials

Color Paint Flat– sample sizes are enough
Good quality brushes! We used narrow for details and wide ones to fill in.
Blue tape
Pencil
Eraser
Projector
Computer

Design Concept – As I mentioned above, I thought about creating an easier geometrical mural. Something I could tackle with blue tape and paint. Finally, I changed my mind and asked my friend Daniela for help. She is a real artist. One of those people who intuitively knows how to paint, sculpt, and choose colors. Once she signed in, I felt a lot more confident about this project succeeding. I decided to copy the Robert Murle Marx textile that Florence Lopez copied on her wall. Here is the photo inspiration of Lopez’s apartment in Paris:
After deciding on the design, I needed to decide on colors. Here are some posts on making that decision (1 – 2).I didn’t want to use the same colors Marx used. I knew that. I wanted my mural to look fresher and brighter. My first stop was at Cox Paint, my local paint store. I was in there 1 ½ hrs on a Tuesday morning. A nice man took pity on me and helped me match colors. I left with more than 10 samples. I am so grateful. Would not have been able to do this without him. After that visit, I knew I wanted green to be my main color. To look at possible final results, I used Photoshop to make amateur copies that showed possible color combinations. This made a big difference for me. It really helped me to understand how the colors looked together.This is the one I liked the most:

3. After all the main decisions were done, we started to work. We taped blue tape in all corners to protect other walls and window. I painted white (same as the wall) over the blue tape, this ensures you will get a straight line after taking out the tape.

4. We projected the image onto the wall. That wasn’t easy because my living room is small, but Daniela enlarged the image on the computer and that helped us get a bigger image projected onto the wall.

5. We traced all the lines with a pencil. You might want to write down which paint color goes inside each place.

6. Paint. We started with the main colors first. Those colors that we were sure we wanted to use. After doing this, we started making decisions on which colors to use as we worked. For example, we decided to use more white and less color for middle places, this kept the mural bright. Don’t you think?

The main green is Scotch Plains Green (587) by Benjamin Moore; the secondary green is Northern lights (586) by Benjamin Moore; the yellow is Lemon (2021-20) by Benjamin Moore; the dark purple is Shadow (2117-30) by Benjamin Moore; the light purple is color 5650 by Kelly-Moore.

BTW, to help creating straight lines, I found wider brushes to be better for controlling lines.

7. Add a second coat of paint where needed- Very important indeed! Also, use white paint to fix imperfections.

And here are the photos of the final result:

And that was it! Took 8 hrs and 2 people.

As we were creating this mural, we realized how good it was looking! Has that happened to you? When you doubt a project, but keep at it, and then you find it is actually turning out to be a SUCCESS!!!?? I think that might be the story of this blog, too.

Thanks for stopping by! Let me know if you have any questions.

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