Posts

3 Cute Gold Ring Wreath DIY’s

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.

Let Us Connect:

2016 Winter Eclectic Home Tour – Holiday Decor

Our Winter Eclectic Home Tour is here. This is the post where I finally show you how we have decorated our home for the Holidays (enter drum beats of excitement). Hope you get some good inspiration for your home with this post. Let me know if you do!

First, let me thank Jess from Domicile 37 for organizing this blog event- the biggest one of the season!!! If you are here from Insieme House, welcome! Hope you like my  blog and decide to come for a visit more often!

Before we get started, I wanted to remind you that this year my idea was to use a lot of greenery to decorate. I made garlands and wreaths that became the main component of my Holiday decorations (you will soon be witness #1 of this fact). I also added pine and cedar leaves here and there for a special touch. I am happy with how it came out- hope you agree.

Without further adieu, let’s take a look at the photos because I know that is the real reason you are all here. Sometimes I wonder how many readers take the time to read my hilarious posts completely. Maybe 20%? or less? Ok. here we go.

Let us start with photos of the entrance of our house, because I believe an entryway has to scream Happy Holidays as much as the interior of the house, don’t you agree?

Entrance
Hi, Mr. Golden Deer Head. I love you and that copper table you are sitting on. Oh, and that cedar? Just a touch so you can feel more at home (love emoji). Although, if you don’t like metals this would be a hate emoji. I bought most of my ornaments and decorations in previous years. The trick for me is to buy Christmas decorations the day after Christmas. This is when you get the best deals, plus, it is a real treat to open the Christmas decorations box a year later and find all the things you bought 12 months before and already forgot about. For example, that deer golden head from Target, which I am in love with now.
I created a fake tree arrangement with noble pine branches and decorated it with silver ornaments from Ikea. It gives the entrance a festive look, I think. That brass vase you might ask? That is a Flower Market score that is dear to my soul and happiness.That is me in that picture, in case you were wondering; the writer, photographer, and blogger aficionado that likes to spend her time beautifying her home instead of making dinner (or cleaning for that matter).

Living Room
winter-eclectic-home-tour-17Remember the DIY Holiday Garland post I did last week? Well, some of you complained about my garland being sad and lonely. Well, not anymore. Here she is with a deer, star, trees, ornaments, and flowers. Isn’t she a happy camper now? I like it a lot. Hope you do, too.I have been doing gold ring wreaths because  they are gorgeous and easy. This photo is an example, don’t you agree? This coming Monday I will be posting a tutorial on how to make different gold ring wreaths. I would recommend you coming back for that one because it will make your life a million times better. Remember those nice bookshelves that a lot of you liked from my last One Room Challenge? Well, my friend Yassi, the same one that styled the shelves for the ORC, came to style them again for this Holiday Home Tour. She added green, red, and Christmas decorations to achieve the perfect Holiday bookshelf. Also, we added that cedar garland that is SO cute, because this year is all about garlands and greens, like I mentioned 5 times on this post already, in case you were not taking me seriously.

I made this centerpiece with lots of cedar leaves and a candle. Just that.

Hallway
I dressed up this bookshelf on the hallway with Holiday gear. Again, a pine garland and some eucalyptus on the bottom give it a nice touch. The white candle holders are from IKEALiving Room – Part 2The Christmas tree ornaments have taken me years to collect.  The brass deers were a Rose Bowl find from a couple of months ago.

PS: Now that my kids are older (3 and 5), they play with decorations and destroy and average of 5 of them per season. Not cool, kids, not cool. In an effort to avoid more damage, I have decided to hang the delicate ornaments on top of the tree, out of reach, but these rascals always manage to get them anyway. The moral of this story is to not get attached to Holiday ornaments (or any material possessions) when children under 5 live under your roof. I hope you learn this lesson ASAP. It will save you from great heartache. winter-eclectic-home-tour-5winter-eclectic-home-tour-18 winter-eclectic-home-tour-21winter-eclectic-home-tour-10This tree made with copper string lights in front of the mural is pretty awesome. I wish I had a better photo of it, but I don’t, so you will have to take my word for it. It gives the room a nice touch.

Kitchenwinter-eclectic-home-tour-9My kitchen is colorful so I used these cute trees from Target to decorate and add even more color. Extra ornaments, couple of oil painting, and voila!winter-eclectic-home-tour-22winter-eclectic-home-tour-8Ok, here were are at the end of my Winter Eclectic Home Tour. Thanks for stopping by. I hope you come back again soon and don’t be shy about leaving comments. I LOVE reading them.

Now that you are done here, please, head over to The Gathered Home for the next and final stop of this amazing, incredible, and unique hop tour.
winter-eclectic-home-tour-3

Please Note: Links to Home Tour are not live until day of tour

Monday

Bright Green Door // Michelle Matangi Home // Sharon Williams // CAD Interiors // Domicile 37

Tuesday

Casa Watkins Living // Maggie Overby Studios // House Homemade // French & French Interiors // Style Mutt Home

Wednesday

Up To Date Interiors // The Striped House // Designing Vibes // Iris Nacole // Fearfully & Wonderfully Made // Blue i Style

Thursday

PMQ for Two // Maker of Home // Go Haus Go // Whimsical Blue Living // FOXY OXIE

Friday

This is Our Bliss // Monica Wants It // Insieme House // Jest Cafe // The Gathered Home

Let Us Connect:
mural

How To Make A Mural

living-room-19-copy

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
  1. 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:jestcafe-com-florence-lopez1
  2. After deciding on the design, I needed to decide on colors. Here are some posts on making that decision (12).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:

tk

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.

mural-tutorial mural-tutorial-2

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.

mural-tutorial-4 how-to-make-a-mural-2

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

how-to-make-a-mural 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.

how-to-make-a-mural-3 how-to-make-a-mural-4 how-to-make-a-mural-5how-to-make-a-mural-6 how-to-make-a-mural-7

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:

living-room-22 living-room-19-copyliving-room-8 living-room-21 living-room-20living-room-7-copy-recoveredAnd 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.

Let Us Connect: