Decor

The Finishing Touch: Wainscoting Ideas and Designs

When you picture wainscoting, you’ll normally imagine white wainscoting going about halfway up the wall, and the wall is painted. But there are a few other wainscoting ideas and designs to consider.

Painting Over the Wainscoting

Have a look at picture (1). The wainscoting panels have been painted the same color as the wall. This adds depth and style to a normal flat wall. It is a subtle design element that creates a luxurious finish.

Another DIY option is to paint the wainscoting a different shade than the wall. The best way to do this is to paint the wainscoting a darker shade (say grey, red, or blue) than the wall.

And then there is always the timeless and classic option of keeping the walls and wainscoting both white, or off white – just like in the living room in picture (3).

Different Wainscoting Styles

There are 2 main styles when it comes to wainscoting. You have embossed wainscoting panels, where it sticks out like individual picture frames – just like the bathroom wainscoting in picture (6). And then there are debossed panels, where it is recessed, pushed in (5).

Usually wainscoting will be one big square or rectangle. Picture (3) shows two rectangles close together creating a thick frame. While the wainscoting in picture (6) has a double railing layer on top. And then you could always get more creative with the shape and designs, just like the wainscoting in picture (7).

Different Heights

You can see that the rooms in the mood board have gone with different wainscoting heights. The best look though would be wainscoting that is somewhere between half way up the way and a third up the wall. So a bit lower down.

Wainscoting is technically when you add wooden panels to the lower part of the wall. But there is always the option of adding full height, floor to ceiling, paneling to decorate the space. Just like the living room in picture (4).

Some Other Decorative Wall znd Ceiling Design Ideas

Here are a few other ideas to consider when remodeling your walls:

How about adding decorative crown molding. There is the simple standard crown molding, with the different grooves. Or there is the traditional, Victorian style crown molding with elaborate designs.
If you have a chandelier, mini chandelier, a large pendant light, or even a fan in the room, then why not frame it with a ceiling medallion.

3 Unique Vintage Ceiling Design Ideas

Here are some other posts to get more ideas from:

image credits: 1/2/3/4/5/6/7

April 12, 2016 in Decor, Vintage Design

Design Ideas for Decorative Ceiling Medallions

A ceiling medallion, originally called a ceiling rose, comes from the early 1500s when King Henry the VIII ruled. The ceiling rose acted as a symbol of secrecy, and would be carved over a meeting table – meaning you could speak freely.

These days they act as decorative design elements in a room.

Where To Put Them

Decorative ceiling medallions are usually found framing a chandelier. But you can also use them to frame modern recessed lights – just like in picture (4), they can also be used to frame fans.

You can even repurpose a ceiling medallion, and use it in a creative DIY project. – Like decorating a closet door (DIY Challenge: Give Your Closet Doors A Makeover – Ideas and Design Tips)

Or create a decorative gallery wall of ceiling medallions. Stick a few different ones to a wall, and paint over them the same color as the wall

Different Shapes and Styles

When it comes to shapes, you have the standard circle. But you can also get oval, octagon and then there are more elaborate and decorative shapes, like the large ceiling medallion in picture (3)

The classic style is white. A white medallion on a white ceiling, will always look good. But you can see from pictures (6) (7) and (8) that the ceiling medallions can be painted over to add pops of color to the room (or painted black for a more modern look).

Check out the 2 piece ceiling medallion in picture (5), as an example of a unique design option.

For other ideas on how to decorate your ceiling, have look at this post: 3 Unique Vintage Ceiling Design Ideas. It goes over ideas including ceiling medallions, using Anaglypta wallpaper, and decorative crown molding.

For more decorative decor posts, search through the ideas on my page here.

The Finishing Touch: Wainscoting Ideas and Designs

image credits 1/2/3/4/5/6/7/8

April 9, 2016 in Decor

Homemade Gift Ideas: From Using a Sharpie, to Copper and Concrete DIYs

After spending some time writing a lot of posts on the best home DIY projects out there, and doing some myself, I’ve put together this huge list of easy and cheap homemade gift ideas. The ideas are grouped together based on materials (copper, concrete, air dry clay) and basic tools (using a sharpie, using a printer).

There is bound to be something in this list that you can use as an idea for a personal and memorable handmade gift. Whether it is for a friend, for mom, the men in your life, or a family member – for chirstmas, as a thank you, or a birthday.

All Things Dip Dyed

There are so many things that can be dip dyed to add some elegant handmade styling:

A beanbag cover
Pillowcases
Candles
Table cloth
A lamp shade

For pictures and more ideas visit my blog post here: All Things Dip Dyed Mood Board

Using a Sharpie

Here are some things to create using a Sharpie

Doodle on some porcelain mugs, or draw on a quote or message
Cute homemade doodled napkins
Add a handmade touch to a lamp

For more ideas and pictures on using a sharpie, have a look here: Home Decor Ideas: The Sharpie Touch

Inexpensive Handmade Ideas Using Your Printer

If you have a lazerjet printer, then you can print out images and photos that can be transferred onto wood (wooden panels, wooden crates, a stool, etc.). Or if you don’t have lazerjet printer, you can always go down to your local printer and get the photos printed there
Print out photos and mod podge them onto ceramic tiles to create custom handmade coasters
If you print on fabric transfer paper, you could make fun napkins, pillowcases, or bed sheets
Or head down to the printers to print out cheap large posters (they are called plotter/blueprint/engineer prints) that will cost $5-6. You can get inexpensive large frames from IKEA.

There are so many more inexpensive homemade gift ideas that you could do with your printer. So visit my other post to see some other ideas, links to tutorials, and pictures of them: Home Decor Ideas: Using Your Printer

Do You Have a Drill?

If you so, print out a design and grab a sheet of plywood. You can then drill the design onto the plywood, just like I did when I created this DIY project: Drill and Plywood DIY Art Board.

Creative Homemade Gifts Made Out of Air Dry Clay

Here are some ideas for using air dry clay:

You could create a faux deer bust to hang up on the wall
Make little photo stands
Craft some DIY garden markers
How about some decorative fridge magnets
Or use a doily to imprint a decorative design and make some bowls or trays.

For pictures and links to tutorials, head over to my post here: Home Decor Ideas: Using Air Dry Clay

Using Plants

Group together some vintage bottles to create a unique planter set
Use oven bake clay to make miniature planters

Elegant and Stylish Plant Decor Ideas

Using Chalkboard Paint

Grab some chalkboard paint and a plant pot to create a labeled planter. And then plant what is labeled.
The same can be done with glass jars to create labeled storage containers.

Have a look here for more ideas and some pictures: DIY Chalkboard Paint Decor Ideas for the Home

Going Vintage

Have a look my post here: Handmade: Simple DIY Vintage Decor Ideas, to see ideas ranging from DIY vintage containers, curtain tiebacks, and sewing doilies together to create a table runner.

The Glamour of Copper

Copper pipes and fittings can be used to make:

Planter stands
A hanging planter
A coat rack
Or you can get copper spray paint, and add some lux to candles, a stool, or storage containers.

Have a look at the pictures in this post to get more inspiration for using copper to make easy homemade gifts: DIY Mood Board: Playing With Copper.

Crafting Cool Homemade Gifts Out of Concrete

Here are just a few ides on what you could make out of concrete at home:

A decorative letter
A diamond paperweight
A pendant lamp
Or even a coat rack

Home Decor Ideas: Using Concrete

Or how about following along with a DIY that I did recently, where I made a concrete stool with a Koi Fish design inlayed into the seat: DIY Remix: Koi Fish $5 Buck Stool DIY

An easier DIY project would be to create concrete plaques, using any design you can print using your home printer. This is a DIY I did and posted here: DIY Experiment: Embossing Concrete Challenge

Do They Have a Pet?

Here are some crafty ideas for a creating a cat or dog bed.

For a cat lover:

A cute handmade hammock bed can be made to hang under a table
An old suitcase or a vintage one from Etsy can be crafted into a vintage cat bed
Or how about building a mini teepee bed

Making Sleeping Arrangements: Creative Ideas For Cat Beds

For a dog lover, here are some old items that can be upcycled into a custom dog bed:

An old tyre
An old crib
Or an old vintage suitcase

Making Sleeping Arrangements: Creative Ideas For DIY Dog Beds

Handmade Coaster Ideas

Coasters can be made out of:

Wood slices
Slices of rustic pallets
Agate slices
Bathroom tiles
Stamping fabric
Or how about mod podging photos onto ceramic tiles

For links and photos on how to create these ideas, have a look at my post here: Home Decor Ideas: DIY Coasters

Using Leather

Here are a few handmade things you can make out of leather. For more ideas, and some picture, visit this post: Home Decor Ideas: Using Leather.

DIY coasters
Cabinet pull replacements
A hanging magazine rack
A pillow case
Or storage trays

Search my full list of decor and DIY posts can be found here:

Home DIY Decor Ideas

April 9, 2016 in Decor, DIY

Design Tips on How To Create a Vintage Gallery Wall

Here are some quick tips and ideas for creating your own vintage gallery wall:

Mix up different frames. You don’t need to have all of the frames the same designs. The more different they are the better – just like the living room gallery wall in picture (1)
Thrifting for your frames, or going on Etsy, would be the best way to build up your gallery wall. Vintage style picture frames are quite decorative. You have all of the growves, or curvy shapes (2).
Mix up rectangle frames with oval ones
And mix up small with large frames, just like the gallery wall in picture (3)
Why not include a vintage style clock (4), decor letters, vintage signs, or a mirror into the gallery wall layout
You can also create a more modern vintage look, with simple picture frames and black and white vintage style images inside – you can see this in picture (5) and (6)