Category Archives: Uncategorized

DIY Fabric “Wallpaper”

When I was designing Ridge’s nursery, I knew I wanted to incorporate some black and white buffalo check. I found some wallpaper that I LOVED, but it was pricey and I wasn’t sure how permanent I wanted it to be. Then I remembered that IKEA sold a really cute, large scale buffalo check fabric. I began researching how to make it stick to my walls and found some great options!

Materials:

Fabric of your choice

Liquid starch

Thumb tacks and painters tape

Paint roller and tray

Small sponge brush

X-acto knife

Measure the area you want to cover and add 6 or so inches to each side to allow for shrinkage. Add more if you plan on pre-washing your fabric. I didn’t pre-wash because i’m a lazy DIY’er.
Steam or iron your fabric to get all the wrinkles out. I also didn’t do this at first and ended up having to steam part of it while the other part was stuck on the wall. FUN times haha!
I started by using thumbtacks and tape to secure my fabric to the top of the wall
Starting at the top corner I rolled some liquid starch on the wall then smoothed my fabric on top of it. Work in small areas because the starch dries fast!
Then roll the liquid starch on top of the fabric. You want to make sure it is completely saturated.
Continue doing this along the whole wall working in 1-2 foot increments. Be careful not to pull the fabric too taught. I used a small sponge brush along the edges to make sure they were very saturated and I used pins every foot or so to really secure it while it dried.
Allow to dry completely. At this point I taped all the excess back to the wall. It will look splotchy until it dries.
Use an x-acto knife to trim off the excess

My awesome mom was kind enough to help me with this project. She always seems to get roped into my nesting projects, sorry mom! She is seriously the best though. I think this could be done by yourself, but an extra set of hands is very helpful if you have them!

I haven’t tried removing my fabric yet, but from what I’ve read it comes off easily with just water! I love how it turned out and love that its something i can easily change if i want to!

This is a fairly easy project that can give you the look of wallpaper without the removal hassle. My favorite bonus is it can be done on a very tight budget if you can find fabric you love inexpensively!

(Side note: I thought about editing out the lovely bite marks on my crib but decided not to because that’s life. My THREE amazing, sweet, precious boys have slept in this crib and the imperfections each of them has added over time reminds me of how fast time flies by and how important is it to cherish each day. Life is messy, dirty and imperfect just like my furniture, and I wouldn’t have it any other way!! Sentimental rant over…)

Best inexpensive ways to fill your walls with style.

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Finding “art” for your walls is probably one of the most difficult things to finish off a space. It’s hard to find the right scale, the right style, the right price point all in something that appeals to you. We get asked by friends and family and all the people where to look for things to fill their empty walls. So that totally inspired this post.

Today we wanted to share some of our secrets to finding wall art that fill up our big walls in our houses in ways that don’t break the bank, but bring a lot of style to our spaces.

Chalkboards. Chalkboards were all the rage for a long time, and guess what?! They’re still in! We love them personally because they can bring a lot of texture to your home, as well they’re like totally interchangeable with the seasons. They’re pretty inexpensive to make, you can find things like vintage windows or window screens to use as your “frame” which makes them fun & interesting. We also love to whip up our on frames using 1 x 2 pine strips.
Inexpensive framed prints. There are so many cute options out there in the world of prints, you can pick up a cute inexpensive frame from Ikea and no one would know it only cost you a couple bucks. I just grabbed some of this vintage style wrapping sheets from, Paper Source Co. Whenever I’m looking for something unique, they’re my go to source! They are extremely budget friendly, and provide such a great touch. We’ve used this wrapping sheets for everything from cute “wallpaper” on the back of a hutch, to wall art. Seriously such a great secret weapon!
Architectural Salvage. I’m sure you know this one, but we love to use “found” objects on our walls. We have made regular Ikea frames into bigger statements using reclaimed bead board. Vintage windows. Ceiling tiles. These are great for bringing loads and loads of texture and interest, not to mention a little bit of Farmhouse flair to our builder grade homes.
Homegoods. How could we forget our favorite spot? They have some great deals and ever changing stock. When in doubt we can almost always walk in and find something great that works for our spaces. It’s so addicting because they are always getting new items so stopping in on a regular basis is a must. Check

We hope that helped you with some ideas on how to fill your empty walls with some pretty things!

Copycat Swig Sugar Cookies with a Twist

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Happy Independence Day! I’m sure by now everyone and their dog have tried these copycat Swig sugar cookies. There are millions of recipes floating around, all very similar, but these are my favorite. My husband, an avid sugar cookie connoisseur, has actually been making these in our family for a while now. I decided to try them for our fourth of July family get to together. Can you believe I have NEVER made sugar cookies before?! Crazy, I know. I have always really loved baking, but have never been much of a sugar cookie fan so I’ve just never made them.They were delicious! This recipe is very similar to others you’ll find on pinterest but i like to add a little vanilla and almond extract to the dough and I like to do my own frosting.

Swig Sugar Cookies

Ingredients:

1 C butter slightly softened

3/4 C vegetable oil

1 1/4 C sugar

3/4 C powdered sugar

2 T water

2 eggs

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 tsp almond extract

1/2 t baking Soda

1/2 t cream of tarter

1 t salt

5 1/2 C flour

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Cream together butter, vegetable oil, sugar, powdered and water.

Once incorporated, add in eggs and beat until just combined.

Add vanilla and almond extract.

Combine dry ingredients in a separate bowl then slowly add to butter mixture.

Mix until everything is just combined.

Roll the dough into golf ball sized balls and place on your cookie sheet. I like to line my cookie sheets in parchment paper.

In a small dish combine about 1/4c sugar and a pinch or two of salt.

Find something you can smash your dough balls down with. I used a 1/4 cup measuring cup.

Dip the bottom of your cup in the sugar and salt mixture then smash your dough down so it makes your nice rough cut edges.

I like to then sprinkle more of the sugar/ salt mixture on top of the dough.

Bake at 350 degrees for about 8 minutes. Let them cool on your pan for a couple minutes then transfer to a cooling rack.

Once your cookies are cooled, frost with my favorite buttercream! I personally prefer this buttercream to the traditional swig frosting,

Frosting:

1 cup (2 sticks) softened butter

4 cups powdered sugar

1/2 tsp almond extract

1/2 tsp coconut extract

1-2 tsp milk

Directions:

Beat your butter for about a minute.

Add two cups powdered sugar and beat.

Now add your coconut and almond extracts.

Add your last two cups of powdered sugar.

Thin with milk or cream if needed.

Frost and try not to eat a whole pan!

Best Budget Friendly Farmhouse Rugs

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We love rugs in every space, every room, rug all the places. They do a really great job of grounding spaces, adding texture, coziness, and pattern. I feel like they just really finish off a space and make it feel complete and put together.

But finding a rug that works for you can be difficult, and finding rugs that are within your budget is a whole other struggle. Gorgeous rugs don’t have to be some crazy investment that you’re afraid to walk on and live on once it arrives. Picking a rug that will finish a space, but not kill you to replace when your kid spills punch on it is high on our list of priorities.

Enter Rugs USA. Seriously the best website to find rugs on a budget. They have SO many options, and amazing sales. Right now they have a TON of rugs for 70% off + an extra 20% through July 20th.

There are THOUSANDS and THOUSANDS of rugs on Rugs USA, so we curated a collection of a few of our favorites. Some are in our home and others we just wish were.

Finally Fall: Rylen’s Fall Home Tour 2016

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Jenna and I were so excited to be included in this Finally Fall blog hop! We feel like the theme “finally fall” could not be more fitting for us Arizonans. We have to fake it till we make it for quite a while until it FINALLY starts to cool down here!This fall/holiday season is going to be an interesting one with baby coming soon. I normally love to decorate for Halloween but I know with a newborn around I won’t be changing out my decor anytime soon. I wanted some simple, neutral touches of fall that would transition well until Christmas comes out and ones that I (hopefully) won’t get sick of!
I still love these little copper wire pumpkins Jenna and I made for Everything Home magazine last fall. It was fun to pull them out and see they had a nice patina on them since the last time I had seen them!

I love this hallway. It’s been almost a year now and I’m still not sick of it, which is a good sign. The buffalo check makes the best backdrop for the holidays.

I was so excited to find this magnolia wreath on decor steals. I’ve been wanting one for SO long but could never justify spending $90 on one. Can you spy my little photo bomber? Photographing a room takes skills, photographing a room with little hooligans running around is an art. This last time we were photographing, I kept thinking we needed a behind the scenes video going on because it was not as serene as the pictures make it look!

This is one of my favorite times of year. I love everything that fall brings and cant wait to start all of our fun fall traditions! Thanks for stopping by!

Be sure to stop by our fellow Finally Fall Home Tours. They will all make you swoon!

Black and White Nursery

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It’s finally done, and with only 4 weeks to spare! This nursery has definitely been a labor of love. Have you ever had one of those projects that you thought was going to be a piece of cake and end up saving you money in the end but goes the complete opposite? Yeah that was the nursery. I think it was worth all the headache though:)

Here are a few before pictures of the room right after we bought the house.

All pretty in pink 😉

It had a chair rail a few feet from the floor but it didn’t go all the way around the room because of the castle in the corner. So I wanted to take the chair rail off. Piece of cake right? Um, no haha. The chair rail was nailed AND glued on so taking it off was a disaster. The paint and drywall was peeling off in chunks and it left a terrible mess. We figured the cost of having it repaired would be about the same as planking the whole room so I went with planking much to my husbands dismay. Since we were planking the room I figured why not add new window, closet and door molding and new baseboards! My husband loved that too (insert eye roll). But it was all totally worth it in the end! I love how the vertical planking turned out. We used the same process here as Jenna and I have both used in our homes with the 4×8 sheets of plywood.

I was CONVINCED this baby was a girl so I already had a baby girl nursery designed in my head. Needless to say, it is actually a BOY! It took me a while to change gears and decide on a design I loved for baby boy. The black and white buffalo check was my inspiration and from there everything fell into place.

I debated on wallpaper but wanted something that was A. cost effective and B. easy to change out if we ever had another baby and it was a girl. I found some awesome buffalo check fabric at IKEA and decided to try out some fabric wallpaper. It worked great and was really pretty easy to apply! I’ll post a tutorial on that process soon.

I found this adorable pillow at home goods and was immediately in LOVE! Look at all that texture, what dreams are made of right?!

I put a basket of baby essentials next to my chair, including my favorite buffalo check nursing cover courtesy of Milkmaid Goods. I seriously can’t wait to use it!Let’s talk about this Llama print. Amazing huh?! My husband thought I was loosing my marbles when I bought this but I just think it’s just perfect. I got this dresser off craiglist and of course forgot to take a before picture. I painted it a soft black and bought some hardware from amazon that I painted gold.

I’m loving the modern, monochromatic look with little pops of vintage and green. Now all we have to do is wait for baby to make his debut (hopefully sooner rather than later)!

I had so much help from family and friends filling holes, sanding, nailing, and painting and am so grateful for their willingness to help bring the vision I had to life. We seriously have been so blessed with the BEST support system!

Bedskirt: made by my mom

Sheet: Aiden and Anais (HERE)

Mobile: made by me (similar HERE)

Curtains:IKEA (I added black pom poms)

White rug: home goods (SIMILAR)

Black and white rug: IKEA

Black and white throw: IKEA

Pouffe: Target

White basket: Target

Pillow on Chair: Home goods

Black lamp: IKEA

Llama print: ETSY

Faux plants: Target

DIY Slipcover for a Vintage Settee

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My settee is FINALLY finished! YAY!!! I’ve had most of it done for quite a while now but could not bring myself to finish the cushion for some reason! With the baby coming in October, nesting has finally kicked in though so hopefully I will have the drive to finish up all my other half-done projects.

Ever since I can remember my Mom has had this cute little living room set. It was in our living room growing up then she moved the settee to her bedroom after she recovered the wing backs that went with it. She decided to get rid of it so I snagged it, knowing it had the potential to be amazing again. It’s probably as old as I am, so needless to say it was in need of a face-lift.

If you are considering a slipcover project, don’t be intimidated! You really only need basic sewing skills and there are SO many great tutorials out there. When I first started slip-covering my favorite tutorials were Miss Mustard Seed’s video tutorials found HERE. No kidding they are so awesome and totally make you feel like you can do it! I watched them a few times before I started my project then referred back to them if I had any questions or hiccoughs along the way.

For the base of this settee I used drop cloths. I’ve used drop cloths found at Home Depot or Lowes for many of my slipcovers. They are a pretty inexpensive fabric option, especially when you are learning. It has seemed to hold up pretty well too. Just be sure to wash the drop cloth on hot and dry it before you start so they won’t shrink later. It also helps to use fabric softener and/or dryer sheets to help the stiff fabric to soften up. The beauty of slipcovers is that they don’t HAVE to be perfect. They are supposed to look lived in. This leaves a lot of wiggle room when making one.

For the cushion I did the piping and underside out of drop cloth. I used charcoal ticking stripe from Fabric.com for the top. Lucky for you it is on crazy SALE right now for $4.86 a yard!

I am a very sentimental person so I love having pieces in my home that tell a story or have been a part of my life for a long time. I love the lines of this settee and think it makes the perfect addition to my forever ongoing master bedroom renovation.

DIY Vintage Chalkboards

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I have been dying to make a green chalkboard for my dining room ever since I saw an adorable one used on an episode of Fixer Upper. My husband found it completely unnecessary to replace the one I already made, but I NEEDED it! I had originally planned to do something a little different until Jenna found two amazing screens! They were only asking $20 for the pair so I had her snag them and figured we would put them to use somewhere! We decided they were the perfect solution to my green chalkboard desire. So here is how we made them:

Materials

-A frame. It can be an old picture frame, window, screen etc…

– Backing for your chalkboard. My favorite material to use for chalkboards is backer board or melamine. You can get it at home depot or Lowes in super thin 4’x8′ sheets. The melamine is white on one side and kind of a brown/ particle board looking on the other. The backer board is brown on both sides. It is so smooth and makes a great chalkboard finish. Plus this stuff is super thin so it’s light which is nice when you are hanging something big like this.

-Chalkboard paint. We got ours at Lowes but home depot has it as well. If you are doing black instead of green I would highly suggest using the kind in the spray can, it is SO easy! We have yet to find green chalkboard paint in a spray can though. Lowes has a ton of greens you can have them tint the paint to. We went with La Fonda Plaza Green.

-Paint brush or roller

-Chalk

-Nail gun/ nails

Clean out your frame if it has a screen or glass in it. I had to cut the screen out but it was super easy.
You can have the hardware store cut down your backer board to the dimensions you need or use a table saw if you have one.
Make sure the surface of your board is clean and start painting. You can use a paint brush or a roller. I’ve done both. The roller seemed to take more coats but the coats went on quicker. Either way works 🙂
Once your paint is dry, lay the board on top of your frame and nail it into the back. if you don’t have a nail gun, never fear! Your can use a plain old hammer and finishing nails.
Add some saw-tooth hangers to the back, or use a french cleat if its REALLY heavy
Season your chalkboard. You do this by running the chalk on its side up and down vertically then horizontally. After you cover the whole thing you can go back with a soft cloth and rub it in circles to get the excess chalk off or use an eraser.

Chalkboards are super easy projects that quickly add character and make a fun statement in your home! What do you think? Are you jumping on the GREEN chalkboard train?

The Collected House

Love where you live.

Category Archives: Uncategorized

DIY Fabric “Wallpaper”

Best inexpensive ways to fill your walls with style.

Copycat Swig Sugar Cookies with a Twist

Best Budget Friendly Farmhouse Rugs

Finally Fall: Rylen’s Fall Home Tour 2016

Black and White Nursery

DIY Slipcover for a Vintage Settee

DIY Vintage Chalkboards