Periwinkle Cornflower Swag Wreath with Curly Willow and Raffia (How to)

This weekend, I continued my shed make-over with this whimsical periwinkle swag wreath for the shed door.  I bought the vintage door knob hook and Home Goods, and immediately knew that I wanted to create a loose swag with raffia for my shed door.  Here's the finished product, and the "how to".  This picture also shows a "sneak peak" at the periwinkle boards that Mr. Shabby Glam hung for me, but that's a blog for another day...once I finish filling and painting the screw holes and can post the "finished product". 

Periwinkle Swag Wreath hung on vintage door knob on the shed.

Hot glue additional flowers to fill in "sparce" areas.

Add flowers and leaves to ends of branches.

Begin binding stems together in layers. 
Start with curly willow, then add stems. 
I use waterproof Florist's tape to hold them, then add
hot glue under the tape to hold stems together.

Keep layering stems, taping and gluing
with each new layer.

Once you've taped and glued all your layers
of stems together add hot glue to the front
of the stems,  then wrap rafia around the stems to
cover your glue and tape.  Tie off the raffia
with a knot.

Create a loose Rafia bow with about 15 pieces of rafia.
Slip a wire through the back of the rafia bow. Add glue to secure.
Attach bow to swag with the wire.
Add hot glue to secure.

Periwinkle Swag Wreath with Cornflowers, Curly Willow, and Raffia.

Swag wreath on the shed.

 

Poker Table Leg Makeover

AFTER - Poker Table with New Legs

My son likes to play poker with his friends, and last year we bought him a vintage wooden poker chip case in an antique store for Christmas.  I picked up an oak octagon poker table from craigs list.  The table is in great shape, but the fold-out legs were a little wobbly.  I had already decided to replace my a faux-mosaic tile table with the new poker table, so -- with a little help from Mr. Shabby Glam -- I stole the fantastic iron legs from that table for my new poker table.  I think it turned out fantastic!  Don't you love the new iron legs on the poker table?

BEFORE - Poker Table from Craig's list.
Folding legs were a little wobbly and seemed out of proportion
to the table top.

 

This is the table I'm stealing the legs from.
Won't the top of this table make a great outdoor clock or something?

I removed the legs.

The iron base was too large to fit inside the frame, so we
 marked where we needed to cut the metal down to make it fit.

Mr. Shabby Glam (my wonderful hubby) cut down the metal
with a sawzall  saber saw, and now the legs fit perfectly!

I also stole the glass top from my discarded mosaic table.

Poker table with new legs.

Kitty Outhouse

Cat outhouse sign

So we have two new additions to the family, Marbles & Oreo, our pound rescue cats.  We already had two dogs, Lady & Merlin, so we now officially have a zoo.  We wanted to create an "attractive" covered litter box for our two new babies, and this is what we did.  We assembled a dog house bought at PetSmart, and  I hand painted a sign to make it more special.  The roof lifts off to clean the litter.  What do you think?

Kitty "outhouse", made from a dog house.

My backyard plan goes from my head to paper!

Lunch-time blog...my work gang ran errands at lunch, so here's a quick blog post at lunch.

I broke out my house survey and drew out the design for my backyard.  It is certainly not to scale, but it puts on paper the crazy ideas in my head.  Moving clockwise from 11 o'clock, it includes the side yard with a bamboo-shaded walkway and sweet potato vine ground cover, a lime tree, the garden shed, a vintage door trellis, a firepit, a hot tub (searching craigs list for this!), carport-turned pergola (inspiration picture below), patio table made of 2 vintage doors, wall-mounted buffet, bamboo living room furniture, headboard bench (as seen on the blog Confessions of a Curbside Shopaholic), magnolia tree, and new circular driveway with pergola in the current street-side yard.

Please excuse the crude drawing!  I'm obviously no artist with crayons!

The Plan for our Dream Backyard



Pergola Inspiration (from Lowes Home Magazine)



Chic Birdhouses

I painted some birdhouses for friends and family last year, and I think I'll incorporate a few painted birdhouses into my Chic Yard Makeover.  

Gardening Shed Birdhouse

Gardening Shed birdhouse (back)

Coffeehouse birdhouse for a friend

 

Beach Cottage Birdhouse for Father-in-law

Bait & Tackle Birdhouse for a fisher-friend

Wine Shop Birdhouse for a friend - this is actually the side view
of the Bait-Tackle Birdhouse above.
(My Wine-loving friend is married to my fisher-friend :-)

Never thought I'd be a Blogger, but here goes! Step One of my Salvage-Chic Backyard Makeover!

I have to admit, I never thought I'd be a blogger, but here I am with my first post...who knew?  I've become addicted to Confessions of a Curbside Shopaholic.  I eagerly await each new fabulous project she takes on and absolutely love the outdoor kitchen.  She has become my inspiration to create the Salvage-Chic Backyard of my Dreams!  My goal is to create an outdoor dining room for entertaining guests, and to create a great outdoor living area complete with chic salvage garden landscaping.  I'm a new blogger, so be kind!

The first step in the Dream Backyard is a Shed Makeover, because my shed was the eye-sore of my back yard - a a hideous old white aluminum.  Below is the before/after of the paint job.  I'm planning to add a vintage window with a shelf to the side, and hang some fun salvage chic decor.

Shed Before Paint - So Ugly!

Shed After Paint

Vintage Windows bought on Craigs List - one will go on the side of my shed.  Lots of options for using the rest!

Vintage Doors from Craigs List - Make a table? Make a Garden Trellis?  So many options!