DIY Mason Jar Sconces

I love all things mason jars!  I'm very picky about what band wagons I jump on and this is one I had no problem hopping on!  I've mentioned Mim several times in my posts and my About Me page and she is the reason why I love them!  She always has a mason jar of really strong black tea sitting on her counter.  She just pours a little in a cup then adds her water and ice.  We love them so much that we've started drinking out of them ourselves!

When we started our Living Room project, I knew I wanted to make mason jar sconces to replace our old ones.  I looked up several different styles and combined a few different types to make these.  My husband helped me on these some but for the most part this project was all mine!  It feels good to make something yourself doesn't it?

We used left-over 2x6 from our rustic-x coffee table and cut them down to 25 inches in length, the length of our old sconces.

Then, we cut a second piece that was 6 inches.  But before we screwed that piece, we glued and screwed our triangle to the bottom of our 6 inch piece, making it a little easier to secure.

We secured it from the back by pre-drilling and counter sinking our screws so they were flush with the wood.  I stained them with a diluted black stain to match our coffee table then used 2 heavy duty d brackets on the back of each sconce to hang them on the wall.

You'll want to make sure to put your d brackets on before you hang your jar! To hang them, I used 1 inch thick eye hooks.  To attach the wire to the jar, I removed the seal cap and screwed two tiny holes (big enough for the wire to go through) on each side of the screw on lid, then I laced the wire through the drilled holes and then twisted the wire up and around itself and attached the jar. Did you follow that?  There are a few different ways to attach the wire and the eye hook, you'll find whichever way works for you.  We attached the eye hook to the sconce first, strung the wire through then attached the wire to the lid AND THEN screwed on the jar.  Whew.  What a process.  It's easy, I promise.

We wanted the jars to hang down 6 inches from the eye hook which took careful measuring!  I started out with 18 inch wire then cut it down as I went to make sure they hung evenly.

These jars completely finished the room.  They most definitely compliment the large yellow clock and tone it down.  Have I mentioned that I love this room?

Living Room {Part III}

I'm so happy I want to cry.  This is my new favorite place to sit and be.  It's a long way away from where it was last month.  If you haven't seen the before pictures, you must.  But don't judge me.  We've been so busy with our two little ones we haven't had time to focus on decorating.

A few months ago, we decided to throw my father in law a surprise party for his 60th birthday.  It was the perfect motivator to get this room done!  This project cost us around $200 by the time we bought paint, fabric and wood for the table.  It was a $200 well spent!  I hope you're inspired!

Check out our new Living Room!

Isn't the rustic-x table just beautiful?

Okay, how cute are these?!  I love my mason jar sconces!

We made this photo tree for my father-in-law's 60th suprise birthday party.  We hung pictures with twine and made Hanging Lightbulb Vases!  Adorable!

I decided to make our curtain tie backs with our yellow chevron fabric to help balance the yellow in the room.  They couldn't be more perfect.

Now what shall we do next?

Living Room Pillows

You must see the incredible job my MIL did on these pillows.  Gosh, I am so pleased.  She made sure the seams were perfect and that the designs matched.  And they do.  Perfectly.  PERFECTLY.

If you haven't see the "before" pictures of the Living Room, you have to see the dramatic difference between then and now.  Between paint, new decor and pillows we are transforming this room!    

We finally have more yellow to help balance out the clock.  We will be making curtain tie backs with the yellow chevron to help spread it out.  Yellow is so fun, isn't it?

I love these two patterns together.

 Look what an incredible job she did!  This was no easy task. 

 Beautiful, just beautiful.

 I want to spend all of my time in our Living Room.  Just sitting and staring at everything.

I love them!  We can't wait to get our rustic x table complete!  It should be assembled this weekend and we will be sanding and staining this week.  Hopefully I'll be posting pictures next weekend!

Living Room {Part II}

It has been so fun working along side my husband to transform our Living Room into a place we want to be.  Do you have a room like that in your house?  A room that you want to want to sit in but you end up avoiding it instead?  That's how we have felt about our Living Room for quite some time.  I mean, have you seen the before pictures?  It definitely needed some work!  I've been wanting to buy new furniture ever since we moved in but we kept having babies instead!  We decided to take things we have around the house and make it into a room that we want to be in.  The couches are pretty comfortable but the hand me down decor is starting to date itself.  It's the first room people see when they walk in so we want it to set the tone for the rest of our house.

Our To-Do List included:

1. Paint the walls {check}
2. Make new pillow cases {almost check...3/5 are complete}
3. Hang curtains {check}
4. Paint the clock {check}
5. Make new sconces
6. Make "new" pallet wall decor {almost check}
7. Build end pieces
8. New curtain tie backs (I added this one)

We are almost there!  I am experimenting with a few accent pieces that I'll share if they turn out.  They are one of those, "I wonder what would happen if..." experiments.    

This weekend we should be able to start working on our Rustic X tables.  We are going back and forth between building the end tables or a coffee table.  We think that having a coffee table may make the room look a little more complete but haven't quite made the decision yet!  The yellow clock is, yes, very yellow.  We have more yellows coming in other places that will help bring a balance to the room.  It's not done, but we're so happy with what we've accomplished!

Thank you to my amazing MIL for doing such a PERFECT job on our pillows!

Old Clock, New Look

Well, I did it.  I wasn't sure how it was going to look but that didn't stop me from doing it.  I took a big clock that my mother in law gave me and made it into a big statement by painting it yellow.  The yellow by itself was pretty, well yellow.  Like school bus yellow.  Like, "hey YIELD and look at me" yellow.  So to soften it up, I added some antiquing glaze to it.  I think it's perfect.  Right now it's on a light blue wall but we will be painting the room a shade of true gray.   

My husband says to me (after the fact), "When you suggested yellow, I really wasn't sure that I liked the idea but now that it's up it's going to look really good with everything else!"  Yes honey, I know.

What an inexpensive way to lighten up the room! Never under estimated the power of spray paint!

{To see what the clock looked like BEFORE, check out my Living Room post}