Front Porch Makeover

Sometimes, I love to be original and sometimes I feel no desire to reinvent the wheel, especially when projects are this cute!  I saw this idea on Unoriginal Mom and LOVED it.  I've wanted to do something on my front door for the longest time, but I'm not really a wreath maker, unless it involves pages from an atlas, like my DIY Book Page Wreath.  My MIL makes killer wreaths, but I haven't acquired that skill from her yet.  But this, this I could do and I happened to have extra mason jars and wood laying around so I only needed to purchase a few of the items making it incredibly inexpensive...which is my kind of project.

I pretty much duplicated exactly what she did, but made a few changes to each piece as I went.  I had burlap left from my Vintage Farm Nursery that made a return wrapped around this stunning bouquet of flowers.   

For the label, I probably created more work than what was necessary for myself (as always) but I used my wood transfer technique to create the outline and then painted it in with chalkboard paint.  I should have done two coats, but I was too excited to hang it!

I accidentally spilled my stain ALL OVER the garage floor and didn't notice until it was dry (awesome...sorry honey).  So to create a stained look, I watered down black acrylic paint and it worked PERFECTLY!  I'm glad I have a new technique to add the the book of ideas.  I may try it with a colored acrylic paint to see what different paint effects I can make.  (posts to come I'm sure)

What I love about the front porch is that it has patterns and details that you will see throughout the house so it creates a welcoming flow.  I have mason jars hanging in my living room and you can see the chevron pattern on the shelf in the entry way.  Just through the foyer, is my gallery wall which displays another chalkboard, similar to the one on the porch.  Even the color of the chalkboard appears in the wreath.  Makes me happy :)  

Oh, I love it.  I keep looking at pictures and fall in love all over again!  Now everytime I drive by, I slow down and admire the beauty!  Along with the mounted mason jar pallet, I wanted to hang a colorful chalkboard, apparently I'm obsessed with chalkboards.  I had my husband make this one but I made it the same way I made the one hanging on my Gallery Wall.

I have wanted something this color of blue for the longest time but I wasn't able to quite find the place for something that color in my house.  So when I decided to make a chalkboard, this color had no other contenders!

The combination between the teal and pink is perfect and makes an awesome statement on my front porch!

And yes, my American flag still sits on my front porch.  I hope to keep it there but it doesn't fit in too well with my new additions so I will be working on how I tie all of them together.  We are adding planters with perennials in the fall so I'm sure we'll come up with something by then!  But for now, I'm happy just as it is!

I hope you found some inspiration in these pictures!

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?