Cartwheels In My Mind

Living Room Decor :: Vintage Yellow Cabinet.

Happy Wednesday everyone!

It's so gorgeous here in Baltimore...kinda makes it hard to stay inside and work.  But alas, somebody has to to it... :)

So, for today's post (sorry, you're stuck with me two days in a row again!) I thought it would be fun to share a little corner of our home.

We have a little nook off the side of our living room and for the longest time we just sort of let anything we needed to fall in that space. But when I found this amazing yellow cabinet at my favorite vintage shop, I just couldn't resist. SO...I brought it home and got to work. And let me tell you...there is nothing more fun to me than a little home decor project! :) The only thing about me and home decor is that I'm constantly adding, subtracting, painting...you get the idea. Nothing stays the same very long around here. So even though you may notice a few problems here and there (aka the tape paint around the inside edge of the mirror where I taped it to spray it yellow, the knobs are now small clock knobs from anthropologie, and all the art supplies are INSIDE the cabinet instead of being all around it) it doesn't look EXACTLY like this anymore, but it's still really close. And I still really love it.

 

First of all, let me just say that I LOVE the yellow color of the cabinet. I know that alot of people like to spray paint old things to make them look a little newer, but I like them to look as old as possible. It just fits my style and makes me feel like it has more sentimental value to it. Secondly, in order to lay out the room for you, I think I need to first share a photo of the colors we are working with:

The green color was one that I had them mix up especially for me at Lowe's (FACT: If you ask them to do a custom color for you you don't have to pay any extra.) and the highlighting colors are white (trim), orange and yellow. This photo shows the green a little more yellowy and the orange a little more obnoxious, but in real life they are really fabulous deep colors.

So for the cabinet display, I painted the decorative mirror (purchased painted red for $3 at a thrift store) yellow and then just simply leaned it against the wall. I love that when you are standing in the room and look into the mirror it makes the room seem bigger. It's also the first thing you see when you walk in the door so I wanted it to really give off a good vibe.

For the black chandelier I just used wall stickers from Target. They are so so great because you can take them off the wall and reposition if you don't like the way it lays at first. (Fact #2: After i did this project I was watching Kourtney & Khloe Take Miami and noticed that they used these exact same wall stickers in their Miami Dash Store.) 

Then I just gathered a few things from around the apartment and added them to the top of the cabinet...but only after putting down some colorful teatowels to add to the vintage effect but also because I love that they have all the colors of our living room. And also because a doilie or table cover would be too predictable. :)

And that's all there was to it! Such a fun little display to greet us when we walk through the door, and even though it fits the living room's color pallette, it kind of has an attitude of it's own...and I love that. OH! and best part...it gave us a bunch of new storage...which I (obviously!) high-jacked to wrangle in some of my art supplies. We do keep extra diapers in one of the doors, though, so it wasn't totally selfish on my part. Just mostly...:)

Just a couple side notes & supply credits: A. The decorative balls are from HomeGoods and came in a bag of 13 for $10.99. B. the lamp is also from Home Goods and was $29.99 C. The "I LOVE YOU" sign in the photo was just a prototype (you can probably tell by the way you can see right through it! :). It actually has been made into a canvas from Ritz Photos. I was just too lazy to retake the photo. D. The thing holding the "I LOVE YOU" sign is a plate holder...also from Target. I bought a blue one on clearance last year after Easter and spray-painted it white.

I think that's it! All this lovely weather has me in such a happy mood. I've been working on art from the second I wake up till the second I go to sleep (with a few hours in there spent playing with the babies of course!). There's just something about spring that puts me in the mood to WORK. Which is why I'm putting in lots of extra hours in order to keep up with my ever growing list! 

Which Reminds Me: what would YOU like to see more of here on Cartwheels? Leave a message here in the comments or shoot us an e-mail to: [email protected] and we'll 
see what we can do to get it here for you. And always remember, we are happy to answer any questions you might have about the projects we share here. All you need to do is ask, and if we know the answer we'll make sure you get it! 

In the meantime, want to see a sneak peek of what I'm working with as part of the last finishing touches to the nursery? (pardon the photo quality, it was taken from my iPhone.)

Yep, it looks like maybe we need to do a nursery week. What do you say? Because I've got way more than just one day's worth of art to share from inside that room. 

And with that, I leave you. But only till tomorrow...

xoxo, Cheryl 

RANDOM ME FACT: Whenever I see an ambulance or a life-flight helicopter I pray really hard for the person inside...because I have more than once been the one fighting for my life inside of emergency vehicles and I needed every prayer I could get...even from a stranger. I also always cry and pray at the site of car accidents...for the exact same reason.

reX raY inspired.

Rex Ray. Ever heard of him? I just recently discovered his wonderfulness. His art is sooOoooOoo different and unique. And you know me... I LOVE DIFFERENT. How would I describe his style... Hmmm... colorful/water-dropy looking/kaleidoscopey? Just see for yourself.

 

I stumbled across him at {or I guess I should say my friend stumbled across his work} while I was in TKMAXX. {have I told you about tkmaxx? It's just like tJmaxx but that's the UK version. haha. Hilarious!} I bought this book of postcards...

I thought to myself, " Book o' postcards, you are too pretty to send away to my friends&family... so I shall make art out of you so I can look at you whenever I want."

Take on old canvase like this one.  

Cover it with cardstock then tape the back so it doesn't go flying away one day. 

Pick out which pretties you want to glue on the front on the canvas... write a quick note to yourself... then hang it up! 

This project is easy beasy! The hardest part is picking out which cards you want.

Anatomy Of A Room :: A Vintage Nursery 02, Feedsack Pillow.

Happy Monday, my friends! I want to start off this post by apologizing...while sick last week I added some posts to the site from bed and apparently either forgot how to save them correctly or forgot the date. Either way, they didn't get posted...so I'm bringing them to you now! Better late than never, right? :)

Not too long ago, my friend Amy (Covey) sent me this old feed-sack in the mail, and as soon as I saw it I was super inspired and had lots of ideas for it.

(Here's a photo of an identical one that I found for sale on Etsy by seller tracytreasures13.)

I originally thought I'd use it in my kitchen since the side that's shown above has red and navy in it, but recently when I was cleaning out my art studio, it fell on the side that has only the black letters...and immediately I thought of adding lots of fun colorful flowers to it and making it into a pillow for Gracie's room. I just feel like the sack has that vintage feel that I'm going for, and the cream and black background with colorful accents are my favorite color combination.

The first thing that i did to design the pillow was to cut off a few little yo-yos from the huge quilt that is the main focal point of the room (you can see a bit of it here in the photo above)...that way it matched exactly. But then I added a few of my own fabric flowers with coordinating fabrics to add a little dimension since the yo-yos are so flat. To attach them, I just hand-stitched them directly onto the feedsack with a little bit of thin felt lining the inside of the sack to keep it from tearing. 

Then, to make the sack into a pillow, I took the original flat feedsack and filled it with quilt batting...packing it in tight enough that it has a pillow-like texture. I didn't worry too much about it being the most comfortable pillow in our home since it will be used for decorative purposes only, but I did want it to function correctly. 

Even though it's not perfect, it's perfect for the feel of that room. And that's the most important thing, right? And I sort of love that it's the only one of it's kind. 

What are YOU working on this week?

 

mirRor. mirRor on thE wall.

G'day maties! I've decided that today I'm going talk in an australian accent. Sometimes I like to pretend when I'm on the phone that I am anything but American. It usually doesn't work... But, I still like to attempt having a cool accent. Anyways, have I ever told you how much I love before-and-after photos? It's true. 

BEFORE.

AFTER.

Ta-da! By the way my loo {I try and say british words as often as possible} has been so sad looking since my hubs&I moved {last April} I decided that when company comes over they ALWAYS go to the loo at some point during the visit so I wanted to make it a fun place to go into.... Is that weird? Hmm.. So, I added bits and pieces throughout the month{s} but never had a mirror... until this project.  What's a bathroom without a mirror?!? It might as well not have had a toliet.... haha. just kidding.

All I did was paint the mirror with Fusia India Ink, glue each stamp on {which was a little time consuming} and cover it in modge podge.

Here it is... my very tiny downstairs loo. Now all I have left to do is convince my landlord to paint... then this little piece of loo heaven will be a vintage yellow.

Have you ever heard of a soap-pump-holder-that-used-to-be-a-picture-frame? ALL I did was take the back off of the frame and laid it flat. The glass is super easy to clean if there's soap spillage on it. And the typewriter? RUB ON STAMP of course! :)

Tampons... every girl has to wear them. So, why not have them displayed in a pretty mason jar covered with paper that has a pretty print on it. 

Wanna know where i purchased all these amazing stamps? The same place i got the mirror. Two words: THRIFT STORE. What are you waiting on? There's always some kind of treasure just waiting to be discovered and transformed into something pretty! 

Her Room. Part Two.

Welcome back everyone.

I hope you enjoyed the images from the first half of my daughter's bedroom.  I'm so thankful that I took pictures before I let her "live" in it!  ;)

The other half of the room used to have a closet in the corner, built into the room.  But it was so old and poorly built that we decided to utilize wardrobes and dressers instead.  Plus for us to build a closet would have taken up so much of that 9x10 floor space.  And that we just couldn't spare.

In the corner I hung Ikea paper lanterns and some other paper lanterns I made from scrapbooking paper.  There's also a print from etsy (you can find it here).  I think that was one of my first etsy purchases!

The cabinet used to be my granny's.  I remember she used to have a cake in there with a flower on top and a wine glass turned over on that!  She used it for display.  I painted the cabinet white and made a "curtain" to hang behind the glass.  We use it for a dresser.

On either side of the cabinet we have two large baskets for toys.  An reproduction jewelery box sits on top.

I embrace the idea of little storage because I think that it makes us really think about what we want to keep and what we want to buy.  Kinda keeps the "stuff" in check!

So, there you have it.  Our self-professed tomboy's room put together on a limited budget!

 

Her Room. Part One.

Welcome back to Cartwheels y'all.  Nothing like a little break to get you motivated and inspired. 

Today I'd like to share my daughter's room with you.  Granted, if you'd stop by today it'd look NOTHING like this!  The inhabitant is an eleven year old girl after all.  Right now there's a million earrings, books and ponytail holders covering the floor.  We gave her the smallest room in the house for a reason!

So, back in fall we redid her room.  And not "redid" like bought furniture and accessories... but "shopped in our home" and repurposed pieces to make a non-girly retreat.

Welcome.

On one side of the room we have her bed and a little bedside table.  The bedside table was in our house when we moved it (yes, we moved our house... three miles over onto our farmyard). A quick coat of white paint and that little bedside table fit right in.  Her bed we found in the summer kitchen on our property.  That got some powder-coating and it was good to go.  The hardest part about her bed was finding a mattress that fit. 

Underneath her bed are drawers from an old dresser.  Another coat of white paint, some handles, and they're the perfect place for her to store out of season clothes and books.  The problem with old houses is that there are no closets (our house is 120 years old).  So storage like this is a neccessity.

 

The light fixture was a cast off from my aunt.  Some more paint and it's a perfect fit. 

Above her bed is a collage of art.  An old window frame backed with wire from our dog kennel makes the perfect "bulletin board".  Right now it's littered with Selena Gomez and Harry Potter.  :(  Sigh.   

Other framed art was made from some simple scrapbooking supplies and some overlays from vol. 25.  Love that Martha Stewart butterfly punch.  I just punched out some butterflies from dictionary paper and glued them down.  Voila.  And I love that the colors of the vol. 25 overlays can be altered to fit any decor.  I printed this one in a turquoise.

So, that's this side of the room.  Well, at 9x10 it's not much of a side... but still!  I'll be back on Wednesday with the other half!