Home Decor Archives - Page 5 of 28 - Ashley Hackshaw / Lil Blue Boo

How to Antique and Age Wood Instantly for a Weathered Look

April 1, 2014 by Ashley Hackshaw

This is one of my favorite tricks that I use with home decor….a simple solution of white vinegar and steel wool. You can use it to age brand new wood to varying degrees depending on how the solution ages.

Supplies:
Wood
White Distilled Vinegar
0000 Steel Wool*

For the sign:
8″ Oil Board Stencils
Black spray paint

*I prefer the fine graded because it disintegrates faster.

To make the mixture you pour vinegar into a bowl or jar and add steel wool (without the soap kind!):

The trick is figuring out how long to age it. A solution left to age just 15 minutes will produce different effect than a solution left aging for hours, months or years.

Here is a solution left aging for 15 minutes where the vinegar has just started to disintegrate the steel wool. One or two coats of the mixture leaves just a light gray barn-wood like finish:

Leaving the solution to age a few more hours will produce a darker gray finish:

I keep varying solutions in jars because if you leave it long enough the steel wool disintegrates completely and the mixture is allowed to produce rust, adding a reddish brown tone.

Here’s a ten minute sign I made using a pre-cut piece of wood from the hardware store and 8″ Oil Board Stencils:

I spaced the letters out and taped them into place together: [Read more…]

A Tour of Our House – Master Bedroom and Master Bath

February 27, 2014 by Ashley Hackshaw

Next in the house tour: master bedroom and master bathroom.

The Master Bedroom: There’s not much to see…I haven’t really spent any time on either since we first moved in. The master bedroom was next on our list of projects. The two dressers and two nightstands were mine growing up. My sister has an identical set. It’s like deja vu when we go and visit her because the furniture is in her guest bedroom. The lamps we’ve had since we were first married 13 years ago…..one was broken and I glued it back together with super glue. No one would ever notice except for me.

The bed we picked up at a furniture clearance…no story behind that. The artwork I made one day out of boredom using some large oil stencils. I had just read a line in a magazine: Please love me. I call it my “Banksy-inspired” street art. (never heard of him? read here.)

We’ve always had white linens….and we probably always will. I love white sheets and white duvets. Crisp.

“Banksy” art in progress:

Banksy inspired street art using large oil stencils via Art Ashley Hackshaw / Lil Blue Boo

@lilblueboo on Instagram

Mr. LBB’s closet is right off the bedroom. It actually used to be just an overhang on the side of the house. Since the roof was already in place all we had to do was pour a slab of concrete and reframe the corner of the house to add a large walk in closet. I built his shelves while he was at work one day. I designed and ordered from Easy Closets. All the pieces show up in numbered boxes. As long as you can follow directions it’s pretty easy.

(Weird thing about this photo is that hanger of ties….there’s about 50 ties. All 50 ties have disappeared! He doesn’t have a SINGLE tie. We’ve looked everywhere.)

Aww….we were so young back in May 2001. We got married in my parent’s back yard, where I grew up, in Charlotte, N.C. I remember that moment. I was telling him that the wedding planner was getting on my nerves because she was trying to keep us to a schedule. I didn’t want to do all the normal wedding stuff just because that was what was expected…we were married, that was it. Party!

On my side of the bed is a HUGE “jumbo” FAO Schwartz Patrick. I’m not kidding it’s the biggest stuff animal I’ve ever seen. Boo got it from my inlaws for her first Christmas. But now Diesel has claimed it as his own. It’s his bed, but he’s so small he just sleeps on the very tippy top of Patrick’s head, in-between the ears. I really don’t want a huge stuffed animal in my room….but I feel bad moving it. I’m sure prospective buyers are like: oh that’s cute, they have a huge stuffed animal in the master bedroom.

As much as I try, I guess I’ll never be an adult. It feels like romper room.

Diesel on his bed (aka FAO Schwarz Jumbo Patrick)

@lilblueboo on Instagram

At night Mr. LBB tucks him into bed under one of the ears. My Instagram feed is full of Diesel/Patrick photos:

Diesel on his bed under covers (aka FAO Schwarz Jumbo Patrick's Ear)

@lilblueboo on Instagram

The Master Bath: This is the tub and my sink:

That’s Mr. LBB’s sink and the shower. His angel was a gift from Boo. No light fixture above the sink….because I haven’t found the right ones yet. I just painted the electrical “pancake” the wall color for now. We have enough overhead light so it really doesn’t matter. The door on the right side is my closet:

I picked out all neutral Travertine for all the bathrooms in the house. I like a subtle palette. All the bathrooms are pretty much the same just with slight differences. I love love love consistency. Every single travertine countertop was made from a scrap piece we were able to find at a stone yard. The angels were from Boo. She loves going to the Christian bookstore with her grandparents to pick out gifts. You’ll see all my “gifts” toward the end of the post. I’m going to have to rent storage for Boo gifts.

I keep my bathroom counter organized with a ceramic tray:

Next to my sink I made a shadow box to display my grandmother’s jewelry that my Aunt Sharon gave me. I was really into horses when I was younger….I used to wear the pins when I rode competitively. The charm bracelet is from the 1940’s. I love the story they tell: a Bible, a mailbox, a typewriter eraser, a bell, a baby shoe, a baby carriage, a camera, a cigarette lighter, and a clown.

That’s her in the photo below, wearing the bracelet. Love the saddle shoes.

Above the tub is a huge candelabra that was Mr. LBB’s grandmother’s.

I found some small glass candles at Target that fit the holders perfectly:

I went through some photos tonight and found this one of Mr. LBB’s mom on prom night 1967. Look what’s in the background:

The large statues were hers too. I remember them in her bathroom when we first got married:

The painting I finished recently. I didn’t plan it for the bathroom but the niche was empty and it actually ended up fitting perfectly. A few closeups:

The smaller statue was my grandmother’s. I rescued it from being thrown out after she died. I found out later she had made it.

My aunt sent me this photo of my grandparents in their living room in the 1950’s. There’s the statue.

Aside: I have a slight obsession with placing things in old family photographs.

The shower. The tile pattern matches the backsplash on the sinks. The bench is where mad-scientist-Boo mixes all of her concoctions of shampoos and soaps:

I mixed the real travertine border with ceramic tile….less expensive and easier to clean:

This is an old photo and frame I bought close to 15 years ago. The frame is falling apart but I still love it. No idea who the children are in the photo.

This is what the back of the frame says. Maybe it’s a clue to who they are but I haven’t been able to figure anything out:

We put in a glass door for the toilet but added frosting for privacy. It’s just a film, applied like tinting using a soap mixture.

This is what you see as you exit the bathroom. Boo picked it out for Mr. LBB’s birthday last year:

My closet: I built my closet same as Mr. LBB’s only I added drawers to mine. I ordered it all through Easy Closets. The entire installation took me a full day. What will you find in my closet? Mostly boots, jeans, and t-shirts. Evy’s Tree hoodies and Ephiphanie camera bags.

And Converse:

All my handbags are hung using shower curtain rings and large office rings. They all just sit there. I should probably just get rid of them all. I just lug my camera bag around everywhere. (what’s in my camera bag?)

3″ Nickel Plated Rings
Chrome Rolling Shower Rings

Not much on the top shelves except for the skateboard I made not too long ago. It hasn’t gotten a lot of use…but it’s pretty. And those are my favorite boots….the Frye Veronica Slouch Boot:

And that’s about all the clothing I own. I’m thinning it out slowly to the bare basics. I read recently in O Magazine that you really only need 33 items of clothing. Each day I’ve been removing a few pieces for Goodwill and the church rummage sale. It’s not such a shock that way.

And my closet is where I keep all my tchotchkes…it’s the only place I let clutter accumulate. Boo LOVES giving tchotchkes as gifts. Most are from her…a few were gifts from others as well.

The big wood jewelry box was my mother’s/grandmother’s. It’s pretty much empty because I don’t really wear any jewelry. I don’t even wear a wedding ring….I’d ruin it with all the paint and tools I use all day.

Is it weird sharing all this? I guess I’m kind of making a memory for Mr. LBB, me and Boo really…so we can look back on where we used to live. I kind of wish I’d done this to every house I’d ever lived in.

Thanks for touring!

So far in the tour:

Exterior and Landscaping

Kitchen and Laundry Room

Living Room and Office

Tutorials featured in this post if you want more information:

Home Decor

Organizing and De-cluttering the Bathroom

10 Ways I Keep Organized

Other:

How to Make a Custom Skateboard and Custom Grip Tape

A Tour of Our House – Living Room and Office

February 24, 2014 by Ashley Hackshaw

Now onto the living room and office…which are just off the kitchen.

This is the view from the kitchen down the hallway. You can see the edge of the couch in the living room:

The couch seemed a little too low to me so we raised it up (so it would be the right height for the silver side table too). To raise it up Mr. LBB made some new wood feet, sprayed them black and just used the old feed as a template for drilling the holes:

This is our TV cabinet. One of the first pieces of furniture we bought as a married couple. We refinished it last year to the antique distressed look:

This is what it looked like before:

This is a before photo of the living room with our old brown couch. The paint color of the walls has changed twice. I think what really dates this photo are the baby bottles on the sink, the baby gate to the office, and my pink flip phone on the counter!

To the left of the previous picture the “lazy susan turned spinning artwork” used to hang. I haven’t figured out where I want to hang that back up again yet.

What will you be today? Dreamy, Joyful, Awesome, Inspired, Iron Man, On Cloud 9, Sweet, a Firecracker, Curious, A Spicy Meatball, or all of the above?

I love the new finish on the TV cabinet:

For the TV speakers to be able to go inside the cabinet, we replaced the wood panels with a linen fabric. I popped out the panels and then used a staple gun to stretch the fabric into place:

Can you guess what the drapery panels are made out of ? (they need to be ironed obviously)

My drapes are just 9×12 foot canvas drop cloths. They were $19 each from Pittsburgh Paint.

I used to paint children’s portraits and murals to keep myself busy when Boo was first born. This is one of the last ones I painted….I thought Boo should have her own portrait since I was always painting other people’s kids:

The original photo. Precious Boo.

I like to paint in a messy, layering technique. Her portrait is layers upon layers sanded down repeatedly. There’s even old stamps and papers worked into the mix:

I picked up this driftwood in the flower district of L.A. It’s actually two pieces that I layered on top of one another to make it appear bigger:

This…is an old rustic chicken feeder.

Instead of photo frames I like to display some favorite photos as little beanbags in a large wooden bowl. People like to pick them up and rearrange them:

That’s my decrepit old trunk I found while thrifting. It’s one of my favorite finds. It used to be covered in fabric but it was in such bad shape that it was all ripped off.

I’ve love to know where it has traveled:

I’ve been looking for a new coffee table but haven’t really found one I like yet. I love the metal look of this Restoration Hardware one but it’s a little too shiny for me, and a little out of my budget. I added casters to the bottom of the table below so that it can be easily moved by Boo.

This is what our coffee table usually look like….covered with Lego friendsL

Adding the casters:

I made the pillows a while back to match the subway-inspired art in the kitchen. I just bought ready made pillows from Ikea and added the white letters. The streets have significance to our families:

Diesel in his lounging space:

The living room opens out to the backyard:

In one of the niches off the living room is an old weather vane. It used to hang on my childhood home. When my parent were selling it I climbed up to the roof and took it down. An identical one is on the roof of Carmel Country Club in Charlotte where my dad grew up caddying as a child, and where we grew up:

The niche opposite to the weathervane holds a rusted reindeer that I decided that I’d leave out all year round, a painting I painted in college, and the giraffe that Boo and I made using wine corks:

The Office. It’s not really supposed to be an office….it used to be a huge sunken living room before we renovated. Now it’s a dining room, and we just eat in the breakfast nook. Turns out I’m not really the entertaining hostess I thought I was. The table in the middle is just where I organize papers. The clear file holders I LOVE….and own close to 30 of them. They keep paper work, books and receipts organized until they can be put away. I got them at the 99 cent store.

I made the rustic Coca-Cola sign and the dinosaur pop art painting:

We added the wall to create a division between the butler’s pantry. The wall was supposed to be made specifically for a china cabinet my parents gave us but it ended up being about an inch too short. My desk fits right into it. The desk is actually just a 3 foot wide hollow core door that I stacked onto some bookshelves.

Here’s when the wall was added. The shelves in the butler’s pantry for all my craft and art supplies was added a few years later.

The chandelier was an old one my in-laws took out of their house:

Another project, a wood pen holder, with a favorite quote…again made to match the “subway” theme around the house:

This is the painting above my desk. I bought it for $40 at a thrift store because I was going to reuse the sturdy maple/glass frame for some other artwork. But I ended up hanging it the way it was and it slowly is growing on me. My friend and art dealer Shari said it’s cute. I think I needed her to reassure me that it was artistic in some way. It says V. Hollman 1986 in the corner. Probably someone in the desert….maybe someone know who painted it. It’s actually the only piece of artwork in the main house that isn’t mine. I think I’ll name it:

Inflated Surgical Glove Cacti

Opposite my desk is a table on casters that I painted white. It’s where I take photos. It’s also a place for stuff I don’t know what do with yet:

The china cabinet and a piece of chalkboard art I made with some favorite quotes. The chalkboard was made from another hollow core door:

A full photo of the chalkboard:

In the china cabinet I keep books, files and vintage cameras:

I found this huge dresser at a thrift store for $99. It was already repainted too. The red typewriter was a gift from a friend who knows I love typewriters.

I have three of these large wooden garden bins for storing supplies:

Ideas and inspiration are kept in large 11.75×9.25 computation books. It’s my own tactile form of Pinterest:

I’ve become a bit of an art hoarder. I paint something and then it just becomes part of another stack in the house somewhere. I just can’t figure out what to do with them. There’s only so much art you can display. I’m planning some type of art liquidation soon.

Past my desk is the butler’s pantry…it did not come with a butler. There are two wine refrigerators…even though I do not drink. Mr. LBB built the shelving for me last year for Christmas. It’s where I store all my art supplies and the wireless printers. Originally I had faux painted the entire house…you can see the remnants on the back wall. We repainted last year. I made the vintage labels for all of the boxes on sticker paper. You can download the template here.

My plans for the butler’s pantry was to add a rolling ladder to reach the tall shelves….but that hasn’t happened yet. One thing I kept of my grandfather’s when he died in 2003 was his awesome vintage step stool….so that’s what I use right now:

One of my pieces of button art. (I’m officially an art hoarder….going to have an art and furniture sale when our house sells….I’d like to lighten our load so I’m willing to part with just about everything. I’ll be putting some vintage and art items in the Etsy shop too to try and get some of it on it’s way before then.)

The view from the office to the living room. I love how Diesel ends up in so many photos….just chillin’ out.

Down the hall to the bedrooms and playroom/old office. That’s my big photo wall….46 photos in all:

I’ve just collected random black frames over the years and the black and white photos are changed out periodically:

On the other side of the hall is some artwork I painted. Both I did for an art show in college. Funny but at a critique, my classmates and teacher said that they didn’t think it was finished so I added the black “film” boxes in a disgruntled manner afterwards. Then they said it was great. I used to build all my own canvases back in the day…I love a thick 2.5″ border.

This painting is 4 feet by 4 feet and is a set of 4 that I did in a series called Reap, Ripe, Rope, Repair. Each painting had some sort of skeletal figure in them and mixtures of glazes/resins over top. The one below was the Ripe painting. I picked all 4 names on a whim at the last minute.