Exterior Paint Trend 2020

Exterior Paint Update

I am not a professional painter by any means and my laborer's are all family members who have less experience painting then I do. I am posting this to my blog to show one thing, that is, you can do hard things if you do enough research and ultimately, jump in and give it a try.

I watched many how-to videos on YouTube. My favorite was a youtuber called #TheIdahoPainter. I watched his videos over and over until the techniques and supplies were seared in my brain. I took notes like I was preparing for a major exam. Then I started collecting supplies. I also tried a few things that I hoped would make it cheaper, and possibly easier. I have some hits and misses. I certainly was learning as I was going.

Let me just say, it was not an easy task. It's certainly not for the faint of heart. The preparation work took as long, if not longer than the actual painting  did.  I have old wooden windows that needed a lot of TLC before they were ready for paint. Not to mention puttying all the siding and repairing any rain gutters and trim that needed to be fixed before painting. We actually added additional trim to highlight the peaks of our house.

One of the hardest tasks was picking out the paint. I didn't want to match with my neighbors, and I also didn't want to be too bold, but I wanted to be on trend.  I googled over and over trending colors. I watched lots of home improvement shows, and ultimately I went with the colors that made my heart sing. I then had my husband photoshop our home with the colors we chose to see what it would look like. If you don't have photoshop, there are some free painting apps online to add colors to your house photos to see what you like. Sherwin Williams has a free one I found worked pretty good.

This part of the painting project was essential because I couldn't really make final decisions on where I would put the 3 different colors I was working with until I saw it on my house. I tweaked, and moved, and changed the colors over and over until I found a look I absolutely loved.  I wanted to use two colors with a white accent on the trim, but deciding which colors go where took some time and planning. My husband and I have been planning this paint job for a long time, but finally pulling the trigger on it was so exhilarating.

We did choose to use a paint that had primer already in it because we wanted be sure it would coat smoothly.  We rented a sprayer from a local company. This was a challenge in and of itself because it is first come first serve. We were at the location 10 minutes before they opened to ensure we could get it on the day we planned on painting. We were committed and planned to buy a paint sprayer if we couldn't rent one. Luckily we were the first one there on our painting day, so the odds were in our favor.

We did buy an extension wand to use with the sprayer and that was the best $35 we spent since there were many spots we couldn't have reached without the extension wand.

Don't forget to power wash the entire house before painting. This is a key element, and the house needs to be completely dry before painting so the power washing needs to be done a day or two earlier. 

Do you want to hear about one of my misses? Oh, well that is a whole post in and of itself. I'll post the misses in a later blog entry, but needless to say, not everything went smoothly, but we are a roll-with-the-punches kind of family. We made our misses work.

We thought we could get the entire thing painted in one day, but it actually took 2 very intense days of working non-stop to get it finished. 

Prep Work is Essential for a Great Paint Job

Extension Wand Is Worth It's Weight In Gold!

We ran out of daylight before we finished. Day 1 was a success.

We called in all the family to help one day 2. 3 different fine tipped paint brushes in the hands of 3 different people, where able to go around and touch up paint as we went along.

Replacing the old exterior lights really helped update the look.

When I was really high up, I kept my dear husband close to steady the ladder

It ended up coming in about $500 over our guesstimated budget, but once we got started there was no turning back. We actually didn't know how much paint we would need, so we bought it as we went along. We are lucky enough to live close to a hardware store, but we bought paint 4 times in one day. The paint was so expensive that we didn't want to over buy.  Since we are amateur painters, I'm pretty sure we used more paint than a professional would have used while spraying on, but if our amateur painting cost us extra money on paint, it was worth it since we saved so much on the over all cost of having a professional come in to do it. Especially since we were using 3 colors. Every time you add another color your price goes up substantially with a professional paint job.

Come follow me on Pinterest and Instagram for more fun DIY projects.

#DIYISMYHAPPYPLACE

https://youtu.be/nUYVruuXtXE

Lamp Shade DIY

Lamp Shade Glam

Creating fun glam lamp shades made from Dollar Tree items is one of my favorite projects to date. The look is something I’m obsessed over. Watch my YouTube video with all the instructions and details.

https://youtu.be/4Vz7vJ0iOCI

Follow me in Instagram at diyismyhappyplace.

DIY Paper Magnolia Flowers

Paper Magnolia Flowers

DIY Paper Magnolia Flowers

I enjoy making white paper flowers.  I guess you could say it's an obsession of mine. This particular flower is made completely out of  paper and glue.  I bought 150 sheets of white card-stock paper from Walmart for under $6.  This amount of paper made enough Magnolia flowers to keep me busy for a very long time.  Once I got into the mode of making the flowers, I made dozens and dozens of flowers at a time.  Then it was only a matter of gluing the flowers onto a wreath.

Grapevine Wreath

Grapevine wreath from Dollar Tree

Extra Large Grapevine Wreath

The Dollar Tree has some great wreath options.  You can use wire wreaths, bamboo wreaths, grapevine wreaths, really anything goes.  I bought some Magnolia leaves for under $3 at Walmart but realized the Dollar Tree leaves and other flower picks and Spanish Moss worked just fine when making a wreath.

Give it a try!  This is one of the best Do It Yourself projects ever.  It makes great decorations for your house or fantastic gifts to give away.

Free printable template below

To see how to make these flowers, take a peek at my youtube video.  Like and share if you enjoy this project.  Thank you for stopping by!

Valentine's Day Craft

This is an easy 5 minute craft that also is easy on the budget.  I love to spruce the house up for Valentine's day with a little bling. Putting 4 picture frames together makes a nice decoration. The Dollar Tree wooden heart is an easy 5 minute craft subject.

Love Sign - Craft

This might be the easiest upgrade I have ever done.  I was going to add lights, or bling it out with gems, but after I painted it white, I loved the look so much I just left plain.  I can never have too much white in my decor so this is perfect!

Dollar Tree DIY Craft

I love to do crafts on a tight budget and it turns out, this one might be my favorite one yet. I used glue and spray paint that I already had so the total cost for this project was $12 for two sconces.  Now that's a bargain!

I saw this craft on Beverly's Stunning Creations who had a post on Instagram.  I watched her how to video and couldn't get it out of my mind.  I knew I had to give it a try.  I went to the Dollar Tree store to pick up the necessary supplies.  My particular store did not have the right size metal wreath that she used in her video so I improvised and created my own version of the same wall decoration.

I really loved how it turned out.

luFlashmob

Headboard Made From Pallets

Pallet Headboard

Years ago I made my headboard out of pallets.  At first I just put them behind my bed leaned up against the wall.  They were extra long and sturdy.  This was the rustic bedroom look.  

Did you know you can get pallets for free?

I love free so much.  

I didn't take a picture of the original headboard but you
can see the remnants of it at the bottom of the current one.

After a while I wanted a change so I added some fun Chevron wrapping paper with Mod Podge.  Those were my "Chevron" days.  Skip ahead a few years and I decided I wanted the pallets covered in fabric.  

Many times when I start a Do It Yourself project the number one goal is to make something out of what I already have around my house.  I knew I wanted to have fabric and buttons.  I had some curtains that were in a bag destined for goodwill that I reclaimed.  This was my tan room phase.  Fabric covered buttons cost a pretty penny and it would be very hard to match with the curtains, so I made my own simply adding fabric to reclaimed buttons with glue.  I watched some DIY videos online of the correct way to upholster furniture to look like this, but it was a lot of steps and seemed like it was too much work.  

I knew my headboard's backside would never be seen so I just added some cotton meant for making quilts, laid the fabric across it and stapled it in the back.  Easy 5 minute solution.

I then measured off the areas I wanted buttons to indent into the headboard.  I stapled those areas down with the same heavy duty stapler.  It took longer to find the spots I wanted than the actual stapling.  

After the indention's have been established, make my buttons. Glue fabric with a tiny bit of cotton batting to the buttons gathering in the back.  Then glued them to the headboard.  Hot glue works great.  No sewing was needed for this entire project.  Just a heavy duty stapler and some glue.  The buttons were even salvaged from goodwill items so I didn't have to buy new buttons. 

(Tip, going to goodwill and looking at clothes just for their buttons is a lot cheaper than buying buttons at a fabric store).

I kept my headboard like this for a couple years, but then grew sick of the color.  I tried spray painting it white, but the fabric just sucked in the paint and really didn't give it the look I desired, so don't  make that mistake.  On my second try I used semi-gloss white paint.  This worked magnificently.  It was easy to apply and the coverage was instantaneous.

It did take two coats, but after it dries the results are fabulous.  I used a roller brush to paint with for everything  except around the buttons.  In order to get into the grooves, I needed to use a regular paint brush.

 Adding bling to the buttons is easy and just to give it one last bit of sparkle string lights across the top and sides.  Make sure they are LED lights that do not heat up!

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diyismyhappyplace 

Pallet Headboard Makeover

Funny DIY Meme

Faux Marble Backsplash

Rachel Parcel Inspiration

Rachel Parcel's kitchen is the inspiration for my kitchen. 

1. The marble brick back-splash

2. Marble counter-tops

3. White cabinets 

My Kitchen

The big difference, I wanted to do it all myself, on a very tight budget.

This blog post is all about my process. 

It looks like marble, but not one bit of it is real.  It's all faux.  

It is painted boards, counter-tops and cabinets. Everything is done with paint.

 Take what you have already, and just add paint to get the look you desire.

Before Cabinets

Before

Faux Tile is made with Hardboard Handi-Panels

Since the hard-boards are lightweight, paintable, and affordable, they became my go to choice for the back-splash. I knew I was going to do the kitchen and dining room so I had a large area to tile. I bought 10 large boards. There are many good you-tube videos showing how to paint faux marble, but the best thing to do is to find a picture of a marble pattern that you like and look at it as you are painting the boards. The best thing is, if you don't like how it looks, you can always paint over it and try again.

The boards are large but very lightweight
They are easy to move and easy to cut

Paint the entire boards with mixed gray and white paint.

Adding spritzes of spray paint here and there on the boards helps to get the look more organic.

Paint different vein lines.  Looking at a picture of a marble that you would like to imitate helps this process a lot.  Use a combination of paint brushes, feathers, sticks, or anything to help create random patterns.

Layer different colors of gray and white over the veins.

Next add a coat of glaze over the top. I used Stone Coat counter-top epoxy. This is also what I used to go over my counter-top. I would not recommend using this for back-splash like I did however. Although it works, there is a learning curve to use epoxy correctly. A back-splash does not need to be as solid. Definitely take the easy route on this part and go with polyurethane instead.

Polyurethane is perfect for the tile back-splash but will NOT work for the counter-top.

After the boards are completely dry, cut them to the desired tile size.  Using a table saw ensures the lines are exactly straight.  It is fast and easy work.

Faux Marble Tiles

Use wallpaper cut out to the size of the tiles and tape them to your wall to determine what layout you desire.

Attach the tile boards to wall with tile adhesive tape. Initially I tried using tile mud to attach the boards to the wall, but they warped and popped off. Tape is the only way to go when it comes to using tile boards.

Don't forget to use tile spacers

Grout the tile with un-sanded grout to help keep the tiles from getting scratched.

Don't forget to adjust outlets and switches to the depth the tile will be.

I used the same faux marbling paint Technic to paint my counter-tops, then applied Stone Coat Counter-top epoxy to the tops. There are many videos produced by the Stone Coat company on You-Tube if you want to do the same. This is the only part of my kitchen that is more advanced. I wouldn't have the first time you ever use epoxy be counter-tops because there is a huge learning curve and you only get once chance at this.

Stone Coat Counter-top epoxy is very solid when it is done.

Please leave questions and comments below.

Good Luck!

My Cabinets were painted with Valspar Cabinet Enamel, Ultra White.