Kithen Backsplash

Because of work and family obligations, I haven’t had much time to spend on my hobbies and even less to post about them. I recently finished a project that had me pretty excited and determined to post. I've been thinking about installing a kitchen backsplash for quite some time. Everything I’ve read and heard about this type of project convinced me that it was something that I could handle. During a stop at Home Depot to pick up paint, I decided to browse the tile section. This glass and slate mosaic tile caught my eye and motivated me to finally go ahead with the backsplash.

Before purchasing, the tile my husband and I decided to see if we could find it, or something similar, at a tile  outlet for less. We didn’t find anything that we liked and decided to leave. As we were about to walk out the door, we stopped to take a closer look at this slate tile.

For several reasons – it suited our décor, a better price, it was in stock – we decided to go with the slate tile. At the time I realized that the difference in the pattern was going to make the project more challenging but I felt that it was still within my skill level. It certainly was going to involve more cutting but I was looking forward to learning how to do that. Here’s the wet saw I bought for the project.

Well, as I suspected, the project was harder than I initially thought. I ran into a few obstacles and it took longer than I planned – five days instead of three. Here are my before and after pictures.

I’m really happy with the results. I learned alot and would definitely attempt another tile project again.

Display Shelf

My youngest daughter has started collecting the dolls her Dad and I have purchased for her from places we’ve visited. She and I decided that she needs a shelf to display them. We’ve been keeping our eyes open for something that will look nice in her room. When I saw this I thought, that’s it! So, the other day when I was at Wal-Mart, I purchased a shelf kit and pink ribbon.

Since I was installing it myself, I didn’t follow the directions exactly. My shelf was 8” rather than 6” so I cut the two ribbon pieces a bit longer and I stapled them to the bottom of the shelf before attempting to hang it on the wall. I used thumb tacks to temporarily attach it to the wall so that I could make adjustments before permanently attaching it with screws.

I removed shanks from some pretty buttons and glued them to the screws to hide them. I didn’t like how the staples looked on the bottom of the shelf, so I covered them with a bit of acrylic paint.

So far, she only has two dolls in her collection – one from Mexico and one from Hawaii. I like the way it looks and it was almost as easy as I thought it would be. I think I’ll use this idea again. It’s definitely more of a display rather than storage solution.

A Quick and Easy DIY Project

I had heard about the kits that convert recessed lights to pendants awhile ago and forgot all about them until I read this post by Thrifty Decor Chick. I was really excited about these kits for a several reasons. Like TDC, we have a lot of recessed lights in our kitchen and I would really like to change things up a bit.
Also, although I consider myself to be somewhat handy, I’m nervous when it comes to projects involving electricity. Finally, if for whatever reason the kit didn’t live up to my expectations, I could just remove it and end up with the original light fixture with no harm done.

Pookie and I were out running errands yesterday so I decided to check them out. The first, more conveniently located, home improvement store that we went to didn’t have them so we headed over to Lowe’s. They had two Portfolio kits to choose from – silver or antique bronze I chose antique bronze.
 
Although the white frosted shade the kit came with was ok, I have a preference for colored glass. After some deliberation and advice from Pookie, I purchased this shade:
As soon as we got home, I got started on the installation. Once I took it out of the packaging I thought the finish looked more black than antique bronze and couldn’t resist the temptation to pull out my antique gold Rub ‘n Buff. I considered leaving it as is, or at least holding off on changing the color until I knew I could successfully install the light, however; I don’t have much patience so, in my usual manner, I plunged right in – for better or worse, this kit is mine.

So here it is:
I hadn’t noticed before that that light was not centered. What’s up with that? I think, from the kit directions, that I may be able to change the placement of the cord to make that less apparent. Regardless, I really like the way it turned out.