Yesterday as Mia (our pup) and I took a walk across our property, I glanced at the small stash of scrap wood I set aside for projects. A few short hours later, these were casting a warm glow above our fireplace ...
Materials:
6 boards 30" long
4 boards 7" long
4 hooks (for hanging mason jars)
1" brad nails
1-1/2" wood screws
8 wood shims (as spacers)
2 D-ring hangers with screws
2 picture hangers with screws
4 jars
Wire
Jute string
Salt
Candles
Tools Used:
Ryobi Cordless Mitre Saw
Ryobi Cordless Drill
Ryobi Cordless Brad Nailer
Ryobi Cordless Screwdriver
What can I say? .. We like Ryobi!
The weather was gorgeous - sunny and slightly cool - a perfect day for an outdoor project.
I began by cutting all the boards to length. Thanks to the cordless mitre saw, this part of the process was quick and easy.
I laid the boards out to determine spacing and our driveway made a great work surface.
The thickest ends of the wood shims served as spacers.
To help find the correct placement of the shorter 7" horizontal boards,
I placed jars along the sconces and found I liked them best with
11-1/2" spacing between the 7" horizontal boards.
Using the brad nailer, I tacked the 7" horizontal boards to the long
vertical boards. This secured them, allowing me to flip the sconce over
to install 1-1/2" screws thru the underside with the drill.
But before putting in any screws, I made pilot holes, to prevent the dry and weathered wood from splitting.
At this point I installed D-ring hangers on the back of each sconce.
Flipping the sconce back over to the front, I then attached a hook to the center of each horizontal board.
That completed the sconce assembly.
Now for the jars!
You don't really have to rush out to buy brand new canning jars (unless you want to). Any clear jar from pasta sauce, pickles, salsa, etc. work just as well.
Wire wrapped tightly around each jar ring formed a loop for hanging.
A length of thick jute string wrapped around the top of the jar and tied in a double knot adds a rustic touch.
Each jar contains a votive candle resting on a layer of regular table salt. Epsom salt, sand or pebbles can also be used if you like.
Battery operated votives or tea lights are a nice alternative to regular candles and the jars can also be used as vases. Be sure to check out Pinterest for lots of cute variations.
With the sconces built, I enlisted my sweet hubby to hang them above the fireplace. He used these picture hangers to ensure they stayed securely on the wall - they're a little more heavy duty than was actually necessary, but we already had them on hand:
Nothing beats the fun of brainstorming a project and having it completed all in one day - that doesn't happen all that often (at least in my world).
Thanks to all the materials we already had on hand, the total cost for this project was only $6.84 for the 4 hooks. Yay!
Your comments are greatly appreciated and I look forward to your thoughts
and ideas! I try to respond to comments via email as soon as I can. If
your email address isn't available, I will comment here. Thanks so much
for visiting!
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It's starting to look and feel a lot like Christmas ... the presents are wrapped, the mantel is aglow, and our home is an explosion of glittery gold, bold red and deep green.
This year's mantel is decked out in three layers of garlands ... a base of vertically strung pinecones, and a lighted spruce garland, topped off with a gilded cascading garland. Instructions for the DIY pinecone garland are HERE.
Above the mantel, a traditional spruce wreath with gold and red ball ornaments is surrounded by a gold open picture frame and a symmetrical arrangement of glittery cutout gold stars and red trees, red felt cone trees, and copper lanterns filled with gold wrapped candles.
A splash of red also warms the hearth area - this darling wood step stool painted with shiny red enamel was built by hubby's grandfather many years ago and is the perfect perch for the vintage red truck and tree. Surprisingly, our gold painted Thanksgiving pumpkin appears to be alive and well to shine on through Christmas.
On our coffee table, a large clear glass cloche filled with red glass ball ornaments is resting on a gold framed mirror tray. In reality, it's not a tray at all - it's a wall mirror found at Target. Nice when items can do double duty.
Accompanying the cloche is a little red lighted vehicle with Christmas tree. It was originally green and received a festive makeover with red paint. Read more about that HERE.
The two
slipper chairs in the living room are adorned with red rosette pillows,
and my thrifty find of the season ... a dark grey plush throw with super
large fluffy pom poms. I was thrilled to find it at Tuesday Morning
for only $14.99!!! If you're searching for these, they also had them in
ivory and a light tan.
In a break from tradition, this year's large living room tree is decorated all in gold, with burlap garland and gold raffia. It rests in a burlap filled galvanized container. To see how we set up the tree container, click HERE.
The topper is a gold star with white lights, and glittery gold cascading sprays. The sprays were found at Lowe's and the star topper at Target. Tree ornaments were all items we had on hand.
Instructions for making the burlap and book page stocking ornaments can be found HERE.
The foyer
decor (adjacent to the large tree) is simple and consists of a
lighted tabletop urn centerpiece on the foyer table, and a simple door wreath.
Our gift wrapping color theme this year is a combination of metallic gold, white and black. I created and cut the gift tags from black card stock using my Silhouette Cameo, and shiny gold paper fills cutout tree openings in the tags.
Names were written on the tags with a metallic gold Sharpie (from Lowe's).
In the dining room, a new addition this season is the hot beverage bar on the small antique chest. The chest is just the right size for all the goodies needed to enjoy a hot cup of coffee, tea, spiced cider or cocoa. In addition to the Keurig and K-cups, add-ins are ready to go - chocolate chips, marshmallows, flavored coffee creamer, sprinkles, candy cane stirrers and cinnamon.
The dining room table centerpiece is another large glass cloche, filled with red and gold glass ornaments and surrounded by gold and red beaded garland. This cloche is displayed on a farmhouse style carved round wood tray with metal handles. The tray was from Decor Steals and came in a set of two.
A counter height bar separates our kitchen from our dining room and it's a great place for two lighted 4' counter trees in urns. They're decorated with the handmade cinnamon ornaments from last year (instructions found HERE and HERE).
Next to each lighted counter tree are small gold metal ornament stands loaded with red and gold ornaments and "skirted" with red berry candle rings. The gold metal stands were Goodwill finds this summer.
If you're still with me, have you noticed that pillows move around a lot in our home? :)
In the kitchen, we continue the explosion of festive red. Our kitchen is typically very neutral and at Christmas the red really makes it come alive.
The light fixture above the island is dressed up a bit with green garland and red and gold tinsel wreaths. A similar wreath is also centered on the garland at the kitchen sink window.
Our framed Christmas countdown is in full swing on the kitchen counter, along with a mug of hot cinnamon flavored candy canes in a holiday mug perched on a white and gold dotted cupcake pedestal. A trio of glittery gold cone trees add a little sparkle to the top of the fridge.
The trio of cracked glass lighted orbs on the counter remain year-round because we enjoy them so much.
A white ceramic soup tureen is great for displaying Christmas crackers/poppers (which do you call them?) until Christmas day and a chubby little Santa is keeping them company.
Wrapping up this holiday tour, our master bedroom has a touch of glitz in the form of tinsel trees and matching gold wreath.
How is your holiday decor coming along? Are you just beginning to decorate, shop for gifts and plan your menu? Or, have you finished and are now breathing a sigh of relief?
Your comments are greatly appreciated and I look forward to your thoughts
and ideas! I try to respond to comments via email as soon as I can. If
your email address isn't available, I will comment here. Thanks so much
for visiting!
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This year, we were gifted with pinecones galore for our Fall decor.
We don't have pine trees in our lawn, but my sweet sis-in-law, who lives in Maryland, has an abundance of beautiful long pinecones and she was so gracious to gather them, pack them in a box and send them to me in Texas.
I've scattered them throughout our home. They add the perfect touch for Fall and are a sweet reminder of her across the miles.
For the mantel, I created a glitzy pinecone garland using the pinecones and some awesome gold cascading garland. I was smitten with this gold garland at Hobby Lobby last year but didn't buy it - so was thrilled when I found it again a few weeks ago. It adds subtle shimmer and shine, don't you agree?
To make the pinecone garland, I securely tied (the pinecones can be heavy!) a length of jute twine to each corner of the fireplace mantel, meeting in the center. Then, I looped a small length of the twine thru the top of each pinecone and tied them individually to the jute garland. Super quick and easy to arrange each pinecone by sliding them along the garland.
Here's a shot without the gold cascading garland added:
I'm honestly so excited about decorating for Christmas this year that most of the Fall decor I'm using are repeats from last year. But, we're enjoying them just the same. :)
I'll stop (most of) the chatter now and let the pics speak for themselves:
The Fall printable above is available for purchase from Ann Drake and can be found at Life ... On Sutton Place.
The above wreath printable is a free printable from Ann Drake at Life ...On Sutton Place. I had been searching for a "Welcome Fall" wreath printable and loved Ann's and simply replaced her original "Gather" text in the center using Picmonkey. Thanks to Ann for providing us with all the lovely printables - be sure to check them out on her site HERE.
Don't these cotton boll stems look realistic? Well ... that's because they ARE! When it comes to acquiring decor supplies, I am totally without shame and have no scruples whatsoever. :) While traveling a back country road recently, I had the good fortune of following a cotton trailer that was dropping cotton stems from its undercarriage. Guess you can see where this is headed. LOL! One minute they're road kill and the next they're gracing our dining room for Fall.
That wraps up our Fall decor tour. Wishing you and yours a nice Thanksgiving Day abundant with good food, family and friends and many blessings!
Your comments are greatly appreciated and I look forward to your thoughts
and ideas! I try to respond to comments via email as soon as I can. If
your email address isn't available, I will comment here. Thanks so much
for visiting!
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