The Rock Fireplace in all it’s Glory

This post will be short, sweet, and crazy.  Yes, I already spray painted a few rocks on my new rock fireplace and how did it turn out??? 

GREAT!!!!

You see, there was one rock that had this bright orange spots on it – really it did, the photo doesn’t do it justice!  Instead of freaking out I just grabbed my can of spray paint and fixed her right up

That spot was bright orange……NOT a good look if you ask me.

All Better!!

You may wonder if my husband knew about this spray painting party…..well he pretty much walked in on me doing it but thank goodness he trusts me so much.  He just looked at me and continued on with looking over the other areas of the house. 

Now the window covering guy was SHOCKED and thought I was putting graffiti on when he pulled in when he saw me doing the same thing to a few of the rocks on the outside of the house.  I could tell he thought he was dealing with a wacko…..yep, I kind of am!

The finished AFTER photo of the fireplace

When you are armed with spray paint and some creativity, nothing is what it seems!  Be inspired.

~ CreativeJuicesDecor~

See my "House Tour" button (or just click on highlight!) on the top right for more pictures!

Make your own cork board–Thrift Store Style

I’m not sure going to the thrift store with a blog friend (Heather) is very smart?  Everything we saw we glorified it with the penitential of making it SPECTACULAR……but when we stepped back, we realized so much of what we were looking at was just junk and no glorifying or hours of labor was going to make it any prettier (or worth our time for that matter!)


During our “loving everything we saw” stage my friend Heather from Mom4Life found a piece of cork board  (very exciting – right)   and as we thought about what I could do with that cork board I found this odd chalk board.  (even more exciting – hee,hee)  With some quick blog brain power I said, “OH, I can frame the cork in this!” 

All to say, since the price tag for BOTH was .75 ¢ and I had to leave the store with something, life was good.


I simply sprayed some Oil Rubbed Bronze spray paint on it (in the sprinkling rain mind you! I know, not smart!) then used an exacto knife to cut out the cork board.  The cork fit in so snugly that there was no reason to even glue it in.  (seriously, it took me more time to write this ON the blog than do it!)

I took some sand paper once it had dried and “aged” it.  I used those Command Strips to “tape” it on our door.  I was so chicken to use those strips before but I LOVE them!!! (I mean I was more chicken to DRILL a hole through the door!)  I’ll put the kids homework assignments on it – keep the refrigerator looking a little less cluttered! 

This is a shot of it as it IS:

This is a shot of  me trying to be the perfect cute little blogger (which I am not :-) )  I am not super cutesy, I  leave messes everywhere and absolutely hate deep cleaning.

What do you guys think? Isn’t it fun? All it took was a little thinking outside the box…….so glad I had my friend with me to get me excited about an old brown piece of cork

Old Windows Used as Frames

Every once in a while you hit a yard sale that has all these old windows. Years ago I used to collect them and do faux stain glass on them but I hadn’t done that in years.  (you can buy the gel for the faux stain glass (called Gallery Glass) at Michaels, it’s as easy as coloring a color book!)

But when I ran across a big set of windows at a sale during the end of summer and they were only $2.00 a piece I just had to get one.  I wasn’t exactly sure what I would do with it but I knew it would come to me.
One pane was broken so I decided to break the other pane on the opposite corner and do something fun with pictures and fabric.

My first thought was to fill the voided window panes with fabric and the rest with photos.  After I put in the fabric pieces (wrapped them over cardboard) I didn’t like the fabric I picked out so instead of heading out in the car to get another piece I just took some old scrapbook paper and covered them with that instead.  Of course, if I found the perfect piece of fabric it probably would have been best if I used the fabric but now a days with paper looking so cool I think it was just fine.

Next I printed out 4 of my favorite pictures from Costco in the size of the window opening and taped them in. 

And here is what I ended up with!

Isn’t it sweet?

I just used D ring hooks on the back and drywall screws to hang it – took a little time but overall, a pretty easy project!


Overall Cost:

Window – 2.00
Fabric (that I didn’t use) – 1.00
Four 11x14 Costco prints – 12.60

Grand Total: $15.60!

Linking this up to Centsational Girl's Spring Craft Linky party!  Another idea I had was hanging Easter eggs in the spots where the fabric or scrapbook paper is??  I don't know, just thinking out loud!  Let me know if you try it :-)

Hope this project gets your own Creative Juices stirred!

The Iron Grilles in my Window.

This was a long and drawn out journey.  Remember me telling you about a serious mistake I made in the design process?? 

This is it.

In the beginning I really wanted opaque glass in my sidelight windows next to my front door. (Who likes people poking their head in to see if you are home??? I don’t want people to know it’s noon and I am still in my bathrobe!!!)


So I ordered the glass in what was called “Cross Reed” privacy glass.  I saw a 2”x2” square sample of the privacy glass and even though I wasn’t sure what it would look like, I thought it would be a fun option.

Well it comes in and SERIOUSLY it looked like  80’s DISCO/TECHNO glass next to my Tuscan front door. 

I was horrified, what did I do???

LUCKILY there was a minor malfunction with the glass and I got to replace it for NO CHARGE.  I was pretty skittish with picking any opaque glass so I just ordered it clear.  I told myself that if I wanted to add some texture to the glass or some privacy film I could always do it later. 

Now I had to figure out how to make that glass look like part of the front door.  I spent HOURS trying to figure out the best plan that didn’t cost a lot because as everyone knows at the end of building a house YOU HAVE NO EXTRA $.


I played around with the idea of buying films to stick on the window but it just didn’t seem right, it seemed so flat and my door was so full of dimension.  Next I thought about adding iron – here were my mock ups.

Tutor style diamond grids? (just used Photoshop)

Super organic and swirly?

Next step was going to my local iron welder metal shop and figuring out if I could even afford this and what design I wanted.  Let me tell you I was a SIGHT!  I walk into this definitely MALE world and started asking about how I could make pretty sidelight iron grilles.  I showed them this danty little drawing below  

Once again, I can’t even tell you how many HOURS I spent trying to figure this all out!!!  You see, I had to come up with a design on pieces that they already had IN STOCK (to keep the price down) and it had to pretty much fit within the window size that was there.

Fortunately, the guys were nice and even started helping me lay out designs on the dirty concrete floor!

After I met with them I called up the guy who did the iron interior window and got a price.  Remember, these were 12” x 60” – a pretty decent size custom order….


They came back at $130.00 each and that was also having them professionally powder coated (which makes them totally weather proof, no paint chipping on those babies!) 


I was HAPPY.  For $260.00 I had a better look than I had ever imagined.  The outside hasn’t been painted yet but the trim will be a VERY dark brown color.

What do you guys think?   I still might take some Gallery Glass and swirl in some texture so that it’s not totally clear. 

You would think that having BARS in the window might keep a few peeping toms out but my guess is if they are the peeping type, bars or no bars on see through glass wont stop them!

Here is a picture from the inside looking out.

And for those that remember my crazy post about spray painting my new entry lights, here they are up and glowing….OK not glowing yet, maybe they aren’t hooked up, I tried to find the switch but nothing turned them on……still figuring this all out I guess!

Update!  Be sure and check out the FINAL house pictures!

Have a great day you guys!!!

~CreativeJuicesDecor~