5.18.2012

DIY Painted Twig Letters

Lately I have been a color enthusiast. I'm having a hard time reigning in my thoughts on how I can bring more color into every room of our house, specifically the dining room. Our living room has curtains with lots of color, our kitchen is a hodge-podge of blues, yellows, greens, and reds...but our dining room has been a dull mix of gray, green, white, black and gold.
First, I took down the curtains (which I still love) and replaced them with the curtains in Finn's nursery which are a white sheer with jute strung through.
This helped...there was now a lot more light coming through the windows, and I got rid of color boundaries and opened the room up to endless possibilities.


The At Table sign I created a while ago definitely started looking drab to me, so after seeing an idea on Pinterest and in the newest Parenting magazine that magically arrived out of the hands of our postman, I got to work. By the way, I love that the postman walk in our neighborhood to deliver mail!


First, I took the dogs out back and let them prance around while I collected sticks...this didn't take long, since we have a 10 foot pile of limbs and branches sitting at the back of our lot waiting for the city to (hopefully) pick up.


I took my coffee and grabbed my hot glue gun, breaking pieces of twigs apart and arranging them into letters. By this time Finn was up from his morning nap and out to join us.


After arranging and glueing, I set up the words on a window ledge on our little shanty shed (that is soon to be a spiffy garage!) and admired.

Then, I took a break and gave Finn another outdoor bath in the rubbermaid...in the back this time at least! The dogs might have drank out of his bathwater. I still maintain that this is old-fashioned rather than redneck.
After Finn was down for his afternoon nap, I pulled up the rest of a really ridiculous movie called Lost in Austen and got to work painting the sticks.
First, Green Tea(Americana), then Blue Sky(Martha Stewart), followed by a thin line of Deep Sea(Martha Stewart), and to finish it off, Love Bird(Martha Stewart) at the tips.

And there you have it! New life for the words that hold so much meaning in our dining room.

Am I becoming an old lady? This table runner was purchased Wednesday....it is the second embroidered item I've bought recently, and I have countless plans for more embroidery, doilies, etc....woops!
They remind me of what you would create during craft time at a kid's summer camp. And I love that about them. I kind of want my house to look be that, a place where creating happens. Even in a dry macaroni and Elmer's glue sort of way...
Here's a comparison:
These letters would be a fantastic baby shower gift...and SO cheap to make! Just takes a little time and creativity. I want to make a huge one for our back patio that says HOME or something ridiculously sentimental like that.

Read more about the meaning of these words here.

Have a fun weekend!

Allison







3 comments:

  1. Lovely - another job well done! You know, the sign that's on MY dining room wish list comes from Red Letter Words, but I'm sure someone crafty could make a cute version of it as well. I've got it on my Pinterest Christmas Wishlish and am hoping that Peter will take the hint. HA!
    http://www.redletterwords.com/index.cfm?Action=ViewDetails&prd_id=16

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    1. Oh I love that! I hope he gets that hint for ya!

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  2. i love this project! so cute! and i love the macaroni and elmers glue vision too :)

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