DIY at the Preacher's House

October went by very fast! Probably because we attended the National Storyteller's Festival and whenever you take a trip away from your normal everyday duties, time just seems to fly by. (I posted a little about the trip here)

Also I was given a chance to be a guest blogger on Elaine Mingus' blog, radicalchristianwoman.com, and you can see my post by clicking here. Elaine had asked for a post on alternative ideas for Halloween. I had told her of a conversation my son and I had when he was 4 or 5 years old and she asked if I could put that in my post.

Now it is November and I'm sure this month will go by just as fast with the holidays approaching us. But that is okay with me because I just found out that our son should be back in the states soon, so the countdown is on!

I thought today I would show you a couple of DIY's that I did last week. 

This little curio type cabinet has been hanging in our garage since we purchased our home in September of 2015. The previous owners had been using it to store tools and paint. It was a little dirty and banged up a bit but I thought maybe I could clean it up and use it.

So after cleaning and scrubbing the oil and dirt off of it, I decided to place it on our gas fireplace and use it to showcase some of our pictures. But I thought it looked a little bland. I saw on a shelf in the garage, a can of blue spray paint so I got an idea. Why not paint the back of the shelves? That would make it pop.

I had to spray the paint into a bowl and used a foam brush. Here is a tip - don't use a foam cup for the spray paint, the foam disintegrated right in my hands and paint went onto the garage floor. I was nervous to explain this to the Preacher but he was okay about it and helped me clean it up. Maybe you already knew that, I think I knew that too but didn't listen to myself.

I love the way it turned out! 

My second project was to transform this lamp.

I have had this lamp for a long time and thought about buying a new one to put in our son's room. But I found lamps can be a little pricey. I remembered I had some left over chalkboard paint and so the light bulb went off in my head. I will spray paint the lamp! 

I roughed up the lamp with some sandpaper and cleaned it up. I then taped off all of the working parts with painter's tape. And then I gave it 3 coats of chalkboard spray paint. Of course, letting it dry in between each coat.

I found a new shade for it at Ikea and I love it! Now you can say whatever you would like to who ever is staying in the bedroom.

I hope you enjoy these very easy DIY tips!

Love from the Preacher and I