DIY Shadow Box and Shell Art

Frames and art can be expensive! When the hubs and I did a makeover of our master bedroom we needed some art work on the walls, and we were working with a limited budget. Every summer we collect shells and rocks when we go to the beach and we liked the idea of displaying them in a gallery like fashion above our dresser. Here's how we made these deep, sturdy and large shadow boxes.

What you'll need for each one:
- Glass: 14.5" x 14.5"
- 1x4: 6' (these are actually 3.5" wide, the same width as the fame)
- 1/8" Plywood backing: 14" x 14"
- cork pads
- picture hanging hardware
- small trim screws (1")

Process:
We've never made anything with glass before and were a little intimidated at first. It turns out, most Lowes carry glass and will cut it to any dimensions you choose for a reasonable cost. We had four pieces of glass cut at 14.5" x x14.5".

Now to start cutting the wood: First, cut the dado and the rabbet in the full-length boards. The dados are for the glass and the rabbets will be for the backing. We used a table saw to cut the dados with the blade 1/4" high and offset from the side of the board by 1/4". The saw blade is slightly wider than the glass which was perfect. Once cut, the glass fit perfectly into the dado. We used a router for the rabbet using a 3/8" rabbet router but.

Next, cut the sides using a miter saw. We used a 45 degree mitered joints for these. Each side is 15" long.
Then, you'll cut the backing 14" x 14". That's it!
Now time to assemble!

Only glue and nail the bottom and two sides at this point (otherwise, you wouldn't be able to put the glass in.). After the glue dries, slide the glass in place to make sure it fits. 

Next, paint. It is easier to paint these babies before putting the glass in. We used primer and Benjamin Moore's China White. Tip: don't get paint in the dado (the groove for the glass). We learned this by experience. The glass fit snug before we painted and some of the paint got in. the groove making it too tight for the glass. To fix this issue, we just ran the boards though the table saw again to clean out the dado. 

Once the paint dried, we put the glass in. We then glued and nailed the top piece of the frame in place. The frame is now complete!

You can really put anything in these shadow boxes, but if you're going to go for a look similar to ours you will need:
-Linen type of fabric
-Shells and rocks
-hot glue gun

Arrange them anyway you like. I really like the star like design, and wish I made more of those. Once your art work or shells are glued down you can put the backing in place in the rabbets and screwed in place. We pre-drilled our countersunk holes in the backing for where the screws were going to go to avoid any splitting and so the screw heads would sit flush with the backing. There you have it. Affordable art work and a timeless look.

One Room Challenge: Master Bedroom Reveal

It's reveal day! Yea! I've been working on a makeover of our master bedroom the last six weeks and I'm excited to share with you the changes. Some late nights and weekends of work have paid off to get our room decorated. Thank you for all of you who have been so kind with your comments and thank you to Linda for hosting another inspiring challenge.  Without this deadline our room would still look the way it was, so it was worth it! I will keep this brief since you're all here for pictures. Let's take a turn about the room shall we?

Let's see a quick reminder of what the room looked like before:

Our room was already painted one of my favorite colors, Benjamin Moore Palladian Blue. We really didn't have much furniture or any art work and the curtains needed to be lengthened. It was great to start with a somewhat blank canvas. With the help of thrift stores, Craigslist and some DIYs we were able to makeover our bedroom. 

You can catch up on the progress of this room with these posts:

Week 1        Week 2         Week 3        Week 4           Week 5

I love how our DIY headboard and bench turned out. 

DIY shadow box frames and shell art give our room that coastal feel. We love to go to the beach in the summer and collect shells, most of these are one's I've collected. I sanded our dresser and put on some lime wax to give it a more natural look.

On the other side of the room we now have pictures up. I decided to go with all black frames and black and white pictures.

The armoire was a steal on Craigslist and got painted white, but I kept the original hardware, which is a crest shape. 

                                                    Chinoiserie thrift store lamp score.

This wall was looking pretty blank before. We moved the dresser to the other side of the room and put the armoire in it's place. With such a long wall I broke it up with a small desk and a side chair (free from my friend). The pictures on the wall really make it feel more inviting.

I can't wait to see what the other One Room Challengers came up with. I know it's going to be so good! Yesterday, was also inspiring with the other designers. Thanks for stopping by! Here's a list of my sources and other rooms I've done.

Sources:
Armoire: Craigslist, painted Benjamin Moore China White in Satin
Bedroom paint: Benjamin Moore Palladian Blue in Satin
Desk: Target
Headboard: DIY (tutorial soon)
Floral bed pillow: Aurelia (I love her pillows!)
Frames: Ikea
Photos: Printed from MPix
Shadow Boxes: DIY (tutorial soon)
Curtains: Marshall's, lengthened with white fabric
Stripe Euro pillows: Fabric, Nate Berkus line
Coral pillows: originally place mats from Target
Other furniture we had or was thrifted

                                      Other One Room Challenge rooms from the past:

                                                               Laundry Room

                                                            Tween Daughter's Room

ORC Week 5: Headboard and Progress Update

Here we are in the 5th week of our master bedroom makeover for the One Room Challenge..gulp! I can be a  bit of a procrastinator so it helps me to have these deadlines. However, I will probably be cutting it close since there is still lots to do. You can catch up on the progress of the previous weeks here:
                       1                         2                               3                                4                                                                
However, this has been a productive week:

The hubs made these beautiful deep shadow boxes and I used a lot of hot glue to make some shell art. This will most likely go above our dresser. I'll post a tutorial on these babies soon.

I showed a preview on Intstagram of our DIY headboard! The height of it really makes a statement and I'm loving it! Now, I need to figure out if I want anything above our bed. I did have a black mirror, but I think it might be too large for the space. Also, this week, the curtains got lengthened by my friend Janet who offered to sew them for me. Talk about nice! She can sew well and faster than me.  I think they turned out pretty with the pleats. I have some pillows to sew and so you're seeing an image with me playing with fabrics. The bench is 95% done. I need to finish cutting off the excess fabric. I decided to paint the legs black and put a peacock green blue fabric on it to give it a rich color.

Big Craigslist deal this week. We bought two armories for a steal. The front one we'll keep for the bedroom and the second one we'll sell. We are planning to paint them this weekend. What do you think: white or gray paint? I plan on using gold pulls. Hmmm... I better make my decision today.  We have a sprayer, so that will help speed up the process (cross your fingers).

Also, I will be picking up this desk today. Next week, Steve and I celebrate our 15 year anniversary. I'm really glad we decided to do this challenge so we can have a beautiful space that we can enjoy. I love that guy!

Here's what still needs to happen this week:
-Sew pillows
-Finish dresser
-paint armoire
-put desk together
-hang photos and artwork
-finish bench
-Style and shoot

No big deal right? Now, I'm off to see what some of the other ORC challengers are up to. Come back here next Thursday for the reveal.

One Room Challenge, Week 4 Art and DIY's

Thanks for stopping by today to see the progress of our master bedroom. You guys, this past week flew! There is still lots to accomplish in the room and I'm glad we have a deadline of six weeks since it pushes me to get it done. Cue the panic attack (Just kidding)! This weekend we'll have some time between kid's sport activities to finish most of the DIY projects. Fingers crossed.
You would be so proud of me, I finally ordered some photos of our family and places we love. Why does it take me so long? I like the idea of black and white photos to keep it simple for our room. Here are some art inspirations for our room.

Mostly there are cute family faces in black and white, but I also printed off some pictures I took of Martha's Vineyard where we like to go every summer. This is one of them:

I'm also working on some shell art in the shadow boxes that my hubby made. My collection of shells is not this extensive but here is an inspiration image:

I'm also looking at a floor length mirror for one of the walls. I looked at HomeGoods the other day and they have quite a few that might look good. I better make a decision soon. I like this one from Kirkland's too.

The headboard is almost done. We installed DIY French cleats for the backing and I used a white heavyweight curtain as the fabric. We still need to put on the upholstery tacks.

Lots of our DIYs are started or almost done, so I hope to have more completed pictures for you next week. You can see what I've done in week 1,2, and 3. Stop by and check out my friend's progress in the ORC and the 20 designers who are all working hard.

Master Bedroom: One Room Challenge Week 3

It's week three and the half way mark for the One Room Challenge. You can see my design plan and week two. There is still so much to do. Acckk! There are several DIY projects we're working on and those take awhile, but somehow I know it will all get done. Here's the low down:

This week, I switched out our lamps for these tall beauties. I scored these awhile ago at a thrift store andI had painted them yellow and recently I painted them a gray. What do you think? Should I keep them gray or give them a pop of coral? I also got a great deal on the lampshades at Target. They had all their lampshades on sale the other day, so if you need something like that, you'll find a good price. I also got some beautiful baskets on sale at JoAnn's. These side tables are also really old. Steve's grandfather gave them to us and they were looking pretty shabby but with a little paint and fixing they make the perfect side tables.

This week we cut out the shape of our headboard.  It will get covered and hung this week. Anyone can make this headboard and I'm excited to show you how we did it.

Also, this week the hubs made shadow boxes. I haven't determined if we will be putting three of these with shells above our bed or on another wall. I'll post soon how these were made.

                        The dresser is getting de-glossed and lime waxed and it's looking good.

Here are some of the fabrics I will be using for pillows. The blue toile print is a beautiful Pottery Barn quilt I will probably use at the bottom of our bed (we've had this for awhile). I still need to get fabric to lengthen the curtains.

I also ordered a pillow from this Etsy store with this gorgeous Schumacher fabric. Love! That's it for me this week. Off to work on some projects! Thanks for checking in with the progress of our room. I will be posting all tutorials soon. Go check out more amazing bloggers who are doing the ORC, they will be showing their progress too.

The Master Bedroom, week two of the ORC

Welcome to week two of the One Room Challenge. This week has been a bit slow in the progress stage of our master bedroom. We did have Spring break, Easter and a fun trip to Philadelphia so we'll blame the 'not much progress' on that. I hope you had a good Easter too. I do want to share more of my plans with you and some of the items I will be working on. 

The bench is something we've owned for awhile but it's going to now get a different look with lime waxing the legs and a cushion top. I think it will look good at the end of our bed. The big help here is I'm 'shopping' my house or playing the 'let's rearrange the furniture game.' The chair is something I got at a barn sale for $5 and felt like I should rescue it. However, this pretty thing has been sitting in the basement for awhile now so hopefully, I'll have time to recover it and paint the legs and arms. 

I could use this mirror in here, we've had it too for awhile now. The gold frame needs to be glued but was a great thrift store find. 

The bed will get a headboard and I found this great graphic to help me decide on the shape. I'm thinking we'll do the Belgrave style or the Grosvenor. 

I keep thinking about this headboard with the nail head trim. Amazing right? 

Now for some pillow talk. Pillows with some color will be important for the room to get a snazzy pop of color. I'm thinking a lumbar pillow might be really great. I'm still working on the fabrics so I'm sure I will show you next week. 

Here's my To do list:

-Lengthen the curtains

-Make Roman shades

-Paint lamps (already own) coral

-New (woven) baskets for side tables

-Distress dresser and put on new hardware 

-DIY Headboard with nailhead trim

-Distress bench (already own) and upholster

-DIY shadow boxes

-Print black and white pictures of our family and places we love

-Sew pillow covers

That's it for me today. Be sure to check out the ORC linkers and the designers who have some inspiring ideas and projects.