Showing posts with label around the house. Show all posts
Showing posts with label around the house. Show all posts

Friday, December 20, 2013

Extra Bedroom On Suite Updates

Remember how I said in my previous posts on the extra bedroom closet that we were gonna have a guest stay and use the whole the suite for a week. Well, that meant more than just the closet needed some help. The bathroom needed  some help too. It HAD to have a shower curtain. Showering without a curtain would equal disaster....plus that would just be weird. Also, it needed some cozy-ing up. A few touches....now I didn't wanna go over the top. This is an extra bedroom that I hope one day is a child's room....so I just want things that are usable in the long run (and I'm cheap...nuff said). Here's a quick pic of it before I hung the curtain rod:



I decided since this is hopefully to be a child's room at some point that I did not want a tension shower rod. I mean I can just imagine how many times a tension rod could be pulled down over the course of a kids life....and I wanted to go ahead and prevent any future gooseeggs gotten in a tension rod incident. Plus I love poles...remember! But do you know how hard it is to find a solid rod with shower rod flanges!? I couldn't find them at Lowe's or Home Depot in store. Here's what I ended up getting:

I grabbed this rod from Home Depot.com.

The rod actually came with flanges, but they were plastic and were not the kind you screw into the wall. Instead they had rubber end caps that made your solid rod fit more like a tension rod. What's the point in that? I mean really...if I am gonna go through the trouble to but a shower curtain rod from Home Depot and not somewhere that carries fancy, schmancy ones then I am most definitely screwing this puppy to the wall. 

so I snagged these flanges from Lowes.com.
Barclay 2-Pack Polished Nickel Flanges
Perfect fit for the pole!

It was also really hard to find a shower curtain that I liked....that was long enough really. I mean I am "Sarah Plain and Short" why are all shower curtains made froo-froo or doo-doo!? Really, they either have frills and ruffles or they are like PVC crappy stuffs. Anyhow, I LOVE the shower curtain I ended up getting. It's a Hookless White Waffle 86 inch length Shower Curtain and fits the space and my personality. It has a snap on liner that can be thrown in the wash without removing the whole curtain! Score for easy-peasyness!

So here's how we went about business:

#1- Measured the distance and used a Hacksaw to cut the pole the appropriate distance.
#2- Based on the Shower Curtain I bought we measured how high on the wall we needed the flanges to be. We then held one flange in place and marked the holes that were necessary. We predrilled the holes in the wall and placed anchors for the screws in the wall....make sure this thing aint coming down if you swing on it! We went ahead and screwed the one flange on the wall.
#3- Took the cut rod and used painters tape to attach my longest level to it. (Now if you're fancy, you may have a magnetic level....but me I went with the redneck version and it worked.)
#4- I slid the unattached flange onto the rod (with the level attached) and then slide the other end into the flange attached to the wall. I just kept moving the rod til all was level and then marked the new spots on the wall where the second flange would go.
#5- Predrilled holes for anchors for the second flange.
#6- Popped the pole (without the level...lol) with the unattached flange on one end into the attached flange and then drilled the screws into the waiting anchors on the unattached end.

Here's the end result:

Here's a closeup of the flange attached to the wall. This pic also shows the waffle knit on the curtain....as well as the sheer light panel on the curtain.

Hanging the curtain high makes the ceilings look uber tall. I thought about going with the 96 inch length ones like my regular window curtains, but I liked where the light panel hit on this 86 inch one....so that's where I ended up.

I added a few more finishing touches too. Like this tiered fruit basket that I got on clearance for $6 for my kitchen but then it didn't fit underneath my kitchen cabinets....filled with extra TP and washclothes, it fits wuite nicely on the vanity.

I also added these Brushed Nickel Towel Bar Hooks by Moen. I absolutely love these! They came 2 per package. So I added one to the towel bar in the bathroom and three to the one in our master. They are super awesome. You can actually hang your full-size body towels from them. I HIGHLY recommend them. We have a 12 inch towel bar (yes, that is one foot) in our master and we hang 3 full size towels off of it daily, and they all dry easily now....and they look at lot better than cramming towels on a towel bar. Here's a pic of the hook up close. It comes with inserts to fit any size bar.

And here's a shot of the full bathroom:

You can't see the towel bar in this shot...but trust me those hooks are awesome-possum!



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Sunday, December 15, 2013

Extra Bedroom Closet Overhaul: Phase 5- the finish!

So I am back to share finished pics of the closet....warning though, the pics are not that great. Andddddd I decided I was too lazy to care or to fix them. But you don't care right? You just want to see the end result. So without furthur ado....THE EXTRA BEDROOM CLOSET after caulking and painting:

Here's the side with hanging bars:

 And here's the side with only shelving:

Sorry, I thought about styling the shelves before I took these pics, but nope....decided against the unrealistic look. This is real...a lonely PB light still in the box on the shelf. That's the real closet. BUT....we have had a guest who stayed in the room for a week and used the closet daily. Score!! It is usuable...lol!

Here's a few "closer-up" shots:


Let's take a look back real quick and see where we started.
I'd say it's a vast improvement over that!

Yay! I love getting things done. I know this was the most interesting post ever to you, but hey....this is life. We're being real.

To see previous Extra Bedroom Closet Overhaul posts click the links:
Phase 5- the finish

Note: I was not given anything in this post. I purchased everything myself and was not compensated to post my opinions about it. I simply listed my supplies purchased with my own monies for the benefit of you, my wonderful reader friends.

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Tuesday, December 10, 2013

Extra Bedroom Closet Overhaul: Phase 4- Choosing Shelving

So I know it's been 4 months forever since I last posted....I know, I know....bad bad blogger....but life is real ya know. Sometimes things just get in the way or are more important, and thats life. BUT I have been working on finished the closet still as I have had time.

Anyhow, what I decided on using for shelving was real wood...pine to be exact. The reason I decided on real wood is because:
A- It was cheaper per foot than the already painted MDF and/or plasticy premade shelving boards.
B- It will last practically forever and take a beating.
C- Real wood is nice. If I am gonna do this, I am gonna do this, ya know!?

So, from Lowes or maybe Home Depot...I can't remember, I purchased three 8 feet long 1x12s for the shelves and four 8 feet long 1x2s for the cleats.

Here are the steps I took to get them ready to install:
#1- I sanded the mess out of them with my palm sander. (no picture of this messy task....I hate sanding.)

#2- I primed each side of the board with Kilz. I primed  BEFORE I cut the boards to size on purpose.... so that I could easily use a roller on the whole thing. This is like the ultimate exhibition of of laziness...lol...but either way it worked great. I laid the 1x2s side by side and did them using the roller all at once too. See below...


I even turned the big 1x12s up on theirs sides and rolled the edges...see below.


#4- I painted them using the same paint as the rest of the trim in the house. I also used the same methodology of rolling the whole boards rather than the cut shelves.

#5- Cut the boards to size. Again, I didn't take pictures of this but I cut them on my miter saw according to the lengths listed in my plan. I cut the 1x12s to use as shelves and I cut the 1x2s to use as cleats for the shelves.

#6- The next thing I did was predrilled the holes for the screws I was using in the pleats. It might be overkill, but since I wasn't hitting studs with most of my screws/nails I put anchors in the wall. So after I predrilled my holes in the cleats, I held the up to the wall where I wanted to put it and marked the wall. Then I put anchors in the wall on the marks I had made. Then all I had to do was put the screw through the predrilled holes in the cleats and in the anchors waiting in the wall. So these shelves are STURDY. I guess my thought was that one day a kid might be trying to climb them, so I wanted them as sturdy as possible. I put 2 screws in each side cleat and 3 screws in the back cleats.

#7- Next we laid the shelves we cut right onto the cleats. Then using a nail gun and 2 inch finishing nails, we nailed the shelves into the cleats.

And here's a pictures of the shelves before caulking and painting and before we nailed the top shelf to the cleats. You can see all the screw holes.



And here's one last picture of the other side of the closet before the finishing steps:

Yes that is a chair in the closet....I used it as my ladder that day.

To see previous Extra Bedroom Closet Overhaul posts click the links:

Note: I was not given anything in this post. I purchased everything myself and was not compensated to post my opinions about it. I simply listed my supplies purchased with my own monies for the benefit of you, my wonderful reader friends.

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Tuesday, February 19, 2013

Hiding Blue Holes

That awesome title pulled you right in didn't it? I mean who doesn't want to read about Blue Holes??? Anyhow, back on topic....

So I played a little trick when I posted our 3 month progress on the kitchen/hearth room area (see post here) when I showed you this overview picture of the whole kitchen area:

And then I also showed you this closeup of the wall by the laundry room:
You can call me sneaky if you want...but I prefer to think that you enjoyed the beauty of my wonderful kitchen (yes, this is boastful. I love my kitchen) so much that you missed the gaping blue hole in the wall. Yes there was a hole in the wall. Go back up to the first picture above and look on the right side of the picture in between the laundry room pocket door and the quad light plate switch. See the light blue on the wall??? Yes, that was a blue hole up til a few days ago. And yes, in the 2nd picture above I purposefully cropped the picture in a strategic manner where you did not see it. Yes, bad blogger...but its my blog and I can do that if it makes me happy.

When we bought the house there was the huge metal telephone jack on the wall. If you wanna see an example look HERE. Well, I thought we could just drop the jack down in the wall and then drywall over it before the kitchen got painted. Well no plan goes right at first....and that idea didn't fly. Once we took the jack apart we realize this jack was tied to other telephone lines in the house. So if we disconnected this one, some others could go out. Additionally, if we drywalled it in and then we had telephone line issues we'd have to open the wall up to look at it.

Then life got in the way of house progress and the house got painted, but the blue hole stayed a blue hole with a buncha wires in it. Then I sent my wonderful DH to Home Depot for something else and he found these cool and cheap plastic plates made by Carlon while he was there. Now the website says they are not paintable, but on the package it says they are.

So we took the middle part of the jack off where the wires are connected....technical, right? I know, I should've been an engineer. Anyhow, once we unscrewed the metal jack plate behind it was a plastic piece that held all the wires. We left all the wires intact and just put that plastic thing and the wires inside the blue hole (again, i know this sounds all technical..heehee). Then I took the Home Depot plastic plate that DH found and painted it and screwed rigged it to the wall. The hole is slightly to large for the screws to actually go in the holes, so I put glue on the screws and then shoved it on the wall. So far, so good. It's hanging on tight. I painted it using our Sherwin Williams wall paint and a foam brush. Here's what it looks like now.

Yep, much much much less noticeable than before. One day I will probably hang a picture over it or work it into a collage of frames, but for now you really don't even notice it... And its much better than a blue hole. Well, most things are better than holes...ewww, get your mind out of the gutter. I was talking about holes in house walls.

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Sunday, April 15, 2012

Simply Sarah Knock-Off of the Pottery Barn Eagan Mirror

Last weekend,  I did a project. I've had most of the supplies to complete this project since before Christmas. I have wanted to do this project for over a year though. Two Fridays ago, I bought my final supply needed to complete this project....and immediately I went home and started working.
What kinda project you ask!? Another Pottery Barn Knock-Off, of course. Pottery Barn should really be flattered, because a whole lot of my projects stem from inspiration I get from their catalogs and stores.(They should also also like me because their outlet store gets quite a few of my dollars.)
So what did I choose this time?
I chose the lovely, the gorgeous, the oversized, the EXPENSIVE Pottery Barn Eagan Mirror.

Before I made my Pottery Barn Inspired Numbers Canvas, I thought that the Large Eagan Mirror would look grand over my "big" wall in the living room. BUT, I can't imagine EVER paying $699 for a mirror?! Yikes, thats a lot dough for something that just hangs there. But I LOVE how my canvas turned out, so then I liked the Small Eagan Mirror for my triangular shaped hallway. But again it's not cheap either...$249 for a hallway mirror!? No way, Jose! I am WAY to cheap for that. So when I saw a pack of mirror tiles on clearance in Target, I snatched them up quick. I mean finiding those mirrors clearanced, that HAS TO mean I was supposed to knock off that mirror! Here's a quick pic of the smaller Eagan mirror as thats more what mine would look like.



So here's a step by step process of how I made my mirror.

#1- Sketched Out My Plan
On scratch paper, I roughly sketched out how I wanted my mirror to look. I had preshopped what size molding Lowes carried, so I knew what size lattice and corner pieces I was gonna get... 3/4 inch by 8 foot pieces. So for the width measurements I just added 2.25 inches (.75 left side molding + .75 vertical molding + .75 right side molding) to 24 inches (two 12 inch square mirrors) to get 26.25 inches for the width.  Then for the length measurements I just added 3 inches (.75 top side molding + two .75 horizontal moldings + .75 bottom side molding) to 36 inches (three 12 inch square mirrors) to get 39 inches for the height.

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#2- Gather Supplies

Here's what all I had to buy:
-two 8 feet pieces of corner molding @ $3.97 each
-one 8 foot piece of lattice molding @ $3.97
-Liquid Nails Mirror Adhesive (in the caulk dept) @ $4.97
-one caulk gun @ $2.97
-one 2 pack of D-Rings @ $1.97
-one 3 pack of 50 lb Picture Hangers @ $1.97
-one 4 pack of Mirror Rosettes @ $1.97
-one can of Rustoleum Oil Rubbed Bronze Paint & Primer in one @ $6.97
-one 4'x4' of 3/4 inch pine plywood @ $16.97
-one 6 pack of 12"x12" mirror tiles @ $9.97 ( $30 at Lowes/HD or you could buy the smaller sizes at Hobby Lobby/Michaels)
=$59.67 spent
Here's what I already had on hand:
-Miter Saw and Miter Box (these cost about $10 together at Lowes...mine is well used)
-Industrial Glue Gun and Glue Sticks (about $15 together from Lowes)
- Elmers Industrial Pro Bond Wood Filler (about $5 from Lowes)
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#3- Lay out Design
As soon as I got home with the plywood, I rushed into my shoproom extra bedroom and started laying out how I wanted it to look. I had taken my measurements with me to Lowes when I purchased the plywood. Lowes will make 2 cuts complementary, so I had my plywood cut to size. When I started laying things out, however, I realized both sides were a little too big.  I think its my fault because that corner molding stuff even though the outside is 3/4 inch, the inside is more like 1/2 inch. The dotted lines in the picture below indicate where I need my plywood cut off.
So what next?? Well, I had to wait til morning when the battery for our circular saw (which has never been used) was charged. So Saturday, the circular saw got used....just to trim those pesky little slivers of the sides off my plywood. I have no pictures of this process....first time using a circular saw = zero pictures...all hands needed on deck for that. The edge was then much smaller and suitable to fit the corner molding.  The circular sawing thing was actually a really smooth and easy process...I will definitely be using that fabulous power tool in the future.


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#4- Cut Lattice Molding and Miter Corners
I laid the pieces of corner molding on the sides and then laid the mirrors flush up next to them. Then I took the lattice molding (just a flat piece of molding) and placed it down the center in between the mirrors. I used a pencil to mark where I needed to cut. Then I just put the piece into the miter box, lined the pencil mark up, and cut.
Why yes, that is my fine looking worktable I mean carpet and plywood-scrap miter box setup. It works great, thank you very much.  At least it's not the kitchen island...I use that often for sawing...lol.
Next I did one of the long sides of corner molding. Now I am not gonna lie. These corner moldings are tricky. I messed up 2 pieces. Here's how I ended up resolving the issue. Lay them, mark the cuts with a pencil, and then add a 1/2 inch to each side. That seemed to work like a charm and cover up the 1/2 inch of inside that I mentioned earlier. Remember to cut your 4 corners at a 45 degree angle (like in the pic below) using the miter box.
Here's how it all looks just laying on top of the plywood after I got done making all my cuts.


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#5- Attach D-Rings and Wall Protection
So after laying it all out, I decided to go ahead and put the D-Rings to hang it on the back. That way I didn't have to drill them in after making the front all pretty....and therefore risk scratching the front up. I used two D-rings.
I also decided to add some huge, chunky circles of hot glue to the bottom. This way after it's hung, those hot glue circles will be hitting the wall rather than plywood.
I hate creating dents in the wall, so woot, woot for wall protection!


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#6- Hot Glue on the Molding
Next, I hotglued (is that a word!?...it has to be, I use it all the time!) on the edge moldings. I ran a thick bead of hot glue down the center of the corner moldings. I also ran a thin bead on the edge of the plywood. Then I would press the molding onto the plywood making sure it lined up properly. Everytime I started a new side, I made sure all the pieces still fit together snugly. Better safe than sorry. Check twice, hot glue once.
After getting all the corner molding onto the side, I hotglued the vertical lattice molding down the center. I opted to not hotglue the horizontal lattice molding pieces at this point.

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#7- Wood Filler and Spray Paint!
After letting the hot glue dry, I smeared a smidge of wood filler into the corner cracks with my finger. Just a little bit...just enough to make the corners disappear. I let that dry for a few minutes til it was hard and then took the whole sha-bang outside to spray paint. I placed paint cans underneath it so I could spray paint the sides and top all at once. I placed the horizontal pieces and the mirror rosettes on top of it too, so that they would get a sprayed. Below is a pic of it spray painted, after I brought it back and started laying the mirrors and horizontal pieces back on to check the fit again. It looks black in the picture, but in person its a beautiful oil rubbed bronze.


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#8- Adhere Mirrors and Hot Glue Horizontal Lattice
After making sure everything fit again, I started attaching the mirrors and horizontal lattice molding pieces. I started with the top left corner mirror, then the bottom left corner mirror, then did a horizontal lattice piece, then did the left center mirror, and then last left horizontal lattice piece. I used 5 big fat dots of mirror adhesive on the mirrors. (Although this might be a bit excessive. The bottle said it was good for 6 square feet of mirrors....and I ran out on my 5th mirror.)
I followed the same methodology for the right side. I then placed heavy objects on top of the mirrors to make sure they adhered well and laid flat.

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#9- Hang Your Masterpiece
The liquid nails mirror adhesive says to wait 72 hours before hanging. Well, I've waited that long, but still haven't hung it. Why you may ask? Well, hanging things on the wall is my hubs job. He hangs all my masterpieces for me. Actually we kinda work as a team to hang things because I'm a bit of a perfectionist and it takes 2 to get it JUST right. Anyhow, DH has been crazy busy studying his head off for the dreaded CPA exam. Don't know what the CPA exam is?? Google it. It's really interesting...trust me. (Sike!) If you google it though then I'm sure you will find thousands of people currently sharing in my husbands test-taking misery.

So since I don't have it hung in that crazy triangularish shaped hallway of mine yet, I will just leave you with a shot of the finished mirror leaning on my living room wall.

I think it turned out GORGEOUS! It will make such a statement in that hallway. I know it doesn't look exactly like the Pottery Barn version, but I think I actually like the big mirror tiles better than the smaller ones. Also I spray painted the mirror rosettes, but after laying them in place I decided I liked it better without them. My completed version is a bit bigger than the PB Small Eagan Mirror. It measures about 26 inches wide by 39 inches tall and weighs 30 lbs. Costs about $60 to make my custom version over the $250 Pottery Barn version...thats over a 75% savings!
I CANNOT wait to hang it! Cute, sleepy pup not included in project. :)

And here's the side by side view of the Pottery Barn version and the Simply Sarah version.




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Saturday, August 20, 2011

Pottery Barn Circles Votive Holder Knock Off

I am back with another PB Knockoff. This time the knock off is for our master bedroom. (I also found a bargain last night that I added to my master bedroom that I have to show at the end of this post).  So here's my knockoff target...

The Pottery Barn Circles Wall-Mount Votive Holder. As soon as I saw, it in the catalog I LOVED it. It would never look right in my master bedroom though, but I really wanted something akin to this to hang above the bed. I needed something in silver to show up on our dark brown walls and I didnt really care about the candles being on there. Also it was $119 and everyone knows I didn't really care for that price. I needed something on the cheap and custom...so of course I just made it and I LOVE the finished product!

Here's how I made it:

Step #1-  I started by gathering my supplies:
Supplies:
2 each of 8", 10", 12", and 18" wooden embroidery hoops from Hobby Lobby
1 can of Valspar Spray Primer (already on hand)
1 can of Valspar Satin Nickel Spray Paint (around $3)
Picture Hanging Wire (on hand)
Tools:
my trusty glue gun (on hand)
saw (or you could use a knife to score and then break the wood)
pencil

You can see the prices on the embroidery hoops in the pictures. I checked out twice actually, so that I could use 2 of their 40% off coupons from the website on the 18" embroidery hoops. The total of the 2 transactions came to $13.72....although I didn't end up using every small hoop so you could get by cheaper. So my total for this whole project was around $16-$17.


Step #2-  Laid out the hoops in the pattern I wanted to use
I measured the space above my bed to know how long and wide I wanted this piece to be. I couldn't find 2 measuring tapes (they always go missing around here!), so I laid out a few yard sticks to judge the length by and extended the measuring tape to judge the height by. I then took the embroidery hoops and laid them out in the pattern I wanted. I used the PB picture as my guide because I really liked their placement of the hoops.

Step #3-  Mark where the hoops overlap
Basically, anywhere a hoop overlapped another hoop I made line on both the touching hoops.

Step #4-  Remove hardware from the hoops
I basically just pulled on it and for the most part everything popped right off. For the stubborn pieces I grabbed a screwdriver and wedged it underneath to pop it off.

Step #5-  Cut or Break the hoops on the mark made in Step #3
Everywhere the hoops overlapped I drew a pencil line on them. Then I used a hand saw to cut straight down through the hoop. A few times I also scored the lines with a knife and just broke the thin hoops. During this whole process, I kept the whole pattern laid out in the floor. That way as soon as I cut a piece, I could put it right back it its place in the pattern. Otherwise I think I would've gotten all my pieces mixed up and wouldn't have been able to piece it back together properly.

Step #6-  Hot Glue all the pieces back together
You could use wood glue to glue all your pieces back together but that takes forever to dry. Hot glue just dries so fast...and I am fairly impatient I guess...so I used hot glue. It worked great though. The reason I cut them apart and then hot glued them together is so that once painted the whole thing would look more seamless. Yes, the embroidery hoops are a hair different in thickness, but they are not that different. But if I had've just glued them together, they would've had a more stacked look. The PB one basically looks several metal hoops saudered together, so that is what I was going for here. Also, I filled any holes left in the wood from ripping the hardware off with hot glue...eventually it will all get covered up with spray paint anyhow. Sorry, I have no pictures of the hot glue process...I cannot hot glue and take pictures, apparently.

Step #7-  Create hangers
I cut 2 appx. 2 inch pieces of picture wire. Then I wrapped each piece around a nail and then twisted the extra creating a small wire hoop and slid it off the nail. I then hot glued the twisted length of the wires the inside of the hoops at the 2 tallest portions of the artwork.

Step #7-  Spray primer and Spray paint
Basically after the hot glue had set for about a day, I took it outside and spray primed it. Then let it sit for an hour or so to cure. Then I spray painted it satin nickel and let it sit for another hour.

And here's the finished product hanging on the wall.
  
And here's a shot of it over the bed. I think it fits the space perfectly.
  
And here's another shot of it...
and did you notice that big leaning mirror?!! That was my bargain I snagged last night. It's a silver West Elm Chunky Wood Floor Mirror. EEK!!! Yep, I just happened to stop by the West Elm Outlet last night and saw it for 60% off!!! That is cheaper than buying a floor mirror from Lowes. Plus this thing is a solid, hefty 110 lb wooden one. I mean this is SUPER nice quality that I only had only "dreamed" of having. I have LOVE LOVE LOVED that mirror ever since I spotted it in the catalog, but I have NEVER seen it in the outlet EVER. Actually I had never seen it in person til last night. We did not have a full length mirror in our house, so this was PERFECT. LOVE it! 

I also had cleaned up the rest of our room so I figured why not just take a few more shots... even if they had nothing to do with my project. Might as well show you the rest of the room :)~



So one last time lets compare the PB version to my version:

I think it looks great. No it's not an exact replica, but it wouldn't work in my room if it was.
Plus for about $100 cheaper than the original PB version, I think I will keep mine!

Thanks for looking! Hopefully this inspires you to create some artwork of your own.

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