Home Decor DIY | A Joyful Riot

January 9, 2018

How to Paint a Wood Burning Stove

If you have an old wood burning stove that you no longer use, turn it into a beautiful focal point by painting it a bright color!

A while back, I shared my craft room featuring this painted wood burning stove which is my favorite part! I’ll forever be hopelessly in love with turquoise and so, even though I considered a few other colors, I am so happy I went with my favorite! I think the bright, happy color adds just enough to this space so that not a whole lot else is required on the walls or windows around it. I’m so lucky to not only have a space with such a fun piece in it but that I can basically do whatever I want to the pieces in my space! I’ve mentioned it a few times before but my house will eventually be torn down so in the meantime I’m painting all the things!

Give a DIYer her freedom and it’ll be her first thought to paint the vintage fixtures haha. But, I really wasn’t sure exactly how to do it and I definitely learned a few things along the way. The first thing I tried did not work out. And I honestly couldn’t find any help online. I tried searching for a multitude of different things and nothing had the help I needed! Eventually I chose my own products and figured it out and I couldn’t be happier!

It wasn’t difficult at all, it just took a little trial and error with some products to get the result I needed.

July 11, 2017

The Easiest {And Cheapest!} Little DIY Play Teepee

Kid’s play teepees. They are so cute and somehow so necessary even though they’re not at all necessary, am I right? I’ve seen a ton of cute ones all over; mainly in amazing children’s room photos on Instagram or Pinterest. And you can certainly buy them at Target or Land of Nod (and they’re amazing and adorable for sure!) but they’re like $75-$200. Yikes! I don’t even want to spend that kind of money on a waterproof tent my kid could actually sleep in outside.

So I’ve had it on my mind to DIY one for a while. I’ve been revamping our play room for the last couple of months for a couple of reasons. One is that it’s the large room that connects to our living room via an open double doorway. So its very visible and the walls were brown. I can live with some brown walls being hidden away in my home, but when they’re all in your face like this room was, I just couldn’t handle it anymore. So I busted out the white paint and some aqua blue paint for the bookshelves and now the room is much more cute, welcoming, and playful.

But the main reason I felt the need to liven up the space, and add some new playthings, was because my kids and I were basically home for 6 straight months this last winter. After my newborn got so sick he was hospitalized, we decided we couldn’t be too careful and basically shut him off from the world. There were weeks where I only left my house for 30 minutes, just to drive and pick up some dinner and come right back. I can’t say it was as wonderful as it probably sounds….being stuck inside all the time, getting no sleep, still battling sicknesses, and seeing few people other than your two littles can be hard on an extrovert like me who already gets depressed during winter. But, thats a whole other discussion! What it boils down to, for this DIY post, is that we needed to get some new life into our home for my 3 year old. She was a champ this winter and keeping her cooped up wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. But after 6 months, anyone would be sick of their digs.

April 24, 2017

Colorful Boho Entryway & The Easiest Tip to Make Your Rugs Look Better!

I’m excited to introduce you to a new room in my home-my colorful boho entryway! Do you wanna know a secret? I cut corners. A lot. I like to get things done and I will look for every way possible to do that quickly and efficiently and, usually, cheaply. And one way that I’ve done this in my current house, is to forego rug pads.

Seriously, We’ve gotten up to 20 rugs in this house (umm…obsessed much with rugs??!) and not one of them had a pad. Only like 6 of those needed one, but I didn’t think any did! I honestly thought pads were just for rugs that slip around or easily wrinkle up and so none of my large area rugs had a pad. I just threw down the rug and called it a day!

But guess what I learned? Not only are rug pads helpful for the above mentioned annoyances, but they also help in other ways AND, this one surprised me but, they can actually make the rug (and by extension-the room) look better!

I finally took the opportunity to try out a rug pad from RugPadUSA.com and I AM CONVINCED! Guys, rug pads are the bomb. At least the one I got is :D

Among the things that rug pads obviously do (protect your floor from wear, dirt, getting dyed by the rug, etc) I also couldn’t believe how different my rug looked to me after it had the soft pad underneath! I went with the RugPro so it adds a little bit of cushion which I feel really gave my rug some life! It’s just slightly plumped up now, and softer. And, actually having a softer rug is pretty important to me! I hate to set my baby down on a concrete or hardwood floor with nothing but a thin rug to support him. Now, with a rug pad, I know his head is padded.

This room is the entryway of my house, where the front door comes through and my mother-in-law, who grew up in this house, calls it the breezeway. I believe it was formerly the front porch before they closed it in with windows and added it onto the house, extending a new, smaller porch out front. Because of this the floor is concrete underneath. The concrete is underneath these laminate tiles which I actually don’t hate.

In the other rooms where this really long, awful, OLD, yellow shag carpet was, it was hardwood floor (you can see in this post) or concrete, which we either painted or acid stained, underneath. But in the rest of the house its plywood and all of it needs help. While this tile is nothing like anything I would choose, it works I think. Its light and basically just not very noticeable. And this rug–the moment I saw it on Urban Outfitters, I just had to have it! I was so excited it fit in with my colorful entryway!

From the moment I saw this room, I just wanted to fill it to the brim with plants!! Turns out, plants are kind hard to keep alive?? Who knew?! Haha. After going through…a few…I have finally kept these guys alive for a good 8 months (and some of them over a year!) and so I think I’ve proven I can handle it and may look for more to fill the space ;)

BTW, for anyone who wants to know what the secret is to keeping house plants alive, I believe it is to water consistently! That means, once a week, the same day every week (or close!), and the same amount of water each time. If you forget to water them one week, don’t give them more water to make up for it, actually give them slightly less so they don’t drown! Be consistent and give less than you think, that’s my tip!

Other details of this room include: my favorite Belle & Sebastian quote, a modern color-blocked thrifted painting (instructions right here!), light, airy curtains so I don’t block those most-fabulous walls of windows, another smaller owl rug (also from Urban, though years ago. It never worked in any other room before and I was so excited to finally put it out!), some fun and silly books and records, my hand painted (yes, painted!) turquoise couch, my DIY polaroid blocks, and a great little array of knick knacks!

I love learning new tips and tricks to make the rooms in my house look more professional and useable! I really feel like this rug pad gave the rug life and I’d HIGHLY recommend it for any kind of hard flooring! It comes cut to your specifications and you will not be disappointed :) What’s one small and easy tip you’ve learned to help your home decor pop?! I wanna know! Leave your tricks in the comments below!

February 7, 2017

Machelle’s Bright and Colorful Craft Room

I’m finally ready to share the bright, happy and personal space where I create! Ok, realistically, I create all over my house! There’s always craft supplies lingering around all over the place. But, when it comes time to clean up, this is the room the supplies call home :)

I have been trying harder since I finished putting it all together to actually keep my crafty messes there. Mainly because I put the effort in to organize and decorate it, I might as well use it right? But sometimes it is easier to just bring the hot glue gun downstairs with the kiddos rather than haul everybody up there. Oh yes, this space is upstairs in my house.

There’s just a small area upstairs, part of the original house built in the early 1900’s. It’s three rooms; two smaller ones off of this large open space. One of those smaller rooms houses even more craft stuff, party supplies, and projects (somehow…) and the other one, I am currently in the process of re-vamping to create a super fun room that I am so excited about!

January 22, 2017

Free Printable DIY Stendig Calendar

Having a baby is hard guys! My husband and I were laughing about how everyone tells you its hard but somehow you don’t really believe them. I guess its because they all did it and mostly made it look pretty easy too! Its funny how differently things look from the outside.

So, I’m prefacing this post which has nothing to do with babies, with an anecdote about babies because with the holidays on top of having a new baby, this is somehow the first post I’ve managed to get up since November! I truly didn’t think it’d be that way. But, I also thought I’d be in a solid workout regimen, whipping up all whole30-approved meals, and sleeping at least a solid 5 hour shift every night. Do I need to tell you that none of those things is happening right now?

Really, I’m just doing my best to make it through January and keep my house in relative order. But I tried really hard to get this post up this week because I wanted it to be up before the end of January and we received requests throughout all 2016 about whether or not we’d be doing a 2017 version of our DIY Stendig calendar. Don’t wanna leave you all hanging! So here it is!!

Last year I shared this printable and tutorial and I have loved my calendar so much! Its held up perfectly and adds just the right amount of minimal decor to a room. The reason I initially made my own was because I waited till the new year to buy one, which is too long! The original Stendig sells out every year, before January.

The financial benefit to printing them yourself changes depending on when you’re trying to buy one. If you order them promptly, before the new year, its actually much cheaper to buy the real thing (about $45). However, as they sell out and resellers are in higher demand, the price slowly creeps up. Right now, the best I can find online with shipping is $70. In a month, it’ll be around $130. To print them yourself, at the same size (36″ x 48″) will run you about $90. And don’t forget it takes time to make it too (not a lot, but some, and time is worth money!). So right now, its worth it to buy them. Next month, its worth it to make them.

Where I find these printables always beneficial is if you want a smaller version of the iconic calendar. Not everyone has room for a 4 foot long piece of artwork (and I definitely thing the Stendig qualifies as artwork). For example, last year I made one that was only 18″ x 24″ and it was perfect for my room. It also only cost $23. You could go one size up, 24″ x 36″ and spend about $44. Its also great if you don’t want to commit to the entire year, or you already missed a few months and don’t need the whole year. Or, if you’ve ever seen some of the fabulous things people do to recycle their Stendigs, you could simply print off a few pages just to have one of those projects (hello pretty gift wrapping!).

So, theres plenty of reasons why this free, similar version is super useful, even if you already nabbed one of the real things. As with last year, I did a regular version (alternating black and white), an all white version, and an all black version. Just in case you prefer one over the other for your space! Grab the free printable below, check out this post for the how-to for putting it together, and let’s all collectively hope 2017 is better, and easier, than 2016 was.

*One little note. These are in 24″ x 18″ size because that is much easier to work with. But, they are high resolution so you should have no problem ordering them in the full 36″ x 48″ size.

Oh! And print them out via “engineering prints”, available at most copy centers. I get mine through Staples.

How to Paint a Wood Burning Stove

The Easiest {And Cheapest!} Little DIY Play Teepee

Colorful Boho Entryway & The Easiest Tip to Make Your Rugs Look Better!

Machelle’s Bright and Colorful Craft Room

Free Printable DIY Stendig Calendar

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