Colors for Your Home

Bookshelves, Bookshelves, Bookshelves

DIY Frosted Sun Jar

There are probably a million uses for these DIY sun jars. You can use them around your house, for parties, to light up a patio, or even to take camping. You can by similar ones from stores like Urban Outfitters, but it's much cheaper to make them yourself. And you can try different frosting sprays (some craft and hardware stores sell them in different shades, like light pink and blue) and if you can find a pre-assembled solar power cell, or if you're better at putting things like that together than I am, you can try to make them with different colored lights. 

You'll need a mason jar with a clear glass lid, a small solar garden light, adhesive, and glass frosting spray. 

Start by spraying the inside of the jar with the frosting spray, making sure that you don't get any on the lid or the solar light won't charge. Then take the solar cell you put together or harvested from the garden lamp and use the adhesive to glue it to the lid. Let it dry and put the top back on. Put your jar in direct sunlight and you're done! It will glow all night long after you've let it take in the sunlight for a day.

Room Focus: Kitchen

Get the look:

Table- French country parquet-top dining table, $1,099 at Wisteria.

Chair- Kayla desk chair, $299 at Pottery Barn

Chandelier- Regal French chandelier, $249 at Wisteria.

Get the look:

Runner- Diamond Light Blue/Ivory indoor-outdoor rug, $110 at Dash and Albert Rug Company.

Bistro 6 Light, $185 at Schoolhouse Electric Co.

Light: Bensen pendant, $149 at Pottery Barn.

Chair- $199 at Crate and Barrel.

Bench- Village black armless bench, $399 at Crate and Barrel.

DIY Crayon Art

These are being sold on Etsy for around sixty dollars a piece, but you can easily make them yourself. It’s cheaper and a lot more fun, plus you can cater them to the color schemes in your home instead of following the typical rainbow pattern. You can choose which crayons to use and melt them into different patterns and shapes. Try melting the crayons around objects like cookie cutters—or just paper cutouts to get the look you want.

You’ll need a canvas, a hot glue gun and glue stick, a hair dryer, lots of crayons (at least two boxes of 64 crayons, maybe more depending on the size of your canvas), and lots of newspaper to protect from splatters.

First pick the colors you want to use and line them up across the canvas.

Use a glue gun to make a line of glue down each crayon (if you want a certain part of the crayons to show be careful not to glue the wrong side) then press them down onto the canvas with the tips facing down.

Then line your floor with newspaper (the wax will splatter some—this will keep it from getting on your floor!) and stand the canvas up so the crayons are facing downwards and the wax will fall in the direction you want it to. It’s easiest to prop it up against something flat, like a wall. Just be sure to protect it from splatters.

Use the hair dryer (on low or high settings, you can alternate) to melt the wax by pointing it directly at the tips of the crayons until they begin to run. Then keep doing this until all of the colors are melted. You can go back over crayons that didn’t melt as well as you’d like, or that didn’t make it all the way to the bottom of the canvas.

And there you go! You have a piece of artwork that matches your space and your taste, and you made it yourself. All for under fifty dollars!

A Great Conversation Starter

Get the Look

Serena and Lily Salvaged Wood Bench. Can be found here.

If you love the look of this salvaged wood bench from Serena and Lily, but don't want to pay the $995 (plus $150 for shipping, bringing the total cost of this bench to at least $1,145...) you'll love the great, and much cheaper, alternatives I found online.  

Why I love Etsy:

This bench is also made from salvaged wood, and can be found here.

This bench (also salvaged!) is listed on Etsy by the same seller. 

This one is a little more expensive at $280, but still a lot cheaper than the original from Serena & Lily. It's for sale on Etsy by TrueConnection, a seller who deals mostly with salvaged wood for benches and furniture. They also have some really great wedding signs that you can have personalized!