canvas floor cloth

I have found that it's really easy to get caught up in home decor trends. While I love to use popular styles and patterns in our home, I don't like spending the money on items that I might get tired of over time. One thing I have been wanting is a colorful geometric or Moroccan inspired rug to go beneath one side of our kitchen counter. I wanted something long and narrow but the options that I found were the wrong size or were way out of my price range. When I run into this type of challenge (as many of you know), I like to figure out a way to make my own!

I settled on the one thing that I have lots of experience with...canvas! And while I know that canvas floor clothes are nothing new, I wanted to share this project to pass along a little inspiration to those of you out there on a tight home decor budget!

I've found that when creating canvas floor clothes, it helps to have your canvas primed really well. You can use any kind of canvas. Raw canvas or even canvas drop clothes will work, you will just need to prime it with gesso or white paint. I typically work with raw canvas but for this project I actually used medium weight cotton canvas, acrylic primed. I have a roll of this canvas that I've had for years that I pull out for floor clothes or projects that require a a heavy or smooth surface.

TIP: A canvas drop cloth will work just fine for this project but the cheaper drop clothes have a very loose weave and can distort over time. I've found that a couple coats of white paint (I use house paint) or gesso will give you a nice smooth and heavy surface for painting.

Even though my canvas came primed, I gave it one more coat of white paint and then I got busy painting pattern with acrylic paint. Before I started my project, I collected all kinds of inspiration from different rugs, patterns and designs. I decided that I wanted my floor cloth to have a crazy "mash up" of patterns and lots of color.

I also decided that I didn't want things to be too perfect or fussy so I free handed most of my patterns and embraced my lines and shapes being a little wonky.

Most of my painting projects end up going pretty fast but this floor cloth took me forever! There was a lot of space to fill and a lot of layers which means lots of time spent waiting for paint to dry.

The last step was to seal everything. I've tried a lot of products when it comes to sealing canvas and my favorite thing to use is Minwax Satin Water-Based Polyurethane. While a canvas floor mat will go through wear and tear, sealing it with a couple coats of polyurethane will make it last longer!

When using a canvas floor cloth in on hardwood floors, it is important to make sure it doesn't slip. You can use a floor gripper or double sided carpet tape under the floor cloth to keep it from moving.

You can check out how I created our doodled dishwasher HERE and our painted counter tops HERE

painted countertops

It has been a while since I have shared an update on our kitchen transformation- we have been in the midst of working on turning our kitchen into something that is a little more "our style". While we are happy with the layout and are blessed with lots of space, the kitchen has needed some updating. More than anything we want to incorporate our style (colorful, cottage, quirky with a twist of boho) into the kitchen. However, we are on a massive budget! 

Above is the before photo of our kitchen- quite dark and dated..hello 1980's!

Over the summer we pulled out a wall of cabinets to create open shelving and we love it. After looking at our budget, we decided that replacing all of our appliances with new ones just didn't matter that much to us. The only appliance that needs to be replaced is our stove, the dishwasher and fridge are GREAT- no they are not top of the line stainless steel but they work just fine. 

The dishwasher is dated so I decided to use my love of drawing pattern to transform a dishwasher from the 80's into a fun piece of art! You can see the process HERE

Then we went back and forth on what to do with the countertops- if there is anything in this kitchen that I just couldn't handle, it was the dark green laminate counters. I have wanted to rip them out every day since we moved in. So we priced marble, corian, butcher block, laminate and pretty much anything and everything out there. And then life got busy and we got really stubborn about spending a lot of money right now for vanity- short story we have some other things that we would rather spend money on than countertops.

Somehow in all of my research, I stumbled on a heavy duty paint just made for countertops from Rust-Oleum. While this option might not be for everyone, it was perfect for us! Some day we will make more costly updates but not anytime soon. In the meantime we still want things to feel fresh, bright and more our style us so painting our countertops fit our current needs (and budget).

There are 16 colors that you can choose from- I really wanted to lighten things up so I picked Light Ash which is a really light grey with a tiny hint of blue. The entire process was really easy, I was able to complete it over a weekend. I finished the project at the beginning of January and I've held off posting because I wanted to see how everything would hold up over time. Here we are in April and so far the counters are doing great. I LOVE how this small project made such a big impact!

I completed the countertop project by painting the base of the counter with a colorful pattern. As I have shared over and over again, paint is a really fast, creative and temporary way to make a change. We have future plans for this lower part of the counter but again, it won't be happening anytime soon. In the meantime, some BOLD and colorful accents are a great way to way to freshen (and liven) things up.

We even gave Lucy a space to paint because IT'S ONLY PAINT and I love using her art as home decor! 

After three months of living with these little changes, we love it! It may not be the most "on trend kitchen" but I love that we were able to freshen things up and make this space more our style without having to jump into a big and expensive renovation.

kitchen updates- open shelving

We have a long list of changes that we want to complete in our house and the biggest project has been our kitchen. While we are happy with the layout and are blessed with lots of space, the kitchen needs a little updating but more than anything we want to incorporate our style (colorful, cottage, quirky with a twist of boho) into the kitchen.  However, we are on a massive budget! Instead of sharing a BIG final reveal of our kitchen, I want to take you along with us as we knock out different projects. The first was to create opening shelving along one of our walls.

Our kitchen is the darkest (and most outdated) room in the house and we wanted to lighten things up a little. We actually don't mind the white cabinets at all- they are simple and in great condition but there are A LOT of them! So the first change we made was removing two of the cabinets and replacing them with open shelving. Open shelving is not for everyone but we both love the look and thought that some simple white shelves would lighten up the main wall and enable us to get a little more creative with pops of color.

Andy and I love DIY and decided to tackle this project over a weekend! The first step was to take down our cabinets (we have plans to upcycle them in another room in the house). The most time consuming part of this step was emptying the cabinets, everything else was fast and simple.

Next, we went shopping for our supplies- thank you Home Depot!  We wanted to keep our shelves simple, large and as functional as possible (no embellishments or trendy brackets). We bought some simple white brackets and wood that we cut down to measure 12" x 60".

I patched and touched up the paint on the wall (in my pajamas). I also painted the shelves white and then Andy got to work hanging them. 

The last step was to put everything back which was the hardest part of this entire project because all the cabinets and drawers in our kitchen were in major need of organization. What started as a simple shelving project turned into me reorganizing our entire kitchen- it needed to be done!

We are BEYOND happy with this little update and for under $100 we were able to completely change the entire look of the kitchen over a weekend.

The next project to tackle is replacing counter tops on a budget!  We REALLY DISLIKE the green laminate counters and are ready to get them out of here.  I can't wait to share the creative solution that we are working on!

Tune in tomorrow when I share why and how I transformed our dishwasher into a piece of art!