DIY Black and White Striped Foyer Wall

Neutrals always have their place, but decorating your home with bold features can really bring it to life. I wanted my entryway to pop so I decided to go daring with black and white stripes on the foyer walls.

Follow the steps below to learn how you can paint your own walls with stripes. 

What you will need:

• Drop cloth
• Paint brush
• Paint roller
• 6' level
• Pencil
• Painters tape
• Eggshell white paint (White Dove OC-17 | Benjamin Moore)
• Semi gloss black paint

Step One - Prep and Paint

Use a damp cloth to wipe down walls. Paint the base coat and let dry for 24-48 hours. I used Benjamin Moore White Dove OC-17 for my white paint

Step Two- Tape it up!

Measure your wall and decide on how wide you want your stripes to be and the placement of them. I decided it would be best to start off in the corner with 5" stripes. Stripes should be between 4" and 12" wide. 

I wanted the first stripe to be white, so I measured 5" and made a pencil mark. I then used a 6' level to draw a straight pencil line up the wall. I then taped over the pencil mark. 

Make sure that the tape is on the correct side of the line. Press firmly on the tape to seal it. This is not an easy task! It took me 2 days to tape up my walls. You WILL need patience. 

Step 3 - Paint the Tape with White Paint

Now for the part that most people skip - I think this is the most important part as well. Use a paint brush to paint inside of the boundaries where the black stripe will be. I used my WHITE paint and painted right along the inner edges of both pieces of tape. The white paint will fill in all the unsealed areas and insure that you have a perfectly straight line. Let dry.

Step 4 - Paint it Black

Now its finally time to paint the stripes black! Use a small roller to paint inside all the tape lines. Use a brush near the ceilings and baseboards. Let dry overnight.

Step 5 - Time to peel!

This is the most rewarding part. Peel off the tape and enjoy! 

View from the (unfinished) living room. 

Liz Reyes talks to Nadia Ramadan with ND Studio about do it yourself pool ideas

Liz Reyes talks to Nadia Ramadan with ND Studio about do it yourself pool ideas

DIY Red, White and Blue T Shirt or Tank Top

I wanted to post this DIY again that I made in 2013! Check out this LINK to see how you can make your own DIY T shirt or tank top for the 4th of July!

http://nadiasdiyprojects.blogspot.com/2013/05/diy-memorial-day-and-4th-of-july-t.html

DIY Concrete Planters

Fourth of July is really one of my favorite holidays. What better way to celebrate our independence than to deck out your home with red, white and blue and barbeque with friends and family? I was on Fox 8 New Orleans this morning showing how to make this fun DIY. Check out the instructions below to make your own festive DIY concrete flower pots.

You would think that concrete pots are difficult to make, but they really aren’t. I’d say they are more heavy then difficult to make! Start off with a sheet of foam core (you can find it in any arts and crafts store). You can make 3 pots out of one sheet of foam core, depending on the size of pots you would like to make. You can even get creative and make different shapes if you don’t want to make a cube.

Cut foam core into one large rectangle – this one is 5 inches by 20 inches. That measurement will give us 4 squares within this rectangle – use your exacto knife to cut out the squares but make sure you don’t cut through the whole way.

Bend the foam core and tape it together. Place another cut out 5x5 square on the bottom. Make sure to use a lot of tape for stability. Now we have a cube (with an open top)!

Now we can make our pot a little more interesting. My pots have star shapes molded into them for 4th of July, but you can really make any shape you’d like, get creative. After you cut out your star, you can use hot glue to adhere it to the inside of your cube.

Now our mold is done, we are ready for concrete! In a separate container, mix concrete according to instructions on the bag. I used concrete with aggregate in it, that’s just small stones, because I wanted a rough look to my pots. But if you want a smoother finish, you can use concrete without the stones.

Fill the the cube up an inch with concrete and then place a cup or flower pot inside to create your planting space. I used small standard sized flower pots because I can easy switch my plants out if they die or if I’m sick of them. The pots I used have drainage holes in them, so I needed to make a barrier so that the concrete doesn’t seep into my pot when it’s drying.  I just used tape to seal them off. Now the drainage holes where there because the plant needs rain or water to drain out so that if doesn’t get root rot. So now we need to make drainage holes for our concrete pot. All you have to do is cut small holes in the tape and then push chop sticks into the pot and concrete. Now that we addressed drainage, we can fill concrete around the rest of the pot. Pack it tightly.

You can also tap cube to get rid of air bubbles. Let dry for 24 hours and then peel off foam core. Then you’ll have something like this!

Paint the stars with acrylic paint and puff paint. Let dry and now you are ready to plant!

Your plant choice will be important because of the size of the inside of the pot. I find that succulents or cactuses live well in small areas like this.

Enjoy!

DIY 4 Leaf Clover Door Hanger

Follow the steps below to make your own DIY 4 Leaf Clover Door Hanger:

  
Draw out a 4 leaf clover shape onto a piece of plywood. You can either do this free hand or use a stencil. 

Even though this is a St. Patrick's Day DIY, you can take this same concept and easily make an Easter DIY with the same steps. Instead of a clover, you can draw a bunny shape or even a basket.

Use a jig saw to cut out the shape. If you are not comfortable using a jig saw or if you don’t own one, you can cut a shape out of foam core instead, using an exacto knife.  

Now that your shape is cut out,  we can cover the front with moss. You can buy sheets of moss at any craft store. 

Flip the moss over and trace the 4 leaf clover shape onto it.
Use hot glue to glue the moss onto the front of the plywood. Don’t worry about cutting multiple pieces out of the moss. The seams will not show when you are done.

 After you glued on all the moss, turn it around and screw in these eye hooks. This is how the clover will hang from your door or wall. Thread a ribbon through and tie.

 Now its all set to hang! You can leave it how it is or you can tie a bow on the front. 

Nadia on FOX 8 - Recycled Mardi Gras Decor

FOX 8 WVUE New Orleans News, Weather, Sports, Social

DIY Beaded Fleur De Lis From Recycled Goods

This fluer de lis is the perfect as a Mardi Gras decoration. But since we live in New Orleans, we can get away with displaying it all year.

What you will need:

• Foam core or cardboard
• Newspaper (and a lot of it)
• Box cutter
• Packing tape
• Clear drying glue
• Hot glue
• Mardi Gras beads (all the same shape/size) 

 Cut out a fleur de lis out of newspaper. Fold the newspaper in half so that it is symmetrical. 

 Trace the cut out onto foam core or cardboard (anything you have around the house)

Use a box cutter or exacto blade to cut it out.

Ball up newspaper and tape it to the cut out. You can ball up as much newspaper as you want to make more of a relief.   

Now you can start gluing Mardi Gras beads onto your masterpiece. Use hot glue to adhere beads on all the edges. I like to use hot glue in the beginning because it dry quickly, although I would not use it for the whole project because it doesn't hold as well as other glues. You can use any clear drying glue to adhere the rest of the beads onto the fleur de lis.