This weeks post is brought to you by Tables and Terrariums, a soap opera for plants 'Tables and terrariums, the rains of our days!'. Makes sense to me but then maybe its allll the paint fumes!
Thanks so much for coming back for week 5!!! Please be sure to hop over and check out the featured designers and the other guests like me :-)! To start at the beginning of my project; week 1,week 2, week 3, week 4. Also to see all the riveting behind the scenes, will she ever mound the curtain panel held up by thumbtacks???? follow me on Instagram!!
Bedside Cabinets
This was my week to get the bedside table situation sorted out. Last Thursday I didn't have the third one and now they are all accounted for and shiny and new!
I was super excited to use the Sherwin Williams Urethane trim Enamel, in semi-gloss, in Show Stopper. I knew I wanted the bedside cabinets to be red and was still trying to decide on my paint when I heard Rachel, the Amazing Paint Queen from Banyan Bridges (go check out her ORC, she is a featured designer) talk about this paint. It was the right choice for me based on three properties; hardness, self-levelling and easy clean up. This paint is an alkyd water based hybrid so it has many properties of oil paint but cleans up with soap and water like a latex paint :-)!
I know lots and lots of people looooove chalk paint but guys I just have not had great results with it. I did appreciate that I could skip a primer but then to get the durability that I wanted I had to topcoat with a sealer. In the end it was the same number of coats and I actually really love a glossy finish particularly on furniture!
If you've never used a self-levelling paint before you need to know that by its very nature it is going to move about after you've applied it. Self-levelling paint flattens out after you apply it minimizing brush strokes and other marks. But that meant to get the coverage I wanted I needed 3 fairly thin coats, particularly in the detailed parts of the tables. That was completely worth it to me because I have heard, that after a cure time of 2-3 days, the finish is really, really hard. Given the high energy in our home and the rate at which chairs get broken in this house that seemed a worthwhile trade-off!!! You better believe I have hidden the bedside tables in the laundry room. The boys are so desperate to use them but they are off limits until the end of the weekend :-). Unless of course they want to do their own laundry.....I can be bought for laundry!
One last note that I learned from Rachel, if you are using a darker paint you will need to tint your primer. The primer I used was the Extreme Bond - It applied beautifully, dried quickly and adhered really well to the cabinets without any sanding or fancy prep!
The cabinets themselves were bought through FB Marketplace and a fantastic local thrift shop. I was super pleased that we were able to find a third table for my little guy who is a natural collector. It is the biggest of the 3 and he is over the moon. It only has 1 drawer but we found a fabulous basket which will actually give him easier access to his favourite treasures :-).
Succulent Terrarium DIY
Wednesday morning I woke up thinking that this was going to be a post alllll about paint....again! Then thankfully the last few pieces we needed for our DIY terrariums showed up! I have to say that this was a really fun and easy project to do with all 4 of the boys, yes even the 13 year old jumped on board :-). I did some reading about DIY terrariums ahead of time and the one common theme that I kept finding was how important the soil/drainage choices were. Then there would be a very complicated recipe for the ideal way to create your own soil and drainage - guys if I'm going to spend that much time on soil I'm going to plant vegetables in the garden not grow succulents ;-)! But then I found this great company, The Plant Collective, that made their own pre-mixed succulent soil! They also have great DIY kits but as I was buying for 4 we opted to cobble together succulents from a big-box store, glass globes from the dollar store and everything else from the Plant Collective. To do this yourself you will need;
Glass terrarium (yes I realize it is insane to put these in the boys room, I plan to experiment with plastic ones once I can find them!!!)
Succulents, buy the mini-minis because they are going to grow :-)!
Succulent soil, we bought this one in 1L and only used 1/2
Sand or Rocks, we bought them here
Moss, from here
The Actual Tutorial :-)
Step 1 - Wash and dry your container
Step 2 - Layer in a good layer of soil, we did maybe 8 overflowing tablespoons. Pro-tip, if you are doing this with kids put the soil in a large open-mouthed container to make it easier for them to ladle out.
Step 3 - Decide where you want your succulents to go and make little wells in the soil
Step 4 - Gently grasp the bottom of the stem of the plant (close to the soil), flip the pot upside down and pop out the plant. Gently squish the soil to loosen up the root ball and place into the soil. We left ours with a little of the root ball soil above the fresh soil to allow for the rocks/sand.
Step 5 - Using a spoon gently ladle in the sand/rocks. Kiddos will need help here or they might cover the entire top of the succulents in rocks like my twins did. Their terrariums looked like the after from a hail storm! We added enough to just cover the top of the root ball.
Step 6 - Put in moss or other decorative items. You can be super creative here and use what you have or go on a walk to find shells/rocks etc. Do be sure to not add anything that is going to break down and add lots of mulch/moisture.
Step 7 - Mist your terrariums and place them where you can see them and gaze adoringly as they grow!
So that wraps up week 5! That means we are down to 2 more posts before the big reveal. I have 2 important projects left and lots of little things to do before we photograph but we'll get there!
Paint Trim
Tape off & Paint wall panels
Upholster/slipcover Lloyd's bed
Install reading lights
Make art panels
Decide on bed coverings/duvets
Make curtain to replace closet door
Make cushions
Upholster Slipper chair??
DIY light fixture
Style
Photograph
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