Paint Chip Mosaic

So I recently moved into a new house, and was struggling to find cheap decorations for my walls that didn't look awful. After many Pinterest searches, I came across the idea of making a paint chip mosaic! The inspiration comes from here, and I pretty much copied the design exactly since I love sunflowers.

The first step is going to the hardware store and stealing a ton of paint chips. This is the best step. You get to pretend that you are painting all the rooms in your house, and that you really need 15 chips of the same color, just in case. Maybe you have 15 roommates and they all want their own sample to approve before you paint it. I made up a lot of stories in my head like this, in case a store employee asked me what I was doing. No one did.

Despite stealing like 100, I still ran out of the colors I needed but luckily found this entire book of them in our garage!

Next you trace out your design lightly in pencil, cut your paint chips in to small, uneven squares and get to pasting! (Note: This will take 1 million years).

I made my pieces a little too small, so it really took forever. I did each piece individually, putting a dab of glue on the back of each with a toothpick. It's good to watch old episodes of Arthur while doing this. 

I framed it on some white printer paper, and voila!

It really complements my craigslist chair.

Final thoughts: Would I recommend this project? I guess, if you are under-employed, not easily bored, have TV to catch up on, and your housemates don't mind having a table covered in newspaper and glue and scraps of paper for weeks. 

The end result was quite nice though! 

Painting 101

My room is pretty.  It's sky blue, wood floors and white molding.  And then there is a bare wood cheap-o closet door.  THAT DOES NOT GO WITH THE DECOR, dear landlady.

Never fear, we are reimbursed for paint!  Happy days.  This means I'm making that door a chalkboard.  But not with the black chalkboard paint sold in hardware stores, no no, instead I first checked out my girls at A Beautiful Mess, and finally the ultimate craft queen, Martha Stewart, and decided I could make my own chalkboard paint.

Off I went to the local ACE, and started comparing paint colors with my new bff, the ACE Hardware Man.  He doesn't know we are friends yet, but I have faith in him.  I told him my plan for chalkboard paint, made simple by mixing in dry tile grout, to which he gave me a doubtful look and said, "If you say so!"  See?  Friends!

One paint brush, one can of primer, a can of light grey and some tile grout later and I was laying down the start of my very own chalkboard door!  Primer went on no problem, but I don't think I mixed the grout+paint mixture enough, so while the chalk certainly shows up on my door, it's more like writing on a door...with chalk.  Nevertheless I have decorated it with this year's Bucket List, and have distant plans to give it another coat, with maybe a touch darker grey to really make the writing pop.

Next up was touching up my walls, which had somehow been spottily painted by past residents.  Lucky for me the extra paint was in the basement, and after a quick consultation with my dad and the internet I was ready to go.

This actually worked remarkably well, especially after the internet told me it would never match.  But take that internet, you can't even tell!

Finally was the chair that was mysteriously left in my room when I moved in.  Since I owned exactly one pink plastic 3-drawer piece of furniture when I moved in, I took this gift with open arms, but decided to make it my own.  Upon S's suggestion I painted the legs with some deep maroon/red paint I found in the basement, and it actually looks pretty good!  Despite the few spots that I missed.  Plans to touch those up are written down but not yet acted upon.  Also I might paint the seat white.  If that happens I'll let you know!

-N