Take a good look at the room that you are currently in, how’s the paint doing?

Is it clean, is the paint chipping off, and if you have kids you might find fingerprints all over the walls or stick figures drawn with color pencils on it?

If that is the case, then I would suggest your room probably needs a fresh coat of paint.

Now, you might be thinking to yourself that is a project that you would not dare to tackle because honestly, it can be daunting, but you might be surprised to find out that you can easily do it with a quick few steps.

My dad has been a painter for over 20 years, he has painted many houses, more than I could ever count. Occasionally my brother and I would go with him and help him out in whatever we could.

Obviously, we were not the ones climbing the ladder and cutting straight lines to where the walls met the ceiling or spraying or any of the tasks that required a great length of experience but we would help organize his materials in the van and do the cleanup.

Accompanying my dad at work for a couple of years has helped me picked up a few painting techniques about how to paint a room.

There are a few reasons why you should consider painting a room in your house.

• For starters, it can be fun, and you can invite family members and friends to help you out.
• It can give you a sense of accomplishment as you work your way through the steps. After you are done, you can take a few steps back and admire the work that you just completed with your own effort.
• You get to enjoy a freshly painted room with a color that you like.

What are the 3 Main Steps:

1. Choosing a color
2. Preparation/Material
3. Painting

 

The room that you choose to paint does not necessarily have to be your bedroom, it could be your living room or even a small closet, in fact, I would suggest you start with a small project like a closet or a laundry room.

According to my dad, it is best to have a professional paint bigger project because it could cost more if you do it yourself. Especially when cutting straight lines up to the ceiling, otherwise you will have to use a lot of masking tape.

Choosing a Color

Beginning with the colors. From my own experience, most people prefer to go with a light color. My father’s costumers rarely chose strong colors and most of the time they chose one color for the entire interior of their house instead of choosing one color per room because lighter colors are generally easy to maintain.

This of course is a personal preference and some people like bold colors, according to Goodhousekeeping.com, designers’ top seven colors in 2020 are a mixture of both bold and light colors which include: classic blue, white, blush, burnt orange, peacock, hunter green and clay.

If so, you desire, you can opt with any one of those colors.

Preparation/Material

I assure you; you will not have trouble finding any of the materials that you will need for your project.

According to Statista “the Home Improvement Research Institute” estimated that the home improvement products market in the United States [grew] by 4.1 percent in 2019.”

Moreover, most of the home improvement products are specially made to help make DIY projects easier to tackle. Sometimes not knowing where to buy the right materials can be time-consuming but when it comes to painting a room in your house, you can locate these items in any home improvement store.

Here is a list of materials that you will need beside the paint.

• Paintbrush
• Masking tape
• Rollers
• Paint tray
• Roller extension pole
• Rugs
• Calk
• Caulking gun

 

Assuming that the room that you are painting is empty, the very first thing to do before you do anything else is to cover your floors with drop cloths.

Then you will want to make sure to fill in any holes with some calk using your calk gun. After that, you will go ahead and use your masking tape to mask off the trims of the windows, doors, baseboards, and along the lines on the ceiling.

This will help you cut straight lines along the edges of the trims. It is also important to remove the outlet cover and place a strip of tape on the outlet so that it doesn’t get covered with paint when you start painting.

Painting

Once you are done with all the preparation, with a paintbrush begin painting along with the trim, baseboards, and corners.

Pour the paint in the paint tray and roll your roller back and forth until it is fully soaked with paint, place it on the wall and begin rolling until the wall is completely covered.

Repeat process for a second coat.

According to my dad, if you uncover major damages as you are doing any preparation, it is best to consult it with a professional.

 

Painting a room in your house can be one of the most enjoyable projects, all you need to do is: Decide on a color that you like, either going along with the top seven designer’s colors or choosing any that sparks joy and comfort for you.

Your project will not take long to be finished once you buy all the needed materials which can easily be found at any home improvement store. Finally, once the materials are all gathered, you can begin working on bringing a dull room back to life!

So, take a look around and you might just realize that the room that you are in can do with a coat of paint of your favorite color. As my dad says, there are no projects too big or too small, with the right tools, motivation, and an eagerness to learn you can accomplish anything!

 

Check out more of our DIY projects here!

The month of May is almost gone, I have written my pregnancy journey in my previous post as we celebrated Mother’s Day and today, as we welcome the month of June we are looking forward on celebrating Father’s Day soon.

Since the celebration of Father’s Day is getting near, there are lots of gift resources online that you might consider in choosing the perfect gift for all the men in your life either for your beloved father, husband or to anyone who is a father figure to you! Gift ideas are endless and almost all that are on the list requires you money but it’s not really necessary, there are ways to make your own. A simple gift card which is created with love and creativity will for sure be accepted and much appreciated by whoever especial in your life.

Handmade DIY crafts are best examples of this and today I am excited to share with you a simple DIY gift card that will surely fit in today’s especial occasion. They say that the best gift card you can ever give, are those that are personalized and so we will create this DIY to one of most remarkable character of every father.

Everyone in the family may join this DIY activity, its simple and kids will surely enjoy! Let our creativity work and be artistic today! Let’s get started!

HANDMADE GIFT CARD FOR FATHER’S DAY

It is in every father’s nature to be the “Man” of the family hence he got all the fixer upper duties in the house and usually all the hard work that requires strength in the household. Therefore we know that each of them owns every kind of tools, love different types of machines and always geared with a belt of any kind of stuff for fixing or building. With this in mind, we will incorporate the design of our gift card from the look of the tools and also the design of the mechanic belt.

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Materials

Card boards / any hard boards, Colored papers / Crayons, Scissors, Glue, Pen / Marker, Pencil & Ruler (if needed)

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Procedure

1. Draw the image of the tools in the board. In this case I chose the following: saw, screwdriver, hammer, spanners and ruler.
2. After you’re done with all the drawings, cut each of them and write down your greetings and all your messages.

3. Apply glue on the back of each tool drawings and individually glue them unto the colored paper. Or if you have crayons, color them instead in whatever ways you prefer.

4. Then in a separate board, draw and cut 2 big squares and 1 small rectangle that will serve as the pockets for the cut tool drawings that we already have.

5. Draw or design the squares in the shape and look of a pocket, then write and print the greetings “HAPPY FATHER’S DAY” & “To the Best Dad Ever” on each square. It’s your choice of words! This will be the very first phrase you should see once you open the card so make the letters big.

6. Do the same with the 2 small rectangles except the greetings, just make dotted lines around each corner and leave it blank.

7. In a separate board, draw and cut an outline of the belt on top of a big rectangle and fold into 3 equal parts. This will be the template of our main card.

8. You may cover the template with colorful papers or color it with crayons depending on your creativity.

9. Next step is to glue the 3 sides of the square and rectangle pocket cut-outs in the template of our main card.

10. Finally place all the tools inside the pockets. You can also do some lettering in the front cover of the card.

Now you have your handmade gift card made only from simple list of materials in 10 easy steps! Try this at home with your kids and surprise Daddy with your creativity!

How about you parents do you feel more special when your kids make something for you? Let me know your stories in the comment box!

Kick start 2018 with a craft, a DIY embossed word home decor can suit on top of your dresser or in any table top in your bedroom, living room or hallway!Isn’t it fun to have your displays at home customized and self made? For me its a big YES! Its unique and you can have all your imagination come to life into an awesome craft! Having an authentic house decor doesn’t have to be expensive, it only takes some creativity to make that wonderful idea into reality and transform it into a beautiful masterpiece. I thought that it would be the perfect time to start making DIY displays after redesigning our room last new year.

I love all things unique but I don’t want to spend much for it lol and so that’s where my crafty mind kicks in. I thought of a word template that would be perfect on top of the long dresser we have in our room and I found one in 99 cents store, its a “welcome home” word template.I’ve selected paint colors that would make it look like its wooden and vintage or antique. It will only require few materials and the procedure is simple and easy, it will only take you some time to turn that empty blank template into that real thing you imagined it to be, vintage and unique.

EMBOSSED DIY WORD DECOR

Materials Needed:→ Newspaper

→ Word template (Welcome Home)

→ Glue Gun

→ Extra glue stick

→ Chalk Paint/ Any Paint (Brown, Black)

→ Paint brush

→ Wax (Dark) (optional)

Choose your desired word template and paint colors depending on your preferred design too. The wax is optional, if you want to use a standard paint then you don’t need it but I chose to used chalk paint instead. In order for me to achieve the antique design I want, I have to use dark wax instead of the clear one. Now for the steps and procedures, I started off by designing the template with the hot glue gun and the glue stick.

Steps:

1. Cover your work area with newspaper so that whenever you use paint, your table or any of the surface you’ll be working on will stay clean.
2. With the glue gun, design the template in your desire. In my case I want it to look like a leaf or flowers so I swirled the gun and glued down one layer of circles and let it dry.

Tips: When using the glue gun, make sure to take off the extra glue thread or web that it makes so that when you apply paint on top of it, the embossed design will look clean and neat. The word template will looked embossed with the embossed effect of the design from the dried glue that was applied.

3. Apply first coat of desired paint color on the front side of the letters using the paint brush and wait for a little while until the first coat dries up.

Tips: If you are using different colors and you only use 1 paint brush, make sure to wash it well with water so the paint don’t mix with another color. The paint brush will also be used in the application of the wax so before and after make sure the brush is cleaned well.

4. I chose a different color for the base so after I painted the front side of the letters I followed the base, I painted it in black color. Let it dry.

5. Next step is to apply the second coat of paint on the front side of the letters and let it dry. This will be your background color.

6. Then apply the dark wax on the side and the entire back side of the letters using the paint brush.

7. Finally, when the brush has less wax on it, you can direct your paint brush unto the front side. The embossed design made by the hot glue will be highlighted by the wax and will stand out on its vintage look.

Tips: When brushing the dark wax on the letters, make sure that the brush has only very LESS wax on it because the wax is black and if you have a lot of it in the brush it will make the letters so dark and it will cover your first paint color which is your background.

After the final step, let it dry and Viola you have your masterpiece! Its easy and inexpensive, your creativity will bring everything into life. A video of making this will be available soon!

You can do it, make it possible! just put in your wildest imagination and leave it to your crafty hands! Are you crafty too? Have you tried this before? or you want to try making one like this? If so let me know in the comment or tag me on facebook: @ifillLife and I’ll be happy to see it and learn some tips from you too!