The Decor Mama

A DIY loving, decorating obsessed, mama of three

DIY Vertical Hanging Wall Planter

| DIY

You guys! I’ve been on two major kicks lately and this project is a product of both of them! Can you guess what they are!? Okay, I’ll tell you, just so you can get off the edge of your seat now. Haha. Only kidding!

Succulents and any outdoor DIY project! Yep, every DIY I’ve been wanting to do lately has all been things for our outdoor spaces, and they all end up involving succulents! I think it’s super nice out right now as far as the outdoor projects go, and because I know I actually have a shot at keeping succulents alive those have become a huge favorite too!🌵🤷‍♀️🤞

This project covers both of my newest kicks, and turned out to be super cute as a space filler above our new built in bbq! But guess what!? I ended up decided to use faux succulents because I was really sure I could keep those alive!😉. I live in Arizona and it’s about to be super hot, like scorching hot, which equals A LOT of dead plants at our house. Ugh! Brown thumb problems! So, between that and knowing that I’ll be gone a lot this summer, I decided to go the faux succulent route! You could fill it with anything though! Flowers would be a really pretty alternative as well!

So let’s get to building this super cool piece for your outdoor OR indoor space! Oh the possibilities!

Here’s what you’ll need:

  • 1×4 wood. How long depended on the size you build. I measured the space I wanted it to be, then built it accordingly.
  • 1×2 wood. Again, how much depends on the size of your project.
  • Some type of saw. I used my Mitre Saw to make every cut.
  • Wood Glue
  • Wood Filler (optional)
  • Sander. I used 120 grit sand paper.
  • Nail Gun
  • Staple Gun
  • Chicken Wire
  • Wood stain or paint.
  • Exterior Wood protecting varnish. This is especially important in sunny Arizona!
  • Tape Measure and pencil

Okay! Now that you have everything let’s get started!

Make sure you measure in the middle of your box on both the top and bottom so that you secure your middle board directly in the middle. The middle piece of wood will be exactly 1-1/2 inches smaller then your side boards.


Turn your Mitre Saw to the 45 degree angle. You’ll have to keep switching which side the angle is on based on what side you’re making cuts for.


This was the first one I ever made. After this I started adding 1/2 an inch to the spacing with each new slat of wood. So if I started at a 3” gap, I then made the next gap 3-1/2 “ and so on.
I would say to do 2-4 coats of the exterior sealer to help protect it if you’ll be hanging yours outside.
Make sure your chicken wire is nice and flat before you begin stapling it into place. Start at either the top or bottom and work your way up or down keeping it nice and flat.

And wha-la!!!! Finished! I may gradually keep adding more faux succulents to this, but they add up quick so that will happen slowly!!!!!😄

Thank you so much for coming, and if you’re on an outdoor project kick like me, then I’ve got some other ideas for you! Check out my raised corrugated metal garden bed, or my DIY window planter boxes, OR if you’re on a succulent kick like me, then check out my DIY Hexagon planter box! I told you guys I’ve been on these kicks lately!😆👍

If you decide to make this or any of my other projects, I would so love to see your version! Tag me in Instagram with your creation so I can showcase your amazing work! You can find me on Instagram, my name is @thedecormama. I’d love to connect with you!

Thanks so much for coming, and I hope to see you back here again real soon!

How to Whitewash Your Brick!

| Uncategorized

You guys!! What I’m about to tell you most of the Home Depot and Lowe’s people don’t even know!  I walked in to both paint departments at Lowe’s and Home Depot asking both stores what I could use to whitewash my exterior brick, and they both said they had nothing! Say what!?!?

I was so discouraged, but luckily for you and I, there was a silver lining.  I happened to need address numbers for my DIY succulent address plaque I was working on at the time as well, (post coming soon!😄) because if you know me, you know I’m always working on multiple projects at once. Not the best idea, but that’s how my brain works (being all over the place!:). So I roll with it and make the best of it, and this time my bad habit of working on multiple things at once, worked in my favor!

Anyways, I’ll get to what happened.  See, I told you my brain likes to be all over the place;)  I went to buy address numbers in a completely separate section in Home Depot, and this nice employee asked me if I needed any help.  Feeling discouraged with already being at two stores with no answers I decided to tell him what I really needed help with not thinking he would have a clue what I was talking about.  I think it was more of a discouraged venting session for me. Ha! 

But guess what!?  To my surprise ( and LUCK!), painting houses and brick is what he used to do before he worked for the good ol’ Home Depot!(Insert dorky happy dance) He told me exactly what to do to whitewash my brick and how to do it, and I’m so thankful, because it has made a huge difference on our house’s curb appeal!  Well, at least I think so anyway.😉

Now that I’ve discovered the top secret method of how to whitewash your brick, I’m ready to share it here with you!  So let’s get to it!

 

Here’s what you’ll need:

  • Behr Semi-Transparent Concrete Stain. Once you grab that, you have to walk up to the paint counter and ask them to mix in white with it.
Take this can up to the counter and ask them to mix in white. I ended up using a can and a half on my house to give you an idea on how much you’ll be needing. See below for the full house picture for a reference.
  • Old Towels or a Paint Sprayer if it’s a large area. I used towels, but I wish I would have listened to the guy at Home Depot who said I should use a sprayer for my size of job, because let me tell you, it ended up being a JOB! Worth it, though!
  • Gloves, and knee pads if you want to be more comfortable for those low areas!
  • Painter’s Tape and materials to cover any areas you don’t want to get paint on.

That’s all you need! Now let’s get to this transformation already!

Start by prepping the area you are whitewashing if need be. I started on the back of our mailbox to test out if I liked it so I just laid down a blanket, but on the house I had some taping off to do.

Once your area is all prepped, grab your semi-transparent concrete stain, towels, and your gloves, and get ready to say good-bye to your old brick, because it’s about to be updated!

Wearing your gloves, dip your towel into the can of concrete stain, and start wiping down your brick! I started by getting in the grout areas then used the access stain that dripped down to wipe into the brick. Keep up that method, going row by row. Unless you use a sprayer, then spray away! The first wipe through will quickly soak into the brick, then the second layer will really stick. Just stick to covering the grout and, trust me, you will get plenty of coverage on your brick as well.

I kept that up until every single brick was finished! If you use a sprayer, let me know how that goes because you better believe half way through I wished I would have used one! Especially on our super tall pillars!😳🤪

What I learned about whitewashing while doing this:

  • Always check for drips down in areas you’re not working on. This stuff dries super fast so you’ll want to wipe in any drips pretty quickly so that you don’t have drip marks. If you do, don’t worry, it’s not the end of the world. Trust me, I have some and it still looks good!
  • Music helps!😉
  • Knee pads come in handy if you’re not using a sprayer.
  • Make sure your concrete areas are covered well, because this stain really does work on concrete! Yep, also made that mistake too! Ha!
  • Don’t wear nice clothes! They will probably be whitewashed too!:)

That’s it! I can’t wait to see your brick transformation! If you do this, I would love to see your transformation! If you have Instagram tag me with your project! My favorite thing is seeing what all you creative people come up with and the changes you make on your houses. You can find me @thedecormama on Instagram. I can’t wait to connect with you!

Oh, and here’s the DIY succulent address plaque I was talking about previously that I’ll be working on a post for as soon as I hit publish on this one!😉

I’ll see you guys back here real soon for that and more, because I’m behind on my writing! I’ve got a lot of projects to tell you guys all about that I’ve already finished! It’s so hard for me to sit down and write, because I just want to keep making things, but don’t worry, I’ll get on it!

Thank you so much for coming!!!

DIY Scrap Wood Bunny

| Uncategorized

You guys, I can’t seem to turn off my new found love for woodworking lately! Like, I can’t stop wanting to make more projects! The one problem with all these wood projects is my scrap wood pile keeps getting bigger… and bigger! That is why I like to find projects for that ever growing pile of wood, and this project did not disappoint. I combined my love for holiday decorating with my love for reducing the size of my scrap pile to make this super cute scrap wood bunny for Easter!

I got this idea from myrecipesconfessions.com, but made mine a little different from hers. Hers is super cute as she had baseboards leftover, which adds really cute texture to it. Mine is just made with my plain scrap wood, so you should check hers out too, to see a different variation. Both are super cute in my totally unbiased opinion.😉

Okay, here is what I used for this project, and I also wanted to say if you’re like me and really into woodworking projects, and have a growing scrap wood pile, too, I made a new page for all my scrap wood projects. You could check it out for some ideas. My other most recent scrap wood project is a super cute hexagon planter box (or shelf).

Materials:

  • Scrap wood! I bet you weren’t going to guess that one!:)
  • Jig Saw
  • Nail Gun or Screw Driver and screws (I used a nail gun, but that’s because I love the nail gun:)Ruler
  • Paper and Pencil
  • Overhead Projector if you have one. (I didn’t use one, but it would be helpful if you do.)
  • Wood Glue
  • Ruler if you don’t have an overhead projector.
  • Paint or wood stain of your choice. I used white chalk paint, Succulent by Folk Art, and Sea Glass by Americana.

Now that you have everything you need, let’s get started!

  • Lay out your scrap wood in an order that you like placing the bad or worse sides up so that you are looking at all the bad sides of your wood.
  • Once you’re happy with your wood configuration, start glueing those pieces together using your wood glue. I actually didn’t do this step, but I wish I would have so I’m teaching you guys through my mistakes. You’re welcome!😉
  • Now that your wood is all glued together, place another piece of scrap wood vertically on top of all those pieces.. This piece will be your support piece so you want a good, sturdy board. I used two, but one would work just great if it’s a good, strong piece of wood.
  • Now staple gun that into place on each board at least one time.
  • You now can turn that all over to your good sides of your wood and we will trace out that bunny shape! If you have an overhead projector, you can print out the image from Pinterest and then trace from your overhead image. If you don’t have a projector like me, then you can either make your bunny smaller than me and print a cutout from your computer, get the smaller bunny enlarged at Staples or somewhere like that, or freehand one on a large piece of paper like I did. If you look closely, my bunny isn’t perfect and that is why. My art skills are not the greatest. If you do freehand, then measure out your wood space so you know how big to make your bunny. Cut that out.
  • Once you trace your drawing and are happy with the way it looks, attach it to your wood. I just secured mine with tape. Trace away on your wood!
  • You now have the shape you’re going to cut out. I used my jigsaw, followed the line and slowly cut out my bunny.
  • Next, I got out my three paint colors and randomly painted some of the slats of wood. I left some of the wood it’s natural color. I created a pattern and went with it. You could also do the painting part at the very beginning before the wood is connected, but I’m too impatient to sit there and let it dry so I waited until almost the last step. (See materials for the paint colors I used.)
  • Finally, I found another piece of thick scrap wood, traced some feet that make for the base of the bunny so it can stand on it’s own and cut those out using my jigsaw as well. I used Minwax’s Dark Walnut for the feet.
  • I then used my nail gun to secure the feet and make the bunny super sturdy by nailing it a bunch into the feet. You could also use a drill and screws if you’d rather go that route. I just love a chance to use my nail gun.

That’s it! You now have a super cute Bunny! I would love to see your version! Please come find my on Instagram if you’re on there and tag me with your creation so I can share what you’ve made! Come find me @thedecormama.

Thanks so much for coming!! I will see you back here real soon because I just finished my DIY Hanging Vertical Succulent Planter Box, and now I need to write the post on how to make it because it is an awesome project for your backyard or even inside your house!

See you soon!

DIY Hexagon Planter Box (Or Shelf!)

| DIY, Scrap Wood Projects

Hi everyone!

Before I say anything else I have to confess that I think I may be slowly turning into a crazy plant lady! This is super ironic for me considering I’m not the best at keeping the dang things alive! This is probably why I’ve especially been into succulents…because I have a way higher chance at keeping them alive! Yay! For keeping things alive!😜😄👌

That being said, every project I’ve been wanting to make has to do with plants. Including this hexagon planter box that I made using scrap wood leftover from my built in barbeque that my father-in-law and I just finished! Yes, that was a project that had nothing to do with plants, BUT there is a spot above the barbeque on our wall that I want to make a hanging wall planter for so stay tuned for that if you are also a crazy plant lady like me!

If you are, then let’s get to making this DIY hexagon planter box though! This is a super simple, super cheap, super cute way to display your succulents, flowers, or whatever you want to put in there. I’m even going to show you how to make the hexagons into shelves if that’s more your thing.

Let’s get started! Here is what you’ll need:

  • Wood of any size, but make sure all the pieces you use are the same size. I used my scrap 2×4’s, but plan to make more with all different sizes.
  • Some sort of wood for the bottom(if you’re making the planter version). I used scrap OSB, or particle board, but you could use anything.
  • Miter Saw tilted to 30 degrees for a beveled cut. (See picture below if you don’t know what that means. If you don’t, don’t worry! It’s not hard to do that!)
  • Wood Glue
  • Nail Gun (because that’s my favorite tool to use, you could use a lot of different things in order to put the pieces together.)
  • Wood filler
  • Sander
  • Jigsaw to cut out the hexagon shape on the OSB board. Again, for the shelves you won’t need this.
  • I used white chalk paint, painter’s tape, and gold spray paint, and clear wax to finish it off.

Okay, now let’s get started!

This was my first time making beveled cuts! It was super easy once I realized my saw could tilt! Haha! Yep, I didn’t think mine tilted because it’s an oldie, but it does!
Just make sure you are cutting your wood the right way so that one side of the wood has both the shorter beveled cuts and the other side has all the longer beveled cuts.
I first glued the seem, then held it together myself, but you could try clamping it, then I used my nail gun to nail the pieces together.
Yes, for shelves forget about this part! You don’t need a back, or if you do want a back you will probably want to use better looking wood than this. I didn’t care since this was getting covered with soil.
Good news is I’ve gotten a new sander since this project so my next one will be nice and sanded down!

Don’t worry that bottom part got covered up with spray paint!

Ta-dah!!! Finished! I used soil I had on hand, succulents I found from the clearance plant section at Lowe’s, and white rock that I found at the dollar store! That’s it! You did it!


Please tag me on Instagram @thedecormama if you make this so I can see your version! I love seeing what all you creative people come up with!


Thank you so much for coming and if you really are in the crazy lady plant club with me come back soon for more plant projects that I have in store for you!!! Yay!

DIY Twin Size House Bed!

| DIY

Hi everyone, and welcome back (hopefully:)!

I just built my son his first big boy bed, which happens to be a super cute house bed, and the look on his face was priceless! He loves it, and is sleeping soooo good in it! Yessssss! Not to mention, his two older brothers even want this bed! This all makes me so happy because I still am in shock that after just four months of taking up this new hobby of wood working, I’m now able to make stuff like beds! It’s been so fun to get to make all this cool stuff around my house and I can’t wait to make so much more!…So stay tuned for all the projects that I have stirring around in my head. Haha!

I had been seeing the house bed’s around on Pinterest and Instagram and I so badly wanted to make one! For my kids or for anyone! I guess it appealed to my childhood days when I used to always want my bed tent up that looked like a house. I loved that thing! Did anyone else have those bed tents!? My sister’s and I loved ours. So the little girl in me built that house bed! It turns out it’s a real winner in our house! All three of my boys love it as much as I used to love my little house bed tent!

The first step I took before building this bed was finding a good tutorial for it, and Remodelholic’s was perfect! The cut list and diagram was just what I needed. I did tweek a few things, which I’ll tell you all about in the directions. Here are her plans if you’d like to use them as well!

Okay, let’s get to building some house bed’s already, shall we?!

Materials:

  • 11- 2″x4″x8′ boards
  • 2- 2″x2″x8′ boards
  • 5- 1″x4″x8′ boards
  • 2 1/2″ self tapping screws. Buy in bulk.
  • Drill (Preferably 2, so you can predrill with one size, and then actually drill in the screws with the other. Not necessary though, just makes the job quicker and easier.)
  • Nail Gun with finishing nails
  • 4 Joist hangers
  • Chop Saw
  • Wood Filler
  • Sander and Sand Paper
  • Paint or stain of your choice. I used Briarsmoke by Rustoleum for this bed.

Cut List:

I added two more 77” pieces after this picture was taken to make a bedrail for my son.

You’ll use some of the same pieces of wood for multiple cuts.

  • 6- 2×4’s at 77″
  • 4-2×4’s cut at one end at a 45 degree angle at 61 5/16″. Using those same pieces of leftover wood with one angle already cut into it, cut at 30 1/16″ with another 45 degree angle. Those will be your roof pieces so they need angles on both ends.
  • 1-2×4 cut at 35 1/2″ twice. So 2 of those cuts on that one board.
  • 2- 2×2’s at 74″. Take 1 scrap 2×2 and make another cut at 5 1/2″. Take the other scrap 2×2 and make a cut using your 45 degree angle and cut at 10 11/16″, and then again using that angled scrap you’ll cute at 6 11/16″ using no angle. So those last two cuts will only have one angled side each.
  • Cut your 1×4 boards down to 39 1/2” to make 10 boards. These will be your slats. (You May have to cut these down a little to fit. We did!)

Now that you’ve made all your cuts, lets build ourselves a house bed!

  • First, we are going to make the two ends of the beds. For the first end, you’ll need two of your 61 5/16″ pieces, one 35 1/2″ board, two of your 30 1/16″ pieces. Take your two 61″ pieces and laying them with the flat side at the bottom, measure 6 1/2″ up. This is where you will attach your 35 1/2″ board. Then lay out your two roof pieces as well.
Excuse my super messy garage floor that’s stained from way too many other projects.
  • Now you will make all your pocket holes. See below pic for where to put all of them. You can use a kreg jig or you can predrill with your drill.
  • Once all your pocket holes are made, you will glue using your wood glue at each seam and then using your drill, screw in your 2 1/2″ screws.
  • Now you have the first end of your bed made! You will repeat all of this for your second side.
  • You can also make your chimney now by putting together your 3 pieces of 2×2. I just put two screws in the top to secure the side pieces. No one will be able to see them so you don’t need to worry about how they look.

  • It is now time to fill any holes, cracks, or crevices that you don’t like, sand it all down, and paint or stain all of your wood to your liking. We finished ours in Briarsmoke by Rustoleum. (You will not need to stain your 10 1×4 boards as those are your bed slats.) Also, make sure those fit into your bed frame by laying it out, because you may need to cut those down a tad to fit. We had to do that. Keep in mind the size of your twin mattress because you don’t want to cut them down too much! That would be bad after all that work!😉

I usually always wear a mask when sanding down and I highly suggest it because all that dust isn’t good to breath in! I forgot to put it on in this pic.!🤪
  • Now that everything is stained and ready, you will need to attach your 2×2 74″ pieces onto your 2×4 77” pieces. (The Remodelholic left the 2×2’s the same length as the bed pieces, but I used Joist Hangers instead of screws to secure the bottom of the bed so I needed to leave a bit of room for those on these pieces.) Set your 2×2’s an inch and a half in on each side on the insides of your 2×4 boards, and attach using screws. I screwed in about 6 screws and then nail gunned it a bunch to add further support.
  • Now that all of that is made, you’ll need to decide where you want this bed, because you are now going to assemble it, and it probably won’t make it through any doors or hallways unless yours are super wide. Take everything into the room where you want this bed. You’re getting close to finishing!!!!
  • It is now time to put this bed together!!! Yay! We attached our joist hangers to the inside of our bed ends where the support boards are going to go. The 77″ board should be exactly even with your end 35″ board. Before we secured it, we used a level to make sure they were level. I also recommend only lightly screwing in a couple of the joist hanger holes until you have all 4 sides done and are happy with it. Then go back and screw the screws in tightly and add the rest of them. The below picture is the finished product when we were happy with all four sides.
  • Now that your bottom frame is put together, you’ll complete the top, or the roof section. You’ll need someone to help you with this, because one person will hold the board in line while the other will screw it into place using your 2 1/2″ screws. I used two screws per board.
  • Now that your roof is finished, you can add a second support beam at the bottom. We did this to help keep our son in his bed since this is his first big boy bed. You can decide on the height you like. We put ours about an inch above the mattress level so that it wouldn’t be too hard to climb over, but enough to keep him from rolling off. We attached this with two screws as well.
  • Now your bed is done, we just have to attach your chimney! That is, if you still have the energy to do that part after all this work! I seriously debated it for awhile! I’m glad I did it though, because it does add character to his bed. You can attach it to whatever side of the roof you like. We put ours about 12” down from the top of the roof. We attached that with screws by screwing sideways from the side chimney into the roof.
  • Last step!!!! So exciting!! And this is optional! I went around and covered all my screws/screw holes with wood filler, and then covered that with more stain.

That’s it!!! You did it! Way to go! Hopefully your kid’s like it as much as mine did! He was so excited, it was the cutest thing ever!

I would so love to see your version of this house bed! If you build this, tag me on Instagram so I can see what you created and share it! I’m so excited to see what your version looks like!

Thank you so much for coming, and I will see you back here again real soon, as I’m in the middle of building a built in barbecue and bar top right now!


DIY Scrapbook Paper Picture Frame

| DIY, DIY Holiday Decor

I just recently finished my master bedroom accent wall so I had some scrap 1×2 pieces of wood laying around that I wanted to use. Since Valentine’s Day is coming up I decided to make a cute Valentine’s Day frame, and while I was at it I went ahead and made a spring one too!

It was easy and inexpensive so this is the perfect project for anybody!

Here’s what you’ll need:

This post does contain affiliate links, which means if you make a purchase through any of the links that I’ve provided, I make a small percentage of the sale at no extra cost to you. So thank you so much if you do help support myself and this blog!

  • Scrapbook paper. I bought the 12″x 12″ paper from Hobby Lobby.
  • 1 x 2 wood of your choice. Mine was my leftover scrap wood.
  • *A wooden or cardboard word to give the frame some added detail. This is optional, but I got my words at Hobby Lobby as well. The ‘love’ is from the scrapbook section and the ‘Hi’ is from the decor section (I think!:)
  • Thin board of your choice. I used leftover scrap backer board. You could even use a flat piece of cardboard if you have it.
  • Wood Glue
  • Nail Gun
  • Staple Gun
  • Chop Saw
  • Table Saw
  • Stain. I used Briarsmoke and Weathered Oak.
  • *Paint if you want to paint the words on your frame. I used black chalk paint for my ‘love’ word.

Okay, now that you have all of that, let’s get to making these cute signs already!

  • You’re going to want to measure and mark your wood. If you’re using a 12″ x 12″ scrapbook paper like I did then your two short frame pieces will be 11-3/4″ and the two long pieces will be 14-1/4″. Using your chop saw, or whatever saw you prefer, cut those pieces down to size.
  • Then cut down your backboard material to size. This is one area I made a mistake. I made mine the exact size of the paper, but I wish I would have made it 13″ x 13″ to give me more room to staple it to the frame. Yes, you can see a few of my staples through the paper if you look closely! Dang it, but at least you get to learn through my mistakes!
See how close the staples are to the paper. Next time I will make the backer board 1 inch bigger so I have more room to staple to the frame section.
  • Now that you have all your cuts made, you can start making your frame. I used my nail gun to put the pieces together, but if you’re more patient than me you can totally use wood glue!
If nail gun’s intimidate you, then you can use wood glue and clamp them until the glue dries.
  • Now you can lightly sand down your frame if you think it needs it and then stain or paint it to your liking. My light frame is stained in Weathered Oak by Minwax and my dark frame is stained in Briarsmoke.
  • While that’s drying paint your word if it needs it. I ended up leaving the ‘Hi” just how I bought it.
  • Glue your scrapbook paper onto your backer board, or whatever cheap board you found. This is another area I made a mistake. I used wood glue, which is fine, but I wish I would have painted it on because you can see faint glue lines through the paper. Next time!
  • Once your frame is all dry, turn it over, place your board and paper face down on top of that, and staple away. Try not to staple onto the paper like I did!
  • Now that that part is all done, you can glue your wood on using your wood glue. Lay it on there beforehand to see where you like it and to see where you’ll actually need glue. Give that time to dry before you stand it up.
Here’s my Valentine’s Day frame up!

That’s it! You’re done! I’d love to see your finished products! Please tag me on Instagram so I can see what you’ve created! Come find me and follow along on my DIY journey @thedecormama.

Thank you so much for coming, and I hope you’ll come back real soon for my next DIY, which is actually in the making as we speak! In fact, I should have been working on that instead of this project, but I couldn’t pass up making some Valentine’s Day decor since it’s almost February!

XOXO,

Lauren

The Decor Mama

Everything You Need to Know to Make A Herringbone Accent Wall!

| DIY

I just finished up my herringbone accent wall yesterday and I am so excited to share everything I learned about how to make this wall with you!

Here’s the first thing I’ll say about making your own herringbone wall; once you figure out what angle you want your herringbone or chevron pattern to be, it is easy! No, seriously, it is!! Trust me, you can do this!

I’ve been randomly seeing this accent wall design on Pinterest and Instagram, and I knew I wanted to make that for our master bedroom as our master bedroom has been lacking, to say the least, for the past three years. I’ve just never had a good vision of what I wanted to do in our bedroom so it’s been looking pretty boring. Whoopsies! Not any more though! Herringbone accent wall to the rescue!

The question is; Are you ready to transform your wall too? I think so! Trust me you can do this fun transformation, because guess what??? I’m going to tell you everything you need to know so you can do it, too! And even the mistakes (that I made) to avoid. Yay!

Let’s get to it already!

This post does contain affiliate links, which means if you click any links I’ve provided for you, I will receive a small percentage of the sale at no extra cost to you. So thank you so much if you do help support myself and this blog!

Here’s a list of the supplies you’ll need for it:

  • 1 x 2 x 8’s for the horizontal herringbone lines and 1 x 2 x 10’s for your vertical lines. How many you need depends on how much of the herringbone pattern you want to have. I wanted mine bigger so I bought 5 vertical pieces and 16 horizontal pieces, because I did four large sections with four little sections inside that. See picture below. Our bed is in the way to get the whole wall, but you can kind of, sort of, hopefully get the idea!😉

Now that you have everything; here’s how to make your very own Herrinbone Wall!!!!!!

  • The first step I did was skim coat my wall so that it was super flat! I originally thought I would use backer board, but with the uneven lines of the herringbone wall they would not have covered the seems of the backer board. I would like to say I skim coated the wall myself, but after talking with my husband he convinced me this is a job that is better to hire out. So that’s what I did, and the guy I hired did an amazing job! Way better than what I would have done! My wall was so smooth by the time he finished, and unfortunately, I have super textured walls. If you don’t have textured walls, or if you don’t mind your texture, then you can skip this step!!!
  • Measure out the height and width of you wall.
  • Decide how much of the herringbone wall pattern you want to have. I chose to make my pattern really big, but some like a lot more of the pattern. That is up to you!
  • Once you decide how much of the pattern you want you’ll need to figure out how much wood you’ll need. I drew out my pattern so I could get a good visual of that and to record all the measurements. I recommend doing that. And before you ask…no, I’m not a professional architect or artist based off of my amazing sketching skills!😬😂
  • I knew I wanted 4 of the big sections and then I decided on the smaller sections based off of the measurements of my room. So the height of my room was 100 inches so I knew it would be easy to break 100 into 4 sections spacing them out each 25 inches. Based off of that I bought 5 -1x2x10 boards for the vertical spacing. Two to frame out my wall and three for the middle sections. Then I bought 16-1x2x8 boards for the horizontal patterned lines. Again, this is based off of my room measurements so your wood list could be different.
  • Now I measured out the height of the wall at each spot my vertical boards would be going, because your walls may be uneven! All of mine were even except for the very right side of my room, which was 1” shorter. I recorded each height on my handy sketch that I made of the wall.
  • Now that the measurements were done I chopped my 10’ boards accordingly.
  • I then used a level to make sure my board was straight and then nail gunned it into place. I did this for all five pieces of my vertical boards.
You can see four of my vertical boards from this shot.
  • So now that your vertical boards are hung, it’s time to start your herringbone pattern, which means you need to figure out what angle your boards need to be cut at! First, mark off each point you’ll want your wood to start on your first piece of vertical wood. For me, it was every 25”, so I made a mark going up at each 25” point. You’ll need to do this on every vertical wood piece so that you know and can see where you want your wood to go. If you have a protractor use that for sure, but I don’t have that yet, so I cut down one piece of wood so that it was still too long, but short enough so that I could see what angle to cut it at. I started on the very left bottom side and held it at the perfect angle so it hit the bottom of the next vertical board and the wall. I marked off the line and realized that the angle I needed for my room was 22.5 degrees. Once you figure this out it’s happy days! The rest is pretty simple!
  • Now that you have your angle down you need to measure how long you need your wood. I used the tape measure and measured from my 25” mark to the botttom of my wall. Now you can make your first cut! Once cut, go put it in your space to make sure it fits perfectly, then use that wood and mark off three more pieces of wood. Cut all those pieces according to your marks and then go hang them up using your nail gun! If any are too long, you can cut them down or if they’re a little too short, which I had happen twice for some reason, then you can either make a tiny piece to fit using your scrap wood or use wood filler. Your first section is done!!
I started from the bottom of each section and worked my way up.
  • For the second section, you’ll need to switch the degrees to the opposite side. So for me, I turned it from the 22.5 degrees on the right side, to the 22.5 degrees on the left side. This is because you’re working with the opposite angle now! Trust me, I learned this the hard way! I kept the angle on the same side, and had the rough side of my wood showing because if it! Now you’ll do the same thing. As the first section. Measure and cut out the first piece, make sure it fits, then trace that piece onto three other pieces. Make all your cuts and nail them into place! Your second section is done, which meant for me I was halfway done!!
This was my halfway done point!
  • Now you’ll just repeat those last two steps to finish your next two sections. The only thing you need to remeber is to switch the side your angle is at for each section that you’re on.
  • Nail gun your last piece into place and do a happy dance!! At least, I sure did because you are done!!!!
This is me so happy because I just finished our new accent wall!
  • *Optional Step that I mentioned* If you want, you can sand down any areas where the wood pieces don’t match up perfectly like this area on my wall shown below. I sanded anything like this to even the pieces out. That way my wall looked in more in unison.

Okay, now you’re really done!! That is , until the painting part, of course! Ha!

**You may come across an electrical socket like I did. I still put my wood up like it wasn’t there, but only nailed it in a couple of times. Then I marked off where the socket would go, gently pulled my board off, made the cuts, then hung up my now two separate pieces. That’s it!

Now you get to pick out what color you want your new wall to be! I went with Very Navy by Behr found at Home Depot.

Here’s a close up of the color.

I chose that because I want to go with navy, gold accents, light wood, and whites, BUT I need to get shopping! So until then I have no full picture of my bedroom, but I will….soon! I can’t wait to show you guys the full room all together!

That’s it!!!!! You did it!!! You now have a beautiful herringbone accent wall!!!!!

Thank you so much for coming, and I can’t wait to see you back here for my next DIY, which I have about a million planned in my head! The question is, which one will I do next!? Come back soon to find out, or follow my Instagram page to see all my latest projects! Please tag me on Instagram if you do end up making this wall, so I can see how amazing yours looks and share your beautiful wall!

XOXO,

Lauren

The Decor Mama


DIY Garage Bike Rack for Under $15!

| DIY

Our family has hit a real first world problem since having kids…we have way too many ride on toys! I know, talk about a good problem to have, but wow, how to keep our garage organized has been a challenge! It seems like as soon as we find a way to create space in there, one of our kids is getting some kind of new outdoor toy. This has especially been a challenge since we moved three years ago from a house with a three car garage to a two! Yikes!

But I have some good news!!!!

After three years of being in our house we have finally come up with a solution to fit my husband’s car into the garage!!! We did it for under $15 dollars too!!! Ummmm, I like the sound of that! Especially, considering to buy racks for how many bikes we have would have cost us in the range of $140-$190!!!! Who knows, maybe with the money we saved on this project we’ll go by a new bike or scooter for our kids just to keep the garage chaos alive!🤪😆

We hung up 8 bikes all using scrap wood leftover from some other projects like my DIY benches and my DIY Window Boxes, a few 3” screws, and these hooks!! That’s it! Super simple and super impactful if you’re in the same boat as us with all these bikes, scooters, and ride on toys!! The whole project probably took us 30 minutes and that includes the time it took us to hang up the bikes!

This post does contain affiliate links, which means if you make a purchase from any of the provided links I receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. So thank you in advance if you do help support myself and this blog!

Okay, so like I previously mentioned here’s what you’ll need:

1.) Sturdy boards like 2 x 3’s, 2 x 4’s. We used a 2 x 3 and a 2 x 6, but that’s because this we used our scrap wood we had leftover from other projects. How long you’ll want them depends on how many bikes you have.

2.) 3” screws

3.) Big hooks like these.

4.). Impact screwdriver. This is the one we use and like.

5.)*Optional*. A level, otherwise you can just eyeball it to make sure it’s straight. Since it’s just in your garage it doesn’t have to be perfect!

6.) Paint or stain if you want it to look fancier than ours does. We just wanted this to be a super quick and simple project so we didn’t go into all that, but it would look awesome if you did!

Now that you have your supplies, here’s what you’ll need to do for your DIY garage rack!

1.) Grab your piece of wood and start screwing it into place on the garage wall of your choice. Screw in the ends and maybe a couple in the middle depending on how long your board is.

2.) Predrill holes into your wood and then screw in your hooks into your wood by hand. That’s why the predrilled holes help a lot!👍

3.) Hang up your bikes, and that’s it!!!

Seriously!? Such an easy project that has completely transformed our garage!! We finally conquered our dam of toys that was taking over our garage!!!🙌

Thanks so much for visiting and if you decide to tackle this super easy project tag me on Instagram @thedecormama so I can share your garage transformation too!

I can’t wait to see you back here real soon for my next DIY project, which I’m in the midst of working on now! I’m so excited to show you my bedroom accent wall I’m working on!

See you soon!

XOXO,

Lauren

The Decor Mama

DIY Blanket Ladder for Under $6!!!

| DIY

You guys! I’ve been seeing these blanket ladders everywhere on Instragram, and I just knew I had to have one! But then my search almost stopped me from wanting one. I mean, I was shocked to see how much these can run for! I was finding these ladders for prices like $101 at Target all the way up to $263 at Pottary Barn.😳 I was shocked!

That’s when I knew, this was going to be my next project. I even decided to make extra for Christmas presents because they’re so nice to have.

And guess what was so great about making these?!? I only used TWO pieces of wood to build them! Now that’s a project anyone can handle!

This is a perfect beginners projects as long as you can measure and chop some wood up! And this is a perfect time of year to be building this! Who doesn’t want a blanket readily available on these cold winter nights!? Or if you’re one of those who aren’t always cold like me (Ugh!, I’m such an Arizona wuss!), then these could make super cute ways to display all your cute décor too!

So let’s get started already, as it’s January and it’s cold! Even Arizona has dropped below 50 degrees so I know it must be cold in other places. We need those blankets hanging there waiting for us!

(This post does contain affiliate links, which means if you make a purchase through any of the links provided I will make a percentage of the sale at no extra cost to you. So thank you so much in advance if you do help support myself and my blog!)

Here’s what you’ll need:

Okay, now that you have everything, here’s how to build it.

*Optional Step* Turn your chop saw to 10 degrees, and cut off one end of your wood as close to the bottom as possible on both pieces of wood. This gives you that nice angle so that your wood will sit flat on the floor, but if changing the degrees on your saw intimidates you, you don’t have to do this. I remember the first time I heard change the degree of my saw on a project and I was freaked out about doing this so no big deal if this is your first project ever and you don’t want to mess with all that. You can still make a great blanket ladder without doing this.

  • Grab your two pieces of wood. Measure and mark each piece at the 5 foot mark (60 inches) on the opposite end of your 10 degree cuts if you chose to do that step. If you did make the angled cuts, it doesn’t matter if you measure 5′ up from the shorter side or the longer side, but make sure you measure from the same side on both pieces of wood.
  • Once you’ve done that, make your cuts. You now have the legs of your ladder! You can set those aside for now, because we’re now going to make the rungs.
  • Grab the two scrap pieces of wood that you cut off from your legs and measure and mark 17 inches up on both pieces of wood. Make those cuts.
  • Then, taking your two pieces of scrap wood again, you will do the same thing and measure and mark your two pieces of wood at 17 inches. Make those cuts. You now have your 4 ladder rungs! Set them all on top of each other to make sure they’re perfectly even. If they’re not, you’ll want to make cuts to get them all the same size. If they’re all perfectly even, you’re a pro! Way to go!
  • Now that you have all your ladder pieces we need to put it together. Take your two leg pieces and lay them down next to each other making sure your ground area is nice and clean and flat. Mark your legs at 3″, 17-1/2″, 32″, & 46-1/2″. Make your marks on the insides of each leg, so one leg all the marks will be on the right side and the other will be on the left. Those marks will be where the top of your rungs will be.
  • Now line up your legs and rungs all together so that it looks like a ladder. Make sure everything is straight and even, which should be easy since you made those marks. Now either hold it together using grips or have someone help you to hold the rungs into place, and then nail gun them in place. I pushed the leg as tight as possible to the rung and nail gunned the leg 3-6 times to ensure the rung was in there nice and sturdy. Continue this step for each rung until you have your ladder.
  • Now comes the sanding down. Take an electric sander and sand down any rough areas, marked wood, or most importantly, if your rung sticks out at all from the leg, sand that down to make it line up evenly with your leg. See the picture above for an example of why I recommend the sander. That rung needed to be sanded down so it was even with the leg!


That’s it! You’re finished and now have your very own super cute blanket ladder! I would love to see your finished products!! So please come find me on Instagram and make sure to tag me @thedecormama. I can’t wait to see your version!

Thank you so much for visiting, and I can’t wait to see you back here for my next DIY project as I have so many ideas swirling around in my head! The hardest part now is deciding which one should be my next project.

See you back here real soon!


*

DIY Industrial Pipe Shelf

| DIY

You can never have too many shelves, am I right!?  

Okay, maybe there could be such a thing as a shelf overload, but if you’re not in the shelf overload category, then you should definitely look into building these super easy, super fun, super cool; industrial pipe shelves!  

We built this shelf for our boys’ toy room for above their TV, and I have to say that I love it so much now I want more in there!  I’m thinking of building a whole pipe shelf wall unit all around their TV, so stay tuned for that project.  I mean look at those empty walls!!  I’d say they need some pipe shelving, right!?😉

This shelf  was a super easy project that would look good in bedrooms, playrooms, bathrooms, kitchens, living rooms…hmmm, really anywhere now that I’m listing this all out.   

So let’s get to the good stuff already! Here’s your shopping list if you want to build this shelf.  I got all my pipe materials off of Amazon and I’ve linked them below if you want to get them there too.  I’ve heard these materials are cheaper on Amazon than the home improvement stores so I went with it.

This post does contain affiliate links, which means if you make a purchase through my given links I will make a small percentage of the commission at no extra cost to you.  So thank you so much for supporting my blog if you do!  

Now that you have everything, let’s get started on your new shelf!

  1. Measure out the area you want your shelf, and decide how long you want your shelf to be.
  2. Measure the length of your wood to the size you decided on and mark it off with your pencil.
  3. Using your table saw or chop saw, make  your cut on the marked area.
  4. Sand down your wood if you’d like a smoother finish.  I left mine as is because it’s for our boys’ playroom so I didn’t mind a more rustic, rough looking piece of wood.
  5. Once sanded down (or not), grab your stain, an old sock or towel, and get to staining that board on up!
  6. While that is drying grab all of your pipe materials, and assemble those by attaching your 2 flanges to your pipes, then the elbows, then the next pipes, and lastly, your other 2 flanges.  Easy peasy!
  7. Once your stain is dry, figure out how far apart you want your pipes to be placed and screw them into your wood.
  8. Now that you have your shelf, it’s time to hang it up!  See where you would like it, make sure it’s level, and holding it up screw in two of the flange holes on each side of your shelf.  Once you have it secure, then you can screw in your other holes in your flange.

That’s it!  You now have your very own industrial pipe shelf!  Now you get to have fun decorating it!🤗

I would love to see pictures of yours in the comments below, or tag me on Instagram @thedecormama so I can see all your amazing work!

Thanks so much for coming, and I hope to see you again real soon!

XOXO,

Lauren

The Decor Mama

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