







A DIY loving, decorating obsessed, mama of three
| DIY
| DIY
Hi everyone and thanks for visiting!
Today I am going to be showing you how to make a window box, or window planter as some people call it.
I just finished making three of these for our three front windows. I finally got to fill them today, and I’m in love!!!! They’ve added so much character to the exterior of our house, in my totally non biased opinion, of course!😄😉
These were such a simple, fun project that anyone can do at any level! You got this! Trust me, if I can build these, so can you!
Let’s get to it so you can add that curb appeal as soon as possible!
This post does contain affiliate links, which means if you make a purchase from any of the provided links I will make a small percentage of the sale at no extra cost to you. So thank you so much if you do make a purchase through me!
Here’s what you’ll need!
Okay, let’s get started!!
Now you have your box!
Now it’s time to add the trim pieces!
*To hang them up we used galvanized L brackets that I found in the roofing section at Lowe’s. Then to screw them into your wall use a hammer drill and sleeve anchors.
You’re done! You did it! I would love to see pictures of your finished products! Post them in comments here, or tag me on instagram @thedecormama.
AND if you want to add another awesome outdoor project to your list, go check out my DIY Corrugated Metal Raised Garden Bed! It’s still one of my favorite projects to date and we have a ton of stuff growing in it that I can’t wait to eat! Although, my two year old did just chop off half of the jalepeno bushes so that was awesome!🤪🤦🏼♀️😆
Thanks so much for coming and I hope to see you back here real soon for my next project!
XOXO,
Lauren
The Decor Mama
You guys! I’m so excited! I just added 5 Christmas decor pieces to my house for a whopping $3.77 with tax!!!
This will be the easiest, cheapest, DIY project you’ve ever done!! You can thank me later!😉
Thanks so much for coming and if you end up doing this project, which I highly recommend since it was so easy, then show me pics!! Either post them below or tag me on Instagram so I can see what you came up with. Find me on Instagram @thedecormama! Yay! I can’t wait to see what you come up with!
XOXO,
Lauren
The Decor Mama
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| DIY
Hi everyone and thanks so much for coming!!
We just finished redoing our fireplace, which included adding Faux Brick! I love the way it turned out and I have to say a brick wall adds so much character to your house!
Almost three years ago we added faux brick to our entryway, and ever since then I’d been wanting to tie in that same brick somewhere else, but you know how that home project list goes!🤪🙈😂 It doesn’t always get done right away, and this was one of those projects that stayed “on the list” for a LONG time! But, I’m proud to say less than three years later we finally added brick to another spot in our house; our fireplace! Yay! For ticking off those to-do projects off of the list!🙌
So let’s get to it already!!
(This post does contain affiliate links which means if you make a purchase from any of the links below I would make a small percentage page if the sale at no extra cost to you, so thank you so much for supporting my blog if you do!)
Here’s what you’ll need:
Now that you have everything, let’s do this already!
Start by measuring out your space to see exactly how much brick you’re going to need. You can make an estimate of how much brick you’ll need by figuring out how many square feet you’re wanting to cover and how many square feet come in a box of brick.
Then you’ll need to figure out about how many rows you’re going to have in order to cut the first and last piece of brick in half on half of the rows to give you that uneven brick look.
Using your tile saw, cut how many you think will need to be in half (you can always cut more later if need be). Now all your veneer bricks are ready to lay! As you can see, we tried to cut them all perfectly in half, but didn’t succeed! With the grout in you can’t tell at all that they’re not perfect so try your best to get them even, but if they’re not, don’t worry!!!
Start off by covering the area around the wall you’re redoing with any protective covering you have. We used drop cloths, which worked great for us.
Then you’ll need to prepare the wall for the brick to stick to it by roughing it up, especially if it has paint on it like ours did. We used an electric sander and sanded the wall down to roughen it up so the mortar would stick to it.
Next, you’ll mix the mortar with water, then starting at the bottom corner, put a little mortar on your trowel and swipe it across your wall where you want your brick to go. Then place your brick where you just placed your mortar. Decide how much of a gap you want between each brick and lay the next one keeping that gap in mind. The nice thing about brick is that they don’t need to be perfect so don’t stress too much if there’s not a perfect gap in between two of your bricks. When your whole wall is finished you’ll be hard pressed to be able to find where the gap is a little off, trust me! Repeat until your bottom row is finished.
Then you’ll put a spacer above that bottom row to give you a straight line with the right amount of gap you want between rows. We just used some really cheap wood pieces for ours. Now that you’re on your second row you’ll need to start with one of the bricks you cut in half so that you achieve that perfect uneven brick pattern. Go from there, making sure your next full brick is in between the two bricks below it. You will also end this row with another half brick. See above pic for reference.
Continue each row following those two rows patterns making sure to put your spacers in between each row once you’re finished with it, and that every other row starts and ends with a half brick.
Once you get to the very top row you may need to either cut your brick, or you may have a little bit of a larger gap between the brick and the top of your wall like we did. If you need to cut your brick, then get your tile saw back out and cut accordingly.
Let that set for 24 hours.
Now it’s time to put in your grout! It is important for your safety to have gloves, goggles, and some sort of face protection on while mixing this stuff up.
We went with a white grout. By Mixing we used 1 Part of the White Portland Cement to 3 parts Fine Grit Silica Sand in a large bucket. Mix that together and then add a little water using your cement mixer. Like I previously mentioned, we attached ours to our drill and it made life so much easier because that mixture gets thick and can be hard to mix. The drill works amazingly! Keep adding water until you get a frosting like consistency. Keep in mind, that you will be squeezing it out of a grout bag so if it’s too thick it will not come out. Once you have that frosting like consistency, you can start putting some in your grout bag. A trick we learned while doing this is to not completely fill your grout bag, because your cement will get firm towards the end and it’s harder to squeeze out. It’s easier to keep more in your bucket so you can stir it and then refill your grout bag when necessary.
Take out your first, bottom spacer and start filling in between each brick and above all of them where that spacer was. Then using your margin trowel, smooth out your grout so that it’s nice and even between your bricks. Work your way up making sure to fill in the sides as well.
That’s it! Once you’ve finished your grout let that dry and you’re finished! You did it! I would love to see your finished product so leave a picture in the comment section if you’re not too tired after all that brick work. Also, if you post your project on Instagram tag me @thedecormama! I’d love to share your work!
If you want other options for accent walls, check out my DIY Wood Panelled Wall Post as well!
Thank you so much for coming, and I hope you are feeling ready to finally add that brick you’ve been wanting!
XOXO,
Lauren
The Decor Mama
| DIY
Hi everyone, and thank you so much for visiting!!
We are excited that you’re here, and we can’t wait to help you build and install your own wood pallet wall! It is going to look amazing!
Below is the wall we started with! As you can see it needed something. Especially since this is the first wall you see when you walk into our house.
We added this accent wall 2 years ago right after we had our third son, and we still get complements on it almost every time someone new walks into our house. I have to confess, I do feel a tad bit guilty that I actually made my husband do this while he was on his one week of maternity leave! Whoopsies! But seriously, he can’t sit still so technically I was being a super good wife by keeping him busy, right guys!? I knew you’d see it my way.😉
Before you get started, keep in mind that because you have to apply two coats of stain and each coat has to sit for 24 hours, you may want to do the staining part in advance, and save the actual installation part of the wall for a day you have more time. In other words, there’s 48 hours of prep work before you can install, so plan accordingly to your days off. Or maybe, you’ll be on your one week maternity leave too, and have a whole 7 days in a row to do it like we did!😄
(This post does contain affiliate links, which means if you click on the links below and purchase something, a small portion of that goes to me at no additional cost to you. I only recommend what we like and have used. Thank you so much if you do help support my page!)
Materials:
Directions for how to install your very own wood wall! (We did this wall before I started my blog so I don’t have step by step pictures like I normally do. Sorry guys!)
That’s it! You just made your very own wood pallet wall! I would love to see what your wall looks like! Please share your wood pallet pictures with me!
If you’re into accent walls, check out my post about How To Install Faux Brick Into Your House as well!
Thanks again so much for coming!
XOXO,
Lauren
The Decor Mama
Hi guys and welcome to my page! Hopefully it’s not your first time, but if it is, I’m so glad you’re here!
Today I’m going to show you how to make a wooden mummy just in time for Halloween!
My mom has been wanting this for awhile now, and my dad and I finally made it yesterday! We even made 5 so each one of my sisters could have one, too.
Okay, let’s get started right away as there’s not much time until Halloween!
First off, let’s get all your materials ready. Here’s what you’ll need:
This post does contain affiliate links, which means if you click on any of the given links below I make a small percentage of the sale at no extra cost to you, so thank you so much for your support if you do! I only recommend what I’ve used and love!
Now that you have everything, let’s get started!!
Gather up all of your materials.
Cut your particle board down to the size you want your mummy. We made our mummy 4ft. tall x 2ft. across. Then cut out another rectangle for the base. We made our particle board base 1ft. wide x 2 ft. long.Trace out the shape you want your mummy to be. Here is what ours looked like traced out.
Grab your jigsaw and cut out the shape of your mummy.
Paint the head with your black paint, and while that is drying we’re going to make the base of your mummy.
Now let’s finish your base so we can finish with the fun part, the mummy!
Now it’s time to nail your mummy boards on! At first, we were painting the boards white before we nailed them on, but then we realized it was easier to nail on the boards and then paint them white at the end. After making 5 we learned all the tricks of the trade!:) Starting at the top of your mummy’s head place one board at a diagonal direction making sure you cover the very top of your mummy’s head. Also make sure you place the wood piece as far to one side as you can to save yourself as much wood as possible. When you cut the piece you’ll have bigger pieces leftover compared to if you used the middle of your wood piece you’d have two small pieces leftover that may be unusable due to being too short. Using your nail gun, nail that board into place. You can cut your boards down in advance, but we just kept ours long until the end. See below pic.
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| DIY, Uncategorized
Hi everyone!
Today I’m going to show you how to install your very own shiplap wall!!!! Yay! For beautiful, white shiplap walls in your house!
(We still needed to redo our fireplace at this point, but you get the shiplap idea.)
We just jumped on the shiplap wall bandwagon, and I have to say, I’m hooked! I may be already planning to slowly convert every single wall in my house to shiplap, but I’m waiting to break the news to my hubby!😜😆
I feel like we actually started out with the hardest wall in our house because of the fireplace and windows, so I feel like it will be a cake walk from here on out! At least, that’s what I’m planning on telling my hubby when I convince him the whole house needs shiplap now!😬😂
Shall we get this shiplap party started already!?!? I think so!!!!!
This post does contain affiliate links, which means if you click on any of the links below I would make a small perecentage of the sale at no extra cost to you! Thank you so much if you do help support my blog by clicking on the links.
Here’s what you’ll need:
Now that you’ve got your materials, let’s get started!
Stay tuned for how we made the mantle you see above, how we laid the brick, and what we used for the bottom half of our fireplace! Hint: That’s not tile!! Way easier and cheaper! Come back soon and I’ll give you all the DIY goods!
Thanks so much for coming, and I hope you enjoy your new shiplap!
XOXO,
Lauren
The Decor Mama
| DIY, Uncategorized
Hi you guys!! I so love this DIY no sew bench cushion project because not only does it not involve sewing, (I’m horrible at it! I just can’t sew a straight line for the life of me! What’s worse, is my mom is amazing at it!), but it does involve a staple gun, which I love!
This project can add so much fun and character to your bench!
If you’re super busy, this is a perfect project for you, because it only takes about 15 minutes to make!
Yay, for fast and easy projects! If you’ve ever wrapped a present before, then you’ve got this in the bag, and this is coming from someone who also happens to be horrible at wrapping, too! Yikes, this post is exposing all of my weaknesses! (Okay, I wish that was all of them. I swear I am good at some things, too.😜)
Anyways, let’s get back to the important stuff, like making this super simple no sew bench cushion.
(This post contains affiliate links, which means if you purchase anything from clicking on the links I provide, I’ll get a small percentage of the sale at no extra cost to you. I only recommend what I’ve used and love. Thank you!)
Here is what you’ll need:
Okay, now that you have your materials ready, let’s get started!
That’s it! Your done! Send pictures of your new and improved bench if you have time! I’d love to see how yours turned out!
I’m sorry I don’t have more pictures to give you a visual of the step by steps, but we did this in my pre-blogging days.
Thanks so much for visiting!
XOXO,
Lauren
The Decor Mama
| DIY
Hi everyone and thanks so much for visiting!
Today’s post is how to make your own DIY ruler growth chart! I already have a measuring board hung up in our toy room that we use to measure the boys every year before school starts and on New Years Day to see how much they’ve grown, but when my friend called me up wanting to make one of these together, I just couldn’t pass her up! Plus, right away I thought about how I would love to have one for our cabin so we can measure the boys each summer. Thinking about how much they’ve grown since we first bought our cabin almost five years ago is making me want to cry, but never mind that, it will be cool to see how much they grow over the years…kinda!😬😢
I hope you can see the board since I decided to camouflage it in this picture with the wood background!😜
Let’s get to it, as every one of us parents know, are kids grow quick!! So let’s hurry up and get this project done so you can start measuring to see just how quickly and how much they really do grow! Ugh, can’t stop getting sad thinking about my kids growing up so fast! I’m about to have a seven year old in two months!!!😳
This post does contain affiliate links, which means that if you purchase anything off of my links I will make a small commission at no extra cost to you. I only recommend what I’ve used and love! Thank you!
Okay, here is what you’ll need!
Directions:
8. Last step!! Spray your board to help seal in your tape and number stickers! Let it dry, and you’re done!!!!!!!
Now we can cry together as we document just how much our kids are growing!!😳😉
Thanks again for coming, and hopefully you’ll come back soon for the next project!😄
XOXO,
Lauren
The Decor Mama
| DIY, Uncategorized
Hi again!
This project has been so fun to see all the ways our kids use it. We made our magnetic chalkboard wall about a year ago for our kids’ play room, and they still use it all the time today, which in today’s day in age, with all this technology, is saying a lot!!
They love it, and so do I. We’ve used it for writing, shape practice, hang man, name writing practice, drawing, guessing games, and story telling since they have all kinds of magnetic characters to use with it.
This board has been awesome, and I’m feeling extra grateful for it since summer break is here!! Don’t even get me started on my love/hate relationship with summer! I mean, I love the extra time with my boys, but can someone please send earmuffs stat for the, “I’m bored!” line that’s about to come my way about 10 times a day! Not to mention that my boys are either cracking up laughing together, or kicking each other’s butts! There’s no in between with these boys. Thankfully, this magnetic chalkboard will be one more thing on my list to prevent the, “I’m bored!”, and the fighting that is about to be coming my way. 🙌
So let’s hurry up and get to this project started already, because some of you only have a few days left until your kids summer break starts too!!😆😉
(This post contains some affiliate links, which means if you purchase anything from the links I provide I will make a small portion of the sale at no extra cost to you. I only recommend what we have used and love. So thank you so much if you do!!)
Materials:
Directions
Sorry there are not more step by step pictures, but we made this magnetic chalkboard wall before I started my blog!!
Have so much fun, and enjoy your new chalkboard!
xoxo,
Lauren
The Decor Mama