GGP Guest: OPC's The Better Half

Thanks so much for having me back here at Glitter, Glue, and Paint, Denyse! I'm Jocie (pronounced Jah-see) from OPC's The Better Half. Here's my fam - me, Lucy, Izzie, and Ethan (the hubs).

If you haven't heard of us, One Project Closer (OPC) is geared towards the hard-core home improvement folks. Ethan shadows professional contractors on actual job sites to give our readers the best and most detailed project guides available. OPC is chock full of articles like laying your own hard wood floors, building a deck, and repairing cracked concrete. The Better Half is just like it sounds - better! Just kidding...but not really. lol! While I do love the big home projects, most of my stuff uses glitter, glue, and paint (heehee). I seriously love crafts, and some of my favorites include my first video on Pallets: 101 - how to deconstruct pallets and Dollar Store Easter decor. Kim, the other Better Half, works 24/7 to provide up-date home improvement coupons like these discounts for Home Depot!

Kitchen Redesign

About a year ago, I started to redesign my kitchen. We live in a small townhouse and completely gutted and remodeled the kitchen we moved in 7 years ago. At that time, dark and warm was in style. Now, not so much. My redesign has been a little slow, I'm still not finished, but it's looking good. I painted chevrons in the back-splash - that was A LOT of work. lol. And free-hand painted a pallet sign for over the sink.

Then, I sewed or "no-sewed" a couple valences for the window...I wasn't happy with my first one, so went back and tried again. haha

Oh, and Ethan (the hubs) built me a custom spice rack that I painted and added scrapbook paper to the back. It is definitely the best part of the kitchen!

Scrapbook Letters

Even with all the other decor, the very white room looked pretty plain. I bought some wooden, unfinished letters at JoAnn's along with some pretty scrapbook paper and got to work. I used my handy dandy x-acto self-healing mat and blade to cut the paper with the blade, tracing around each letter. (I had to go through two rounds of this because hot tea got spilled on the first batch). Sure, I have a Silhouette and that makes cutting paper easy, but it wouldn't be an exact match to the letters, so this really is the easiest way.

Using my homemade ModPodge, I ModPodged the paper to the wooden letters with a small sponge brush. It took a couple of coats, but dried quickly and looked awesome!

Finally, I hung the letters on the wall with Command Strips - so much easier than trying to line up nails, plus it doesn't leave holes.

IKEA Chalkboard Upgrade

When yard sale-ing over the summer/fall, I came across this $1 IKEA chalkboard - the frame was in good condition but the chalkboard itself was pretty scratched up. But who can pass up a $1 chalkboard? Not this girl.

Even before I cleaned it up, I used very fine sandpaper on the chalkboard until the scratches were gone. I haven't heard of anyone doing this, so it may be a big DIY no-no, but it worked really well!

I wiped the whole thing down with a wet paper towel to remove the dust and dirt. I then taped off the frame with Scotch Blue and sprayed several thin coats of Chalkboard paint, the spray paint form. Super easy!

Once it was dry (at least over night), I taped the edges of the chalkboard and painted the frame the color of the walls. This would have been a great chalk paint project too.

After the paint was dry, I added scrapbook paper to the back of the underside compartment. It still felt a little lacking, so I added some fabric rosette flowers. I am obsessed with fabric flowers, for realz! Ethan then hung it on the wall using anchors so it doesn't fall on one of the kids. Oh, then I free-handed some chalk art, subway style.  Yay! Cutest part of the kitchen!

One day, I will finish the kitchen, or maybe just start all over again, but for now, I'm really loving it. For more fun projects and crafts, visit Jocie at The Better Half! You can also connect with her on Facebook and Pinterest.

Hope to see you soon!