Decorating/DIY Archives - Page 131 of 269

Not all of us have the opportunity to need a real scarecrow. Sure, I live a stone’s throw away from corn and cotton fields, but in my little manicured neighborhood, we don’t have to worry too much about crows.

Scarecrows are always one of those quintessential signs of the Fall season to me, though. So, even though we don’t have trees that change colors or real pumpkin patches down here in Austin, I figured that I could at least have my own version of a scarecrow – an Urban Scarecrow Wreath. I think it’s so fun, so I put together a tutorial so this fall wreath could be replicated. It is really simple to put together.

For this tutorial, you only need a few items:

Foam wreath form
Old shirt
Straight pins
Raffia
Fake crow
Fake gourds
Hot glue gun and glue

1. Begin by cutting your old shirt across the body, underneath the arms. Keep the extra fabric that you cut off. I used an XL men’s shirt that I picked up at Goodwill. I specifically wanted a plaid one in autumn colors, but any color or print would do.

2. Wrap the bottom center of your shirt (where the buttons are) around the back of your wreath. and put a few pins in the styrofoam wreath.

3. Wrap the from part around the front of the wreath so that it covers the raw edge and pins of the bottom of the shirt. Put a few straight pins under the collar so they are hidden when the collar is folded down.

4. Next, wrap the extra fabric up and over the back of the wreath, pull it tight and pin into place. It should make sense when you do it, as you are trying to cover the wreath in the shirt fabric.

5. Then, pull the front part of the shirt up and over where you just pinned, covering both the pins and the styrofoam. Pin that into place with a pin right across from the sleeve.

6. Repeat this process for the other side of the shirt.

7. Now, take that extra shirt piece that you cut off and pin it to the bottom of the wreath. Make sure that the buttons on the top of your wreath line up with the buttons on the bottom. I wrapped the top of mine around the back and pinned it (shown below). Then, I wrapped the bottom around the back, pulled it tight and pinned it. Cut off the extra fabric once it’s pinned on the back.

8. Wrap the sleeves around and around the wreath so that all of the stryrofoam is now covered. You can pin them on the back and inside the cuffs so that the pins won’t show. On one side, I had to put a twist in the sleeve on the back of the wreath so that the cuff buttons would be facing out.

How cute would this be with a tie on the neck hanging down in the open part of the wreath for Father’s Day? Adorable!

That’s the end of the detailed “steps.” The next part is where you get to get creative!

I took a pair of Tom’s old jeans and cut one of the legs off, right under the seat. I cut that leg long ways so that I had 2 long pieces of denim. I knotted them and then hung the long strip just like I hang wreaths with a long piece of ribbon.

I cut some handfulls of raffia and hot glued them inside the collar and cuffs. Yes, you will likely burn your fingers a bit in the process – but it’s worth it. The more haphazard your raffia “hay” is, the more awesome it will look.

I hot glued a few more pieces of raffia on the bottom of the wreath and then glued a little fake pumpkin and a little gourd beside it. Then, I hot glued this cute crow on top of the pumpkin. I bought the crow and gourds at Michael’s. The Dollar Tree also has crows, but all of the ones I found looked like they had mange.

The end result is my urban scarecrow – Plaid shirt + jeans + hay. Way more fun and funky than old clothes draped across a broomstick, right?

There’s no surprise that I’m a huge fan of bold colors and graphic wall patterns. I love the impact that both elements bring to a room, and I combine the two whenever possible. However, the magic in a bold, graphic room is knowing where to play up the boldness and where to tone it down.

Last year when I first painted the grey and white chevrons in my bedroom, I admit that it felt like too much. It was really the only thing I had done in the room. I knew that there was much more coming, but I can see why friends and neighbors (and even some of you guys) couldn’t see through to my final vision. The graphic pattern hadn’t been toned down yet.

As I went through the process of accessorizing, the room gradually came into focus. Softening the hard lines of the pattern with fabric curtain panels certainly helped. A tall headboard and family photo gallery changed the look of the wall above the bed from the look in the previous photo to the look it has today.

Letting the boldness of a room take a backseat isn’t a specialized talent. Instead, it’s just one of those learned skills that I’m positive anyone could pull off. The key is to treat graphic wall patterns and bold wall colors just like they are a regular, single colored wall. Accessorize them in the same way you would any other wall. Hang curtains to soften the lines. Use different textures throughout the room, so you don’t have an entire room of hard, sharp feeling surfaces.

Look at the impact that just hanging a curtain makes on a striped wall. Here is my ongoing playroom project (I’m so close to being finished!) before I hung the curtain rod.

And here it is now, with the only difference being the curtain rod hung and a set of Ikea Ritva curtains flanking the window.

Just that little bit of neutral fabric does a lot to make the stripes in the room take on a less harsh vibe. It hides the end points of the stripes as they hit the window, so the room doesn’t look quite so broken up. In my opinion, this has the same effect as wearing a nude colored shoe, but instead of making your legs look longer, it makes the wall look wider.

I will eventually hang something on the walls on either side of the window in the playroom, too. That will further help the stripes to take a backseat to the rest of the room, like they did on this wall in my bedroom.

Bold colors and graphic patterns don’t have to completely overwhelm a room. Try to work them into a space so that they don’t become the room. It may feel scary before you get to the accessorizing point, but it does eventually all come together.

What’s your take on bold walls? Have you given much thought to accessorizing them so that set the mood without being the only thing you see in a room?

How to Create an Urban Scarecrow Fall Wreath

How to Keep Bold Colors and Graphic Wall Patterns from Overpowering a Room