DIY Archives - Scissors & Spatulas

DIY Monogrammed Bolster Pillow

I’m very excited to be here today to show you how to make a monogrammed bolster pillow. If you don’t know what a bolster is, don’t worry, I didn’t know that is what they were called either until just a week ago! It’s basically a cylinder-shaped pillow.

Here’s mine. M and our family were established in 2004 when we were married. These are actually really easy to make. Here is what you’ll need.

Fabric (I used burlap), freezer paper, acrylic paint and stencil brush and ribbon.

First I used my Cricut to make the monogram stencil. Simply place the freezer paper on the mat {shiny side down}and cut out whatever you want transferred to your fabric. If you don’t have a cutting machine, you can certainly trace or print a letter on the freezer paper and use an exacto knife to cut it out.

Once you have your letter cut, place it on the fabric and use a hot iron {steam off} to adhere the freezer paper to the fabric. *Note: the freezer paper did not completely stick to burlap. I used packaging tape around the edges to help keep it in place.

If you’ve never stenciled before, there is a technique to help ensure the paint does not bleed under the paper. Squeeze a small puddle of paint onto a plate. Dip your brush in the paint and use a rolling motion to cover bristles in paint. Dab off excess on the plate and gently apply to fabric using dotting and circular motions.

Once the paint is dry, remove the freezer paper. {I had a little boo boo with one of my zeros. I used a wet tissue to try to remove some of the paint. Ooops, mistakes happen!}

Measure and cut your fabric to the desired size and sew a hem around all edges. If you do not have a sewing machine you could do this with hemming tape. {Because I used burlap, I added an extra layer of fabric so that it wouldn’t be see through. That is the extra “flap” you see.}

Fold the fabric in half horizontally making sure your monogram is on the inside. Pin the edge and then sew. Invert the fabric so your monogram is now on the outside.

Slide your pillow into the center of the sleeve leaving equal amounts of excess fabric on each side. If you do not have a pillow to use, you can use a sheet of Styrofoam or poly fil batting. Just roll it into a cylinder to fit inside your fabric.

Secure the ends of the pillow with ribbon.

Now proudly display your new pillow in your home!

DIY Board and Batten “Mudroom”

This is our back hallway. It’s just off the kitchen and is the entry from the garage. It is also where I keep the boys jackets, backpacks, my purse and everything else that needs to be dumped when we come into the house.
I’ve wanted to make a “mudroom” in this space for over a year. Obviously there isn’t room for a bench (I’ve tried to convince myself that a small one might work but I know it would be completely in the way.) but I’ve wanted to add board and batten with hooks. Why I haven’t gotten around to it sooner, I don’t know. Probably because the little hook thing I had worked just fine. Until a couple weeks ago when one of them broke because it had too much hanging on it!

That was all the motivation I needed. Last Saturday I told my husband he was going to be putting up board and batten. He had no clue what I was talking about so I pulled up Pinterest and showed him some examples. I wish had done this months and months ago because it was SO easy and cost almost nothing! It was finished by the end of the weekend.

Of course we had the wood we needed in the garage. One wide board to use across the top (this is the board or board and batten) and the skinnier boards to sit perpendicular to it (known as batten). We did have to buy one extra skinny board to use as the baseboard.
Hubby measured the wall and cut the boards to fit.

He put two good coats of white trim paint on all of the boards.

While the paint dried, he tore out the existing baseboard and patched up the wall with spackle. (The angles of the old baseboard would not fit right with the batten boards so we had to replace the baseboards with a straight edge board.)

Once the boards were dried he brought them in and measured and marked the distance between the batten pieces.

The batten pieces were secured to the wall with nails and the board was attached with screws to ensure it would hold the weight of whatever would hang on the hooks.

The screw and nail holes were covered with some wood putty.

Then sanded smooth.

It took two coats of paint to cover the walls and one more coat on the wood to cover the putty.

I purchased the hooks from Hobby Lobby. They were $3.99 each but I got them when they were 50% off so all together I only spent $6.

And my board and batten wall was finished! Seriously, it was that easy!

And it cost us about $15! If you didn’t have the wood and paint like we did, I’d say you would spend about $50. Not too bad!

Land of Nod Book Bin Knock Off

Back in December we moved the boys into the same room and they got bunk beds for Christmas. I’m sure you’ve all seen these wall hanging book bins on Pinterest and maybe even in the Land of Nod catalog, which is where I got the idea. They call them “Bin There Done Book Bin” and they cost $69 each!

Now if you know me, you know that I’m cheap and would NEVER pay that much for a few pieces of wood. Especially when I know we can do it ourselves! Well, I guess I should say hubby could do it!
I handed him the page I tore out from the catalog and batted my eyes as I asked him to please make me one of these shelves. So he grabbed a piece of scrap wood from the garage and got to work. Now we have tons of scrap wood, trim pieces, dowels, you name it, in the garage. If you don’t, just go buy a piece of plywood.

He measured it to size (12 inches for the front edge and 16 inches for the back edge that hangs against the wall) and then drew in the decorative edges.

Then used his jigsaw and cut along the lines he had drawn.

Two pieces like this were cut, one for each side. And then one rectangular piece for the base.

The sides were secured to the base with screws. Did you notice Little Man #2 (Parker Reese) doing the work?

These trim pieces were leftover from some project. Like I said, we have tons of leftover molding in our garage. They were attached with nails.

Wood filler (or putty) was used to fill the nail holes in the front and small gap between the bottom and the trim piece. Then I took over. After it was dry I sanded the puttied spots and the rough cut edges smooth.

I spray painted it navy blue. It needed about three good coats. D-ring hooks were attached to the back of each side to hang the shelf.

And now parker Reese has a little book bin to hold his stories!

Land of Nod book bin: $69
Mine: Free. Okay, we had to buy the D-rings which cost a couple bucks. So I’ll say $4.
Love a good (and cheap) knock-off!