Welcome to our first {ditto} DIY challenge!
Once a month, beginning today, nine very different bloggers are attempting to recreate in our own homes a project or design element inspired by a haute couture design selected by Darlene Weir of Fieldstone Hill Design. (For more details on what {ditto}DIY is all about, check out this post!}
Ruth @ Living Well Spending Less
Cindy @ Skip to My Lou
Jen @ Balancing Beauty & Bedlam
Edie @ Life in Grace
Rachel @ Surviving the Stores
Karin @ Trophy Mom Diaries
Lauren @ I am THAT Lady
Kelly @ View Along The Way
Melissa @ The Inspired Room
Remember that beginning next month (on Monday, June 3rd) we are inviting you ALL to join the {ditto} DIY challenge! Be sure to visit Darlene to catch a peek of NEXT month’s {ditto} DIY challenge so that you ALL can join the fun! (Hint: We’ll be going for the GOLD!)
In case you’ve forgotten, this was our first inspiration photograph:
{A chic painted tray and vanity vignette, from the home of nina bergsten, photography by marcus lawett.}
The {ditto} DIY Challenge:
Create your own painted tray and vanity vignette.
Here is my first {ditto}DIY project:
Oh, how I love this little collection of color!
So, here’s how this vignette came together for me.
I’ve been wanting to add a tray to the striped bathroom for awhile. This room may have knocked the workroom out of favorite room status but I was thinking that it needed a tray of some kind to corral a pretty collection of things. Then, it dawned on me that maybe I just love this room so much because David is in here? I’ve been suspecting that I’m partial to any room where David is located because I’ve really missed him in the kitchen. What? You find that odd? You think I’m off my rocker? That’s not news, good people. That’s a well-established fact. But still. Humor me. Wouldn’t you be just a little attached to David, once you got over the shock that a large bust of a Biblical character was privy to your bathroom situations?
Long story even more painful? I want a David in every room.
There, I said it.
The good news is? At this point, I have two Davids. (Myquillin sent me one right after the fire because she gets me and because friends don’t let friends live in a world where busts of David do not exist.) So, I moved big David back to the kitchen and spray painted little David hot pink. I don’t know why. I just did it and it set off a firestorm of creative sparks in my head—which eventually led to little David joining Aphrodite in the bathroom. Match made in heaven, if you ask me.
I wanted a tray with a mirrored or reflective surface so that the glory of this unlikely pair could really shine. I didn’t have a tray (that I wanted to paint) so I bought a cheap black lacquer tray at TJ Maxx and used the antique looking glass spray paint to add some glam to the surface. (The paint is pricey but I used my Hobby Lobby 40% off coupon and got it for about $7.)
Bye-bye butterflies.
Hello, mirrored beauty. And to be fair, this “looking-glass” spray paint really looks more metallic than mirror-ish but I like the effect and it glams up an otherwise okay tray.
Do you have any idea how much this simple little project makes me happy? You don’t, do you? Listen. It’s the kind of happy that keeps on giving every. single. time. you have to potty. It makes a trip to the bathroom more like a field trip to a cool museum. Or to the carnival, only without cotton candy and deep fried oreos.
I’ve come to the conclusion that the smallest, most insignificant spaces are a great place for high design. As soon as you get tired of working on it, you’re done.
Speaking of design, I’m working on something brand new for the room over the garage. Follow along on my Pinterest boards, but don’t tell Darlene, because this project may or may not involve some changes in the girls’ room. {It seems almost blasphemous.}
Also, head over to her place to see the inspiration photo for next month, where you are invited and encouraged to play along with the fun and intriguing challenge of using gilding in a project.
On Monday, June 3rd, we are inviting you ALL to join the {ditto} DIY challenge! Be sure to check out everyone else’s projects and to visit Darlene’s site for a peek at next month’s challenge along with some expert design tips on incorporating painted tray vignettes into your home.
Sources for my favorite room in the house:
Paint colors—Sherwin Williams Sea Salt and Urban Bronze
Antique Federal Mirror—Antique store, Abingdon, VA
Bust of Aphrodite—Pottery Barn
Anthropologie-esqu spoon flower vase—gift from Shannon (tutorial included!)
Floral Art Print—Lulie Wallace (almost all my artwork comes from One King’s Lane)
Whitman: Poems (Everyman’s Library Pocket Poets)
Fruits & Passion Fruits & Passion Cucina Purifying Hand Wash – Coriander and Olive Oil
(best scent in the free world and lasts FOREVER)
Keats: Poems (Everyman’s Library Pocket Poets)
My question for you is this. What do you keep in your bathroom for reading material? Inquiring busts of David want to know.