A Pop of Pretty

Home Decor Tutorials & DIY Projects

Tutorials and DIY projects: how to make your own home decor like wreaths, front door decor, and diy wall art, how to decorate a mantel, how to decorate a Christmas tree, how to paint furniture, and more!

Tired of wreaths? Hang a basket. {Easy summer DIY door decor idea}

Tired of wreaths? Hang a basket. {Easy summer DIY door decor idea}

Hope you are all enjoying summer!  As you may know, I love changing my wreaths / door decor each season and for special holidays. (See A Year of DIY Wreaths / DIY Door Decor {How to make a wreath for any season}.) But I’ve been falling down on the job lately.  Our front porch has been looking a little tired. (Kinda like me, ha.) Seriously, with three kids off for the summer, I can barely find a pair of matching flip flops, let alone carve out crafting time.  But yesterday, I did manage to make something new for my front door.

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Summer Door Decor Ideas

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Container Gardening Planter Ideas: 10 Fun Ideas for Flowers!

Container Gardening Planter Ideas: 10 Fun Ideas for Flowers!

Oh how I’d love to have a beautiful overflowing garden of brightly colored flowers!  But, I might as well be honest, I don’t have a green thumb. Container gardening has always been more my pace. It’s just so much more…well…contained.  I do well with ‘contained’. I even managed to keep this basket of flowers on my front door alive last summer which was my first real gardening triumph. (Shoot for the stars, right?!?)

 

acontainer gardening in a hanging basket.

I’m not sure if it’s just a psychological thing, but gardening in containers just seems less overwhelming than tending to a large garden.You can make it as easy or as complex as you want.  Me?  I make it easy. Throw in pre-mixed soil from a bag. Water it.  Watch it grow. And, if by chance it doesn’t, move it to a better spot.

 

container gardening in pots

 

I’ve pretty much just planted flowers in pots, baskets or a window box. But the fab examples that follow have inspired me to try something more creative this summer.

 

creative container gardening

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Front Door Color: 10 Fabulous Front Door Colors (& their paint names!)

Front Door Color: 10 Fabulous Front Door Colors (& their paint names!)

The snow is gone, the sun is out, the temperatures are rising…dare I say it’s the season for front door painting? (Can I get a booyah?)

I’m a sucker for fab front door colors.  

 

Front Door Collage

 

There’s nothing that provides easier curb appeal than a pop of fun color on a door.  Trying a  bright or fun color on your front door can be scary, but I love how this web site about exterior color explains the fact that colors have visual ‘weight’, and that a powerful color in a small dose can visually balance an expanse of neutral house siding.

 

I also thought this analogy from the same site was great:  “Remember that your house most likely will be viewed from the street which may mean 60 feet or more from the curb. It’s like the actress with her stage makeup, positively frightening, but she has to be seen by the person in the very back row of the theater.”

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Last year at about this time, I took the plunge and painted the front door on our house (which has cypress green siding) from a safe and traditional red, to a more unexpected light turquoise.

 

My Front Door Color:

Martha Stewart Artesian Well

Mixed as Behr paint + primer

 

front door colors - Martha Stewart Artesian Well.

 

If you’re in the market for new front door colors like I was, you’ve probably searched for inspiration on Google, Pinterest and more. (It feels so much safer, doesn’t it?!?) I found many pretty front doors, but found it frustrating that the exact paint color chip number couldn’t be traced for many of them.

 

So, for any of you lovely readers who might be considering changing your front door color this spring, I’ve rounded up 10 of my favorite ones…but I’ve only included doors for which I could trace the paint color with a fair amount of certainty.  You’ll notice that most of them are Benjamin Moore paint colors – I tried to stick with a brand that’s most widely available.

CLICK HERE TO SEE THEM

How to Organize a Small Art Station for Kids (Martha Stewart Wall Manager)

How to Organize a Small Art Station for Kids (Martha Stewart Wall Manager)

Our 8-year old LOVES to draw. She has an art table in our basement family room but rarely uses it.  Instead, like any great artist, she prefers to make art when the inspiration strikes! This usually means right smack dab in the middle of the main floor TV room.  So she’s always had a little art desk in there too. It’s been the bane of my existence! Her arsenal of art supplies is always in a tangle since her desk is in a small corner, without room for storage.  I’ve tried a bunch of different things, but have never figured out how to organize it without crowding the room with a storage unit.

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{Note: Even though I’ll mention Martha Stewart’s wall manager product here, this is not a sponsored product review.  I tried it, loved it and wanted to share!}

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Organizing a small art station

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(p.s., The chick and the egg on in this photo were colored by her 3-year old brothers.  She’s totally die at the thought of anybody thinking she colored them, haha)

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This weekend I was at Staples to get a printer cartridge, but soon found myself with an armful of Martha Stewart chalkboard labels and stylish file folders.  Are you as crazy for office supplies as I am, lol? Anyhoo, while there, I happened to notice this new ‘wall manager’ line that Martha offers, and thought it would be a perfect solution for how to organize this little disaster area…READ MORE