Quick Tips from The Wren's Nest

I'm Good morning!

This is a good news day for you. There will be no more posts about The Wren's Nest until at least next April. I can hear you clapping already!

Just a couple of last notes, well, actually tips. As you well know by now, my husband and I are DIY folk, but by no means professionals at anything we do. A lot of what we get accomplished comes by way of learning by our mistakes, or, more often than not, by just fixing our mistakes.

Here is one of them, with a workaround that turned out kind of pretty.

When we were cutting the paneling for the 

bathroom (see earlier post),

we obviously didn't measure correctly

to account for the electrical outlet.

Not once, but twice!

At this point, we were running out of paneling.

So, I thought about what I could create
to cover this boo-boo...

This is a larger outlet box than normal.

The only switch plate that we could find

to fit it and cover the mess was this type,

but we didn't need the part of it

that was cut out for the switch...

I brought the switch plate to Walmart,

where I found this lovely and inexpensive

frame, making sure that the switch plate 

would fit inside of it...

I then covered the switch plate

 with pretty scrapbook paper

following and adapting a tutorial that I found

through Pinterest (what else?!),

coated it with Mod Podge,

and added a vintage rhinestone button

to hide the switch cutout...

This is what the switch plate then looked like

on the back.

I glued the button on, and also

 fed a small piece of wire through the

back of the button, taping the ends to

the back for added stability.

At this point the switch plate was not glued to the

frame or burlap mat that came with the frame.

When we actually got ready to hang this all up

we decided that there was no reason to use the

mat, and it would have gotten in the way

of everything...

This is how it looked from the front...

We screwed the switch plate to the wall, 

using the one screw on the right 

that was needed for the actual outlet.

The two screws by the button were 

just glued in for effect.

The frame was then attached to the wall 

separately with wood glue,

upside down so as not to interfere with 

the molding...

(Before hanging it up, Hubby did replace

the outlet with a new white one.

We have this thing about ugly old 

outlets and switch plates.)

Too bad for this bad photo!

Who said that switch plates can't be

beautiful!

**********************************

And here is one quick tip. Have you ever tried to spray-paint kitchen cabinet knobs and gotten frustrated with the fact that they keep rolling around? You might find this helpful.

Original knob...

Punch holes in the bottom 

of an egg crate,

insert the knobs, and

spray away darlings!...

Ready to be hung,

and so much cheaper than buying new

ones!!...

Norm Abram and Martha Stewart have nothing on us!!