As you may have gathered, Chelsea's Garage is growing and I am honored to be a new member of the family - not only on the blog but also in life! Chelsea and I met because I was dating her brother Caleb. We hit it off right away and over our mutual love of design, do-it-yourself projects, and turning trash to treasures. I didn't realize that with Caleb came such a steal of a family! I stuck around and I guess Caleb thought I was a good fit and proposed this past spring ;) Now I'm to be a permanent fixture as the new sister-in-law.

So let's start with a thinking-out-of-the-box project. I found this guy at a thrift store for $5. Loved the branch motif but it was just a little too big to put anywhere. He needed a flat surface to be functional as a candle holder but in my tiny apartment, flat table real estate is hard to find. So what to do? Hang it on the wall and sacrifice it's only function as a candle holder? Yes I could call it art but free wall space was also sparse...

Boom! I knew. What's one of the most underutilized decorating spaces in your home? The ceiling. And it just so happened that I had the perfect spot of ceiling over a bland window bench that could use some pizzazz.

To get started I needed:
1} Sturdy Chain
2} 2 Ceiling Hooks
3} Large Jump Rings
4} Needle-Nose Pliers

I attached the jump rings onto the candle holder where they wouldn't slide off and would be balanced when hung on the chain.

When I liked the placement, I attached the chain and held it up to the ceiling to measure the length I wanted it to hang down. Didn't want it too close to the ceiling that it would cause fire hazard problems and didn't want it too low that it would be in the way of any day-to-day life.

After installing the hooks in the ceiling, my out-of-the-box project was ready to hang!

Now it's your turn to think-outside-the-box ;)

~Cate

This post was originally featured under Chelsea's Garage, now affectionately known as StyleMutt.

Today's post covers the high and low of painting; literally! Completing our dining room makeover was painting under the chair rail and then our chandelier. I know painting is not that fun of a task for most folks, but once you set aside a morning or afternoon and just dooo iiiit, oh my goodness, the feeling is awesome!

First, here is where we left off with phase 2, (which was replacing the dining set after we sold our old set):

Phase 3: Painting under the chair-rail

We chose the color Travertine by Valspar at Lowes

I especially love where it meets the soft minty aqua color of our kitchen! So fresh.

After I painted under the chair rail I was a hair away from dancing around our dining room and calling it done. Well, calling it done at least....the dancing part happens daily. Usually when I start getting impatient in my chair waiting for my kiddos to finish a meal.

Anyways, I loved the whole crisp and industrial look we had achieved, but knew I wanted the chandelier to be something funkier than it was....which brings us to Phase 4!

I spent some time researching clever chandelier makeovers since I wanted to keep the perfectly functional one we had rather than buying something else. While I did find lots of really cool before and afters, nothing was really what I was envisioning for our dining room. It needed to be vibrant, off beat, original, and youthful. My husband and I are, (for now), still in our 20s, and I wanted this space to reflect the playfulness of our young family.

Here is what I came up with: Splattering paint!

This was one of the most fun and easy home projects yet! I climbed onto the table and removed each frosted glass globe from our chandelier. After a good cleaning I turned each one over and placed a bit of blue table over the hole.