Chalkboard Art Tips And Cozy Winter Nights

Do you love chalkboard art? Get the chalkboard art tips you need to make beautiful chalkboards for your home – the easy way! Plus get a free design perfect for those cozy winter nights and drinking hot cocoa. Snuggle up with some fun and fabulous winter decor. #ad #ChalkboardArt #Winter

Some of the products in this post were provided by Oriental Trading Company.

Chalkboard Art Tips And Cozy Winter Nights

When the weather outside is cold, it is the perfect time to snuggle up and get cozy. We love to use our White Winter Ceramic Mugs that look like cable knit sweaters and enjoy some hot cocoa. We snuggle up in the den and turn on one of our favorite shows or movie. The den is all decked out in Buffalo Plaid winter decor.

One of the items I picked up from Oriental Trading was this super cute Buffalo Plaid Chalkboard. I absolutely LOVE chalk art (check out my Sidewalk Chalk Art). So, I couldn’t resist this board and creating a fun design. There are a few tips and tricks I want to share with you on how you can make your own chalk art design and transfer it easily to your own chalkboard. You won’t believe how easy it is!

I wanted to celebrate cozy winter nights with a chalkboard design that featured the hot cocoa we enjoy. So, I drew a steaming mug to compliment the saying, “Warm Mugs of Hot Cocoa Served All Winter Long.” I am thrilled with how it turned out.

Get the Chalkboard Art Tips

Create your design

Create your design. Use fancy fonts, choose or draw graphics.
Put them all together how you want them in a word document, photo program, or whatever you like to use.
Make your design the size you need for your chalkboard.
Print a black and white copy of your design.

Transfer your design to the Chalkboard

Use the side of a piece of chalk to chalk the back side of your design paper. Be sure to cover every bit of your design area.
Place the chalked side of paper against your chalkboard and lightly tape it into place. This just keeps the pattern still and in the proper position.
Trace over your design to transfer it to the chalkboard.
Remove the tape and pattern.
Use Chalk Markers to draw your design onto the chalkboard. Follow your pattern, it is easy peasy!
Once finished, let your chalk marker DRY thoroughly.
After the chalk marker is completely dry, you can dust off the remaining chalk dust and have a perfect chalkboard decor.

FREE Printable Design Pattern

Warm Mugs of Hot Cocoa Served All Winter Long

Download HERE — prints on a legal size paper (11 inch x 14 inch)

Do you love chalkboard art? Get the chalkboard art tips you need to make beautiful chalkboards for your home - the easy way! #chalkboard #chalkboardtips #chalkboardart @LorelaisLife Click To Tweet

Get imaginative with your decor this winter. I’d love to see what chalkboard designs you create. Have some fun and stay cozy!

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Rustic Woodwork Decor – How To Make Your Own

Bring a little texture and nature to you decorating style and learn how to make your own Rustic Woodwork Decor. A welcoming and cozy way to decorate and DIY.

How To Make Your Rustic Woodwork Decor

Bring natural textures to your decor style

Home decor is already a huge feature of our homes. Both regarding expense and the amount of time spent thinking about how o decorate the space. You design and redesign the layout in your head a dozen times over. Couple that with the countless hours spent wandering through stores to find the perfect item pictured in your mind and it truly is a process to create your perfect home.

However, what if there was a means to add further customization to your home and lower your budget? And get the further benefit of learning a new skill? Well, such a path does exist. Luckily, woodwork is an easy way to transfer your style, needs, and wants into a creation that perfectly fits your home.

A little bit of rustic decor

For those who have missed out on the design trends, rustic decor can be described as a decorating style with an emphasis on nature and other natural elements. These elements are all inspired by textures that can be found outdoors in nature. Think beach wood benches and luxurious faux-fur throws. The style further relies on natural colors that are typically earthy in tone.

If you are worried about how to achieve such a look in the middle of suburbia, one of the easiest ways is to incorporate ‘raw’ elements. These can be unfinished pieces of wood, a river-washed pebble mat, coral you collected on your last trip to the beach. The more unfinished and closer to its natural state the better the finished product will look.

DIY ideas

An emphasis on natural elements is required to achieve the rustic decor look. Wood especially is a great place to start. As always, when embarking on any project involving dangerous tools or supplies, it is important to be completely aware of the directions. Get the job done and practice good safety habits, such as wearing protective gear.

A good place to start with your interior is to fashion a rustic headboard out of pallets and other wood. The great thing is you can choose to use recycled pieces such as old wood from barns or leftover pieces from previous projects to add to the rustic charm of the piece.

A further idea is pallet shelves, or possibly a pallet bench and to ensure your best friend (your dog) doesn’t feel left out. Maybe even check out how to make a dog bed with old pallets. Everything is possible when it comes to DIY. For the pallet shelves, once you have finished pulling all the nails out and then cutting off the end pieces – these are shelf one and two, along with the center pieces for shelf three.

You then have the option to go even further. You can proceed to stain the shelves, to achieve a more rustic look. A darker color is advised for a more authentic image, while for a look more suited to a coastal interior theme, you could use a lighter, sandy color to stain the wood. Finally, screw them into the wall, and then they are ready to go.

More Rustic Woodwork Decor

Should you be seeking more inspiration for where exactly to start with your rustic decor mission, perhaps a wooden pallet wine rack is the avenue to which you should check out. You will similarly make the wooden pallet shelf as to the way you make shelf 1 and 2 (or the end pallet shelves) in the example above. Then, you only drill holes into the shelf so that the wine glasses have a space to hang.

If you only want to beautify an already wooden piece of your home, such as a backyard fence, then feel free to go to town with fresh flowers stacked in a tin-can garden, or if you are really into entertaining, why not consider putting a back-yard barbeque station attached to your garden fence?

Bring texture to your style – and DIY Rustic Woodwork Decor. #decor #style #DIY #wood #texture

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With so many ways to achieve a rustic decor look and DIY woodworking activities being one of the easier, more affordable ways to do it, the only question left to ask is which project are you going to undertake first? I know, the wooden pallet wine rack is extremely tempting.

Have you done any Rustic Woodwork Decor projects? I’d love to hear about them in the comments.

I want to thank Sarah for sharing these rustic woodwork decor DIY projects with us today. I cannot wait to give some of these ideas a try!

Be sure to check out Sarah’s blog, The DIY Hammer.

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Bedding Styles That Are Cozy Winter Modern

Make your bed comfy and cozy with these modern bedding styles and ideas for winter. Relax and enjoy staying indoors cuddled up in your bedroom — nobody said you had to be alone…

Amazing Winter Modern Bedding Styles

Check Out These Cozy and Comfy Ideas

The winter season is here and it just makes us want to hide further inside the bedding layers and not deal with the cold world outside. A perfect bed is a must to make the whole room come to life and to unwind after work and lazy in on the weekends. However layering your bedding doesn’t in any way means that it can’t be cozy yet modern and stylish!

Get comfy and cozy with these modern winter bedding styles! #Bedding #Style #Bedroom

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The Layered Trend

Add an extra layer of comforter and duvet to stay extra warm and on top of the layering trend. This season is all about fluffy bedding styles.

Stock up your pillow collection for this season. Adding a few extra pillows gives that added fluff and warmth to the bed which is just what we all need in this harsh winter. Having a large pillow collection also comes in handy when you want to change up your room a bit. Just throw in a few fun, quirky pillows and the whole vibe changes instantly!

Add Throws

Throw in a faux fur, nubby blanket in no particular order for that added texture and warmth. Let one end of it touch the floor and it just yells ‘come lets snuggle’
Keep a couple of these in your winter collection too to give the room a changed look with different colored throws

The Tassel-Pompom Trend

Adding to the throw trend, this season is all about incorporating latest clothing trends into bed sheets and comforters in one way or the other. Tassels and pompoms have been on a roll this year and the style is here to stay. Just add another layer or warm fuzzy sheet with tassels or pompoms hanging on the ends. Find a sheet that has a nice contrast with your comforter and voila! A chic new look to your bedroom.

Stock up on blankets

Just like pillows and throws, go get your blanket collection sorted! Blankets are what make the whole bed pop! Add Egyptian cotton blankets (this can be used both in summers and winters) and wool blankets to your bedding list.

Colors and Patterns

A good color scheme is important to maintain a certain vibe of any room. Why must the bedding be left behind?! This season, change things up a bit by contrasting the colors. Keep the bedding in warm tones according to the overall theme of the room. This gives a very autumnal and warm feeling which makes any cold harsh day better. If you want to step aside from the norm, go all out and bring the color in. Throw in colored blankets and pillows to spice up any room. If you’re like me and you are into the white bedding trend but still want some color, throw in pillows of deep browns or burgundies. A white-lined bed with a colored blanket or pillows will look trendy yet classic.
If you’re someone who likes to be edgier than the rest, throw in some cushions with quirky patterns or sayings on them.

~Elena Juliet

Find Elena where she regularly blogs at mymattresspads.com

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Making Your Home Homey

Turning a house into a home has to do with the atmosphere inside the home just as much as it has to do with the skill and thought you put into creating a cozy space. The good news is that it isn’t difficult at all — in fact, it’s fun and even joyful, especially if you’re in a home that you love. You can use your creativity and inventive choices to make your home a homey place, and the fantastic part is that it doesn’t have to cost a fortune because there’s so much you can do on your own.

Making Your Home Homey

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Start With a Personal Touch

Image via Flickr by AndyRobertsPhotos

The best way to create a homey space is to put pieces of yourself into it. What that means is that you need to imprint your personality on the home-improvement and decor choices you make. Do you paint? Decorate using pictures and portraits that you’ve painted. Do you love to refurbish old pieces of furniture, accent pieces, picture frames, and other such items? Use those pieces to furnish your spaces. If you’re a photographer, display your own photographs on walls and tables. This also gives you the freedom to decorate different rooms using different themes and color palettes.

Start With Your Outdoor Spaces

Image via Flickr by Timothy Tolle

In addition to improving your curb appeal, decorating your outdoor spaces takes your homey atmosphere outside, too. After all, there’s no reason to keep all your cute, cozy touches locked away indoors. You can create stunning garden spaces or focus on decorating your front porch. Imagine a porch with rocking chairs and tables, a flower garden in front decorated with lawn gnomes and fairy statues, and a front walkway lined with rocks, lanterns, or decorative bushes.

Keep Your Home Up to Date

Image via Flickr by peretzpup

Making a homey home involves more than simply decorating, however. If you want your home to feel inviting, you also need to keep it bright, clean, and airy — and that means keeping up on some specific aspects of home maintenance. Clean out your ducts, vents, and chimney regularly. Keep your curtains, drapes, and walls in good shape. It’s a good idea to have professionals check over essential areas, such as your roof and your plumbing. Similarly, get an HVAC professional in to check your heating and cooling systems, because lapsing on your inspections can cause problems down the line.

Splash Out With Paint

Image via Flickr by hannah balloo

Last but definitely not least, a fresh coat of paint works wonders. Take a look at the walls in your home now. Are the colors welcoming and inviting? Are they aging well? If not, it’s time for an update. Only you know which colors will work best in your home, but it’s a good rule of thumb to focus on a neutral base and introduce pops of color as accents. Don’t forget: you can easily paint ceilings and hardwood floors, as well.

In the end, if your home is full of love, welcoming, and beautifully put together, it’s a homey home. It just takes some elbow grease, a splash of creativity, a few knowledgeable professionals — and gnomes.

Make your home homey with atmosphere and cozy places! #Homey #Cozy #Lifestyle

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