After this year’s Parade of Homes wrapped up, I took a little break.
To California. Then Colorado. Pondered moving to either location. Scheduled out Atlanta and Jamacia for July. Went to the pool….alot. And probably ate one too many tacos.
Spring is insane and we finish it off by being thrown right into the Parade, so catching up on long conversations and laughs with the little’s was a must.
So let’s tackle some of those projects, shall we?
After last year’s crazy success of the giant marquee letters (even Bob Villa liked them :)), my schedule was full….and my Ryobi Jigsaw was my best friend. I was asked to cut out a word for a little boy’s room for one of this years Parade Homes and have lights strung through out it. Explore was the word that was decided on to fit in with the theme of the room.
I will admit that this was a tad bit trickier than the giant marquee letters from last year. It needed to all be attached
Materials:
4’x8′ piece of super thin plywood (I didn’t want the added weight of going with a thicker piece and having to find studs)
Homeright Finish Max Paint Sprayer
Ryobi Jigsaw
Quart of Paint (The orange was color matched to the curtain panel in the room)
String of LED Lights (I really like the regular, outdoor string lights, but they get crazy hot. LED’s can stay on pretty much all day and not get hot. Perfect option for a kid’s space.)
Ryobi Corner Cat Sander
1″ Square Wood Blocks
Ryobi Drill
Directions:
I set my piece of plywood up against the wall, projected my word on it and traced it out with a pencil.
After I finished tracing, I moved the plywood up onto my sawhorses and began to cut with the jigsaw.
After the word was cut, I strung out the lights and measured the base of the light to see how big of a drill bit that I need to use to make the holes for the lights to go through.
Next, I marked off each hole by stringing out the lights, making sure not to pull too tight.
I drilled all the holes, then sanded down the entire word.
After I wiped off the dust, I prepped everything to paint.
This is my normal go to schedule for painting:
Rearrange every.freaking.thing wherever I am at to paint. Because paint is paint. Even though it makes things gorgeous, the overspray is an argument waiting to happen….trust me on this.
I always have used spray paint. It goes on smooth and dries fast. But my hands are covered in it, not to mention my legs, shoes, hair and random parts of my face. And usually some innocent object that was within a fair shot of overspray.
I had this paint sprayer that had been sitting in the garage for a bit and decided to try it since I had a quart of paint staring at me. It’s from Homeright, the same brand that I used on my No Sew Drop Cloth Striped Curtains.
ohhhemmmgeee.
Why in the heck did I wait so long to try it?
I had absolutley no overspray drifting everywhere.
I could even turn it sideways, just like spray paint, and catch all of the sides and edges.
It was all pretty much dry by the time I had turned the sprayer off and was ready to move back inside.
And guess what, I came out just as clean as when I started my project. In all my years of painting, this has never happened.
Hey Mr. Paint Sprayer, can we hang again later?
I.am.in.love.
I spread out a blanket so that I wouldn’t scratch the front, flipped it over and began to run the lights through, taping down excess wiring if necessary.
I needed the Marquee sign to project from the wall just a bit, so that the wiring wouldn’t get smashed and not work. I took a few of the 1″ cubes and attached them evenly across the sign with a staple gun.
Using screws that were 2 1’2″ long, I ran them through the wooden cubes to attach in the wall.
The bed was made locally and I could not quit looking at it when I was in there.
It was just amazing.