Home Sweet Home Tutorials Archives - Violet LeBeaux

Cute Mint Tv Make Over Tutorial

by VioletLeBeaux | Mar 26, 2015 | Home Sweet Home Tutorials, Other-Tutorials, Tutorial

The tv and I have had our differences over the years. Mostly because it’s the only thing which was left in our apartment which was black so it seemed to suck light into it. Last year I gave it a washi tape make over but it still wasn’t exactly what I wanted so I set out again this year to finally be done with it.

This time I went all out and used actual paint.

You need:

White acrylic paint
PVA glue
Roller
Final colour, I used mint wall paint
Masking tape

Start by masking off the screen of the tv and any other places you want to keep the paint away from.

Mix up a solution of 1 part white paint to 1 part PVA glue in a bowl. The PVA glue will help the paint adhere to the smooth tv surface. You will still need to be careful as you go though because it is slippery.

Use the roller to paint thin coats of white until it’s totally opaque.

You’ll end up with something like this. Be careful to keep the coats very thin especially when you go over the speaker holes so you don’t clog them up!

I have no idea what I was watching on tv while I was doing this… but that face wtf?

Leave it to dry completely, preferably overnight so there’s no chance of taking the base coat off when you paint the next colour. Then just go right over the top with the mint. I did the details with a paint brush and managed to slip and paint the screen. Luckily it wiped right off *_*

Once it’s all dry, carefully remove the tape.

Taadaaaa!

So much happier with this!

I didn’t have enough paint to do the back but I’m very happy with this now!

Those speakers will be next >_>

Our Glitter Heart Wreath – Home Sweet Home

by VioletLeBeaux | Dec 3, 2014 | Craft, Home Sweet Home Tutorials, Other-Tutorials, Tutorial

Last year when I was decorating our house for Billy Idol Day, I made a little heart wreath thingy to replace our previous one. The previous one was actually really cute but we slammed the door a bit too hard one day and it fell and shattered *_*

So this was the result:

I used some styrofoam balls as well as some old baubles, roses and a LOT of glitter.

To begin with, I hot glued the larger styrofoam balls into a basic heart shape.

Then I filled in the gaps with smaller baubles and some roses.

I then took it into the bathroom and covered it with PVA glue and silver glitter. Even with paper laid down it still made a massive mess haha!

I didn’t have enough glitter for the back as well so it really only looks good from that one angle haha!

But there you go!

It looks quite cute! It certainly brightens up our ugly door a bit!

It probably represents us quite well, James is the heart and I’m the constant glitter ^_^

Washi Tape TV Make Over – Home Sweet Home

by VioletLeBeaux | Nov 24, 2014 | Craft, Home Sweet Home Tutorials, Other-Tutorials, Tutorial

So after all of the work I’ve done on our apartment, there are only a few things left that I’m unhappy with. The TV area is definitely one of them. It’s like a back hole of suck.

Before I got to the actually organising and the shelving etc I wanted to do something a bit easier: make over the actual tv.

After:

Before:

Even the tv lights look like a sad face XD

So Daiso here has started stocking fabric and washi tape.

I bought a bunch of rolls so I could play around with things.

The fabric tape looked really happy and bright but it wasn’t cut perfectly straight so the patterns didn’t line up and that really bothered me… because I’m a crazy person like that.

NOT LINED UP!

But it was really easy to do, I just stuck it on.

After that I bought some washi tape. It’s basically patterned Japanese masking tape. I liked the design a lot because it wasn’t too busy from far away but it was transparent so I had to do a layer of masking tape to make it opaque.

The masking tape from Daiso was terrible and kept peeling off but I made it work.

This also didn’t really line up perfectly but it was less obviously so I could forgive it slightly.

I still haven’t decided whether I love it or not. I love the idea and that my TV is no longer so black but I think I haven’t found the perfect way to have this. I might do some more experimentation with other styles of tape but I’m going to wait until the rest of the TV area is perfect and then see what looks best.

The hunt continues though, I will have the perfect light bright apartment if it kills me!

How To Make A Puppy Mattress – Lottie’s Home Sweet Home

by VioletLeBeaux | Nov 17, 2014 | Craft, Home Sweet Home Tutorials, Miss Lottie Pomeranian, Storage/Utility-Tutorials, Tutorial

Miss Lottie’s new-ish house isn’t nearly as soft and comfy as her old strawberry was 🙁 So I set about making it a bit more awesome by making a little mattress she could sleep on in the bottom. I’ve tried putting blankets and regular pillows in but she just shoves them to the back >_<

Anyway the end result was really cute!

For this tutorial you will need:

Fabric
Lace
Stuffing
Needle and thread or a sewing machine

Measure out enough fabric for the pillow and cut two pieces.

Now put the fabric with the good sides together and then place a piece of lace between them along where the seam will be

Stitch along that line making sure you’re going through the edge of the lace as well.

When you open it back out the lace should poke out like this:

Continue all the way around the edge leaving a little gap at the end.

Poke your fingers inside the gap…

And turn the whole thing inside out.

Fill the pillow with stuffing.

And then close up the hole.

Now stitch diagonally through the pillow:

And then diagonally the other way so it forms diamonds.

And that’s it, all done!

So cute! And a perfect fit for her new house.

Of course, that doesn’t stop her from sleeping everywhere else… like on my plate -_-‘

Oh Lottie.

Covered External Hard Drive Tutorial – Home Sweet Home

by VioletLeBeaux | Oct 1, 2014 | Craft, Home Sweet Home Tutorials, Storage/Utility-Tutorials, Tutorial

Time for another Home Sweet Home tutorial! Today I’m recovering my external hard drive so it matches my desk more!

For this tutorial you will need:

Hard drive
Old magazines or pretty paper
Book covering contact
Glue

Clean the outside of your hard drive to make sure that you have a nice smooth surface.

I used pictures from an old fashion magazine. You can use whatever you like. Cut out some pretty paper in the shape of the hard drive. Mine wasn’t big enough so I had to do it in 2 pieces.

Glue the paper to the hard drive. Don’t use too much glue or the paper will go soggy. Just use enough that it won’t move around.

Now cut out contact which is slightly larger than the paper.

Lay it out over the entire hard drive and smooth to make sure there are no bubbles.

Snip off the edges and fold the contact around the corners so it all has something to stick to. You can use a scalpel or art knife if you’re good with them, but I just used scissors.

Done! Easy! Now to do the 102938029384 other hard drives >_<

Much cleaner and it actually matches the house!

Hope you enjoyed the craft and let me know if you give it a try!

DIY Tea Cup Candle Tutorial

by VioletLeBeaux | Sep 15, 2014 | Craft, Home Sweet Home Tutorials, Other-Tutorials, Tutorial

I’ve seen so many of these tea cup candles in fancy shops but the prices are just exorbitant. You can buy tea cups in thrift shops for like $1 and candle making supplies are quite cheap too. Even cheaper? Recycling old tea light candles. Cute result!

So for this tutorial you will need:

Old candles or candle making supplies to melt down
Something to melt them in (I’m using a fondue set)
Chopstick
Twine
Tea cup

To begin, pull the tea light out of the metal casing and remove the wick and the metal part at the bottom.

Once you have enough of them, put them into a melting pot. I’m using a mini fondue set but you can also do the on the stove top which is a lot quicker.

Melt all of the wax.

Measure a piece of twine which is long enough to reach the bottom of your tea cup and tie it to the chopstick.

Once all of your wax is melted it should look similar to this. You can see that all of the crappy burnt parts and dirt sink to the bottom and you can easily pour the wax while leaving them behind.

Pour the wax carefully into the tea cup. Be careful, it’s very hot! Try not to get too many bubbles in there too.

Now dip the twine into the wax and position it so it hangs all the way down into the middle. It can be easier to use a toothpick to poke it in there so it’s straight. Ideally you want to dip it a bit further than you need to so the top part of the wick is covered with a little wax too.