Courtney Carmean – A Diamond in the Stuff

Spring Instagram Giveaway

Courtney Carmean — Fri, 25 Mar 2016 23:00:45 +0000

Daylight savings has passed, the first day of Spring has come, and now Easter is right around the corner! The change of seasons has put me in a mood for a little fun! I’m running an awesome giveaway over on Instagram and it ends on Monday! So pop over to IG and look for me @adiamondinthestuff!

I am giving away some of my current crushes. Including a Rae Dun “create” mug and one of my all time faves, an IKEA plant! So go enter now before it’s too late and GOOD LUCK!!!

Industrial Open Shelving

Courtney Carmean — Tue, 15 Mar 2016 13:00:36 +0000

I have been in a MOOD lately to update my dining area. My house has been semi the same for over two years and for this military wife that is about as much time as I usually spend in a house, so it’s time to change things up! I have a very small dining space in my great room (kitchen, dining, living room) and most of that space it taken by two large windows. I only have this one small length of wall to decorate and it was time for something new. So the old came down and my new Industrial Open Shelving went up!

Here is what the area looked like before my little makeover. And amazingly enough, it looked different before this with a large hanging mirror. I blogged about this Chippy Aqua Architectural Find in 2014.

So how did I make my industrial shelving you ask? Well pretty simply actually. It started with some piping from the hardware store. Yep just normal everyday plumbing material. I decided to use 2in x 12in boards for the shelves so I needed 12in pipes to accommodate them. I went with 3/4in flange, pipe, and cap.

I assembled the flange, pipe, and cap together after giving them a good scrubbing (the come a little oily). Then I attached them to the wall with some wall anchors and screws. I took the 2×12 pine boards and had fun distressing them with all kinds of tools, then I stained them with Special Walnut by Minwax.

I popped those boards up on the pipes and VOILA! I had so much fun decorating them even though it took me forever to get them the way I liked.

I now have a home for some of my Rae Dunn collection which makes me so happy.

I didn’t have to buy much to decorate my new shelves (always a plus), I mostly shopped my home for items. I did however create the Kitchen Conversions sign you see (click on the link for the free file).

The wall anchors and screws are doing their job, look at all those mugs! It’s all pretty heavy and it’s holding strong!!! The mug holder is from World Market in case you’re wondering.

Look at all that distressing! I took a hammer, chisel, sandpaper, and mallet to the boards to give them a really distressed look. Love how they look!

I have some little bits of industrial items around my home and this Industrial Open Shelving is a great addition! It all came together perfectly and it’s now my new favorite spot in my house, you know until my next new spot happens!!!

Linking up to these great link parties!!!

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Love the industrial look too? How about a Faux Card Catalog Side Table? Pretty cute right?

8 DIY Concrete Projects

Courtney Carmean — Tue, 23 Feb 2016 14:00:40 +0000

Lately I have been seeing more and more concrete projects and items popping up all over the place. And I’m kinda crushing on it! It’s such a simple medium, it can be used endlessly on some many different kinds of projects. I love it’s industrial feel but it can be softened depending on how you use it. So I rounded up 8 really awesome DIY Concrete Projects you totally have to try!

Check out these GEOMETRIC CONCRETE BOOKENDS! Think about all the cool shapes you could make!

This CONCRETE LETTER and AMPERSAND could be endless as well! Make any letter using their tutorial!

I’m crushing pretty hard on these DIY Concrete Planters! I think these may be on my list!

Have a table top beyond repair? Why not make a DIY Concrete Table?

Need a pendant light and don’t want to spend a ton of money? Make your own DIY Concrete Pendant Lights!

This is one of my faves! You could make this DIY Concrete Picture Frame any size you need!

I love these Concrete Vases for many reasons; but one reason is you can’t see the stems of your flowers when they are in the vase (weird pet peeve, sorry).

Concrete Counter Top! This little baby is getting filed away in my brain for sure!

So what do you think about the concrete trend? Love it or leave it? I’m kinda diggin it right now! I may have to try my hand a a couple of these babies!!!

Linking up to these great link parties!!!

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Love the industrial look? Check out this Industrial Spool Table….

Kitchen Conversions Chalkboard Sign

Courtney Carmean — Tue, 16 Feb 2016 14:00:52 +0000

In my effort to spruce up the house (I’m in a MOOD) I am re-doing my dining area. We have built new shelving and I will be blogging about it soon! But in the meantime I needed to decorate my new shelves. I mostly shopped my house for items but I needed to fill some gaps, so I decided to whip something up. My Kitchen Conversions Chalkboard Sign to be specific.

I happen to be perusing Michael’s the other day and came upon a clearanced out chalkboard. It was dark blue (which doesn’t go with my decor at all) but it was adorable and $1.99. So into the cart it went. It just took a little bit of white chalk paint and it was already looking more like me. I knew I wanted to do something more to it though so I grabbed my Silhouette and got to work.

I created a file of kitchen conversions using my Silhouette Cameo. I may be the only one out there, but I can never remember all of those conversions! Now I have a cheat sheet!

I cut the file out of white vinyl and placed it on the chalkboard surface. Then I used a piece of chalk to rub all over the chalkboard to make it look used. I love how the sign has a vintage-y look to it.

The Chalkboard sign looks absolutely adorable on my shelf and fits in so perfectly!

So are you just dying to make your own KITCHEN CONVERSIONS SIGN now??? Well…..if you have a Silhouette I can help with that! Simply click HERE for the file and download it! Am I favorite person today or what!?!?

Have a great week everyone! Linking up to these great link parties!!!

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Looking for more kitchen inspiration? Why not come take a look at this pretty Vintage Drop Leaf Kitchen Table?

DIY Barnwood Coat Rack

Courtney Carmean — Tue, 02 Feb 2016 14:00:32 +0000

I am still on my New Years organizing kick. No end in sight. I’m not only organizing but I’m giving a few areas a bit of a face lift. Since we move so often, if I am in one house for too long I get the itch to change things up. It’s the next best thing to a totally blank canvas. So this time around I am tackling an area in my laundry room. This area is located under my Crib Spring Drying Rack and it once housed my “wash” wall decor. That is now gone and in it’s place is my new DIY Barnwood Coat Rack.

I was really in need of another coat rack, mostly because this house has no coat closet. Read that. No coat closet. I mean, we are in the south so I get it I guess. But it still gets cold here in the winter! We have a little mud porch area on the opposite wall in our laundry room that has a few hooks. However with a family of 4 and kids with a silly number of coats, we needed more!

Luckily I have a little stash of old wood so all I needed were some hooks. Hobby Lobby is pretty much my first stop when I’m looking for cute knobs and hooks. I picked up 6 big beautiful hooks for my coat rack. This was a pretty easy project! Step 1: cut wood to length I want. Step 2: Attach hooks to the wood. Step 3: Add hooks to the back of the coat rack. Step 4: Hand it on the wall.

Boom! Done!

What’s better than an easy and beautiful project? Nothing that’s what! How fantastic does it look there above this little bench I moved in there?

It looks so pretty right now but let’s face it, in about 5 minutes it will probably be covered in backpacks and jackets! So let’s just sit back and enjoy it while we can, ok?

So what do you think about my new DIY Barnwood Coat Rack?

Linking up to these great link parties!!!

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I have another salvaged wood project to share with you. Pop over and check out this beautiful Round Pallet Coffee Table…..

How To Fix Scratches In Wood {quickly and easily}

Courtney Carmean — Fri, 29 Jan 2016 14:00:55 +0000

We have been living in our current home for over two years now. It was a bit of a mess when we moved in. We have put some love into it, but we have also put some wear and tear into it. We know that our time here is probably a year and a half left at the most, then it is off to wherever the Air Force decides to send us next. So in the back of my head I’m starting to make a mental list of all the fix-it’s that we will need to do before we are ready to sell. One very glaring issue were these lovely scratch marks left on my front door by my adorable dog. {she’s lucky she’s cute}

It finally started bothering me enough that I started to wonder if there was a quick and easy way to get rid of scratches in wood. I really didn’t want to strip, sand, stain! So I started experimenting and I totally stumbled upon DIY gold! Do you see all those scratches up there? I hated HATED them! So let’s do something about them…..

The first thing I did was clean the door with some Murphy’s Oil Soap. Which was good. Then I used the Old English scratch cover (for dark woods). Which was awesome. I literally just rubbed both of these on and wiped them off and the end result was amazing.

LOOK AT THAT DOOR! Doesn’t it look brand new?

Let’s compare just so we can reeeeeeally see the transformation! This took me all of 10 minutes to go over the whole door and little effort. So I immediately started trying it out on my kitchen cabinets and the result is just as awesome! You know all those little nicks and scuffs from vacuuming and you know, kids! Gone. I kinda can’t wait to tackle all of the wood work in the house now!

So what do you think of this quick and easy “How To Fix Scratches in Wood” idea? Have to tackled scratches in your wood before? What did you use and did it work?

Linking up to these great link parties!!!

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While you’re here, check out this beautiful Family Rules Window…..