If you look in the upper right hand corner of the blog, you will now see an extra tab sitting next to the once-lonely ‘About This Blog’ tab. Because I enjoy doing DIY, and I am in a new place, with plenty of new projects, this is going to be a quick stop for any visitors to check out projects that I have done, or that others have done (like Amanda’s super-cute birdcage planter!). There you will also be able to keep tabs on upcoming projects that I plan to tackle!

So next time you want to just check up on the DIY projects in my life, click the tab!

Coverage
While my Glidden Shakespeare Green covered one large wall and another medium sized wall with ease, we were not as fortunate with the Duron brand. Because the green wasn’t super dark, I assumed I could forgo using a primer. But at the rate we’re going, it would’ve benefited me greatly to have used a primer and saved myself some time, money and stress. We have put two coats on most of the green, and there are still variations in the look of the paint, meaning it’s going to need a third coat. I just do not understand why a light wall color, covered with white paint, would need three coats. Two, I could handle — you know, cover those spots you missed, but three is just crazy, in my opinion.

Quality
To be honest, I was surprised at the quality. Based on the price, I figured this had to be some good paint! But the latex paint dried too quickly and left the bottom of the pan a mess, so that when the rolled when through the paint, then to the wall, we ended up with wonderful little latex globs on the wall.. Talk about a pain!

Smell
It’s been a week since we painted the first two coats of paint. I’ve cooked, I’ve cleaned, I’ve had the balcony door open — the smell is just now starting to diminish a bit.

Price
I can handle bad paint — when it’s cheap. This stuff isn’t sold in Home Depot (at least, not around me) so I had to find a specific store in the industrial district that is mostly used by contractors. Their hours are inconvenient — I could not get a gallon during the week because they are only open from 9-5 and only on Saturday from 8-12. No Sundays. Which is why the walls still aren’t finished.. So what was the damage? $40. Fourty dollars for one gallon of white paint.

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When it comes down to it, I give Duron Paint a 1 out of 5. It was inconvenient to locate a store, it had a high odor, and quality and coverage were poor.

I want to make a disclaimer that I am writing this review not out of disrespect for the Duron brand, but so that other’s might know what they are going into before painting a rental’s walls. Had I known it was going to cost me over $100, supplies included, to paint my walls back to white, I probably would have forgone the green paint in favor of other decorative accessories.

Have you had any products lately that you’ve been disappointed in? Have you had different results with Duron paint?

So when I noticed a close friend of mine, Amanda, who is also an avid DIYer, had posted some photos of her most recent project, I had to share it with everyone!

This is what she had to say:

“I’ve always loved birdcages. I came up with the idea of repurposing an old one and using it as a plant holder. I just hate the way that basic hanging plant holders look, and I thought doing it this way would add some charm to it. It took me months to find just the right birdcage. Most of the thrift stores I looked at had huge standing ones, and were a little more than what I was looking for. I decided to give it one last shot, and went to a fabulous shop in Houston, TX, called The Guild. I saw it as soon as I walked in and snatched it up! It was the most expensive piece of this project, costing me $18.00. I then stopped by a local garden center and purchased a small potted plant ($2.00).

The first step I took was sanding down the birdcage to remove the finish on it. I then spray painted it white, I already had the paint from a previous project. It took several coats to get the shade I wanted. Once the paint was dry, I placed the potted plant inside, and filled in around it with some fake moss (also something I had left over from another project). The last step was purchasing about two feet of chain from Home Depot, and hanging the cage outside of my apartment!”

Isn’t it super cute and shabby chic? What a great way to create a non-traditional plant holder! And just think — when it’s super windy, the plant is in place, no need to worry about it getting blown to pieces!! Great job, Amanda!

Do you have a DIY project that is inspirational? Send it my way, and I’ll post it for everyone to see!

When I submitted my lamp DIY to YoungHouseLove a couple months back, I just wanted to share a cool thing I did with a larger audience. Having forgot about it, I continued blogging, taking my blog from a personal blog to a more design focused blog. But when I signed in today to check stats and work on another post, I was suprised when I saw 800.. wait, refresh.. 900… refresh… 1200?! Refresh 2200?!?!! Twenty two hundred hits while I was in a work meeting. Wowzers!

Last week I won an iMac and thought that having 300+ hits on the site in one day was a lot. Pfft. That ain’t nothin’! So a thank you to John and Sherry over at YoungHouseLove — I absolutely love your site and you are truly an inspiration! Keep it up, and thanks for sharing the love!

I just wish I was a little bit more prepared.. This site is lacking in style, and please, anyone who reads this, take it from my own apartment, where I am packing and painting, sorting and purging — it has no style either right now. Keep with me, because I am moving at the end of August and will have a new, much better space to share with you and work on. I’ll be starting from scratch — no more green paint, better lighting, BIGGER kitchen. (Seriously, there’s a reason I have not shown anyone that, it’s horribly tiny.) To give you an impression, here is my old floorplan vs. my soon to be new floorplan:

In turn, I am getting a better laid out kitchen that actually has storage space, and a nice big bathroom! I have less closets, but I think I can make it work. The kitchen and bathroom alone (plus the washer and dryer!) are worth the price hike I had to take to move to a new, better location.