Easy DIY Hair Lightener For Blondes

As blondes know, blonde hair dulls and darkens with age. You can hit the salon for highlights, which can be pricey and requires maintenance. You can use drugstore haircolor, which can be hit or miss (especially the highlighting kits, trust me on this). I really just wanted to brighten up my blonde.  I don't have the patience for maintenance anymore and I've had a few mishaps with the drugstore haircolor (fyi, brush on highlights are NOT as simple as just painting them on. NOT AT ALL). My solution is a commercial spray-in lightener that brightens my hair a shade. I only use it every three or four weeks and all I do is spray it on after shampooing, then I blow dry my hair. Easy peasy. But, I have baby-fine hair. Pathetically baby-fine hair. So pathetic that every hairdresser ever has commented on it. Apparently, no one else has hair as baby-fine as mine. Not even babies. So, as you can imagine it gets easily damaged. So I deep condition with coconut oil every time I use this stuff. Plus, it smells kinda weird. But it's cheaper and easier than highlights and much less risky than drugstore haircolor. 

As I was browsing through Pinterest as I occasionally do (occasionally being every day) I noticed a pin for a DIY Hair Lightener. I pinned it and promptly forgot about it. I found it again as I was searching for something else I had pinned. As I read it, I realized I already had everything I needed. And I also realized I had run out of the commercial stuff about a month ago. And it was cheaper than the commercial stuff I use. I decided it was time to try this. It has honey and olive oil in it, so it doesn't dry out my hair. And the lemon juice and cinnamon and chamomile make it smell delicious. I was almost tempted to try it. But I'm not a hot tea person. Now if it smelled like coffee...well, let's not go there.

All you need is more than likely in your kitchen right now. And a spray bottle, but if you don't have a spare one lying around, they're a dollar at the dollar store. All you need is:

1 chamomile tea bag

1 cup hot water

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 tablespoon honey

1 tablespoon cinnamon

1/2 cup lemon juice (I used bottled lemon juice, but you could use fresh)

Put the tea bag in the hot water and let sit until it has cooled to room temperature. Using a funnel, pour into a spray bottle and add the rest of the ingredients and shake well. You will have to shake this up each time you use it, as it tends to separate.

Just spray on dry hair. You can spray it all over, just at the roots, just framing your face, however you want. Then you can either wait 60 minutes, sit in the sun for 30 minutes (but it smells so good it would probably attract bees and wasps), or if you're impatient like me and love that instant gratification, blow dry it. Then wash it. The olive oil and honey made my hair feel soft and conditioned, so I didn't need my coconut oil afterwards! I only use it every three to four weeks, whenever I need a little brightening.

This does not lighten your hair several shades, just one or two. My hair is a medium blonde and after I use this, my hair is noticeably brighter, but is nowhere close to Marilyn Monroe blond. So you're looking to go a lot lighter, you're going to be rather disappointed. I also would not recommend this for brunettes or redheads. Not being a professional hairdresser, I couldn't tell you what this would do to you. I'm afraid you'd get creepy, brassy highlights. And nobody looks good with those. NOBODY.

I guess I should add the disclaimer, "please do not try this if you are allergic to any of these ingredients." Although, seriously, I would think that's just common sense.


If you have blonde hair and it just needs a little refreshing, give this spray a try!

Until the next project, 
Chris :)

Tricked Out Book Page Decoupage Chairs

I have a set of six old dining chairs that are looking really beat. I don't really need them, but I don't want to get rid of them, because they'd be nice for extra seating (like I entertain a lot, ha ha ha!) but they're kinda bulky and I don't have anywhere to store them. So, I'm going to fix them up and use them as decorative accents around the house. That way, when (and if) I need them, they're easily accessible and they'll add a little personality. Every house needs some personality.

I loved how well my daughter's decoupage desk turned out and I love reading, so why not use book pages? They worked out pretty well on my book page lampshade, so I'm going for it! And it's way more creative and interesting than just plain, old paint.

I turned my attention first to my little nook in the foyer. I decided to put a chair in there, as well as a small folding table. I was given three of them and I like having a small, portable table that uses up very little space. Here's the chair and table in all their pre-make-over glory:

Pretty sad, right? I stripped, sanded and painted them antique white, then hit them with a coat of diluted brown glaze. I used a toothbrush and the glaze to give the chairs some faint age spots. I think age spots give furniture character, unlike my face. Those, I try to banish. Then it was on to decoupaging.

I wanted an aged look, but all my old books are my favorites and I will NOT desecrate them. I can't do that to "Anne of Green Gables", "Nancy Drew" or "Little House". Besides, I still break them out and read them. I love them that much. For some reason, I have two copies of "Little Town on the Prairie", one of which is missing the last couple of pages. So I used that.  

I decided to only decoupage the chair seat and the table top, so I took off the seat and the table top so they would be easier to work with.

After I carefully cut the pages out of the book, I arranged and rearranged them until I was pleased with the placement. Then I broke out the decoupage. I brushed a thin coat on the back of the pages, then carefully smoothed them down onto the chair seat, making sure the edges were adhered. 

 After I finished, I thought it needed something. I remembered some wall art I pinned on Pinterest. It was bird silhouettes on a book page background. But instead of black silhouettes, I did a red bird on a brown branch with green leaves. I just traced a bird onto red cardstock, cut out a branch from brown cardstock and leaves from green. And I had all that in the craft stash. I just decoupaged them on to the pages and after about an hour I brushed on a coat and then another coat an hour after that. After they dried overnight, I gave them a couple coats of sealer, put everything back together, and rejoiced. Life was good. I popped them in my awkward foyer nook and hung a photo gallery (with Command strips so I can redo it whenever I want). I spray painted all the frames in a matching antique white so they all match. Or look cohesive, whichever you prefer.

Now I decided to make a chair to complement my "Life Is Better With A Rottweiler" art. I hung the art at the top of my stairs, but there's another awkward space that was just crying out for a chair. At least that's what I heard. I stripped (I am not enjoying this), sanded and painted this chair black to complement the art frame (and the rest of the frames upstairs). I covered the seat with pages leftover from my Rottweiler art. Just add a stuffed rottie and I'm done! 

Finally, I did two more chairs and another small, portable table for the dining room. I stripped (I REALLY, REALLY HATE stripping furniture at this point), sanded and painted them antique white and aged them just like I did with the foyer chair and table. But instead of just decoupaging them with pages, I cut petal shapes from an old "Joy of Cooking" cookbook (I have two and one if falling apart). Using the same glaze I used to antique the chairs, I sponge painted about half the petals. I then traced a big circle on the seat using a pizza pan, then started decoupaging the petals around the circle. After I finished the first circle, I started the second circle with the sponged petals. After that, I just kept alternating sponged and non-sponged circles. Then I sealed it with a coat of decoupage and hit it with a couple coats of sealer. On the second chair, I alternated sponged and non-sponged petals, instead of just the circles. On the table, I alternated circles. Looking good, right? 

I still have two chairs that I have no idea what to do with or where to put them. I'm pondering a "Harry Potter" chair for one daughter and a "Game of Thrones" for the other. I am still in the pondering stage, however, if I do follow through with these ideas, I'll be sure to post them! 

Until the next project, 
Chris :)

No Sew Dropcloth Curtain Panels and Valances

The window treatments in my kitchen/living room needed updating. I made them shortly after we moved in about eight years ago, and while I loved them back then, I fell out of love with them a few years ago. I've changed the whole direction of my kitchen/living room and they just didn't fit in anymore. So I'm re-homing them to someone who will love them as much as I used to. 

Updating included re-painting not just the kitchen/living room, but also the two-story foyer and upstairs hall as well, since they all flow together. And that took a lot of paint. And while I didn't get the most expensive paint, I didn't get the cheap stuff either. So I did spend a nice chunk of change on paint. And maybe one or two really cool accessories. I'm a sucker for Ross. And Tuesday Morning. So I didn't have a lot to spend on window treatments. Plus, the rooms have high ceilings with tall windows, so longer curtains mean more money. And I like cheap. And they're easy. No sew easy. Because at this point, I was also tired and lazy. Sewing would've been a hassle. 

I have seen dropcloth curtains on Pinterest, so I went to Lowe's to check out some dropcloths. Instead of buying all I needed at once, I picked up a 5' x4' to try out as valances for my two narrower windows. If I didn't like it, I was only out a couple bucks.

All you need to make these is dropcloths (thanks, Captain Obvious!), pinking shears (if you don't have pinking shears, you could use regular fabric shears, if you use Fray-Chek to keep them from fraying) and curtain rings with clips. I just reused my curtain rings from my previous curtains (free!) but you can get them pretty much anywhere that sells curtain rods. And you can get them fairly inexpensively too! 

I had read reviews that said dropcloths smell musty. Mine, fortunately, did not. I still washed and dried them. I pulled my out of the dryer as soon as it finished and hung it up, so I did not have to iron them. You could iron them, but I like the less formal, rustic feel. And I didn't feel like ironing at the time. To make my valances, I used the hems as my hem, and the selvage edges as my sides. I cut the dropcloth in half width-wise with my pinking shears, folded each almost in half, I just made the front side about a 1/4" longer to hide the pinked edge. Then I  attached my curtain rings and hung them up! One thing I like about curtain rings is that I can form pleats to make my valances hang better.

Since I loved the way my two smaller valances turned out, I traipsed back to Lowe's and got another 4'x5'  to make two valances for my sliding glass door and two 4'x12' for either side of my big picture window. I did the same thing for the longer sliding glass door valances as I did for the smaller window valances, since they are pretty much the same thing. 

As for the curtain panels, after I washed and dried them, I folded the curtain over to the length I wanted, keeping the shorter side to the back. I clipped on the curtain rings and hung them up. I noticed the shorter part in the back peeked out along the edges, so I tucked them in and secured them with a safety pin. Now these particular dropcloths have a seam across the middle. It actually doesn't look bad at all. I guess because it's all one color, it's not quite as noticeable. Harbor Freight has 4'x12' dropcloths without the seam, but they're a lighter weight and the color is lighter too. I prefer the heaver weight of the ones I got from Lowe's, seam and all. Hey, you can see my Dry Erase Paint Chip Board!

Looks pretty good, right? I've been thinking about jazzing them up with a stencil (red, of course). But I can't decide on a stencil. Do I want a small, all-over pattern, or a large scale pattern along the top or bottom, or trim along the center seam. Since a stencil (or trim) hasn't jumped out and declared to be the stencil of my dreams, I'm gonna keep them the way they are for now. Why go through all that work for something I just don't love? Just like waiting for Mr. Right. 

Until the next project, 
Chris