Pinterest Project #6 of infinity

So, I, like most of the known pinterest world, tend to pin things randomly and with really no intention or energy to follow through with doing any of them.  Sometimes, this gives me minor guilt, you know, that there are fabulous people out there with the will to try to do new creative things.  Me?  I don't have the time, and in the recently learned words of my 2.5 yr old - "am over it".  Out of a bagillion pins, I have, in fact, taken it upon myself to try a few of them in momentary spurts of creativity.  Here are some of the ones I have actually done. Note:  All of these were performed pre two children.

The shutter porch table

Front Porch Swing

Eliza's Nursery

Eliza's Glider Redo

Pom Pom Curtains for Ellie Bug's Nursery

 I, for one, think my copies have been pretty dog gone spectacular...especially for a construction / non girly girl that doesn't know how to sew or draw block letters.  It is funny to think back on now, but I was once, at the very beginning of my college career, a Secondary Education English major.  I knew very quickly that since I could not draw block letters that I would be completely useless as a teacher.  I was right.  I do feel like I have always had a good eye for design in construction and especially around the home.  If I had the money and/or the time, I am sure my house would look much more super cool that it does, but alas, I do not.  For this reason we have several really cool things in our house that are overcome by the cool things that are just stacked together because I haven't done anything with them, therefore making my home look mostly like a hot mess of cool areas and areas of "what the crap is that".  This latest pinterest inspiration was a must for me, and I was really kinda peeved that the concept hasn't been mass marketed yet so I could just pay for one on Zulily.  I am not a super Mom by any means so don't let the fact that I actually made something fool you - it was only performed out of necessity.

There is no other element in my home that can shove the fact that I am getting older in my face than my hardwood floors. I had no idea how old my body was getting until Isaac and I made a pallet on the floor one day and after laying for thirty minutes, I tried to get up and threw my back out.  Yikes...there is never a more "old" feeling than doing something that should be really easy and throwing out a major necessary component of your body.  I also have hurt my knee trying to show Isaac to crawl.  I knew if I was going to get in the floor at all, I was going to have to succumb to buying one of those ugly brightly colored foam play mats.  I abhor those mats.  Okay, well, I have strong negative feelings towards those mats.  I remember babysitting for a family that lived down the street that had those things.  The kids were terrible and the home was in chaos and for some reason every time I see one of those mats I think of those terrible rat kids.  I mean, I rank it right up there with things I never wanted to do - Mom jeans, minivans, and foam mats all over the floor (no offense to any of you out there with these things, I realize these are my own personal issues).  Nevertheless, I broke down and got the gawdy thing....and I friggin loved it!  It felt so nice to play on, and especially now with Ellie bug, I am on the floor all of the time.  I wanted to cover my entire house with them.  Two things that kept me from doing that - my toddler takes the letters out ALL OF THE TIME and I just couldn't get over seeing them and thinking that my life is chaos (again, my own personal issues).  It's just that nothing said "my house is no longer mine and it belongs to my kids" as the neon floor mat.  No, its not the toys that surround every inch of space - its the dern foam mat (again my own issues).  So I saw a need to reconcile this matter so I took things into my own hands.  I searched for hours for a foam mat that I could live with...no such luck.  Closest thing I got to was hardwood floor colored, but I thought that would just be too trippy so then I went to Pinterest. 

I realize I had much more pressing things that needed to be done during this time - like the laundry, washing bottles, etc, but I got sucked into the vortex of Pinterest and I could not rest until I had corrected this foam mat issue.  I found four or five pins about painting foam mats and one negative Nancy that said whatever you did in this world, do not try this because it was a waste of time.  There is one in every bunch, so I just ignored that pin.  I knew sort of what I wanted the mat to look like.  We have one of my favorite quilts from Target that seems to have made it into every picture of the kids we have because it was the only thing I had to throw on the floor when I was still in denial about the foam mats.

I always did like the way it looked when it was on the floor, but it would always end up with some kind of food, drink or poop stain on it.  That, and our dog loves to pee on anything that resembles a rug.  This was one day when I caved and used the alphabet mat.  If Ellie wasn't so cute I would be cringing:

But I figured I would use it as a basis for design for my mat.  So I went on my beloved Zulily and bought two sets of Tadpole mats like this one:

Yes bright blue and hideous brown please?  Said no one ever.  I just picked one because I knew that I was gonna cover that stuff up. Here is the other stuff I got:

1. Primer
2. About five different "Colors to Go" from Sherwin Williams
3. A stencil from Amazon
4. Stencil kit from Amazon
5. Two cans of top coat

And here is what I did (Note:  I would have never had time for this but I had to stay home with Eliza for 2.5 days so I did all of this while she napped):

1. I wanted my mat to be larger than the four squares, so I put six together and then left the other two to use as a bath mat or kitchen mat.  Make sure you get the mats with the solid edge pieces or you will still look like you just painted a foam mat...
2. I primed all of the pieces with two coats.  One right after the other - ain't nobody got time for waiting for paint to dry
3. Next day I did two coats of base color. I kept the pieces detached just to be able to move them around to let them dry.
4. That afternoon I stenciled using a foam roller and a couple stencil brushes for the inside flower colors.  It could have been a lot simpler by using one color and the stencil but like everything else I like to make things difficult and had my heart set on the design of my favorite quilt so I spent the rest of the evening painting the flower doohickeys.
5. I thought the Negative Nancy pinner that said you shouldn't try this pin screwed up by not doing enough of a top coat so I used all two cans of my top coat on the detached pieces.  Be careful when you detach the pieces after the stencil though I had some that had stuck together and the paint pulled off the edges.  No biggy, but could have been avoided.  Make sure you detach before you do the top coat or you won't be able to detach them to move them out of the way - negating one of the pros of using the foam mat to begin with.
6. Plop that sucker down and enjoy! 

Some things to think about - If you have dogs with sharp claws, it will poke a hole through the design.  We found that out with our precious Emma.  I think it just gives it that "distressed" look like everything else in our house so I was okay with that.  Also, shoes with heels will mess it up.  Just be smart about what you put on it and it will last.  It has already withstood several dance parties and my knees are oh so thankful.  So, here is our final product.  Looks like Ellie bug loves it too.  And pay no attention to the toys everywhere that may give the impression that we live in chaos :).