In all my home improvement and decor projects, the one area I’ve been seriously neglecting is all my naked walls. I have some ideas for them, but they have been pushed down to the bottom of the priority list over and over again. It’s time I pay my poor walls some attention.

The biggest empty focal point was right at the top of the stairs. There was this big expanse of naked wall with the stairs acting like a great big arrow pointing right to it. Something had to be done.

Even though I painted this on a canvas, it is very much a craft project. I am not (yet) a fine artist, and even if I was, this would not apply. There’s no meaning behind this, I just wanted something abstract and cool to look at that I could put at the top of the stairs. And since it didn’t require me to be a fine artist, it wouldn’t require you to be either.

I wanted to create the impression of a stormy sky, so I went on flickr and looked around for inspiration. I found this amazing photo from flickr user Kevulike and printed it out as a reference.

In the fine art paint section, there are all kinds of really cool texture mediums. I used modeling paste and course texture gel to build up a texture. With the modeling paste I tried to mimic the waves of those stormy clouds, and then with the course texture gel (which adds a grainy texture) I tried to define those scraggly little wisps of cloud. Let this dry overnight.

Then it’s just a matter of layering colors. I just used my acrylic craft paint since I had it on hand. I painted the entire canvas a very pale blue, then added sections of a darker gray. I noticed how the sky had an almost green undertone in the original picture, so I watered down my paint and washed it over the surface, removing some of it with a tissue to create a blotchy and uneven texture. Following the reference photo, I kept layering darker colors, removing more paint here and there, blending it in in other places.

This is the benefit of trying to make an abstract painting. It doesn’t have to look like anything. It’s way more important that it look interesting. Whenever I do a project like this, I always hate it’s guts until two days later. So if you hate it, just leave it in the spot it will hang and live with it for a while. If you’re like me, you’ll grow to love it.

Before:

After:

AHHHHHHHHHHHHhhhhhh. It feels SO good to get that project done. I don’t know why this one bothered me so dang much. I guess because it was so in my face all the time, but that dang door just made me NUTS! Now this inadvertent focal point is actually something worth looking at. Interestingly enough, adding all this molding almost seems to make the door blend in *more* to me than a big empty blank spot. It’s almost like the door has frames on it now, just like the rest of the wall.

Here’s how I did it.

I measured the door and decided how big I wanted the outer squares to be. I had to make it work so that the doorknob would land in between two of the squares, so I measured the space above the doorknob and the space below, and did a little math to figure out how I could take up that space in an even way. On my door, which I’m sure is a pretty standard size, it worked out to have, from top to bottom, a square measuring 23 3/4 in. wide x 25 in. high, a thinner square measuring 23 3/4 in. wide x 9 in. high, and a bottom square measuring 23 3/4 in. wide x 25 in. high again. The space between each panel was about 4 inches, with a little bit of extra on the bottom to make things work out visually. I used a ruler and a level to draw these measurements on the door.

Using a miter box and saw, I cut the pieces of molding to size. The measurements reflect the size from outer point to outer point, cut at a 45 degree angle.

I used an “all in one adhesive and caulk” and spread some of the adhesive on the back of each piece, then lined it up with the pencil lines I’d drawn on the door and nailed it in place.

Unless you’re a finish carpenter and have skills far beyond my own, you’ll probably have to fudge a little bit to get this to line up. Molding is often not square, your cuts will probably be a little imprecise, so to give myself the flexibility I needed I didn’t nail each piece all the way down at once. Starting with the top piece, I nailed once in the middle and then at each end. Then I added the side pieces and put one nail in at the top end. Then I added the bottom piece by nailing once in the middle. This allowed the side and bottom pieces to be pulled into place as necessary. I tried to keep things level when possible, but I think it’s more important to get the corners matched up nicely.

I repeated all this again with smaller molding to create interior squares. My measurements for the large top and bottom squares were 17 3/4 in. wide x 19 1/4 in high, and for the center panel it was 17 3/4 in. wide x 3 in. high.

Now to clean up my mistakes. I used wood filler to bridge any gaps I left in the corners, and also to cover up nail holes. If you can sink your nails in below the surface of the molding, you can fill the rest with wood filler and it will look super clean and polished. I didn’t succeed in doing this 100% of the time, but once you get the paint on, it’s pretty forgiving of all my flubs.

To cover up any gaps and make a nice smooth surface where the molding meets the door, run a line of that all in one caulk and adhesive down the side of the molding. There are little tools you can buy that will scrape off your excess caulk in a nice neat way, but you can also use a finger. Let everything dry overnight.

Paint your door with a good latex enamel paint.

I always have a twinge of apprehension when a project requires serious mess and power tools, but I accomplished this project in about three nap times. One for sawing the pieces, one for assembling them on the door, and one for painting. Not too labor intensive, but it makes such an amazing difference in the way this wall looks.

Sometimes I can be so dang cheap about the silliest things. Since we moved into this house three years ago I’ve needed to get wastebaskets in all the bathrooms, but I could not bring myself to spend $25 on something that no one will notice except when they need somewhere to put a used kleenex.

I’ve searched and searched for a cheaper option. All the usual places – Ross, Marshals, etc. – cost just as much as Target for a lamer selection. I stalked Linen’s and Things when it was going out of business and they never got cheaper than $20. I even looked for something at the dollar store and didn’t find anything that wasn’t disposable. For all the money I’ve spent on gas while on the quest, I probably could’ve just bought the dang pricey trashcans three times.

Finally I found these cheap black plastic trashcans at a discount store, and bought them out of desperation, figuring I could do something to make them work.

I used a special spray paint for plastic to turn the awful black plastic into a color that would fit in in the bathroom. I planned to only cover the outside so the inside could still be wiped clean when necessary.

I cut a piece of fabric to fit the outside of the trash can. If your trash can is shaped like mine, you need to allow for it to be wider at the top than the bottom. A 1/2 yard of fabric was plenty for this project, so I just cut the fabric several extra inches taller than the trashcan and that was enough to account for that curve. Spray a spray adhesive over the trashcan a few inches at a time and smooth the fabric over.

Cut the fabric flush with the top edge.

Fold the raw edge under and glue down using a fabric glue.

Fold the fabric onto the bottom of the trashcan and glue in place. This is easiest if you cut slits into the fabric and then fold those pieces on top of each other. Then I covered the whole mess with a circle of flannel.

I cut a stip of fabric 2 inches wide and made some bias tape out of it by ironing the raw edges in towards the center. A bias tape maker makes this job a breeze. Then I just glued it onto the rim of the wastebasket with fabric glue and used binder clips to hold it in place until it dried.

Each wastebasket took about 1/2 a yard of fabric, but for one of the trashcans I used fabric I had left over from another project in that room. So at $3 for each can, $4 for the spray paint, and $4.50 for the half yard of fabric, I made two wastebaskets for the grand total of $14.50. That’s a whole lot better than the $50 everyplace else was charging.