As you may recall I once again partnered with Lowe’s Home Improvement on a home makeover campaign.  This time in the Charleston, SC area.  Tom and Jenny Belling, who wrote in asking for help with their outdated living room, were the applicants selected.  I shared the design plan a couple of weeks ago, and this past weekend I worked with a team of Lowe’s volunteers to execute my plan.  I can’t wait to show you all how wonderful their living room is looking now!  It is always such an honor to work on this type of project.  Although the icing on the cake is when the homeowner sheds a few tears from pure joy and gratitude.  I’m so happy that Jenny and her husband love their beautiful new living room space!

While I’m editing the after photos to put together the full reveal post I thought I’d give you all a sneak peek as well as share the details of one of the simplest diy projects I completed for their space.  Since we were basically starting from scratch a large portion of the budget went to furniture not leaving much for wall art, so I needed to get creative.  My goal was to make the fireplace wall more of a focal point in the space.  With Jenny being a fan of that farmhouse, cottage-style vibe I decided to flank the fireplace with shutters that would act as large scale wall art.

They compliment the fireplace mantel while adding in that farmhouse-cottage look she loves so much.  Building them was simple and cost efficient.  Two large shutters used a mere $60 of the budget.  I could have easily built them for much less, but because I wanted to assemble them in a timely manner I used pre-finished weathered white pine wall planks.  Start to finish this project was completed in less than an hour!

The DIY Details 

These are easy to build!  You don’t even need to own a saw to do this.  All the boards can be cut at Lowe’s.  The weathered white pine boards are 3.5 inches by 8 ft long, so I had 5 boards cut exactly in half which means both shutters are about 4 ft tall and 17.5 inches wide.  Then I cut the 1 x 2 into four 17.5 inch pieces.

I assembled them using wood glue making sure the horizontal boards were level.

Once the glue was dry, I used wood screws to reinforce each horizontal board from the back.

I mixed a little bit of white paint with water to whitewash the horizontal pine boards to match the planks.  (Although that’s totally optional depending on the desired look.)

To hang the shutters, I used these Hangman picture hangers.  These are my absolute favorite hangers.  They make hanging wall art on a level line easy-breeze-y.

To dress these shutters up for the Belling’s living room, I attached a plant hook to each one in order to hang  a decorative planter.  Jenny can swap out the plants seasonally (white poinsettias would be beautiful around the holidays) or she can hang lanterns here……lots of fun decor options.  Since there is an electrical outlet conveniently located on both sides of the fireplace, she could also use these hooks to hang lighted orbs (which are also sold at Lowe’s during the holidays).

(storage ottoman, basket, hanging planter)

(rug, lamp, lamp shade, lanterns)

Thank so much to Lowe’s Home Improvement for including me in this fall makeover campaign.  Many thanks to the Lowe’s volunteers for working with me to execute this design plan!  It was such fun, and I can’t wait to share more of the Belling’s freshly made over living room!