My Creative Blog [Search results for Spoiler] 

Board and batten has been all the rage for a while now, but I'm still surprised at how many people haven't heard of it or ask, "What was it that you did below your fabric wall?" So, we figured it was high time we did our very own post on the infamous b & b.

So, funny thing… being the English teacher that I am I thought I'd look for the official definition of board and batten, but it wasn't easy! So, here's the RHBC definition… Really awesome molding that is sort of chunky, with clean lines, and is arranged in fun rectangular shapes. Sweet! Send that one to Mr. Webster for sure!
So, rather than walk you through a step by step tutorial about B & B, we'll just tell you to check out Censational Girl or The Nester's tutorials on how to install it.
Instead, we're going to share with you another board and batten project that we helped out with. Our gal pal Connie needed some design inspiration for her crazy outdated dining room. Don't blame her, this was how it was when she moved in. YIKES!

Connie was picking my brain for ideas and I suggested b & b. We jumped onto Pinterest and started getting inspired! Here are a few of the pins that got us all jazzed up!

Source: None via Amy on Pinterest
We love the extra rectangles in this style!

Source: lh6.ggpht.com via Lydie on Pinterest
For Connie's room, she decided on a tall board and batten with a ledge for pictures.

The construction was in process, but we needed to pick a wall color. Connie was thinking some kind of chocolate color, so Jess and I went over to help her make the final decision. Here's what we ended up with…

Ha! Doesn't look like chocolate does it? We convinced Connie to trust us and she forged ahead with Olympic's Antique Moss green! The first coat was a little scary, but we knew it would be fabulous at the end!

Here's the finished room… pretty darn cool eh?

Just in case you're wondering… the C and empty frame are from Hobby Lobby. We made a little accessorizing trip for the room.
It's a pretty drastic before and after…

The ledge is just wide enough to rest picture frames on- nice planning! We chose lots of wood frames in complimentary tones and did a combo of resting and hanging.

So, between the bold, green dining room and my yellow office, are you feeling the board and batten love?

Maybe, just maybe you'll be seeing a little B and B love in our episode of The Nate Berkus Show tomorrow?? (Spoiler Alert!!) Make sure to set your DVR and message us if you see it before 2pm! We have to wait all day to watch, so be sure to give us the play by play!

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Wait! Don't Go! Did you vote for the Final Round of Crafting with the Stars? Check out the final 3 projects, vote, and cross your fingers that it's for our project! Thanks so much!

I finally made the switch and got myself a sweet iPhone a few weeks ago. I'm loving it… I will never go back to the world of Blackberry. So of course I'm search of all the greatest apps (leave me a comment with your must-haves), but the app I was most excited to get was Instagram! I love it! I'll warn you, my Instagram feed isn't just blog stuff. You'll see plenty of goofy pics of me and the fam as well. Follow at your own risk! If you want to follow along on my Instagram fun my username is RHBC.
Today, I thought I'd give you a peek via Instagram into my house and some things you might not see all the time on the blog. Crystal light… I drink it 24-7.

Spoiler alert… Hello beautiful

Can you even believe I'm a DIY blogger? Yup, that's my master bedroom. Remember how I stole Eric's dresser for our Anthro Knockoff? He's still living out of bins 7 months later. I will get to this room someday…

Jess framed this for me on our first Nate Show. It's our version of family rules… we're not really the hugging type.

Chalkboard back splash. Love this rocket! (I also LOVE my knives!)

Chase and Polly, we're really dumb, so we agreed to get my daughter 2 ducks.

Spray paint makes everything better. This project coming to you soon!

And last, but not least. I love my memo board… even if it has December's calendar still. Go me.

Also, one of our good friends (and actually our guest poster Staci's husband) is kind of a big deal on Instagram (like 35K followers). He takes amazing pictures and I'm always amazed that his incredible pics are taken with a phone!! His username is Curious2119

So, now that I'm on Instagram, come follow along (RHBC) I think I currently have 9 followers. Ha! Maybe you can be the big number 10! Have an awesome day- it's going to be almost 90 here in Bucks County!

** Wait! One more thing! Want to turn an Instagram pic into a canvas? I just got this deal in my inbox. 57% off from Canvaspop. Use this google link to get the deal.

Today's a Seriously Important Day: Happy 30th Birthday Jess!

(Kev and Jess at the"decades" prom we went to last year- they looked awesome!) Let me just tell you that I officially have the best friend ever. Jess is hands down, my favorite person in the world. She's confident, strong, dedicated to her family, friends, and most importantly her faith and having her in my life for the last 13 years has made it all that much better. So here's to 30 Jess, I can't wait to see what this decade has in store for you. Love ya- have an awesome day! ***********************************************************************

So every once in a while I have a pretty cool, unique idea… trust me, it doesn’t happen all that often, but when it does I pretty much love it. The stenciled wall panels in our Nate Show room were one of those rare times. If you haven’t seen the room yet, here she is in all of her fuzzy, screen shot taken from a video glory.

We were walking through the thrift store and saw a roll of this black paper stuff. I didn’t know what it was at first, but then I thought way back when and remembered putting a new roof on my parents’ house with a high school boyfriend (ah, the crazy things teenage girls will do to impress boys. Eric couldn’t pay me enough to get on a roof now!)… Anyhow, I remembered it was like the paper that you put under shingles. Tar Paper it’s called.

This is where the random awesome idea part comes in… I immediately stopping seeing this as roofing material, and I saw it as a canvas-like material for some fabulous high-end-meets-industrial-art. Jess sort of wasn’t quite sure about my plan, but being the wonderful BFF that she is, she trusted me and encouraged me to go for it. Here’s how I turned this roll into art. We had just gotten the stencil in the mail from Royal Design Studio for Jess’ kitchen renovation. Remember, she used it here:

The first step was to simply figure out the size of my panels, I knew I wanted two stenciled images on each panel. Once I had them cut to size I rolled on two coats of semi-gloss navy paint. I was worried it wouldn’t take the paint well, but it worked like a charm. No primer needed- score one for the lazy DIYer! Once they were really dry, it was time to stencil. Stenciling 4 images was a cake-walk compared to Jess’ kitchen. It took me about 15 minutes to complete both panels. I used DecoArt metalic gold paint and it needed about two coats to really get the pop we wanted.

Did you notice all the gold on the stencil when Jess posted about her kitchen? It was a mini spoiler alert!

One additional thing I’m crushing on and could have added to my crush post are grommets. I have been using them as much as I can lately. I pretty much can make an argument that everything is better with grommets! We added them to this piece to give it a finished look and also play off of the industrial nature of the tar paper.

These are grommeting tools. The funny thing is that no matter how many times I use it, I have to think pretty hard to get it all lined up correctly. Once you do, it’s a piece of cake.

There she is… I’m pretty sure it’s the prettiest a piece of tar paper has ever looked. She’s like the Miss America of roofing materials. (It got a tad wrinkled when it was shipped back to us after the show, but it really does stay nice and flat on the wall)

I was really thrilled with how they looked in the room and wow, look what Nate was saying during this part of the show…

Oh, you didn’t hear him say that?… weird. Must have been a glitch with your TV. (hehe) The bottom line here is that ANYTHING, literally anything can be turned into art and it doesn’t need to cost a million bucks to be fabulous. This was $10 tar paper (for a whole roll, I could make about 50 more with what I have left) and it was beautiful enough for Nate Berkus.
So who’s going to their local roofing supply store today? Ha! Actually, next week I’ll share another awesome project I used tar paper for. It’s a pretty cool one and saved me a ton of moolah!

I'm not a huge fan of spring, mainly because I LOVE summer and get a tad impatient for the hot pool-weather days. However, I do love seeing all the new spring trends, products, and ideas. Today we're sharing a few Spring Must Haves from our fabulous sponsors. We so appreciate our sponsors. They make this blog possible and we're so grateful for that! Make sure you check them out and tell them RHBC sent you! ********************************************************************************** Remember the awesome artwork we made for Jess' house? Well, it wouldn't have looked half as amazing without the mad-photo-skills of Stacy Salvatori. She's local to Bucks County and would be a great choice for your family pictures or next big event. Visit Stacy's Website

I'm love with the Just for Girls Collection from Red Letter Words. How fun and springy are these prints? I plan to order a few for Kenzie's room in the next few weeks. I love art that looks cool and will also daily encourage my tween (holy cow that is the first time I've written that. I can't believe I have a ten year old!) Visit Red Letter Words

#1- Make 5 Dinners in One Hour… that's NO JOKE! These crazy affordable meal plans with shopping lists and directions will rock your world. Head over to their Facebook page to try one week for FREE!

#2- We're so glad that 31 Gifts jumped on the Grey & Yellow bandwagon and came out with this adorable line! I'd love an organizing utility tote in this pattern! Contact Mandy to get yours (you can get me one too!)

#3- Have you visited My Best Friend's Hair yet? You definitely need to. If you have a stylist you love, go let the world know by leaving a review or if you have yet to find the right stylist for you, head to their site to read other users reviews and find yourself a rockin' stylist today!

#4- I require a perfect spring candle in my kitchen this time of year. CJ's EcoChic Candles smell amazing, and because they're soy they last forever! (ok, not literally, but figuratively). They best part… you're not going to pay $25 like you would at the big chain stores and you're supporting a great small business.

#5-This is a spoiler alert! Remember the SuperFab room makeover we're currently working on? Well, we have Royal Design Studios to thank for one of the amazing design elements in the room. They have the best stencil selection around! Check out their new and improved website and they have an idea blog with all kinds of inspiration. Guess who was featured there for our Nate Show stencil project? Visit their new website!

#6- Kotton Pickin' Kute is more than just hats! For Spring you need to check out the fun headbands she offers. Seriously, that baby is adorable!

#7- Guess what?? Liberty Thrift listened to its shoppers and extended their hours! Woohoo! It's now open M-Sat 9-7pm. We have a fun outing in the works with Liberty and can't wait to share the details with you!

#8- Moo & Puppy is our favorite digital scrapbook company out there! We love the preppy look of this madras paper pack. (I'll confess that in the 90s I loved and wore lots of Abercrombie before they went all half-naked. But man, I do love me some preppy styles!) Moo & Puppy is giving you 15% off with the code RHBC15.

#9- Jet Upholstery is more than just chairs and cushions! Look at that amazing bed! Even for these DIYers some projects are better left to the pros! Visit Jet's Website for more info!

Those links should keep you busy for a while! I actually have about 15 tabs open on my computer right now, because I want to place a ton of orders! Thanks again to our sponsors! You're the best!