• Home
  • About
    • About
    • Contact
  • Shop
  • Projects
    • Cleaning
    • Clothing
    • Colonial Farmhouse
    • Crafts
    • Decorating
    • DIY Projects
    • Holidays
  • Adventure
    • Moving to Ireland
    • Living in Ireland
    • Visiting Ireland
    • Travel
    • Family and Parenting
    • Humor
    • Learning
  • Privacy Policy
A Pretty Happy Home

Life, DIY and Random Things That Make Me Smile

  • Home
  • About
    • About
    • Contact
  • Shop
  • Projects
    • Cleaning
    • Clothing
    • Colonial Farmhouse
    • Crafts
    • Decorating
    • DIY Projects
    • Holidays
  • Adventure
    • Moving to Ireland
    • Living in Ireland
    • Visiting Ireland
    • Travel
    • Family and Parenting
    • Humor
    • Learning
  • Privacy Policy
  • Home
  • About
    • About
    • Contact
  • Shop
  • Projects
    • Cleaning
    • Clothing
    • Colonial Farmhouse
    • Crafts
    • Decorating
    • DIY Projects
    • Holidays
  • Adventure
    • Moving to Ireland
    • Living in Ireland
    • Visiting Ireland
    • Travel
    • Family and Parenting
    • Humor
    • Learning
  • Privacy Policy

No Widgets found in the Sidebar Alt!

  • flagstones directly on the ground flagstone path metal awning painted with brush on hammered copper paint
    Crafts,  DIY

    4 Places To Use Brush-On Hammered Copper Paint

    July 12, 2023 /

    You’ve probably seen hammered paint of all colors in a spray can but have you seen brush-on hammered copper paint made by Rust-Oleum? It’s the paint you didn’t know you needed until now. Prepare for your mind to be blown intrigued. The hammered paint does come in a spray can version, but I prefer the brush-on version. Here are 4 places where I’ve used brush-on hammered copper paint. On drip edge metal flashing: You might have a small shed like ours that has drip edge flashing right below the roof. Our flashing was looking a little worse for wear and I painted it with the hammered copper paint. The paint…

    read more
    annisa 2 Comments

    You May Also Like

    vintage floral easter eggs using temporary tattoos temporary tattoos applied to wood easter eggs

    Vintage Floral Easter Eggs Using Temporary Tattoos

    March 3, 2025
    corner of a house and part of a red barn with daffodils in front of it painted on a small flat stone and mounted on a wood placard and hung above a basket on a wall.

    12 Stone Gift and Craft Ideas

    May 18, 2026
    colonial farmhouse barn spring on the happy list

    3 Easy Ideas to Get You in the Mood For Spring

    February 21, 2022
  • how to add trim to a metal door using PVC trim
    DIY

    $6 Update! How To Add Trim To A Metal Door

    June 21, 2023 /

    Do you have a boring, plain metal door that you’d like to jazz up? You can do that with trim and it’s easier than you think. No power tools are required. Let’s talk about how to add trim to a metal door. Here’s our door in need of a facelift. It’s not the plainest door since it does have a window but it’s not the most exciting door you’ve ever opened. It also had some peeling paint that needed to be fixed. Not to worry! Some elbow grease, leftover paint, and about $6 of trim will transform this door. Supplies Needed To Add Trim To A Metal Door: PVC Trim…

    read more
    annisa 0 Comments

    You May Also Like

    entryway refresh with buffalo check curtains and new front door window insert

    Entryway Refresh and a New Front Door Window

    April 16, 2025
    when diy equals true love

    When DIY Equals True Love

    September 16, 2019

    Arrow Mantel Art

    October 23, 2015
  • 10 tips for building an outdoor ping pong table using cement board for the top
    DIY

    10 Tips For Building An Outdoor Ping Pong Table Using Cement Board

    June 12, 2023 /

    If you’re thinking about building an outdoor ping pong table using cement board for the top to keep it weather resistant then I have some tips for you! We recently built an outdoor ping pong table and learned a thing or ten along the way that, so far, the collective genius of the internet has not addressed. We hope that our experience building an outdoor ping pong table using cement board will help your build go a little bit easier so that you can get to the fun part – playing ping pong – a little bit faster! By the way, if you’re wondering if the ball bounces well on…

    read more
    annisa 0 Comments

    You May Also Like

    modern country laundry room in a colonial farmhouse with wainscoting stained glass horse art basket wall and inset wall shelves

    A Modern Country Laundry Room For Our Colonial Farmhouse

    March 29, 2023
    DIY curved fieldstone wall using historic masonry techniques and all fieldstone and lime mortar

    Curved Fieldstone Wall: Part 12, Reveal 2nd Wall Section

    October 22, 2025
    time capsule installed in a 250 year old carriage house

    Stone Carriage House: Part 8, Time Capsule

    June 25, 2025
  • diy pool equipment tool holder wood rack for holding leaf skimmer and telescoping poles near pool
    DIY

    DIY Pool Maintenance Tool Holder For Leaf Skimmers and Poles

    June 7, 2023 /

    Today, I’m sharing the DIY pool maintenance tool holder we made to store our leaf skimmers and telescoping poles during pool season. Pools are awesome but they also come with a lot of stuff to maintain them. All of those pool maintenance tools need a place to go that’s out of the way but also easily accessible. There are storage options you can buy to hold your leaf skimmer and other telescoping poles, but when you have a problem to solve and loads of scrap wood in your garage, a DIY solution is definitely happening. We made a rack out of wood that attaches to the pool fence that can…

    read more
    annisa 0 Comments

    You May Also Like

    repointing a stone wall with old pipes embedded in the wall

    Stone Carriage House Gym: Part 4, Pipes In Stone Walls

    May 14, 2025
    DIY recessed toilet paper holder

    How To Make a Recessed Toilet Paper Holder

    October 3, 2022

    DIY Wood Bench

    May 27, 2016
  • red flowers with black and white striped towels on a concrete pool deck
    DIY,  gardening and landscape

    Adding To Our Concrete Pool Deck Ourselves

    June 5, 2023 /

    Patience is not one of my virtues but I did wait almost 4 years for us to add a 5-ft x7-ft section to our concrete pool deck. Yes, we poured that concrete ourselves. I should rename this blog “Gluttons For Punishment.” Another suitable blog name would be “We Like To Save A Buck But Dang That Concrete Is Heavy.” Thankfully, Handy Husband has experience pouring concrete and I’m a decent assistant as long as I’m not required to lift more than a handful of 80-lb. bags of concrete. After that, it is possible that whining occurs. It’s ironic that Handy Husband ran a concrete line pump when we first got…

    read more
    annisa 0 Comments

    You May Also Like

    Kitchen Refresh – The Beginning

    April 10, 2015
    curved fieldstone wall part 8 progress section 2

    Curved Fieldstone Wall: Part 8, Progress Section 2

    September 17, 2025
    painted metal pool coping using marine grade rustoleum paint

    How Our Painted Metal Pool Coping Is Holding Up

    July 17, 2023
  • sunroom door hardware after removing paint from door hardware with a slow cooker
    DIY

    Old House Essential: Slower Cooker For Paint Removal

    May 1, 2023 /

    There are house essentials and then there are old house essentials. The essentials might look the same on each list but their purpose can differ vastly. On my list of old house essentials is a slow cooker – not for cooking but for removing paint from door hardware. If you own an old house or any home where someone became overzealous with a paintbrush then a slow cooker will be the MVP when it comes to restoring your door hardware back to its original shine. To make this very clear, I own two slow cookers and I do not confuse the two. One is for making tasty dinners and the…

    read more
    annisa 0 Comments

    You May Also Like

    Refinish Wood Chairs Without Power Tools

    December 6, 2017
    Newly repointed stone walls in a 1780s home with a stone foundation using lime mortar mixed with natural hydraulic lime

    Basement Workshop Repointing: Part 8, Walls Are Done

    April 20, 2026

    DIY Wood Bench

    May 27, 2016
  • when to use a brown paint wash to mimic the look of stain
    DIY

    When To Use A Paint Wash To Mimic The Look Of Stain

    April 24, 2023 /

    Let’s talk about when to use a paint wash (aka diluted paint) instead of stain to finish wood. Under the right circumstances, a brown paint wash can mimic the look of stain. There comes a time in every DIY project when things are not going well and you begin to regret the choices that led you to this point. It’s in this moment of profound clarity when you’ve spent a ridiculous amount of time and money on something that does not look good that you realize you could have bought it on Amazon for a tenth of the price and zero of the headaches. Now you have to decide whether…

    read more
    annisa 0 Comments

    You May Also Like

    what we didn't anticipate when repointing our stone walls in the basement ourselves repointing stone walls takes a lot of time

    What We Didn’t Anticipate When Repointing Our Stone Walls

    March 13, 2024
    DIY Cabinet Door Utensil Caddy

    Cabinet Door Utensil Caddy

    February 26, 2020
    old fridge built in to look cabinet ready with custom hinge cover cabinet feet how to customize an old fridge

    Building In Our Fridge: The Reveal

    January 20, 2025
  • modern country laundry room in a colonial farmhouse with wainscoting stained glass horse art basket wall and inset wall shelves
    decorating,  DIY

    A Modern Country Laundry Room For Our Colonial Farmhouse

    March 29, 2023 /

    If a modern country laundry room can be a thing, that’s what we created for our Colonial Farmhouse. The transformation of this modern country laundry room only took us 3 months, 13 days, and, oh fine…a while. It took us a good long while to finish. Either this project was more tedious than we originally anticipated or we actually found a life and hobbies outside of working on this house. Yeah…you’re not going to believe we have actual hobbies, so this project was probably just tedious…as all good projects are. Almost four years ago our laundry room looked like this. Sexy, wasn’t it? That photo was taken on the day…

    read more
    annisa 1 Comment

    You May Also Like

    refinished wood mirror how to label diy furniture

    3 Ways To Label DIY Furniture

    January 23, 2023

    Fresh Take On A Rattan Swivel Chair

    October 8, 2018
    Grey Fireplace Mantel

    Grey Fireplace Mantel in our Master Bedroom

    May 11, 2020
  • stones in between studs of old house 3 reasons why old houses have stones in between the studs
    DIY

    3 Reasons Old Houses May Have Stones Between The Studs

    March 20, 2023 /

    If you own a really old house you might have discovered stones or bricks instead of insulation in between the studs in your walls. It begs the question why do old houses have stones between the studs? Someone went to an awful lot of trouble to install those stones or bricks there. They had to have had a decent reason to undertake that back-breaking work. There are 3 possible reasons that really old houses, particularly those built in the 1700s and 1800s, may have stones or bricks in between the studs in the walls. First, let me say that I am the owner of a home built in the eastern…

    read more
    annisa 2 Comments

    You May Also Like

    diy pool equipment tool holder wood rack for holding leaf skimmer and telescoping poles near pool

    DIY Pool Maintenance Tool Holder For Leaf Skimmers and Poles

    June 7, 2023
    reclaimed wood bench with hairpin legs bench made from an old windowsill

    Reclaimed Wood Bench With a Story

    September 25, 2024
    building fieldstone stairs DIY fieldstone stairs

    Building Fieldstone Stairs: Part 2

    July 23, 2025
  • DIY wood cube cord holder charging cord holder
    Crafts,  DIY

    DIY Wood Cube Cord Holder

    February 27, 2023 /

    Today I’m going to show you my latest creation, a DIY Wood Cube Cord Holder, and how you can make one yourself. Cord management for all of our electronic devices seems like a universal problem we can all get behind. That’s a rarity in our world! I’ve been on a kick to contain, manage, and wrangle all the charging cords in our house. It’s a thankless job but someone has to do it. My laptop charging cord is particularly wily. If that cord wasn’t plugged into my laptop, it would slide right off the back of my desk. There are adhesive clips you can purchase to solve that problem but…

    read more
    annisa 0 Comments

    You May Also Like

    no sew denim bunting banner flag banner made from old jeans

    No-Sew Denim Bunting Banner

    April 19, 2023
    stack of leather 5 easy leather craft and decorating ideas

    5 Easy Leather Decorating and Craft Ideas

    January 20, 2021

    5 Easy, (mostly) Recyclable Halloween Decorating Ideas

    October 11, 2017
 Older Posts
Newer Posts 
Hi! I'm Annisa.

Recent Posts

  • Happy List: #445
  • Out With the Sad Mailbox In With the New Mailbox
  • Finally Fixed the Carriage House Rotten Window Trim
  • Happy List: #444
  • Summer Must Try: Lemon Curd S’mores

Categories

Subscribe to blog
Loading

$2018 © A Pretty Happy Home
Ashe Theme by WP Royal.