Purchasing a playset for your children is a great investment. It provides them with countless hours of outdoor fun & creative play in addition to making great memories. We’ve had our playset for a while now and although it’s still a backyard staple for our 4 kiddos ages 6-14, it’s taken quite a beating over the past few years. This Spring we’re giving our backyard a little makeover and Making our Old Playset NEW Again!

Many windy, rainy and snowy seasons eventually took it’s toll on the original canopy that once covered the top of our playset. Our children really missed that “shelter” from the sun and the idea that being under cover is well… just more fun!

My husband and I decided we wanted to build our own roof to make the playset feel and look complete again. After measuring the area, we headed to Lowe’s and found the GAF Roofing Center.

The GAF Roofing Center shows you the different types and colors of shingles available. It was important to us that we use GAF  Timberline Shingles because they not only look good, but they are extremely durable too! These are the best selling shingles in North America and are often used by contractors, but DIY’ers love them just as much!

GAF also stands behind their products and offers a Warranty!

Have you ever installed your own roofing before? If not, start small with a project like this one!

For this project you will need:

• Timberline® shingles (High Definition®, Natural Shadow® or American Harvest®)
• Pro-StartFeltBuster® High-Traction Synthetic Roofing Felt FeltBuster®
• TimberTex® Premium Ridge Cap Shingles OR
• TimberTex® Seal-A-Ridge® Protective Ridge Cap Shingles
• Nails: 1 ¼” galvanized steel roofing nails
• Nails: 1” – 1 ¼” round plastic cap roofing nails
• (8) 2 x 4’s
• 1 piece plywood
• Metal or Aluminum Drip Edge (optional)
• Tape Measure
• Hammer
• Redwood Stain

We chose Timberline® Natural Shadow® shingles in the Charcoal color to match the roofing on our house.

Keep in mind that measurements will be different for all sizes of playsets out there. Measuring accurately will be your key to success here.

We (my husband) started the roof by measuring and cutting ridge board and fascia boards to frame the roof. Since my husband is quite tall, he pulled the back of his pickup truck to the playset to work off of safely. You may use a ladder if needed.

After cutting an angle on the first 2 x 4 rafter for the roof, that piece becomes a pattern. Use the pattern to correctly cut the remaining 7 rafters. Then screw them into place.

Measure the roof area and cut the plywood to place on top. Nail the plywood onto the rafters to secure. Repeat for the other side of the roof.

Measure the plywood roof area and add drip edge if desired. Then cover the roof with FeltBuster® and secure with round plastic cap roofing nails.

Start a pattern with your Timberline® shingles and complete the first side of the roof. Fill in the field and make any necessary end cuts along the rake edge and ridge.

Repeat on the other side of the roof. Add the TimberTex® to cap the ridge and secure following package instructions.

I brushed and rolled the stain onto the worn wood of the Playset and let it dry for 24 hours. Not only does this freshen up the playset and make it look like new, but it helps to protect it as well.

With the warmer temperatures, I couldn’t wait to add some flowers to this space. I purchased a few simple green plastic flower planters to plant them in to complete the look.

One final touch- a fun bicycle welcome mat and some colorful striped outdoor pillows for the playhouse! It’s the perfect place to read or play a game!

Our kiddos couldn’t be happier with their “NEW” Playset and it’s perfect timing too… just in time for summer!

So what do you think? In the mood to spruce up your playset? Head to Lowes and make Your Old Playset NEW Again this weekend!

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BEHR PREMIUM DeckOver Coating comes in several different colors, so that you can really personalize your space.

Although I really liked the idea of maybe painting our deck a lovely shade of blue or even the dark brown, I decided to go with the Slate Gray color. When we paint our house White next Spring, I think this will look really sharp!

To start your project off right, you have to prepare your surface. Your deck must be clean, sound, dry and free of any dirt, oil, and grease before application. For wood surfaces, you must replace rotting or unstable boards and remove any loose splinters. Use BEHR PREMIUM® All-In-One Wood Cleaner prior to your application to ensure that your beautiful DeckOver project will be a complete success. Even if you have no existing finish to strip, new and uncoated wood must always be prepped with BEHR PREMIUM® All-In-One Wood Cleaner! Don’t forget this step!

After you’ve cleaned and prepped your surface properly and let it dry completely for at least 24 hours, pre fill any cracks with a paintbrush and get rolling. With the paint roller that is!

You need to apply 2 coats of BEHR PREMIUM DeckOver and allow adequate drying time in between coats and before you walk on and place all of your furniture back onto your surface.

I cannot believe the difference! I feel like my deck is now a deck! A place that I can feel really great about and a place that really is an outdoor extension of our home. I am so pleased with how well this product went on and how nice the actual surface feels. It’s comfortable to walk on barefoot, but will also help prevent any slips and falls.

With the deck finally complete, I am really looking forward to spending a lot of time out here this Autumn and many more seasons to come!

This post is brought to you by BEHR.

This post is brought to you by BEHR. Color that’s True to Hue. If you feel it you can find it. Visit True To Hue.

BEHR® sponsored this blog post. The opinions and text are all mine.

The post DIY Deck Makeover with BEHR PREMIUM DeckOver Coating appeared first on Cozy Country Living.

With the addition onto our home pretty much wrapped up, we are now touching up the smaller rooms in our home and giving them a new purpose.  My daughter’s old bedroom was quite small and was just sitting empty after we moved all of her things to her new bedroom.  As a room that now is more like a loft area, accessible from the old stairway and as a walkway into the newer part of our home, I couldn’t stand the lovely green color my daughter picked out a few years ago when we moved in! Oh, that green paint!  That bright, bright green paint!  She just loved it.  It seemed to me that it has almost become brighter now that her white furniture and belongings have been taken out of the room.  All that’s there is carpet and that color.  This past weekend, I smiled as I rolled 2 heavy coats of the neutral Behr Toasted Cashew colored paint over those walls.  We are now creating a Reading Room and I can’t wait to show you how it turned out! For a great paint job though, you need great supplies.  FrogTape® brand painter’s tape is one of those go-to painting supplies you don’t want to be without.  FrogTape® Multi-Surface is a medium adhesion painter’s tape designed for use on Cured Painted Walls, Wood Trim, Glass & Metal.  It will also remove cleanly from most surfaces for up to 21 days and seven days in direct sunlight!  FrogTape® Delicate Surface is a low adhesion painter’s tape designed for use on freshly painted surfaces (24 hours old), Faux Finishes, Primed Wallboard & Wallpaper.  This is my favorite!  It also will remove cleanly from most surfaces for up to 60 days. After 24 hours, the nice beige color I painted was dry and I wanted to add a little character to this reading space.  I decided to paint a large horizontal, lighter colored stripe on the wall with the window.  I thought it might open this small area up a bit. For this step I used FrogTape® Delicate Surface because this was a weekend project and the walls were freshly painted.  I also enlisted the help of my husband along with his laser level to help me measure the exact placement of the FrogTape® brand painter’s tape so the lines would be straight and even. I carefully rolled on the stripe color (Behr Parchment Paper), let it set for an hour or so until it was dry to the touch, rolled on a second coat of paint and removed the FrogTape® immediately.  I was a little nervous – Okay, REALLY nervous about this step, but the lines came out amazing!  I couldn’t even believe it!  I then let it dry for another 24 hours. I was so excited!  I had never painted stripes in a room before because I thought it would be too hard.  My husband looked at the big smile on my face and said, “Oh, boy.  Now you are going to be painting stripes all over the house!” I am so impressed with this tape.  I am not a very experienced painter, but even I did this!  The lines were neat, crisp and didn’t bleed through thanks to FrogTape®’s patented PaintBlock® Technology. With all of the painting out of the way, it was now time to decorate.  My husband and I moved our old loveseat into the room and I began putting the finishing touches on this freshened up space! I added a simple neutral couch cover and some pillows I purchased recently.  A sturdy end table, lamp, my grandmother’s old cedar chest as a small coffee table and of course some books complete this small Reading Room.  This room is a great place for my older children to go read when it gets a little loud in other parts of our home and it’s a comfy & quiet place that I can go and just clear my mind if I need to.

If you’ve got a room to makeover this Spring, don’t forget your FrogTape!  You could even WIN $5000 by Entering the Earn Your Stripes Room Makeover Contest! To enter, you must re-do a room with the help of FrogTape and submit your photos to the FrogTape contest site.  Be sure to check out the FrogTape website for official rules!

You can find out more about FrogTape® painting inspiration visit and follow along on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook & Pinterest pages!  Happy Painting!      

*Linking up at Home Stories A to Z, Savvy Southern Style, Place of My Taste, Stone Gable, The Shabby Nest

The post Creating A Reading Room appeared first on Cozy Country Living.

Last month I shared my bare and empty Living Room with you all along with some of the ideas I had for our family’s new space.  You will have to check back on Friday to see Our Big Living Room Reveal, but today I am sharing my DIY Coffee Table Makeover!  There was nothing structurally wrong with our coffee table, but it just wasn’t looking nice anymore.  My children had really left their mark on it (literally with scratches, crayons, markers and pens) if you know what I mean and the color was not going to look that great with my new furniture I had picked out for the Living Room either.  A definite makeover was in order!

I really like the worn in, but loved look of distressed furniture.

I had a good amount of leftover Martha Stewart Vintage Decor Paint from the painted Toy Chest project I did last year, so I didn’t even need to make a trip to Michael’s this time around.

I love this paint because you don’t have to really do any prep work.  I like DIY projects that don’t take all day.  I’m an instant gratification type of girl when it comes to painting.  After a quick dusting, I was all ready to paint.

I have to admit, the first brush stroke of that cream colored paint over the dark coffee table made me nervous, but Hey- this table really couldn’t look any worse.  What did I have to lose?!

After a few minutes of painting I was loving the color on this table!  It was easy to paint and I had 2 coats on in no time.

I let the paint dry for 24 hours and then it was time for the distressing.  I’m always a little hesitant about making the first mark and getting some of that fresh paint off, but once I get started I’m fine.

I started with a 220 grit piece of sandpaper, but that wasn’t doing much.  I switched to a 18o grit sanding block and that didn’t seem to work either.  I headed into my husband’s supplies and found all different grit sandpapers for his palm sander.  I tried all of them and ended up using a 60 grit piece for most of the distressing to get the look I wanted.  Maybe I shouldn’t have painted on the 2 coats….Oh, well!

Once I got going I really got a feel for areas I wanted to distress more.  The edges, the corners and especially the smaller pieces of wood that were placed in different directions on the top of this table.  I thought this really gave this piece some character.  I also scuffed up the knobs I had painted over as well.  I didn’t want perfect looking, brand new knobs on a piece that was suppose to look a little worn.

When all of my distressing was done, it was time to put on the Vintage Decor Clear Wax finish.

This helps protect the piece and takes only a few minutes to paint on and wipe the excess off.  Waiting a whole day (24 hours for drying) was the hard part!  I couldn’t wait to get this coffee table into my Living Room and see how it looked with all of my other new furniture.

The next day my husband carried the coffee table into the Living Room and I just loved it!  I am so happy that I took the time to paint this coffee table!  It’s definitely a focal point in the room and pulls all of the other furniture pieces in the room together nicely.  So, what do you think?

Do you want to see how I styled this lovely table in my new Living Room?  Make sure to check back Friday for some Spring inspiration & my Big Living Room Reveal!

 *Linking up at Living Well Spending Less, Skip To My Lou, Home Stories A to Z, Karen’s Up On The Hill, The Shabby Nest

The post DIY Coffee Table Makeover appeared first on Cozy Country Living.

A few months ago my husband and I were able to spend the day together and go to a few estate sales in town.  I love looking for older pieces of furniture, china and unique knick knacks that might add some character to our home.  As we were walking up the driveway of one sale, I spotted a beautiful toy chest.  It was sitting alongside the driveway and it caught my eye right away.  It had spindles in the back, a beautiful curve to the sides of it, and of course it’s lid could also be used as a bench type seat.  I quickly looked at the price- $10.00!  I think I jumped in the air a bit and said, “Oh, I will take this, but I am still going to look around.” to the lovely woman hosting the sale.  This was going to be the perfect addition to my youngest daughter’s room painted with some type of Vintage Decor Paint.

The toy chest sat in our playroom for a few months as it was because I couldn’t decide on the look I wanted.  I knew I wanted it to have a vintage feel, but I hadn’t seen any colors or designs out there that I absolutely loved… until I was asked to try out the NEW Martha Stewart Crafts® Vintage Decor Paint from Plaid.

I looked over their charming palette of 22 traditional and stylish colors, and found the perfect one!  This was it!  My daughter’s new bedroom will be soft and light with hints of a dusty purple.  The Purple Dusk color would be wonderful along with a few small Ivory accents using the Martha Stewart Crafts® Vintage Decor Stencils.

Not only was I excited to be one of the first people to try the NEW Martha Stewart Crafts® Vintage Decor Paint Line ( these just came out at Michael’s!), but this paint is perfect for the DIYer in all of us, no matter what your skill level.  This paint requires no prep work and dries with a beautiful matte finish, and it can also be distressed or sealed with a clear or antique finish.  It was not intimidating to use and I got to it right away!  After I lightly sanded the bottom of the chest where there were painted flowers, I wiped down the toy chest with a clean cloth to remove any dust or debris.

Then I started painting!  The color was even prettier than I had thought and it went on evenly and smooth.  Keep in mind folks- I would not call myself a good painter, so the fact that this went on so nicely and looked great made me feel pretty darn good about myself.

I let the paint dry a few hours and then added another coat.  After the paint from the second coat had dried, it was time for a little distressing.  I’m going to be honest, this part made me a little nervous.  Since I was so proud of my paint job, I was a little hesitant to start scuffing it up with 220 grit sand paper.  After a few “passes” I was over my fear, scuffed along, especially around the curved edges and was really pleased with how it looked.

The next day, It was time to use my Martha Stewart Crafts® Vintage Decor Stencils.  I chose the Kaleidoscope Stencils because they included a smaller pattern that I thought would look very pretty and delicate on the top of the toy chest, just above the spindles.

I measured and planned my pattern, then painted across the top lightly with the Ivory Martha Stewart Crafts® Vintage Decor Paint.  I did this in sections and used a blow drier to dry each section, speeding up the process a bit.

After the stencil paint was dry, I waited a few more hours and distressed that as well.  I really wanted this part to look worn and loved.  This was going to be the “character” in this piece.

The next morning I used the ergonomically designed, easy grip Martha Stewart Crafts® Vintage Decor Paint Brush to add the Martha Stewart Crafts® Vintage Decor Wax for a velvet finish and added protection.

I simply brushed an even coat on, removed any excess with a damp cloth, allowed it to dry for 24 hours and then applied another coat and buffed it with a cotton cloth.

My daughter and I just LOVE this Toy Chest!  I love the look of it and I love the character that it will add to our home and to her bedroom.  I highly recommend this amazing Martha Stewart Crafts® Vintage Decor Paint line to anyone who loves painted furniture, but especially to those who think that they themselves cannot create beautiful things for their own home.  Trust me,  if I can do it, you can do it!

Start Creating Now!

Click HERE for 25 % off your purchase of Martha Stewart Crafts® Vintage Decor Paint!

In addition to the new Martha Stewart Crafts® Vintage Decor Paint, visit Michaels to see more new product, including Martha Stewart Crafts® Erasable Liquid Chalk,
Chalkboard Paint and Silkscreens to create your own chalkboard art!

You can visit Plaid online, follow their blog, sign up for their newsletter, or follow along on YouTube, Pinterest, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter or Google + for more craft inspiration!

Check Out These Other Projects Using Martha Stewart Crafts® Vintage Decor Paint!

I received product and payment via Blueprint Social to complete my project and post, however, opinions are, as always 100% my own.

*Linking up at:

Savvy Southern Style

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