Since we moved into our house it's taken me awhile to get back into doing projects specifically home related. There is a long laundry list of handy home repairs needed to be done. I got burnt out on all the work I had to do to make this place livable. Once we settled in I was in full work mode, without hardly a moment to think about working on the house. Now that I have time I've been overwhelmed as to where to begin. The recent cold front that moved in, and has been making it feel like winter, gave me a great idea where to start. We should have done this months ago. Long before it got cold, but better late then never!
An important part to a home is making it air tight. This is important whether you're running the heater or the A.C. You don't want all your heated/cooled air escaping out of every little crevice. Air likes to seep out through door and window frames, around outlets, and baseboards. We removed most of the floorboards and outlet covers months and months ago. All of the outlet covers needed to be replaced, and I just kept putting it off. I knew I would buy the least expensive white option, which meant it would be an ultra boring shopping trip. It never seemed like something worth going to the hardware store for on it's own. The other day we found ourselves there buying a snow shovel, so we also picked up some outlet covers. We have this one wood wall, and the white outlet cover looks horrendously out of place.
So I used this DIY tutorial from The Plumed Nest to cover the outlet cover. As the grand-daughter of an electrician, I have to wonder if gluing paper around my electrical outlet is a good idea, but what the heck! We don't use this outlet anyway, so why not make it decorative? I began by finding a scrapbook paper that would blend well with this wall. Then I cut it out about a half inch larger than the outlet cover.
Then I applied Mod Podge to the outlet cover and laid it down on the backside of the paper. I folded the sides in first, and Mod Podged them down. I cut slits at the corners, and trimmed off the triangles to make them fold in nicely. For the holes I cut 'x's across them, and folded the triangles in. Then Mod Podged the flaps down. I finished by coating the whole thing in a thin shellack of Mod Podge.
Doesn't it look better now?
I'm also happy I found a use for this paper so I can enjoy it on a daily basis. Oh, and speaking of that electrician, today is his 85th birthday! Happy birthday G-Dad, and Happy DIYing, chris!
