SHOP WITH US! HANDMADE SIGNS AND DECOR FOR YOUR HOME.
THE BLOG | WHERE HOME DECOR AND DIYS COME TOGETHER.
Check out the latest posts from the blog, a sweet little corner of The Junq Drawer created to share all the lovely home decor, DIY and other lifestyle things!






Springtime Timepiece Giveaway



Be Our Guest
We don't actually have a guest room, but I just thought this would be adorable in one -- or in an entryway -- and couldn't help but make it. Yes. We've been watching lots of Disney movies lately! It's available here: Be Our Guest sign.

Home Is Wherever I'm With You
Yes. Just yes. I love the idea of this in a master bedroom! It also makes a great wedding gift -- just throwing that out there! Sign available here: Home Is Wherever I'm With You Sign
Love Is Patient
Inspired by one of my all time favorite verses and a stellar reminder to be continually patient and kind to others, this sign was a must to make! I'm also absolutely in love with the typewriter-esque font! Available here: Love Is Patient Sign.

Be Still My Soul
Another great reminder in a fun typewriter font is this design. I need this lesson, like, every day. How about y'all? Available here: Be Still My Soul Sign.

I Love Us
Great for best friends, significant others, spouses or families, this I Love Us sign just makes me happy to look at. As my own little family expanded first from two to three, and now from three to four, this simple sign represents the joy I'm feeling right about now. I just love us, simple as that. Available here: I Love Us Sign.

The Lord Has Done Great Things For Us And We Are Filled With Joy
A client of mine requested this as a custom order, but after seeing it finished and the significance it held for so many people, I decided to offer it as part of the inventory for the shop. It's such a humble statement! Available Here: Done Great Things Sign.
Happiness Is Homemade
This is easily my favorite of all of them! It reminds me of freshly baked goods, time with family in the kitchen, sleeping in on Saturday, giggles with my little one, date nights... it means so many things! Available here: Happiness Is Homemade Sign

My Old Kentucky Home
This one is specific to Kentucky, I know, so if you're local -- grab ya one! These are the most intense signs I make because there are so many letters and so much weeding that goes into it. Small letters are also way more detailed, so it takes tons of time but the result is so worth it! I've had a few customs with small book print on them and have loved them, so if you're interested in one with this font but a different quote, head over to Etsy! I do custom orders as well. Available here: My Old Kentucky Home Sign - or - Custom Sign.

Let's Stay Home
During busy seasons, this is kind of my motto. I just want to stay home, relax and enjoy time without an agenda. Coming out of the holidays and into a much more relaxed January {especially with all the snow days we've had}, this phrase just spoke to me! Available here: Let's Stay Home Sign.

Get Cozy
Can I get an amen? It's cold out and my electric blanket is my respite! We don't actually have a working fireplace at present, so our prefab one in the bedroom stands in. I've been lighting all the candles and drinking all the warm coffee lately to reach cozy status! This is a cute little bedroom sign, too, so it's useful year round! Available here: Get Cozy Sign

Stay Awhile
The last new sign addition to the shop is this Stay Awhile design. We love having folks over, hosting friends and family, and really have a deep desire to be a home where our daughters will love to bring their friends when they're older. I see similar versions of this sign everywhere, it seems, but it rang far too true in our household to not offer to you guys. Available here: Stay Awhile Sign.

Other Designs
Of course, the most popular designs from last year are still available in the shop right now, and many of them are on sale! Can't beat that! Here are some snips of those. [etsy-shop shop_name="the-junq-drawer" section_id="19869990"] I'd love to know which are your favorites and what you don't see that you wish I offered! Let me know in the comments below, and if you're interested in being notified of new designs, follow along with me on Instagram! I'm always posting new designs and custom orders for y'all to see and vote on! xoxo

























Invest in a full tree.
Does it have to be live? No {although, it's a tradition I've fallen in love with over the years}. Regardless of whether you go artificial or live, spend your money wisely on one that is lush and full. Ideally, it will stand almost as tall as your ceiling minus an inch or two. The worst thing when decorating a tree is trying to fill in holes with ornaments and garland. Already have one that's a little more bare? Go pick up some pine picks from your local tree farm and mix them in with the artificial branches.Start with the lights.
I like to use two sets of lights, one large and one small. I've never been a fan of colored lights, but that's not to say they can't be just as pretty as the white ones when done correctly! So if you love color, don't shy away from them! Embrace it and keep the rest of your tree to one or two additional colors. Start with the small lights. Wrap them all the way up the tree, then go back up the tree with larger lights in the same color(s).Add garland.
Ribbon is probably my favorite garland to use. Get the ribbon with wire so you can pinch it every 8-12" and weave it in and out of the tree. Always start at the bottom and work your way up. I like to wrap up diagonally to give the tree a bit more interest. You can also put ribbon on vertically, but still pinch and weave on your way up. After adding ribbon, I'll add another garland -- sometimes a faux cranberry garland and sometimes a pennant banner. Feel free to try a few different things until you find the combination you like. The best tip I've heard lately is to buy buffalo check socks, fill with old ornaments and tie them off with floral wire. It makes a beautiful buffalo check "garland" at a fraction of the cost. A friend of mine told me about this, and now I'm going to have to try it out. I'll be sure to post once I do.
Hang larger ornaments and picks.
I found these soft mini stockings at Target last year, and they've really helped tie the whites and creams on my tree together. They, along with some cranberry picks, some Hobby Lobby metal pieces are the larger pieces I've added to the tree. You can get really creative with these -- wood slice ornaments, even Christmas signs can make great statement pieces for your tree. Spread these out on all sides of your tree before adding in smaller ornaments to add to the overall symmetry and fullness of your tree.Add the smaller ornaments.
This is where those older ornaments, the family heirlooms, the first home/first Christmas/first baby ornaments come into play. Try to stick with a color scheme as best you can for a more professional look. If your ornaments run the gamut of colors, choose your favorites and add in some solid colored ornaments to help balance it out. My favorite trick is to use solid white ornaments to as base pieces, my grandmother's mercury glass ornaments to add some glam, a few rustic ornaments that I've picked up recently and our family ornaments to make sure all the pieces honor the color scheme.Pick your topper.
The possibilities are endless here. From premade ribbons to traditional stars to floral picks and everything in between, as long as it has some body to it, it will work as a topper! Have a small decorative sled laying around? Hang it at the top of the tree and add some holly or cranberry picks. All I did this year was take a few bunches of cotton stems and tuck them down on either side of the top branch of the tree. It was simple and effective.



Based on my Instagram feed, I’m a bit late to posting on fall decor. I’m still working on getting all of the fall line up in the shop {here’s what’s available so far} and prepping for The Amsden's grand opening, and I just finished adding pumpkins to our front porch a few weeks ago. Even though our porch is really basic while we wait to install railing and columns, I’m happy with the pretty turn its taken.
On my pumpkin hunt, I came across a bundle of white pie pumpkins and these giant bunches of eucalyptus and decided the mantle needed some decorating. So naturally I bought a ton of these cute little pumpkins, three batches of eucalyptus and brought it all home to see what I could do with it. I also had a couple of gourds and acorn squash from the store that I decided to use, ended up not having enough room for and decided to put in a wire basket to use on the kitchen table.
Before I jump into the incredibly simple three-step process to recreate this mantle, let me start with a couple of things that I’ve learned about decorating mantles any time of year.
Get some things in varying weights. By weight, I don’t mean actual poundage, but thickness, aesthetic heaviness and a mixture of small and large pieces. The goal is symmetry, even if both sides aren’t exactly the same {I actually discourage this. It looks too perfect.} I love mixing candlesticks, artwork, books, plants and some wood pieces together, but you can also use baskets, glass jars, antiques, a clock… you name it!
Start with the large pieces. I did a tutorial on decorating shelves earlier this year, and a lot of the concepts are the same. {You can check that out here.} Start with your big pieces. These will be your anchors that everything else is placed around. In the case of this mantle, mine are the framed canvas {tutorial here}, the lantern and wood letter. Decide where you want these to go. You can always adjust, but this will help you balance both sides out.
Add in tiers and layers. I love using books as layers, and since I had this candlestick I wanted to use, I needed some way to even out the height on both sides. Books are the perfect accessory. If you don’t have books of the same color, just turn them around so the pages face outward! They don’t have to just lay flat either. Stack them, put one at an angle, set them up vertically — there are tons of possibilities to add some depth to your mantle. In this case, my layers are the candlestick and books. I ended up raising the wood letter and the lantern on books to add some height, which just goes to show that you can easily adjust your large pieces.
Finish with details. Greens are a pretty standard go-to for me, but there are all kinds of options. These are usually smaller items that can fit in the spaces left by your anchor pieces and layers. Here’s where my fall idea came in.
The pumpkins were really pretty, but by themselves, they looked really open and spacious. So I removed everything except the side decor from my mantle.
Then I took the eucalyptus branches and laid them out flat with the stems always pointing to the center. Then I made sure some of the leaves draped over the mantle front. I have two fake pumpkins and the rest were real, so I placed the two fake pumpkins first for symmetry then used the pie pumpkins around those, laying some on their sides and some upright. Finally, I cut some smaller eucalyptus branches and filled those in around the tops of the pumpkins and on the ends of the mantle.
As a finishing touch, I lit the pumpkin bread scented candle I found at HomeGoods and just sat back to enjoy the cozy fall touches. As an added bonus, the eucalyptus smells incredibly fresh. Eventually it will dry, but still look just as beautiful.
For a cost breakdown, this mantle cost around $15. Trader Joe’s easily has the best selection of inexpensive eucalyptus I’ve ever seen. $2.99 for a large bunch! I used two to create this mantle, plus the pumpkins which I found at a local grow shop. For those of you allergic to eucalyptus, any green sprigs will look just as beautiful. Pine, cedar… you name it! Cedar is one of my favorite greens to decorate with at Christmastime, so why not get a head start, right?
I hope you all have an awesome weekend!!!
xoxo
























Tip No. 1: Start at the ceiling.
Don't start at the bottom, friends. Start at the top. Establish a pattern working your way down. It's a whole lot easier to add some extra trim to your baseboard than it is to cut a tiny piece of plywood for where the ceiling meets the wall.Tip No. 2: Establish a pattern BEFORE you make your first cut.
Yes, this seems obvious, but once I had a pattern figured out for the first three rows, I could make all of my cuts which cut way down on application time. The first three rows took longer than all of the rest combined. Not even joking. My pattern went something like this for a 15' wall:- Row 1 - 8' board, spacer, 7' board
- Row 2 - 42" board, spacer, 8' board, spacer, 42" board
- Row 3 - 7' board, spacer, 8' board

Tip No. 3: Put the first brad in the top center of the board you're hanging.
I did this project by myself with the exception of the first two boards that I hung, which is tough when you've got an eight foot board and your wingspan is probably four feet on a good day. I quickly learned that I should work right to left on each row, lining the first piece up with the wall, spacing it from the piece above it and nail that board right into the wall smack in the center. This allowed me to use both hands to align the right and left sides and make any adjustments needed without the opposite side falling or sliding. The last thing you want is a crooked wall.Tip No. 4: Use a level.
Unless you are 100% certain that each and every one of your cuts are absolutely straight, use a level to make sure each piece hangs level. This is where I noticed the imperfections in my wall the most. I would hang one piece level, finish the row, come down to the next and there would be the slightest wave in the next piece. If I didn't use the level, that piece would have been spaced evenly from the one above it and ended up slanted without me realizing it. So use that level, friends!Tip No. 5: Paint the wall white before you add plywood.
It doesn't have to be pretty, but you won't want to go back in and paint in the cracks once it's all up. Trust me. I did this backward and totally regretted it. We had a very light cream color on the wall, and even it showed through, especially against the white of the shiplap.





