Ava Berry Blog RSS



Jord Watch Giveaway

  No one said hard work couldn’t be a little fancy. The business of business is being sure and passionate about what you have to offer and wanting others to know about it.  Big or small, hand-made, machine-made.  I’m on board with all the mades.  We all know I’m a wood-lover (insert: connoisseur/obsessor) and Jord Watches has taken this love to another level!  I am fully head over heels for my Jord Watch (I have the Frankie in Koa and Ash which you can find here) and just love their combination of form, function and such a warm, accessible material.  They have a wide variety of styles and colors, wood types and grains and their quality is unbelievable.  This company...

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Gray Wash Tutorial (with Vinegar Stain tutorial)

Gray Wash Tutorial (with a lesson on Vinegar Staining)     Gray wash.  I don't know if that's a real word or not but at my house it is!  I fell hard for the gray trend a few years ago, but also grew tired of painting things gray.  I love wood--the grain, the natural warmth it brings to a space, and I had tried countless times to achieve that perfect light gray stain/wash effect.  Gray store-bought stain was too dark and honestly doesn't provide the same richness that the brown-toned stains do, so it's not my favorite.  I've tried mixing all the things but could never get the finish quite right.  So, after much heartache and many a botched project,...

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Chippy Paint Tutorial

Chippy Paint Tutorial Oh, hey there Goal To Post A Tutorial Once A Week-- it's not you it's me.  Imma have to make it a steady once a month but today's the day!  Full-time hand-making is not for the faint of heart y'all, I don't sleep or shower but THE LORD BE PRAISED I'm doing what I love. Reclaimed wood can be hard to come by these days at a reasonable cost, especially chippy painted wood.  Even if you pay the price or scavenge on the side of the road, often you're then dealing with having to clean and seal lead paint and other issues which make it even more costly and time-consuming to work with.  I am ALL OVER...

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Hand Painted Faux Marble Tutorial

Hand-Painted Faux Marble Tutorial (Carrara Edition)   Like the rest of the Target home decor demographic, I’ve fallen in love with white marble this last year! After buying all the marble trays and soap pumps and the marble candle holders, I decided to try a number of methods to incorporate marble into my designs. I finally settled on paint for it’s longevity and potential to look most authentic. The tutorial below is a mixture of different tutorials I read as well as iterations I’ve made after a lot of practice painting approximately everything in sight this way.  Consider yourself warned, this method is a lot of fun once you get the hang of it and you will want to marble ALL...

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The Beginning of Something Beautiful

//Originally posted on September 18, 2014//   Well now, let's just dive right in.  It seems daunting to represent well in an opening paragraph a project that is so close to my heart!  Second to my job as lover of my God, my kids and my awesomely supportive husband--this is what I love to do.  I am passionate about beautiful spaces and what they make us feel and create and experience.  I am fascinated by individual style, the play between old and new, rustic and polished, the expensive and the hand-me-down.  I feel so literally blessed to have been invited into your homes through my work, and to help you shape your own spaces and define their impact.     Thank...

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