Coffee

I love coffee!  My love grew when I worked in a hospital cafeteria.  I had easy access to free coffee for employees, Starbucks & Grand Rapids Coffee Roasters brewed coffee in the cafeteria for relatively cheap, delicious and amazing specialty coffees made to order at 2 coffee kiosks that supported the hospital foundation, and as a last resort (usually on weekends when the kiosks were closed) I had an actual Starbucks across the street.  It was very easy for me to get my coffee fix!  It also took a chunk out of my paycheck haha.  I did learn to make my own specialty coffees at home for a whole lot cheaper, though I do like my Biggby coffee when I make it back to Michigan!  But that's for another day.  

This post was inspired a long time ago by my sister and by Hobby Lobby.  She had purchased this very cute sign for her kitchen/coffee bar.  I love LOVE the phrase and wanted something similar for myself.

I have 2 issues with buying the premade sign though. 1) I am rebellious, in a good way (I think).  I DO NOT like to go along with everyone else and I want to be different.  I don't like having things that other people have.  Since my sister already had the sign, and it is still available for sale at Hobby Lobby, I didn't want it.  Everyone else is going to have the same one.  2) Our house is made of cinderblocks.  It is VERY hard to hang anything on the walls.

My solution: Use the phrase and paint it on the wall.  I printed a template displaying the fonts that I liked.  I'm not really good a free-handing letters.  I taped the template to the wall.

I used a fine point Sharpie marker to trace the lettering.  This bled through the paper and created a light outline on the wall.  Way easier to me than trying to create a stencil, or using a transfer behind and having to press super hard.  Our walls are a layer of plaster over the block, and you can see where the tape pulled the paint right off the wall when I removed it.

Originally this was how I was going to keep it... however I didn't have the right color to touch up the spots where the tape removed it.  So, I filled in and smoothed out those areas so they were flush with the rest of the wall and painted over it with an off-white/beige color that I had left over from previous projects.

I love how it turned out and actually am thankful that the paint chipped.  The light background makes it stand out so much more and shows the dark blue better.  Before it looked like it was black.

One downside: If I ever want to change it, or when we move, I don't get to keep this.  It stays where it is or will be painted over.  BUT, I always have the option to do it again. :)