Switchplate Covers - Dress Them With Flower Power By Jesse Akre At Isnare.com Ezine Articles

There are two distinct areas of the home front that receive decoration, the rooms in your house, and any landscaping you do outside. This project will show you a way to bring the two together.

One of the finishing touches to any room is the switchplate covers. There is nothing drabber than to have boring beige or white switchplate covers in a room that has every other inch decorated. They stand out as an overlooked detail. So why not dress up those switchplate covers and show off some of your gardening prowess at the same time.

Before you begin this project you will have needed to press some of your homegrown flowers. Most craft stores have kits that will give you everything you need to complete this part of the process. If you prefer to do-it-yourself, the general process is to take a piece of white printer paper and fold it in half. You will place the flowers inside then close the paper and use some weight to press the paper together, drying the flowers, for several weeks. The options for the press are a few pieces of wood with a clamp holding them together, that you tighten regularly. Or you can stick with the old-fashioned flower pressing method, putting the flowers in the middle of a very large, and very heavy, book, and letting gravity do the work.

If you are going to want your switchplate covers to have a special pattern, you may want to press the flowers in the pattern to start with, so they are ready to go, in formation, when you move them from the press to the switchplate covers.

Check on them every few days and once the flowers are completely dry you are ready to move forward.

After you have the pressed flowers you will also need the boring switchplate covers, white glue, a brush, acrylic paint or spray-paint(if you would like to add some other color to the switchplate), a polyurethane varnish, and paint brushes.

First, decide if you want to have more color on the light switch than the flowers. Some people decide to paint the switchplate covers to complement the room, or with a vase that the pressed flowers will look like they are coming out of. The limit is your imagination. Paint whatever design you have decided on your switchplate covers and let it dry. You could even do this part of the project while your flowers are drying and have the switchplate covers ready to go as soon as the flowers are ready.

Place the pressed flowers where you want them on the switchplate covers. The best way to do this is to use tweezers to grab a hold of the flowers and hold them in place with one hand. With the other hand, brush on the white glue to paste them in place. Once you have all your flowers where you want them, stand back and let it dry. Give it a coat of polyurethane varnish. Once that's dry, your new switchplate covers are ready to hit the wall.

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