DIY Martha Stewart Paint Deck!
I know we were all super excited when we found out that Martha Stewart’s paint line was coming to Home Depot!
I had been checking on it’s impending arrival once a week at Home Depot and was super excited the day that I went in and saw the paint samples and cans all lined up!
I immediately emailed my friend Jules, (we were hoping some of her paint colors would work in her living room re-vamp I’m helping her with) Jules then told her friend Nicole and by the end of the day I’m pretty sure we were all home with stacks of paint swatches.
You see while Martha is the greatest and super crafty her people didn’t think of making a fan deck for her paint line. So you are left with 6 inch stack of loose swatches.
Not only that, but you also get looks from everyone as you stand at HD and grab one of each.
So what’s a girl to do? This girl tells her super sweet, good looking, smart, amazing, renaissance man of a husband her problem and voila we have a solution.
You just need a couple of supplies.
From your local home improvement store you need to get :
– 2 sheets of Acrylic sheet ($1.58 each) I had them cut it to size at the store. You need 4 ( 3” x 6”) pieces.
-Moving a couple of rows over you need to find Receiver Hitch/Wire Lock Pins. They were $3.40 each and you will need 2.
Back at home you need the following supplies:
– A drill gun with a metal drill bit
– 3 clamps
– small pieces of wood. We had some laying around, but if you don’t then you need to pick up a piece of 1/4” thick plywood at the store.
-Because the paint deck is so large you need to break it up into 5 separate stacks.
STEP 1: Take small piece of wood and drill where you would like your hole. Place in front of stack.
STEP 2: Take a second piece of wood and place it on the back of the stack. No hole needed on this side.
STEP 3: Make sure wood pieces are angled properly on the swatches and attach clamps around hole.
STEP 4: Attach to vice. This step isn’t necessary, but we had one and Jon didn’t want to drill into the table by accident so we used it.
STEP 5: Drill away.
Go slow and then keep on going till you make a hole on the remaining piece of wood in the back.
STEP 6: Remove clamps and voila you have a stack of nicely hole punched swatches.
The wood pieces are used as cushioning for the impact that the drill makes going through the paper. If you don’t use them this will happen:
STEP 7: Since our acrylic sheets were cut at the store all we need to do now is make a hole in them. Use the same piece of wood with the guide for your opening, attach clamps, place in vice and drill.
STEP 8: Remove protective coating off acrylic sheet, open up packages of wire lock pins and add swatches. You are DONE!
Because they are so many swatches you need to split the set in two. I have an acrylic cover and backing for each set and the wire lock pins are perfection. It’s super easy to open then up and take out what I need or just leave it closed. They fan out like any other fan deck and I printed out a MS image to use as my cover, but if you are Photoshop savvy get creative and make up a cover.
All of my supplies came in for around $12 bucks and took about 45 minutes to do it! It would have gone faster, but we were doing it between TV commercials!
I hope you enjoy this DIY project and if you make your own version you must share pictures!
* Martha if you are reading this have your people call my people and I can go on your show and do my little project for all! 🙂 Ah a girl can dream, right?
Images 1- 2 via Google, Image 3 via Pink loves Brown, Images 4 –16 via moi!
Leave a Reply
get inspired with our own home tour
ON THE BLOG
My living room is one of the rooms that evolved drastically from when we first moved one. Originally I painted the walls chocolate brown and did accents of white, blue and orange. That lasted maybe 2 years.
Our dining room sat empty for months. Okay maybe it was empty for just a handful of weeks and then we couldn’t take it anymore and put in a folding table and plastic outdoor chairs, but in my mind that was still empty.
On the main floor of our house we have a Florida room. Being that it’s a Florida room it is a considered a 3 season room, because there is no heat in the room. The previous owners used it as an indoor patio with outdoor furniture and it looked like this when we moved in.
That's awesome! Martha's paints won't hit our Home Depot shelves until the end of April. Ughh, I am dying to see the colors!
Great idea! I've collected all the swatches I like from the Behr Ultra line – they conveniently have a pre-punched hole in the bottom corner and provide small rings to hold them all together. But I like the idea of the acrylic cover to keep them looking their best!
This is an awesome idea!
you are SO funny! Martha would be so proud.
That seems like a lot of work! Thanks for the step by step. It would be nice if there was a fan deck. I am heading out to pick some samples up today!
~jamilyn
Where there's a wil, there's a way…
Now, fess up – did you
a.) take all the swatches in one visit?
b.) Or did you make several visits to the HD, taking only a section of swatches at a time?
c.) Did anyone (employee, fellow Home Depot shopper) question what you were doing?
I know the samples are there for the taking, but anytime I've taken mroe than 2 or 3 I get looks from the employees…. I'd love to know if you did too!
Ha ha other-option! I know the feeling.
I did it all at once! I got a couple of looks, but I tried being fast about it. My husband came with me so he helped. It took about 10 mins.
If people came up behind me I just kept making comments that it was crazy that they didn't have a fan deck.
I've bought Martha Paints from Lowes before, but we always seem to have Home Depot gift cards. Very exciting. What a great idea!
Thanks for your offer about what color to paint my faux bamboo chairs. I will definitely send you a photo!
This is too funny, I did the same thing with mine!!! Or actually I had my Dad do the same thing with them 🙂 SO much better to have them like this for sure.
Oh Linds you know what the say! Great minds think a like. You must show me a picture of your set!
Camila- you always amaze me. You know you could sell these (if Martha doesn't come out with one after reading your post!!)
Looks fabulous!!!
High-Heeled: Thanks for the answer. I might just get courageous enough to get them all in one fell swoop too. I'd totally enlist my husband with this task as well – I think employees/shoppers are less likely to make snarky comments to men, for some reason…
Wouldn't it be amazing if Martha did get word of this project and asked you on her show? Or a feature in her magazine?!
– Danielle
Wow what a great solution! Hopefully Martha is reading.
Your hubby is the best!
Haha.. I was just in Lowe's the other night doing the same thing with a different paint line. A girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do! Oh, and I have the same fabric you used as your backdrop for pillows in my living room. 🙂
How funny! I am in the midst of a little diy project with a fresh can of Martha's "Duck Egg" by my side. I didn't realize the paint line just premiered. I love the color palettes and was swiping as many swatches as my greedy little hands could hold. My Home Depot did have a nifty accordian folded pamphlet with a good selection of little paint swatches inside.
I love your solution. Absolutely inspired!
HHFITD: I think Martha herself would be proud of you!
Claire
Brilliant tutorial! Think I might have to put hubster to the task next week – doing MS's line, as well as the Ralph Lauren chips I picked up before they went buh-bye.
Just to clarify, do other paint lines have sample decks that you can purchase, or is this only a Martha-ism?
Great work! Do you remember when Martha had a catalog and sold things like vases, gardening tools, etc.? I would love to see that return.
Smart girl and boy!! Martha would be proud!!
OK so they definitely need to make a fan deck! And while I'm excited that MS paints are now at Home Depot, I'm still a bit bummed they discontinued RL's!
I just used 13 gallons on Martha's new paint on my house in Florida….(the house you recommended the gorgeous navy dining room for…love it!) Anyway it is everything they say it is. I have only used Benjamin Moore before, and this is the same quality, half the price and low VOC, my husband didn't believe I had been painting all day.
Someone else made a comment about their faux bamboo chairs and a color suggestion….you won't believe that I bought 6 faux bamboo chairs for that navy dining room, can you make a suggestion for me? Also shinny or matte finish, the only other color in the room in white and tarnished silver (read: i'm too lazy to polish). Thanks for another great idea!
DG
cool idea
y'all are so handy!
Haha! This is a great idea! I don't know why I think it's funny – probably because it's so funny. Thanks for your creative thinking! I bet a lot of us are saying, "Why didn't I think of that?"
I am SO going to Home Depot tonight!!
you are a genius. i can't believe you made those yourself!
Every woman is now in love with your husband. E-mail Martha and let her know. I bet you would wind up on the show. Or at least a video clip of you!!
Has anyone used this stuff yet? I went to HD the other night and loved her colors but the paint counter guy offered to mix me some Behr in the same color – he basically said the Martha paint sucks so he'd just match it for me. Kind of a buzz kill! :-/
Genious! I've picked up a few of the cards the other day was going to try it out in my laundry room.
Why can't Martha do a paint deck? I have had to take each set of her paint chips ever since her paint line was at KMart. You are way to creative- mine were just bundled with a rubber band. How very un-Martha-like.
Look at you girl!! I'm glad I'm not the only one out there who gets funny looks at people while I take paint samples at Lowe's and Home Depot! I recently got the stares when I collected all the Ralph Lauren paints before they discontinued them! I used a paper punch and just a binder ring to keep mine together, but I want an acrylic holder now!! Thanks for the great tip!!
fabulous DIY! Martha should call soon!:)
Hey Camilla – great project…I may enlist the hubs help this weekend for this 🙂
Also – what is the tan and white fabric you have as a background in the photos/ where is it from??
Thanks!
Sarah
This is brilliant! I can't believe she doesn't have a fan deck. Guess it's a good thing, because now you have your very own deck of your own making. Something to be proud of, and it looks great!
My Little Happy Place:
Sherwin Williams & Benjamin Moore have fan decks available for all of their paint colors. Much smaller color chips than this big deck, but a great resource when you're narrowing down your color selection. Then you can order larger sheets of the colors (ex. 8×8) once you narrow down your choices.
I picked up the little fan brochure with the little color chips in it and a handful of the nicest colors, but hopefully these brands will realize the advantage of fan decks.
hahah love that last line!!
I did this with Behr & RL paints and as I was collecting all of the samples, multiple people came up to me and were like, "You can chekc out these sample folders" and directed me to those folders with premade color combos. hahah ahtey thought i needed serious help.
xoxoxo
I can't believe Martha doesn't have fan deck available for her new paint line. 🙁 Your solution is great!
Camila – I adore your blog! I loved this post as I recently passed a lot of time picking up every single one of those swatches too! My dad suggested drilling the hole through them…what a time saver! I hadn't bound mine yet, so I am going to get some acrylic! Great idea!!