Frugal Message Board September 29, 2009

I was at the Habitat ReStore the other day looking around.  The place just sucks you in like a vacuum.  Even though I wasn’t supposed to be there……So I found a cabinet door for $1 and 4 oil rubbed bronze “swirly” knobs for .25 each.  Hmmmmmmmm.  What could I do with these little gems???   I get home and unload my goodies.  Giddy with glee I am.  My new favorite thing is hubby’s cordless drill/screwdriver.  I just love drilling holes.  Here is my $2 message board!!

I distressed the edges a bit.  Aren’t these knobs great??

I just kept the hinges on and screwed it right to the wall using the hinges!  We use it all the time!!

Check out some of the other DIY projects at Kimba’s DIY day!

editing this to add to:

Check out all of the fab projects that the coolest women ever are doing without our hubbies.  (is that the correct plural???)

Mistreatments–Inspired by Nester!!

So–I’ve painted my dining room furniture black and recovered the chairs.  The old window treatment (that I had made and was beautiful) just didn’t do it for me anymore.  Of course, being the novice that I am, I forgot to take pics of it before I jerked it down to make way for “mistreatments”.  It was mounted on a board above my window so I decided to use the board in my mistreatments.  I had it mounted pretty high but I knew I needed something to long to block out some of the sun.  It gets extremely hot with the afternoon sun.  I had some fabric I bought on clearance when we moved in here (8 yrs ago).  Not sure what thought I was gonna do with.  I don’t know how to sew.  That is my next endeavor.  I do have a great sewing machine.  I digress.  So…I had this fabric, a board, and leftover drop cloth from recovering the chairs.  I cut the fabric in half and “hemmed” with Stitch Witchery.  It wasn’t as long as I needed to I attached about 5 inches of leftover drop cloth to the top of the panels with Stitch Witchery.  I used some rope that I had and hot glue to hide the seams.  I tacked up my panels with upholstery tacks–just like Nester showed me how to do.

http://www.nestingplacenc.blogspot.com/

I decided to staple the remaining leftover drop cloth to the board to create a fake cornice look.  It looked a bit bland.  I printed out a G in a font I like, cut it out, traced around it, and painted in with black paint.  Voila!  Monogrammed valance.  I think it turned out great for a novice!!

Close up of the hot glued rope to hide the seam.

I am linking this to Kimba’s DIY!

Woo Hoo!!!  I figured out how to do it!!

I <3 Goodwill!! September 28, 2009

So, despite the fact that I said I was NOT going to GW this week, I gave in.  It is like a magnet that draws me closer.  How do I resist???  Anyhoo—I found a couple of great treasures today.  A brand new mirror for $4 and a cute little shelf with a drawer for $3.

Here is another shot with the wrapping off of the mirror and a view of the cute little drawer.

Go over and check out other thrifty treasures on Rhoda’s Blog @ Southern Hospitality!

Yardsale Virgin!

My hubby and I have hosted many a yardsale but had NEVER been to one.  Can you believe that??  I know.  Crazy.  Well, last weekend we decided we would check some out.  There weren’t a whole lot in the area but we had a blast and found a few great deals!  We will definitely continue this Saturday morning fun fest!!!  We are proudly Virgins no more!!! 

We got all 3 of these beauties (minus the skulls) for .85!!  Score

I found these chairs in all of their rusted glory for $9 each.  I can’t wait to start to cleaning and repainting.  I think they will be amazing!!

Check out all of the other thrifty weekend goodies on Rhoda’s site:  http://southernhospitalityblog.com/

The power of black paint! September 27, 2009

My dining room furniture once belonged to my grandparents.  No–it wasn’t the lovely antique that you may envision when you hear the word “grandparents”.  It was more of a late 60′s early 70′s table and chairs that I lived with for about 8 years before I discovered the magic of black paint!

The table was the same wood finish–I guess it supposed to be cherry finish??  I think it looks much better painted black.  I recovered the chairs with a drop cloth.  I love the neutral look!

Please disregard the extreme mess all around.  I’ll post some pictures of it all cleaned and decorated for Fall soon!!

I’m going to attempt to post this on Kimba’s DIY day party.  We’ll see if I get it right!!

http://asoftplacetoland-kimba.blogspot.com/2009/09/linky-love.html

Wow–what am I doing???? September 25, 2009

I have decided after stalking reading so many wonderful blogs with so many great ideas that I would start my own.  I am not computer savvy, not extremely talented, and not a versed writer.  Hmmmm….why am I doing this?  Maybe somehow I can become all of those things and if such a gift is there for me to receive, then I want it to be recorded.  God has worked in my life in the last 6 months in ways that I cannot begin to describe.  However, I thought through this blog I can certainly try.  I have been inspired by so many other gifted and remarkably talented bloggers out there that I wanted to take a shot at it.  So here goes…….

Wanna see it?? The new laundry room that is.

My laundry room was the most hideous room in the house in need of a big facelift.  The walls were nondescript, the cabinets blah, the room a catch all for clutter.  No wonder I didn’t want to do any laundry.  I’ll show you…

I told you!  Yuck.  Who would want to go in there??  Well, my family was starting to run out of clothes so I took drastic measures.  Normally I would wait on the hub to help me but the “new me” decided I would do it.  So I did!  I painted the walls a beautiful green called “Jalepeno Jelly” by Valspar from Lowes.  I painted the cabinets black and sprayed the hardward a pewter color.  I cleaned out the clutter and got a small, rolling (and covered–love it) laundry sorter from Wal Mart.  This eliminated the giant table with 3 giant baskets.  I got a .75 vinyl tablecloth that is supposed to look like bamboo (going green you know) and hot glued a rod pocket at the top.  It is mounted on a tension rod and hides the hot water heater, mop & bucket, and iron (out of sight out of mind huh?).  I made a vinyl hanging for the wall and dressed up the room with some great Goodwill finds!  It is a much happier place now!  Don’t you think??

This project has led to many more around the house since then!!  I can’t wait to share them too!!

I’ll be linking this to Kimba’s DIY at A Soft Place to Land.

Laundry room facelift

I started this whole blogging thing by accident one day while looking for ideas for my laundry room facelift.  I came across some beautiful pictures from some amazing women on their inspiring blogs.  Thus the idea of a new laundry room was born.  I worked for about 2 days repainting cabinets, walls, adding decorative items, etc.  I realized that I had no one to show my pictures to (that really cared about it).  What sadness I felt……I was so proud of myself and wanted to share.  I have decided that instead of forcing my efforts onto Facebook friends, I would start my own blog.  I have no idea what I’m doing, but here goes!