Easy, Inexpensive Home Decor

I think being on recuperation duty for the last 3 weeks combined with guests coming over this weekend has made me a little nest crazy.

My bare walls and lack of decor have gotten to me. So, I've been searching the house, the garage, the outdoors and Goodwill for inexpensive ways to perk up our living areas.

We repainted our dining nook a few months ago. We went from a dark, burnt orange to a light, neutral. We haven't had any window coverings for this space and the new wall color left them screaming "dress me!!". I "shopped" my house and found the perfect window coverings.

Thanks to this post, some ribbon and safety pins, some window drapes from my bathroom became window valances.

The curtains from my bedroom are a perfect replacement for the not-so-attractive-half-broken vertical blinds on our sliding glass door.

Yes, now my bedroom windows are screaming at me. At least they're not screaming at everyone who walks in our front door...

Several months ago, I "borrowed" my pictures from our stairwell in order to make a gallery wall in our entry. We have had bare nails and walls since then. I put my creative juices to work.

I shopped Goodwill (that word looks funny to me now...Goodwill Goodwill Goodwill) and found some wooden "art". I so wish I had taken before pics, but I didn't (bad blogger!). I had 2 identical, rectangular shapes and one larger, squarish one.

I used paint stripper, water and some elbow grease to remove the original art. Then I spray primed them. I painted them off-black (this was when I realized I should be taking pictures)

Then free-handed some creamy white swirly-flowery things.

After they had dried really well, I distressed and scraped the whole thing to make it more faded and soft.

I found 2 matted pictures in our storage room. I removed the art, cut a couple of pieces of fabric and framed them.

This is the end result.

I am pretty pleased with it! Especially the price tag *wink*

I have several other little projects I've been working on that I will share after Thanksgiving. Hope you have a great one!!

Candlestick Transformation

I'm working on my tablescape for Thanksgiving...I have a great tablecloth that I'm excited to use. It's kind of busy, so I'm wanting more simple items for the centerpiece and place settings.

I found these candlesticks for $1.50 each at goodwill the other day.

I liked the shape and the height, but they were not the color I was going for.

I brought them home and went to work.

I started by spraying them with some nickel-colored spray paint I found in the garage.

Then, I created a glaze by watering-down some black paint I already had. I painted it on,

then wiped it off to bring down the shine and get the "older" look I wanted. Here, you can see one candlestick finished next to the shinier one.

Here is the end result!

Easy, quick, "new" candlesticks for $3 and an hour (including drying) of time!

Thankful Banner

This post got me thinking the other day. I thought "I can do that...I think."

My problem was I didn't have "word art" like Mary suggested. Or a working printer. Or white cardstock. Or twine.

Hmmmm.

I did have some empty diaper boxes. And some paint. And some yarn.

So, I cut up the diaper boxes and made do with what I had.

This is how it turned out.





I am pretty pleased with it! It has a completely different look than Mary's, but I think it fits with the feel of our home.

What do you think?

It's Here!

If you've been reading my blog for a little while (or if you know me in person *wink*), you know that I am married to an amazing man, who happens to be a worship pastor (among other things)...

Last spring, we recorded our first ever choir worship album. It released this past week!

Yay!! It was so exciting to see my hubby's name on the cover. And the picture of our amazing choir. I love it!

You can check it out here