Category Archives: Being Thrifty

A Mini Makeover Part 2

25 Wednesday Jul 2012

Posted by in Art on the Cheap, Being Thrifty

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Once we got the new media console put together and set up, I realized-again- that the beige walls with the brown sofa, beige chair, brown side table, brown dog crate, brown piano and the brand-new brown media center was making me crazy. So I decided to paint- again.

I went to Lowe’s and they have some pre-mixed samples in bottles that you can see through so I just picked two that I liked.

One in blue. Is that too predictable?

And one in green.

I’ve been thinking lately that I should just have other people pick colors for me. Mostly because I choose the same type colors over and over and never actually find a winner. I would have never thought to choose this green if I’d only seen it on the paint chip.

It’s the lighter color on the far left. I don’t like the other two greens so I wouldn’t have even picked it up. I think it looks fabulous on the wall though. I never even tried the blue color since the kitchen and master bedroom are blue, plus I’ve been dying to get some more green in here. Although, now that I look at it the color seems a bit blue-green. But I like it a lot…

Next my hunt for accessories and whatnot began…

A couple of days later I stopped in at a local antique junk store that I’ve wanted to visit but never have. Here’s the thing about junk/antique shops in Franklin. We’re a bit of a destination for such things and people selling junk in Franklin typically know what out of towners are willing to pay for the junk and so IMHO, it’s all overpriced.

The nice pipe-guy assured me there was a “big sale” though.

I found a great cabinet…

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Or two…

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And this seemed like a real junk store since there was at least one place that I literally couldn’t walk through. I couldn’t even carefully step over the junk to get to some interesting milk glass cups. I guess it wasn’t meant to be.

I thought these were interesting and might look good on the new accent wall and they were reasonably priced- maybe $30-$35- but I wasn’t sure about them.

 

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The most interesting thing I saw was a goat cart for $495. I’m not sure what I’d use a goat cart for but I do like it. Mostly it makes me giggle.

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Unfortunately I got a call from, Amanda saying that the smoke detector kept going off so I had to head home quickly to make sure the house wasn’t going to burn down. It wasn’t. We just had a really old smoke detector. Did you know you’re supposed to replace those things every 10 years?

So my hunt for art and whatnot is still on.

A Mini Makeover

19 Thursday Jul 2012

Posted by in Being Thrifty, Decorating, On the Home Front, Organizing, Painting Home

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When Amanda got home from college a few weeks ago I was so excited! We hadn’t seen her in more than two months which is the longest I’ve ever gone without seeing her in her whole life- and I don’t really like it. We prepared for her arrival by moving Chloe and Halle back into the same room and gave Amanda her old room back. But I wasn’t prepared for how.much.stuff. she has. I mean, she’s the host of RAW TV and she has the shoes to prove it! This little rancher is just not able to hold the amount of things that 3 adults and 2 kids have. So we purged. And I was a bit of a wreck. I have handled the lack of space pretty well and when confronted with the question (always from Travis), “Where are we going to put it?” my answer is always, “I’ll find a place.” And I have to say that I’m pretty good at it. Now, the place I find for said item might drive Travis crazy and he might move it somewhere else (ahem) but a place is always found.

Except this time. Apparently I’m only good at finding spots for one thing at a time. Like the drink dispenser I *had* to have for Mother’s Day.

When I’m trying to find a space for just one thing it’s easy. At the very worst I can just get rid of something that I’m not using anymore. This time though we had a truck load of things to find a spot for. Plus we couldn’t continue to use one dresser for Chloe and Halle. That was possible when we first moved in and Chloe was 5 and Halle wasn’t quite 2 yet. They’ve gotten bigger and so have their clothes so their room was just awful. Trav’s solution was to give Chloe the dresser he’d been using which made her very, very happy. Me? Not so much. It meant that Trav’s clothes were in piles and shoved in plastic bins. That was the time that I broke down and sobbed on his shoulder…at 1 am.

We’d put off making any type of furniture purchase because we couldn’t really agree on what we wanted. We finally decided to repurpose the armoire that had been housing the TV in the living room and use it in our room for Trav’s clothes- for a couple of reasons. First of all, it wasn’t meant to be a TV cabinet so the doors didn’t retract in and you couldn’t see the TV from some seating spots in the living room. In fact, we’d taken the doors off at Thanksgiving when Shane and Angie and the kids stayed with us and never put them back because it was easier to watch TV. Secondly, the armoire matches the rest of our bedroom furniture and while I don’t like the finish, it at least brings some cohesiveness to the bedroom. It also gave Travis a lot more space for his clothes than he had originally.

Then each of us had to give a little. I wanted a fancy piece of furniture that would hold up for the long haul so we wouldn’t be looking for another media cabinet in a couple of years. Travis wanted something more modern that would eventually hold a flat screen (we don’t have one now). After I measured the armoire and how it fit in the room I realized that what we really needed would be less than 50 inches wide and put my furniture piece out of the running. The one Travis wanted didn’t have enough storage and I didn’t want to have to store the metal bracket that came with it until we get a flat screen. So we headed off to Target to see if there was something suitable that would also not break the bank.

First we saw a traditional-ish console with two drawers and an espresso finish.

I’m typically a fan of the espresso finish but since we have a chocolate brown sofa, a brown dog crate, a brown-ish chair, and the walls are beige I just wasn’t feelin’ it. The drawers didn’t seem strong enough to store much of anything and we had to have room for all of this…

Yes, we still have VHS tapes. Why? It’s mostly because if I got rid of those tapes it would be like throwing Amanda’s childhood in the trash can. I’m weirdly sentimental like that. Plus some of them are really good movies that I like having and don’t want to replace right now. Swiss Family Robinson, Alice in Wonderland (Disney), Toy Story…you get the idea.

The next one was too black…

These were too black and too much glass (we didn’t want any glass because of the kids and Daisy)…

Too traditional…

This little cabinet was fabulous though and I’d love to find a place for it… it’s not for a TV though. Bummer.

Finally we chose this…it’s the only one I didn’t get a picture of (hangs head in shame).

We chose it because we already have a mission style side table in the living room so the finishes look nice together plus it has sliding doors instead of drawers and the storage space is larger. There’s no glass and it will accommodate a flat screen in the future.

I do have pictures of the assembly process though.

Aren’t they cute?

Travis is calling out the parts list to Chloe who keeps track of all of the nuts, bolts, doodads, thingamajigs, and whatsits. The assembly was pretty easy and I was happy that a lot of the cabinet is actually wood rather than completely particle board. Not bad for $139.

Stay tuned because next we paint…

It’s the Little Things

21 Thursday Jun 2012

Posted by in Art on the Cheap, Being Thrifty, On the Home Front

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A few months ago I went shopping a bit south of Franklin and as I was driving back I saw a huge roll of hay with a “for sale” sign tacked onto it. I immediately got excited at the thought of finding a place that sells giant rolls of hay. My next thought was, “What in the world would I do with a giant roll of hay?”  Followed by, “Why don’t I get this excited about shoe shopping?” I find that as time goes on, it’s the little things that make me happy.

Like finding a glass, cobalt blue bottle of water. I’d seen these on a TV show (Frasier maybe?) but I never knew where to find one- apparently I’m not privy to suppliers of upscale water. But on the same shopping trip that I found this picture frame, I also found these pretty cobalt blue bottles of carbonated water. I’ve been using them since then to put hydrangeas in.

These haven’t turned blue yet but I like the green-white blossoms.

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They’re equally pretty with blue flowers or pink roses- I’ve tried them all. It’s a nice alternative to my regular clear vases and it cost less than $2. How about you? Do you have a favorite alternative type vase? I’d love to hear about it.

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A Little Bit of Everything

30 Friday Mar 2012

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Today I am tired but I have accomplished much this week. This time last week I’d found two cars that might work to replace, Lazarus, Trav’s 1995 Dodge Caravan. I found two different Hyundai Sonatas for sale on Craig’s List and one was a really low mileage car. After I looked at Consumer Reports and saw that the car got a nearly perfect review, I was pretty sure I’d found our new car. It takes more time and effort to buy from an individual and it’s a bit nerve-wracking to have to hold the deal together but we were able to purchase a 2006 Hyundai Sonata for about 2K under what it was valued at. And the car even has a sun roof! We weren’t even looking for that so it’s a really nice perk… I like perks. So, the running around town Travis and I have been doing-he to test drive and get the car checked out then I was working on making it legal at the tag agency and whatnot- was totally worth it. Tiring and stressful but worth it.

Then there was the cell phone thing, the a/c thing, and the lawn mower thing. You know, life sort of happened all at once. We have since battened down all the hatches and I’m looking forward to smoother sailing next week.

Weeks like this one make it nearly impossible for me to focus on the pretty things. But I did take a few minutes each day to see how my little garden is progressing. And I had the windows open as much as possible to let in the fresh air and to hear the birds singing.

The lavender is in bloom!

 

I’m surprised at how much I love lavender. I never really liked the smell in soaps or lotions but I love the smell of the plant itself. The only thing I don’t love is that this plant only blooms in the spring. This is french lavender. I think that there are some other varieties that bloom longer than that.

We are on spring break this next week…I’m super excited about that. And I’ve got a fabulous new post in the works for what I hope to be a regular feature. It’s called “Artist Spotlight” and I’m really excited about it. The only drawback I see is if I run out of artists to spotlight but I will cross that bridge later. For now though I think I hear coffee calling my name….it’s calling loudly since it’s noon and I haven’t had any yet (wink)

Have a great weekend!

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Spray Paint Re-Do

15 Thursday Mar 2012

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This week I’ve been getting back on track after having Amanda home for spring break, my parents were in town and Travis had a few days off. I’m sure I’m not the only one that gets completely thrown off schedule when people visit during the week. I worked on an art project and failed miserably. Tweaked it…and failed miserably. But did I let that stop me? Yes. Yes, I did. I finally figured that if I was going to have anything else to write about this week I’d better do something that I knew would work. And baking is out because well, my jeans threatened to quit if I made anymore baked goods. So I went with spray paint instead.

I started with some candle holders that I’ve had for quite a while but quit using them. They’ve been in storage in the laundry room since we moved here over five years ago. They’d gotten a bit rusty because the laundry room is connected to the bathroom-you have to walk through the bathroom to get to the laundry room- so there’s a lot of humidity in there.

This is from my college days. I don’t remember where I bought it or when but I do remember it was sitting on the coffee table in my first rental house with a 3-wick burgundy candle sitting on top. Remember when burgundy and forest green was all the rage? Oh yeah.

That candle holder also has a taller, slimmer friend that I’m pretty sure sat on top of my piano.

Yes, that is a plastic Dora the Explorer table cover. Why do you ask? Both of my girls have outgrown Dora so I found a use for some leftover table covers.

I’m using apple green paint by Rust-Oleum. To prep I used my handy-dandy mouse sander to take off the rust. I also washed them in warm, soapy water and wiped them down really well. Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem to matter how thorough I think I’ve been, I always end up with missed spots of lint or, even worse, rust. Of course, I am the Mom that wore her shirt backwards to her daughter’s first day of college so, you know, I miss stuff.  I’m going to be a very funny old woman.

This is about what the first coat of paint should look like. I sanded the rust smooth but didn’t sand it all the way to bare metal so you can still see where it is. It doesn’t really affect the finished product.

Thin, even coats are the name of the game here. Trying to cover it all at once increases the chance of drips. The thin coats dry quickly and are quick to do so it doesn’t really take all that long. I lost count of the coats since I had to do the top and bottom at different times. It took at least 3 coats but you could expect to do some touch ups with something that has a lot of curvy spots like these do.

I love the green, especially since I’ve got so much blue going on. Of course, this looks tall and awkward sitting on the table. So I moved it to the piano where one could expect to find something tall like this.

The other one looks nice on the table with a vintage table cover that’s part of the 25 cent lot I bought last fall. This  one is much smaller and I honestly don’t know what it was used for. Maybe to sit on top of another tablecloth? This cloth is much more dainty and I love it very much.

There’s a little green-on-green action going on here because I realized that I didn’t have anymore white candles. I guess it’s time to replenish my stash. Target and Wal-Mart both sell packs of inexpensive white pillars that I like to keep on hand. You never know when you’re going to need one.

There you have it. From antique, rusty white to fun apple green in just a couple of days and with zero dollars spent since I reused my candle holders and had the spray paint on hand. So, how about you? Do you have any small projects like this that you’d like to do? Share it in the comments, I’d love to hear about it.

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