Cheap Art Workout

I recently embarked on a 3 mile journey and braved the elements (aka 50 degrees with a slight wind) to create some cheap wall decor... I'll do anything to save a buck and shed a pound.

I have been wanting to put up some art in our front foyer and I felt like we needed something more personal than an "off the shelf" print could provide.

So I trekked through our new town taking what I deemed "artistic" black & white pictures of local landmarks and places that are important to me and hubs. I then snagged some really inexpensive frames from Kohl's - I got $50 dollar frames for 15 bucks with a sale and additional discount - and VOILA! I have transformed our foyer into a high end gallery (for a low end price) that will surely earn an "awwww" from our visitors when they learn that the pictures include the church we got married in and the place where Adam proposed.

So you take this...

 And add this...

To get THIS...

Okay, so I'm no Picasso, but I do really love how special these pictures are and they look pretty chic..

This photo idea also works really well for a special (and inexpensive!) gift. For example, when my sister was building her house, I hopped the construction fence and snapped black & white shots of the walls going up. I then put the pictures in a frame that has now been hanging in her house for more than six years.

So do you feel the burn?? Get out there and snap pictures that mean something to you and create wall art that will surely make your house a home.

A Toast to Our Housewarming Gift!

"Home is where your heart wine fridge is."

I learned that valuable lesson after my parents recently bestowed our housewarming gift upon us.

Check it out...

And let's not forget the handy-dandy drawer that doubles as a bar-serving surface:

 
Did you know that this kind of combo wine fridge/bar/cabinet even existed? After doing some research, there is really only one manufacturer producing a wine fridge show piece like this within this specific price range (aka - under 500 bucks), but I bet you'll start to see others come to the market with something similar.

(Search Google Shopping for "wine fridge cabinet" if you want to peruse what's out there.)

For us, this beauty solved two issues -1) we never seem to have enough wine in the fridge to accommodate unexpected guests (and its ironic that two of the recurring, unexpected, wine-drinking guests are also the ones who bought us the gift), so now we can just pack all our white wine in this puppy and not think twice and bottles taking up valuable kitchen fridge real estate and 2) we needed to fill some extra space in the dining room, but didn't want anything too large, so this slender piece is a great addition that serves multiple purposes.

Love it!

So if you've always wanted a wine fridge, but don't have the space to slap a naked fridge on your counter or on the floor, consider checking out a wine cabinet like the one that we now proudly call our own... you don't need to renovate your kitchen to make it fit and it's really something unique.

Cheers!

And thanks again, Mom and Dad!

Behind the Curtain

Nothing screams "finished room" quite like drapes. And nothing screams "I created a great look with a killer deal that I want to brag about" quite like... well... me.

As you know, our family room is on its way to becoming the first official room that is "done" in our new home. I toiled over the crown molding, I slaved over the accent wall and I pulled muscles moving our furniture. When its all said and done I'm left with a heart full of pride a back full of aches.

The only thing remaining in the room that needed to be done was dressing up the sliding glass door. A nice set of curtains can really transform any room in your home, and I had been anxious to put up the drapes I had recently bought online... and yes, I bought my drapes really sight unseen... I live on the edge. 

[Side note: Who is anxiously awaits the opportunity to hang curtains?! I dreamt about this moment... I'm not even kidding.]

Let's do a little "before and after," shall we?

So this is a "before the before:"

This was weeks ago mid-paint job and note the brackets along the the top of the door frame. Those once held 1984-quality vinyl, vertical blinds that knocked me off my step stool as I pried them off the wall...







Now this is the "before" just moments before the big reveal:

What's important to note here is A) I take bad, inconsistent "before" pictures really negating the whole purpose of "before and after" pictures and B) yours truly spackled the holes left behind from the vertical blind brackets and then sanded and painted over the repairs... I know, please take a moment to marvel in my handiness.



And here is the AFTER:

Better yet, from the drapes to hardware, this entire window makeover cost only $150. Let's face it, you can easily spend $150 on the curtain rod alone if you shop at the wrong places.

Where is the RIGHT place to shop for your window coverings, you ask? The best kept secret in rich-looking, but cheap-costing window treatments is JCPenney. Probably don't think of them often for home decor, right? Don't underestimate this store or its website!

[Another side note: the drapes I bought were 95 inches in length - aka - long. By hanging curtains well above your window or door frame, you elongate the room and create a really modern look.]

So that's all I got for today, folks. I have taken you behind my deal-finding curtain by revealing the curtains I found for a deal... wow, I'm getting poetic with all this home improvement, aren't I?

Less is More

When we bought our new home, there was one room in particular that I wanted to dig into right away and change from top to bottom - the family room. Unlike the rest of the house, the family room had oak molding that I immediately knew I wanted to paint white (actually deep down in my home improvement heart, it wasn't a want, it was an absolute NEED). The room also had great built-ins, but again, they were oak, which just doesn't fit our modern tastes, so I had grand plans to stain the built-ins and the mantle a sexy, deep cherry.

Now, before PETO (People for the Ethical Treatment of Oak) comes after me, let me say that I have nothing against oak trim or stain. Its beautiful, its just not for me.

So here is a look at the room before I really dug into it:

I rolled up my sleeves and decided to tackle the molding first - its seemed like a logical, "easy" place to start. If you ever want to transform stained, oak crown molding into a white, glistening masterpiece, this is how you do it...

First, tape it off...                                           ... apply one coat of primer...

 


And apply two VERY generous coats of semi-gloss white paint...

Not too shabby, eh? It took me less than 60 bucks to transform the molding in this entire room, I even tackled the sliding door that was trimmed in oak. The good thing about semi-gloss white paint is that you can slop the stuff on and it shows very little screw-ups... if only my CoverGirl foundation was so forgiving.

A few more before and after painting pics:

As I stood back and marveled at my handy work - aka - the project took MUCH longer than I thought and I forgot to eat lunch and started getting light headed so had to sit down, take a HGTV break and eat a snack - I started to think, hmmm... those built-ins aren't THAT bad.

My change of heart was due to a combination of being moved by the beautiful new white trim and the fear that overcame me as I looked over at my staining materials... which included a mask and gloves... any project that requires you to wear a mask and gloves that doesn't include delivering a baby, is probably a project better left to the professionals. And yes, I would deliver a baby in an emergency if I had to, but under no circumstances do I think stripping and staining wood would come down to a life or death situation.

The key to good home improvement is taking time to think and stopping yourself before you go too far. PETO must have channeled some good thoughts my way because I actually started to admire the beauty of the lighter wood.

Instead of diving right into the staining project that I once had my heart set on, I decided to bring in some of our furniture to see how things would start looking. After all, the room looked like a "kill room" for the past three days (Dexter fans, anyone?) and I had no sense of where my design intuition was taking me.

Enter our furniture with no additional changes to room other than the newly painted molding:

I was shocked! The room worked! And all I had touched was the ceiling and molding! And the best part is that every single piece of furniture and decor in this room was in our old home. I mixed and matched pieces and suddenly the room came together in a matter of minutes and the built-ins were making sense.

[NEW HOME DECORATING ON A BUDGET TIP: Mix and match items from the rooms in your last place to get a fresh look. Don't get stuck in the rut of putting everything in its "original" spot...  for example, the clock over the mantle used to be in our old living room and the candles on the mantle were once in our dining room...]

But there was something missing. I had planned to paint the entire room a deeper brown, but my aching painting muscles and the realization that our new home is much larger than our old home, which I was accustomed to painting, made me think of another way to get the drama of color without the drama of an entire paint job.

Enter an accent wall above the mantle and strategically placed wall art:

The accent walk took one measly quart of paint and one hour from prep to clean up.

Our family room is now a very cozy and pretty modern spot that makes this new house feel like a home. I wouldn't have achieved this less expensive AND labor intensive look that I now love if I didn't embrace the "less is more" philosophy.

So for you fellow self-proclaimed home improvement junkies out there, I challenge you to take a "less is more" approach with your next DIY project to not only gain an unexpected great look, but save time, money and probably a lot of pulled muscles.