Paint it reddddd!

Let me tell you...WHAT a difference a coat of spray paint (and glaze) makes!!

I had seen these Dollar Tree birds on several blogs and ventured down to my local Dollar Tree in hopes of finding some as well.  Woot! I did!

On all the blogs I had read thus far, everyone had been painting these birds white.  And while that looked cute, I wanted something a little different...RED birds! :D This new obsession with the color red is my way of trying to add some color to our neutral/natural tone downstairs...

I loooved the way they turned out!! I may even glaze them with some dark glaze...

Side note: I primed them with a dark gray spray paint before painting them, as this helps the red paint stay true to it's real color.

Next up- this ugly massive gold tree I found at Ross for only $16.00! I love a great deal!

Booooring....time for a makeover!

So I primed it with a dark gray glaze, then sprayed it with the Banner Red Krylon spray paint (have I mentioned I LOOOVE spray paint?!) and finally, using the glaze technique on All Things Thrifty blog I added some of my dark glaze and....TA DA!!

I just love the way the details stand out now!

Such a great find! Especially since a few days later I saw something quite similar in a home decor store and it was half the size of mine and about 3x the price!

Artwork for cheeeeeeeap!

We have a lot of wall space in our house...it's kind of obnoxious.  Therefore, I am on a never ending mission (so it seems) to fill these empty spaces for as little monies (yes, I said that) as possible.  Because let's face it, when you have a family, decorations come last on the list of importance :)

Anywho, I've had these canvases sitting around for a while and knew I needed to do SOMETHING with them.  I've tried several times to use them and always ended up hating the idea and/or concept.

So I was in Pier 1 the other day, making mental note of things in there and how I would be able to make/buy them for cheaper, when I came across these lovely guys!

They were place mats of a burlap type material and there were only two...AND they were on clearance! Sweet!  I didn't know how much on clearance until I bought them and they came out to be a dollar a piece! I just love a good deal :D

Well, I brought them home and immediately went to tracking down the canvases that had been the result of many discouraging projects, determined that THIS time, the project would be a success! (the canvas is actually painted light blue...once again, the result of another failed project)

I started out by cutting/ripping out the thread sewed around the border so the place mat would be bigger and lie flat.  Then I took the smaller of the canvases and stapled the place mat around the canvas.  Didn't think of this until after the fact, but since the canvas was painted light blue, I probably should have done something about that, like paint it white...alright, alright, maybe the real reason I didn't do it was because I was impatient and in a hurry!

After stapling on both the place mats, I took the two larger canvases that I had and got out some of our leftover brown paint we used in our house.  Not sure if you're supposed to paint canvas with latex paint but...I did!  Once the paint had dried (or was semi dry...once again, I'm impatient!), I stapled the smaller canvas onto the larger canvas and voila! ..................er.....

..........actually....I hated it!  Seriously, another failed project?! I couldn't believe it! I just couldn't stand the way the textured place mat looked against the flat, ugly, brown canvas.  I knew it needed something else...or it needed to be taken apart altogether :(

And enter Ralph Lauren Faux Technique Glaze to the rescue!! Yes, that same wonderful can of glaze I got for one dollar weeks before!

I painted the glaze on (side note: if you ever do a project like this...glaze the canvas BEFORE attaching the smaller canvas...saves loads of time) and then using an old t-shirt rag, I twisted and rubbed it around until I got the desired look I was going for.

Let's try this again...Voila!!

I looooove the way it turned out! (I don't know why the burlap looks so shiny in these pictures because in real life it's not)

Finally, a successful project with those stinkin' canvases!

To break the cost down, I already had the canvases on hand (for well over a year or so and were originally bought at half price), along with the paint from our house and the glaze (1 DOLLA!) had already been bought as well...so technically my only expense in making these were the place mats...that's right, TWO dollars for this wall art!! Love it!

My first (and last!) attempt at reupholstering

I've read so many blogs and seen so many tutorials on reupholstering that I thought I would give it a shot. I mean, HOW hard could it actually be??

..........well, I was about to find out!

I started with (what I thought!) an easy shape, a couple of ottomans I picked up from Target.  They were a steal on clearance at only $5.00 a piece! At the time, I was going through a "pink phase" and had been trying to incorporate pink into all of our house decor. That was a short lived phase!  So these were the perfect candidates to get a new look. 

The fabric I chose was one I saw on the All Things Thrifty blog. She redid this double wing back chair and it is A-MAZING! You definitely need to check out all her awesome projects! Check out her before and after here


I contemplated (for about 2 seconds) taking off the existing fabric but I quickly saw that it would be a lot more work than I was willing to do, so I decided to just cover up the fabric. I'm glad I did because this project was time consuming enough as is!

I then cut pieces of fabric (side note: measure your fabric at least TWICE to make sure it's right...and then measure it two more times after that! I found that out the hard way...) and stapled them around the ottoman on the inside and underneath.  After stapling, I hammered in all the staples to make sure there weren't any sharp edges sticking out because my boys like to play in them (why??).  The original fabric underneath had been sewn together in pieces, but I'm lazy, and instead just wrapped the entire ottoman with one piece of fabric and folded in the raw edges.  I figured that since they rest up against the wall no one would see the folded in parts...yeah, yeah I know, totally unacceptable but I just don't have the patience to do things right! haha!  Plus, I wound up redoing the covers of the ottoman at least twice each, so I think these got way more work than they deserved!

All in all, I'm really happy with how they came out.  I just love this pattern and it really adds such a nice touch in our living area!  But I'm pretty sure I don't ever, ever want to reupholster anything (especially reupholster the RIGHT way) again!

Well, hey there!

Ok...so, basically....I don't know how to do this blog stuff...AT ALL. Nope! nada, zilch, zero!
I'm just crossing my fingers and closing my eyes (while typing, yes I'm that skilled) and hoping for the best! If anyone wants to offer some advice (uh, that is if anyone is actually reading this...*looks around*), that'd be sweet!

Alrighty, well, basically I'm going to post about projects I'm working on/completed so this may not be super consistent because *I'M* not super consistent with my projects.

My first project I'll post is about the story of an ugly little nightstand. It had low self esteem and no one wanted it. And THAT'S why I got it for only 7 bucks off good 'ole Craigslist! (CL)
















Well, thanks to this WONDERFUL blog and their tutorial- All Things Thrifty - I saw great potential in this ugly little piece.
I definitely recommend checking out their blog, it's A-MAZING.

Step by step, I followed their tutorial and product suggestions.

First I primed this ugly duckling (I later realized I should have primed it with a dark gray primer since I was painting it red...WHOOPS! live and learn)



And then followed it up with a few coats of Krylon Banner Red spray paint.



And finally, (after MANY, MANY do overs/failed attempts) I finished it off with the glaze. The All Things Thrifty Blog recommends using the Ralph Lauren Faux Technique Glaze


I went to Home Depot to pick up a container and found out they run about 15 dollars a can. Eeeks! That's a lot to me, especially since I'm trying to convince my husband that this is a CHEAP project :) But a can does last for multiple projects, so it really wasn't that much.
However, I decided not to buy it just then, for whatever reason.
Fast forward a few weeks and I went back to Home Depot, intending on picking up that can of RL glaze. I was walking past the discounted section by the paint counter and lo a behold, there was a can of the EXACT Ralph Lauren glaze I needed! I asked the paint man how much the can was and if there was anything wrong with it. He opened the can, showed it to me and what do you know, it was already tinted! (side note: the glaze comes clear and you have to tint it in order to use it for the projects that I'm doing) He still didn't tell me the price but he did tint it again for me, as it wasn't quite dark enough. And then after tinting it he told me he would sell it to me for $1.00!!! That's right, ONE DOLLAR!!! I couldn't believe it! I had to restrain myself from literally jumping up and down for joy! I couldn't believe I just saved $14.00 on this can of glaze! THANK YOU paint man!

Well, here's the finished product (btw, it took me way too many tries to figure out how to make the glaze work properly on this table. That's only because I skimmed the tutorial on the All T
hings Thrifty blog...uh, I don't recommend that!) I love the way the small details stand out. It's such a cutie table now!








































And yes, the handle is missing. That's because I haven't found the perfect handle just yet....one day!

P.S. Here is the tutorial about glazing