Crap to Fab Lamp

I had a $10 Walmart crappy flimsy floor lamp.  I hated it.  My husband needed the light.  I needed to make it prettier.

So, I took this lamp:

This tube that came from a bolt of fabric that I bought:

And this table runner:

And made this:

The metal pole was so skinny, and I was adding a lot of "beef" to the top of the lamp, so I need to bulk up the bottom.  I spray painted the fabric bolt and the base of the lamp so it would all match.

The fabric was a little too short, so I added a little bit of a paper towl roll, and used painters tape to hold them together:

Classy, I know.  Hey, it could have been a toilet paper roll!

I had a drum shade from a lamp that has been in a closet, so I stole it, stripped it and used it to make the shape of the lamp shade

I just cut the table runner down, and then glued the two ends together after wrapping it around the naked shade.

Total cost to me: FREE

Total cost if I didn't have all this stuff laying around: $14

Lamp $10

Table runner $4 (from Ross)

Before:

After

I'm linking this up to:

Between Naps on the porch

Twice Remembered
It's so Very Cheri
The Shades of Pink
Thrifty Decor Chick, Before and after party

Home Flip Slideshow

My husband and I have flipped three homes, and are planning to stay put here in our fourth!

I didn't do a good job of documenting our first two, just the typical before and afters.  On the third I started a blog (http://doingflips.blogspot.com/) to document all of our home flips.  I ended up getting pregnant during this flip and that blog turned into a more personal blog about my pregnancy and baby.

The slideshow below is a recap of everything.  The beginning is before / afters and then it shows the process.  Just watching this makes me tired! 

Keep in mind we had a VERY MINIMAL budget on this home (NO decorating budget).  Everything is pretty plain - just meant to "pretty" it up so we could sell it ASAP.  We had two offers the first two weeks!

I'm so glad not to be doing this again for this current house, I feel I can make this home more personal.  Also, since being introduced to the world of desing blogging, I feel I have grown SO much as a "decorator" and feel like I can tackle more DIY.  I was afraid to paint the cabinets in this house - I wish I knew about this side of the blogging world during our flips - but I think I made the most of what our budget could allow.

Enjoy!




I am linking up to Met Monday

Our Current Home Tour

For all of you over here visiting from Thrifty Decor Chick, Welcome!  Let me first take a moment and thank Sarah over at TDC.  Hers was the first "design blog" I ever ran across (from a linky party at a non-design mommy blog).  I was flabbergasted!!!  THERE ARE MORE PEOPLE IN THE WORLD LIKE ME!!!  People who, with a little elbow grease, a little creativity, tiny budgets, some spray paint and moulding try to make their homes beautiful.  From her blog I found several others and became ADDICTED. 

You'll see many of Sarah's touches in my home as well as other ideas inspired by other blogs.  Seeing other people's creativity and ideas has made my home more beautiful - and I started this blog a short time ago hoping that I might be able to inspire someone with my ideas as well.

My husband and I have flipped three other homes, but we decided to settle in this one because we are now a family of three with the addition of our perfect baby boy (well four if you count our daughter-dog). 

DISCLAIMER:  We have only been in the house for under 2 months.  There is A LOT of work left to do!!

Entryway:

before

after

You can see how I created my wall art here, but if you're a loyal follower of TDC, you already know!

Front Living Room

before

 after

Before

After

You can see how I did this CRAZY EASY Wall art here

Before

after

Did you know you can spray paint blinds?  Holy Moly!

Living / Dining Combo

Before

don't you just love the use of orangy wood and gallons and gallons of poly?

After

Before

After

Okay, I don't know why my sectional looks purple in photos.  I really have to upgrade my camera situation, because these pictures are really bad.

Tutorial on how to make those curtains soon.  I literally just cut my fabric off the roll, used hem tape at the bottom, and cut holes and mashed together grommets at the top.  Super easy, super cheap!

Dining

Before

After

See how I made these mirrors here ($40), and how to do this wall treatment here ($35)

Kitchen

Before

After

Before

After

it still needs some major work (and a new vent a hood), but at least you don't have to shield your eyes from the blindingly (is that a word?) shiny orangy-oak cabinets.

On the list is to get a new backsplash. I will discuss my backsplash disaster and why there is a baseboard on my countertop in a future post.

Before

After

Thanks, Sarah for the genious idea of covering your bar area with beadboard!  Although, mine is the cheapy panels instead of the real stuff.

Nursery

Before

After

Stay tuned for future posts about how I made those floating shelves (and frames) for under $10

and how I made that collection of framed animal prints for under $20 (including frames)

Master Bedroom

Before

After         

This is actually beadboard wallpaper on the walls

See... beadboard

HOpe you  enjoyed my home tour.  You can look at the befores and afters of our first home flip (1916 craftsman bugalow) here.

Thanks Sarah, for inviting us to your party!  I can't wait to see what others have done.

I Love you, Spray Paint!

What in the world would I do without spray paint?  I would either be spending a lot more money, or be living with nasty ugly brass, and yellowy old looking wood blinds!

I really wanted to do something about these ugly blinds in our front living area.  I do like blinds for privacy sake, and they are actually in really good condition, and are good quality thick heavy blinds - just an ugly color.  So instead of shelling out $80+ for new blinds, I thought we would give spray painting them a try.  I googled and googled and looked all over my favorite design blogs and couldn't find anyone who had ever spray painted their blinds.  I was concerned that this really wouldn't work out well, but if I figured even if I mess up, I'll have to get new blinds anyway!  So it was worth a shot.

Luckily we have a swing set in the backyard, so we took the blinds off the window and took the swings off of the swingset and hung them there:

Hi Jarrod's feet!

Then commence spray painting:

I chose an espresso satin finish rustoleum paint.  It really worked out well!  I can tell they are spray painted, but whenever I tell people who come over they can't believe it. 

A reminder of the horrible before:

And the refreshing after:

Here are some other quick fixes you can do with spray paint:

Ugly brass door knobs:

Into sleek brushed nickel door knobs

Again, brass knobs:

Brushed Nickel knobs:

Nasty outdated brass cabinet hardware:

Into contemporary brushed nickel harware that pops off the new chocolate finish:

Now I need to tackle some ugly brass light fixtures until we can replace them.  I'm not suggesting that these are great permanent solutions, but we just didn't have the budget to replace things like hardware, blinds and light fixtures and I certainly wasn't going to live with them the way they were!  And since I don't notice how ugly they are anymore, replacing them will come WAY after we finish other major projects.

What have you spray painted?  How did it turn out?  What is your favorite spray paint?