My Progress in a Slide Show

The end of the graded blog is here! So, I thought I should share a few pictures of my apartment so far. I still have a long way to go (I'd like to put curtains on my windows and there are no pictures of my bathroom for a reason), but I'm at a good halfway point and I'm happy with the direction I'm going. Hopefully these pictures will give you some inspiration. I did buy a few things (I'm addicted to cheap Target furniture and knick knacks from Ross), but try to spot some of the projects I've shown on this blog...they fit in quite nicely. :)

Decorating for the Holidays: Poinsettias

A real poinsettia and my napkin poinsettia

The holidays are approaching and its time to start decorating! The only problem is, I've been waiting until my next paycheck to get started. But December is here and I just couldn't wait any longer, so I made my own holiday poinsettias to bring some Christmas spirit into my little place.

Supplies:

1. Ruby Red Holiday Napkins: $1 (Dollar Tree)

2. Gold and Silver Glitter: ~$1 (I already had mine, Walgreens)

3. Wire or String (Whichever will work, I had wire available)

4. Scissors

5. Glue

Making the inside of the flower.

First, I created the inside of the flower. I cut the edges off one of the napkins, so the inside would be smaller than the petals. Then, I unfolded the napkin and added glue around the edges. Next, I sprinkled glitter on the glue. Last, I removed the excess glitter and set the napkin out to dry.

Six steps for finishing the poinsettia.

Making the flower was just as simple. I unfolded three napkins and stacked them with one of the glittered napkins unfolded on top. Then, I folded the stack back and forth (like a fan), with each fold about one inch apart. Next, I cut a small piece of wire and wrapped it around the center of the "fan" (remember, you can also use string). To create a petal shape, I cut a diaganol across each end of the "fan." The last step was fun, I slowly began to pull each napkin apart on both sides of the wire until I was happy with the end shape.

My poinsettias on display!

I've seen flowers like this on some of the blogs I read (Here is a tutorial from Made that gives ideas for flowers you could have in your home all year round and there are also tutorials on EHow), I also remember making them in elementary school and seeing them in wedding rehearsal bouquets. I wanted to put my own holiday twist on a classic craft project. If your holiday budget is tight this year and you cannot afford to decorate, make these poinsettias! They cost only $1 to make and now it actually feels like Christmas in my home.

My Black Friday Find: Target's 5 Piece Frame Set

The frame set I bought on Black Friday.

I don't have a DIY tutorial for this week, but I thought I should share this frame set I found on Black Friday for only $12! I didn't go door-busting, but I went to Target around 11 a.m and found only two of these sets left. The normal price is $25 so I got it at 50% off!

The set of five frames includes:
- One 11 x 14
- Two 4 x 6
- One 10 x 13
- One 14 x 18
- All of the matting was also included.

The frames are now hanging in my hallway along with the yellow, baroque mirror. I spray painted two of the frames with the same Rust-O-leom sun yellow paint to create a little harmony. I'm now in love with my hallway and can't believe it was ever empty.

Pictures are really important to most college students, but they rarely make it off of our Facebook pages. Fill up an empty wall in your home with some of your favorite pictures. Not only will you enjoy seeing them off of a computer screen, but the picture frames will add substance to any drab, empty space.

The filled picture frames hanging on my wall.

Goodwill Hunting - Baroque Wall Mirror

My baroque wall mirror before and me with the mirror after.

I'm so excited about today's post. Yesterday I took a trip to the Goodwill and found this amazing baroque wall mirror for only $4.99. I'd been looking for a mirror like this for a while, but couldn't find one in my price range. My mirror was gold when I found it; I thought it was beautiful, but a little outdated. I spray painted it my favorite color yellow and now it looks young and fun just like the rest of my home.

This blue mirror from Urban Outfitters is similar to mine, but costs $38. My mirror was about $9 total.

The $4.99 Goodwill price tag.

My Supplies:

1. Baroque Wall Mirror: $4.99 (Goodwill)

2. RUST-OLEUM Gloss Sun Yellow Spray paint: $3.79 (Home Depot)

3. Scratch Paper: Free

4. Tape: Free

Step 1: the mirror covered in scratch paper. Step 2: Me and my boyfriend painting the mirror.

This project took only two basic steps. First, I completely covered the actual mirror with scratch paper and scotch tape. It would have been easier to cover it with masking tape only, but I didn't have any. I made due with what I had and the scratch paper worked just fine. Second, I spray painted the entire gold frame with the sun yellow spray paint. The fumes do get to you, so my boyfriend and I took turns painting. It took about two coats to hide all of the gold. After the paint was dry I just removed all of the scratch paper and it was done! I'm so happy with the finished product.

The mirror hanging on my wall and a close up on the finished product (the detail is gorgeous).

My mirror is now hanging in the hallway outside of my bedroom and I love walking past it. Exploring the Goodwill was an adventure; I found my mirror way behind a bunch of other used mirrors and picture frames. This is another great example of how updating old furniture can save you money and make your home more personalized. Before visiting your favorite department store, check out your local thrift store...you never know what treasures you'll find!

IKEA Fun--Photo Boxes and Other Great Finds

IKEA KASSET boxes before and after.

This weekend my boyfriend and I took a trip to IKEA and had such a great time. I spent $21 and left with a bunch of items that I can’t wait to incorporate into my new home. In this post I want to show how I turned a two pack of IKEA KASSET boxes(intended for holding CDs) into two customized photo boxes, but I’ll also share my other IKEA finds.

Many of the supplies I used for this project were being reused. The paint is the same paint I used to decorate my Kitchen Hutch and the Modge Podge, and paint brushes I already had. The finished boxes cost me about $6, because the boxes and the scrapbooking paper were all I had to buy. At IKEA they have KASSET boxes like this that are already decorated, but they were much more expensive. Those boxes inspired me to decorate my own; I knew it would be cheaper to do it myself and I knew I would be happier with the custom design.

The supplies I used for this project.

Supplies:

1. Two Pack Kasset holders: $3.95 (IKEA)

2. Two Scrapbooking Papers: $0.59

3. Modge Podge Lustre Finish: $3.99-$9.99(depending on size)(Micheal’s)

4. Paint: $0.50 each (Micheal’s)

5. Paint Brushes

6. Scissors

Steps one, two and three for decorating the boxes.

Decorating the boxes was simple and took only three easy steps.

Step 1: First, I cut out the shapes that I wanted and glued them with the Modge Podge onto the KASSET. With the box that has pictures on it, I did the same thing. Just cut and glued the pictures onto the box.

Step 2: After I glued on the paper I began to paint. I painted whatever design I wanted. On one box I painted a flower stem, and the other stripes.

Step 3: Last, I painted over the entire boxes with Modge Podge. The Modge Podge appears white, but dries clear. It puts a protective seal over the paper and paint.

This is a great project for anyone who has tons of pictures. I work at Walgreens One Hour Photo so I'm making prints all the time and have no where to put them; frames and albums can get expensive and only hold so many photos. I've already thrown all of my prints inside the boxes and its great. If I want to show someone the pictures I just hand the box over and let them sift through.

All of my IKEA purchases: the KASSET boxes, clock and shelf.

At IKEA I also bought a shelf and clock. The clock was $5.95 and each piece of the shelf was $3. IKEA is great for anyone on a college budget, and shopping there is just a fun way to spend an afternoon. They have tons of rooms put together with their products that customers can walk through, and you can even stay for lunch--they have a food court with tasty, inexpensive food. We were in the store for two and a half hours and left feeling like we had gone on a fun date!

Spray Painted Patio Chair and Bleached Fabric Pillow

The old patio chair before and after the renovation.

My great-step-grandma’s treasures have inspired me again! This week my inspiration came in the form of an old patio chair. There are about four of these chairs and a matching table sitting on my back patio, but they are all horribly dirty, and unused. Before renovating this chair I had only one very small loveseat in my living room. My boyfriend and I could barely fit on it while trying to watch TV, but there was no other furniture and nowhere to even stretch our legs. The shape of this chair is adorable and I hoped that with a little cleaning and painting, it could add more lounging space to my living room.

This whole project cost about $13 total. A new chair like this could cost any where from $80-$100(here is a similar one from Target), and the bleached pillow that I threw in was actually most of the $13 cost.

My supplies: chair, spray paint, bleach, spray bottle, fabric and pillow.

Supplies:

1. Old Lawn Chair: FREE!

2. Black Satin Finish Krylon Spray Paint: $2.98(Walmart)

3. Bleach: $0.99

4. Spray Bottle: $0.99

5. One Yard Fabric: $1.99 (Walmart)

6. Plain White Pillow: $5.99 (Joann)

The chair before, during and after the spray paint job.

The chair was filthy, so the first thing I did was hose it down to get rid of all the dust and cobwebs. After it was clean I began to spray paint. Satin finish is somewhere between glossy and matte, I thought this would match some of the furniture I already have in my home like my black bookcase. Spray painting was more difficult than I expected, I had to do about three coats before the black appeared as dark as I wanted it. The finished chair looks cool. The paint isn’t completely solid, so it gives it an unfinished edge, which adds character to the piece.

The pillow! Taping the design, cutting off excess fabric, sewing badly and the finished product.

This pillow was a challenge! I actually ended up making two, because I was so unhappy with how the first one turned out. I was inspired to work with bleach from a post at Under the Sycamore. Working with bleach is tough, especially when you’re someone who just started doing your own laundry (sad, but true). My original pillow was black, which I had no idea bleaches to orange! So it looked like it came straight from a Halloween shop. My second pillow I love, the periwinkle fabric bleached a gorgeous color. The fist step for making this pillow was choosing a design. I cut out a "T" (for travel) and taped it down on the fabric, then I put on gloves and poured bleach into the spray bottle. Next, I lightly sprayed around the "T." The bleach starts working right away, once I was happy with the color I rinsed the fabric in the sink and put it in the washing machine. Sewing the fabric over the pillow was really simple. I’m not a good seamstress and didn’t have to pretend to be. All I did was wrap the fabric around the pillow inside-out, then cut the excess fabric off the sides. I hand sewed a quick stitch down each side of the pillow, and then removed it. Last I turned the fabric right-side-out and put it back on the pillow. The finished pillow is adorable, and I didn’t have to be good at sewing to make something that looks cute and personalized.

My new chair has opened up new sitting space in my living room. Sometimes I even use it as an ottoman because of its height; it’s nice to lie down and finally get to stretch out my legs. This project has taught me skills that I may use on other projects in the future. I love the effects of spray paint and bleached fabric. Using these materials can make furniture look hip and young, while sticking to a college budget. Their unfinished effect can make anything appear rough around the edges.

Me sitting on my chair with the original halloween pillow. Do you know what I did with the extra fabric? Check out my headband!!!

Decorated Cork Boards

All four finished cork boards.

I’ve decided to go for a travel theme in my living room. After studying abroad in England and backpacking through Europe, I have accumulated tons of souvenirs and pictures and want to put them to good use. I love to travel, therefore having the main room of my house dedicated to this theme will make the place a little more me. I’ve purchased a few things to go with this theme, mostly just picture frames for all of my travel pictures, but also a wall decal/clock shaped like Big Ben (clearance at Target) and a poster frame to create a collage of souvenirs from my experiences (maybe I will do a tutorial on this later). The walls in my living room are white and look really bare, so the cork boards fill space. On them I painted silhouettes of travel landmarks to incorporate my theme.

I purchased very few supplies for this project:

1. Pack of 4 Cork boards: $4 (Michael’s)

2. Black Paint: $1 (Michael’s)

3. Scrapbook Paper: $1 (Michael’s)

My stencils: The Effiel Tower, the Coliseum, St. Paul's Cathedral, and Big Ben.

The stencils for the travel landmarks I found online by doing a Google search for the landmark followed by "silhouette,"for example “Eiffel Tower Silhouette.” Cutting the stencils was a little difficult, the Big Ben and Coliseum silhouettes had a lot of small details, but if you remember to only remove the black space(my Coliseum picture was white, so I removed the white) the design turns out fine. It is important to remove as little of the white space as possible.

Painting decorative design.

I started out by choosing a decorative design for the corner of each board. I used the scrapbooking paper that I found at Michael's, because it had a several different designs in it that I could use. I placed the paper, painted over the sections I wanted, then removed it. I love the final shape that was created.

Painting the landmark, during and after.

Next it was time to tackle the landmarks. The example pictured above is the Coliseum. I chose to show this cork board, because it was the one I had the toughest time doing. The stencil turned out to be very difficult to make, so I ended to drawing out the windows free-hand. (Unlike the other stencils the Coliseum I printed out was white so I cut out all of the white portions.) Like it says above, if you're creating your own stencil ONLY cut out the black and try to leave all windows, lines etc. If you do not leave these details your finished silhouette will look like a black blob with no detail. This is what happened to me while cutting out the Coliseum. It was tough to fix because I had to keep a steady hand and draw out all of the windows on my own, but I think it turned out great. The cork board looks beautiful and matches my theme really well.

These two steps I did for all four cork boards, I just used a different stencil for each one. All four have added to the travel theme in my living room nicely, but anyone could do this with a theme of their own. I think the cork boards would look great decorated with floral silhouettes, or maybe the words “live, laugh, love.” They are great if you have a lot of pictures like me. I pinned tons of pictures to mine, and even added some postcards that I bought while traveling. Sometimes I pin notes to the boards, which is a great resource for busy college students on the go. The cork boards surround me in my living room, so they are great for hanging written reminders of homework assignments and deadlines. The whole project took about an hour and was fun to do. It’s a really simple way to incorporate a theme into any room.

Me in front of the collage I made, and a picture of my living room thus far.

The travel theme is coming along! Check out that awesome collage!

Vintage Hutch Make-over

My hutch before and after its renovation.

My great-step-grandma was the previous owner of my apartment and when she handed it down to me she left a few treasures behind. This little hutch was intended to hold kitchen appliances and act as a kitchen counter because the kitchen space in the apartment is limited. I decided to keep it, but thus far have only used it as a place to throw all of my junk after I walk in the door. It's an adorable hutch, so I cleaned it up, gave it a new paint job and incorporated it into my new home.

This project was very inexpensive, I spent only $14 total. Kitchen hutches cost any where from $150 to $600 at major department stores(here is a similar one from Target). I highly recommend restoring old furniture, by updating this hutch I saved hundreds of dollars.

My supplies:

My supplies labeled one through four.

1. Hutch: Free!

2. Valspar "Natural Sheepskin" Paint 12 ounces: $10

3. 12' x 12' Scrapbooking Cardstock x 3: $1 each

4. Purple/Magenta Paint 2 ounces: Two for $1

(Another money saver: I didn't use all of the paint, but I love all of the colors I chose. I plan to use them on other projects in the future.)

Before, during, and after the painting the hutch.

Since there were several damages to the original paint job, I began by painting the entire outside of the hutch with the "Natural Sheepskin" paint. I chose "Natural Sheepskin" because I didn't want to paint the hutch white like my walls, this color is actually a very pale yellow. With one coat, the paint looked uneven (as it does in the "during" photo), so I ended up doing two coats on all the surfaces, when I finished it looked new.

The old wallpaper lining, me gluing the new paper and the drawer after.

There was this terrible wallpaper glued to the bottom of the hutch's drawer. It was dirty, crusty, and peeling off. I decided just to rip it out completely and apply my own paper. All of my kitchen ware (plates, cups, tupperware, etc.) are blue, purple, and pink, I stayed with this theme and chose the purple and blue scrapbooking cardstock. All I did was measure the space, cut the cardstock and glue it in. This is my favorite part of the new hutch, it adds some personality to the design.

A chronicle of the stencil painting process.

The hutch was looking great, but still a little dull. I wanted to add a design to the front of the drawer, so I created my own stencil using another scrapbooking cardstock. I cut out the portion I wanted, then placed the stencil where I wanted the design to be (I used stencil adhesive spray to keep the stencil in place, but tape could suffice). Last, keeping with my theme, I painted through the stencil with the magenta and purple paint and then peeled the stencil off. Creating your own stencil is a great way to create a nice design if you are not good at painting free-hand.

Me with the finished hutch.

This project was fun, fast and affordable. If you're a college student on a budget like me, restoring old furniture is a great way to save your money. While fixing up something old you can always find ways to incorporate your own style and personality. I recommend a kitchen hutch to anyone who doesn't have a lot of kitchen space. If you live in a studio or just have a small kitchenette like me, it provides more counter and storage space. I have a plug-in burner that sits on top and store pots, pans and utensils on the inside. I know I will get a lot of use out of this hutch. This piece of furniture has character and practicality.