Reupholstered Ottoman
Our basement is the designated game room for my teen aged sons. In decorating the space for the boys and their friends, I wanted extra seating and a place to put their feet. I had purchased upholstery fabric a couple of years ago that matched our couch and wanted to recover an ottoman. Last summer I found a round ottoman at a garage sale for $8.
I took apart the ottoman to give me a pattern to use. I barely had enough upholstery fabric for the project. Since my sewing machine is having issues, a friend brought her machine over and helped me sew the new cover. She taught me a good way to sew a circle so the cover would fit snuggly. As you can see in the above picture, it was a perfect fit. Thanks Karen!
Inexpensive Modern Art
Between my opinionated husband and my bank account, decorating is quite challenging. Almost two years ago, my husband painted our bedroom a dark gray color. I love the color, but the walls are still bare as I have searched for art for the bedroom. My husband only wants gray, black and white in our room, so the color palette is limited. In addition, my husband doesn't like circles or other free-form shapes, so I was limited to squares or rectangles. On Thanksgiving Day I bought a four-foot picture frame from Michaels for $10. It was a door buster item and was 75% off - what a deal! I bought scrapbook paper in different shades of gray and white and I suddenly had inexpensive modern wall art (that still needs to be hung :-)
Christmas Wreath
I wanted something to hang on my living room wall for the holiday season, so I decided to make a square wreath out of ornaments that coordinated with my color scheme.
I cut a square out of a large sheet of Styrofoam and made a simple wooden frame to give the back support. I used a hot glue gun to attatch ornaments to the wreath. To help keep the cost down and to give some ornaments a different texture and sheen, I painted some Styrofoam balls to add to the ornaments.
One mistake I made was not covering the sides of the wreath with ribbon before I attached the ornaments. I also should have figured out how to store the wreath when it wasn't being used. I don't want to put it in the attic with the other holiday decorations for fear the summer heat will loosen ornaments.
The wreath adds a little bling to my Christmas decorations.
The Doll House Rehab
Before.....
When my niece decided to remodel her mother's old dollhouse by painting it with red nail polish, I offered to take it home with me to give the outside and inside a makeover. My grandfather made the house for my sister more than 25 years ago, so it needed a bit of attention.
Our basement is the designated game room for my teen aged sons. In decorating the space for the boys and their friends, I wanted extra seating and a place to put their feet. I had purchased upholstery fabric a couple of years ago that matched our couch and wanted to recover an ottoman. Last summer I found a round ottoman at a garage sale for $8.
I took apart the ottoman to give me a pattern to use. I barely had enough upholstery fabric for the project. Since my sewing machine is having issues, a friend brought her machine over and helped me sew the new cover. She taught me a good way to sew a circle so the cover would fit snuggly. As you can see in the above picture, it was a perfect fit. Thanks Karen!
Inexpensive Modern Art
Between my opinionated husband and my bank account, decorating is quite challenging. Almost two years ago, my husband painted our bedroom a dark gray color. I love the color, but the walls are still bare as I have searched for art for the bedroom. My husband only wants gray, black and white in our room, so the color palette is limited. In addition, my husband doesn't like circles or other free-form shapes, so I was limited to squares or rectangles. On Thanksgiving Day I bought a four-foot picture frame from Michaels for $10. It was a door buster item and was 75% off - what a deal! I bought scrapbook paper in different shades of gray and white and I suddenly had inexpensive modern wall art (that still needs to be hung :-)
Christmas Wreath
I cut a square out of a large sheet of Styrofoam and made a simple wooden frame to give the back support. I used a hot glue gun to attatch ornaments to the wreath. To help keep the cost down and to give some ornaments a different texture and sheen, I painted some Styrofoam balls to add to the ornaments.
One mistake I made was not covering the sides of the wreath with ribbon before I attached the ornaments. I also should have figured out how to store the wreath when it wasn't being used. I don't want to put it in the attic with the other holiday decorations for fear the summer heat will loosen ornaments.
The wreath adds a little bling to my Christmas decorations.
The Doll House Rehab
Before.....
I also decided to get rid of the pastels on the inside of the dollhouse.
After......
I used cardboard egg cartons to make bricks. Cutting all of the bricks needed for the front and the sides of the house took a really long time (and we had to eat a lot of eggs). I painted the outside of the house gray so when the bricks were glued on, the paint would look like mortar. The rough side of the egg carton was perfect to give the bricks texture and I used several shades of red to give the bricks dimension.
For the roof, I bought wooden shingles from a craft store and glued them in layers starting from the bottom roof line. This process also took a really long time, especially when the shingles had to be cut with an exacto knife to fit the angled roof.
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