Welcome home

Who doesn't like a nice warm welcome when you visit someones house.  I was wandering round Hobby Lobby the other day, and spied this little gem for just $3 (all of their chipboard was 50% off).

I painted it plain black and popped it above the doorway at the end of the hallway.  I love the old school typewriterish (totally a word) font.

 

 

You see it as soon as you come in through the front door, and it goes perfectly with our Nessy print.  I'm loving how painting the hallway cream really opened up the space compared to the dark sludgy green it was before.

 

I have big plans for this hallway which may involve adding a stripe or two, or maybe a gallery wall??  

Kate

xxx



Countertop Fraud

The last time I showed you our desk, I had crafted the desktop from cardboard and an old metal shelf (more on that HERE), but it was still looking very sad:

Thanks to some basic walnut look contact paper, the desktop was transformed into this:

It was surprisingly easy to stick on, and has a nice smooth finish.

You can see the metal shelf lip at the back of the desk, so the desktop doesn't slide around and is very sturdy.

Here is the desk area now with all of our accessories added.  Most of the items we already had (the stool was moved from being a side table in our living room, the lamp was an old thrift store find, the black 'in tray' was $2 from J&J Junk).

I did splash out $2 on the Michaels tulips and weekly planner:

I've been collecting these K's over the past few years:

The storage has been so helpful for organizing our important documents......

.......and my Better Homes & Gardens magazines.

The grey drawer organizers were from Homegoods and will hopefully prevent them from becoming junk drawers.

You can see how slimline the desk needed to be (one of the main reasons I couldn't buy new/used).

I'm so pleased with how it turned out - one step closer to organization.

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Kate

xxx

Desk phase 2

It's full steam ahead on the desk project.  I picked up 4 storage cubes at Michaels which put my flat-pack-putting-together skills to the test (more on that here).

I had the perfect space for the desk, a wall area next to the sofa.  The cubes are only 14" square, so the desk would be slimline, the perfect size for the space.

Here's Murph admiring my handy work, (or wondering what on earth I'm up to now!).

For the desktop I really wanted wood to contrast against the white cubes.  Ideally I would have used some wood we had leftover from another project, and stain it with some leftover stain, and seal it with some leftover sealer.  Unfortunately, we don't have any wood, or stain or sealer.  And we are on a major budget, so it was time to get creative and shop our house (ie rummage around to see what we already have).  I found lots of cardboard boxes and shelving and you can't get better than free!

I initially thought that a couple of sheets of thick cardboard might do the trick, but it was waaaay too flimsy, and wouldn't have held a cup of tea, let alone a laptop!  My next idea was to combine the cardboard with the shelving.  I started by cutting the cardboard the length and width I needed, and taping the shelving to the underneath.  It was all very technical :-)

Using a mixture of hot glue and packing tape, I sandwiched the second piece of cardboard so the metal shelving was covered on both sides by cardboard.  Just the lip was sticking out which would run along the back of the desk to help secure the desktop and prevent it from sliding.

I sealed all of the edges with some more tape.

I'm all for rustic, but even I draw the line at cardboard - could it look any more temporary!!

Check back on Monday for the big reveal - I guarantee you'll be surprised!  I've got a bit more styling to do and it'll be finished.

 

See the finished desk HERE

Kate

xxx

All Bar None

Until recently, the corner of our dining room was home to a small dark wood table  Unfortunately, I don't have a before pick because that sad little rickety table was out of here as fast as it's wonky spindle legs could carry it!

On a recent trip to one of my favorite flea malls (Bama Flea Mall), I picked up this amazing bar cart to take the tables place: 

 

It's in amazing condition, no chips to the glass or scratches in the gold.

It originally had 4 care home style wheels on the bottom that I managed to pry off as they didn't go at all with the faux bamboo modern gold finish and hexagonal shape.

I've seen lots of examples of amazing bar carts, these are some of my faves:

 

The Life Styled - I heart the paper straws

 

 

Interiors by Studio M

 

 

Interiors by Studio M

 

 

Style by Emily Henderson

 

Kate

xxx

 

Find more Thrifty Finds HERE

Dollar Store Ampersand Art

I really like the wood grain art I have seen popping up around the blogosphere recently, and was inspired to do my own take but on the cheap.  I mean really cheap.  I mean Dollar Store cheap!

What does Dollar Store have that is wood grain.........drawer liners of course!

I whizzed round my local store and picked up these supplies.  I printed out the Ampersand sign in a variety of fonts (I'm slightly obsessed with "&" art at the mo. but this would look just as great with your initial).

(Side Note: how amazing are these Dollar Store 11x14 frames!  I picked up two but will be going back for more).

I cut out the paper sign, traced the outline onto my wood grain drawer liner and cut around it with my Exacto knife.  I made sure the piece I used had a nice wood knot to really highlight the grain.

As if wood grain paper for $1 wasn't amazing enough, it's sticky so is super easy to mount on whatever colour background you choose.  I went for black card that we already had.  I added a simple matte and this is how it looked.

So for $2 I have some funky new art and if I still need to line my drawers, there's plenty left!

New here, thanks for stopping by. You can stay connected with me through Bloglovin:

Google Friend Connect (check bottom right in the side bar)

Or see my likes and loves on Pinterest

Kate

xxx
 

Bathroom Update

Our guest bathroom isn't the biggest bathroom in the world, but it's functional and has had a bit more botox since we last checked in on progress, here.  Not a full facelift, but definitely some botox.

This is a look at the before, floral shower curtain and all.

The view from the door (a window covering is high on the 2013 "to do" list).  We quickly painted over the orange and changed out the shower curtain for a white waffle.

We were lucky that the vanity was already white, so we just had to change out the hardware.

We took down the builder basic, no frame, mirror and added a new light fixture.  All quick easy fixes that make the space look much more modern.

A closer look at the new light fixture from Lowes.  The mirror is a dark grey (it looks a bit brown in this pic) from TJ Maxx.

The hubby has been holding on to this Pearl Jam pic since 2006, so it was time to frame it up:

 And a nice Ikea Grundtal towel bar to finish the look:

Kate

xxx 

 

I'm a candle

In the Christmas clearance shop-a-thon, I picked up this little candle from HomeGoods.

It was just a couple of dollars and smells amazing.  The only thing was the ugly festive pine cone pic on the front.  Luckily it was just a sticker that I could peel off easily (easier than the price ticket was to peel off - thanks HomeGoods, a little less sticky goop next time please!).

But when the sticker was gone the candle was very plane and in desperate need of something to jazz it up a bit.

I looked around Michaels for some sort of decal.  I thought about a simple monogram or maybe a boarder around the top and bottom, but settled on some basic alphabet stickers.  I wasn't sure what I was going to spell out but really liked the font:

Now for what to put on the candle.  Hmmm, I got nothing!  Seriously, for about an hour the best we could come up with was "I'm a candle", but then the puns slowly started coming, and we couldn't stop.  Light my fire, get fired up, light up, fire starter, see the light, lights out, great balls of fire.  Ok, so we drew the line at great balls of fire, and opted for "Got a Light?" 

 

We have a lot of storms and power cuts in the south, so this will definitely come in handy.

 

Kate

xxx

 

See other Crafty projects HERE