It's all white

In super duper amazing news, our bedroom has made the cut in the Apartment Therapy Bedroom Retreat contest.  If you would like to vote, you can pop on over HERE.  Try not to be distracted by the other amazing entries, and head straight for the purple pillow.

This is the perfect opportunity to tell you about my latest TJ Maxx find (love that shop).  If you've been following along, you'll know I've struggled to find something I really love to hang above the bed in the master.  Why is that big blank wall always so tricky to fill?

I started with a small (too small for the space) square pic that made the move from our apartment.  It was only meant to be temporary, but 8 months later it was still there, staring down at my with it's annoyingly small proportions.  It's amazing how a temporary fix can turn into permanent.

One day I decided enough was enough and took it down in the hope that having nothing at all would be the kick start I needed.

And then a couple of weeks ago I stumbled upon this gem in TJ Maxx:

It was only $20 - great price, check.  The shape and size were perfect, check.  But I wasn't keen on the colour.  Nothing a can of white spray paint couldn't fix.

I made sure the mirror was completely covered before starting to spray.

After just one coat.

And here it is after about 3 coats and 24 hours of drying.  Ta daaaa!

Murph is as enthusiastic as ever about my latest project.  He could really give a girl a complex!

This weekend has a forecast of warm spring weather, intermittent spray painting, with a chance of thrifting!  Have a great St Paddys day.

Kate

xxx

Yard Saaaale!

I'm thinking the title may have given this post away! 

Finally, after months of banging on about having one, and hours of sorting (I wanted to make sure we got every last thing we no longer needed or wanted out), we had a yard sale.

I advertised on Craigslist for the week leading up to the sale, and put signs up on our street the Thursday and Friday before.  Nothing like fluorescent yellow and smiley face balloons to draw a crowd.

My friend came over to help and sell some of her unwanted items too.  It took us no time at all to set up.  I was worried nobody would turn up, but by 7.30 we were tired of turning people away (we were due to start at 8).



The weather was perfect which definitely helped.  I didn't get any shots of during the sale because we were busy wheeling and dealing.  Luckily most people thought our prices were already cheap.  Good thing as I have the worlds worst haggling skills.

Bargain hunter - "how much for the table?"
Me - "$40"
Bargain hunter - "would you take $20?"
Me - "ok"

I wish I was joking!

We sold all of the big items, with the exception of the item of the week.  It drew a lot of laughs but sadly no takers.

Even the 3000 lb TV headed out the door (fat screen definitely not flat screen).  This is all that was left (with the exception of the coffee table - that's a top secret future project!).  A local charity came by and scooped it up later that afternoon.

I'm so please to get all of our unwanted junk out of the house.  And now I have some extra money to buy more unwanted junk.  Ha, but really, I'm going to try extra hard to buy things that we either need or that I have an immediate use for.  No more buying for the sake of buying or buying because its cheap.  Ok, maybe just a little!

Kate

xxx

Say what?

I'm sure I'm the last to get the memo, but Jonathan Adler is doing a Happy Chic line for JCPenney!  Hold the phone!  I LOVE Jonathan Adler.

These bright colours and bold graphic patterns make me want to get in the car and zoom straight to JCP right now.

 

 

Apparently March is the launch date, and if you click on the right links you can find most of the bedding on their website - but search under Jonathan or Adler and no results pull up.  Clearly JCP want us to work a little harder for the good stuff!

I've also heard that Terence Conran will be adding to the JCP Home lineup.  He currently has a line for UK department store Marks & Spencers.  Check out some of his M&S offerings below, fingers crossed the same clean modern lines make their way across the pond.

 

Kate

xxx

Pottery Barn Copycat Cart

Has anyone else spotted this sweet little Pottery Barn supply cart tray:

Last time I checked it was no longer available.  I guess the $100+ price tag didn't stop people from scooping it up.  Unfortunately, my budget doesn't stretch that far, so I thought I'd try and recreate the look for much less.

The tray bit was easy.  I had an old wooden tray I pick up a couple of months ago from a thrift shop.  I think it was $2.  I made a quick stop at Hobby Lobby and picked up some hunter green paint and a small stencil.  Another $3 spent.

I painted the whole thing in green, and began to stencil.  I decided to add a personalized touch and used our name for the supply company.

I wasn't worried about it being perfect as it is supposed to look like an old slightly battered cart, plus I could go back over and touch up any extra white bits with my green paint.

Next up were the wheels.  Sadly I don't have 4 small metal wheels lying round the house (I checked!).  Etsy had a couple of options, but it would have been about $30 for 4, and even then they weren't an exact match.  In the end I found these teeny tiny wreaths at Michaels.  My plan was to use the tray on our porch, so the natural element of the grapevine wheels would be perfect.  Plus it was $3 for all 3.

Clearly these spindly wheels weren't going to hold the weight of much at all, so I needed reinforcements.  I picked up a plastic container from the dollar store to glue to the bottom of the tray to support the weight of whatever goes on top.

 

I hot glued the plastic container and the 4 wheels to the sides.  I made sure to glue the container first, so I could glue the wheels at the exact height for them to touch the ground.

 

You can see the container in the pic below, but when you're sitting around the coffee table it's hidden completely.

 

 

This is the original Pottery Barn look:

 

 

And here is my recreation for less than a tenth of the price:

 



 

 

Now all we need is a few more warm spring days to put it to good use. 

 

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Kate

xxx

Wonder Wall

On Monday we checked out how I turned a grubby grill into a fun note holder (more on that HERE).

On Wednesday it was the turn of a pair of thrifted wall sconces to be brightened up (more on that HERE).

And now, finally, its time to see what they all look like together.  "Good grief Kate, you really know how to drag a project out" I hear you cry.  Ha, I know - but I just love love love how it all turned out.

Our big blank bare grey wall has finally be transformed into a gallery-ish wall.

 

I tried to mix items that were personal to us, with colourful prints and things I'd made.  I knew I didn't want just a wall of frames, so mixed in the little shelf, the wall sconces and the upcycled note holder.

 

 

Emily Henderson of The Emily Henderson mentioned a little shelf exactly like this one in one of her Craigslist roundups, so I was especially smug to have picked mine up at a local flea mall for a crisp 1 dollar.

 

 

The little hexagonal mirrored tray was also a thrift store find.  It wont be long before there will be nothing new in our house, just a sea of thrift shop finds.  And I'm ok with that.

 

 

I'll give you one guess where the fan came from... altogether now... "a thrift shop".  But seriously, they are just the best places to find vintage bargains.  And no self respecting home blogger would be without their Design Sponge book. 

 

 

Going into the project, I knew the kind of overall shape I wanted to create and laid everything out on the bed to get a rough placement.  When it came to hammering the nails into the wall, I really just free styled it.  I wasn't concerned about having even spacing or anything hanging in line.  In fact, the more random the better.  Clearly if you want to hang pics in a grid, a level and tape measure and some serious calculations are required. 

 

 

Murph clearly wasn't too enamoured with my wall hanging technique.  You're looking the wrong way!!

 

 

This weekend I'm preparing to check off one of the major projects on the 2013 to do list.  Brace yourself Birmingham!!  Plus I have a sweet little Pottery Barn copy cat project in the works. 

 

Have a fantastic weekend whatever you have planned - hope to see you back here next week.

 

Kate

xxx

 

Wall Sconces with Love

I'm finally putting a dent in my spray painting hit list.  First was the metal grate (see more on that HERE) and next up were these 2 wall sconces.  They were a whopping $3 for the pair from Gardendale Flea Mall.  I love the shape, but wasn't in love with the colour.

I thought about painting them black.  Then I thought about painting them white.  Then the March issue of BHG Magazine arrived with all the bright spring colours, and so I decided on something completely different.  

I wouldn't describe myself as a lavender person, but I really like how they turned out.  I originally planned to hang them in the dining room, but shifted them to the master when my wonderwall began to take shape.

You can see my Dollar Store Ampersand art made it onto the wall too (see how it was made HERE).

In other cheapo art news:

Step 1 - buy cheap Big Lots sticker

Step 2 - stick to paper

Step 3 - put in frame

Hope to see you Friday for the big wonderwall reveal.  I couldn't be happier that our big grey wall has been transformed into a little pocket of loveliness.

 

Kate

xxx

Grate to GREAT!

Despite the weird snow in March weather, this weekend was surprisingly productive.

First up were these strange grate thingys.  I bought them from a thrift shop a couple of weeks ago for I think 20c each.  I'm not entirely sure what they are - maybe a BBQ rack or a grill rack?  Whatever they are, they had something funky stuck to them.  Nothing a good soak and scrub with a wire brush couldn't fix.

I really liked the pattern so in the cart they went.  Yep, I'm the type of person who needs a cart when I shop at a thrift store, ha!

I decided that after cleaning a coat of spray paint was definitely in order.  I thought the zig zag pattern would be perfect for holding postcards and notes.

This is how it was looking after a couple of coats (I wanted to try just one first to see how it turned out).

Luckily there were a number of small holes down each side, the perfect size for running a rope through to hang my upcycled note holder.  I picked some up at Hobby Lobby for a little over $1.

Here is my new note holder hanging in the master.  Can you believe that this used to be a scabby old grate?  Sometimes I wonder where I get these ideas from, I really do.

I added this sweet little origami dog to the top (it was a West Elm Christmas clearance buy).  He was looking up so I needed to give him something to look at....a funny little rabbit keyring (no clue where it came from).

 

You can see that's it not just the note holder that made its was onto the wall in the master.  Oh yes, I was hammer happy this weekend.

 

 

I hope you all had a productive weekend.  Be sure to check back on Wednesday for more wonderwall updates.

 

Kate

xxx