Inexpensive Home Decor: Wrapping Paper

I recently blogged about framing record album covers for inexpensive wall art, but what if you're trying to fill a larger space? Posters and paintings are great, but wrapping paper is another cheap and easy option. At the very least it's a great placeholder until you find that perfect work of art, but a fabulous pattern just might be the perfect solution to your decorating woes! I found this paper, which I love, on Spoonflower and the costliest aspect of this project was the frame:

If you're really ambitious you could even switch your papers out seasonally! That's the great thing about an inexpensive project like this - the commitment level can be as low as you like. Grab a roll of paper and some scissors and cover those walls!

Our "New" Bar Stools

Our new bar area means that we finally have room for the bar stools that we've had for a few years now. They were purchased secondhand for an outdoor party and, other than outdoor parties, they'd mainly been in the basement, gathering dust and cobwebs. Being an older item, they're solidly built, but were a little plain, so we gave them a facelift!

I'd already taken the staples out of the fabric when I took this shot, but you get the idea. Perfectly okay, but pretty boring.

Removing the staples was by far the worst part of this job. Whoever put them in originally put them in to STAY. About two hours and 200 staples later, they were free of their fabric!

The shot I took of using the fabric as a pattern was bizarrely out of focus, but you get the idea here - press the previous fabric flat, trace around the edge and cut your new fabric out. Easy!

Fit your new fabric over the stools, then staple, staple staple and hammer, hammer, hammer! Remember how frustrating it was to take out all of those staples in step one and create the same frustration for the next owner!

And voila! Your custom bar stools for the cost of a couple of used bar stools and a yard of fabric! We were lucky in that the padding that the previous owners had used was still in good shape. If yours isn't, or your stools don't have padding, you can pick foam padding up at the fabric store. We used barkcloth, from the home decor section, for our new covers. A fabric designed for furniture is your best bet for something that will get a lot of use. Don't forget to take a coupon if you're visiting a chain fabric store, since they all have them!

Please be seated! What can I get you to drink?

My Secret Shame: The Closet Edition

I've had a few requests to peek into my closet. I have nothing to hide, clothing-wise, but my closet is kind of a disaster, as you'll soon see. By nature I'm organized and love having things in tidy piles. However, we happened to purchase a home with no closets, with the exception of a tiny closet in the bedroom the width of a door, which houses Paul's clothes. We got creative and built a "closet" in the bedroom by running a bar across most of the width of the room, which has curtains to hide everything. I love the curtains (really tablecloths from Target, into which I sewed channels for the closet bar), but we need more closet space. My ultimate goal, closet-wise, is to build a cedar closet in the attic. In the meantime, here's what I'm working with!

This section is normally hidden by a curtain. That green ceiling and reed wall will soon be hot pink!

This poor closet unit came from IKEA about 20 years ago. It is very close to the foot of the bed and difficult to completely open! Have I mentioned our bedroom is small?

Necessity is the mother of invention in finding hanging spaces in this house! I do love those curtains, though.

I'm in upgrade mode with our house lately, so I'll be sharing some more shots soon!

Last Minute New Year's Eve Ideas

Has New Year's Eve snuck up on you? Are you wishing you'd planned something festive, but worry that it's too late now? It's not! Here are some fun ideas from the Better Homes & Gardens Holiday Cook Book (1959), along with our even easier suggestions below!

If you like the idea of cider or spiced tea, but not the thought of studding orange or lemon slices with cloves, throw the cider or tea, cinnamon sticks, cloves and orange or lemon slices in a crock pot on low and serve when it starts to simmer. Have amber or dark rum or bourbon available for those who like their libations a little lovelier! And that clock centerpiece? Take items from around the house to create your "hours!" Use your imagination and have fun! Happy New Year!

Treehabilitation

If you've known us for at least one Christmas you know we have Christmas trees. MANY Christmas trees. I love Christmas and decorating for Christmas and I never met a Christmas tree I didn't want to adopt. I stopped counting at 40 trees. Our house is small, but I can always make room for another Christmas tree!

As we were unpacking the Christmas kitsch over the weekend I noticed some of our trees were looking a little sad. Prelit trees were burnt out, pink and white trees were taking on a decidedly brown tinge. It was depressing. Getting rid of them wasn't an option. It would feel like tossing out a member of the family. There are memories associated with those trees! I looked into flocking them, but it seemed it was either going to be very messy or very toxic, neither of which excites me much. Then I got the bright idea: what about spray paint? I wasn't looking to paint every needle on the tree. I just wanted to give them a nice facelift. Well, I'm pleased to report it worked great! I used Krylon CoverMaster Paint + Primer, then finished them off with Krylon Glitter Blast. I'm so pleased with the results! And think of the creative possibilities! You can't find a pink, purple and silver tree in any store? Create your own! The world is your fabulous Christmas tree oyster!

During:

After:

I have one left to decorate! Stay tuned!

Easy Project!

I'm so thrilled to have my cookbooks on display and easily accessible, but the heavy duty bookends we needed to keep them from falling over were so ugly. Now they're fabulous, thanks to this easy project! All you do is laminate postcards and stick to bookends with double-sided foam tape. That's it! Easy and easily removed, if you want your postcards later for another purpose!