Posts Tagged ‘zero budget project’

Zero Budget Project: Wall Decals

February 22nd, 2013
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I finally got around to finishing the decal. I decided on simply, “to forever and back”. It’s a nod to “I love you to the moon and back”. It’s not cheeky like I had originally planned, but I really like the sentiment.

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It’s sort of hard to capture this well on photograph, since it is in one of the darkest parts of our house, but you definitely get the idea.

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I’m pretty thrilled with how this turned out, and I think I may be doing more wall decals in my future. I’m putting it on the calendar for next week.

What are your DIYing plans for the weekend?

Zero Budget Project: Family Art

December 14th, 2012
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I’ve hung up two pieces in our house this week. That’s pretty sad considering I have about 50 or more pieces all ready to hang. All of our artwork is just hanging out in a pile in a nook in my bedroom. It takes up quite a bit of space so there’s not much room on my side of the bed. It’s amazing how hanging art will make a house look lived in.

We have a very blank wall above the stairway. It’s one of the first things you see when you walk into our home. It needed art on it badly. I had this vision in my head to do some lettering with all the nicknames we call each other and just fill the entire paper with those nicknames (kinda like Penelope’s old room sign -scroll to bottom). I’m still not sold on that idea, so I just did: Chris, Melissa, Penelope and Felix forever.

I went through about 7 sheets trying to get it all perfect and this is the best that I came up with. I’m still not thrilled about it. But no matter. I’ve got loads of this paper, I’ll just practice some more. It’s not very hard to replace the art, either.

I like the idea of something about our little family and our names and having those words fill the page entirely, bleeding off the page behind the frame. What do you think? What should it say?

Zero Budget Project: Upholstered Stools

December 7th, 2012
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I’ve had these stools stacked up just taking up precious floor real estate for three months. If I want to do anything, I have to move these out of the way. So in my attempt to really clean out my studio, I knew I needed to actually finish this project.

I messed up a few times, but overall it didn’t take too terribly long to upholster these stools.  And figuring out the dimensions for the fabric was really quite easy. Particularly since I did the pleating on the top.

I haven’t quite decided where I’m going to put these newly awesome stools. I think they’ll tend to float, because they’re perfect for additional seating for parties, etc. They would look nice in our bay window in our Master Bedroom. I’ve got to get about 16 paintings out of the way before they can hang out there, though.

This project cost me less than $1 to make (hence the Zero Budget categorization). The fabric was $2 for 3+ yards and I used less than 1 yard to make this. Chris’s brother was about to donate a perfectly good memory foam mattress topper, so I used the foam from that. Since it is memory foam, these cushions feel quite nice. I’m really happy about the transformation, but I’m not sure how Chris feels about it. He mentioned that the floral was a bit girly. Maybe so. But I think they’re pretty rad. Read more for instructions on how to make your own.

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Zero Budget Project: Organizing Jewelry

November 30th, 2012
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I’ve had my jewelry in piles for months. Last Saturday, I finally took the time to sort out the giant ball of necklaces (Chris and I call it a necklace king), pair up all of my earrings and get everything out of reach of Penelope and Felix.

It’s a shame I didn’t do this earlier, this little corner of our bedroom looks so lovely now. It just so happens to be the first corner I see when I wake up in the morning, so it’s nice to have that decorated and organized.

I used stuff I had around the house, save for the hooks I bought to hang all of my jewelry. Not bad, right? Check out all the handy DIY details and photos at Make and Takes.

Now on to hanging artwork and twinkle lights!

Zero Budget Project: The Dresser

October 5th, 2012
14 Comments

I finished the dresser. It’s been nearly a year and a half since I bought it with the intention of revamping it. I knew if I wanted to get it done, I had to do it before the cold set in and I’d only be motivated to cuddle in blankets and drink a cup of hot abuelita (I’m hooked thanks to Celeste).

This dresser was originally going to be stained yellow like my rocking chair, but I kept feeling a nagging feeling that I’d be falling back on a crutch. I tend to fall into color ruts from time to time. In high school it was burgundy and navy. In college it was red and black. When I first got married, it was just black and tan. When we moved to Utah, it was yellow and black. Then it moved to yellow and orange.

Picking this color was a huge risk, because the guy behind the paint counter just mixed a bunch of colors and I went for it. There were no samples to go by (besides the paint stick he stained). I knew the wood on the dresser would take the stain differently because it’s not pine. It’s a veneered redwood or something warm like that. Maybe cherry?

I’m glad I went for the stain as opposed to an opaque paint, because the color and grain of the wood really shows trough to add a lot of dimension to this piece.

Also, I never consulted Chris on this color. I knew I was taking on a big risk by not asking him what he thought. While I was mid-job, he rolled in from work and I got more than a bit nervous for his reaction. Turns out he loves it! Bullet dodged. I do need to be better about communicating my home decor plans with him, though. He, too, bought this house.

Chris lets me use this dresser just for my clothes. He’s really nice about that. Atop the dresser I have a little ikea runner I made (fabric I scored for $1 a yard at a garage sale) to protect the finish from my accessories. My accessories are stored in Spice of Life jars and on an old 1950s lunch tray.

I’m proud of how this dresser turned out. Now I need to get our bed situation figured out. It looks like we’re going to buy a new bed for our room soon. And I want to make my first quilt for our room, too.

So have you ever stained wood a color before? I definitely think I’ll be doing that again with any other wood rehab projects I work on in the future.

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