home decorating, mantle, master bedroom, mid-life, moving

Keeping an Eye on Resale Home Value While Making a House Fun

One of the blogs I read is Jennifer Allwood at The Magic Brush.  I love this lady.  She is fun-loving, runs her own business and manages to stay involved with her family activities all while offering advice to others about following their dreams and having a successful business.  Oh and she loves glitter.   She owns a faux painting business in Kansas City.  Right now she is struggling with selling her beautiful home.  It is a very beautiful house that reflects her unique style.  Unfortunately her home is such a reflection of what she loves and her style that potential buyers have had a hard time seeing themselves in her home.  She has now launched what she calls Operation Vanilla on her home and is making the home more neutral.  She has removed the bright colors in bedrooms, the faux painted ceilings, Bible verses in the tray ceiling… The list is long.

Source: The Magic Brush

The photo above is Jennifer’s dining room.  I love her table. I mean I have even been looking for an old sign to make my own because I think it is so cool. Her room is beautiful. It looks like a magazine page, but I think I would personally be a little overwhelmed with the finishes and would have a hard time envisioning my furniture in the space. I don’t think my furniture would measure up in such a fancy home.

Each of you reading this has your own personal preference when it comes to your home’s style. You may like sleek and modern, beachy, traditional, cottage, shabby, rustic or eclectic. Our differences are what makes each home unique and are reflections of our lives. There really are ways to insert your own unique style along with fun touches in your home without affecting the resale value of your home. We have sold four homes over the years that had my own quirky style and all of them sold almost immediately even in tough markets and less than the most desire able areas so I feel confident providing a little insight in this area.

  • Keep the “permanent” items neutral. I would love a vintage stove in my kitchen. I mean one of those 1940’s stoves that has been refurbished and looks super cool. I haven’t put a vintage stove into my kitchen even in our last remodel because I knew we were going to sell our house and even though I would love having that stove, other folk might not love it and it could have kept our house from selling.

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In my opinion items like doors, appliances, flooring, and light fixtures need to be mainstream and have a nod to what is popular yet classic when the house is for sale. ( Granite is a must in our area right now.)
No checkerboard flooring, mason jar pendant lights, or unique features like a bright colored sink.  If you have them and you love them, take them down, pack them up before you put the house on the market and move them to your new home.
If and when (oh, there will be a when) we sell our suburban home, our barn door will come down. I will also take down my big S before showing the house because believe it or not, it could seem too personal.
 

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.view of the barn door

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I do not, have not and will not make the entire house beige, blah, and well…boring, in order to sell a house. I will tell you that my experience has been that those totally neutral houses do not sell as fast as ours have. One of the things that has helped our houses to sell is that they are memorable but not something so personal that a homeowner is thinking about changing the second they move in. I also think that we have made our houses feel warm and loved.
A few pieces of painted furniture like our mudroom bench, my farmhouse table, and the teal media dresser will be in the house. The walls, curtains, and flooring are neutral, so that the buyer can see themselves in the house but the colorful pieces are in the rooms to help the buyer, who is probably looking at multiple homes, remember the house.

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  • The artwork needs to be unique, but not specific. Over our bed is a simple one color piece that says Truly, Madly, Deeply.

DIY Monochromatic 3 Dimensional Art

It is one of a kind, but is also something that doesn’t scream at you when you walk in.

  • Put your money into the kitchen and bathrooms if you are going to update anything.

bathroom makeover

Paint the picture for your potential buyers with furnishings.  Depersonalizing does not mean empty and sterile. Help the visitors see what a room could be used for.

If you have moved into your forever home and the next address for you is the Pearly Gates, have at it.  Make your home as personalized as you want… someone else will have to deal with it when you are gone 🙂 If, on the other hand you know you will be moving, I hope you aren’t afraid to leave a little of your personality in the home.

collecting, moving, Space Saving, the suburban home

Garage Organization DIY

Having me give advice on organization is humorous at its best, but after spending the better part of a weekend organizing I feel like I can at least tell you what I did and brag on my Husband.  When we moved into the new suburban  house everything that we were not sure we wanted or had a place for, ended up in the garage.  Sound familiar?

It was GROSS.  I literally had to climb over stuff to move through the garage if I wanted to go from the front to the laundry room.

messy garage

Sooo If you are in the same boat as we were above, here is my advice:

  • Take it all out of the garage.  We move the cars and drug it all out on the driveway.  IT WAS EMBARRASSING FOR OUR NEIGHBORS TO SEE OUR MESS but it was the only way to sort it all out.  We needed to be able to see everything.
  • Sort before moving it back in.  Open every box, pull it all out and make sure you want to keep it. We had our trash can full before we got anything put back in the garage.  We had three sorting piles once we decided it was not trash; garage, tool shed, and inside the house.  We moved stuff to the right piles then took it to the correct location before we started on the garage stuff.
  • Go vertical.  See this awesome cabinet?

tool cabinet

My Hubby made it using a pattern from Home Handyman magazine.

home handyman

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The whole one day thing did not work for us, mainly because tools are scattered between the two garages.

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It is great to store stuff on the wall.   It has a dry erase board on the front.  I love that it holds drills, caulk guns, safety gear, and levels all at eye level.

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See how much like the magazine it looks?

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We also installed a small pegboard for me to keep paint brushes, screwdrivers, and spray paint cans.

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The blower and extension cord now have their own hooks, the lawn chairs have another set of hooks, and the toolbox is a rolling vertical chest.  Probably the best use of vertical space is storing my wreaths.  See where I have them?  They are up out of the way not getting crushed.

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hanging wreath

  • Zone it.  We now have a paint zone, a car stuff zone, a tool zone, and a nasty chemical zone.  No photos of the finished product  because we need another cabinet.  It will be done soon.  Here is the start of our garage cabinets:

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  • Get rolling storage.  See this rough looking chest?  It was built by my husband out of scrap tongue and groove pine 30 years ago.  It weighs a ton but it holds our chop saw, our circular saw, and grinder along with other assorted electricity requiring power tools.  It rolls in and out of where we need it to be.

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Like I already said I am no expert on organization, but this worked for us.  In the future we plan on adding some more wall cabinets along the  side wall but some stuff still needs to come out.  The Coke machine is getting a makeover soon and will be moved to the Garagemahal and the table and chairs are sold as soon as I get them redone.  If it ever stops raining, sleeting, and in general being winter here in south east Texas.

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It is my plan to add a narrow work bench to the space.  I have been eyeing this one on Pinterest because it stores wood and has two levels.

Even though we were both tired and sore when we finished, we were also pretty proud of our efforts.

Blessings,

Karen

Blogging, Building a Home, home decorating, mid-life, moving, new home, Star Hill, Texas, the suburban home

Creating a New Blog

I have been toying with the idea of creating a new blog for a little while. I love Star Hill, Coldspring, and my weekend country life but right now most of our projects and life revolve around our new lives in our new community and new suburban home.

My Burb Home

I am going to be chronicling the rapid growth of this booming community , our progress as we turn our builder basic home into something that is more unique and us finding our way in a new place.

I hope you will consider following My Burb Home. I will continue to write about our wonderful weekend home and the projects up at the Garagemahal on The Weekend Country Girl, but the things going on in the new house will be on the new blog.    We have a few projects in the wings right now up in the country.

I started blogging because I wanted an outlet to share with my family and friends. Never, in a million years did I expect others, from a variety of states and countries to read my blog. I often wonder what in the world would someone who lives so far from the Texas Piney Woods ever want to read what I write. Thank you for choosing to be a part of our lives.

I look forward to continuing to share my small, small corner of the world as we explore the third quarter of our lives!

We have a lot planned and I am excited about the possibilities.  Here is a link to my first post:  My New Blog

Blessings,

Karen

moving, new home, recycled furniture, The City House

The Great Garage Clean Out

>The time has come… we must make sense out of our Burb home garage.  I have sworn off all projects this week- even though I have the paint ready to go on the dresser that is going to be our television stand.  ( Who am I kidding? It is already my television stand- and we even have the top piece assembled and painted but it melts into the wall right now.)
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Here is what our disaster zone garage looks like today.
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I should have included a warning that this scene is not appropriate for those with weak hearts or young children.

Goal for the week:

  • Install cabinets on the wall.  Purchased at Lowe’s.  Yay Lowe’s for providing us with $25 off coupon and having the cabinets on sale 20% off!  No sweat for me to spend $250.00 at a home improvement store.  We got two 24 inch cabinets for the stuff that cannot stay out.  The cabinets match the ones in the bathrooms so if (hope, hope) I ever find a vintage buffet that I am in love with and want to turn it into a double sink vanity, (hope, hope) I will be able to move the cabinets to the garage for additional storage.  That is the plan.
  • Get all my paint stored on the metal shelves.
  • Put up the pegboard and fill it with all the tools I am used to having access to.  Right now it is hunt and peck.
  • Organize the power tools.
  • Put away any loose tools.
  • Put the fall storage boxes up.
  • Sell the table and chairs.  Yes.  I am selling furniture.  I do not need them.  It may be next week before the garage is clean enough to have someone come look at them but they will be sold.
  • Clear the trash!

The next part of the garage make over will include high shelving for tubs.  Not this week.

Sooo, no posts this week of pretty things.  No fun.  Just work.

If you don’t hear from me in a few days send in help!
 

 

 

 

burlap, Fall decorating, home decorating, moving, Rubbish Rescue

Fall Front Yard

Have I told you how much I love fall? I love the color, the cooler weather, and spending more time outside. We got busy cleaning up the yard and putting up a little fall decor. Life on the cul de sac is great and the neighbors are known for their Halloween parties so we had to make our house look presentable.  The large pumpkins were cut out from left over fencing when we put in the reclaimed wood wall.

DIY HERE for Reclaimed wood pumpkin.
The flower bed is cleaned up, some mums are planted, and the pumpkins are out.

Pumpkins

I really did take the stickers off the pumpkins.  Not sure why this is the only photo from this angle I saved.

purple mums

The reclaimed pumpkins add a rustic charm to the front yard of our Austin stone and red brick home.

reclaimed wood pumpkins

Here is a close up of the bow.

reclaimed wood pumpkin

I really do like the asymmetrical shapes.

fencing to pumpkin  Welcome fall!

fall front yard

I left the zinnas that are still blooming so they got to stay.  The others are now in the compost.

fall flower bed

Blogging, collecting, Decorating, DIY, home decorating, mid-life, moving, new home, Photography, Repurposed Furniture, shopping, Thrifty decorating, vintage style

Milestones

Well this week will be a week of milestones for us here in the burbs.

It is my first “Back to School Week” in the new school district we have moved to.

I love it here. I am over the moon about my staff. They are awesome. But there are times I feel a little lost.

My textbooks and technology arrived! Yay! I was beginning to think we were going to start school with a stick of chalk and slab of wood!

My husband started his first week in his new job too. He is going to have a great year. He is an amazing teacher. I think he is feeling the same as I do.

There are also a few milestones in the blogging world too.

I started blogging two years ago. I blog because I enjoy sharing what I was already doing with others. I would never in a million years try to sell my work. it is my hobby, not my job. I never have gone outside of my friends on Facebook to tell people I was blogging because frankly I didn’t know what I was doing (I still don’t most of the time.) I switched my blog from Blogger to WordPress, and survived…barely.

I didn’t know how to “link up” or even what that meant six months ago. (I still mess this up from time to time.)

I didn’t know that I could create a Facebook page or even why I would want to create one.

Heck. I was a blogging train wreck!

Roadkill Rescue featured my mudroom bench this past spring. Wow! I had 1042 views on one day. My highest view day before that event. Did any of you find me there?

About a month ago I was contacted by Remodelaholic and asked to do a feature. A blog that gets 100,000,000 (yes, 1 million) views a month found my little, itty, bitty blog and liked my husband and my work. This past Saturday the feature was published. Thank you to the folks at Remodelaholic.

Did you find me there?

The feature leads me to the blogging milestones:

This week I have had almost 100 new folks like my Facebook page. Wow. Before this week, I had 37 whole people who liked my page. I have found that I enjoy the page because I can post sneak peeks of projects I am working on, Craig’s List finds, and quick updates.
Welcome to this little glimpse of my world.

It looks like I will hit 30,000 page views on my blog today. It took 18 months to hit the 20,000 mark. Thank you all for taking the time to read my rambling thoughts and for looking at our work.

We have a lot planned as we continue to work on our homes. We have a few gifts to get done before Thanksgiving that I hope the recipients, and you, enjoy.

I discovered Pinterest…it changed my life:)

and… I have sort of learned to tweet.

We are also setting personal goals for ourselves.

We are also going to work on finding balance. Hubby has taken up golf again. I’m feeling the itch to paint…I mean really paint, again. I plan to take more photography classes.

Life is good. Thank you for stopping by!

crafting, Decorating, DIY Art, moving, Style, The bedroom, the guest room, Thrifty Art, Thrifty decorating, using bright colors, Valspar Spray paint

The Guest Room Part 1

When we moved into our burb house, I did not plan on painting the walls right away, except the front guest room. Here is how the room looked when we purchased the house.

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I am not going to talk about the paint job in the front bedroom except to say it was not my style and the color scheme wouldn’t work.  I know that the former owner worked really hard on the faux painting.

As soon as we settled in I started looking for inspiration. Here are some of the inspiration pictures I found. I hope that clicking on them allows you to go site I found it at.
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http://cultureofstyle.com/tag/white-bedroom-furniture/

http://www.houzz.com/photos/171192/Turquoise-and-Green-Bedroom-eclectic-bedroom-san-Francisco

http://serbagunamarine.com/bedroom-color-schemes-blue-girls-ideas.html

green and turqoise

http://www.bhg.com/decorating/color/colors/decorating-with-color-expert-tips/#page=28

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http://www.bhg.com/decorating/decorating-photos/bedroom/blue/

I wanted the bedroom to be cheery but restful.
Here is what we have finished to date:
Walls painted. I love the light blue walls. They almost feel like a spa.
Empty frames painted. I found the frames at a resale shop. I spent $4.00 total on all the frames you see on this wall. The paint on the frames is all left overs from other projects. The white plates were 10 cents each at the resale shop. I glued metal soda can tabs to the back of the plates with E6000. I love that stuff.

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Painted Empty Frames
My bedding arrived. I am crazy about this yellowish paisley print. Target. Over budget. $90.00.

Yellow bedding in blue room
The throw pillows on the bed are all outdoor pillows that were on clearance at Home Depot, Lowes, and Marshall’s.
Curtains hung. Hubby and I went shopping at Ikea recently. I was thrilled to find off the shelf curtains that were 110 inches long for $34.00 a pair.

white curtains

The herringbone art project done.

herringbone art

I will be writing a DIY on this project. It was a fun evening project that cost less than $10.00 even factoring in the cost of the green tape.  ( I have plenty of tape to do several more projects.)$2.00 for the frame and the print that I painted over, Frog tape was $6.00 and I had to get one can of flat white spray paint for the frame. (I need to spray the frame again.) I had the other paint on hand.

The green lamp is in place. I think it is the best $2.00 I have spent in this room.

painted lamp4 painted lamp3

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New art work. Target. Over budget. $20.00

New lamp from Target.  $23.00.  I know, I know but the colors in the shade go perfectly with the color scheme.  Over  budget.

teal yellow and green lamp shade

I am not a huge fan of the bed frame as is and it will get painted and the posts are going to get trimmed down. I found this funky curio cabinet at a garage sale for a dollar.  Here is the before.

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Dirt Dobber nests and spiders were included for free.  A quick wash down, spray painted the frame and painted the back that amazing Laguna color I love.  I am not sure how long it will stay but I think it is a fun piece for now.  For a buck investment, It will not kill me to let it go down the road.

1960's perfume holder IMG_3330

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I was able to incorporate the old dresser that once belonged to my grandparents, saved by my husband and completely restored.

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We have ceiling fans in our bedrooms thanks to a friend of Baby Boy and Sweet Amanda.  Don’t judge us for the fans.  I think they look ok,  It is going to be over a 100 again today here in the burbs.  In South East Texas it is miserable without air moving.

What do you think of the sort of finished room?

yellow and blue retreat mustard yellow bedding mixing blues, yellows and greens

Decorating, Dresser, home decorating, master bedroom, moving, resale finds, The bedroom, Thrifty decorating

Updating a Lamp- DIY

Remember the crystal lamps I purchased, with lamp shades for $10.00 each? They part of my Goodwill purchase last week. These lamps were at one time very expensive formal living room lamps. The glass is super heavy and thick. Think old lady, formal curtains, couches you could not sit on, and trinkets galore.

goodwill lamps

 

goodwill crystal lamps

I love finding something like this because I plan on reusing them in a new setting, our master bedroom.  I need to add some color and fun to the bedroom, but I love the romance and sparkle of the lamps too.

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I thought about spray painting the cut glass, but decided to work on the brass and lamp shades instead.  My plan was to spray paint the shades a dark blue to match the darkest color in our bedding.

A trip to Target changed my mind about the shade. I found two perfect shades for $16.00 each. Great size, shape and they have a dark blueish ribbon at the top and bottom.  It seems a little crazy to pay so much more for shades than I paid for the lamps, but I love them how the shape will update the lamps in the bedroom.  It is going to be tough to stay in the budget on this room with the burlap curtains and the lamp shades but I guess it just means I have to be very creative with decorating the rest.

This is not the first, second or third lamps we have built, redone, repurposed,and even recovered a lampshade.

We have repurposed a chandelier
Redone a milk glass lamp
Made old Coke bottles into lamps
Painted several lamps

I thought I would actually let you in on a secret…redoing lamps are relatively  easy!  Here is one of the lamps up close.

crystal lamp

Tarnished brass and all.

vintage crystal lamp

under side of lamp

The black plastic thing keeps the wire from getting cut, then there is a nut below that to tighten the lamp.

First- flip the lamp over and look at the bottom. I had to remove a felt circle in order to get to the bolt and nut that holds the lamp together. Most lamps are put together this way. They have a tube that runs through the body of the lamp. The tube has threads at either end. Take the whole thing apart. Take pictures as you go along if it is the first time you have taken a lamp apart. You will probably need to refer to the photos when putting it back together,

taking out a light socket

The socket part has a cover that will slide back on at the end of reassembly.  The inside of the socket connects the two sides of the wire with screws.  The bolt on the bottom was tough so Hubby had to use several tools to loosen it.

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I laid it all out and photographed just the metal part so that we could remember the order.

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A quick sand on the tarnished parts then spray paint.  I love the oil rubbed bronze.

oil rubbed bronze spray paint

This is after one coat.

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After a second coat reassembly.  The wires go in the hole at the base of this one first- not all lamps do this.  then into the metal rod, then the rod into the body of this lamp.  The base was actually three separate pieces of glass stacked.  It was tricky to keep lined up so no photos.  It took both of us.

awiring a lamp

The metal parts went back on, then the socket, then the socket cover.  I removed the lampshade bale, because the shade I bought sits directly on the socket.  No big loop over the bulb.

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Ta- dah.

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Here they are… now to dress the top of my dresser.

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This whole process was done in under an hour.

moving, new home, Redecorating

Industrial Laundry Room

When we moved into our new house there were three things I liked about our laundry room.

  • We had one, and it was a good size
  • There was a sink in the laundry room! Never had that before.
  • I liked this graphic on the wall.

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Nothing else. It needed love.

laundry room bdfore

The former home owners left all the paint that they had used on the house (thank you so very much- we are thrilled that we have touch up paint and know what colors were used!) We had just used it as a dumping ground and created a mess as we moved in.

I have seen some amazing transformations of laundry rooms on Pinterest. I love them. I like seeing the chandeliers, soft colors, pretty boxes, crystal containers and granite counter tops. The problem I have with those laundry rooms is that they seem to say- in my opinion only- that the laundry room is the woman’s domain. Somehow cleaning clothes is a feminine activity alone.

Not. At. My. House.

We both wear clothes, we both get them dirty, and we both wash clothes.

That being said, I adopted a more industrial look to the laundry room. I wanted to make sure that Hubby felt comfortable in our shared space. I don’t want to give anyone the idea that is MY laundry room! Also, our laundry room currently has open shelves. I will probably get cabinets put in because I like to keep some things in the house that others may keep in the garage. What can I say? I like to have a drill handy.

I found these great galvanized bins for about $10.00 each at Walmart.

stencil laundry1

The smaller ones had cool rope handles too. I decided to stencil the baskets, sort of like a locker room. I purchased a cheap set of cardboard stencils in the art department at the same Walmart and a bottle of less than a dollar dark gray-black paint ( called pavement by Plaid).

I decided to give the three smaller bins a number. I chose 58, 61, and 82. The years of our birth and the year we were married. I sorted out the stuff to go in the bins according to who uses it most. My bin has floral wire, picture hanging kit, glue gun, staple gun, E6000… you get the drift. Hubby has stuff for the sprinkler project he is working on, electrical wire cutters etc. The shared bin has flashlights, tape measure, levels…

The larger bins will go on the lower shelf. One says FEED and the other says…SOAP. Guess why? Hiding the detergent and pet food in plain sight. Love it.

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stencil laundry3

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Here is the project under way. It seriously took me 30 minutes to get everything out, stencil the baskets, put everything up and get the baskets on the shelf.

The addition of a glass wash board that belonged to my grandmother, a key cabinet made for us when we married by a family friend, the chalkboard that Hubby made from a roadside find headboard (it did not make it to the garage) and tadah! I feel like We made some serious progress here. I still want a functioning hanging bar and will be moving in a drying rack from the lake house, but we are almost there with this room. IMG_3170 IMG_3171 IMG_3172 IMG_3173 IMG_3174 IMG_3175 IMG_3176 I love having the keys to all our random things in one location.

 

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This olive basket was also at Walmart and is going to serve as my trash can. I love that the handles are going to hold trash sacks. olive bucket

Blogging, home decorating, moving, mudroom, new home, recycled furniture, resale finds, Reused frame, Roadside Finds, Thrifting, Thrifty decorating, vintage style

Decorating a New Home on the Cheap

Before this very LOOOONNNGGG post begins ( sorry about that, I have missed you!), I have to show you my anniversary card from Hubby.

Here is the front of the card:

anniversary card

and here is the inside.

anniversary card 2

I thought it was the PERFECT anniversary card from a dude who had moved my stuff around for two weeks now while I try to settle in.

Unpacking is 99% complete and decorating has begun in earnest. Because I am way more savvy than my last move about bargain shopping I decided to challenge myself for decorating our new home:

  • Use as many of the things I currently own to decorate my new house as possible. If I loved them enough to lug them across south-east Texas, the least I can do is find a spot for them!

 

  • Incorporate elements from the color scheme I have chosen in the main rooms. Bedrooms will have their own personality.
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  • Keep the decorating budget to $200 per room. I love a challenge.

When we started this adventure of moving into a new home, it was our plan to downsize. That did not happen. We found a great home, on a cul de sac, near our jobs that was 60 square feet bigger than our City House. Because we planned on downsizing I cleaned house. I sold, gifted and donated a ton. If I did not love it or need it- out it went. I must tell you folks, it was a little liberating. What we kept for in the house fit in a 16 foot Pods Container and a 16 foot storage unit.

For the first time in my life we have empty drawers in the kitchen, and space in the closet. We are still working through a lack of storage in the bathrooms but I have a plan for that. Additional cabinets are in our future.

Before we moved in I worked feverishly on getting some unique furniture pieces ready and we will continue to add. If you click on the links it will take you to the projects we have been working on. We got a French Provincial dresser and headboard ready, and coral colored end tables

French Provincial Dresser

a buffet table,

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a beverage station for the back porch,

sewing machine

recovered dining room chairs, and found some awesome yellow chairs at a garage sale. My favorite pieces have made the move. My mudroom bench is in, although it is a little worse for the wear- it will need some touch up paint.
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My farmhouse table made the trip too. In the near future there will be a bench at the foot of our bed, a back porch that my son says is going to look like the inside of a bag of Skittles, a unique kitchen island using this beauty below,

Serpentine oak dresser

a home office and a media center for the TV. (wait until you see the dresser Hubby found for me on Craig’s List!

All that being said… I am WAAY short on accessories. I just don’t have enough unique items to make the home feel lived in. I have focused so much on the furniture that I just didn’t think about the little things that make a home unique. I have not been buying those items. A visit from my friend Shahana confirmed that we just don’t have enough “stuff”. She came over to help me decorate the top of the pie safe and cabinets but we were just stumped.

Right now it looks so…generic. new. mass produced. NOT ME AT ALL

The best option for me to decorate is also earth friendly. Resale, re-purpose and create. Oh, and clearance/sale shopping. Yes there are going to be some new things too.

life is growth

This painting is in our family room.

 

A quick trip with Shahana to Goodwill and $69.00 later I got everything below including this awesome huge basket,

goodwill basket

this jug (It had a light kit in it, but they had not damaged the jug- I think it is old for real, which I love),

goodwill jug

these matching lamps that are going to be worked over ( Hubby is being a little resistant to my painting the glass- so I think the shades are getting painted along with all the metal on them…for now…in the spirit of world home peace),

goodwill lamps

goodwill crystal lamps

this ornate frame with a print in it that is going to be an art project ( think herringbone and check out one of my pages on Pinterest- New Home Pinterest Page),

ornate frame

a chicken plate to hang, ( I have a shelf project in store for above the buffet that will incorporate the chicken plate.) these three platters that will look awesome on the Skittle porch,

this woven greenish tray,

goodwill woven basket

and this huge metal can of some sort. I love the can but am just not sure what it was for. Right now it has a barn painted on it but that is only temporary. It is going to get stripped, a paint job, a big sanding and hopefully it will look it’s rustic aged self again.

oil can

goodwill oil can

Here is the running total for the bedrooms: (I will have previews of the kitchen, breakfast room and den on Sunday)

Master Bedroom

$20.00 for two new lamps and shades

$10.00 for I Love You More PillowYay Kirkland’s one day deal sales- get on their email list if you have one near by. They send out alerts when they put items on sale for 24 hours only.
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$92.00 for Burlap Curtains- I found these 96″ curtains on sale for $23.00 a panel at Hancock Fabrics- lined natural burlap, so they had to come to our house. I am making curtains for the den/dining/family room but they will not be lined.

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More to come. The bench needs nail head trim so there will be an additional cost and we desperately need artwork. i think there is a project in my future.

Green Bedroom

The dresser and headboard were purchased for $80.00 and painted for $15.00.

The curtains were $30.00.

A $20.00 World Market shade and a 12.00 accent pillow.

Front Bedroom

Wow this room is going to be a beauty! No hints on this one because I am so excited for you to see the before and after of this room. The only thing I am showing you that is finished for the room is this awesome lamp.

painted lamp1

painted lamp3

painted lamp4

Purchased for $2.00 at a resale shop, I spray painted the nasty amber glass and metal ($4.00 for a can of spray paint- new avacado). The shade was $1.00 at a church garage sale. Love it. Love it more that the whole lamp cost $7.00. I am planning a DIY on lamps soon. They are not hard to take apart and re-do.

I have also purchased some fabric for pillow shams- $6.00

Art work $29.00

Oops paint for the furniture I will be painting- $2.00

Not too bad huh? I made a haul! I am working feverishly on getting the items settled in to their new homes.

I will be updating the rooms and will be adding pictures to the cul de sac page on the blog. The fun is beginning.

The Southern Belle is scheduled to arrive this evening! We are so very excited to have her come visit and I have all the items required for a burlap pillow project lined up. She requested it, I promise!