Burlap Canvas Home Dec Knock Off! (Ha! Ha!)

If you know anything about me, you KNOW that it really bothers me to pay full retail for anything. No, I'm not an extreme couponer, and I don't dumpster dive (usually), but why pay full retail when so many retailers offer discounts, etc. They are practically BEGGING you to buy their good without spending all of your money.

This philosophy came in pretty handy lately. We've been in the throes - a love/hate relationship deal - of a relocation which included the purchase of a fixer upper home. Don't get me wrong; I LOVE decorating and updating and being creative. I love anything DIY. That's just it....I love the fun part, the "putting it all back together" part. The prep and grunt work - I could leave to someone else.

But the end results? Oh my! I love seeing something come to life, reloved!  99% of everything that has been done to our new home has been done by us. To see some of the updates click on this link - http://tinyurl.com/lrwaqmg 

While creating a palette wall at the end of our stairway to the basement (which my kids did all by themselves!), my daughter and I ran across an industrial looking picture that we both agreed would be a nice addition to their wall. But, my frugality and my daughter's cheapness (yep, she's more frugal than I am) wouldn't allow us to spend $50.00 for a 16" x 20" picture. 

We both love the nail heads, the burlap and the reference to NYC. (Due to a girls only trip a few years ago) But for $50 we felt we could duplicate the look for a lot less.

Olivia chose a picture from our trip and had it printed out at an 11" x 14" size from Shutterfly. Cost? $4.00, including shipping. 

For the burlap background, we were going to purchase canvas stretcher bars and put them together to form the frame and stretch some burlap over it. The burlap was left over from another project. However, when we went to Michael's to buy the stretchers (with a 40% off coupon, of course!), we spied these in a center aisle. We almost missed them! So excited...and they were on sale!

We snagged an 16" x 20" and checked out! The burlap background cost us about $11. When we got home, it was time to put it all together. I glued the print of our picture in the center of the burlap frame with some regular wood glue, just because that's what I grabbed first. I weighted it down with some large paperback books until it dried.

Once the glue was dry, I trimmed the edges of the frame with some nailheads that we had left over from our updated couch project. http://tinyurl.com/lxkhwdj

Ta da!! I am very pleased with the end result. Actually, I think it looks better than the original, and it's personalized, using one of our memory photos!!  So, for a whopping cost of less than $15, we reproduced, and bettered the original pic that we both fell in love with. 

For the next post, I'm going to be sharing another knock off I used to cover up this ugly thing that stares you down when you walk in the back door!

 Ta ta til next time! Love to you all.

Revisting a Favorite

Time sure does fly. I have been thinking of a new post for a couple of weeks. EEEKK! I didn't realize that I hadn't posted anything since July!! Geesh!

We have been really busy with a lot of reloving our new home. Honestly, I LOVE decorating. I think I should have gone into interior design instead of visual communication. It just melts my butter to see anything that's outdated, delapidated (like the word delapidated) or trashed, bring it back to life and give it another chance. I had been finding that creative outlet in furniture until we bought a fixer upper and relocated to another state. (Lots of posts on that later.)

I've been noticing that white is still very popular in furniture color. I think it's here to stay for a while. It's bright, clean-looking and a neutral. I saw this piece and fell in love with the carving on the front. It was missing a drawer and one handle, but other than that it was in great shape. Well, what we relovers consider great! A missing drawer only allows us to be more creative, right?

I got so excited about it I forgot the before picture. I hate it when I do that. I'm getting better at it.

The dresser was a medium, nondescript brown wood.We decided it needed to be white. So, we primed and painted a bright white. But the entire thing didn't want to be white. My daughter and I brainstormed. We had just finished using General Finishes Java Gel Stain on another piece and LOVED the end result. It's so different from any other stain. Wipe it on, let it dry.  No sanding!! It darkened the top without hiding all the beautiful grain and it was gorgeous against the white.

This IS an oil based product, so be sure to wear gloves and be careful about spills accidentally hitting anything with your wiping cloth. You can buy it here - 

 http://www.woodcraft.com/Product/826978/General-Finishes-Java-Gel-Stain-Pint.aspx

Where the drawer was missing, we added a piece of 1/2" plywood, some trim around the sides of the wood and across the front edge of the plywood. It was primed and painted the same bright white.

But it still was lacking something. The top needed a little bit of zazzing up. My daughter had the idea of adding some silver to the top. With a damask stencil, she applied several patterns with silver paint. When that was dry, she used a small brush and added leaf sizing just in spots. She wanted the silver leaf to look aged and spotty, instead of solid. And the final result of the top?

If you look closely, you can see the brighter spots in the silver pattern. Those are the aged silver leaf areas. The entire top was given two coats of clear sating polyurethane.

To match the silver leaf design, we found some bright silver baskets at our local Home Goods. (I LOVE Home Goods. Maybe because it feeds my interior decorating addiction. 

It has just the right amount of feminine mixed with masculine, and just the right amount of zazz!

This gorgeous beauty found a new home within 3 hours! 

Neutrals will never go out of style!

Stay tuned! There's so much more furniture and maybe more home reloving updates like this one -  http://bit.ly/1o9uQyl

Thanks for stopping by! Come back soon!