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.

LABOR Day DIYs!

I hope you all had a wonderful Labor Day!

Mine was definitely a LABOR day. We're taking a small break from the vintage furniture painting that Sow's Ear usually does, and we're making some updates around the house. This weekend was a crazy-busy one. We did manage to squeeze in a family picnic in between all the projects.  

Stephanie, over at By Stephanie Lynn @ http://www.bystephanielynn.com/2013/09/sunday-showcase-party-210.html is hosting a linky party, asking her readers to share their recent projects. I'm going to her party!

Ready to take a peek at what we accomplished? It might not seem like a lot, but it was labor and time intensive. I have the blisters to prove it!

I'm very frugal when it comes to anything! Honestly, unless it's something that I fall absolutely in love with, I'm always looking for a way to do it myself...CHEAPER!

First, there was the stairway/hallway wallpaper project

I don't have any "before" pictures, but believe me the 1980's wallpaper that graced this space was not graceful in any way. It had a cornflower blue, mauve and beige color palette. Not horrible, but the crayon, pencil and tears were not helping matters.  I had the strange blue/green Berber carpet that had to stay. At our local Habitat Restore I found a paisley wallpaper with the same strange teal color, along with tan, bronze and gold. The best part ---- ONLY $1 per double roll!!  Yep!  LOVE it!

Although this seemed like a straight forward project, there were angles, cut ins, railing brackets. It was really time intensive, but I think it turned out very nice.

By the way, see those nice teal knobs on the dresser? They used to be white! I colored the white glass with a teal sharpie, let them dry overnight, baked them in a 350 degree oven for 30 minutes, and VOILA!! New, updated, color-matched knobs!

Second up -- the Dreaded Deck

It was painted 2 years ago and definitely needed a new coat of makeup! I repainted the floor; UGH!! Drudgery! Then came the fun part!  Putting the eyeshadow, liner and blush on the foundation.

I purchased a 6 by 8 foot outdoor rug at Home Depot for just over $17  http://tinyurl.com/kun6fbf .  I made a stencil and with a couple of cans of paprika and white spay paint, created a one-of-a-kind outdoor rug.  More updates included the pillow covers for the reading area. Fabric Guru ( http://tinyurl.com/l3nwwre ) has become my online go-to for fabric. Even with the $4.99 shipping cost, I can find current patterns at affordable prices. The antique headboard potting bench was a project that my brother completed for me as a Christmas present. He's a good guy!  Another project FINI!

Third up...bedroom curtain tie backs and DIY easy Roman shades

Kind of following the directions from 365 Days to Simplicity (http://tinyurl.com/mbbuh2r ) and some $1/yard fabric that I picked up at Wally World, I made three Roman shades that replaced the worn out, gross mini blinds in my bedroom. The directions for the custom tie backs are found here: http://sowsear2.blogspot.com/2013/09/one-of-kind-curtain-tie-backs.html What d'ya think?

And, Fourth, but not last (sigh) Upcycled Burlap Covered Boxes

Using office paper boxes I recreated the burlap storage boxes found at One Kings Lane for a fraction of the price. The original price for this set of three boxes was $69; and the largest box was 8"H x 15.75"W x 12"L http://tinyurl.com/kr7dzx3    With my trustly glue gun, scissors, and some paitence, I was able to reproduce a much larger box for $.25 a piece. The boxes were free and I found the burlap coffee bags at a local greenhouse supply warehouse for 25 cents a piece!! You can't get much more frugal than that!

Well, I think that's enough for one weekend, don't you? Phew! I'm going to go take a nap!

New Life for a Curb Dweller

Here's a sweet little find. A friend of mine keeps here eyes open for any "freebies" sitting alongside the edge of the road that are crying out for a new purpose. Here is one of her finds.

This little guy had definitely seen better days. No glass on top, kind of wobbly, beat up, and kicked to the curb, literally.  After brainstorming for a couple of days, I came up with a plan: it was about the right size for a little bench or footstool for an entryway or living room.  Hmmmm.... coming up with the plan is always the easy part; carrying it out always proves a little more challenging.

Plan: a new painted surface, a piece of thin plywood that would sit inside the "frame" where the glass used to be, something for over the plywood for a cushion. Finally, a cool, trendy cover of some kind.

The piece was sanded and given a fresh coat of satin black paint. After cutting the plywood to size, I stapled a pillow (ripped open and about 1/2 the stuffing removed) to the top of the plywood. The plywood was then covered with a burlap coffee bag that I had left over from some other crafts. Thin trim was then stained a honey gold and glued to the edges of the plywood to cover the edges and clean up any gaps between the frame and the plywood.  The last step was to distress the edges of the bench.

This is the result of a little ingenuity, some sawdust and elbow grease:

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 His new home?  A new friend's entry way; a place to sit while removing boots, etc.  A new life for a discarded piece. Ahh....

You can see a slew of transformations, great ideas and crafty things at The Shabby Creek Cottage at this link:
http://www.theshabbycreekcottage.com/2013/01/transformation-thursday-no-186.html#more