on a budget

when things get boring in the bedroom

11 September 2014 by Andrea Leave a Comment

Sometimes things get boring in the bedroom. Stale. Just the same old thing, day after day, week after week, month after month. A sense of ennui sets in and all you can think about is how something has to change. You just can’t continue the way things are.

No, I don’t mean that has gotten boring! I mean your decor has. Geez, you people always have your minds in the gutter!

Well, when things have gotten dull, spice it up! Consider it a marriage encounter for your decor!

Recently I was feeling bored (with my decor) and so I decided to spruce things up a bit. As always, I’m on a tight budget, so it included a combination of rearranging some of what I already have, using some things that have been curing for years, and adding a little bit of new to the mix.

In general, I’m moving from a more traditional look to a more eclectic look – vintage and shabby chic marry mod. OK, so that’s more of a threesome than a traditional marriage, but when we’re decorating we don’t always need to follow societal norms!

Let’s start with the armoire. Here’s the before pic, with fake plants that look just fine, but no doubt more in the traditional vein…

Goodbye fake plants, hello gold dress form trussed in faerie lights!

The faerie lights were $11.99 plus shipping. Well worth the expense. They’re battery operated, so there are no pesky wires running over the side of the armoire. Plus they run on a timer, so I can turn them on and six hours later they go off automatically. Perfect for when you need to spice things up with some ambiance!

Here’s how it looks during the day with the lights off…

You will notice that the dress form is off center, and there’s a lot of empty, open space on the top of the armoire. I’m really trying to get OK with imperfection. That includes getting comfortable with negative space and off-center presentation. I’ve actually grown to love the oddness of it all…it really highlights the dress form as the featured element.

Speaking of the dress form, this beauty has been curing for years! I purchased her for $1.25 at a local high school rummage sale. Been waiting to find the perfect place for her. Think I’ve found it!

Moving on…

Let’s take a look at one of my favorite possessions. A Picasso print of A Mother and Child and Four Studies of Her Right Hand. This was my grandmother’s print and I always loved it in her home from the time I was a kid. I’ve had it in my bedroom since I got it, but thought it needed to be featured a little more prominently, so I added some black and white polka dotted washi tape to frame it out…

I just eyeballed the tape placement, because that’s what I do, but you could always be more precise and measure it out like a normal human.

(If you’re wondering why I have such weird angles with the wall hangings, it’s because I get a lot of light in this room so the angle is the only way to avoid glare in the pic. Carry on…)

Another angle…

I love, love, love how this looks! It really brings out the tiny, black rim on the frame, as well as the black in the sketch. Plus the washi tape was a steal – I got 3 rolls for $2.99 at Michaels. More to come later with one of the other rolls of tape.

By the way, polka dots are my fave. Especially black and white polka dots. So this just makes me happy every single day when I see it! Here’s a close-up so you can better see the polka dots (as well as the aforementioned glare)…

Enough about that. On to the one splurge.

Before the splurge, there was an angel print, accompanied by a broken vintage bracelet…

The splurge was spending $40 on a custom-printed Lumineers poster on Etsy…

I love the Lumineers and I superlove the poster art! The perfect mod piece to start the sexy love affair with vintage and shabby chic.

Sadly, I won’t be sharing the artist info here, because it took over a month and opening a case on Etsy to finally get the seller to ship, despite having paid. But at least I finally received it and I’m in love!

I tossed it into a basic poster frame and voila! Here it is from another wacky angle…

And you can see the vintage bracelet remained.

To the left of my bed I tightened up the placement of the pieces that were already hanging on that wall, to give them more of a vignette feel…

And on the right side of my bed I added a gorgeous mermaid print I bought a while back on Etsy from artist Amy Huddleston. (You know the drill…it was curing for a while.) I placed it in a mod white frame, which really brought an eclectic feel to the grouping. Talk about mod and vintage and shabby chic!

The blues and aquas and in mermaid print bring out the blue in the Girl with a Pearl Earring by Vermeer. Which, by the way, I found on the back of a Reader’s Digest magazine and decoupaged to a piece of painted wood.

But the white frame seemed too stark. Something was still missing…know what I mean?

Oh yeah. Washi tape, part deux.

I added some black and white chevron washi tape – part of my $2.99 three-pack – and it did the trick! Toned down the starkness of the white and tied it to the black in the other two pieces. Here’s a close-up…

Taping perfection. Just eyeballed this as well. You could do the same, or maybe even be more precise and measure.

Although those are all awesome, we’re still not finished.

Previously, I had this angel art all lined up in a row…

Very pristine and orderly, but where’s the flair?

I’ll tell you where the flair is…right here…

I mixed those bad boys up for a touch of the unexpected! We can’t be angelic and perfect all the time, especially when things have gotten boring in the bedroom!

Here’s where they are in the room…

And finally, I dug deep into the world of curing and found these vintage mailbox doors that I purchased on eBay approximately 10 years ago.

I figured that it was time to take the focus off the alarm system and the light switch – boring! – and add something interesting to this spot!

Now mind you, I did slice my finger open adding picture hanging wire to the back of these and heavily debated whether I needed a tetanus shot – I didn’t end up getting one and fortunately lockjaw has not set in – but they were certainly worth the effort!

They just look so cool all lined up and are another metallic element, adding to the mixed metals in the room, accents of silver and gold and bronze.

A whole new fun, updated bedroom for less than $100. Cheaper than sexy lingerie and a night out on the town! Who’s bored now?

Take my advice…don’t be afraid to mix it up in the bedroom!

organic mod kitchen update

7 September 2014 by Andrea Leave a Comment

A while back I did a little kitchen update but didn’t get around to sharing it here. So it in the spirit of better late than never, I introduce you to my organic mod kitchen update.

My house is kind of traditional, especially considering the kitchen cabinets. I always like to let the house speak to me, rather than forcing a certain style of decor. But I decided to move out of my “funky chicken” phase and into my new phase in which I combine modern, more organic elements with the more traditional style of the house.

But enough yammering on about it…here are the pics!

Let’s start with the simple things…my new napkin holder…

Yes, indeed, you are correct. It is a rock.

Part of what I was going for was bringing in some organic elements – things from nature. What says nature more than a rock? That’s right. Nothing. So a rock it is. Plus it has some sentimental value. It’s a rock that my son found in our yard when he was little and he gave it to me as a gift. Now it has a purpose in our home. And the price was right. Free.

Next I swapped out a chicken lamp – you know, part of the funky chicken phase – to a cool, glass lamp.

Here’s the chicken…

Kind of traditional. A look I’m moving away from.

The new glass lamp…

It’s a gorgeous green glass. I have it on a timer, so I never have to mess with it.

To the left of the lamp is the phone and answering machine, along with some funky chicken art covering the phone jack.

I swapped out the chickart for an amazing art piece of my own making, designed by framing a dish towel. Oh, but not just any dish towel…

This amazing dish towel says:

you drink too much. you cuss too much. you have questionable morals. you’re everything i ever wanted in a friend.

The moment I saw this dish towel, I bought one for myself and my best friend! Because it just says it all.

Of course, framing a dish towel is not as simple as one might think. I imagined (in my mind where all projects work perfectly) that I would just lay the towel in this awesome wood and metal frame from Target and that I’d just fold the rest of the towel and tuck it inside the back of the frame. All 24 inches of fabric. Um yeah, that didn’t work out. So I had to cut down the towel and tape it down on the cardboard insert. Me telling this story now makes it sound as if it took about 5 minutes. Trust me…it didn’t. Probably took an hour to get the whole thing worked out to picture hanging perfection. But the time spent was worth it, because it is fun and awesome!

And then there’s my pink fruit tray. Talk about adding a touch of mod! Got this as part of a food gift basket a couple of years ago.

Please excuse the fact that there’s hardly any fruit there. Let’s just pretend that we ate it.

Well, if you thought that those were the only incidents of funky chickens in my pre-makeover kitchen, you’d be mistaken. There was also this tray, which was covering an electrical outlet…

I found this amazing cheese cutting board, also from Target, that I decided I wanted to hang on the wall because it just shouted organic mod to me.The wood grain called my name, lulled me into a trance, and made me pick it up and carry it to the cash register.

This is a perfect example of decorating with things that you love and that are beautiful and using them in ways other than they were originally intended. And also a way to decorate on the cheap. I can’t recall the exact price, but I’m thinking it was in the $12.99-$14.99 range.

It was flat on the back as well as the front, so I figured I would hang it with Command picture hanging strips. The chicken tray was hung this way as well. In fact, I had attached it to the outlet cover and thought I would do the same with the cheese board. But the cheese board was heavier than the tray and therefore wasn’t as stable. Plus the tray back was set in, so there was an allowance for the outlet cover, whereas there wasn’t with the cheese board, making it stick out too far, as well as being wobbly. Then this happened…

Yeah, so the outlet cover broke right off the wall. Guess the solid wood cheese board was too heavy for this approach. Fortunately, I have a stash of outlet covers in the basement and then I came up with this brilliant idea…

I nailed paint stirring sticks to the wall, which were just about flush with the outlet cover. Yes, necessity is indeed the fricking mother of invention!

Then I attached the command strips to the paint sticks and voila!

The perfect way to hang the cheese board and cover the outlet!

Ah, the cleverness of me! Doesn’t that look fab?

black angels

1 September 2013 by Andrea Leave a Comment

Perhaps it reflects the blackness of my soul, but I find something so alluring about high gloss black angels.

So in the spirit of attending to the blackness of my soul, this weekend I decided to finish curing yet another project…the black angels project.

Honestly people, this project has been curing in my garage for probably seven years. Rather than judging me and thinking what a lazy human being I must be, consider it a personal favor to you. Doesn’t it make you feel better about yourself to know that there’s someone out there far lazier than you? And besides, if I can start and finish a project after it’s cured for seven years, hell, you can do just about anything you put your mind to!

The black angels started their life as an underwhelming resin wall hanging…

This spot over my front door needed a little something…

It’s bland…very bland…

So I took the basic resin angel wall hanging…

…tossed it on a lawn bag in my garage and started spray painting with a high gloss black. It only took 2 coats, so it was quick and easy, plus it didn’t cost me one red cent, because I already had the spray paint (and you are aware that I’ve had the damn resin thing lingering around for years).

And before you know it, it was a reflection of the high glossy blackness of my soul…there…now, isn’t that better?

Here it is above the front door…

You don’t get the full effect from afar, plus the area still needs to much more work (paint on the walls, the door painted black, board and batten all around – I have big plans, people), but you get the idea.

Another close-up…

And the angels from another angle…

Gloriousness!

Thank goodness I felt like letting the high gloss blackness of my soul come out this weekend. I just love how these glorious black angels turned out!

Showing off at Funky Junk Interiors.

no cost project

15 January 2013 by Andrea 2 Comments

Who have I been kidding?

I’ve said that I haven’t been doing any projects because I’ve been, um, short on funds (ie, broke), but seriously that’s no excuse. Because it doesn’t cost anything to clean. And boy does my office/studio/loft need a good cleaning.

I should really be embarrassed to post a pic of it here, but since I have no shame (in addition to no money), here goes…

OK, this is an old pic, so it’s not quite this bad. But bad enough.

So I decided that until I can scrape up some cashiola for my next project, I will begin the massive undertaking of cleaning my office/studio/loft space.

I started at the entrance of the loft space with Megan’s desk.

Megan’s desk is so named because it was a desk that I trash picked from my former neighbor Megan’s house when I lived in California. Now almost 7 years later, we still call it Megan’s desk. Kind of an endearing name for a desk.

Here is Megan’s desk, in all of her cleaned up glory…

Isn’t she loverly? (The chair I picked up from Target a couple of years back.)

If I recall correctly, the desk was Ethan Allen that Megan dared to paint a creamy white. Also if I remember the story correctly, Megan may have had to revive her mother when she found out that she had painted classic furniture. Of course I adored Megan for that and many other reasons!

At some point, Megan was ready for said desk to move on, and she was living across the street from a trash picker at the time. The rest was history.

Until last weekend, Megan’s desk was loaded up with crap, basically a repository for things that needed to be moved, stored, donated, or thrown. So I cleared it out and here she is.

In fact, now that she’s all available again, I may have plans for her elsewhere in the house in the future. But first things first. I still need to finish cleaning the rest of this space, even if it takes all winter.

And at the rate I’m going it might. But I’ll share the embarrassing pictures every step of the way!

little things :: recorder edition

5 September 2012 by Andrea Leave a Comment

If you have kids or ever were a kid, I’m betting that you have an old recorder lying around. Didn’t everyone play recorder in school? I know I did, my sister did, and both of my kids did.

And I’m guessing that you also have some weird little strip of wall that is too small for just about anything decorative. Well, guess again, people!

Dig up that old recorder make it sing again!

No, you don’t have to play Lightly Row…just find an awkward spot and hang that recorder up, just like this…

It’s just a tiny little speck of wall between two door frames. Perfect for a recorder! Don’t you think?

How much did it cost? $0, since I had not one but two recorders hanging around. And if you want to get all funky and colorful, you could spend about $5 and get one of these…

Now go play Lightly Row while you’re looking for a place to hang your recorder!

how much did it cost? family room edition

28 August 2012 by Andrea Leave a Comment

Recently I freshened up our family room.

It looks great, but how much did it cost?

Let me give you the facts and figures…

Zebra ottoman – trash picked the ottoman, pre-owned spray paint, zebra print fabric – $12
Pier 1 zebra print throws – 2 x $29.99 – $59.98
Fab tulip decorative pillow cover from The Cottage Cupboard – $45.95 + $6 shipping – $51.95*
Upcycled vintage sheet turned RELAX pillow cover from Olive Handmade – $29 + $2.75 shipping – $31.75*
Number 5 pillow, a recycled sail pillow from Reiter8 – $48 + $9 shipping – $57*
2 green & yellow candles from Pier 1 – 2 x $4.18 – $8.36
1 yellow candle & 1 orange candle – 2 x $7.99 – $15.98

GRAND TOTAL – $237.02

While $237 is no small chunk of change, especially to the broke among us, it’s not such a terrible price to pay to give a complete facelift to my old, boring family room. And best of all, it looks awesome!

*I will note that I spent more on the pillow covers and number 5 pillow than I usually spend. Typically I’m more of a clearance shopper. These were not small purchases. But I decided that I wanted unique, durable accessories and that I want to begin to support artisans, crafters, and artists with my dollars when I can.

choosing an accent color

26 August 2012 by Andrea Leave a Comment

Recently I freshened up my family room by adding some simple accessories and not spending scads of money. My new accent colors are orange, yellow, and a vibrant green.

I chose those colors by taking a look at some of the accessories I already had in the room (that I knew I’d be keeping) and picking out some of the more vibrant colors, like the orange and yellow in this lamp shade (which has a great story behind it)…

The spicy pumpkin orange and greens in this chair…

The golden lamp…

The yellow in this vintage advertising art…

And the vibrant yellow lemon zest in the poodle’s martini…(and what poodle doesn’t deserve – hell, even demand – a martini?)…

All pieces that I already had in my family room that either I love (the art and the striped lampshade) or that need to stay because the lotto fairies didn’t leave me a winning ticket (the 90s chairs). Bottom line…I built an entirely new look based on what I already had with just a couple of colors that are now here…

and here…

Plus, just to keep everyone on their toes with a little design surprise, I didn’t just stick to orange, yellow, and green, but also added in a little zebra and black and white…

…because doesn’t black and white zebra match just about anything? Just shake your head yes and agree with me and no one will get hurt!

See it all pulled together in the family room here.

obstacles

8 August 2012 by Andrea Leave a Comment

We all have obstacles to contend with, whether it’s in our design projects or just life in general. It doesn’t matter how experienced you are or how big or small your budget is, you will face obstacles.

I discovered an obstacle the other day when I tried to fix my bed…

Here are some design obstacles that I can think of off the top of my head…

Little or no money
Project fails
Not enough time, due to a job, kids, or other obligations
Health concerns
Planning an eventual move
Lack of consensus on design plan with significant other
No inspiration
Fear
Any combination or all of the above

There are probably countless other obstacles that can prevent one from making a house a home. The question is, do you want to make changes to your home?

If the answer is yes, then the obstacles can be overcome. But on your terms. In your own time.

Don’t feel pressured to be like anyone else. No one but you truly understands the obstacles you’re facing. Don’t let those obstacles prevent you from making your creative dreams come true. Sometimes we need to release ourselves from expectations – the way that others think things should be or the timeline they try to impose on you, or even expecting too much of ourselves.

Little or no money

Get resoureceful! I’m not ashamed to have limited funds and you shouldn’t be either! There are plenty of freebies or cheap options out there.

Consider these…

Scanning your neighbors’ trash, or as it’s known in trendy design circles – Dumpster Diving! You know the old saw…one man’s trash is another man’s treasure. Put it to good work! One of my favorite pieces is my zebra ottoman, which I pulled out of a neighbor’s trash pile and revamped to fabulousity!
Accepting hand-me-downs – Sure your mother-in-law’s chair might be super-frumpy, but recovering it with your fave fabric will make it frumpilicious!
Shop Goodwill and other local thrift shops – Never know what you can find!
Repurpose to create new things, like I did to make this “plant stand“.
And never forget how inexpensive spray paint and wall paint are. Save your pennies and splurge on the paint, which can make the crappiest tchotchke look awesome!

Project fails

All I can say about this is plenty of my projects are failures. I guess that’s how we learn. Don’t know if you’ve noticed, but it seems that a lot more design shows are beginning to share the inner workings of how they put together their designs and how they stage rooms, and many are now also sharing project snafus. That’s refreshing. Because if even the big-time pros with a design staff have an occasional project fail, then why wouldn’t you and I?

My thought on project fails is learn from it and move on.

Not enough time

Yes, we live in a busy, busy world, where sometimes it feels like our lives aren’t our own. A 24/7 place where we’re always connected, companies suck up more and more of our personal lives, kids are overscheduled, and we’re generally encouraged to go, go, go.

I get it. I live it. But somehow we have to steal some time back to make our nests a place of calm respite. To make them a place we love to be. Our favorite place in the whole world.

I don’t know how to tell you how to make that happen, other than to say that we need to get comfy with doing things in small increments of time and maybe not finishing the project today. I am the Grand Pubah of Unfinished Projects, the Queen of Curing, but eventually the important stuff rises to the top of the heap.

Learn to pick the important stuff off the top of the heap. Eventually, your vision will be realized. Besides, design is an always-changing, ever-moving target, right?

Health concerns

There are plenty of people out there, quietly suffering with health issues that can zap their energy and ability to start or finish projects. Even if they have amazing ideas, they may not be able to bring their ideas to life.

If you have a health issue that slows your dreams, just do what you can when you can. I have struggled with this too, and often wonder if I’ll ever get my old energy levels back. Perhaps not. But I’m not going to let it stop me. Does it slow me and my progress down? For sure. But I just keep on trucking, sometimes moving at a snail’s pace, but always continuing to dream about my future projects, and I hope you will too.

Planning an eventual move

Yeah, you’re busted. Just because you’re planning to move in 6 months or a year or ten years, doesn’t mean you’re off the hook for feathering your nest.

You have two choices. You can leave your place bland and impersonal because you might be moving eventually, or you can make it into a place that you love, starting today!

Lack of consensus on design plan

It’s called compromise, baby.

No, I don’t mean the kind of compromise that we both decide to like my ideas always. (Although wouldn’t that be awesome?)

If you and your signif other can’t agree on one project, I’m guessing that there are plenty more projects to start on that you do agree on. Move on to something different and come back to this one later. Maybe one or both of you will have a change of heart or your overall vision will change.

If that doesn’t work, there’s always couples counseling.

No inspiration

Can you say Pinterest? With Pinterest and all of the design blogs out there, none of us have any excuse not to get inspired.

Don’t have ideas? Then copy someone else’s and apply them to your space. Eventually, you’ll get inspired with your own ideas or offshoots of others’ ideas. Go for it!

Fear

We’re all afraid to some degree. What if it doesn’t work out? Then you’ll learn from your failure (see Project Fails above) and move on and try again. If you’re really fearful, start small. Something small and inexpensive isn’t going to destroy your world if it goes wrong. But if it goes right, it may just rock your world! So…

Just Do It!

The message here is to do what you can, when you can. Let yourself off the hook if you don’t work at the same pace as others. Forgive yourself and get comfortable with who you are and your obstacles won’t seem like such difficult problems to overcome. They’ll eventually become part of the terrain that is your life to navigate. Don’t worry, you’ll be great!

little things :: work cubicle edition

10 March 2012 by Andrea Leave a Comment

For those of us who work full time outside the home, we spend more waking hours there than in the homes we love with the family we love.

OK, now that I’ve depressed you, let me at least encourage you to do something to spruce up your cubicle space.

Nothing as extravagant as you’ll find here…

Maybe something a little more subtle…

One of the ways to soften the harsh edges of a cubicle and give your workspace some life is with a plant. Here’s a plant that I’ve had at my desk…

Just your basic succulent. (I can’t handle plants that need any more care than very infrequent watering, hence the succulent.)

Then one day we were cleaning out our supply of old versions of dictionaries and style manuals. I work as an editor, so we need to work with the most up-to-date versions. The books were going to be tossed in the recycle bin, so I decided to give them new life and add some height to my plant…

Use what you have decorating at its finest! Now it’s just a little thing, but it’s really spruced up my plant and my desk! You can add a little design just about anywhere with a stack of books. And no need to pay lots of cash for this one…check out the dumpster, the recycle bin, your bookshelf, or the library book sale.

Here are a couple of other tchotchkes that I use to personalize my cubicle space…

Because I love me some letters and numbers, I *had* to own this lamp when I saw it on clearance at Kohl’s a couple years back.

And this sweet thing from my monkey collection…

Just a couple of things to make my cubicle to seem less sterile and more fun!

Have you done anything fun to brighten up your workplace? Share your pics on the Homage Style Facebook page.

And don’t forget to enter the Spring Cleaning Giveaway for a chance to win this adorable sterling silver charm bracelet!

Click here for contest entry details.

Showing off at…

ottoman before & after

8 January 2012 by Andrea 11 Comments

About a year ago, I found this ottoman in my neighbor’s trash…

It was in pretty bad shape, but sturdy nonetheless…

Obviously trash picked, since there was even garbage in the springs…

Gross, but salvagable!

So, I let it cure in my garage for a year.

Eventually I picked up some zebra faux fur, which I bought from Joann, using a 50% off coupon from the Joann app on my iPhone. I bought a yard and a half, which cost me around $12 with the coupon.

This weekend the moment of inspiration finally struck!

I already had high gloss black spray paint, so I cleaned up the ottoman and spray painted the legs.

I didn’t worry a whole lot about getting paint on the original fabric, since the faux fur is thick enough to cover any discoloration.

The legs weren’t looking too bad…

It’s amazing how much of a difference just the black paint makes.

And now for the faux fur…

I began by stapling the prewashed fabric in the middle of the wider side of the ottoman.

As an aside, if you’re in the market for a staple gun, let me recommend that you consider an electric staple gun. They’re just a couple bucks more than a manual one, and totally worth it, because the electric one won’t kill your hands the way a manual one does. It’s still a workout and you’ll still break a sweat, because you need to press firmly to release the safety and you’ll need to pull the fabric taut as well. But overall, it’s much easier to use.

After stapling several places in the middle, I stretched the fabric taut and stapled similarly on the opposite side.

I stapled my way out from the middle, and then did the same on the shorter sides of the ottoman, working my way to the corners.

When I got to the corners, I folded them like I was wrapping a present, tucking them in and under as flat and tight as possible.

So that it looked like this on the side after stapling…

And like this underneath…

I wasn’t terribly concerned about how things looked underneath, just as long as it looked good on the visible surface. And I think it turned out looking pretty darn good!

Isn’t it adorable? I love it!

Best of all, it was a super inexpensive project. Only cost me $12 for the fabric, plus the spray paint I already had on hand (approx. $4), and my time an effort. Can’t beat that!

I’m not sure if I’ll keep the ottoman with the red and orange chair, since they’re both pretty bold, but the combination is growing on me, and boy do I love the zebra faux fur ottoman!

Would you keep the chair and the ottoman together?

Showing off my new ottoman at Funky Junk Interiors and Kammy’s Korner. And jumping into the contest over here…