two dollars

A classic movie line to start the day.

I've had a few people email asking about the stool underneath my bedside table. And I realized in my 'get this damn room done already' hysteria, I forget to mention the little nugget.

There is an annual rummage sale at a local high school that a dear friend and I look forward to every spring. It starts early, the lines are crazy and the people watching is out of this world. It is Filene's Basement level hysteria in there and we love it.

This year though the sale was a bit of a bust. We found a few things that were OK but nothing we thought was worth taking home. But, as we were walking out the door I spotted this sad little stool out of the corner of my eye. You know my affection for sad little things.

A Thonet Bentwood ottoman as they are known. A beat up imitation, but for two bucks I went with it.  I am a seating addict (stools, benches, chairs, sofas) and I had to get a fix.

Unlike a classic Thonet Bentwood ottoman, this stool's cane seat had been replaced with this...carpet. Sorry for the fuzzy shot but trust me, its ugly. Consider this the soft film treatment, like they put on Barbara Walters to make her look better.

I wanted a pop of something other than blue in the bedroom so I sprayed the chair with left over paint I had from the girls room. Still loving that color.
As for the seat, the carpet (and I'm not joking, it is carpet) was glued on there, so there was no taking that stuff off. Instead I used spray adhesive to cover it with a $2 outdoor fabric remnant and some black trim I had gotten awhile back from JoAnn's.
And with that, all done. I so love a fast DIY. It satisfies my impatient nature perfectly.

So there you have it. A $4 dollar project. Money well spent!

Have you used left over things to pull together a project lately? This does nothing but encourage my 'buying random remnants of fabric' hobby. Know of any good places to score remnants? Anyone had luck on Ebay?

now i can lay down - bedroom reveal

Grab your cocktail and lets get this party started! I'm happy to report that I'm done. I don't think the room is done (are they ever really done?) but I am done.

There has been blabbing aplenty on this room so I'll try to talk (type) less and show more. Most of you know how hard it is for me not to talk, so this will be a challenge.

To recap, here is what we started with. A sad little space. The space of a couple who was too tired working on the rest of the house to put much energy into said space (or apparently into proper pillow placement).

Initially the plan was to just throw some lipstick on it. Add a bit of paint and maybe some new bedding. It was to take no time at all. Ha! I'm such a fool. When will I ever learn?!

A little paint led to more changes and more changes. It was that whole 'and they told two people, and they told two people, and so on.' This turned into a lot of 'and so on's.'

Here is my 'and so on' space.

The new paint color was a bit darker than I had originally planned but it grows on me more every day. Its like Barry White, all warm and velvety. And there is no better room for Barry than the bedroom. Yep, I just went there.

The gold spray painted lamp shades were moved in here and I love their pop of black against the panels.

Bedside tables are still a topic of discussion (in my head) but these are a good fit for now. Both are castoffs from the basement.

I shopped my basement and brought up this old iron headboard and added ribbon trim to bamboo roman shades (also from the basement) to soften them up a bit.

Giving the ribbon treatment to the existing bedskirt and making my own monogramed shams meant that all I bought for the bed itself was a throw pillow from HomeGoods and new sheets (which I lurve) from TJMax.

The lampshade came with the lamp (purchased from Target about 5 years ago) but I never used it as it had a big rip along one side. Hmmm, maybe that is why it had been on clearance? 

I covered it with a 1/2 yard of fabric purchased with a Hobby Lobby coupon and a can of spray adhesive. I mean I used the coupon to buy the fabric. I don't think you can pay for things with spray adhesive.

The floor lamp was found at a garage sale while walking the dog. I only had $1 on me and the wonderful woman was happy to take it. Holla!

Another gallery wall in the making, although this one is certainly in process and will grow over time.

The old frames came from my parent's basement (what's with me and basements?) and my mom was nice enough to hand them over under one condition  - "don't you dare spray paint them!"

A rug is still needed (I'm waiting for one to speak to me but I'm told rugs don't speak, so that might be part of the problem), and I'd still LOVE to talk the hubs out of chucking that ceiling fan in favor of a great old chandelier. But for now - I'm just going to enjoy.

So in the words of the Beastie Boys - that's it that's all that's all there is.

P.S. - I made a challenge to myself at the beginning of this project to try and take a second look at things I already owned rather than going out and just buying a bunch of new stuff. After all, if I bought it at some point, there must be something I liked about it - right?. Almost everything in here was something I already owned and just altered. As for the items I did purchase - paint, ribbon, wrapping paper, fabric and a few estate/garage sale items - I did this whole room for less than $125. And that makes me happy.

P.P.S - For anyone who thinks my bed stays that straight all the time - here it is just 10 minutes after taking these pics.

Now what am I going to do with all this free time?

color my world inpiration

I've had such fun following the Color My World series that several of my favorite ladies have been participating in over the last several weeks. Today is the last day of the series and to celebrate, they are having a link party. Being the party girl that I am, I thought I'd jump in on the fun.

Although it might seem a bit predictable, my 4-year-old has become rather vocal about her room lately and she demands PINK. I've wanted to add pink somewhere for quite a while and I'm totally in favor of using my children for my own gain. Don't worry, social services has already been notified of my poor parenting. So pink it is!

My mom gave these wonderful watercolors to my youngest for her birthday and I immediately thought, 'this is my chance'. So I took some old black frames and a can of Rust-oleum Berry Pink

Hello beautiful.

I was loving the color so much I decided to repeat it on the other side of the room. It was the perfect chance to add that mirror my 4-year-old has also been begging for (primping starts young in this house). So I gave the Berry Pink treatment to an old mirror.

Along with some pink laquered boxes from The Container Store the room is now a bit brighter and we are all...tickled pink. Sorry, I couldn't resist.

Make sure to check out all of the wonderful women who rocked this challenge over the past month. You are going to be craving color in no time!

The Blooming Hydrangea

 A Newfound Treasure

Our 5th House

Primitive and Proper 

Dutch.British.Love

Black Tag Diaries

Pawley's Island Posh

Hyphen Interiors

Shine Your Light

Trapped in North Jersey

Life on Mars

Perfectly Imperfect

Crazy Wonderful

Saved by Suzy

Living Savvy

Worthwhile Domicile

Like me Some... 

guest posting at Living Savvy

I'm guest posting over at Living Savvy today, talking about some of my favorite spray painting projects. Tiffany is one of my all time favorites, so I'm pretty excited. Head over and check it out!

Happy Weekend!

green for very little green

Hey there! First things first, I want to thank everyone for their great comments, especially about the lampshades. I think they just might deserve different bases so I'm going to keep my eyes open. I'll keep you posted.

With a 1st birthday party this weekend, our house is full of glue guns and pink. Everywhere pink. So, many things have fallen off my radar, but I did manage to finish one project on my list. A kick off project of sorts. But first a little background. I know what you're thinking, 'Oh great, another one of her stories.' I'll keep it brief, promise.

We have the classic neglected master bedroom - full of left overs, after thoughts and general laziness. Finally the other day I decided I'd had enough. I'm sick and tired of it and I'm not gonna take it anymore! (imagine me doing my best Norma Ray) Its time to start the patching, painting, moving, reorganizing, and of course, shopping. But as this room is (supposed to be) my sanctuary, the thought of the upheaval makes me want to avoid it altogether.

So I'm going with the 'What About Bob?' theory. Its all about the baby steps.

Baby step 1 - empty the room. As we've established, it drives me bonkers to live in an 'empty' space, so nothing is more encouraging than seeing blank walls first thing every day. Mission accomplished. It is driving me nuts and I am annoyed encouraged.

Baby step 2 - bring in some inspiration. I been dying for some kelly green...somewhere. Enter this mirror I picked up off the side of the road when I nabbed my now yellow table.

It used to sit on top of the table, ala vanity, which is why there is that big honkin' bolt sticking out of the bottom. Luckily that screwed right out. A bit of sanding and paper to protect the mirror and it was ready for a can of love.

After several light and even coats (a shout out to Sherry) I have a nice pop of inspiration.

Notice the blank walls. And curtains already pulled down. And no, I'm not channeling Laura Ashley's green and lavender. That wall color is the next thing to go!

Next up baby step 3 - paint the walls.

Then create curtains, get new bedding, recycle some lamps, get stuff for the walls, figure out a bedskirt, find a rug...oy. I'll stop there. I need a cocktail.

For now this bit of change will have to do. Its all about the baby steps.

Have you started any major projects lately? Have any project anxiety? Something you've wanted to get started but can't bring yourself to pull the trigger on?

gold metallic glow

C'mon ride the train. Woo Hoo. The gold train. Sorry, I'll stop. But I'm seeing it everywhere, and I'm joining in the fun.

I've seen several people use the new metallic spray paint from Rust-oleum recently, but after I saw Julia's table over at Pawleys Island Posh I knew I had to give it a try.

Enter this sad little shade.

I picked up this piece of damaged goods, along with its brother Darrel and its other brother Darrel, at a high school rummage sale (remember these Becca?). I have a feeling that the owner of these shades work up that morning and thought, 'Crap! I was supposed to bring something for the rummage sale!' And then proceeded to go down into her basement and pick up the first thing she found.

Although the outside is a nice black satin-ish type fabric, the inside is paper. Paper that has suffered some type of water damage. (not a statement you often make about a lamp shade)

Who in their right mind would buy these things? That would be me.

Luckily I only paid $2 for all 3. Since they were already in such poor condition and they were just gathering dust in my basement, I figured why not spray some gold up in here!

I was thinking moody, library lampshade. Man smoking a pipe in the corner in a big leather chair type lampshade. Like this.

via SFGirlByBay.com

Or this.

via Pinterest

And I'm happy to report...

these suckers look good! 100% improvement.

They still have a few little dents here and there, but you can't tell (unless you are taking close up pictures of them). And you've got to give these guys a break. They were obviously involved in some sort of flood that had left them for dead.

I'm loving the glow they cast.

So pretty. Saucy really. I feel like I need some candles and wine.

I'm in love. Especially after only spending under $10 for the whole thing - shades and paint. I think they will live in my entryway. I'll spend some time this weekend styling these bad boys up.

But I'm not so sure they should go on these silver lamps. What do you think?

Should I paint the lamps too? (trust me, they aren't precious) I don't want blow my $10 margin with some crazy expensive lamps. Maybe Goodwill? Any ideas?

In other news, I'm staring at an electrician's crack as I speak type so we can finally wrap up this living room project. So what do you think? Do I have more gold painting in my future?

Linking up to Emily Clark's Working With What You Have.