Nifty Thrifty Girl » Decorating

side table make-over

niftythriftygirl — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 23:15:32 +0000

A few weeks ago my daughter and I headed out for a little shopping. I had been thinking about a pair of side tables I had seen at an antique store. I’ve been wanting side tables for quite some time and I couldn’t get these off my mind. They weren’t exactly what I was looking for but the price was right, at $36 for the pair. Instead of heading to the antique store I took the chance and headed to the local thrift store. With those side tables still in my mind, I couldn’t believe what was sitting in front of me when I walked into the thrift store. Two perfectly adorable side tables.

They needed some major TLC but at a mere $8.99 (!) each, I knew they would be coming home with me.

I cleaned them up, sanded them lightly and gave them several coats of paint. I also sprayed the handles with an oil rubbed bronze spray paint. And here are the little darlings now:

I just love these little tables and I found the perfect matching lamps for them once they are in place in my living room!

fun with wallpaper

niftythriftygirl — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 01:06:56 +0000

Although I’m not a huge fan of wallpapering the walls of my home, I do find great joy in using wallpaper to decorate ordinary objects. When I found this great deal on wallpaper at Steve’s Blinds & Wallpaper I couldn’t resist. As soon as the wallpaper was delivered I got to work on this project:

Oh, what fun! It only took approximately an hour and a half to wallpaper all of these risers. Now that the steps have a fresh new look I will need to touch up the paint on the treads. (Yes, that is wallpaper at the top of the stairs. It was such a beautiful paper I had to use it on the walls!)

Next project…

This little guy was not as easy as the steps. Once I got the piece of wallpaper cut out, I had to glue the seam and carefully use clothespins to hold down the paper around the top and bottom rims until the glue dried. It turned out better than I expected but I would still like to perfect the technique.

I have several more wallpapering projects planned that I will share with you shortly. In the meantime, grab some wallpaper and have fun!

a mini bedroom re-do

niftythriftygirl — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 19:16:51 +0000

My lucky daughter just spent a week vacationing in Florida with her aunt and grandparents. So, while she was away I decided to do what I love best – redecorate. Her bedroom had been painted and redecorated last year but there were still a few things she wanted changed. She decided that the scalloped wooden valances above her windows (that were installed when she was a wee one) were too babyish and wanted them removed. She wanted more modern, ‘adult’ curtains. She wanted her bedroom door painted white (it was a garish green color), she wanted a desk, and she wanted her great, great grandmother’s beautiful, ornate dresser & mirror removed from her room and replaced with something modern. That’s quite a list for someone who’s only eleven!

As soon as her plane took off I scurried home and started tearing her room apart. I have no ‘before’ pictures because the mess that was her room was far too embarrassing to be published. Believe me when I say it looked like a tornado touched down. It took me an entire evening to box up all the things that were scattered around the room. I decided that I would do the decorating and when she got home she could do the sorting.

I knew at some point that I would be redecorating her room so I had previously purchased several pieces at yard sales, IKEA, etc. The major find was the IKEA Knappa pendant light – a mere $2 (!!!) at a yard sale last summer. Her metal swivel office chair was another great find – only $5 at a yard sale…and all I did was clean it up and recover the seat with some Ballard Designs fabric I bought on clearance.

Since a brand new desk was not in my budget I used a small drop-leaf table (that used to be my Mother’s kitchen table) and painted it white. The one white wall in her room was begging for some decoration so I added a little artistic flair and painted a black floral design.

Desk accessories from IKEA and Walmart:

Next, her bed…

I used a previously purchased Ikea duvet that she had picked out, assorted pillowcases & blankets, an Ikea accent pillow and pink accent pillow that I made out of a recycled sweater. I hung artwork/photos (including the photo of a pink lily that she took at a photography class last year) in black frames.

And the final touches: a new white shag rug, curtains and curtain rod from Target. Notice little Waffle enjoying the view.

Not too shabby for a week’s worth of work, don’t you think? I have yet to find a dresser so for the time being we are going to store her clothes in a large, white antique bookshelf.

My daughter arrived home safely last night and her response when she walked into her room: “You’re kidding me!”

poof! a pouf!

niftythriftygirl — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 17:57:24 +0000

Last weekend I had the pleasure of spending a relaxing weekend with my bestie girlfriends at a former ski lodge-turned-private home. Besides all the food, drinks and laughs that we enjoyed, we spent Saturday afternoon crafting. What joy! It was the perfect setting…a snowy afternoon, roaring fireplace, and plenty of craft space on the spacious dining room table.

I decided to get out the Amy Butler Gum Drop Pillow pattern I’ve been holding on to for over a year – just waiting for the perfect time/space to make it. Since I wasn’t sure how well the crafting of this pillow would go, I only used a smidgen of Amy Butler Fabric and filled in with some inexpensive polka dot fabric. I opted for the large version of the pillow, and yikes!…what a monster it is!

The pattern is super easy to follow, and quite simple to make. It does take a ton of stuffing, so be prepared to buy a 5 or 10 lb. box of polyfil. I purchased the 10 lb. box so I could make more pillows because now I’m hooked!

I’m off to buy some more lovely AB fabric because guess who loves to snuggle on the big pouf? I think he deserves one of his own…

diy chalkboard

niftythriftygirl — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 17:59:54 +0000

I have always wanted a chalkboard wall in my kitchen. Since my walls are paneled my only option was to paint the free space on the side of the one original cupboard in my kitchen. I was hesitant to paint this area but figured if I didn’t like it I could just paint it back to white.

After several coats of black chalkboard paint (I like to use Rustoleum’s Chalkboard Paint-you can find it in quarts at Home Depot)…

(yes, those are the still-surviving glitter pumpkins from Halloween!)

Three days of curing, then priming with chalk…

The finished product…

I am very happy with the new chalkboard. I used to hang my plain, boring calendar in this spot. I now have a custom calendar plus extra space for notes & doodles.

My house is 100 yrs. old this year! Look for upcoming posts featuring before and after photos of my entire house.

diy: hand-stamped curtains

niftythriftygirl — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 17:34:32 +0000

With the suffering economy I, for one, knew I could never afford the fabulous Ballard Design curtains that I had been yearning for…

drapery panels from Ballard Design

Instead of b00-hooing about the fact that I could never afford these curtains, I decided to try my hand at hand-stamping my own curtains. I had two pairs of white sheer panels that I had purchased at our local dollar store (total for two pairs: $20). I would have preferred a heavier fabric but since I already had these curtains I decided to use them. I had some black fabric paint on hand, so all I needed to do was design a stamp.

I first looked at several medallion patterns online and made a few sketches. Since the homemade stamp was going to require a lot of fine cut work I decided to use the simplest design.

I traced my design onto some craft foam, cut it out using an X-acto knife…

…glued the cut out design to a wood block…and presto! A homemade stamp was born.

I spread one curtain over my dining room table and went to work stamping. I quickly learned that the panels shifted easily, causing the paint to smear, so I placed a white sheet of paper under each area that was to be stamped and heat-set the design with a blower dryer before moving on to another area.

In about two hours (phew!) I had new curtains that cost a fraction of what I would have spent on designer panels!

In the future I will be looking for heavier weight panels (probably a cotton/twill blend) as these sheers are great for summer, but I would prefer something sturdier for the winter months.

A Handmade Christmas

niftythriftygirl — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 14:40:49 +0000

For as long as I can remember holiday time meant homemade Christmas decorations. From salt dough ornaments to macaroni snowflakes to hand-painted wooden ornaments…my parents’ Christmas tree has always been adorned with the ornaments me and my siblings made. I still remember the smell of salt clay and the taste- because come on, what kid can resist taking a bite of clay?

Although the days of sticky dough and messy glue are gone (well, maybe a bit of messy glue is still necessary!), I still enjoy making my own Christmas ornaments and decorations.

I usually try to use whatever I have on hand – pipe cleaners, felt, glue, spray paint, glitter, or paper. From paper snowflakes to sewn felt ornaments – I think homemade is the best!

This year I had a bunch of left over craft felt so I got busy cutting, sewing and stuffing and came up with these…

…super cute, and super easy. All you need is felt, rick-rack, ribbon, a sewing machine and a bit of stuffing to give the ornament dimension.

Another favorite, and super simple ornament – pipe cleaner snowflakes:

You simply cut lengths of pipe cleaner (use old scissors or wire cutters) and twist them together to form snowflakes.

This year I snagged a ton of glass ornaments on clearance and decided to decorate them with glue and glitter:

These are a bit messy and time consuming but they are really cute. Since I had the glitter out and had a bunch of dried beechnuts, I decided to glitter them as well…

I tied ribbon to them and hung them on my branch display. I love these, and so does the cat! We find them on the floor almost every morning. I knew I wanted to decorate with white branches this Christmas so in the fall I collected and spray- painted branches white and then used them for display…

And also made them into a wreath that I then wrapped with a garland I purchased at Ikea.

So…go root through your drawers and see what great things you can find to make your own homemade ornaments. Have a safe and happy holiday!

flea market, yard sales, new kitten and fireworks

niftythriftygirl — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 13:50:52 +0000

It’s been a busy week for Nifty Thrifty Girl. I went to the local flea market early on Sunday and scooped up a bunch of treasures.

The muffin tin will be used to hold some of the clutter in my office/craft room; the door with metal lattice insert will be refashioned in some way and hung on my office wall to hold business cards, etc.; love old license plates so I couldn’t pass these up at $2 each! The metal trays will be re-purposed as magnetic boards for above my daughter’s new desk – that I purchased for $10 at a sale (it’s actually an old sewing cabinet, complete with vintage sewing machine that will eventually be removed)

I love the deco style and funky knobs. The drawers were full of goodies, too…

I’ll share the ‘after’ pictures of the desk make-over shortly. I’ve only gotten as far as the primer but hope to finish it this week.

In other news…it was my daughter’s eleventh birthday and while at the Farmer’s Market she spied something she wanted for her b-day. A kitten. I, of course, caved and said, ‘yes’. Meet Waffle, our new family member!

He’s the sweetest boy – ever! The dogs have adjusted well, but our other male cat isn’t thrilled with the new addition.

To top the week off we watched fireworks at the lake.

Now, back to school and back to the routine!

What’s in drawer #3?

niftythriftygirl — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 00:07:28 +0000

I haven’t had my usual good luck at yard/garage sales this summer. It seems there isn’t an abundance of furniture or vintage pieces. Then, last week I hit the jackpot. As I pulled up to this particular sale my eyes were drawn to a white dresser. As soon as I got close enough to inspect it…and to see the price, I was overjoyed and almost yelled, “It’s MINE!” For a mere $25 this little gem came home with me.

It was perfect – it was sturdy, it was already white, had glass knobs, and two darling upper drawers. I knew exactly how I was going to transform it for my dining room.

And here she is…

I am in love with this piece of furniture!

This piece has got me so excited, I’m off to find more bargains. Happy sale-ing everyone!

I’m in the Mood Lighting

niftythriftygirl — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 00:16:47 +0000

I was in my bedroom the other night staring at an empty corner and I had a thought…I need some mood lighting. For some reason, this idea just popped into my head so I ran to my garage and grabbed an old lampshade frame (I just happen to have lots of these, collected from sales & flea markets over the years). I didn’t have any ‘fancy’ fabric so I decided that burlap would give it an interesting look.

I took one long piece of burlap and quickly covered the frame; hand stitching it around the top and bottom.

It wasn’t the finest job, but I wanted something quick, because that’s how I am. Plus, my free time is so rare these days I wanted to move on to the next project!

If I had been more patient I would have cut individual pieces to fit each side. I tied pieces of jute around the frame corners to tighten the burlap. And into the bedroom it went…where I filled it with tiny white Christmas lights.

It looks great at night. The perfect mood lighting!

I love this piece so much that I’m going to work on a hanging version for the corner of my living room. Stay tuned!