My living room walls have been Martha Stewart’s Hot Chocolate (once upon a time when her paint was available at Kmart) with two accent walls in Wal-Mart’s American Elm, for thirteen years. Far too long to stick with the same color, in my opinion.

I knew I wanted to go with a gray for the living room but, oy, there are oh-so-many to choose from. I love Benjamin Moore’s Chelsea Gray but was afraid it would be too dark. I finally settled with BM’s Galveston Gray, but because I’m so thrifty and refuse to spend an excessive amount of money on paint I pulled out my Wal-Mart ColorPlace fan deck (I’ve heard that Sherwin Williams makes this paint for Wal-Mart and I’ve used it in several rooms in my home without hesitation). Fortunately, (and this rarely happens) Wal-Mart’s Ashland gray was pretty darn close to BM’s Galveston Gray. Twenty six dollars and four hours later…I’m in love with the new living room color!

Cutting in with Ashland gray

Cutting in with Ashland gray, covering American Elm & Hot Chocolate

Love this color!

Pardon the mess, now I need to get my living room back in order and take some proper pictures. Looks like I’ll have plenty of time to do that with this continued humidity.

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!

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!

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!”

]]> http://niftythriftygirl.com/2010/02/21/a-mini-bedroom-re-do/feed/ 2 http://niftythriftygirl.com/2010/02/06/poof-a-pouf/ http://niftythriftygirl.com/2010/02/06/poof-a-pouf/#comments Sat, 06 Feb 2010 17:57:24 +0000 niftythriftygirl http://niftythriftygirl.com/?p=456 Continue reading →]]> 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…

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.

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.

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!

My daughter has had contact dermatitis since she was a baby and her doctor suggested that it may be from the detergent I was using. So, I switched from my normal laundry soap and tried dye free, fragrance free, organic, natural, blah, blah, blah detergents with no luck. She continually broke out in an annoying rash. I had just about given up when I read about homemade laundry detergent. It seemed easy enough, so after perusing many sites and collecting as much info as I could, I headed out on the homemade laundry detergent journey.

Please note that my detergent recipe is one that works for me – and for my daughter. Since using the homemade detergent  (for about a year, now) she hasn’t had one single outbreak of dermatitis. If you want your clothes super-fragrant and fluffy, this isn’t the detergent for you. If you expect lots and lots of suds when washing…you won’t get that with this detergent. What you will get is super clean clothes at a fraction of the cost of regular detergents!

I’ve made both the powdered and liquid types of detergents – they both have their pros and cons which I will share with you.

Powdered Laundry Detergent Recipe

• 1 bar Fels Naptha (Kirk’s Castile soap, Zoat or any hard milled/castile soap)
• 1 box Borax
• 1 box Washing soda

All ingredients can be found in the laundry aisle at your local supermarket. Use one entire bar of Fels Naptha grated (you can use a metal cheese grater or a food processor). Make sure the soap is finely grated. Add one cup of Borax and one cup of Washing Soda. Mix well, store in airtight container. When making the detergent I usually double or triple the recipe so I have a large quantity on hand. If you’d prefer more of a fragrance you can add a few drops of any essential oil. I use lemongrass or spearmint in mine. Use approximately 3TBS per large load of laundry. It is suggested that with every other load you add white vinegar to your rinse water to avoid getting soap build-up in your washer. I just add the vinegar to the fabric softener cup. Als0, if you feel your clothes aren’t bright enough you can add OxyClean to the dry detergent as a laundry booster.

Homemade Powdered Detergent

PROS

• Easily made and stored
• Long lasting

CONS

• Must dissolve detergent in washer before adding clothing – hot water works best
• Must add vinegar in rinse water, every other load, to avoid soap build-up in washer
• Cannot be used in front-loaders

Liquid Laundray Detergent Recipe

• Fels Naptha 0r Kirk’s Castile soap
• Borax
• Washing Soda
• Liquid castile soap (like Dr. Bronner’s)
• Plastic container (1 gallon or larger – I use a one gallon vinegar container for easy pouring)

Grate 1/2 bar of soap, finely. Bring one quart of water to boil. Lower heat to medium and add grated soap. Stir and let soap dissolve. Remove from heat and add 1/2 cup Borax, 1/2 cup Washing Soda, 1/2 cup liquid castile soap to melted soap mixture, stir well. Pour into plastic container. Add one gallon of very hot water. Shake or stir well. The mixture will be very goopy/chunky. Shake well before using. Use 1/4 cup per large load.

I use Dr. Bronner’s Lavender Castile Soap which gives it a pleasant, not to over-powering scent. Dr. Bronner’s also comes in Almond and Peppermint which I will be trying soon. Essential oil can also be added for fragrance.

Homemade Liquid Detergent

PROS

• Dissolves easily in water
• Has more fragrance than powdered detergent

CONS

• Messy and time consuming to make
• Must have large storage container
• Doesn’t last as long as powered recipe
• Cannot be used in front loaders

Close-up of the chunky/goo

The ingredients cost approximately $8 – and that $8 provides me with 4 large batches (of the powdered version) which lasts almost a year!

Here is a great site that offers plenty of  recipes and FAQ’s about homemade laundry detergent:

TIPNUT

Good luck with your homemade laundry detergent venture. Please feel free to share your thoughts/recipes/findings with me. Happy washing!

Needless to say, I’ve been on the couch ALL weekend. I couldn’t just lie here so I asked my daughter to grab all of my needles, crochet hooks and yarn. And a couple hours later….ta-da!!!:

cozy neck warmer

...another neck warmer with vintage button...

floral lariat/necklace...

...can be worn several different ways

So, even though the laundry is not done, the house is not vacuumed, all is not lost because I got several little winter projects underway. Check out my etsy store soon as I will be listing some of these goodies!