Nifty Thrifty Girl » re-do

from pathetic to pink

niftythriftygirl — Fri, 13 May 2011 20:15:55 +0000

A few weeks ago my town had it’s annual spring clean up – which means tons of junk that people clean out of their houses is put roadside for pickup. I’ve always looked forward to this time of year so I could scour the streets for junk treasures. Like they say: One man’s trash is another man’s treasure!

This year, however, because I am trying to purge I decided I would avoid looking. Ha. When I took my dogs out for a walk early on the first ‘trash’ day they stopped at a roadside pile and sniffed. And what to my wondering eyes did appear…but two vintage basket weave metal patio chairs. I gazed at them, pondered, shrugged them off and decided to go on my way. Hours later I could not stop thinking about them! So…I went back and they must have been meant to be mine because they were still there.

Here is their before and after:

After much scraping, metal brushing, rust removal, priming and painting, I have a lovely pair of pink patio chairs!

retro dresser re-do

niftythriftygirl — Sat, 26 Mar 2011 16:18:04 +0000

I was lucky enough to stumble across this 5′ dresser at my local thrift store. For a mere $49 this gem (that needed a little TLC) came home with me!

I’ve been wanting to replace my giant, cottage-looking armoire that held my tv for some time now and I knew this piece would make the perfect contemporary tv console. So…with a little paint and some new drawer pulls…let me introduce you to my new tv console…

I’m thrilled with the results. It’s a much needed change from the old armoire, plus, it makes the living room look so much bigger.

oh, the humidity!

niftythriftygirl — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 17:29:03 +0000

It has just been far too humid in WNY to do anything…including work, which, for me entails painting outdoors. So, when I saw that this horrible humidity was going to stick with us for a few more days I decided to tackle an indoor project. I’ve been wanting to paint my living room for some time now and since my living room is the only room in the house that is air conditioned, it seemed like the perfect project.

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.

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!

Weekend Room Re-Do

niftythriftygirl — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 14:54:56 +0000

A little paint and some inexpensive fabric can go a long way. My daughter is growing up and decided that her girly pink room had to go. Boo hoo. Unfortunately, I never snapped pictures of the ‘pink’ room in all it’s glory but you can get the idea from the few photos I will share with you.

When changing a room over I like to grab several paint swatches, tape them to the wall and ‘live’ with the colors for a bit before I make my decision. Well, my daughter had her own ideas and immediately fell in love with a lovely shade of blue from one of the swatches, so we went with it.

BEFORE – the PINK room

The pink gingham roman shades were removed from the windows, as well as the shutters to make way for new window treatments.

DURING – PINK to BLUE room

AFTER – the BLUE room

While shopping for paint I happened to pass by the fabric clearance rack and spotted this funky fabric that I knew my daughter would love…so I stitched up some panels. The blue fabric combined with the brown polka dots = oh, la, la! I had to persuade her into allowing me to use the brown polka dotted fabric. She insisted that it was ‘babyish’.

We scoured the stores for a bedding ensemble that would match the walls. It didn’t take long for my daughter to spot this set…and it looks perfect:

So, for approximately $80 (the majority of the money was spent on the bedding) I completely changed a room – in one weekend.

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