Hello friends!
If you know me well, then you know I love to shop. But actually decorating is my first love. I would do it for a living if it were not such a competitive, economically based job. That and I need to grow and explore the talent first. I don't know everything about the "rules of design" but instead what I like and enjoy creating. That and my personal budget for it is smaller than desired.
Most of my home furnishings are items that I've obtained over the last 5-10 years. Some items were even displayed in my old college dorm room. To be honest, I get tired of looking at the same things in room after room, house after house. Bust as you may know that just like the fashion world, trends change quickly. More quickly than I can afford to keep up.
A lot of my décor was very traditional, some even a little country and all of it was very dark. Since I moved to California about a year ago, style and design has become more modern, printed and bright. I decided to turn a few of my old, paid for things, into newer looking items that will be good for at least a few more years! Now that's designing on a dime.
Let me show you - -
Old Item: This was an old display tray that I've had for at least a decade. Shortly after I bought it, I got the birthday card currently shown because I thought it was so beautiful. It spent many years on display, but has spent the last 3 or 4 years in a drawer. In my personal opinion, it was cute for my place when I was 18...but not anymore.
New Item: I took scrapbook paper I already owned and replaced the bottom design with something more modern and in color tones that would match the rest of my house. I already owned the blue vase as well, so I bought the two florals shown for less then $8 and added the bird for a little fun. I'm so into little "love birds" right now.
So, tah dah! A resign that is completely new for less than $10!
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Now the next item isn't a complete "do over" but I'll show you what I did...
I needed a picture for my front entry way wall. Now with the holidays over, it was a bit blank. I thought this picture was the perfect color for my house and said a perfect little message when entering a home. The probably was that for some reason the browns areas shown were made of cork board and came with push-pins. I don't know about you, but I didn't really think this was an office piece. So again, I took scrapbook paper I already owned and cut and covered the two areas. This picture was $12 total and is now exactly what I wanted for the space.
So finally comes the big makeover...
Old Item: My sister-in-law actually gave me this piece when she was moving out of her apartment. She did not have anymore room in the moving van and asked if I wanted it. Absolutely!! I really like this piece because of all the nooks and crannies it has. Its been in our guest room at our place in California, but the color was very bold for the rest of that room's décor. We have beach, coastal theme for the room, so the black stood out! I thought it would be perfect to paint it Tiffany blue seeing it is a jewelry chest. So that's exactly what I did!
New Item: If you came to this blog from my Facebook page, you've probably seen the final product with all the drawers installed. I wanted to post these photos so you could see how I did it in case it would be something you may want to try.
This piece was not real wood, but a laminate finish on top like most build-it-yourself furniture is nowadays. I did my homework and headed to Home Depot. I picked out my paint color, sand paper, primer and paint base. You will notice the middle picture looks gray in color. The clerk told me to add gray to my primer when changing black. The gray would help hide the black color better, but that it would also be a good undertone since I was painting in the blue family. He was right. It did take me many hours to complete and let dry, but I'm very happy with the final product. The total cost of this project was $33 for supplies.
I have an old beat up laminate dresser that I was going to sell when we move from our current place. I think I may refurbish it to white and keep it for another 5-10 years!
Until next time,
Meredith
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