Attractive Container Gardens

I had a lot of projects this weekend. One was to paint my newly acquired baker's rack (at a yard sale for $8) with outdoor paint. The reason is I want to creative an attractive herb and vegetable garden. I like to have fresh herbs and vegetables, but I really don't feel like dealing with the yard work that would be involved (I prefer to just deal with flowers and bushes in beds). So, I have made it a goal to set up an herb and vegetable container garden. But, ever wanting to have an attractive home, I wanted an attractive spot for these plantings. So, I found a baker's rack (similar to the one pictured) at a yard sale for $8 (the guy was asking $10, so I asked if he would take a lower price. Just an example that it never hurts to ask for lower!). But, two of the shelves were wood and over all it wasn't ready to be put outside and exposed to the elements. So, I bought a can of Rustoleum black textured spray paint (to give the appearance of black wrought iron) and a pint of black outdoor paint for the shelves. I sanded down the shelves to give them a little texture and provide a surface for the paint to stick to. I then painted the baker's rack (note: it took the entire can I bought and half of a can that I had had from a previous project) and painted the shelves. It took two coats for the shelves.

So, now I have an attractive place on my deck for my future container plantings. I just have to go buy some attractive pots and plants! You can also use the various hooks on the rack for tools and necessities for the yard. This is a simple project for little buck but big attractive bang, especially if you would like to grow your own plants and are tired of paying outrageous prices for herbs and vegetables. This is an easy way to keep your outdoors attractive but practical!

Southern Living At Home...Wonderful Products

So, I am super excited about some news! I am going to be a Southern Living at Home consultant! I am so excited about all of these beautiful products that are both beautiful and functional! There are so many wonderful items in it and you can always get them for great deals! For example, the customer special for this month included a beautiful glass tray that you could buy for $20 with a $30 purchase of another equally beautiful product. Southern Living at Home also sells gorgeous hurricanes in different sizes and shapes that can be used for holding candles, decorative balls, flowers, etc. A great idea I learned today was to take coffee beans and put them in a glass container with a candle and use it for decoration! So, if you are in the triad area of North Carolina, send me a message and I can set you up with a great party and the opportunity for free, wonderful products!

Baskets!

I love baskets! They are so useful and are great for storage and still attractive! I have baskets all over my house and I use them for multiple purposes. Maybe one of these will solve your home organization problem.
Basket #1: This basket is in my living room and is a low basket with a handle. I keep our dog's, Lola, toys in this basket. She is able to get all of her toys out easily on her own, but it also relegates her toys into one spot and she knows where to go to get them. Attractive and useful.
Basket #2 and 3: These are both in my living room as well. One is a wire basket (from Southern Living at Home) and I keep nice magazines and a photo album in this one for display. The other is buy our love seat and just holds regular magazines. Again, an attractive solution when you have several magazines or books in a room that you want in one spot.
Basket #4: This one is also in the living room, but is a tall narrow basket and I keep this one buy the piano and hold my piano books in it. They look attractive in there and it keeps all of them in one spot for me.
Basket #5: This was in my bedroom. It actually has some sentimental value because we bought it on one of our trips. This basket holds yarn that I am using to make a blanket, but the yarn balls are in the color of our bedroom. You could use a nice basket to hold colorful, decorative balls or balls of yarn.
Basket #6: This is actually in my pantry and holds baking goods. It's attractive and keeps all of those loose items in one spot and in easy reach for me. It also looks good!
Basket #7: This one is in our master bath, which is on the smaller side and short on storage. The basket is circular and we keep our bath towels rolled up and in it. They look good and attractive in that and they are in easy reach!
Basket #8: This one is in our bedroom and it is by my husband's dresser and side of the bed. I put it there to give him a spot to keep extra magazines and books that he hasn't finished with, providing him with one place to keep it all, rather than scattering them all over the room.

I haven't done this because I don't have a place for it, but I have also seen people use large baskets for their shoes by the front door, which is a great spot when you have little ones!

Hope this gave you a few easy and attractive ideas for storage for your own home!

Re-purposing Household Items

I love to take items from around my home and see how many different ways that I can use them. The picture above is from our first apartment and if you notice the candle garden on the left, the base is actually a bamboo plate that I found on sale at Kohl's. I then bought sand and put the candles on it. That bathroom was a beach theme and this look worked and came out very inexpensive. Currently, I have that plate and the candles with river rocks arranged on it.
Another item that can be used for more than just its purpose is a mirror. I love mirrors because they reflect light and add an interesting element to a room. I like to prop them on shelves at different levels, behind lamps, candles, etc. I also love to use a good mirror as a tray for decoration or for food service. It makes for an interesting display, especially if you have a group of collectibles that you would like to display but they look cluttered on their own. Display them on a mirror and it automatically unifies it.
Another great item to re-purpose is a wall sconce. I love to use these for their original design, but if I have a pretty or unique one, I also like to use them for decoration in a unique way. For example, I was given a pair of "Sassy" wall sconces (Southern Living at Home) for birthday one year. I am using one as a shelf for a display in my kitchen, but I have the other one turned over on its flat side and I am using it for sheer decoration. As a side note, if you are not familiar with Southern Living at Home, their items are great for using for multiple purposes. Check out my consultant's site if you would like to see more and tell her you read about it on here. The site is www.southernlivingathome.com/amiep. You will love what you see.
Anyways, another item that is great for multiple purposes is a glass hurricane. Normally, these are used for candles, but you can put fruit in them, stones, sea shells, arrange beads around them, or even include a small vase with flowers inside it! I have even seen these used as decorative extra toilet paper roll holders.
One more item that I love to use for different purposes is decorative cups and vases. I like to use cups (typically glass or ceramic) that have an interesting pattern or shape for holding pens, make up brushes, toothbrushes, my husband's razor, or tubes of beauty supplies. I recently found a bathroom glass that had some chips on it at TJ Maxx that had a pattern that matched my bathroom for around 50 cents. I bought it and it is currently holding my makeup brushes and eyeliners.
So, look around your house and get creative and see what you have that could be used for different purposes and even save you money from having to go out and buy something!

Ikea, the perfect place for INEXPENSIVE and NEW furniture!

Jeff and I went to the Ikea store in Charlotte on Tuesday and it was the most fun I have ever had in a furniture store! If you have an Ikea within driving distance of you, you have to go! It's like a theme park for designers/decorators. And the best part, they are reasonably priced! If you are looking for new furniture but still don't want to spend a lot of money, this is the place to go. When you go in, you start off with getting a "shopping list"and head up stairs. The shopping list is a piece of paper that you write down the things you like on it as you go through their show room, which is arranged as living spaces. On a side note, one really neat thing was that they had different full houses set up with square footage listed, so you would walk through these and see a bedroom, bathroom, living space, and kitchen and how you can shop for your space. Very cool. Anyways, so you walk through and everything is priced and on the ticket is listed where you will find the item on the warehouse floor and if there are different locations to create the look that they have made. The way they are able to sell their products for such a great price is that you do the shopping by yourself, you get the pieces that you like, and you have to put them together when you get home, even your couch! They come in fairly flat boxes and you assemble it all, from pictures and frames to beds and TV cabinets. I loved it and had so much fun going through the showroom and warehouse. The showroom is upstairs and the warehouse is downstairs. The cool thing to is that you aren't limited. If you find a print that you like, you don't have to put it in the frame that they had it in, you can choose your own!
Another really neat thing about Ikea is that they carry everything, not just furniture. You can buy kitchen and bath cabinets, you can buy counters, you can buy appliances, you can even buy the kitchen sink! And all for very reasonable prices. I also liked how they had people available to help you out, but they weren't hanging over you every where you went.
Overall, this was a lot of fun and I cannot wait to go back. I have my eye on a very nice china cabinet that I just need to make sure will fit and work for me. Check them out online if you don't have one nearby at www.ikea.com. You can design your rooms, design your new kitchen, and shop for what you want online. Enjoy!

Refacing/Updating

I know it has been a few days. I have been doing many creative things around my home and coming up with new ideas. Today, I'm talking about how to update and reface different pieces in your home to give your room a mini "face lift" and change up your environment in simple ways.
First of all, a mirror and sconces. If you look in the picture above at the mirror and sconces above the couch, they were not matching when we bought them. The mirror I bought at a yard sale for $5. If was originally silver. The sconces were black and gold (they were my mom's that she didn't want anymore). I taped the mirror part with painting tape and plastic to protect the mirror and spray painted the mirror and sconces completely black (spray paint $3). Then I took a cheap 1/2 inch paint brush ($2) and a small can of cranberry red paint ($3). I dipped the brush in the paint and then blotted it on some paper towels and then "dry brushed" the paint onto the sconces and mirror in quick strokes (not trying to cover every part, just high lighting parts). Then, after each stroke, I took a paper towel and wiped the paint off, leaving just a hint of the red on the paint. Then I allowed them to dry and hung them over our couch. Walahh! Three pieces that were bought at different points and not made to go together now look custom and made for each other!



One more idea for the day. If you have a night stand that is kind of boring or doesn't seem to flow with the rest of your furniture, a great way to update it inexpensively is to, you guessed it, paint it! I prefer black because it is versatile and has a high end feel. That and I think every room needs a little bit of black in it. When Jeff and I got married, he had an unfinished night stand that for the first year we lived with the natural wood. But, when we moved again, Jeff painted it black and it automatically looks updated and stylish with our black and white and red bedroom. All it took was some sandpaper to rough up the wood, a can of black paint ($5), and a paint brush ($3), and we have a new piece of furniture without breaking the bank. If you have an afternoon and some time to spare your night stand, or other piece of furniture, this is a great way to update your furniture.

Curtains, Curtains, Curtains

Sometimes, curtains can be the most problematic part of designing your room and house. You want something that is functional, but, if you're like me, you also want it to flow with the design of a room. Today, I'm going to share some tips and tricks that I have used in designing curtains for my rooms.
First of all, I HATE sewing!!! My mom is really good at it and has made some incredibly beautiful window hangings in the past. But, I'm just not good at it, so I want to be able to make beautiful window hangings without sewing. The above picture is of the bay window in our bedroom. I did not sew any of that!!!! Here's what I did (it's really simple and inexpensive!). I checked the clearance section of cloth material at Wal-Mart in the craft section. I found this beautiful black sheer fabric for only a $1 a yard. I don't recall exactly how many yards it was, but I believe it was around 15. So, about $15. Then, I bought some inexpensive cafe rods, which can be found in the window hangings sections of any store that carries window hangings. They were $3 for the smaller ones and $5 for the big one. Then, with the help of my very gifted mother (warning, this does take two sets of hands), I steamed the material and we hung it up in the way that you see in the picture, swagging it over the now hung cafe rods. Tadaa! We used pins to pin folds in place and help anchor the sheer material to the wall. At the bottom of the material, we tied large knots to give it the ballooning effect. Very simple, and with a little ingenuity, very inexpensive ($23).


Now, sometimes, you will find exactly what you are looking for in already made curtains that you just have to piece together and hang. You will have to pay a little bit more, but it could save you time and stress. Great places to check are Wal-Mart (who just started carrying Better Homes and Gardens products), Target (if you're willing to spend a little extra for some quality), or Bed, Bath and Beyond (use their 20% off coupon!). The ones in the above picture are in my kitchen and were exactly what I had been searching for. I found these at Wal-Mart (they're from the Better Homes and Garden collection). I had to buy the three pieces and then I bought $1.88 curtain rods and hung them as you see in the picture. I used some ribbon that I had to tie the two outside ones as you see to give them a little bit more interest. These are a great option for those of you who are willing to spend a little bit extra and want something simple. It took me about 5 minutes to get them hung. If you want to find a good deal, check the endcaps at Target and the clearance sections at Wal-Mart and Bed, Bath, and Beyond, and you may just find what you were looking for for a lower price! In fact, if you notice the table cloth in the picture, that was a curtain that I found on clearance at Target! I didn't have anywhere to hang it when we moved to our house and I just loved the design of it and it works as our kitchen table cloth! So, don't let the intended purpose of a curtain limit you from using it in a different way! Just be creative.


Which leads me to my last curtain idea for you. This I saw in a Southern Living magazine. Sometimes you are going to have the oddly shaped window that you would have to pay a designer to make curtains for you. The one over my sink is like that. It's too small for any of the premade curtains in stores, but it looks over my neighbor's yard and I wanted a little privacy. So, I bought a very inexpensive wooden cafe rod ($1.88), white linen napkins that were on sale ($4 total), and curtain rings with clips on them ($3.88). I then hung the rod about half way up the window, clipped the napkins to the curtain rings, hung the rings on the rod, and hung the rod up! Max time :$5 minutes. Max money: $10. Much better than paying a designer. And, the fun part is, I can change the napkins out for different colors if I want to.

That's it for curtains for today. If you have any ideas that you would like to share, I still have more windows that need curtains. Please feel free to post it on here!