$10 Bathroom Redo

Guess what I've been up to?

 Redecorating the powder room in my parent's house!

This tiny bathroom is right in front of you when you come in the front door and is really in a handy spot...but it was....sad.

It was just plain white, with the basics in it: a towel. hand soap, a mirror, a sink and of course, a commode.

Nothing special, although it functioned just fine.

I wanted to make it pretty, because pretty things are just so much more fun, right?
I think so.

Off to the hardware store we went!

I spent $10 on a painting tray, paintbrush and roller and when we got home, I got right to work.

My mom already had some paint left over from when they did the kitchen. It was a nice green color, but I wanted to lighten it up a bit so I added a little white paint, mixed it really well and went to town on those sad, grayish-white walls.

I forgot to take a picture of the before, but here is a dingy white wall that is very similar to what the bathroom looked like before. (This is the next bathroom on the repainting list.)

(Gold hardware!?! Ick! But I don't want to spend the time spray painting all of it, so it stays for now. This used to be my Grandma's house and she chose gold hardware for everything.)

Here is what that cute little powder room looks like now:

Nice change, huh?

I brought the blue vase in from atop the piano, made a curtain out of off-white linen and added white towels for a nice, clean look that is simple yet cozy.
I'm pleased, and now I'll actually want to use it instead of walking down to the other end of the house where the nicer bathroom is. ;)

Paint really can work miracles!

SO

If you have a sad, plain room in your house, go and get some paint and transform it into something fabulous!

Easy DIY Pallet Headboard

So, remember way back last year when we were playing around with pallets and made a pallet table?
It served it's purpose (because we didn't have a dining room table at the time) but when it was time to see it go, I was glad. It was too scratchy, and bigger than we'd planned for the space.

There are all kinds of cool pallet projects on Pinterest, and I've been wanting to make some sort of headboard for our bed- the wall just looked a little bit lonely all by itself.

So, do you want to know a SUPER easy way to make a pallet headboard?

First: drive around and find some pallets. They are everywhere, just laying out by the side of the road; near dumpsters of businesses, all over the place. We found ours in an industrial business park behind the building.
There were a whole bunch of them just waiting to be taken away by a garbage man, but we got there first.
Saturday is a good day to go pallet hunting, since most businesses are closed.

(side note: If there is anyone around, it's a good idea to ask if it's okay to take the pallets so you don't get in trouble for stealing. There was a man there that hubby asked and he said "go ahead!", so we did!)

We picked the pallets in the nicest condition and brought 6 of them home.


Next: make sure your pallets don't have any spiders on them and wipe them down to get the dirt off.
You don't want any "surprise visitors" when you're sleeping! (eek!)

Thirdly: Take your bed apart or scoot it away from the wall.

We took the metal frame out from under our bed.

Fourthly: Stand two pallets up next to each other and scoot your bed up against them. You may need to raise the pallets up off the ground, or lower your bed to get the right height for your headboard.
We decided to take the ugly metal bed frame off the bed and place the box spring and mattress on a few pallets to lower the bed enough to get the look we wanted. So now we have a platform bed with a cool headboard.

Then make your bed all pretty, stand back and admire it!

I LOVE how this turned out, and it seriously took like 15 minutes.
You don't even have to have skills to do this, other than some strong arms to muscle the pallets around.
Hubby did all of that, I just made suggestions and got some homemade granola cooking in the oven. ;)

I also have one more easy pallet project to share with you, but it's not quite done yet, so stay tuned!



This post is shared at Natural Mother's Network, Seasonal Celebration.

Refashion: Maxi Skirt & Leopard Print Skirt

Hi!
Today I'm going to show you a little re-fashioning I did last week.
On two different things, without costing me a penny.
It pays to shop your existing wardrobe!


I had a maxi dress in my closet- you know, one of those gorgeous flowy, gauzy ones that has shirring across the bust and then little spaghetti straps up top so if you wear a bra it looks weird but you don't want to go bra-less because, well, that's weirder.. and a tank top underneath just looks bulky?
Yes. One of those dresses.
I wore it a few times last year and the year before, but didn't feel comfortable really so mostly it just sat in my closet. Then one time when I wore it one of the straps broke.
I was thinking of getting rid of it but loved the colorful, cool fabric so instead....

I cut it up and made it into a skirt.

Basically, I just cut off the top part, leaving a few rows of shirring for elastic, then hemmed the raw edge to make a high waisted maxi skirt. Love it. It looks so cute with a tank top tucked in or with a shirt untucked! I just need some gladiator sandals to go with it and I am set. ;)

A Close-up of the waistband. 

Then I had this extra shirred fabric sitting around, waiting to be used...

Enter the next refashion.
I got a cute leopard-print dress from Target way back last year when my Mother-in-law and Sister-in-law came to visit around Thanksgiving, and wore it once or twice, but it just didn't fit like I wanted it to.
It was too ruffly up top, so I cut the top off and wore it as a skirt and loved it.
But, since I didn't really hem anything when I initially cut it up, it started looking a little bit ragged.

(I had pictures of the " before", but for the life of me I can't find them!)

I decided to fix the waistband.
I unpicked the seam and took off the waistband and elastic and left the gathered part of the skirt still intact.

Then, I took the shirred fabric from the maxi dress and sewed it to the gathered skirt and now I have a whole new skirt!

I like how the pink of the waistband brings out the pink in the actual skirt.

I actually like it better this way- it's more comfortable because of the shirring and the skirt is a little bit longer, which is nice. And I have a pretty little pop of color peeking out from under my skirt!

Two refashions, zero dollars; for about half an hour of my time. Is sewing the coolest thing ever, or what?!
I'm pretty pleased with how they turned out. :)

Have you refashioned anything lately? I'd love to hear about it!

Death to the Pallet Table (or, there are times to not be frugal)

Last week, we bought a new table.

A cute, walnut finish breakfast nook similar to what we thought about buying last year and never did.

Instead of buying a table last year we were cheapskates and we made a pallet table ourselves.
It was really fun and a good learning experience- I love a DIY project to conquer, especially one I know nothing about.
And it only cost twenty dollars.
However.

The pallet table was...
kinda scratchy.
And rough.
And food got stuck in the top creases of the plywood, even though it was stained a nice deep dark coffee color.
And it was a little bit big for the space of our minuscule dining room.

And we only had two chairs to sit at it with, after we sold those metal chairs in the picture at a garage sale. (they were part of a bistro set)
 This part could have been remedied, but we are picky and have to have 'just the right chairs for just the right price' and never found them.

So, we bit the bullet.
We dropped two hundred fifty smackaroos on this table. (which, when you look at tables is really not all that much, but it's a chunk of change to us.)

um, so I just noticed this picture is a little tilted. Sorry. :)

And I
Absolutely.
Love.
It.
This table fits us perfectly, fits the space much better, and is just fun to sit at because you can slide all around the benches! And it's smooth and cleans up easily.

The pallet table is now sitting forlornly on our curb, waiting to be picked up by either another person who likes quirky not always practical things, or by the garbage men. More likely the garbage men, since it's been sitting there for about 4 days already.

Sometimes, it is worth it to invest in something you really want (or need) instead of just making do.
Lesson learned.
Just make sure you actually need the item instead of creating a need in your mind for it. ;)

Example: I don't need a Coach purse. Honestly, I don't even like them. (sorry if I offended some of you loyal Coach customers, but really. Do you NEED to spend that much on a purse? No.)

Anyway. We love our table, and it seats 6 or 7 people, AND it has storage under the seats! Which I have yet to figure out what to put under there. Blankets? Extra dishes? Probably it will end up being stash for the little's toys once they figure out that those benches open. ;)

Organization: Spice Cabinet and Under the Kitchen Sink

Hello!

Today we're talking organization!

Last week, Kristen over at The Frugal Girl re-organized her spice cabinet
and it got me inspired to do mine as well.
Our spice cabinet isn't really a spice cabinet;  at least it wasn't meant to be.
It was a first aid cabinet at hubby's work and he brought it home because it was empty; they got a new one and were going to throw it out. Now we use it for our spices and it works great! It's metal, nearly indestructible and makes for a handy stool for the kids to stand on when they want to reach something. (usually something they're not supposed to be able to reach.)

This is what it looked like before:

I emptied it out, wiped it down and then put the smaller spices into the cubbies in the doors, then added some spices and honey that had been living on top of our fridge into the cabinet, since there was now room for them! I also put the butter in there, but then moved it out onto the counter a bit later. It was too hard to get to.


Here is the after:

I also quickly reorganized under our kitchen sink. It really needs to be patched up (there's old water damage under there) and repainted but I just wanted to wipe it down and rearrange things in there for now.

We keep our kitchen towels,  plastic grocery bags to be used for small trash can liners,trash bags, dish soap, natural cleaner, reusable grocery bags and dishwasher soap down under the sink.

Here is the before:

Kind of a jumbled mess, don't you think?


Here is the after:

Still not very pretty, but at least it's in better order! Someday we'll paint it and make it pretty with baskets or plastic bins to hold things in but for now, how it is will have to do. Do you have any tips for beautifying under-sink ugliness? I'd love to hear them!