Kathy's New Pillows

So I know I'm not the first to make pillows from vintage clothing, but its so easy and inexpensive and a great way to get custom on the cheap.  Ikea sells pillow inserts for around $5,  or you can reuse pillows you already have but just want a new look.  I just picked out clothess that I liked the colours and textures.  I didn't get fancy and add zippers, but you could.  And if you aren't a sewer I'm sure you could take it to a tailor and they'd sew it up.  I made theses for Kathy's new condo:

The white one is backed in the light purple.  It is made of sweaters.  The grey was a tweed skirt and the turquoise and floral were both pleated skirts.  I cut the hem of the turquoise to make the ruffle on the grey.

The cardigan pillow is the only removable cover since I left the light purple unsewn on one side.  Just remember shop the L-XL sections to get enough material to work with.

I also painted her a coffee table found at a thrift shop.  I used a $5 sample paint from a big box store and coated it with poly to protect it.  Accessorizing to come this fall,  like it or not Kathy....

Bathroom Mini Reno Teaser

So like many rooms in the house we are decorating on a budget, meaning lots of them are works in progress.  I've ordered new a floor for the bathroom to be replaced soon and I've got some ideas on how to spruce it up, but I want to start with the before and current and I'll post the after later.

Before:

Its really not showing in this picture, but the walls were sponge painted in mauve. My fiancee laughed at me when he realized I was happy after we had only primed it.

Current:

Painting Glass

So I discovered this a while back.  It seems to be a re-occurring theme of me pulling stuff from the garbage, but when you see free stuff that you like, you take it.

My old apartment was replacing the windows, so I found one of the old ones out back, on another occasion I found the following picture frame.  I decided to paint the glass.  I used basic Acrylic paints and dobbed it on the back side of the window glass.

Like so:

Then you just flip it around.  it gives you a great finished look since you get the shine of the glass panes.

A few years later I dug out the same paints to paint the back of the glass on this frame.  I also painted the frame white and distressed it.  You just need to glue the glass into the frame by piping hot glue around all the edges.  Both now live happily in my kitchen.

Oh and in case you are wondering....yes that is a woven blind attached to a bookcase.  It is serving us well as a makeshift pantry.

Countdown to wedding!

So I've force-ably offered my sister some DIY services for her wedding.  Consulting the Ruffled website  was a huge source of inspiration.  The following are beginnings of ribbon flowers, search rick rack bouquet for some instructions.  The hair pieces I made with feathers from a craft store and a hot glue gun.  Really there is no reason why these should cost more than $20.

Fixing a fathers day gift

So  a while back my man got the idea to get a vintage first aid kit for the front hallway to store keys.  I thought perfect fathers day gift.  After dealing with someone really annoying on Etsy, I ended up settling on one that I didn't think was so great.  I was right, he didn't like it, it wasn't even vintage.  Oops.  So I decided to try and revive it.  I forgot to take a before picture, but it looked much like the following:

Before:

After:

I spread paint stripper all over, let it set and scrubbed away.  I had to use Brasso to scrub off all the rust.  I bought cheapo stencils from staples and used old paint, then a gloss protector.

Study and Guest Room

Its always nice to figure out how to make the last bedroom something more than just a bedroom.  The previous owners used the second bedroom as an office, nursery and kids play room....it was kind of scary.  We decided we did still want to be able to use this room as a study, but put the focus more on creating just a nice place to hang out and sleep if need be.  I think we are pretty happy with the result.

Before:

After:

Pretty Papers

I think aside from finding art in the garbage (which is where I got on of these frames, hah!)  this is about the cheapest way to execute really great art.  All three of these images are fancy paper that I got from an art store.  Each of them were only $4.  The green one I mounted on a piece of cardboard that I painted teal.  I thought the red and yellow was very Rothko-esque.