Vintage patio set...

Our next door neighbor moved out and left behind a small wrought iron patio set from the 60's that she no longer wanted. She was going to toss it since the chair cushions had gotten thrown out at some point. When she offered it to me, I said yes, since I could see it had potential to be cute (even though it really wasn't my style).
Honestly, I just wanted a little project with some quick gratification, and this fit the bill. It was well weathered, but in solid shape.

       

The glass table top was so dirty that I originally thought it might be frosted glass. Mais non...just super caked with several seasons of dirt, but incredibly in perfect condition. Not a single scratch or chip once it was spiffed up.

My husband made a template and cut out 4 plywood cushion bases from some scrap that he had, then I set out for JoAnn Fabrics to buy some foam and pick out fabric (with coupons, of course). The foam and outdoor fabric set me back a walloping $29 and the 3 cans of spray paint from Home Depot, just under $16.

I know that these stripes aren't exactly "vintage-y", but with the scroll-y grapevine design on the table and chair frames, I wanted to step away from that fussy, flowery look that was popular in the 60's.

Since I had planned to spray paint the frames gloss black, I found some outdoor material with just a touch of black in it, and then stapled it around the foam and wood seat.

It's a sweet little set (I kind of feel like I should be setting out an afternoon tea for "the ladies"). And it was a quick, inexpensive project that will fill out a space on the patio of a house I will be staging soon. 

What I learned:

1. People's butts must have been much smaller in the 60's. These chairs are a bit on the dainty side.

2. The sentence "I'm going to throw this out unless you want it" is almost completely irresistible to me.

Master Bath refresh...

  

There was nothing glaringly wrong with our master bath. And it really wasn't on our radar to change it for a number of reasons. But then one day, we both looked at each other and came to the conclusion that it could really look so much better with a few changes that wouldn't necessarily break the bank.
     The tile (as well as the oval sinks) were all in great shape, but depressingly beige. 
Here are some "before" shots. Not horrible, just meh (and a little messy, don't judge)...

Already starting to demo the countertop...

     We REALLY didn't want to tear out all the tile around and behind the tub and in the shower (lazy, cheap, in a hurry...take your pick). So, we hired Miracle Method to resurface all the tile a bright white. The process definitely smells and we had to sleep in the guest room for 2 nights to escape the fumes. But by the 3rd day, the smell had dissipated. And we ordered new rectangular white sinks online at decorplanet.com after scrolling through, probably 800 sinks before we finally found these very simple looking ones. Couldn't believe how hard it was to find what we wanted.
     Since we had to replace our existing faucets (they wouldn't work with the new sinks), we were lucky to find 2 sleek new identical ones that we liked for $50 each, one on Craigslist and the other on eBay!

We are not fans of granite (so many look like mold to me), so we ordered a new vanity top at HomeDepot.com with a budget friendly laminate from Wilsonart that looks like brushed metal. To finish it off, we added a jazzy multi-colored runner rug found on Wayfair, a couple of plants, and new apple green towels.

Several years prior, I had already painted the 80's vintage honey oak vanity a black semi gloss. Voila! Now our master is bath is brighter and more stylish.

 
What I learned from this project:
1. We were ultimately happy with the tile/tub resurfacing, but it took two tries for the company to get it right, so our 3 day process turned into 3 weeks. Oh, well...
2. Like the our recent kitchen re-do, this bath re-do has encouraged me to keep things tidier and a little more streamlined.
3. Except for the art on the walls, souvenirs from places we've visited...still a little over the top...

Ya gotta have ART...

Gotta love Pinterest. 
That's where I discovered the myriad of uses for the economical canvas drop cloth. If you've been using them to just plop a can of paint on and catch paint drips, you are definitely missing out.

I had an ottoman that needed a new slipcover (because I shrunk that last one in the dryer) and I saw plenty of Pinterest posts that used these drop cloths for upholstery and curtains. Since the natural color of the drop cloth was perfect for my ottoman, I popped into Home Depot and snagged a large medium weight one for the ridiculously reasonable cost of $14. And I knew that after sewing the slipcover I would have plenty of cloth leftover for another project.

After rearranging my dining room, I had recently vacated wall that needed BIG ART. But BIG ART = expensive.
And I am cheap budget conscious. I was also up for the challenge to inexpensively create some big art myself.

On Pinterest, I searched for "large abstract art" (because if it's abstract, no one can complain "Hey, that doesn't look like anything) and I found a painting that I thought I had a chance of sort of  recreating. My husband (of little faith) was skeptical, but since it would only cost us the materials for the wood frame that the canvas would stretch over and my time, why not go for it?

Have I ever mentioned that I have a boatload of leftover paint? I believe I have. Anyway, I wouldn't even need to purchase any paint for this project. If I didn't have the color I needed, I could probably mix it from the stash that I had.

I stretched and stapled the drop cloth over the 3' x 5' wood frame my husband made (total cost $17), then primed it with 2 coats of leftover flat white latex paint.

Then the fun began! Armed with a color copy of my inspiration painting, courtesy of Pinterest, over the span of a week, I painted, waited for paint to dry, then continued painting. And I was able to just use brushes I already had from other house painting projects. At some point I realized the painting looked too angry, so I eliminated some of the more jagged bits.
But now, I'm super happy with the way it turned out (even if it bears little resemblance to the painting I was copying). And my doubting husband is pretty impressed with it, too.
So, here it is, hanging in my dining room!

What I learned from this project:

1. It's fun to push yourself to try something new (especially when you know any failures won't cost you that much).

2. Got my BIG ART for $17. (I don't count the cost of the drop cloth since I had to buy that for my slipcover project, and I figure any leftover material, like paint, is just bonus. 

3. Not sure how I lived without Pinterest.

Backsplash bash...

We recently looked at our kitchen with fresh eyes and decided that, while still in great shape from the remodel we did only 8 years ago, it was a bit dark. We were hosting Thanksgiving this year and my husband posed the most hilarious question to me about a week before the holiday, "Do you want me to start on this project now before Thanksgiving?"
   Yes. I want our kitchen to be completely torn up while I try to cook Thanksgiving dinner so that a cloud of fine dust will settle on our turkey, and green bean casserole.
No, of course, I don't want you start yet! (even though I would never make green bean casserole).

Before - Dark

So after Christmas, we had the "Countertop Guys" (yes, that's their actual name) replace the medium gray laminate with a speckled white solid surface counter top with an integrated white sink. So nice! And we were even able to resell the cast iron sink (a previous CL steal for $85) along with the old faucet for $50. And two pieces of still usable countertop got posted to CL in the free section (love passing that on for someone else to use!)
     Now the dark mosaic backsplash needed to be replaced, as well. I'm not really a fan of subway tile (exactly why would I want a place where I prepare food to remind me of NYC subways?), but I did find a longer version of it that I liked on Craigslist for a $100, a great price.

After - BRIGHT!

My husband did an awesome job chiseling out the old tile (no small feat!!) and replacing it with our bargain purchase. We decided on a stacked pattern instead of the traditional brick pattern with light gray grout. After he was done, we still had 3 boxes of the white tile left over. We managed to resell the leftovers for $45. So our kitchen backsplash cost us a total of $55! Can't beat that. The kitchen is so much brighter now and even looks bigger.

What I learned from this project:
1. Well, my husband learned that removing the old mosaic tile, that he so lovingly installed a few years ago, was a MUCH bigger job than he had anticipated. He may think twice about tackling a project like that again.
2. He also learned that tile sometimes has small variations in size, so you need to pay attention when laying it out.
3. I learned to stay out of his way and be grateful he is so handy (but I already knew that)!

The bed "felt" so good...

Here's me just being cheap thrifty...
After we moved in, my husband made us a headboard out of plywood. It's a basic plywood box, which I then stapled with batting and a green print fabric.
A few years later, we changed the color scheme of our bedroom, so I removed the green fabric from the headboard (see chair post), and covered it with gray felt for a total cost of $5 (thank you Jo-Ann fabrics and a Sunday 1/2 off coupon).
The inert black lump in the photo is our cat, Pete. Doing what she does best.
Sleep and shed.

I had enough felt left over to cover the base of the bed in place of using a bed skirt. I struggled with how to attach these pieces to the bed, but in the end just tucked them between the mattress and box spring, which works great. The bed now looks a little like one of those upholstered headboard and bases. 

What I learned from this project:

1. Felt is awesome. Super easy and forgiving to work with. No hemming needed.

2. Spent $5. Need I say more?

Console-ation Prize...

Recently, I rearranged the furniture in my living room, which makes it a much more usable space.
One of the things I did was move the sofa away from the wall into the middle of the room, but then the first thing you see when you walk in the door is the back of the sofa. So it needed a little sump'n sump'n to cover its rear.
(Insert Kim Kardashian joke here.)

I had a console table in my bedroom, which was a CL purchase from several years ago, but felt it would be of better use in the living room. This table was super basic, the furniture equivalent of a Bisquick biscuit. Once again, a serviceable oak remnant from the 80's that just needed a little nudge into the 21st century. And the size and proportions worked, and it was a bargain at $40.
Here it is before I painted it. (I told you it was a biscuit.)

I didn't do anything fancy to it. Just painted it a glossy black, then accessorized it with a lamp, some books, and Pedro, the iguana (because Pedro is fancy enough).

What I learned from this project:

1. It's a good idea to "shop your house" (as the design mags say...) in case you already have a piece that will work better in another location.

2. As much as I want to go all crazy with paint sometimes, discretion is the better part of décor.

3. There is a reason that little black dresses are classic.

Fireplace facial...

Ok, so this has nothing to do with Craigslist, but this project was a total budget hack so I wanted to share this post.

From the moment we moved in, the appearance of the living room fireplace drove me CRAZY with its awkward, unbalanced mantel and brick surround. First of all, it was a stodgy red brick mess, which looked like it was plucked from the Little House on the Prairie. Second, the proportions were all wrong.


But as you can see below, my first attempt at disguising its shortcomings by just painting the brick and mantel the same color, failed.







We talked about tearing out the brick and refacing the whole wall in some cool tile, but after a trip to the tile store and doing a little construction and materials math...yikes!
So after noodling around with some ideas, I came up with a very inexpensive scheme to just cover the existing fireplace (no demolishing!)...and to finally make me happy.

To see if my design idea would even look ok, I first bought a sheet of foamcore and cut the pieces in the shapes I had in mind, then taped them to the fireplace. This also would give my husband (who needed convincing) a better idea of how this might look if we moved forward.
So far, already an improvement as far as we were both concerned (photo below).
The asymmetrical design would dial up a more contemporary look and disguise the fact that the sides were not the same width on both sides (a problem we couldn't change, because of wall and door placements).

With husband on board now, we stripped off the foamcore and got to work. The photos below show where he added 2 x 4 framing to the brick to bring 2 of the sections forward. The finished design would reduce the original 4 front planes to 2. And the other photo is a shot in progress after drywall had been attached to the framing.














Then he textured the drywall and sanded it to a smooth finish. Afterwards, we painted it 2 different colors to accentuate the different planes.

I love it! The new design has completely transformed the living room (it also inspired me to rearrange all the furniture).

And here is the REALLY cool part: the entire project cost us less than $40 in materials.

Shut up!

What I learned from this project:

1. If you stare at something you hate long enough (like this fireplace) you don't get used to it, you only end up hating it more.

2. I want remodeling to be cheap, quick, and not messy. Like Botox.