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.