[ home ] :: pinterest projects

This was an old post from my previous blog and it was completely off topic - but who cares? This is one of my favorite Pinterest projects of all time. Some projects you see online fail miserably, but this one is fast, simple, and cheap! Plus, the outcome is absolutely amazing. Enjoy!

"I finally started to decorate my office and unlike the rest of my house, which is full of neutrals, I wanted my office to have bright pops of energizing color. I've seen mini-projects like this on Pinterest, but never knew where to find the printables for them! I finally found the link to the site at Turtles and Pearls - a great lifestyle and fashion blog by a very smart gal. You can find her guide here, but if you want to link straight to the printables then check out this site: For Chic Sake. There are multiple printables to choose from, in an array of colors! I popped mine into some pre-matted 11"x14" Target frames ($6.00 each), and saved a few more to spruce up the clear-covers of my office binders!"






You can find each of the different printables here.

Happy crafting!

- Maggie White

[ home ] :: framing the garbage picture

Remember the picture I took from my neighbor's garbage?

I've been searching around town for a 20"x24" or 24"x28" frame and cannot find one I like! They had some at Michael's but they seems really flimsy, and I didn't want to have it custom framed. The last time I paid to have a small picture framed, it was over $100 even with a coupon! So I turned to the best place in the whole world: Amazon.com.

Check out this frame: $38.99 + free shipping. They have all different sizes and finishes, so this may be my new go-to place for framing!

I also found a custom-cut white mat for $7.50 + shipping. How fancy will that look with the garbage art?

- Maggie White

[ home ] :: one man's trash...is my treasure

I don't know about your neighbors, but mine tend to throw away some pretty awesome things. Example? This huge Michael Delacroix print:

One of my neighbors had a garage sale and just dumped what they didn't sell on the curb. Cha-ching! The Hubs thought I was a looney when I made him back the car down the street so I could jump out and loot their trash. He was mortified, but hey - it's a free picture! It was still shrink-wrapped with a cardboard backing and the original price tag ($18.99) still on it.

How cute are the little soldiers?

The reason why I grabbed this was because I liked the colors, and it reminded me of a picture my dad had framed in his office. I didn't realize it at the time, but it was the same artist. I looked up similarly sized reproduction lithographs on eBay, and they're going for about $30. Not a bad find!

Framing it will be my next project inside the house - I already have a place for it in my kitchen/breakfast room. I just hope my neighbors never come over and see it...hah!

I'm trying to decide if I want to put it in a black frame, or something more snazzy like gold. Or maybe even navy. What do you think?

- Maggie White

[ home ] :: when things get totally messed up, use chalkboard paint

I mentioned in my post about the blinds how the best way to wreck a house is to have other people move in. Well, one thing we had to quick-fix on the cheap was our kitchen cabinets. Hello, damage!

Moral of the story: don't put sticky stuff on cabinets. Now, if this was over the hardwood cabinets and not a thin veneer finish? I would sand and re-stain the whole thing. But nope - it was over an MDF board and some sort of awful sticker-type finish. Of course, this is the only place in the kitchen that has MDF.

What's a cheap girl to do? Paint it. Pinterest-style.

Step 1: Tape off and lightly sand the area to be painted.

Before

Step 2: Use a low-nap foam roller to lightly apply 2 to 3 coats of chalkboard paint. Let dry between coats.

After!

Step 3: Gently remove the tape. Voila! You're done.

I used Rust-Oleum Chalkboard Paint. This stuff is amazing!

There were also scratches on the cabinets, so I used a stain pen to re-color them. The trick to getting a really good stain is to apply it with the pen, then smudge it to blend after 10-15 seconds. I used Homax Wood Stain Marker in Red Mahogany.

Scratches from a dog

Much better!

Buy. This. Now. If you don't already have one!

We have a ton more projects to work on around our house...it's a never-ending list.

- Maggie White

[ home ] :: the story of the blinds

We have a beautiful townhouse that was our first "starter home" together. The Hubs bought it while we were dating and it was a great place to live, but within a few years of being married it felt too small.

How gorgeous is this? This was our "backyard" for our old neighborhood.

Long story short, we bought a new house. We decided that financially for us, and with how the housing market was going in our area, that it was better to rent our sweet little townhouse.

Well, the best way to make your townhouse not so beautiful and sweet is to put a renter in it. We have been putting off getting new blinds for two of the windows for over a year after a dog ate them. When we originally installed the blinds we had to custom order them because they were a totally wonky size. Can you say $$$$$? But now we have a nice renter and they requested new blinds.

This made me want to vomit. I seriously thought I would be shelling out $300+ for two new sets of blinds. For two windows. Holy crap. So I got to looking for blinds online.

The best deal on blinds, hands down, is at Home Depot. I searched everywhere. Specialty stores, local stores, Overstock, Amazon, and Lowe's. Let's compare:

 

 Lowe's: IPG 30-in W x 60-in L White Vinyl 2-in Slat, 64 in. Length. 30 in. Width. $40.00

Home Depot: Home Decorators Collection White Faux Wood Blind, 2 in. Slats, 64 in. Length. 30 in. Width. $27.80

Now don't get me wrong - I love me some Lowe's, and I prefer to shop there for many of my home-improvement projects. I actually have the IPG blinds in my kitchen at home and they are quite nice (but although they say they are "room darkening" they don't make too much of a difference). But when I'm fixing up our rental property I have to take cost into consideration.

Home Depot: 1; Lowe's: 0

After it was all said and done, I spent less than $100 on blinds and got free shipping. As an added bonus, I got SwagBucks since I ordered online! I'm crossing my fingers and hoping that we don't have to shave 0.25" off each side, and that they just slide in perfectly!


- Maggie White

[ home ] :: poppin' tags + a mirror makeover

Ok, so there were no tags to be popped this week, but check out this mirror I got for under $5 for my guest room! It needed something so our guests won't have to run up and down the hall just to look at their reflection. More specifically, I wanted a white mirror that would fit on an odd portion of the wall. However, I was not about to shell out $20+ at TJMaxx for a mirror.

I found this thing at Goodwill. It was beat up. Dirty. Plastic gold. It was perfect.

Perfect for a can of white spray paint, I mean! First, I taped off the glass and covered it with newspaper. Then I put it on a cardboard box, and sprayed away using multiple, thin coats of paint. I used a can of white Valspar paint that is formulated for painting plastic. Easy-peasy!

Here she is in all her glory. My $5 mirror:

I just noticed that the mirror is hella dirty - how did my dad manage to make it so gnarly the one day he visited? Oh well! In the picture you can also see the Pottery Barn quilt my grandmother got me before I went to college, the free artwork that Pottery Barn sent me by mistake (they sent the same thing twice - lucky!), and the crown molding and hardwood floors we painstakingly installed ourselves when we renovated our house last year. Being cheap is fun!

I can't wait to find more cheap goodies! Goodwill is hit or miss, but sometimes you can find great items that suit your needs.

- Maggie White