Well, welcome to September. We hope you all had a great week-end. Mr. Right and I went tailgating, saw a movie, worked on some house projects, bicycled, and watched some SEC football. This was such a popular post last September that we wanted to revisit it for this year. It is loaded with some great tips.
Jordan shared with you three posts about decorating small spaces, (here and here) and decorating a rental (here). We heard this great info at Haven, and all of this came from just one session put on by Not Just a Housewife and The Shabby Nest. These ladies were loaded with info. We also learned some great hints how about decorating on a small budget, too. So, no matter what the size of your space, if you have a limited amount of dollars to spend on decor, we have lots of great ideas for you.
Bring nature in. Use leaves instead of flowers. I keep something in this little vase all year long. In the summer I use fern fronds, in the fall I use feathers, in the winter it holds twigs, and in the spring it holds small limbs from our shrubs. It’s all free and seasonal.
Make something plain into something special. Put interesting rocks or shells in a bowl or or even in a silver dish. Instead of throwing away my old passport, I used the colorful pages to make this interesting tray. It was a free upgrade. The cute red basket you see holding my wooden kitchen utensils came from a farm supply store. It is made for holding farm eggs, but I am using it in a different way.
Buy tiny bouquets at the market, and make them last as long as possible by changing the water daily and snipping off the ends and changing the vases as the flowers get smaller. Better yet, use flowers from your garden – even flowers you typically don’t think of for a bouquet. This little vase holds a fern frond, a stem of rosemary, a geranium, and pansy. None of these are normally used in traditional arrangements.
Paint, paint, paint. I feel as if I’m preaching to the choir on this one. I don’t need to say another thing about paint. And while you are painting, try repurposing. For instance, this great bar was once a baby changing table. All it took was paint and time to make the transformation.
Shop your house and make great art from what you find. Hang plates. Frame some old keys or old silverware from your grandma. Maps make great and interesting art as do fun restaurant place mats and menus. Jordan framed the menu from her and Yankee’s first date and gave it to him for a wedding gift. He loved it. Framed fabric works well, too. Even an old game can become art. I love what Jordan did with these Scrabble letters.
Add trim to what you have. Rick rack and ribbon on curtains are a great way to add a pop of color on a dime. Or you can buy inexpensive plain white curtains and paint them with stripes or stencil them. It just takes some time and measuring and a little paint.
Another great way to have unusual accessories is to make lamps out of unusual items. I bought these great demijohns in wooden crates on ebay. Then I purchased two lamp kits from Amazon. It took only about two hours to create these great lamps that are immediate conversation pieces.
Wrap things in twine to create cute little holders. Tin cans work, or you can even wrap thrift store glass containers with rope, and it can either look nautical or give it an autumnal look.
Buy an old magazine or book at a flea market or online and frame the vintage ads as art. I found this notecard, that is an original watercolor from the 1960’s in an antique shop in Paris for around $5.00. I framed it, and for just a few dollars, I have some colorful, interesting, and original art. Old post cards which can be bought for a dollar or two also become interesting art when framed.
Use sheets instead of fabric for big projects. You can almost always find sheets for sale on the end of an aisle at Home Goods, TJ Maxx or Marshall’s. Sheets can make great shower curtains, curtains, table cloths, dust ruffles and shams and sheets!!! Imagine that! You can also cut them up to make new covers for the throw pillows on your sofa. I used sheets for a shower curtain for my mom.
Think outside of the box. Use ordinary items like bread boxes to store more than just bread. They would be great for sewing notions, desk items, make-up, photos, jewelry, and much more. Be creative!!! My mom turned a mail box into a bread box for me.
Whew!! We’re not finished on this topic, but you’ve been loaded down with enough info for one day. Be sure to check out the links in this post to see the projects we mentioned, and we’ll share some more small budget decorating tips soon.
Take care.
Linking to Savvy Southern Style
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These are all great but I really like the idea of framing the menu. I think I will be doing that this week!!