Budget Decorating

I've been making some progress at home. I've organized some drawers, and have turned my attention to some decorating. I really should do more decluttering and organizing first, but I wanted to make the house look nicer too.

We moved here just last fall, and had gotten rid of a lot of the furniture we had (which wasn't much) thinking we'd buy new. Well, the money hasn't been available, meanwhile we're sleeping on mattresses on the floor, eating sitting on the couch, and stacking our clothes in the closets with no drawers to use.

Now that I've accumulated some furniture (see previous post) I have some great plans. I plan to paint all the furniture a nice sage green. Someone from Freecycle is giving me two low, wide dressers, which I plan to also paint green, and paint the knobs white with a spray of flowers on each. Then I'll put them in the dining area, to use for arts and crafts supplies, homeschooling supplies, and kitchen/dining room linens. I have some pieces of wood in the basement that will make great wood shelves. I'll paint them green also and buy some white brackets to put them up, two on each side of the dining area's window. I have a Battenburg lace valance that I'll put over the windows, and I'll buy some matching lace trim to trim the edges of the shelves. Then I'll put some pictures, small religious statues, and small baskets on the shelves.

For the table I'll try to find a nice table cloth, and keep some fresh flowers in a vase. When I get a table, that is! The table and chairs will be green also (cheaper to just get a whole gallon of the green paint for everything).

I'm not sure what to do with the dressers. The kids' clothes are in plastic drawers, stacked in the laundry room. There's no room for both dressers in there because of the clothes rack. I'll probably use one up in our bedroom. Maybe I'll keep the other one in the upstairs hall closet. It's big, like a bedroom closet, and I can keep the kids' bedding in there, and maybe winter coats. We have tons of closet space here.

The bookcase I will put in the computer room. I have many baskets that I am utilizing as decoration and storage througout the house, primarily in the living area.

The other day I took my yard sale and thrift store doilies and pictures and redecorated the living room. I have a set of shelves with religious statues that had become cluttered with Christmas candles, our Nativity set, children's books, etc. I cleaned it off, dusted it (first time ever...seriously, I'm a bad housekeeper, I never dust) redid the decorations. I took some of the smaller picture frames and replaced the tacky pictures with pictures I printed off the computer of my kids. Sad to say, the only picture I had on my walls our whole marriage was one Walmart portrait of my first son when he was a newborn. So for the first time ever, there are now framed pictures, one of each child, in our living room. The top shelf of the unit has a large round doily with the lace draped over the edge, and two tall statues of saints. The next shelf has two smaller statues, a doily with pink flowers embroidered on it, and a small picture of my newborn daughter. The next shelf has a Battenburg lace runner on it, a very small religious statue, and a picture of my almost-two-year-old son. The bottom shelf has a round basket with books for my children. If I ever figure out how to post pictures on my blog, I'll post a picture of the shelves. It was a big improvement.

I also put up a matted framed picture with the Footprints poem on it, and another with a poem about marriage. I added two picture frames with pictures of my oldest son and daughter, next to the larger picture of my first son as a newborn, creating a grouping of pictures, which looks much better than a single lonely picture.

I found an old cheapo plastic wall clock that was in bad shape, banged up from the move. I took off the plastic face, and decided it was to scratched to be saved. The white cardboard face was warped from moisture damage, and stained as well. I printed off a piece of paper with a light green scrollwork background, then fed it back into the printer and printed off a clock face from the internet, and put it into the clock. I used double sided tape to keep the face in place, and put the clock on the wall in the corner behind the tv, so no one will get too close to see my cheap fix. ;-)

I need to do something with the curtains. I had bought some tan fabric that has a suede look to it, and hung it from tension rods and rings with clips on them. But in the sun, the fabric looks terrible, like a seventies gold! I may use it instead to reupholster our ugly stained cream colored couch. I'm thinking white Battenburg lace curtains, or something similar.

With our budget of...well, next to nothing...I'm trying to be creative. I'm using and re-purposing things that I'm finding as we (still) unpack. I've found some fabric that I may use to make bedding for my daughter, who just got a toddler bed. I also have some toile in a blue print that is soooo cute, and may make an apron out of. If it works out, I'll make a matching one for my daughter.

Now if I can just find a table!!!!