Have I Ever Mentioned that I LOVE to Decorate?

One thing I love about moving is that a new house means I have a fresh slate to decorate; and I do LOVE to decorate!

The drawback to decorating is that it can be expensive, especially if you seem to be starting from scratch. When we moved from our Ohio home and into our motor home, we had planned on being on the road for several years. Instead of paying costly storage rental, we parted with many of our furnishings and only kept the most cherished of our belongings. 

When we surprisingly settled in Huntsville a year later and faced furnishing a home with basically nothing, I turned to Freecycle and decorating with thrift store finds. I couldn’t have been more thrilled with the results.

One short year later, when we decided to move back home to Ohio, we kept very little. Sure, I kept my table and chairs, our bright green Lazy Boy couch that I snagged at a thrift store when we first moved in our house, and a few odds and ends. Even then, we were pretty much starting over. That’s okay, because as much as I loved how our little house was decorated, I was ready for a change.

I love the idea of soft fabrics, flowers and simple, worn touches sprinkled throughout our house. After careful consideration, I decided a Shabby Chic decor would be a perfect compliment to our country home. Or at least that’s what my eclectic-whatever-appeals-to-me-style resembles.

The blue curtain at the end of the room is on the way out, by the way.

To achieve the result that I had in mind, I’ve once again turned to thrift stores and this time, my husband has recommended that we visit some of the antique stores that our area offers as well. I love to window shop in the antique stores and then try to find similar furnishings at the thrift store or flea market. This allows us to copy the look that we love without placing a strain on our budget.

I found this ugly chair recently at a thrift store. I know it’s not the most appealing chair, partly because of the low price of $4.99- (especially for a piece of that is solidly constructed)- and partly because when the nice man came over to help me load it up he actually said “You aren’t really buying that *bleeping* ugly piece of *bleep*, are you?” Hmmm...maybe someone needs to tell him that his response may not be the best for business, ya know?

I have to admit that the pattern didn’t thrill me, but I loved the style and the woodwork. The idea is to cover it eventually, but at the moment, it’s kind of grown on me. Go figure.

The ottoman doubles as extra seating and cost a mere $2.99- again, my thought had been to cover it, but since I’m decorating with a lot of shades of red at the moment, I’ve decided I’ll keep it a bit longer as well.

This antique chest is our real bargain. My husband and I have been scouring antique stores since July but haven’t found one for much less than $150. We found this at a flea market for only $35- marked down from $45! Don’t you just LOVE sales?

It now holds the cherished afghans that my great grandmother and grandmother made for me years ago. It’s also a great way to show off my husbands’ adorable handmade teddy bear.

I found this bookshelf last week for only $20.12! Did I mention that thrift stores have an odd way of pricing things? What's up with 90 cents, $1.91, or $20.12 anyway?

The shelf serves two purposes- 1) it displays our books and other knick knacks and 2) it allows me to give some height to the room by displaying one of my large, oversize wall hangings and some picture frames. We aren’t permitted to nail into the walls so this is a perfect solution to my dilemma.

My room wouldn’t be complete without an area rug- I snagged this thick, shaggy one for $20 bucks. Isn’t it great?

Finally, the item that we really splurged on, what I’m using as a sofa table- this little table with the black chairs was spotted by my husband and I in the corner of a little flea market. It may have cost $60 for the set, but we thought it was a pretty great deal.

I’ve dressed the table up a bit with some fake flowers and some more of our much loved pictures.

We had thought about painting the chairs, but decided that the black was a nice contrast with the rest of the room.

I didn’t even mention my slipcovers! As of right now, I have four! They are the best invention for fickle home decorators like myself. Oh well, I’ll save that for another post.

Do you want to shop at thrift stores but aren’t sure where to start? Make sure you check out my post, 10 Tips for Making the Most of your Thrift Store Shopping Experience.

Do you love to decorate? What is your favorite source for finding inexpensive, home furnishings and accessories?

From Plain to Pizzazz

I hope you enjoyed the sneak peek of my daughter’s newly decorated room yesterday. As promised, I’m going to show you how to add a bit of pizzazz to the ever popular wall stickies to turn this:

  which is Okay…to this….

which is really cute and simple.

First, you need to apply your sticky. Next you will need letter stamps and stickers. I raided the clearance section at Wal-Mart and found a set of clear stamps by Stampology for $4 and two packs of Bling! scrapbook stickers by Jolee for $3 each.

I chose to accent the sticky with random French words. Though I’d originally planned to use LOTS of words, I’m pretty impatient so I changed my mind and found I liked using the words over again. So I chose Paris, of course, France, Oui and Bonjour and randomly stamped them on the wall careful to keep them some what even on each side.

Once you know what words you want to use, you can apply them one letter at a time, or one word at a time.  I chose to use word by word by sticking the letter stamps on a piece of clear paper. Make sure that your words are in reverse order so when you place your paper on the wall your word won’t be spelled backwards. 

Arrange your letters or words.

Apply paint or ink to your stamps- I used acrylic paint. 

Position your letters on the wall and press down slightly, careful not to move them around.

After you’ve added as many words as you desire, randomly add decorative stickers.

That’s it. It’s that easy and for under $15 we created a one of a kind wall art.   

This post is linked to the Before and After Party hosted by the Thrifty Decor Chick.

Easy RV Decorating

I love to decorate. That's probably one of the things I really miss about having a house. I no longer have a place to display all the fun decorations that I see when I'm out shopping. I can't complain, if I don't have anywhere to display it, I don't need to buy it which means, it saves my husband money. He won't complain about that. Really. Ask him.

But he does complain about something, the fact that our house looked, well... homey.I spent a great deal of time selecting color for the walls and trim, dragging him to furniture stores until I found just what I was looking for and choosing each item that would grace my walls, coffee table, wicker stands and mantle carefully. Think shabby chic, white accents and flowers...everywhere. I proudly displayed pictures with scripture and symbols of my Christian faith. And I had photographs of our travels and favorite family moments all over the place. That's what my husband misses. He misses the fact that our new home, doesn't resemble our old home.

I am trying to decorate. If you've been reading this for awhile, you may have even seen some of my Motor Home Makeover posts, which I will have more of. I promise. Just as soon as I catch up on all this sewing.

So, it is coming along, but when it comes to wall space, I am really picky. I don't have a lot of it so I really want to maximize what I do have and I've not been able to find EXACTLY what I have in mind, so I've done without. Yeah, I'm funny like that, but I think I've found a temporary solution that is actually growing on me. It's lightweight, cheap, functional, personalized and glass-free, a plus when traversing over rough terrain.

While shopping at a thrift store, I found a brand new ribbon/memory board for two bucks. As soon as I saw it I knew that it would be perfect for displaying some of the travel memorabilia that is currently stored out of sight in our memoir box. So I began filling the board with ticket stubs, brochures, postcards, and patches from some of my families all-time favorite destinations.

I can switch these out whenever I want to and add to it in seconds but the biggest perk for all, is on the days that we wonder why we are doing this, when we haven't seen anything neat for awhile, when it's rained for two weeks straight and we've not been out of the camper, when we're really getting on each others' nerves, this simple decoration serves as a reminder of all the wonderful memories that we've experienced as a family on the road. And for a little while, everything is better.

How do you display the things you love?

Don't forget to stop by tomorrow and link up for my first ever Field Trip Friday! I'm so excited to show you the field trip we went on today!

Motor Home Makeover: Phase Three

Well, last week I shared with you the colors that I was planning to use in my makeover. I was also planning to upload a few pics of my current project- covering the dinette cushions- but the power adapter on my computer died and I never had the chance.

So...wanna peak? Here's a BEFORE pic:



And now...drum roll please...after spending two entire afternoons so far...half of my dinette is finished. Here's an AFTER pic:



So...what do you think?

Motor Home Makeover: Phase Two

In addition to replacing the yucky mauve carpet with a wood-look floor, I also decided to recover my furniture that is you guessed it….pink. To modernize and bring the décor up to date, I decided to add chocolate brown to the existing color scheme. But I also didn’t want the colors to seem mismatched so I'll add a great floral print to warm things up and tie it all together.

Since I have a strict budget for the total makeover, finding what I need has been a bit tricky and I’ll have to be a bit creative. After searching all the fabric stores in the area and unable to find exactly what I had in mind, especially at a low cost I was about to give up and settle on something I wasn’t really happy with when I found just what I wanted in a most unusual place. Goodwill. That’s right. A thrift store had exactly what I wanted. And more. Lo and behold, hanging on a rack were brand new curtains in just the color and patterns I was looking for! I had hoped for upholstery material but the pattern is right on target. I’m simply going to remove the seams and wala…just what I was looking for.

Soon, my dinette will have a brand new look and as a bonus, I’ll have enough material to create curtains for the camper. Can’t wait until it’s finished! So...what do you think of the color scheme? I know it's not as clear as it could be, but I promise, one of these days I really will get a better camera!

Motor Home Makeover: Phase One

When we purchased our motor home seven months ago, we were grateful to find one in our price range...CHEAP...that was mechanically sound and something we weren't embarrassed to drive down the road. With that said, there were still a few aspects of the camper that I knew from day one that I would change if ever given the chance...meaning if I could somehow manage to talk my husband into the work and expense that doing so would entail.

Talking my husband into any major changes is a difficult feat. Not that he isn't open to making those changes but let's just say that in the past I have had a tendency to...ummm...frequently change my mind when it comes to decorating. Southwestern, County, Traditional and Shabby Chic, you name it, I've decorated accordingly. I used to love watching all the design shows on TLC and HGTV. I've even taken Interior Design classes that I loved; so to say that I found a few things in the camper that I wanted to change is not out of character for me. I would have found things in a brand new camper that I wanted to change. After all, this is our home, shouldn't the decor reflect that?

Well, the late eighties, early nineties interior of our camper did not reflect us. Imagine. Pink. Everywhere. Carpet. Furniture. Tile. Pink...or...to be more exact...mauve....Yikes! It had to go and I couldn't wait for that day to come.

Well, last week, my husband and I had a date...to Home Depot...I know, we won't win any awards for the most romantic date idea, but he's a contractor, what can I say? Anyway, while we were shopping, we ran across some flooring that we really liked so we bought a couple boxes and began our project.

My son ripping up carpet


Demolition complete and clean-up begins


Installation of vinyl, wood floor look-a-like begins


And finally, a preview of the finished project


So, what do you think so far?