In December, 2011 we bought a house that needed a gut job. Every room needed something and some rooms needed everything. We had a detailed budget and cash set aside for the kitchen and master bathroom project, but the rest of the rooms I planned to nickle and dime out of our monthly budget. Read more
This is so much fun! I made a video to show you how I try out a new design in a room before I break a sweat or spend a dime. I can decide if items work in my space just by trying them virtually without buying anything. If you take a photo of your room straight on, you can drop the items right over your picture so you get all the proportions right. Read more
Before we can get very far with our space, we need to know exactly what we want it to do for us. Without a clearly defined purpose we won’t know how to arrange the furniture, what furniture should be there, what storage options we need, or even what colors to choose. Read more
Do you know your design style? Are you a little bit modern or country? Do you like lots of decorations or prefer a minimalistic style? White walls, dark walls, neutral or bold? Painted trim, or stained wood? For some of us it’s hard to decide.
I can appreciate any well decorated space, so I made the mistake in our last home of combining too many styles in one room. Read more
When I was a teenager, I felt terribly awkward and unattractive. Girls all around me knew how to fix their hair, put together an outfit, and put on makeup to bring out their best features. I tried to mimick them, but something always felt off. My attempts at beauty made me look worse. I came to the conclusion that they were the pretty ones and I was plain. Trying to change that would make me a poseur.
I was especially awkward when I first met my husband. Read more
Mix month is still going strong and I have a big line up for you next week! But for the weekend I wanted to show you some progress I’m making in the girl’s bathroom. In July, I’ll have a whole month of house projects and frugal nesting ideas for you–this is just a sneak peek :).
Smart Tiles generously supplied the tiles for this post (after I begged them) and I honestly thought I would have it up and ready for them in April. If you remember, the space looked like this–very green:
I stripped the wallpaper and the popcorn ceiling and was stuck with how to repair this:
…and many areas like it. I finally hired a drywall guy to rescue me. He was amazing and affordable and I wish I had called him months ago.
This week, I primed and painted the space. It is white, white, white…from the ceiling to the floor. To keep it from being boring and cold, I have lots of gold accents and dramatic floor to ceiling curtains planned. Plus texture from faux bamboo shades, terry cloth rugs, and hexagonal tiles. These, to be exact. #onsalenow
I chose these tiles because I want the space done quickly without messing with concrete backer board, wet saws, adhesive or grout. Yet, I needed something to look great, be durable, and create a waterproof area. I was not disappointed.
Here’s a before and after picture:
The sink will eventually be white too.
I made a video for you showing how they work :).
Our bedroom was a dreary place. It was hopeless. Short of knocking out the wall and adding extra windows, I was lost on how to breathe life into the space. I allowed things to pile up around me in a clutter that didn’t have any business in a marriage retreat. The room was already gross….I didn’t see the need to protect it. It became the dumping ground for the whole house.
I was wrong. Clutter is the enemy of peace. Even removing the pictures on the walls and the large bed frame allowed me to see the potential in the space much clearer.
Without spending a dime, it was easy to rip up the old carpet, pop up the tack strip and pull the staples.
Fresh paint on the walls and trim, plus paint on the floor, made a clean slate for even better things. White trim made the room feel fresh.
Having to use what we already had, was a lovely limitation. If I had the budget to buy anything I wanted, it would have been very hard to make a decision. Instead, I spruced up our old furniture with a little paint.
That same limitation gave us our gold lamps.
Before I spent any money, I put all the things I was thinking about together in a power point collage, just to make sure it would look ok together.
Our old ceiling fan could only take a 25 watt bulb, so we switched it out for a standard fixture with a little personality.
Layering in furniture and texture with the jute rug and curtains, cozied up the space and started to make it feel finished.
More texture comes from the faux bamboo blinds (They are $1.50 placemats and a $6 runner from Ikea thumbtacked over the windows.) and faux sheep rugs ($12 Ikea rugs that I whipped stitched together) by the beds. They collect dirt like I was afraid of, but clean up nicely with a toss through the dryer.
The gold tones and wood tones, plus the natural color of the placemats and jute rug add warmth and keep the mostly white space from being too sterile.
Pillows add softness while the variation in shape make it visually interesting. The long pillow is from Ikea and the square pillow forms are from pillow cubes. I prefer to use feather pillows because they NEVER lose their fluff. Feather pillows are the only pillows I’ve found that can be tossed and fluffed back to perfection every time.
The peacock pillow cover is from Amazon and I’m waiting on the rest of my order to come to finish up the pillows on the couch and the bed. The white pillow on the sofa is still naked :).
The wood picture frame and carved wooden turtle (a gift from our friend in Hawaii) plus the plant, add warmth and life to the corner. Plus mirrors on every surface we could manage them bounce the limited light around and really brighten things up.
The white shams on the bed are filled with King feather pillows also from Pillow Cubes. Look at the difference between non-feather and feather pillows. I have a tutorial on sewing easy pillow covers here and plan to use it for the pillows that will end up on the bed. (The photo below also shows the difference between no dust ruffle and the no sew dust ruffle.)
I pulled way back to show you this final picture to try to capture the piece of plywood on the floor and the white curtains on the wall. Under the plywood is a large hole where a sunken bathtub used to be, and behind the curtains (sheets thumbtacked to the ceiling) are studs, pipes, wires and insulation. I can’t fix those two things right now. That lovely limitation almost prevented me from trying to change the room at all. The truth is I hardly notice them now.
I couldn’t make this room perfect, but my imperfect efforts still blessed my family.
When we were redoing our room last month, I was surprised how many little details make a space feel finished. The bedskirt is one of those.
Our previous bed had a wooden frame that hid the box springs. We were ready for a new look, so kept the headboard only and put the bed on metal rails. I needed a fast, frugal solution for hiding the box springs.
I found an easy answer in 2 twin flat sheets from Walmart. ($4.88 each.) 1 sheet would have done it, but then there would have been sewing involved.
Here’s a quick video, explaining how it works. Something more permanent could be made with velcro and hot glue. I plan to do that soon. The pins work well, but my kids come and stand by the bed to talk to me in the night and step on the bed skirt–which pulls out the pins… Changing the sheets was easier than I thought. Just by remembering the skirt was a little fragile I could work around it without pulling it all apart.
In the Cozy Minimalist class, I learned that plants breathe life into the room. My family room is land locked and light deprived. Real plants wouldn’t survive a week in this space, so a little creativity is in order. (The plants in the picture are fake IKEA plants. Cute…but too small for the space? I’m looking for a frugal way to overflow that shelf with green.)
After some looking around pinterest, I thought a moss covered letter on the new painted fireplace would be perfect. The space above my fireplace isn’t huge–22 inches total. So I opted with a 15 inch letter. I could have gone SUPER frugal and cut a letter out of cardboard. In the end I paid $5 to have a ready made letter because I wanted the depth. you can see the side of it from the front door and it looks better to be thick and sturdy.
The fireplace still looks bare, so I’m thinking about garland options. Maybe I’ll make this when we drive to Colorado. Or this.
This project took me 1 hour including driving to Hobby Lobby to get the letter $5 (50% off from $9.99.) And the moss sheet $6 (40% off coupon from $9.99.) I also used scissors and a marker. The project would have gone faster, but those sheets are extremely sticky and I kept getting caught in it like a mouse in a sticky trap. I regret my decision not to film it, because I think it would have gone viral for how ridiculous it was….you’ve been warned.
Unfold your moss sheet and place your letter in the center. I drew the lines on it with the marker and cut along it with scissors. Then peeled off all the paper backing.
I pressed the letter onto the sticky moss. At this point, it’s good to mention that you want the RIGHT side of your letter face down. This is pretty important if your letter is directional, like a B. Thank goodness that C’s are good both directions because I wasn’t super careful. As you go, SAVE YOUR SCRAPS. You’ll need them until the very end. Then if you want, you can throw the mess away.
Then I started pressing up the moss and sticking it around the outside, trimming off the excess so it would lay flat agains the wall. Where it curved, I snipped it to the letter then folded it up overlapping the excess while keeping it smooth. The cool thing about this project is the moss is so forgiving. If you end up with a hole you can just stick a scrap in it and no one will be able to tell.
To go around the inside curves I snipped it like the outside, but this time instead of overlapping it left gaps of triangles. 
I just cut little triangle scraps and stuck them in to fill in the gaps.
The corner ended up with a triangle flap. I just cut it off flush.
TaDa!
I went super fancy on the hanger and hot glued a paper clip to the back. It’s such a lightweight piece that a paperclip is just the right thing.
My mom is amazing. She was my Skylarks and Orioles leader, and Den Mother for my brother. She taught Sunday school and led the junior church. She cooked a sit down meal for us every night and made breakfast almost every morning. While we waited for the bus she read Uncle Arthur bedtime stories so we would have a good dose of values before school. She formed a family worship group where we would gather in homes with other families and have child centered Bible lessons. She sewed all of my clothes and did craft shows and had garage sales to bring in extra money. She made sure I could cook and sew and clean and care for children before I left home. And took time to really listen to me.
She was so busy giving us the best childhood ever that home decor wasn’t high on her priority list. Who can blame her? It took awhile to realize that I was interested in interior design. I would visit well done spaces and wish I could put something together like that. Everything I attempted looked like a different hot mess than the one I started with.
Decorating disaster circa 2009
I remember the first time I ever painted a room. I had 2 kids under the age of 3 and could only paint in 10 minute spurts while I cared for them. I used ziplock baggies to keep everything fresh for the weeks it took me to finish one room. But the feeling of accomplishment and freshness from that experience germinated an interest in interior design that has grown larger and larger.
I had to experience a lot of decorating failures before I figured out the things that I like. Things like light and bright neutral walls that allow accessories to take the spotlight. White trim! Fewer, larger pieces of art and a minimalistic style. I spent years devouring home decor blogs, magazines and books. Even after those years of following the experts, no room in my house felt quite right.
When the Nester announced her Cozy Minimalist decorating class, I wanted to sign up right away. I’ve learned more from her blog over the years than all my other sources put together. I paused at the $89 price tag. Then I realized if I was going to keep working on my fixer-upper, room by room, this class could save me from wasting money on the wrong things. If I only learned one new thing that averted a buying disaster, the class would pay for itself. So I signed up. YES! My frugal self paid $89 for a virtual class and admitted it publicly.
It was the best decision ever. For one thing, it gave me the courage and steps I needed to turn my master bedroom disaster into a serene space. I did the whole thing with cash I gathered from selling clutter around the house. The space isn’t done, because spaces are never done. There will always be tweaking and changes to make, but I don’t have that feeling that something is “off” like before.
I didn’t spend less on decorating stuff before I took the class, and when I was done I still had a space I didn’t love. The class changed the types of things I shop for and ultimately saved me from buying the wrong things. It paid for itself by showing me how to use what I have and then focus my shopping in the right direction.
That $89 class is now available as a self-study course for just $39. PLUS you can get $10 off if you follow this link and use Angela Coffman in the referral box.
Here are more pictures of what other students in the class were able to do.
If home decor isn’t your thing, but you need to do your own decorating anyway, you need this class. It’s 4 sessions of step by step how to go from hot mess to cozy and well put together. This class taught me more in 4 weeks than 4 years of research did previously. It sure beat trying to figure out the decorating thing on my own.