My Free Bench

I needed a little bench to put by the front door. Nothing I found was small enough.  Then it occurred to me... Shop the House. 









I found this little end table that was discarded in my basement. My daughter bought it at a thrift store & used it as a nightstand in college, then left it at my house. It is really well built and the legs screw into metal brackets on the bottom. Probably from the fifties when they made furniture to last.

I removed the screws that held on the top shelf, sanded, then spray painted it with Rustoleum's Oil Rubbed Bronze-one of my favorites.  I didn't do the top because I planned to add an attached cushion. I asked my DH to please cut me a piece of scrap plywood the exact same size as the top.

I added foam, batting and fabric and upholstered to the plywood with heavy duty staples.  I also added some piping with the same material on the bottom by stapling it close to the edge.  Secret to upholstery is to stretch it tight, really tight. 

Then I screwed the board to the table from the underside.  I'm glad I added the piping.  It adds a professional touch.   

Here it is in the front entry, it's new home.  It's not perfect but I'm happy with it.  I'm also really happy with the price.  This whole project took less than two hours.  Sometimes it pays to shop the house and look at things in a new way.  What you need might be something you already have, it just needs a little tweaking.

My Unbelievable Thrifty Bed

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• I got a new bed!  I have been looking at this bed on the website of a consignment store for months.  I watched as all the other pieces in this set were sold off and the poor bed remained.  They kept dropping the price until one day when I looked online and it was down to a hundred and fifty bucks!  I couldn't believe it.  We are talking about a fine quality King size bed here! It was now about 1/10 of what they started out asking for it. Yes, it's used but I know this store only accepts top quality consignments so I ended up buying it over the phone, sight unseen, and then second guessing myself. They warned me that it was a very large bed, over eight feet tall.   Now I worried, what if it was too big? 

When we got to the store, it was big.  Really Really Big... And Beautiful!  Thank goodness, it came apart but we still needed a pickup and a utility trailer to get it home. Once we  got it set up, I thought it might be too big for our room, but it's fine. I love that it's solid as a rock, no squeaking or rattling. My best, thriftiest find to date.

My $8.00 Nightstand

I'm still working on the $75.00 budget for the guest room revamp. So finding this little beauty for $7.99 was sweet.  It's got great lines and is in really good shape. All I had to do was sand, prime, paint & poly and replace the knob.   

 She turned out beautiful!  That's the great thing about well made furniture with good lines, it doesn't take a lot to make it shine.

I'd like to find a basket to put in the blank space under the drawer to hold guest towels in. 

Here she is topped with a thrift store lamp I got for $2.50.  I spray painted the base Rustoleum Aqua.  The headboard in the picture is an old oak one that sat in the garage of our old house for 10 years.  I'm so glad I didn't get rid of it when we moved. 

A New Bulletin Board

Hi!  I had a project FAIL a few weeks ago.  I was recovering a beat up old bulletin board to hang over my sewing machine.  I spray painted the frame with Rustoleum Aqua and glued on some fabric and ribbon.   But it just didn't look good to me.  So I ripped off all the fabric, along with a lot of the cork, and started over.

I upholstered it and covered my staples by hot gluing on some ribbon and flowers that I made out of scrap fabric. 

I'm pretty happy with the way it turned out this time. 

Here it is in it's new home.  Yes, my sewing machine is tucked away in the guest room closet. Sad, but functional.  Someday it may have a new home in a craft studio in our currently unfinished basement.

 

A Chair For The Guest Room

 

Today I'm going to share another project I completed this summer.  I have this little redecorating game I play where I like to set ridiculous budget limits in order to challenge myself creatively. 

Before

I set the guest room revamp limit at $75.00.  My big splurge was this chair that I got at Habitat for Humanity for $25.00.  That's more than I would have paid for it normally, but Habitat is a great cause and I don't mind spending more for a great cause.  It was in good condition but needed new foam and fabric.  I sanded, primed and painted the frame and then protected it again with poly acrylic. 

It's a cute little chair.  I think I went a little overboard with the foam and batting.  It's so thick now that it hides some of the details of the frame.  Live & Learn. 



Sister Socks. 



Also,  I finished some socks I was knitting for my sister today.  There's just something so satisfying about finishing a pair of socks in the fall. It also feels good to complete a project.  I always have too many projects going at once.  I always like to keep a knitting project going though because it's something I can take with me if I'm going to be out and about or I can do it when I'm watching a movie on TV. 

All my sisters and my Mom got socks this year.  That's six pairs of socks.  Whew.  I think I'll knit something for me this time.  I just got some beautiful alpaca yarn from an alpaca farm that's only 15 minutes from my house.  That's really cool for me because:



Some of the Veggies from my garden



I grew up in Alaska and for most of my adult life, I lived in Seattle.  Last year my husband, youngest daughter and I sold our Seattle house and moved about an hour away into an agricultural valley.  I am really enjoying the change.  I like seeing the source of things. I like buying vegetables from a farm stand where they were grown, or yarn from a farm that sheared the animals, carded and spun the wool. 

Geese fly overhead.  Owls hoot in the woods by the house. My water comes from a well now, not a city water system.  I have a vegetable garden with way too many tomatoes in it.  Life is good.

A Teeny Tiny Tea Hutch and Blog Welcome!

Welcome to my very first post!  I want this to be a fun place where I can share my adventures in creative living.  For as long as I can remember, I've always been a homebody and loved sewing, decorating, crafting and cooking.  I also love a bargain so I'm always looking for ways to live the best lifestyle I can for very little money.   

I wanted to start by sharing with you a tea hutch I made this summer out of a ratty old nightstand I got at Goodwill.  It was so bad, I got it for half off the $4.99 price.

After

It was a really fun project to do. I've been blessed with two beautiful little granddaughters and we like to play tea party when they visit.   I added a shelf, sanded, changed out the broken knobs with wood knobs, primed and painted. I lined the drawers with red polka dotted fabric.  Since I had everything but the nightstand, the whole project cost under $5.00.   It's teeny tiny enough to fit tucked away in the corner of my office. Plus the drawers hold all their pots & pans & utensils.

Before- Sorry I don't know why it's on it's side.
(New Blogger Faux Pas!)

I'm hooking up with Metamorphosis Monday at Between Naps on the Porch.  My very first blog party!  When I get the hang of this blogging thing, I promise I'll post higher quality photos. 

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