Money Saving Monday- DIY Ottomans

Ottomans can be great and functional way to add texture and color to a space.  There are some really pretty ones out there with gorgeous patterns and fabulous colors, the only problem is they can be a little pricey. I so wish I had an unlimited budget so I could buy all the pretties for my house that I want; who doesn't right? For those of us who do have budgets, here are some great DIY ottoman ideas I found that will get you a high end look without the price tag. 

1. Tufted ottoman by Little Green Notebook. She covered an old coffee table with fabric to resemble a $1200 ottoman from Restoration Hardware.

2. You can make one out the most unexpected items. Grace from Design Sponge made this little beauty from a utility bucket. 

3. Another coffee table turned ottoman from the Not So Newly McGees. It's so pretty!

4. This $50 ottoman looks so simple and is super cute for a nursery.

Decorating with Toy Animals

I love to see clever people repurpose old items and make them into something completely different. One thing I will never get tired of seeing is little toy animals reused and made fabulous! Here are some of my favorite toy animal projects. I would love to give some of these a try.

via The Haps

Animal Magnets via Sugar and Cloth

Toy Animal Knob via Design Sponge

Animal Book End via Nesting Place

Elephant Key Hook via Creative Soul Spectrum

Valentine's for kids

Even though Valentine's Day is tomorrow, it's not too late to get your last minute craft on with your little ones. Forget about the store bought Valentines, there are so many really cute and somewhat simple Valentine ideas out there. Here are a few of my favorite Valentine ideas for the kids.

1 // 2 // 3 // 4 // 5 // 6 // 7

Simple Valentine Decor

I don't normally do much for Valentine's day as far as decorations go. A bowl full of festive candy is really all I need! But this year I decided that I wanted to add just a little something. Yesterday the kiddo and I went out to Michael's and strolled through the isles until I decided what I wanted to make. We came home with all the supplies to make this XOXO plaque, because, let's be honest, you can't have Valentine's day without hugs and kisses.

It was pretty simple to make and didn't take very long at all. Here's how I did it.

You'll need a plaque, some letters, glitter, paint and supplies, a hot glue gun, tacky glue, and ribbon. The plaque was only $2, and the letters were a dollar a piece, so this project was quite easy on the wallet.

Once the paint was dry I turned it over and hot glued the ribbon around the sides. Finally I used some tacky glue and glued my letters in place. And done! So simple. I then placed it next to the roses I got for my birthday. And that, my friends, is the extent of my Valentine's day decorating.

It looks like a peacock

Let's talk about my fireplace for a minute shall we. I like having a fireplace, but the mantel looks like a giant brick H to me. When we bought the house I had every intention of painting it white, but I lost that battle, so I'm learning to love the brick. I would love to tear the whole thing down and replace it, but that is not exactly in the budget.  

The poor space over the mantel has sat bare for months. I had my sunburst mirror up there for a second, but then I found a better home for him. So I have been on the hunt for something else to put there. Since my "H" fireplace is so boxy, I wanted something round to soften it up a little. There are a lot of round mirrors that I like and would work, but I am not about to spend hundreds of dollars on a mirror. Then I saw a picture of this chrysanthemum mirror made out of plastic spoons by Addicted to Decorating. It looked pretty easy and very inexpensive, so I decided to give it a try.

My Version

First I cut the the stems off all the spoons. I used about 300 to make a 25 inch frame.

Next I made a round cardboard frame to glue the spoons onto. In the original tutorial she used two MDF wreath forms and taped them together. I felt like saving a little money and just making my own out of a box I had sitting in the garage. 

Next it was time to start gluing. I just started at the top, leaving a small space between each one, and worked my way down,

After all the spoons were on I took it outside and gave it a couple coats of white spray paint.

I wasn't as careful as I should have been when I got the last row, so after I painted it the inside still wasn't looking so hot. I decided to just cover up the flaws with some white and gray yarn. It worked like a charm; it covered up the ugly and added a little contrast as well.

When I was finished I simply hot glued the frame onto my mirror and hung it on the wall. After I got it hung I asked husband what he thought, expecting him to say he liked it. Instead, he paused for a second and said, "it looks like a peacock." I'm still not sure if that's a good or bad thing.

The project cost me about $15 total. I lucked out and found an 18 inch round mirror on sale at Target for $9. It's pretty much exactly what I was looking for to fill that space.
Linking up to Savvy Southern Style

Dining Room Board and Batten

I finally finished my dining room wall that has been 7 months in the making. It really didn't take very long once I got started. My husband and I probably spent a total 3 hours on Saturday putting it all up and filling in nail holes, and that time includes going to Home Depot and having them cut the wood. Anyway, I'll just let the pictures do the talking for a second, that's all we care about anyway.

I love that now when you walk in the front door you don't see a huge empty wall anymore, you see this! And once I get some art up there it will be even better.

Now onto the technical stuff. Since there are literally thousands of tutorials for this out there in blog land I will spare you most of the boring details. But here is a quick rundown of what we did. The first step was to paint the wall. Since we have textured walls I debated weather I would do the real board and batten or the fake. Doing it the real way would have required buying a huge sheet of mdf  and applying it to the wall. I decided to forgo the mdf and just paint it. In the end if I hated how it looked with the textured wall, I would just cut the mdf to fit between the battens and put it up later. I realized that this would be a lot more work, but I'm just trying to save money over here.

Next we went to Home Depot, bought the wood, and had them cut it there for us. I used 3 1/2 inch wide sheets of primed mdf for the vertical battens and 5 1/2 inch wide mdf board for the top. In all the wood cost about $50. Most people paint the battens before they put them up, but we decided to just go ahead and put them up first. I really didn't notice that painting them after they were up was any harder than it would have been if I did it first.

Next, we decided to put the top, vertical, on first. The Home Depot guy was not the most accurate and none of our boards came out the same length. So we decided it would be best to have them flush at the top and then fill in any gaps at the bottom.

To apply everything we first did a squiggly, I'm getting real technical here, of liquid nails and slapped it on the wall. We then followed with four or five nails for support. We used my dad's nail gun, but a hammer and nails would work too. Those guys aren't going anywhere!

Once we got everything up, I then went through and Spackled all the nail holes and gaps. I then caulked all the edges. Caulking made it look so much nicer and finished.

Before Caulk

After caulk

Finally, I painted, and turned it all into this:

The Stockings Were Hung

I started stockings for my little family before Christmas last year. I gave it a valiant effort, but let's just say I am a less than perfect seamstress, and by that I mean I'm terrible. Just when I thought I had finished the last one, I realized that I had done some embarrassingly bad measuring and it was about 5 inches longer than the other two. I'm still trying to figure out how that happened. I thought about keeping it that way and using it for myself, after all I made them, so I should get the biggest stocking right?! Instead I decided to do the responsible thing and fix it. But I was so frustrated that I put them away, and of course it took me the entire year to fix it. But a couple days ago I got them back out and got them done! They are far from perfect, but I just say they are full of character :) These are the stockings that I used as inspiration.

via

And here is my version.

Sprucing up the Walls...finally

Many of the walls in my house have been very neglected since we moved in. I have had plans of putting up board and batten on our dining room wall as well as a wall in the living room. It's just been a lot harder than I thought to find time to actually do it, so our sad little dining area has looked like this for that last few months. 

I finally decided I just need to start it so that I will actually get it done. My husband's family is coming for Christmas, so that is my motivation to get something on the walls. Last night my husband helped me measure everything out so I could paint, hence the blue line on the wall.

This morning I got the wall painted. I know it's not even close to being done, but just having that paint on the wall is helping me visualize how it will look when it's done,* and I am loving it! I probably won't be working on it anymore this week, with the holiday and family time and all, but hopefully I will have it finished by the middle of next week. I can't wait! Once I get the board and batten done, I can finally paint over all the beige. Woo Hoo!

I also plan on getting one of these guys from Ballard Designs to put over the table. Hopefully that will happen sooner rather than later. So if anyone is planning on getting me a Christmas present this year, feel free to send the large one my way!

DIY Chunky Shelf

I'm proud to say that I had a pretty productive weekend. I started a few projects, and yesterday I actually finished one! I mentioned my floating shelf drama here, and was prepared to spend a little bit more money to get a quality shelf. But then I decided that I would just take matters into my hands and make one. I like the look of big chunky shelves, but I never want to spend the money on them. I've seen a couple tutorials for shelves in the past, and decided to give it a try myself. I love how it turned out!

Supplies 

*7 or 8 in. wide board

*2 Corbels

*Door Casing

*liquid nails

*Wood Filler

*Paint

First step is to cut your board. I just bought a thin shelf that was already the size I needed so I didn't have to do any sawing. Next, cut the door casing at 45 degree angles to fit around the sides of the board.

Once everything is cut, glue the molding on by running a bead of liquid nails along the side of the board. I also added a few small nails to the sides for extra support as well.

Once everything is dry, fill in any holes with or cracks with wood filler or spackeling. After that, paint the shelf and the corbels! I then glued the corbels onto the shelf and added a few nails for extra support. And that's it, done! It was so easy and only cost me about $25. I already had the paint and liquid nails, so it would cost more if you didn't already have some of the supplies.

And here she is! I shopped my house for a few things to put on it for these pictures, but now I'm off to the store to get some real accessories!

 I love how it has the look of a thick, chunky shelf, but is actually just a piece of wood and some trim.