Thrifty Finds

I just wanted to pop in an show you my latest thrifty finds.  While shopping around at Goodwill a few days a go, I scored some pretty cool stuff for cheeeeeap!  I actually popped in there real quick to see if I could find a mirror for the bathroom that we are working on.

Lets start off with these cool bamboo looking handles. They probably used to be from some tacky purse right?  Well, last week Dana talked about Bolga Baskets and when I saw this pair for a buck I had to bring'em home with me for a little Bolga DIY project.

Next up is this green and gold, metal, Mid Century triple plant stand.  If you remember back when I shared an Ikea wish list there was a triple plant stand that I wanted to purchase.  Lucky for me, last time we went there it wasn't available.  So naturally when I saw this triple plant stand for only $6, I went and grabbed a cart to stick this baby into.

I left the best for last.  I mentioned going into Goodwill to see if I could find a mirror for the bathroom, right!  This thing was meant to be.  It was the perfect dimensions and hello its freggin rattan looking.  I say looking because it's actually some plastic-ish material it's also painted to look like rattan.  The tag read $10 which was already to good to be true, giving that it was the perfect size and style.  I ended up paying only $5 because it was 50% off yellow tags and guess what color tag this puppy had?  Yup, you guessed it!  Can you believe it?  I spent less than $15 on these three items.
Given that our bathroom has turned out to be a complete mess of a mini makeover, more on that later,  I'd say this was one lucky shopping trip.  Well now I gots to go clean up all this stuff.            

  

 

Mini Bathroom Makeover in the Making

Lately I've been very busy trying to fill up my online shop with new furniture pieces.  Working on furniture takes time, there are lots of steps involved.  Which means my house is being left in the back seat for a long time.  Last week I decided to take a break from painting furniture pieces to give my house a deep clean.  Wow did it need it!  I found our dining table hiding underneath paint cans and painting supplies.  We also had some impromptu house guest (perfect timing, feuf...)  The house is clean, the plants are happy and we were able to eat at the dining table a few times.  I say were because it only lasted that way a few days.  I got the sudden urge to spruce up the bathroom, so all of the bathroom stuff landed on our clean dining room table :-D  A clean dining table is always short lived here.

We can't afford a full reno in the bathroom yet.  It needs it but it is not in our priority list.  We saved up to put in new windows and a privacy fence in the side of the yard and those things were thankfully checked off our list this year.  The windows make such a big difference in our heating and cooling bills so we are very happy with them and they make our curb appeal look much better too.  See pictures here.  So does the fence.  Anyhow enough about that and back to the bathroom.

Before when we bought the house

I wanted to paint the sink cabinet, change out the old sink and faucet with a free one we got off good ole Craigslist .  We have beige fixtures in the bathroom, before we moved in one of the first things we did was to replace the beige toilet with a new water saving, white, elongated toilet.  We also painted the over the dark blue walls with a light, bright color called Irish mist.  The drop in sink and bathtub are still beige.  We are not switching the bathtub for now, that will be later with the full reno.  I also wanted to paint the doors, trim and finish the walls which we never did because they needed patching.  Simple right?
** Update- Free sink and faucet from Craigslist didn't work we had to purchase both pieces new!!!**

Before when we bought the house

New elongated, water, saving toilet (notice the green heater)

No, things are never as simple as I think they will be.  I started prepping the sink cabinet for paint and I called my husband and pointed out the fact that the baseboard heater is green and rusted.  I thought about painting it, but it would be messy.  I had to sand off the rust, prime with stop rust primer and then paint.  He said we should switch the cover out. I looked online and found some plastic covers you place on top but the reviews didn't convince me.  Plus the thought of putting something over them to hide the ugly doesn't help me because I know the ugly, rusted, dirty one is still under, and I wouldn't be able to sleep at night just thinking about it.  So we decided to just replace it with a new one.  The video on this old house made it look sooooo easy.  Long story short it wasn't as easy as we thought it would be but after much sweat,  a lot of cursing, fallen tiles and a few hours (yes hours) we got it done!

Before, nasty, green, rusted heater

After, pain the @$$ to install clean, new heater!

Full view!

We do not want to replace the tiles right now so we were lucky only one broke a little bit in the corner so I will be gluing them all back for now until we can afford a full renovation.  Replacing the heater set us back a day.  Next we wanted to replace the sink.  Well, it looks like that faucet has never once been shut off in it's entire life and the water shut off valve is stuck.  So back to home depot for more supplies.  New hoses, new shut off valves and drain pipe.  We got home, and realized we bought the wrong hoses, it was too late so we have to wait until later today to exchange them.

So in the middle of all this chaos, I decided it would be a good time to paint the ceiling, because you know all the other accumulated projects on the list wast enough.  Hubby took off the ugly light fixture so I could begin and it turns out we didn't have any rollers, like I though we did.  So nothing else got done.  Turns out we were very unprepared.  So I'm making a list, checking it twice (in my Santa Claus is coming to town singing voice).

So here we go....

List of things to buy

• Rollers
• Exchange hoses 
• Paint trays
• Liquid nails for the tiles
• Toothpaste for brushing teeth :-D  

To do list

• Sand cabinet doors and drawer fronts
• Clean, de-dust, everything
• Prime ceiling, caulk trim and piece of unfinished wall (I already patched it) then prime them
• Prime cabinets and doors.  
• Replace drop in sink and faucet
• Glue fallen tiles and caulk between them and the heater.
• Paint the cabinet in gorgeous green color, I'm so excited about adding color!!!!
• Make holes for new cabinet hardware, I bought some really nice ones, I can't wait for that!
• Shop for pretty shower curtain, and figure out window treatment.
• Clean up the old light fixtures and vintage mirror, keeping those for now.  

It looks like we have our work cut out for us.  Now of to Home Depot.

Yes this post is full of ugly pictures but I'm hoping my next post will be full of gorgeous, after pictures!  So make sure to come back for the reveal!

If you want to see a mini, budget friendly, kitchen makeover see this post here!        

Rustic Grey White and Black Painted Desk

When I got this desk I wasn't sure how I was going to paint it.  I new I wanted to stick to neutrals and I wanted to do more than one color.  I wanted to keep the hardware because I they go very well and I love the noise it makes when you grab it and let go of it, I know it's a weird thing to like but just I can't explain it.  By the way if you are wondering about the coffee table you can see how I painted it in ombre effect here.

And here is the desk in it's new painted glory.  I sanded it and painted it grey with thick black and white stripes over the bottom drawers.  I then sanded a whole lot to give it a rustic farmhouse look.  I used several coats of poly and reattached the original hardware.  

The inside of the drawers got some modern contact paper.  I love doing a little something in the inside, I know a lot of people don't see it but it's a little happy moment when you open the drawer and see a little something fun in the inside.  

 I usually like doing a little staging pre-pictures but the process of prepping, painting, pictures, posting is so long that sometimes it's just easier to do away with the staging part.  Maybe the next piece!  Anyhow, this piece is available in my Etsy shop.

Also check out this other desk I made over recently