70x40 Mirror for $45

I completely forgot to post this last week, but here it is:  my finished mirror in our dining area!  (I use the term "area" loosely, because as you can see, it's tiny.  Our couch is practically in it.  It's more of a dining nook.)  It took me about a year of living in this house to realize that that big wall needed something flat on it like artwork or a mirror.  Since our first floor is so small and only has one window,  I thought that a mirror would help open the space up.  My only problem was finding a giant, affordable mirror.  I'd seen tutorials for how to frame a bathroom mirror all over the blog world, so I decided to try the same thing with a mirror that wasn't in a bathroom. 

It took no time to find someone trying to get rid of a frameless bathroom mirror on Craigslist.  I bought my 70 x 40 mirror for $30, and I had it hung within a couple days (I hung it with mirror clips just like you would hang a mirror in a bathroom).  I wish I could say that it took me the same amount of time to get it framed.  I'm so embarrassed to say that I had that mirror hanging for almost two years before I got around to getting it framed!  I don't know what took me so long!  It was just one of those things that kept getting pushed to the bottom of the to-do list.

When I finally got around to getting it framed it was soooooo easy.  I bought $15 of molding and had my uncle cut it with his miter saw.  I painted the molding with white semi-gloss paint so that it would match the rest of my molding and I used these materials to attach the molding to my mirror.

 Double-sided duct tape, liquid nails, and spackle. 

I alternated beads of liquid nails and strips of duct tape on the backside of the molding.  The duct tape just held the molding in place while the liquid nails was drying.

After all the pieces of molding were on, I filled in the corners with spackle, smoothed them down, and painted over them.

You can't even tell that it's not one piece or that it didn't come ready-made from a store.

 Here's a before shot...before my chandy update, before the table runner, before the framed mirror:

This mirror was the last big project on our first floor.  All I really have left to do now is change out some accessories in our kitchen and I will be "done" with one whole floor of our house.  Yippee!

I'll be linking up to:

Space-y Nursery

This nursery has been in the works since December of 2009.  Given that amount of time I should have been able to decorate a nursery worthy of Mariah Carey's twins.  I'm sure she would not approve of my little 9x12 space, but I'm much happier with it now than before.
Here's a little reminder:

OK.  This picture is particularly bad, but you can see that there were big changes made just with some paint and accessories. 

The big items had to stay.  As much as I love vintage-modern style cribs and mis-matchy dressers now, I didn't know that I loved them when I bought my furniture.  I also kind of bought them because my due date was getting close and I needed something.   I think I was able to bring a tiny bit of the vintage-modern style in with they pennant banner and vintage-looking space prints in the gallery wall.

You may remember this post...well....I decided not to paint my chair.  Now that the walls are lightened up, it doesn't seem like it needs it so bad.  I'll just keep the cream slip cover I bought to go in the next baby's nursery (possibly still years away).

The changing pad cover and crib sheet I got is from the Dwell Studio for Target Space Baby line.  I made the pillow in the chair and pennant banner from the curtain panel that belongs to the set.

This is the little corner next to the crib.  These are the only "toys" that stay out and visible in the room.  Everything else is stored in the closet. 

My little solar system mobile came from PB Kids.  I wish I could say that I made it myself, but it was $40 and I don't think I could have created one for significantly less than that.

My husband actually picked out the lamp on the changing table.  It's from Ikea and I think it was $20.

Since we already had all the big ticket items and most of the accessories, my nursery change-up didn't end up costing a ton of money.

Here's the rundown:
-Striped Curtains: $40
-White Paint: $20
-Pennant Banner: $9
-Birth Stats Print: $6

$75 for a whole new look!

Like always, I'll probably continue to add little things to the room over time.  I really want to re-cover a bean bag chair using this tutorial to put by the book racks. I'm also still considering putting something on the walls on either side of the crib.

I'll keep the blog updated with any changes I make!

Painted Pillow

Yep.  I painted those stripes onto my newest throw pillow.  I had originally planned on using green fabric to Heat-n-Bond stripes to the pillow, but I figured that a little fabric medium, acrylic paint, and painters tape would be less time consuming.  Since I didn't do a very complicated pattern it only took about15 minutes to paint the stripes.

My new striped pillow is replacing this pillow:

I love the pattern, but ever since I decided to incorporate more green in my living room through the stenciled curtains and solid green pillows, it just seemed out of place.

The best part about this project is that it cost me ZERO dollars!  I used drapery fabric and paint supplies that I had left over.

Here's a shot of the new pillow with the stenciled curtains.

Love!

If you're curious about how I sewed the pillow,  here's my No Zipper, Envelope Pillow Cover Tutorial.

If you're curious about what I used to paint the stripes, here's my Stenciled Curtain Tutorial.  Just use tape to create stripes instead of a stencil!


I'll be linking up at:

Framed Vintage Keys

OK, I posted this little project twice on my old blog and now I'm posting it again.  I'm just really proud of my keys.  Not to sound braggy, but I thought of this all on my own.  It wasn't until after I had this piece finished and hung that I saw this at Restoration Hardware.

via restorationhardware.com

This key art is 18.5" x  18.5" and retails for $199.  Mine cost me $25. I got a handful of keys at the flea market for $5 and a shadow box from Micheal's for about $20.  

The top and bottom rows of keys are flat so I just hot-glued them on.  The middle ones are tacked on with thread.

A few more months after I'd hung my keys I saw these at Pottery Barn.

via

Those keys are "vintage" (can you call something vintage if it's recently been mass produced?) and $19 for 7 of them.  Also, I love that gallery wall.

p.s.  The Restoration Hardware key art is no longer available online, but it's available from their catalog if any one's interested in dropping $200 + shipping on it.

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