$200 Bathroom Makeover

It's the big reveal.

I mentioned last week that I've been hard at work redecorating my master bathroom on a shoestring -- $200 to be exact. So, it's time to share some before and afters. Here's the view before I started the redo:



And after:



One of the main components of the "redo" involved adding some fabric to the room. Normally, I'd try to find some remnant fabric, but I absolutely fell in love with a fabric shower curtain from Kohl's. I managed to get it on sale and proceeded to get the most mileage out of it that I could.

First, I made a "skirt" for under the vanity. I ended up sewing it, as it involved the kind of sewing I tend to be fairly decent at -- straight lines.

Here's what it looked like before:



And after:

Isn't that candle centerpiece on top cool? I picked that up on sale at Kohl's, too.

Next, I took part of the shower curtain and did a "mistreatment" on the window:

The weird thing about our house is that we have a ton of switches and outlets. A ton. There are some light switches that I still have no clue what they turn on. Anyway, we had a very odd grouping of outlets on the facing wall when you walked into the bathroom. I'm not sure if you can see so well in this picture. They're above the obnoxious looking radio and half camouflaged by the calendar my husband stuck up there.



My mom had the great idea of taking some shower curtain and making a hanging tapestry to hide the outlets. (Again, just my kind of project -- straight sewing lines.) I also got rid of the super-cheap shelving unit and moved in a wicker piece that I had in my daughter's room. And, remember those cheap pictures I made? You can see them in the next couple shots, as well:





I also made some other "cheap" artwork by taking a Japanese fan that my father-in-law acquired on a trip around the world years ago. The fan was sitting on a shelf in my great room, but was kind of lost up there. I got a shadowbox frame for 50% off at Hobby Lobby ($17) and pinned the fan open inside:



Here is a picture of the unfinished bathroom shelving unit:



And, a few shelves later:

The great thing about these shelves is that I managed to fill them by pretty much "shopping the house." I bought the bamboo boxes on the bottom shelf (clearance $8.99 each). Other than that, everything else was something I already had. The shelves aren't perfect -- but they'll do for now.

On the opposite side of the tub, I had this odd little alcove. Here's what it looked like before:

(That's the baby tub sitting inside the big garden tub, btw. Klassy, no?)

I shopped the house for a few accessories to replace the weird towel basket below and replaced the flowers in the hanging basket with some faux foilage I also had laying around:



Three supa-fab new bathroom rugs finished it off.

Here's the final cost breakdown:

(3) Bathroom rugs @ $20 each
(1) Bathroom centerpiece @ $30
(1) Shower curtain @ $35.90
(2) Bamboo boxes @ $8.99 each
(1) Shadowbox frame @ $17
(2) Framed art prints @ $3.50 each
(1) Wooden dowel for hanging tapestry @ $1
(1) Pressure rod for vanity skirt @ $10
(4) New shelves for unit $32
(1) piece of faux greenery @ $2.50
(1) Turquoise vase @ $10.49

GRAND TOTAL: $223.87

Even though I went a little over budget, I realized I could totally transform a room for a lot less than I would have thought possible. Which really, is quite a revelation for me.

So that's what I learned this week (actually, what I learned over the last few weeks). To see what everyone else learned, head on over to Jo-Lynne's place for the What I Learned This Week carnival!

What I Learned This Week: You Can Make Artwork on the Cheap

I've been watching too much HGTV.

That happens every now and then.

I can always tell when my watching gets a little out of hand because that's when I start dreaming up all sorts of "home decorating" projects -- as if I'm some sort of female David Bromstad. All of a sudden I'll walk into a room and the fact that we don't have say, window treatments, will really start to bug me. So, I begin figuring out how I can get the job done with minimal money spent.

The latest victim of my unbridled creativity: our master bathroom. It's pitiful. It has looked pretty much the same way it has looked since we moved in eight years ago. There's no decor theme -- it's pretty much a mish mash of whatever I happened to throw in there. It's bland and pretty boring.

But, over the last week, I have worked diligently to transform it! I'm thrilled with the results, which I promise to share later in the week (I just need to finish a few last minute things before I post the after pictures). Long story made short: I gave myself a budget of $200.

Now, that might seem like a lot, but the bathroom had a shelving project that had been incomplete for eight years, so I knew a fair portion of my budget would go toward finishing that.

Once I got the major things done, I found I had little left over for finishing touches like artwork. So, I figured out how to make some artwork on the cheap. It's not rocket science (I'm no Nester), but here's what I did -- and I bet it's something you could do, too!

I chose an Asian-inspired theme for the master bath. The color palate was going to include a lot of earth tones and neutrals, with some green and turquoise mixed in. So, I was thrilled when I stumbled upon this set of six notecards in the Target $1 section:

I loved the design and started to think about how I could use the notecard as the basis for some artwork. I went to Walmart and bought two 8x10" frames for $3 each.

Next, I opened the card and cut the front from the back. I made sure to keep the dark brown piece close by -- I was going to use that later.

Then, I cut the front of the card into two pieces. I liked the gold bird better, so that was the part I wanted to use.

Then I grabbed some scrapbook paper that featured the colors I was using in the bathroom. Because I was making two pictures, I used two 12x12" sheets of paper, which cost a whopping 33 cents each at Hobby Lobby.

I cut the paper to fit the frame. I then used the dark brown part of the card to frame the gold bird piece:

Then, I just stuck it in the frame. Piece of cake.

I actually made two of these pictures, one for each side of our bathroom counter. They work perfectly.

Oh, and one last thing. If you do decide to do a similar project, be sure and remove the picture stand from the back of the frame. This will make it lay flatter when you hang it on the wall. All you need to do is wiggle a flat-head screwdriver under the hinge that attaches the stand. It pops right off:

So, that's what I learned this week. How to create great looking artwork for a song. These pictures cost me about $3.50 each.

Now, go visit Musings of a Housewife to see what everyone else learned this week!

How to Make Cute Hair Clips *With Giveaway*

***Congratulations to commenter #7 mah-meee from Raising A&C! You're the lucky winner! Be sure and check your email so I can get the hair clips out to you asap. Thanks to everyone for playing along! ***

I'm updating this post to link up to Works for Me Wednesday. After you finish reading it, be sure and check out all the other great tips at Shannon's place!

So, earlier this week I confessed that when it comes to styling my daughters' hair, I'm pretty much all thumbs.

But, after re-reading that post, I realized that I neglected to fill you in on the one secret weapon in my hairstyling arsenal. I mentioned it, but I didn't elaborate.

So, I'd like to introduce you to the flower clippie:



I like to call it the "smoke and mirrors approach" to styling hair. You see, my daughters' fine hair may never boast impressive volume or curl -- but any ol' style can be dramatically improved with a flower clipped on top. I present Exhibit A:



And Exhibit B:





See? You don't notice the hair, only the flower. Sneaky, huh? And here's the best part, you don't even have to spend $10 a clip. I made these for literally pennies. Here's what you need:






faux flowers, ribbon, brads, alligator clips (available at beauty supply stores), and a hot glue gun. I pick my flowers up at the dollar store. They don't have to be silk. They don't have to be expensive. Cheap will work just fine.

The first thing you want to do is pull the flowers off the plastic stems. Then, remove the center portion of the flower. If the flower petals are just one or two "ply," so to speak, remove a few extra flowers. We'll stack them, one on top of the other, to make them look fuller.





Then, go get yourself some brads:




You can pick brads up at a craft store. There are a ton of different styles. Choose whatever you like. I happen to be partial to the silver rhinestone variety.


Next, stack your petals. I used four single-ply flowers below. Then, run your brad through the center and secure.





Now, set that aside and forget about it for a second.


This is an alligator clip. Notice that there is a definite top and a bottom. The bottom is the straight side.






Hold the clip upside down (so the bottom edge is now facing the ceiling) and open the clip. Apply hot glue to the inside of the top of the clip (which is now functioning as the bottom). Then, take some ribbon and set it on top of the glued part like so:






Now, flip the clip back over so the bottom of the clip is back on the bottom. Apply more hot glue to the outside of the top of the clip, and fold the ribbon around the top of the clip to stick.

By the way, be very careful when you do this. You can get a pretty decent burn from getting hot glue on your fingers. (That's the voice of experience speaking.) Now, apply some hot glue to the bottom of the clip (the solid silver part only):

And wrap the ribbon around like so:

Trim off any extra ribbon. Now you're home free. All that's left to do is hot glue the flower onto the top of the clip. Viola!

You can do the same thing with larger flowers, by the way. Remove the center and stack a few layers of petals. The only difference here is you're going to hot glue the layers together, instead of using a brad:

Then, cut the "peg" end off the the flower center (so it will lay flat) and hot glue that puppy right onto the center of the petals.

Then, just hot glue the flower to your ribbon-covered alligator clip. Piece of cake.

Hey, how 'bout a giveaway? I'll make two sets of small flower clips and three larger gerber daisy clips for one lucky winner. Let's keep it nice and simple. Just leave a comment below. I'll close comments a week from today (Friday, February 20th at 11:59 p.m.) and use the random number generator to select a winner.

Good luck and happy clip making!

The Big Reveal

So, remember my little crafty episode where I was fashioning some "window mistreatments" ala The Nester for my kitchen and great room? Well, the kitchen is officially done -- and I've finally managed to get some halfway-decent pictures of what I did (there are so many windows in my kitchen that it was hard to find a good time of day when the lighting would work). Anywho, here's a "before picture" of my kitchen sink area (sorry, the lighting on this one isn't the greatest):

Here are the three windows over the kitchen sink now:

From another angle:

I have a huge bay of windows in the kitchen that, unfortunately, I don't have a before picture for. So, you'll just have to use your imagination to picture the area without the fabric. Here is the area all dressed up:

And a little closer...

Do you see why it would have cost me a fortune to have fancy drapery treatments made? There is no end to the windows.

All I did was folded the fabric, which I bought for a mere $7 a yard, and then used upholstery tacks to secure it the wall. (For full instructions, check out the Nester's site here.) Then, I happened to find these little flower clips:

Guess how much I paid for them?!? 50 cents each! It was the steal of the century, because just look at how it finishes off the mistreatment:

All told, I think I spent a total of $86 dollars to dress 13 windows in my kitchen. That comes out to about $6.50 a window. That is about as cheap as you can get, my friends.

The mistreatments did take a little getting used to -- after all there's now a lot more color than I had before. But, really, the fabric makes the whole kitchen so much warmer and inviting.

Great room is up next. That mistreatment is a little more involved, so it's going to take some time. But, I'll post the end result when it's finished.

Lookout! I'm feeling crafty!

I'm not sure what it is about fall, but this time of year always seems to find me channeling my inner Martha Stewart.

I'm not really a terribly "crafty" person. I do a little scrapbooking. I do crafts with my kids. That's pretty much the extent of it.

But then the temperatures begin to drop, the leaves start changing colors, and I start dreaming up home decor projects that must be executed immediately. Last year, it was a charming pair of fall wreaths for our front door. Armed with a couple twig wreaths from Michael's, a handful of fake foliage and my trusty glue gun, I created this:

Last week as I was scrolling through Works for me Wednesday posts, I saw this post for "Window Coverings in Minutes -- No Sew!" When I clicked over, I was absolutely amazed at the gorgeous window treatment Lora Lynn created with scrap fabric, packing tape and upholstery tacks. She called it a window mistreatment, and credited the Nester for this flash of brilliance.

I headed over to the Nesting Place to get a few more details, and my fall craft obsession shifted into high gear.

Did I mention we have about 80 windows in our house, not counting the skylights? Yep. I went through and counted them myself. I love window treatments, but when you've got 80 windows, you quickly come to the realization that mini blinds are the cheapest and easiest answer.

Because, after all, you do have to send the kids to college.

But the Nester says these treatments are supposed to be done with remnants. Scraps. Whatever you've got lying around or can find on the cheap.

And I'm all about cheap.

So, I headed up to the attic and unearthed about a yard and half of leftover decorator fabric (from a few fall projects ago). I got out my packing tape, bought some upholstery tacks and just look at what I did to our bathroom window:

See the upholstery tacks? I hammered them right into the wall!

Here's what it looks like when you take a few steps back.

Isn't it pretty?!? It took me about 15 minutes and cost all of 99 cents (for the package of upholstery tacks).

I'm so psyched, I can't wait to go hunting for more remnant fabric, because I've got a few other windows to dress.

Yanno.

Only 79 more to go.