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Sunday, August 25, 2013

SHOPPING ON A SHOE STRING! AND OTHER DIY'S STUFF

   Trying to furnish a vacation home can be a little daunting. Furnishings that I would love have in our little beach getaway are in one word EXPENSIVE!
  One has to be creative to create the look and feel without breaking to the piggy or charging credit cards sort of defeats the calm and tranquil vacation if you have to worry about the how you're going to pay the bills!

  My husband and I have a fondest for vintage pieces , having said that, I wanted something colorful and fun for our  beach house.  

     While I crave having those gorgeous slip covered white linen couches that Pottery Barn is famous for and the beautiful fluffy pillowed beds with duvets so luxurious they are also very expensive :(  It is not practical for us with grand-kids visiting .. 
   Ebay has been a big help for Pottery Barn bedding, I have found sets of  Pottery Barn bedding that was sold out on the site, that people have purchased when they had their clearances throw them on Ebay and find others had the same idea. This set was one I wanted for our guest bedroom, brand new Pottery Barn set for 110.00!! Still in original packaging. ( ugly lamps have since been replaced, came with the house)

  There are always bowls of  snacks on the coffee table/ game table  including the Yummiest Malted Balls I have ever had. The chocolate is thick and the malt ball is huge the size of a big jawbreaker! Which also means chocolate fingers, peanuts in the cushions ... you get the idea...
 So for now we'll keep using the leather couches we have, but that doesn't mean I can't have some of the other things I adore!  This cute beachy looking accent table I found after a extensive search  the original one I found was a whopping $400.00!  This one $114.00 on Amazon prime free shipping!


    I present to you an alternative to save you even more money! Joss & Main  has this little cutie for $55.95 right now on their site with free shipping! A small can of paint and liquid sand paper and you could have a knock off without the expense!

  
Here is a pretty cottage side table someone posted on Pinterest,  the person was wishing she could own that table.  can you say designer piece ...expensive?


On Joss and Main I found this table on it's website today for $55.95
It is not exactly the same , but has similar lines and would be adorable painted pink and look just as charming, don't you think? there's lots to see on the website and SOME AWESOME steals  here's the web address https://www.jossandmain.com

Joss & Main has been a place I have shopping online now for several months. I have found tons of beach type items as well as lots of other goodies. They gather items all together with names like Industrial Inspirations ,Divine Decor 


Have Fun!!! Susan

Wednesday, August 14, 2013

Another DIY project



For this DIY project  wanted a a beachy round table for our cottage, so I started searching for something round that would work between the 2 couches. Everything I loved was $400.00 or more....

Finally I happened on this cute table from Overstock, bonus I had a coupon so it cost just 109.00 ! Score!

I didn't mention to my husband that I wanted to paint & distress it. When it arrived I explained what I had in mind, he didn't say anything but quickly went to work.

 Since it came un-assembled  he used liquid sand to remove shine, then painted it with latex satin finish color I had chosen. He wasn't particularly careful as I planned on distressing it when he was done. He assembled it and I took over.
 Once it had dried , I used med grind sand paper block and went to work sanding, allowing the original finish show through in spots.

I just love how it came out!  For a 109.00 purchase price for end table using paint we already had we have a table that looks really high end for a fourth of the cost!
Here it is finished and up at the beach~  






I am currently working on another project , unfortunately I didn't think ahead and removed all the old material and didn't think to save it to use as pattern.  
It sat in the in the garage for 2 yrs until we decided to redo our bedroom. Once again it came out to the light of day and finally started getting it's make over.
 Since I am almost at the finishing stage I will show you where it is at this point.
 A couple of things to look for when redoing at chair carefully remove old material to use as pattern.
I would also suggest choosing a chair that has a decorative element that allows you staple or tack each side, it would be a lot easier than this chair. I ended up machine stitching the top and hand sewing the rest of the top half of the chair because it narrows..sigh ...  forgot about that part.



The lower half this chair I was able to use my hubbies staple gun yay!  At this point I am adding the cording in same material 
chair,  it is not perfect but  it works for me.....
below is an example of easier back rest to do.