Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Some fun and thrifty ideas for your place!

I love to find interesting things at the thrift store and use them for an entirely different purpose than what you would think. Here are several ideas that you can expand upon. I found these cute little candle rings at Goodwill for $6 total. It looked like they were once for valentine's day with the cute pink and red. They were in perfect shape and I love how the ivy and the flowers play against each other. Perfect for my front door...Look what I did with them. I think they look very cute and give a sort of topiary feel to the front door instead of the traditional wreath. Since one was smaller than the other one, this worked out perfectly! I used some ribbon to tie the two together and hang one from the other. What do you think?
I love spring! I like to pretend it's coming early every year. Just about the time change, I start to get spring fever and I get the urge to start planting flowers. It would be way too early to plant anything outside just yet so I will grab some greenery or a small house plant and add it to the kitchen area. This year, I couldn't resist the little purple red and yellow primrose that I saw at Home Depot. It was sunny outside and I wanted to bring some color and life into the kitchen so I grabbed three of them. I had a red, vintage looking planter that would work just great to transplant them. I followed the planting directions and it looked great! I wanted to give it some height on my counter so I grabbed a pair of (yes thrift) candle sticks that I had in a closet and made a cute little plant stand. I think it looks cute!
Here is a little quick before and after chair that I did a while back. It was cute, sturdy and comfortable but I didn't care for the fabric. I bought some Hobby Lobby discontinued fabric at $4.99 per yard. It was originally $26 per yard. It takes about 6 yards to do a small chair like this one. I bought 7 because I wanted to have extra in case I needed to repair something or cut it wrong. Since it was discontinued I wasn't sure if I went back there would be any left. I used staples and fabric glue on the base of the chair. For the cushion, I sewed the underside. I'm not much of a seamstress so glue and basic stitches are the best I can do. I love the way it turned out. Here are the before and after photos:
There are always great ways to make something work if you really want it in your home and the piece has good "bones." This was one of those finds. I didn't know how to recover a chair but I just sort of looked under it and saw how the original fabric was put on the chair and figured it out. Happy Thrifting! XOXO  the thrift addict.

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