So I have time for recreational reading and craft!
Here’s what I’ve been doing.
with thanks to Pinterest and Etsy for the inspiration!
The only two stipulations from MGM (once I told him it would all be done on a shoe-string budget) relating to the shabby chic thing were that it not cross the ‘D’ demarcation line (the line at which, should the shabby cross it, Divorce papers would be filed) and that I not touch the big shelves (which are actually fine & expensive pieces of furniture).
My dilema... what to do with all that chocolate brown in my lovely pastle room? So I tried the de-clutter thing that worked so well with the other shelves by using my AFD boxes to store the big stuff and some smaller boxes in stacks look great painted white too.
I put the ephemeral leftovers into journal boxes (yes, painted white of course) that I ‘rescued’ from the recycling bin at work.
I even painted the spines of my big folders, and added some pretties from my fav scrapbook shop Fred the Needle
Painting the containers rather than the shelves is a compromise that, in the end, makes me quite happy. I don’t have very good pics of the before/after scenario but this gives you the idea…
The solid blue wall just had to go!…
You think this looks cluttered and chaotic! Wait ’till you see the mess created by moving the furniture to get to that wall…
can you believe my son moved that bookshelf
WITHOUT taking
all the books off first!
Between coats on the wall I started on my desk shelves.
before after
before
all together now…
from this
Next I turned my attention to the furniture. This was a little bit daunting so I started with the smallest piece on this wall.
which is actually in two bits,
a cheap-as-chips CD rack from
the $2 shop which was never
much use because I had the
printer stuck in front of it
and
a 30 year old bedside table
that I got when I first moved
out of home.
I painted everything white, stuck a bit of beading on the edges (painted pink), made a fancy bit for the top from my scrapbooking supplies and moved the ugly printer…this is the result…
Next I replaced the manly blue, heavy drapes with some light and filmy ones we had hanging in the house 25 years ago (hoarding DOES pay of!). I wanted a beaded fringe for the pelmet but at $60+ per metre (for 5 metres!) that was right out so I made one for under $50 -yes I know it wasn’t part of the spend-no-money plan but just look at it! so the result is
EDIT: Becca pointed out, and rightly so, that I forgot to mention the glass knobs on my drawers…lookaren’t they g.o.r.g.e.o.u.s! I got them whilst shopping with Renae & Becca at our wonderful local vintage shop after having eyed them off for about 6 months and saving for about as long. They’re all different – I was going for the eclectic look. The shop keeper didn’t think it would work but Renae, Becca and I agreed that it would and it DID. I get a ridiculous amount of pleasure from these little pink glass beauties.