A Marble and Copper Christmas: A Christmas Tree Gallery Wall

18 Days and Counting, Y’all? How are you doing on your Christmas shopping? Better than me, I hope! The only things I have checked off are the things I’ve run across online. I try to avoid the stores at this time of the year; I’m not a fan of busy stores or crowds. Unless they’re at Hobby Lobby; that’s a store always worth braving the crowds for.

If you’ve read my blog before, you’ve heard me bemoan the fact that we don’t have a whole lot of space in our teeny tiny trailer. In a lot of ways, though, that has been a good thing for us. The thing about this small space that I love best is that we’re all always close together. Also, it’s much faster to clean. Not that I keep it that way, but when it does get really messy (particularly when I’m crafting), I can clean the whole house pretty quickly.

Because of this lack of space, for the past several years, we haven’t had space to put up a full sized tree. And each year I think to myself that I need to come up with a creative alternative to a Christmas tree.

So this year, I’ve come up with an idea within my copper and marble theme (you can see gift-wrapping ideas here) to display a “Christmas tree” that doesn’t take up any floor space.

I started with inexpensive IKEA frames, I think they were $1.50 each, and cut out squares of myCon-Tact Brand Creative Covering Self-Adhesive Shelf and Drawer Liner, 18-Inches by 9-Feet, Marble White“> marble ConTact paper from Amazon to go in them. I took the glass out of the frames, so that I could push a thumbtack through the paper and the cardboard back of the frame to hang my ornament from. The ornaments are from Walmart; I got a big bucket for around $5 and spray painted them copper, then used fishing wire to hang them from the thumbtacks. The greenery garlands are from my front yard. I clipped sections off of an evergreen bush and strung them together with floral wire. Then I used small Command hooks to secure the greenery on the wall. The star topper is from the Dollar Tree.

So, I hope you enjoyed this quick little tutorial, and hope that it inspires someone else out there who is as “space-challenged” as I happen to be. Have a great day, and I will be back with more DIY marble and copper Christmas ideas soon!

Rachel

I’m also sharing this project over at Remodelaholic.

A Marble and Copper Christmas: Gift Wrapping Ideas

Christmas is just around the corner, y’all! 24 Days, to be precise. Are you the kind of person who has had your shopping, wrapping and decorating finished for a month now, or are you the kind of person who is scrambling to cross off your entire shopping list on Christmas eve? I fall into the latter category. But I get really into gift-wrapping, almost more than shopping for gifts, even. Gift wrapping is so much fun, kind of like scrapbooking, with endless combinations and chances to get creative.

I’ve chosen copper and marble as my theme this Christmas, and I’m excited to show you a few gift-wrapping combinations I’ve come up with to inspire you as you’re wrapping your gifts.

I knew exactly what I wanted, but had a really tough time finding the copper and marble wrapping paper I had in mind. I ended up using Con-Tact paper that I found on Amazon, and I just cut strips of it to use as accents over my wrapping paper. The best investments, though, were the washi tape and copper leafing pen I used, because there’s just an endless variety of patterns and prints to be made with them…stars, names, Christmas trees, or any number of geometric prints. As you can see above, I used the copper leafing pen to add stars, and to scribble the copper marble look onto black paper, and used little strips of washi tape to make the geometric pattern.

Now, if I could give you one tip to take away from this post, it would be to always, always, always use greenery…from your backyard, the side of the road, your grandma’s house…wherever you can find it. Greenery is the perfect (and free!) finishing touch that really completes any wrapping job.

Oh, and I’ll let you in on a little secret, which probably won’t surprise anyone who knows me. All of these boxes are empty (insert ashamed face). But I will be using them in my décor, so it’s not completely in vain.

Here’s a list of the supplies I ended up using:

• Marble Contact Paper from Amazon (I used cut strips over the black wrapping paper, since it was a little tough to wrap with)
• Copper Contact Paper from Amazon (Again, I used strips; this one was a bit pricey, but I will be using for lots of other projects I have planned for and after Christmas)
• Copper Washi Tape from Amazon (Comes in a pack with silver and gold, all really pretty)
• Black Chalkboard Kraft Paper from Amazon
• Copper Leafing Pen from Hobby Lobby (used my 40% coupon, of course!)
• Copper Paper Letters from Hobby Lobby
• Bottle Brush Trees from Walmart (only $.74 each!)
• Various black and white ribbon from Walmart (leftover from last year)
• Faux flowers from Dollar Tree (the black ones are spray painted and copper leafed on the edges)
• Greenery from my yard

 

Ginger Pancakes with Lemon Sauce

With Thanksgiving in two days, and Christmas just around the corner, I want to share with you all one of my favorite recipes from my childhood to give you some inspiration for your holiday menus. This is a special, old, old Betty Crocker recipe that my mom used to make when I was a kid, always one of my favorites. It seems to have all but vanished from the food world, but I think it deserves to be pulled from obscurity and enjoy a moment in the spotlight…sweet and spicy ginger pancakes with a decadent cream cheese filling and a luscious, warm, buttery lemon sauce.

Now, this is uncharted territory for me, the first recipe here on the blog, because, to be honest, I’m really not a very good cook. I do love to bake, but my cooking skills leave a bit to be desired…just ask my kids. Well, actually, they’ll tell you I’m a great cook because I can cook a mean box of Kraft macaroni and cheese…their favorite. But this recipe is fairly simple, and so worth stepping a little out of my comfort zone for.

Also, side note, have you ever tried taking pictures while you’re cooking? Try it sometime. It will give you a whole new respect for food bloggers!

Here is the original recipe from Betty Crocker, worth checking out just for the not-so-appetizing retro photo, but I’ll be modifying the recipe just a tad.

Here are the ingredients you’ll need: Bisquick mix, butter, lemons, milk, sugar, powdered sugar, cream cheese, molasses, vanilla, water, ground cloves, ground cinnamon, and ground ginger. Pretty standard ingredients…the only “specialty ingredient” that I didn’t have on hand was the molasses, which I found in the syrup aisle. I’ll include the full recipe at the bottom so you can see the full list of ingredients.

I started with the lemon sauce, which is the scene-stealer, in my humble opinion, the best part of the recipe. I mixed one cup of sugar with 1 stick of butter (and definitely use real butter!), 1/4 cup of water, 1 egg, well beaten (very important!), a tablespoon of grated lemon peel, and 3 tablespoons of freshly squeezed lemon juice in a saucepan.

I even got a little help from my 4 year old.

Over medium heat, I brought these ingredients to a low boil while stirring constantly with a wire whisk.

Very important to keep stirring; I didn’t and had little flecks of cooked eggs. If this happens to you, though, just toss the sauce through a strainer, and it will be fine.

Once your sauce is finished, keep it over very low heat while you finish the pancakes and frosting, and it will thicken up a little as it sits.

For your pancakes, in a medium sized bowl, mix 2 cups Bisquick mix, 1 1/3 cups of milk, 1/4 cup of molasses, 1 1/2 teaspoons of ginger, 1 teaspoon of cinnamon, and 1/2 teaspoon  of ground cloves, and 1 egg with a wire whisk or beater until it is well mixed.

I like to pour my pancake mix into a large measuring cup just to make it easier to pour. I’m a pretty messy person, so I need anything I can think of to curtail the mess. Heat your skillet to medium heat; I used my cast iron skillet, but of course, use whatever surface you feel comfortable with. The recipe says to use roughly 1/4 cup of batter per pancake. Flip your pancake once it starts to bubble.

Once you have a nice stack of pancakes going, you can start on your cream cheese filling. In a medium bowl, I whisked together a half of an 8 oz package of softened cream cheese, 3 cups of powdered sugar, 1 teaspoon of vanilla, and just a tablespoon or two of milk to get it to the consistency I wanted.

Lastly, I just started stacking. Pancake on the bottom, layer of cream cheese filling, pancake, cream cheese filling…and topped all that off with a generous serving of the lemon sauce.

Might I suggest this recipe for a Thanksgiving breakfast or brunch? The buttery warmth of the lemon sauce and sweet spiciness of the pancakes make it a great fallish (or winterish) recipe. It deserves a special occasion, too, because it is rich and good. So good that I may have wrecked my Whole 30 diet while making it. Maybe. Make it and thank me later (just not when you’re on a Whole 30)!

Here is the full recipe:

Ginger Pancakes with Cream Cheese Filling and Lemon Sauce

Lemon Sauce

• 1 Cup Sugar
• 1/2 Cup (or 1 Stick) Butter
• 1/4 Cup Water
• 1 Egg, WELL Beaten
• 1 Tablespoon Grated Lemon Peel
• 3 Tablespoons Lemon Juice

Ginger Pancakes

• 2 Cups Bisquick Mix
• 1 1/3 Cups Milk
• 1 Egg
• 1 1/2 Teaspoons Ground Ginger
• 1 Teaspoon Ground Cinnamon
• 1/2 Teaspoon Ground Cloves

Cream Cheese Filling

• 1/2 package (4 oz) of cream cheese, softened
• 3 cups powdered sugar (may vary)
• 1 teaspoon of vanilla
• 1-2 tablespoons of milk (to desired consistency)

 

1. In a 2 quart saucepan, combine all ingredients. Over medium heat, stir ingredients constantly with wire whisk until the sauce comes to a boil. Leave the sauce on lowest heat (sauce will thicken as it sits).
2. In medium sized bowl, mix all pancake ingredients with whisk or beaters until well blended. Spray desired cooking surface with oil spray, heat to medium (may vary depending on surface), and pour 1/4 cup of batter mix per pancake. Flip pancake once it starts to bubble, and cook the other side for about a minute.
3. In another bowl, combine softened cream cheese, powdered sugar and vanilla and beat with whisk or blender. Add 1 tablespoon of milk at a time until filling reaches desired consistency (should still be pretty thick).
4. Layer pancakes with cream cheese filling, and top with lemon sauce. Garnish with lemon slice (optional).
5. Enjoy!

I hope all of you, dear readers, have a fantastic Thanksgiving full of way more food than you can possibly eat and making memories with the people you love!

Rachel

Now and Later Fall Style

If you’ve been following along on the blog, you’ve definitely heard me moan and groan a little bit about how tight our current budget is due to paying 2 mortgages and not having a renter for quite some time. You won’t be surprised, then, to hear that my clothing budget is as tight as my home décor budget, except worse, because there’s no Dollar Tree or spray paint for clothes. Somebody should invent both of those things.

But really, I share these things not to complain, because I’m not discontent. I know God will take care of us as He always does, and I’m very grateful for the things I do have. I share just to explain the situation, and most likely commiserate, because I know so many people are in the same boat. You want to look cute, but just don’t have a whole lot of money to do that.

Fall and winter clothes are my absolute favorite, so I will admit it hurts a little to not have much of a clothing budget this year. However, it gives me a good chance to get creative with the clothes I do have, something I’m not always good at. I needed some pieces that could really work overtime, and I needed transition pieces that I could wear now while it’s still a little warm, and wear later when it gets a little colder.

So I thought I’d share 3 key pieces I’ll be wearing this fall and winter and how I plan to style them to work now and later. Mostly, I just wanted to play dress up, haha..,but hopefully this will inspire you if you’re working with a really strict budget like me.

I really tend toward jewel tones in the fall, and they’re really big right now everywhere. I picked up this swing dress for less than $20 last year, and I’m wearing it as a tunic now tucked into white jeans with some cut out booties.

And yes, you can wear white after Labor Day. That is an ancient, arbitrary, and silly rule left over from the class system.

When the temps drop a little, I’ll throw on a blanket scarf, leggings and some over-the-knee boots, along with a hat. I’m always looking for an excuse to wear a hat.

You can find a similar dress here (which is currently 30% off with the code THANKYOU).

Next, I just recently picked up this warm, topaz colored drapey tee from Old Navy, which again is currently 30% off. The description calls it a sweater, but it feels more like a tee.

I’m wearing it now as just a casual tee shirt with jeans and ankle boots.

And later, I’ll layer it with a plaid shirt and pleather jacket.

Just a little friendly tip, if you find yourself in the market for distressed jeans, it’s almost always cheaper to pick up a pair of regular jeans from Walmart or Old Navy, or even use a pair you already own, and distress them yourself, as I did in the pair above. For some reason, retailers like to charge more for holes in your jeans. Here is a great tutorial for distressing your own jeans.

Lastly, I found this, my most favorite ever drapey blouse, at the Nordstrom anniversary sale last year. I absolutely love the shape and fit, and the draping just feels luxurious. As you may have noticed, I like to wear drapey tops. If you’re a mom, you understand. No explanation necessary. I’m wearing it now tucked a little with jeans and my cut out boots (perfect for early fall)…

…and later, I’ll dress it up with pleather leggings (from Walmart!) and a fur vest. And another excuse to wear a hat.

That’s all for now!  Do you have any tips on how you stretch out your fall and winter wardrobe? I’d love to hear them!

Rachel

DIY Pumpkin Silhouette Pillow

I’m back again today with another fall-themed DIY project. As I mentioned in my last post, I’m not going all out for fall, but I wanted to figure out a way to add a few, neutral, fallish touches at a very reasonable price.

Well, I made an awesome discovery, one which I may be the last person  to figure out, but that I’m still really excited about. What I discovered is that Hobby Lobby has a really great, very reasonably priced line of pillow covers. Not the pillows inside, which as we all know take up a ton of space and can be very difficult to find a good storage place for…just the covers. So I was like, you mean I can add more patterns and colors of pillows to my collection without adding to the ever-growing pile in the corner of my bedroom (which are not currently in use) that has been a source of contention between my husband and I for the last, oh, entire 10 years of our marriage? Life changing. If you, like me, find yourselves a little space challenged, but love to have a variety of pillows to change out with the seasons, this is the way to go. And when I found them, they were 50% off, so they were right around $4, $5, and $6 a piece. So much better than buying a whole throw pillow for so many reasons in addition to the fact that it just might save your marriage.

Along with my new pillow covers, I picked up some adhesive craft felt sheets ($.99 each) and used the twine that I had on hand (which was $3 from Lowe’s, and which I’ve used in at least 20 other projects).

I marked out the shapes I wanted with a pencil, and cut them out.

I used my hot glue gun to outline each cut piece with twine.

Then I promptly decided that they looked better on another pillow cover that I picked up. I loved the idea of the pumpkin silhouette against a patterned pillow, but there just wasn’t enough contrast, so it didn’t show up as much as I would have liked. But that’s the nature of DIY projects; it’s always a trial and error process. I figure it out so you don’t have to should you choose to make one. You’re welcome.

Lastly, I peeled off the backs and pressed them in place onto my pillow, and added a few little twine curly-cues with small dots of hot glue to hold them in place.

The beauty of this project is that, when this season is over, I can just peel the pumpkin shapes and few dots of hot glue right off the pillow.

But for now, I’m loving the way it looks with the patterned pillow on my couch. Just a tiny touch of fall for right around $7.

 

And I think that’s about the extent of my fall decorating. I hope you have enjoyed, and I hope you can maybe use some of these ideas yourself. Happy Fall!

Rachel

 

 

 

Fall Décor On A Dime

Fall has arrived! I know it’s been official a while ago, specifically when Starbucks started selling the almighty Pumpkin Spice Latte (obviously), but I guess  I’m a little slow to adjust.

I don’t usually get super into seasonal decorating, and especially not fall décor. I just have   SO much REGULAR decorating that needs to be finished in the rest of the house that it’s hard to get into the temporary stuff. But this year, I decided to add just a few fallish details, just to feel a little more festive than normal.

Now, my already tight budget is even tighter right now since we haven’t had a renter in our Delaware house for almost half a year along with working on fixing it up to rent. So my fall décor budget was roughly $5 and some change. Or something close to that. Please tell me I’m not the only one?

As much as I would have loved to stock up on some pretty, fresh multi-colored pumpkins, they can be a little pricey, especially if you’re buying multiples. And if, like me, you prefer the white pumpkins? Forget about it.

So instead, I headed to the dollar section and picked up a few ugly items, determined to make something pretty out of them.

I picked up this $1 pumpkin bucket and a $.96 can of white spray paint from Walmart.

At the dollar tree, I found these faux leaf bunches and little pumpkins and gourds.

I spray painted the pumpkin bucket white, added some cabbage leaves from the produce section as a filler (a trick I learned from the Nester), a $3 bouquet of alstroemeria lilies, and finished it out with some wildflowers from across the street.

As much as I love traditional fall colors, I wanted a more neutral look overall. I cut the leaves off of the bunch, and gave them a few coats of the white spray paint as well. I love the muted, almost frosty look they have now.

I also gave the pumpkins and gourds a coat of copper spray paint.

And then, with a length of twine, I tied each leaf on individually, intermittently spaced to leave room for the gourds, which I then hot glued directly to the twine.

I did a little bit of chalkboard art, hung the finished garland, and set everything up.

Again, they’re small changes, nothing earth shattering, but enough at least to make it feel a little more autumnal here in the house and get my family and I in the fall spirit.

I love the way the afternoon light shines in this little corner.

That’s it for now, but I will be back later this week with a few more simple and affordable ideas. How are you decorating for fall? Do you like to go all out, or add just a few little touches like me?

Until next time!

Rachel

 

DIY Ombre Flower Art

 

Hello! I’m back on this lovely, drizzly Monday morning to hopefully cheer you up with a bright, pretty, simple DIY project.

The very first room I worked on in our trailer was my little girls room.

If you’ve been following for a while and you remember, I went a little crazy with the fake flowers. I made this floral initial art

and this little dress up corner

and this floral embellished photo.

Well, I’m back with another uber girly project…apparently, my girly side has been repressed for too long. I have been making a few changes to their room lately…more to come on that in the near future. For now, though, this quick and easy DIY.

The supplies I used were this deep picture frame from Ikea (could also use a shadow box), 4 stems of fake flowers from Dollar Tree, a glue gun, my gold glass marker  (the one listed is from Michaels, mine was from Hobby Lobby), a dry erase marker, and a piece of foam core (could also use cardboard or cardstock), also from the Dollar Tree.

I began by cutting the stems off of my flowers as close as possible to the flower so that they could lay flat.

Next, I arranged my flowers to get an idea of how I wanted them laid out.

Next, using the back of my frame as a guide, I cut out a square of the foam core board with an Xacto knife to use as a backdrop.

With that foam core square, I just started hot gluing my flowers on in rows.

Once the flowers were finished, I put my frame together, and marked on the glass where I wanted my script to go with my dry erase marker. This allowed me to practice my font a few times before getting exactly what I wanted.

I took the glass out and turned it over, then traced the back of the glass with my gold glass marker.  I wanted the script to be on the inside of the glass so that it would be protected, and so I could clean the glass without the risk of messing it up. Also, for anyone trying this at home, if you’re not super confident in your handwriting skills, you could easily print off the name in a font that you like, place it behind your glass, and trace it with your dry erase marker.

Before the final assembly, I did have to trim my flowers down a little on the sides to fit inside the frame.

Once that was finished, I put it all together, and this is the final product.

Just a pretty, quick and easy way to display your child’s name, and you could customize it with any color of flowers and script that you like.

Hope you enjoyed, and hope you have a fantastic week!

Rachel

 

On Family, Small Changes, and New Art (the BEST kind)

Cedar Point in Sandusky, Ohio at Sunset

Well, hello there internet world! Remember me? Probably not? That’s ok. It’s only been a few months…make that 5…since I’ve written. But I’m still here, still alive and kicking, and I thought I’d pop in to share a few small changes I’ve been working on.

But first, where I’ve been. Here in Tennessee, our kids summer break is only 2 months long. Just to give you an idea of what our summer was like, we travelled 6 weeks of that 2 months. It was the craziest summer of our lives, but we had a blast. We went to Virginia, Delaware, Ohio, North Carolina and a few places in between. Once August came around, I was actually ready for my kids’ to go back to school just so we could get back to some semblance of a schedule.

I say all that not to apologize, but to explain. I’ve finally decided that I have to be ok with blogging when I can get to it, and not beat myself up when I can’t. This is actually my last year home with my baby girl, and my number one priority is enjoying this time with her because I can’t get it back. I’ve decided that, as much as I love blogging and would love to grow my little blog and make it better, family has to come first. I’ll squeeze time in whenever I can to keep up with blogging, this hobby that I love and brings me to life. So that means sometimes I’ll blog once a week, and sometimes you’ll hear from me once a month…and that’s ok. I hope you’ll stick with me, and follow our little journey, and I’d love to hear from you along the way.

All right, now that I’ve given you an unwarranted mini state of the blog address, back to the house. You may remember last year that I took an old closet door from my parents and gave it a makeover; if not, you can read about it here.

At the time, I used it as an air plant display. I won’t mention what has since happened to those air plants, but I needed to find something else to put on display here. Let’s just say, those air plants are probably in a better place now.

At the end of last year, my then second grader came home with a portrait of our family that he painted in art class, and I flipped over it. I draw and paint portraits myself, but I couldn’t possibly have captured our family as well as he did. It is officially my favorite piece of art ever (and it’s a good thing my other kids don’t read my blog yet!).

I knew right away that it needed a prominent display somewhere in our house. So, along with a few other changes, like these light bulbs that I love from IKEA, I made a few tweaks to our little corner. And here it is:

They’re just small changes, but they spice things up a bit and bring me joy…especially that family portrait. In fact, just taking pictures of my house makes me relove it. In real life, it gets old and familiar and cluttered and dusty, but when I see it through the lens of my camera, it’s like I get a fresh perspective, and I’m reminded why I’ve put these things I love on display in the first place. It’s not about the things themselves, but about the memories they hold, and the joy and excitement of creating.

In the interest of full disclosure, I feel that I should show you the set up for hanging them…it ain’t pretty. They’re hanging from little plastic hooks my husband jerry-rigged to the ceiling. The sockets are also from IKEA, and I’m not crazy about them.

Eventually, I’d like do something creative with the cords; I’ve been really inspired by people using cords themselves in unique ways, instead of trying to hide them away and cover them up, as we are all in the constant struggle to do with our everyday electronics and gadgets. Here are a few great examples:

• 
• From Pinterest (can’t find the original)

Apartment Therapy

Apartment Therapy

Apartment Therapy

Bloglovin’

Until that moment of inspiration hits me, though, the current setup will have to work.

So that’s all for now. You’ll hear from me again sooner than five months again, I promise. Thanks for following along, and I’d love to hear from you! Let me know what you think…share some creative ideas for cords that you find…tell me how your summer went…I want to hear it all!

Rachel

 

 

Front Porch Reveal! One Room Challenge: Week 6

It’s done! My porch is done! I’m so excited to finally share my finished porch for the One Room Challenge, hosted by Linda from Calling It Home. It was so, so much work; about 50% of it was my husband building new railing, 49% of it was painting, and only 1% was the fun stuff, like pillows and accessories. But that’s how it goes, right?

First, I’ll take you on a little tour and describe some of the changes we made.

Beginning with the front door, I painted the door and screen door to lighten it up a bit, painted the trim white, and changed out the lighting fixture. This one ($29 from Lowe’s) gives the whole porch a warm, homey glow.

In weeks 3 and 4 you saw that Luke took down all the trellis and built a real porch railing. That and painting every surface on this porch clearly made the biggest impact. It’s truly amazing what a difference paint can make. I painted the ceiling in a pretty, aqua blue color, painted the paneling in the front of the house one shade darker than the other half of the house (although I’m reconsidering that color), painted the floors black, and painted all the trim white.

As you can see, I added trellis in front of the window as sort of a focal point, but it also serves as a privacy screen for my boys’ room (right inside the window with no blinds). I added lights (had to have some sparkle, obviously) and tiny potted plants.

In week 2, I painted and stained those $4 nesting tables from a yard sale. I also stained the old IKEA chairs a tiny bit darker, and gave them new cushions from HomeGoods for a pop of color.

This little corner might be my favorite. I added a few plants and hung our hammock (can’t wait to use that!). I also spray painted some little $1.50 house numbers copper to display at the entrance.

I’m really proud of this DIY planter I made from concrete and copper liquid metal, using this super simple tutorial from Happy Looks Good On You. I’ll definitely be using more concrete in the future; at $5 a bag, the possibilities are endless.

Moving right along, I added mulch to emphasize the garden area, and hung branches from my yard, planters, and lanterns to add a little privacy. But clearly, my husband’s porch railing is the star of the show here.

I made hangers for my tiny potted plants with yarn and twine I had on hand using this tutorial, another quick and easy DIY from Free People’s blog (after figuring out how to make the first one, the rest took only about 10 minutes each).

The lanterns are from World Market; they were originally an antique pewter, but I painted them copper.

For this corner, another favorite, I gave the director’s chairs a little makeover by painting the canvas with off-white chalk paint, giving them a coat of Minwax Spar Urethane to make them outdoor friendly, and adding throw pillows.

The pillows are, again, from HomeGoods. The little watering can was $3 from Lowe’s (originally red, but I spray painted it copper). Hopefully it will remind me to water my plants and keep them alive.

And that’s that! I had lots of help from my hubby and even my kids got in on the painting action.

Now, just in case you’ve forgotten, here are a few before and afters to remind you of where we started:

Before:

After:

Before:

After:

Before:

Before:

Before:

After:

Before:

After:

As for the budget, I originally told you that I would stay within $200. That was before my husband decided to rebuilt the porch. Since the original plan was to just paint everything, I’m not counting what he spent in my budget. I know, that’s totally cheating, but that was his project.

Here’s the breakdown for my budget:

Floor Paint: $35

White Kilz Paint (for railing, trim, etc.): $17

Ceiling/Table Paint (I got 4 $3 paint samples because I didn’t want to buy a whole gallon…I’m a cheapskate!): $12

House Paint: $30

Stain for Furniture: $9

Spar Urethane: $10

Chalk Paint: $6

Copper Liquid Metal: $3.50

Light Fixture: $30

Pillows: $40

Lanterns (Splurge!): $37

Trellis: $7

Concrete: $5

Buckets for Molds: $5

House Numbers: $4.50

Plants (I bought some, borrowed some from the rest of the house, and got some from my Mom): $25

Mulch: $10

Watering Can: $3

Total: $289

So, yeah, I still went over quite a bit, without even counting the work that my husband did. But I still think I did pretty darn good for the amount that I accomplished with that money. I’ve opened my front door just to look out at it just about 50 times since I finished it. It makes me very happy and proud to be finished, and I can’t wait to spend lots of time on it this summer, reading a book in my hammock, listening to my kids playing and laughing. Although, I have a sneaking suspicion that it will sound a little more like kids fighting over the hammock, and me yelling at the kids and the dog to not get mud all over the furniture, but hey, one can dream.

Now that I am done (hallelujah!) and have a little time on my hands, I’m going to head over to the One Room Challenge and check out all of the other bloggers’ reveals, so I hope you’ll join me! I’ll leave you with a few more pictures.

Rachel

I’m also sharing this makeover over at these fantastic link parties:

Made by You Monday at Skip to My Lou

Remodelaholic

Home Stories A to Z

Inspire Me Monday

Dream. Create. Inspire.

Wow Us Wednesdays

Work It Wednesday

Pretty Project Party

One Room Challenge: Week 4- Front Porch Makeover

This week for the One Room Challenge, my husband did a lot of constructing and I did a lot of painting.

We’re making over our double wide trailer’s ugly front porch (just a reminder for any new readers), and this is its original form.

My plan was just to give everything a fresh coat of paint, but my husband got all industrious and decided to build his own porch. Really, he just built new supports, replaced a few boards, and replaced the trellis with slats, but it has been a ton of work and he’s been amazing…especially for having zero experience with “building” porches.

So, armed with a paintbrush, coffee, and Kari Jobe on Pandora, I got to work and gave it all a coat of white Kilz paint.

(Don’t mind the big pile of construction stuff in the middle of the porch…it’s just going to be like that until Week 6.)

Now, I actually would have loved to have kept the wood unpainted to go with my sort of boho feel, but most of the existing boards were really old with layers and layers of paint, so the only thing that made sense, really, was to paint it all. But clearly, the white paint makes a huge difference, and I think it’s beginning to brighten up the space.

Well, back to work. Only 2 weeks left, and my to-do list is only about a mile long. Be sure to see what’s going on with all of the other bloggers in the One Room Challenge.

Rachel