Home Decorating Ideas

Home decorating ideas – Creative ways to make your house a home

Vintage Pine Cupboard Redo

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Because I already feel SO blessed, when my husband asked me what I wanted for Christmas, it took me a while to come up with something.

Some of you may remember my post back in October about one of my favorite antique pine cupboards that I picked up years ago for $2? Well, when I told him I’d like to have my cupboard painted as my Christmas gift, he painted it right away!

I really love the deep red, because it compliments everything in our home. Many readers wanted to see the finished result, so I thought I’d post it for you all to enjoy!

What a wonderful husband I have – and as I told him… he is my gift 🙂

Here’s a picture of the cupboard before

antique country pine cupboard

* From Pearl

Thank you all for the kind words!

Just goes to show you – one person’s trash really is another person’s treasure!

I picked this piece up at a yard sale. When I asked to gal if she had anything else inside
for sale, she took me downstairs to show me a few things – however, nothing really caught my eye. But when I turned around to come back up the stairs, I spied this cabinet standing up behind the door. When I asked her if she wanted to sell that piece, she said – “oh that thing, I don’t think you could even get it off the wall, because it’s been sitting down here in the basement for so many years!” When I assured her that my husband could indeed remove the piece from her basement (I was thinking piece by piece if we had to :), she said – well, you could have it for $2. No thinking on my part – a quick “SOLD” came out of my mouth!

It has provided a lot of joy over the years, and now with it’s new coat of color, it is ready for many more ahead!

Ok – for those of you who might be saying… well, that was many years ago, those things don’t happen today! I want to tell you – the same thing happened just a couple of years ago to me! I picked up a VERY large vintage pine cabinet for $17 at a local estate auction. Everyone was pretty much finished with the “good stuff” inside when they moved out to the garage. Most of the gals wandered on home, but from my past experiences, I knew that great treasures lay waiting for me out there! Sure enough, when everything was pretty much said & done in the garage, everyone started home. I went up to the auctioneer & said, I’d like to bid on that old cupboard against the wall. He said… who will give me $50, who will give me $20? But no one was really paying attention. I said, I’ll give you $17! Once, twice, sold to the lady. Now… how to get this huge beauty home? Well, because it had tiny wheels on it, my friend Kelly & I simply pushed it down the street 🙂

The moral of the story?
#1 Keep your eyes open, because most people don’t look through the same eyes of vision the way that you will!
#2 Don’t buy a huge cabinet unless you have a friend to help you push it down the street 🙂

Great Christmas Find – $1.49

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I wanted to post a picture of my newest find at the local thrift shop. These little Christmas trees have such a wonderful vintage look to them with their creamy color & hints of sparkle. I only paid $1.49 for both of them! While I was there, I saw HUGE piles of Christmas items to choose from.

Think about it… people everywhere are pulling out boxes & boxes of Christmas decorations from their attics. As they sort through it all, they decided that it might be time to finally get rid of some of it 🙂 So – they pass it on to the local thrift shops. This is your opportunity to pick up some very nice things at VERY nice prices!

If you enjoy vintage style decorations you will find some very nice finds, because many times, people want the “newest styles”. But, I did find a BRAND NEW Martha Stewart wreath made up of silver bells for $1.98 – so you can find new things as well.

Enjoy & be sure to come back & post your newest finds!

Stained Glass Christmas Ornaments

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stained glass christmas ornaments

About today’s picture:

A dear friend of mine makes wonderful stained glass Christmas ornaments. We have her make a new ornament for each family in our church every year. This was last year’s edition. It sparkles so nicely with the tiny lights shining on the Austrian crystals!

I will post the whole collection – including the newest edition very soon. You can feel free to contact me if you’d like to pick any of them up for family – friends – or yourself 🙂

You can find her shop “The Glass Menagerie” here on Etsy.

Re-purposing – Vintage Sewing Machine Drawers

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While visiting local yard sales, auctions, thrift shops, etc, look for items that catch your eye! You might think to yourself… I really like that piece, but I don’t really have a use for it. I want to encourage you to look through “creative eyes” when you are making a decision about a particular piece.

If you really put your mind to it, you could almost always come up with an idea about how to use a piece creatively.

As an example, here is an item that I picked up at an auction for just a few dollars. It’s original purpose was a set of drawers on a vintage sewing machine, but I have found many other uses for this piece!

I’ve used it as a place to store silverware, cloth napkins, napkin rings, letters, lace, and most recently it is standing in as my tea caddy 🙂 I love getting up in the mornings, opening a drawer & selecting whatever tea I happen to be in the mood for. There is lots of room for many different types of tea, as well as tea bag holders & a tea ball for the loose leaf varieties.

Here are the main questions I ask myself before purchasing an item.

1. Can I afford to spend the money on this piece?
2. Do I really love it?
3. Do I have room for it?
4. Then – what can I use this for?

I have found, that if I really love a piece, I usually find many different uses for it over the years.

Now… I think I’m off for a cup of tea 🙂

Color Inspiration For Whole House Decorating

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Here is the color inspiration the we’ve used for the whole cottage! This set of boxes was a gift from my husband, and I love them so much, that I am using them as a color jumping point for the whole cottage decorating scheme.

Do you have something that you love such as; a vintage quilt, a set of dishes, an old post card, a set of stationary, a children’s book?

If you take a look at these boxes, they are made up of many colors, but somehow they all go together beautifully!

So I can look at the boxes & pull one or more of the colors out to use in each room of the house. I could decide to accent any particular room with all of the colors if I wish, because I can already see how nicely they all go together by having this “mental picture” to go by.

Having trouble deciding what colors to use in your home? Go find something that really “speaks” to you & use it to wash your home with color!

Items From the Garden Make Nice Indoor Displays

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I like to bring garden items inside to enjoy. That way, no matter what the temps are like outside, you can enjoy the garden feeling all year round! I’ve paired up a vintage watering can ($1 at yard sale), a cast iron bunny ($4), and some clay pots (a few cents each at the end of the year sale in the garden centers!)

What do you have in the garden that you could bring inside to add some “life” to your winter decor? Plants, clay pots, watering cans, benches, bird bath, fountain, topiary, or grapevine wreaths are all good examples of things that you could bring in.

A simple decorating idea that goes a long way is…

Take one of your clay pots where the flowers have finished blooming & the plant is gone. Remove the spent stems, add a nice piece of moss from the woods to the top of the pot. You can display several of these (could choose different sizes if you wish) along a window sill or down the center of the table just as they are, or you could add different things to jazz them up a little. Here are a few examples of some things that you could add on top of the moss; a piece of fruit, a candle, ribbon, pine cone, acorn, small twig with lots of branches to hang things on, a single rosebud, a small vegetable, etc.

Just a few ideas for no cost seasonal decorating – my favorite kind 🙂