Girl’s Bedroom Makeover: Free Art

I am more than halfway through the One Room Challenge, where I am trying to make over my daughter’s bedroom in just six short weeks!  My plan is coming to fruition with paint on the walls & the furnishings installed.  Most of the remaining work is sewing & zhushing.  I am avoiding painting the bedframe getting a little ahead of myself styling the room, but couldn't wait to get started framing some free prints I found while perusing the internet. 



I thought this “She believed” print was so adorable, I knew I had to find a place for it in my daughter’s room.  It is filling up some vertical space on her bookshelves, along with this knockoff Anthropologie trinket dish I copied from A Gathered Home.  When I originally saw it on Pinterest, I knew I needed to include it in Elie’s room, since giraffes are her favorite animal.



My husband & I are hoping this quote about “Difficult things” will inspire our daughter to persevere through difficult tasks & circumstances.  The circles print behind it can be found here.



I chose this “Be lovely” print to hang as part of a gallery wall between the two doors in Elie’s room.  I love the faint colors in it. 



This floral one is probably my favorite.  I taped it to a piece of black poster board with some gold washi tape.  (Sorry for the crazy angle—it’s hard to photograph these without glares, since they are directly across from windows.)



I liked the vibrant colors in this butterfly print.



Just a pretty reminder that being herself is beautiful!  My husband doesn’t get this one, but I think it’s cute & I like the message.



I saw a print just like this at Hobby Lobby & replicated it for free!  I already had an old white frame, mat, & chartreuse paint at home.  It is the perfect art to sit on Elie’s nightstand & remind her how much her family loves her.



I framed some of Elie’s polished stones & shells (not pictured) in an acrylic box frame.



I also framed some of her pretty rocks.  I wrapped some wire around them & poked it through a piece of black poster board for mounting.



Here is a link to the constellation printable on the bottom row.  I couldn't get a good picture of it on it’s own.

You can find some other cute printables on my board for Elie’s room and my board for printable art. 

Now, I’m off to check out all the good projects going on at Linda’s for the One Room Challenge!



Also sharing at the Best of the Nest party.

Turning Kid Collections into Decor

I believe we have exactly two free weekends between the end of basketball & the beginning of spring soccer!  This past weekend was one of them, so we decided to make the most of it by knocking a few items off the list.

As I have mentioned previously, my son is a collector.  Until recently, some of his cool collections were just sitting in his closet.  In order to inject more of his interests into his bedroom décor, I decided to use those collections as artwork for his walls.

First, I hot glued his collection of shark teeth onto a piece of black cardstock & framed it in a shadow box.  (I surrounded it with a couple of free printables found here & here.)



Next, we used a couple of nails to mount his collection of state quarters.  (Just a few more to find…)



My husband built two display boxes for some of his most special rocks.  (This was a lesson in patience for both of us!  Who would have thought making these would have been so frustrating!  Black paint & wood filler are hiding a multitude of problems!)  He made the ceramic owl in school art class.





Lastly, I framed a rock, two shells, & a postcard of rocks we got at a “rock mining” tourist trap.



Who would have thought all those things stashed in his closet could look so cool up on his wall!

DIY Floral Painting

I fell in love with the Lulie Wallace calendar at Anthropologie, which is unfortunately no longer available.  I love how bright & cheerful her paintings are & I thought they looked simple enough to try & re-create.  I was inspired mainly by “Flowers for Avery” & decided to try my hand at painting.
First, I picked up a watercolor poster board from Hobby Lobby.



Next, I lightly sketched my design.  (It’s really on there, but you can barely see it!)



Please keep in mind that I only took Art 1 in high school & I really know nothing about depth/perception/mixing colors/shading (the list goes on…) & this painting really doesn’t make much sense as far as how the flowers are situated!  Let’s just pretend they are randomly sitting on a table & this painting is a view from above & there is a random yellow ribbon on the table!

Anyway, I painted the flowers first, next the leaves, & finally, the background. 



Despite not really knowing what I was doing, I’m pretty happy with the results.



So happy that I removed the picture gallery from the nook.



I’m hoping to have it hanging soon, but first I need to fill in about 50 nail holes!

$5 Decorating: Adding Art

Since most of us don’t get paid to decorate, it’s always great to have some inexpensive ideas we can use to update our homes & fill our creative outlets!  For the past week, I have been sharing small updates I have made to our home, using only $5 or less.  I decided to look back over my archives & share a few cheap & easy ways we can add art to our homes.



Believe it or not, I printed these pretty botanical prints (above) for free from Vintage Printable.  The 11x14 frames were only about $10 for a set of two, but a lot of times you can find them on sale or use a 40% off coupon!  I grabbed some mats while I was there.  Of course, to stay under $5 for a picture like this, you could use an existing frame or buy a cheap frame from a thrift store & make your own mats out of poster board.  You can find the original post about these prints here.



I used Vintage Printable again, to print this bird picture for the mantel.  I stuck it in a frame I already had on hand & it helped brighten up the look of our mantel.



I used more of those inexpensive frames & mats from Michaels to frame pictures from a children’s book for the kids’ shared bathroom.  I just checked out the book from the library, made some colored copies, & stuck them in the frames, for free art!



A cheap Ikea frame + a free printable from Paper Coterie = a happy reminder to be happy & an adorable little spot on my desk!

There are a vast amount of resources for free & affordable “art” for your homes!  Not only can you frame free images from the Internet (please, make sure they are really meant to be free…) & pages from books & magazines, but you can also frame postcards, greeting cards, notes, kiddy artwork, calendar pages, shopping bags, scrapbook or wrapping paper, fabric…  (I could go on & on!)  I do have some other sources of affordable art on my pinterest board if you’d like to take a look!

So, do you have any sources for affordable art?  I’d love to hear them!

$5 Decorating: House Warming Gift

If you haven’t heard of the new Waterlogue app, you must be living under a rock!  I’m pretty sure every home décor blog has been singing it’s praises for the last couple of weeks!  It is an app only available for Apple products that converts photos into watercolors.  We usually don’t spend money on apps, but for $2.99, I figured this app could help create endless amounts of cheap artwork for our home, so we splurged! 

A couple of months ago Evie pulled our Canela Tree out of the pot, ending in a plant fatality. 



I decided not to replace the plant, since the area gets very little sunlight, & instead wanted to add artwork to the space.  I found a couple of pictures of our first home & our current home & decided to play around with the app.  Here are the “before” & “afters”.









After picking up a couple of $5 11x14 frames (with mats) from Wal-Mart, here they are in the entry:





I think this idea not only makes for great, cheap “art,” but it would also make a great housewarming gift or going away present!  (Not to mention, it would be great for making easy cards as well!)

So, are you obsessed with this app yet?

Updating a Toilet Handle & Seat

It’s time for week four of the One Room Challenge bathroom makeover.  This week, I gave a couple of upgrades to our toilet area.



I started the first upgrade about a month ago, when I decided to spray paint the toilet seat black, to bring in some of that classic charm I was looking for.  After removing the yellow-tinged seat (Lift the flap where it is attached to the toilet base & unscrew the bolt holding it in place.) I coated it with about a million coats of this spray paint:





Once it had dried, I gave it a couple of coats of spray sealer.  I decided to try & DIY this project after searching online for black toilet seats & seeing that they cost about $100.  After spending $17 on this project & realizing it probably wasn’t going to hold up, I noticed elongated black toilet seats at Home Emporium for about $18.  My DIY one will work for now, but as soon as I get my budgeted money, I will probably be replacing it!



Next, I decided to replace the generic white handle that came with our toilet.  I found this chrome handle at Wal-Mart for about $4.



The directions on the back looked pretty easy, but when I looked inside our tank, I noticed our handle didn’t have a chain.

     

I started by unscrewing the nut on the inside of the handle.  Once it was unscrewed, I could pull out the old handle.



Next, I inserted the new handle (1), slid the nut on the rod close to the handle & pushed the other end of the rod into the flusher hole (not a technical term… 2), & finally tightened the nut to the handle (3).





Here are some beauty shots of the toilet now…





For the final part of the update, I needed some art to go above the toilet.  In Microsoft Word, I simply created a border using a text box & then added the following words in a font & colors that I liked.



Then, I went to my print options under “properties” & clicked on “layout”.  I chose to print this as a 2x2 page poster.



Next, I used my paper cutter to cut the white boarder off some of the edges, so I could piece it back together.  I used a glue stick to attach each piece & finally framed it...



and hung it above the toilet.





So, that’s where the bathroom stands today.  I’m currently making a mess painting curtains & things are NOT going well!  I thought I would be long done with this bathroom before the end of the challenge, but now I’m wondering if I’m even going to make it to the finish line in time!

Check back next week to see what comes of these curtains!