Creating a beautiful bedroom on a small budget

When I needed to furnish the guest room at our mountain condo, my budget wasn't so much "small" as it was non-existent. I chose to purchase a new mattress and box springs, and that purchase meant that there was very little left over for other furniture and accessories. But I'm really pleased with how the room turned out.

The key to the room was a serendipitous find at my local fabric store: a beautiful, upholstery weight decorator fabric on sale for $5.00 per yard. I'm a sucker for houndstooth and I liked the colors, so I scooped up five yards.

Making a simple upholstered headboard is a really easy DIY project. For my queen-sized bed, I bought a 4x8 sheet of 3/4" plywood (less than $20) at my local Home Depot store. Since a queen-size bed is 60" wide, I had a kind employee cut the 8' side of the plywood down to 61 inches. That way the headboard would be just slightly wider than the bed.

When I got home, I used a dinner plate as a pattern to mark off a curve in the top two corners of the plywood.

Then I hot-glued an old mattress topper to the plywood to form a padded back. As you can see, my piece of foam didn't cover the entire piece of plywood, but that doesn't matter; the unpadded part will be at the bottom of the headboard. I cut the sides of the foam topper to fit the plywood using an electric knife.

Then I laid a piece of my fabric down on the ground, placed the foam side of the plywood on top, and pulled the fabric taut around all sides, using a staple gun to secure the fabric to the back of the plywood. See this post for detailed instructions. The cording around the perimeter of the headboard is made from an inexpensive fabric that I bought to coordinate with the houndstooth.

The headboard isn't attached to anything. The weight of the bed holds it in place against the wall. Since the plywood goes all the way to the floor, you could certainly screw the bedframe to the headboard if you like.

After making the headboard, I still had a good bit of fabric left over, so I made a few other accessories for the room.

I found a spray paint to match the houndstooth fabric (Secluded Garden by Valspar). I spray painted an old chair I had stashed in my attic, then recovered the seat. Since I already had the chair and the fabric, all I had to buy was a couple of cans of spray paint.

I found matching nightstands for just a few dollars at a local consignment store. They were nice cherry tables, but their tops were damaged (hence the small price tag), so I spray-painted them with Restoleum's Heirloom White and then lightly distressed them.

I found two matching metal lamps at TJMaxx for about $20 each. I didn't like the metal, but I liked the price, so I spray painted them with the Valspar Secluded Garden as well.

I found a cute little table at the same consignment store for $50. I thought it would make a good dressing table, and I found a stool on clearance at Bed Bath and Beyond that was just the right height to slide under the table. The taupe upholstery on the stool wasn't very pretty, but it was a good match for my houndstooth fabric, so I just hot-glued a strip of my houndstooth fabric around the base of the stool. I folded and pressed the fabric to be the right size, hot glued it in place at the top, used a staple gun to fasten the fabric securely underneath, then stapled on a bit of cording I had left over from the headboard project. I also sprayed the legs with the Valspar Secluded Garden. Now it's a sassy little perch, I think.

And I like the way it looks with the table:

The mirror shows the artwork I found for the room: six vintage-looking bird prints I ordered from Decor Steals. Have you ever ordered from DecorSteals.com? If you register for an account, they'll send daily emails with decor items for sale. I like the fact that shipping is always $5.00. (No affiliation; I just like the service!) You could achieve the same look with free printables or pages from a vintage book. But I was glad to find this set, since the prints were already framed and ready to go. And I used my own picture-hanging tip to hang these so they never get knocked askew.

The last two touches are the most expensive and cheapest parts of the decor. I had enough fabric left over to make a custom dust ruffle to match the headboard, but I knew that this project was beyond my meager sewing skills. So I had a local shop make it for me, using a wide band of the same fabric that the cording around the headboard is made from.

I paid over $100 for the bedskirt, but I think it was worth the cost for the level of detail it adds.

And the decorative pillows cost me nothing, so that helps to make up for the cost of the bedskirt.

I used some fabric from my stash to make the simple knife-edge pillows for the bed (tutorial here), then I used the last of the teal fabric to make a new-sew bolster pillow (tutorial here). The bedspread, by the way, was once a king-size coverlet. It had shrunk so badly that it could never again be used on a king-sized bed, but I liked the coverlet so much I kept it. I washed it in hot water and dried in on high heat to get it to shrink a bit more, and now it's a great size for this queen-size bed!

I'm tickled with the way this room turned out, and all the guests who have stayed in it have commented on what a lovely retreat it is. Isn't it nice that with some ingenuity and a few hours' time, you can create a beautiful space on a small budget?

I'm joining these parties:

Project Inspired at The How-To Home
Inspire Me Tuesday at A Stroll Thru Life

How to hang pictures so they don't move

Are you a picture straightener? Does it drive you crazy when a piece of art you've carefully hung on the wall tilts out of alignment? (Please tell me I'm not the only one!)

I've figured out a way to get my pictures to stay firmly in place when I hang them, which is especially valuable if I'm hanging more than one piece. Here's how I do it.

First, you need two pieces of hanging hardware on the back of the picture frame. When I have things framed, my frame shop always attaches two D-rings on the back of the frame and then strings hanging wire between those two rings.

As soon as I bring the pictures home, I remove the hanging wire so that I'm left with just the two D-rings.

Next, I measure the space between the two D-rings. The easiest way I've found to do this is to use a level. I place the level on the picture frame and use a Sharpie to mark the location of the D-rings.

Then I simply place the level on the wall and use a pencil to mark the position of the two Sharpie marks. Since the marks are on the level, it's easy to be sure that the two marks are level on the wall. Then I hammer in two nails or two picture hooks right on those marks.

For large pieces or for mirrors, I like to use Ook picture hangers. (affiliate link) They are easy to nail in, they hold lots of weight, and they don't leave big holes in the wall.

Once those two nails or picture hangers are in place, it's a cinch to place the two D-rings onto the hangers and voila! You have a picture that's not only perfectly straight, it'll never need to be straightened.

This is especially helpful when hanging a group of pictures in a high-traffic area, such as the dining area of our condo. Naturally, wall art is going to get bumped sometimes, but if a picture is hanging on two nails, it doesn't budge.

No more picture-straightening!

Have you ever used this trick for hanging wall art? Or do you have another way to do it? I love getting new tips!

(Note: This post includes an affiliate link so that you can quickly see the item at Amazon. But you can also find these at big box stores such as Lowe's and Home Depot or at your local hardware store. I've even seen them at my grocery store.)

Home for Christmas

"I'm dreaming of a white Christmas. . . "

In North Carolina, we can dream all we want; almost never are our Christmases white. We've lived here for almost 17 years, and only once during that time did we have snow on Christmas day.

This year, though, we got a little taste of what a white Christmas could be like. No wonder this is the stuff of dreams.

Isn't it lovely?

When we lived in Michigan, a snowstorm meant that we needed to stay home for a few hours, waiting for the plows and salt trucks to clear the streets. In North Carolina, though, a snow like the one we had last week means that we hunker down for days and days.

After all that hunkering, I'm woefully behind on some of the errands I need to run. I've made lists and checked them twice, but a lot of things just haven't gotten done.

Oh well. The snow's all gone now.

Our skies are blue once again.

I'm finally getting the Christmas decorating done.

It really is beginning to look a lot like Christmas.

In the midst of all the holiday bustle, with or without snow, I sure am glad to be home for Christmas.

What are things looking like in your neck of the woods? Are you ready for Christmas?

Easy-to-make crafts for Christmas decorating

Years ago, I couldn't wait to get my Christmas decorations up. When I was a young mom, we lived in Michigan, where we sometimes had snow before Halloween! It was easy to rush right through Autumn. Now that we live in North Carolina, we don't get to the prettiest of Autumn days until early November. I now find myself clinging to Autumn longer and longer, never wanting to decorate for Christmas until after Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving has now come and gone, so I'm in the mood to start decking the halls. I find myself decorating a little more simply every year, but I still want things to look festive. One of my favorite parts of decorating is using crafts I've made over the years. Of course, not every Christmas craft is worth keeping, but I've made a few that store easily and still look good years later. If you like traditional Christmas decorations, you'll like some of my favorite Christmas crafts from years past. These are so simple to make that there's still plenty of time to make them for this year.

If you were to come to my door, you'd be greeted by this large DIY Joy sign:

I made it from a 2' x 4' piece of plywood and 9 1/2" craft letters. All it took was some spray paint, glue, and a ruler! You can see the complete directions here.

Once again my kitchen window will wear this easy NOEL sign. Pottery Barn offered a similar sign a few years ago, but it was pretty pricey--so I created my own. Obviously it's modeled after the 1960's "LOVE" design--remember that tilted "O"?

Making your own version of the sign is a simple craft.  You'll need some kind of lightweight letters (I used pressboard letters in a shape similar to the Pottery Barn sign), balsa wood strips, and spray paint, and hot glue. The back will look like this:

You can see step-by-step instructions for the sign here.

I love to burn candles at Christmastime, but it can be a challenge to find pretty ones that aren't heavily scented. So these easy-to-make Christmas candles are a favorite craft of mine:

Would you believe that's a just a pretty napkin Mod-Podged onto a plain pillar? These are fun to display and make nice gifts as well. The full directions are here.

This next craft is so easy that it hardly even qualifies as a craft! Did you know you can make your own Christmas pillows from placemats?

Look for two-ply placemats. Just last week I bought a package of four at Home Goods for $9.99! Then simply open up the two layers of fabric with a seam ripper:

Fill with the stuffing of your choice or pop in a pillow insert, stitch or glue the opening back up, and you've got a cute pillow! If you need more explanation, you can see the complete instructions here.

Last year I captured a special memory by making a super-easy Christmas ornament out of one of my mother's favorite Christmas recipes. My mom died in 1999, so I love seeing this bit of her handwriting.

How about you? Do you make your own Christmas decorations? Have you started your Christmas decorating yet? I'd love to see what you're up to!

Joining Marty for Inspire Me Tuesday at A Stroll Thru Life

Kim for Wow Us Wednesday at Savvy Southern Style

Fall Home Tour

Oh, y'all, it's finally Fall in North Carolina. We're all breathing a sigh of relief as our scorching temperatures have relented at last. And now that the season is officially here, I'd like to welcome you to my home.

First, a disclaimer. Lots of bloggers are brilliant at staging their homes for beautiful photos, and I know we all admire and appreciate their work. Alas, staging is not one of my talents. So these are just photos of the way I have my home decorated for Autumn.

Here's our house in Durham.

We're blessed to live in a relatively new house in an old, established neighborhood. The mature trees are great friends of mine. As you can see, the leaves haven't really started changing colors yet.

Here's the view as you approach the front door.

And a closer look at the area around the door.

That's a tobacco basket tucked in the corner, a nod to North Carolina's biggest crop.

This year I'm trying something a little different in place of a wreath. It's a copper bucket filled with dried and silk flowers and wheat. I'm not sure if I like it as well as a wreath; what do you think?

To the right of the front door is the front porch sitting area, which is one of my favorite rooms in our house. I've added a few fall touches here.

I just slipcovered my usual throw pillows with some autumnal fabric and added a few pumpkins and some cotton. Our families are from Tennessee and Arkansas, and cotton is a huge part of our family history: my grandfather was a sharecropper, my husband's grandfather was a tenant farmer, and my husband's father ran a cotton gin. So when I think of harvest, cotton is the first thing that comes to mind.

An heirloom pumpkin anchors this end of the sitting area, along with a Fall message on the chalkboard.

The room on the inside of the front porch windows is our dining room, which is decorated very simply for Fall.

I made this dried arrangement a few years ago, and I still like it in this room.

Just beside the dining room is the living room. The colors in this room lend themselves well to some fall decorating.

The wingback chairs are pair nicely with these Pottery Barn fall pillows.

The sofas got some new pillows this Fall, too—I found some Pottery Barn napkins I loved and sewed them into pillow fronts. So easy!

The coffee table usually holds a bowl of green apples, so that works great for Fall. I also add a little touch of the season on the magazine tray.

I don't usually do mantelscapes for the seasons other than Christmas, but I was tickled to find a huge copper tub while antiquing in Blowing Rock, and I thought it added a nice touch of Fall to the fireplace.

Doesn't it look pretty holding grocery store mums?

The living room leads into the kitchen, where just a few touches add some Fall flair. I wish you could smell my kitchen right now: I just baked a batch of pumpkin bread, which is my very favorite of all autumn treats (click here to get that recipe!).

 I'm still loving my green island!

The same antique mall in Blowing Rock yielded this wonderful candy scale, just like I remember from my childhood!

I found these dessert plates at Pottery Barn. They came in a set of four, and I hung three here.

Want to see my high-class method of hanging plates? I glue the pop-tops from Coke cans onto the back!

My mother's dough cabinet stands in our breakfast area and is one of my favorite pieces of furniture. This year it's decorated very simply for Fall.

At the end of the kitchen is the door to the screened porch.

The porch is on the second floor of the house, so sitting here is like being in a tree house. Soon the backdrop will be full of vibrant color. For now, we'll enjoy the color in the pumpkins and gourds of my simple centerpiece.

You know, with all the horrible news these days, it's easy to feel that such things as seasonal decorating is trite or even meaningless, but I don't think that's true. God has given us a beautiful world to live in. The actions of evil people may mar the picture, but they don't change the fact that God loves beauty. God created us to love beauty, too, and to join his work to make this world a lovely, flourishing place.

I like to think of my efforts to create a welcoming home as an offering of love, a small act of defiance in the face of evil. What do you think?

I'm joining these wonderful parties:

The Scoop 

Inspire Me Tuesday at A Stroll Thru Life

Wow Us Wednesday at Savvy Southern Style