My house needs an underhaul: a budget project thread.

caribou, I love that bathroom - I'm just missing the pink Flamingo
Very cool, especially for a guy!

MMMmmmm. Strawberry milkshake.

That's so ehBeth.

I always think of paint colors as food colors. Maybe because it makes them identifiable at a distance.

I love a lot of the pink and brown I see on clothing these days and I have thought about that color combo for the guest room which is our next BIG project since we're expecting guests.

Mr. B doesn't express too many opinions regarding color but anything "too girly" gets his goat. And Mo's. Maybe I could go with a raspberry color and get away with it.

Despite the weird 100 degree temperature I got a lot done today in our unair-conditioned house because Mo is off at grandma's house and I've been a bit of a wreck about it. The last time he went there is when all the "hell" problems started. Even under the best of circumstances I have a few days of nonsense after he has spent the night away so I know the next few days will be...... tiring.

Wall painting is so zen.

My little alcove is beautiful in its strawberry milkshade tone. Once I get the space a little more done, I'll take a photo. It's a pretty little space.

I attacked the back bedroom today and will go back to working on the wall surrounding the alcove tomorrow.

You're an inspiration Boomer!

Caribou, I missed seeing the pink/green bathroom earlier. It's fantastic. I'd kill for tiles (and a surround) like that. Brilliant.

Pictures! I can't wait for pictures!

I got most of my project finished. I didn't get the crown molding painted because it was just too dang hot to be on a ladder but I couldn't resist going ahead and hanging stuff on the walls.

I love the heart stuff -- it's something Mo did in school last year where he had to list all the things he loves. I cut it in half and framed it so that he would see all the things he loves just before walking out the front door.

So here's the before:



And here's the after:



I need to do something about the floor but I have a cheap idea of how to do it.

Project costs: Paint, about $15; coat hooks from Goodwill, $7.00; rug/mat/thing for floor I saw the other day $20.00; Mo's art work, priceless.

Total cost: $42.00 plus priceless.

(I don't think I could survive without paint.)

Oh wow!

That looks so great!

The hearts are wonderful. What's up with the (wooden spoons? whisks?) hanging in front of the window?

(Looking forward to pics, beth!)

I'm perpetually inspired by boomer's paint projects but haven't gotten around to actually PAINTING anything yet. Sigh.

Hooray - what a great space!

(I'm guessing that the hanging things are mixed curtain tieback/tassels - I love the idea even if that's not what they are)

They're tassels. I love tassels and buy them whenever I find one for cheap. Here's a big closeup:



Mr. B is insisting on a curtain though so while I'll probably keep the tassels and I have actually bought some fabric for a curtain I'm going to try to get him to live with this for a while.

(.... it is pretty fabric though...... I'm just not sure what kind of curtain I want to have......)

Awesome...

I actually have a budget project in progress... but not painting, yet.

The chimney goes through sozlet's room and therefore it's hard to put a nail in to hang stuff on that section (about 3 feet wide by about 2 feet deep). (Possible, but difficult.)

Every time I go to IKEA I buy a few more Nyttja frames, like this:



8 X 10 size. I have a zillion different colors, partly because I've been "collecting" for so long -- two different kinds of greens, for example, a no-longer-in-stock turquoise, etc. Mostly pinks, greens, some yellow, some orange, some red, one blue, one turquoise.

I currently have a big piece of designer wrapping paper that I did up to look nice (one large image, like a poster), but we're getting tired of it. It's curling a bit, just old by now. It hung from one of those 3M sticky hook things -- they can hold a lot.

So, soon I'm going to put together 12 frames (I just bought the last three -- including the cool turquoise, all brand-new -- from eBay) (they're super light) and put in either a) a selection of New Yorker covers I've been saving (going back to 1990 -- some very cool stuff, including several William Steig covers) or b) each month from sozlet's Flower Fairy calendar. Sozlet wants Flower Fairies, and there's 12, and I like the seasonal aspect -- not sure yet. But should be cool when we're done.

That looks so great boomer, what a difference some colors and accessories
make. I like Mo's hearts too! The color (pea green?) brings out the frame
and window so nicely, I love it. Why does Mr. Be want a curtain there?

Sozobe,
I used to buy these colorful job ticket holders and hang them in Jane's room.
They come in all colors and we could change the drawings and pictures of her
on a weekly basis. You just slide them into the holder very easily. They're a
bit larger than 8 x 11 and frame the artwork really nicely.



I have gotten the idea from here....

That sounds great! So much color. How fun!

Calendars make great wall art when dismantled and framed.

I've been looking for inexpensive things to frame since I have a garage full of frames and no pictures.

Some of my favorites are post cards -- you can often find postcard books at book stores that are organized by a certain theme or artists. My favorite find was a deck of Japanese to English flash cards. They had beautiful grapics of very strange words "rooster" and "shoe" and "cherry tree", words you wouldn't normally associate with flash card learning. I also use them as gift tags.

With such an eclectic range of frames there is all kinds of fun things you could do!

But seriously girl, get some paint.

I like a lot of what I'm seeing here. Like the tassles! Also Soz' frame plan (ooooh, I finally threw out the New Yorker covers in my last move, sob), and CJane's job ticket plan. Excellent, all.

Oh, and I'm a mad postcard collector.. from old antique shops, some old book stores.. Sometimes they're tucked away at the front desk area.. sometimes, in a nice old cabinet as a display..

I have those! That very deck!!

A favorite cousin gave them to me in her "welcome, new baby" package. I framed several of them (animal ones, I think) for baby sozlet's room. (Where'd they go? Hmm.)

I like those!

We do something similar downstairs, in her "office" (desk area). The same Nyytja frames, but just red ones (they may be more like 8.5 X 11 -- they take standard paper well):



We rotate stuff out every month or so.

The mess below it is a white metal magnet board with lots of weird magnets -- she has total control over that part.

Oh man. I love sozlet's office space!

Where do you get those job ticket things, CJane? I need some of those.

The curtain is a real sticking point with Mr. B. The way our house is laid out you see directly into the bathroom when you enter the front door so he's convinced that people can look through that window and watch him pee when he doesn't shut the bathroom door. I've taken him outside to show him that someone would have to be 7 feet tall with a real desire to see him pee to be able to do so but he remains unconvinced.

And, you know, it's just too damn hard to shut the damn door.

Anyway.... I bought a slice of peachy embrodered taffeta to make a curtain from. I'm going to play around with it today. Maybe do something wacky with it.

Thanks to soz's mention of designer paper I ditched my curtain idea and hit the art supply place near my house. They carry a big selection of designer papers in large sheets. I found two styles I loved, spray glued them back to back and trimmed them to fit tMr. B's privacy concerns.

But I still needed some gizmo to hang them up. "What would soz do?" I asked myself. I remembered the beautiful jewelry you made a while back and knew what soz would do.

Alas, I had no beads -- but I had buttons! I made a hanging gizmo from buttons and a leather strap. I think it turned out pretty cool. I call it my sozobe curtain:



Here's a detail of my gizmo:

I like sozlet's "office" too! She's got real talent in painting. The top one is a
self portrait, right?

Boomer, you can buy them at Staples or Office Depot, there are 12 to a pack -
in pairs of all primary colors. The beauty is that they're open on top, so you
easily can slide the pictures in and out. With picture frames it's much more
involved.

As for the window, you could have used these window films
http://www.glassdecorandmore.com/mas_assets/full/26barcgreen.jpg

The picture frames sozobe bought at IKEA, I have in smaller sizes for postcards. I have a friend who travels extensively and we get tons of beautiful postcards, so I put them in the IKEA frames and hang them around the house...

Here are some in Jane's room

That window film looks pretty cool. I might have to try that in my bathroom.

The glass in my windows is old and wavery. I wonder if the film would lose it's effect on such glass.....

It passed Mr. B's privacy concern and a neighbor said it look cool (the street facing side is red birds and gold cages) so I guess it will work for a while!