Making Ikea Your Own

Before pic of Ikea kid's table and chairs.

I recently purchased the above Ikea kid's table and chairs for $19.99, not a bad price, but I just wasn't quite in love with it, there was something missing, I'm always repainting or recreating something so I thought how can I make this my own and it not look like I got it from Ikea. A friend of mine was recently recovering below a kitchen sink with this oh so pretty Con-Tact paper and the idea popped in my head to recover the white surfaces of the table and chairs with this beauty! I purchased it inexpensively at Target and I was impressed with how much you get on a roll, sorry I can't remember the exact price I paid for it. 

Covering was super easy, it took me a total of like 15 minutes, that's including the time my 14 month old was helping :) Once I put her to bed, I got it done in no time. For the edges I just used a box cutter to make a clean line.

I just love what it adds to my daughter's play area. Covering the table with Con-Tact paper is a quick, easy, and cheap way to make something your own! You have endless possibilities with this stuff, you could use it for all sorts of DIY projects. 

After I covered the table I wanted to some how also make the Ikea cubes that were organizing Norah's toys pretty, so my sister-in-law gave me the idea to put the Con-Tact paper on the bottom of each shelf, love it!!

Norah's Nook

Creative Thrifting

Welcome to my first post on my new design blog! I have been wanting to start a blog for awhile designated to all things DIY, thriftiness and creating a home you love on a budget. I have a love of turning unwanted thrifty finds into treasures to cherish, or taking an item you already have and tweaking it a bit with a little DIY skills to make it unique and I am also a sucker for a good deal. I find a love in being able to creatively redesign an item that someone didn't want anymore, but that I see has great potential. I hope you join me on my journey of finding my next great design in a good clearance item or that unwanted piece from the local thrift store! Hope you enjoy! 

Popcorn Barrels

My latest project was coming up with a way to store 500 bags of 6 flavors of popcorn for my church's women's conference vintage popcorn themed night. I had a couple of hiccups along the way and the original project idea changed twice, but I was thrilled with the end result. I was first given the idea of using apple baskets, but I would need so many to fit 500 bags of popcorn that I decided half wine barrels would be a great alternative, plus I loved the idea of repurposing these beautiful wine barrels. I wanted to some how vintage the wine barrels even more, but make them look pretty so I came up with the idea of buying a stencil and stenciling the sides of the barrels all the way around. I purchased a stencil from LightsForever on Etsy for around $12, it was a 10" x 10 5/8". The colors I needed to incorporate were blue and green, the shades were up to me. I purchased the wine barrels off of Craigslist for $20 each, which from my research seemed to be the cheapest deal around. Once my stencil came I was ready to purchase the paint, I already had the chalkboard paint, but still needed to purchase the spray paint and frames. My mother-in-law came up with the idea of using frames to display the flavors of popcorn, I was originally going to chalkboard paint onto the barrel, but liked the idea of getting junky frames and spray painting them all the same color and using chalkboard paint on the glass. I was able to get all 10 frames I need for $10 bucks at my local thrift store.

We removed all the frames from the glass so we could spray paint the frames and chalkboard paint the glass separately, makes everything much easier! The best part is when your painting frames you don't have to worry about if they don't match, I just look for the most potential in a junky frame, such as a cute design on it that will show through once painted or has good lines that will look nice, they don't even have to be all wood, we used a mixture of plastic frames and wood. 

I used spray adhesive to hold my stencil in place while spray painting the stencil, you can find spray adhesive at your local craft or hardware store. 

 Before you decide to chalkboard paint anything make sure the surface is clean. 

Since each barrel was going to have 2 flavors in them I had to come up with an idea to be able to divide the barrel into two compartments, my father-in-law helped me and used some cardboard I had to make dividers and then you can just take them out when your done and use the barrels for something else if you wanted to. To hang the frames on the barrels, I used twine and my dad help me string it through the slits of the barrel so it looked as if the frames were hung on the sides of the barrel.

The Final Result!!! 

Here are the colors I used: All three were around $4 each

1. ACE Premium Enamel Gloss in Brite Blue

2. Krylon Gloss in Coral Isle

3. Rust-oleum Painter's Touch Stain in Leafy Green

The Chalk Board paint is around $10 at your local hardware store and I LOVE it so much because you can use it for so many projects!!