Drab to Fab

Want to know how to go from this...

To this....

No?

I don't either...because we all want this...

Unfortunately, a "just out of college" rent budget gets you one bar stool from that kitchen...so back to the cabinets.

What you need:

the 8 P's

Permission from your landlord...In writing!
TSP- to clean the grease off of  your cabinets
Plastic To cover the area where you are working

Push pins so your cabinets don't stick to the plastic

Primer If you cabinets are laminates you need to get a "sealer" primer...I used the B.I.N. primer from Zinsser
Paper- 200 grit sand paper
Paint Oil-based or 100% acrylic latex paint

What you need to do:

Prep is the most important step in this entire process...you really should spend more time prepping than painting...but if you are anything like me that is an unrealistic expectation. 

1) Remove all of the doors and hardware (keep your hardware in a plastic bag and set aside)
2) Set up a work area and cover it with plastic.
3) Clean your doors with TSP-it is essential...you can find it at the Depot in the paint department. It is a powerful de-greaser...let dry
4) Lightly sand the doors with 200 grit sand paper- just to roughen up the finish and then wipe down with a damp wash cloth...let dry
5) Use the push pins to raise each door up above the plastic. I didn't take a photo of this...but here is what it should look like

http://www.positivelysplendid.com/2012/01/12-why-didnt-i-think-of-that-tips-by.html

*** I must warn you about brushes. Please buy the best brushes that you can afford. Let's be honest, when the writer of a blog that has "paid with pennies" in the title tells you to spend money you should trust her***

5) Prime all surfaces- 1 coat is all you need. Let dry.

6) Sand again...lightly-Sanded primer is a good thing. Sanding compresses and hardens primer..wipe with a damp cloth. Let dry.

7) Paint-Don't dip your brush more than about an inch or so up the bristles-If you have to stop painting half way through wrap your brush tightly with plastic wrap and store it  in the freezer.

8) Paint again- 2 coats should be plenty...yep, you guessed it...let dry
9) Hang up the doors and re-attach the hardware.

Schooled-Tones

I am sitting here with a very, VERY strong cup of coffee…it has been a long, eventful weekend. The type of weekend that makes me happy that I have designated every Monday as a Mood Board day (trying to write a post longer than a few sentences would be far too taxing).

So here it is- the random color scheme I found on Design-Seeds….Schooled-Tones

…and here is my take on Schooled Tones.

Beachy Feel

I am not a huge fan of ikea furniture... I am a huge fan of ikea prices.

A couple of months ago, I was on the hunt for a desk for my living room- I wanted something that didn't scream office, had a beachy feel, and was about 3' x 2'.

My first stop is always Goowill when I am on the hunt for any piece of furniture, but after several unsuccessful trips, I decided to give up and head to Ikea.

I walked by the Vika Glasholm and said to myself- "my goodness, that thing is ugly"...and then, I bought it.

Yes, I bought this thing...for $40.

It is tough to tell in the photo, but the glass is kind of looks like a huge piece of sea glass...it is what sold me. The legs on the other hand are horrible. Cheap, boring spindles.

So lets go back to my list-

3'x2'- check
not too "officey"-check
beachy feel- kinda check

Few things say beach like sisal rope, so I used it to wrap around the legs of the desk and give it the look I was after.

Let's try again...

beachy feel?- check.

30 Sucks

Since I wrote a novel for my last post, I figured this one should be short and sweet (no pun intended).

30 is a big birthday, and even though I am a few years away from it, I have quite a few friends who are facing the "milestone" this year....none of them are happy about it.

So, to help them say goodbye to their 20's and hello to old age, I make them this...

Shopping List:

Tin- find these either in the dollar section of Target or at a craft store like Hobby Lobby. These tins should cost you no more than $2.50.

Flower Foam-I like to use the half-circle shape. 

Blow Pops


How to:

Put the flower foam in the tin so that the rounded side is facing down.

 Paint the top of the foam (with acrylic paint). Let dry.

Arrange your lollypops.

Make your sign-Design your label in Microsoft Word, print two copies, and paste each label onto a piece of card stock (the green paper in the photo above)

Attach your labels to a straw or stirrer- use double sided tape or hot glue to attach each side of the sign (30 sucks facing out)

Stick the sign into the foam and call it a day.

Happy Birthday!

Here's to Gabby D.

I have had this big ol' piece of wood (42"x24") under my couch for far too long, and I will give you one guess where it came from.

That's right. The "As-Is" section of Home Depot.

I bought this honkin' piece of wood on one of my Sunday trips mentioned here, but had no idea what to do with it. I have a tough time passing up such a find from this section of the store...and even though that may sound strange- I got this bad boy for $1 instead of $20.

Okay- it still sounds strange, but it was a good deal.

Anyway, let me introduce you to another FABULOUS area of the depot. Its called the "Oops" section (I think it should be called the "Awesome" section).



***This blog should probably end here...I have shared my two secrets on how to make with love and pay with pennies***


It is where I found these four little guys.

"As-Is" + "Oops"+$6.50=

I was borderline preachy about how art should be personal in my post here. So figured it would be a good idea to come up with a reason why I decided to paint a Union Jack on a piece of wood (even though there really isn't one). So, lets just say gymnastics is my favorite sport, Gabby D from the US won an Olympic gold this year, and she was in London when she did it. There you go, now it is personal.

Most DIY blogs have these great photos that take you through a project step by step, but I get so excited when I start a project that I forget that the purpose of blogging about projects is showing a reader how to DIT (do it themselves). As a new blogger, I may have went a bit over board this time around, but I do think you can get lots of little tips out of these directions...

How to paint a Union Jack:

1-      Trace out your design.

a.       Measure the width and length of the board to find the middle point. Using a yard stick, draw a cross through that point.

b.      Use the yard stick to draw a line from the center point to each corner of the wood

c.       Use the lines you just drew as a center line and draw two more lines (the width of the yard stick) on either side of the center line…it looks something like this.

2-      Paint the board:

a.       Use the color that you want to outline the lines of the union jack. I opted for the light yellow color from the Oops section (1 & 2 above) so that I could see the lines I just drew through the paint. If you choose a darker color, you will want to do this step first.

3-      Tape off your design:

a.       Use painters tape to tape off the outside lines that you drew in step one. Run the edge of gift card or credit card along the tape to make sure there are no bubbles.

4-      MOST IMPORTANT STEP: Paint over your tape

a.       Painting stripes is tough, and while I can’t promise you that your lines will be straight (that’s up to you and your measuring skills), I can promise you that, if you follow this step, your lines will be nice and crisp.

b.      After you have smoothed your tape with a plastic card, paint OVER the tape with the base color

c.       Let dry.



Painted yellow, taped, and then painted yellow again



5-      Next up: Paint the background (using Paint #3 from above)

a.       Mark the areas you DON’T want to paint with little pieces of painter's tape 
b.      Paint the areas not marked with the color you want “behind” your lines.

6-  Yep, you guessed it- paint the lines (where you marked with tape) with Paint #4

7-  Let dry, remove tape, and voila!

I decided to get a little fancy and add a border...

Now, let’s hang this thing (note: you can use these steps anytime you have to hang something with two brackets)

1-Drill 2 D-rings into the back of your board (I used my yard stick as a guide for how far down to drill on each side)

2- Measure and mark the center of the board. Use painter’s tape to mark the distance between the center of the board and the middle of the D-Ring

3-Measure and mark the center of the wall you are hanging your board.

4-Now put the tape from your board at the mark that you made on your wall. Repeat on the other side.

-Drill 2 screws into the wall where your tape ends.

And there you have it. A Union Jack hanging on your wall..Here's to Gabby!

Mood Board Mondays

I am a big fan of mood boards.

They help an idea come to life and allow me to "decorate" without re-decorating my apartment every other week...needless to say, my bank account is a big fan of mood boards too.

Mondays from here on out on Made with Love. Paid with Pennies. will be  " Mood Board Mondays"...I will start with a random color scheme from http://design-seeds.com and let my imagination run wild....I know, I know...it doesn't get much more wild than this.

So without futher ado....




http://design-seeds.com/index.php/home/entry/tin-tones1

 
...My take on Tin Tones

 

Roaming the aisles of Home Depot

Fill in the blank.... Every Sunday morning you can find Jenna __________________.

at church? Nope.

cooking breakfast? Nope.

sleeping in? Nope. 

Roaming the aisles of Home Depot? Yep. I'm just that type of gal.

This morning was no different. I rolled out of bed, threw on a baseball cap, and was off. Sometimes I have a reason to go and other times I just look around...today I just looked around. It was lovely.

Back to that baseball cap. 

Today, I wore the UConn hat right in the middle, but I was wearing the Red Sox hat (2nd from the right) the day I came up with the idea to make this nifty little hat rack.

My favorite section of home depot is the "As-Is" section, and I don't leave the store without checking it out- sometimes twice (please note: I am aware of how nerdy this sounds). It is where I found the wood for this project. Perfect dimensions and not warped. Sold.

Wood : $0.50

Paint: Free (from a previous project)

"Hat Holders": Free (knobs that I took off of an old dresser)

Total cost: $0.50

I'm a Nutmeger, Jersey Girl, Bostonian & Southern Belle wrapped up into one

I don’t really have an interest in art- which may sound strange to you. Don’t get me wrong, Monet and Van Gogh are some talented dudes, but I’d much rather have something personal to me and my life hanging on my wall than “Starry Night”.

When I say "personal to me", I don’t mean having my initials painted on the wall or self-portraits on my shelves, I mean something that, when I look at it, makes me smile or makes me remember a time in my life...it’s usually something that no one but me would want in their home.

The hallway wall between my living room and kitchen was bare up until a month ago, and while it drove me crazy (I tend to decorating a new place before boxes are unpacked), I really wanted to fill it with something that was special to me.

After 6 long months, I came up with this little series of photos…

It may be tough to tell, but at the top of each photo, I printed the coordinates of where I lived in that state (blurred out for obvious reasons).

As you can probably tell from these photos, I am a Nutmeger, Jersey Girl, Bostonian, and Southern Belle wrapped into one…a combo that is unique to me. I am pretty certain that no one else would want photos of CT, NJ, MA, and NC hanging on their wall J

I didn’t use a template, just played around in Microsoft Word until they looked the way I wanted them to. They are printed on plain 8x10 computer paper and framed in dark wood frames that I bought from Home Goods for $8 each. Total cost of the project $32 whopping dollars!

Want one (or some) customized for you? Shoot me an email!

Thirsty Thursday

To celebrate being one day away from the weekend, I thought I would give this post a little bit of a drinking theme..Here's to Thirsty Thursday!

I was so excited when my sister (Alyssa) asked me to help her plan her wedding (which was only 3 weeks ago!)- She wanted everything to feel summery, casual, and fun! What's not fun about signature drinks at a wedding reception? That's right, nothing.

Here is the sign I made to let guests know that there were drink "specials". Alyssa and her (now) hubby Dave moved from Chicago to Boston right before their big day (hence the Beantown and Chi-Town drink names). I made the sign using Microsoft Word and a few photos that I found on the internet-simple, cute, and best of all...Free!

I used a piece of scrap fabric to cover the mat and make the sign more colorful...I did the same thing for this photo hanging in my kitchen.

If you want me to make you a sign for your wedding or party, feel free to reach out to me!

how to build a tufted (kinda) headboard for $53

There is something about a tufted headboard that makes a room feel more luxurios-don’t you think?

I instantly fell in love when I stumbled upon the Lorraine Tufted Headboard from Pottery Barn…

I mean doesn’t it look like a big extension of the bed?  It makes me want to curl up with a good book.

 

I could not call this blog “Paid with Pennies” if I slapped my credit card down on the counter and snatched up Ms. Lorraine for the cool $875 that she costs, so I headed over to Walmart and then to Home Depot with $60 and a very vague idea on how I was gonna pull this project off. I knew I needed some type of fabric and foam, and a piece of wood no smaller than 65” x 65”- here is what I ended up buying:

Shower Curtain from Walmart- fabric- check.

Full size foam mattress pad) Walmart- foam- check.

1 piece of 1/4 plywood cut to 65 inches from Home Depot- wood- check

1 package of D brackets from Home Depot

1 package of decorative tacks from Home Depot

…$53 and 3 hours later I had this monstrosity hanging on my wall…

Steps:

1)      Carry the massive piece of plywood up 3 flights of stairs to the tree house (the hardest part of the entire project)

2)      Lay the mattress pad on the ground, center the wood on top of the foam. Pull the edges of the foam, fold over the wood, and staple in place with a staple gun..make sure the foam is pulled super tight so that you have a smooth surface.

3)      Repeat step 2 with the fabric (I know it sounds obvious, but make sure you make the foam-covered side of the wood kiss the back side of the fabric)...pull tight and staple.

***Note: I didn't think about how annoying lining up a pattern on a giant piece of wood could be....in this case, the fabric (shower curtain) I used was striped (all the same color but different textures)...it’s tough to see in the photo, but I had to make sure the stripes were perfectly vertical. If I did this project again, I would pick a fabric that was easier to line up (or one that didn't need to be!)***

4)      Hang it up! This step is a beast.   I definitely recommend two sets of hands…I was just too impatient to wait for someone to help me. Make sure you measure, use a level, and drill into studs...no studs? Use mollies! This thing is heavy!

5)      Fake the tufts-This step should probably be step four, but I wasn't sure if I wanted the tufted look until it was hanging on my wall. I measured and marked with a pen where I wanted indents, used my staple gun to staple where I marked and then hammered decorative tacks over the ugly staple.

Voila! My Lorraine cost $822 less than PB's Lorraine!







all Lorraine photos from Potterybarn.com