Do It Yourself!

So.. The husband and I bought a house almost a year ago. And, duhhhh, we are still not done setting it up!

We moved to the new house with all our old furniture. So we had a couch, a coffee table, end tables, a bed, bookcases. After moving, we bought the required big pieces quickly enough - a king-sized bed, a console table, an accent table, etc. It was the smaller decor items that have been driving us CRAZY!

For example, we wanted a lamp for the master bedroom. What’s the big deal, right? I'll tell you!

You see, we are working toward a pastel themed, light filled bedroom. So, we wanted a lightish green lamp with hints of sunshine yellow. We looked for one everywhere. I do mean, everywhere! Physical stores. Online stores. Craigslist. OfferUp. LetGo. Facebook Marketplace. For over three months. No joke. THREE months! Siiiiiigh!

Finally, the husband says, “You know that old IKEA lamp we have? What if we spray paint it?”

Genius!

So, off we went to Home Depot, picked up the colors we wanted, and got to work!

It took us less than two hours to do the sanding, masking, and painting of both the colors. And, the result was... AWESOME! I mean, I know, it isn’t the best looking lamp out there. Not by any measure! But, *the colors*... siiiigh.. They are exactly what we wanted! And, it goes so so well with the theme of our bedroom! Yeay!

So... Reused an old lamp - Check! Saved money - Check! Felt productive doing something ourselves - Check!! Win win win!

We went through a similar ordeal for a full length mirror. We wanted a mirror with a soft red frame, for our walk-in closet. Same drill! Looked through dozens of online and physical furniture stores. The only website we made some headway at was Etsy. We found several options where the store owners create a mirror in a wooden frame for you. You get to choose the size of the mirror and the color of the frame. But, with the cost of a custom made mirror and the shipping - it is expensive AF! It would be worth it if we were planning to hang the mirror in the living room or the bedroom. But, this was going INSIDE our closet!

So, we did it ourselves! We already had a frameless full length mirror (thanks again, IKEA!). We hung it on our closet wall, bought same red masking tape, and went to work. The result looks pretty great! Umm.... according to us, of course!

There is something so deeply satisfying about creating something new out of something old yourself. It was so satisfying to modify the look of something we already had lying around the house, to go with the new theme!

So friends, next time you are trying to find an accent item for your home, see what you already have in the house, something that you aren’t using or don’t quite like the look of. Then, get creative!!

 

DIY - Green and Yellow Lamp

DIY - Mirror framing with masking tape