Really Cheap Decorating Thread!! - Page 6

[slsurface]

Originally Posted by sabrinat

Out of curiosity, folks who've done a lot of furniture do you use a roller, brush or spray paint?

I use a high quality enamel paint on furniture with a bristled brush. I spray paint metal lamps. I've also used clear spray acrylic on wood and metal pieces that had interesting old lead paint on them. The spray acrylic seals in the harmful lead paint, while leaving the color and texture preserved.

Originally Posted by rere

Thank you!Funny thing is...when I first came to this thread I thought of your son's room.It's soo sweet and I know you put it together for nothing!

Aw, thanks! Yep, nearly all our furniture and decor is second hand and repurposed. I do what I can with next to nothing because I was a poor graduate student for 9 years, so I know how to stretch a dollar .

Originally Posted by HeatherAtHome

Love it! I have a question about your apartment pics. What kind of flooring is in your kitchen and was it painted that colour green to start out with or did you paint it yourself?

The apartment flooring was ancient avocado green linoleum...not vinyl but real linoleum. When we first moved into the apartment, all the appliances were the same green color and the cabinets were dark brown. It was all very dreary, especially since there was no natural light or windows in that portion of the apartment. One by one the appliances died and were replaced with cheap white ones. Eventually I had it with the nasty cabinets and decided to paint them my favorite colors: green and blue. I didn't want white cabinets because all our walls were white and our contract required us to keep them that way...but there was nothing in it about the cabinets. Our landlord wasn't too please though and we ended up having to paint the cabinets white when we moved out, in order to get our deposit back. But it was totally worth it!

[sabrinat]

Originally Posted by slsurface

I was avoiding this forum for a while because I found it all too grim, but in doing so I missed this great thread before! :

I have virtually NO decorating or remodeling budget. DH and I are pretty handy, so we do a lot on our own. Like other people mentioned, my house is decorated with hand-me-downs, secondhand, and garbage finds. In the 9.5 years that DH and I have been married, we've only ever purchased 4 new pieces of furniture, and one of those was DS's crib. My style is sort of shabby chic meets Asian contemporary. Here are some pics on fliker: http://www.flickr.com/photos/archymo...7615779605774/.

I repaint and refinish furniture, repurpose things, and always look for beautiful "junk" wherever I go. Thanks for starting this thread!

Enjoyed your flickr. I love that your house has so much architectural character. We live in a cookie cutter house in a subdivision so I'm terribly envious of all the builtin and dark wood.

[rere]

Ok so I'm reviving this thread because I love it and because I got a new old shelf that needs some work.Once upon a time my sister burnt candles on the shelf.So now there is wax and soot(?) on two of the shelves.So after I sand sand sand, do you think I should paint it or leave it natural?

[brittneyscott]

Bump!

[rere]

Originally Posted by brittneyscott

Bump!

Glad I'm not the only one who would love to see things added to this thread.

[rere]

Here's a lamp I put together for my daughter for about $3!

The base was a hand me down and the shade came from the thrift store.We had some flowers and got some more on a buy one get one free sale.

[akwifeandmomma]

I love this thread! Wow!

[mykdsmomy]