Have you ever had something in your house that you love, but due to its age, it doesn’t look as good as it used to? Or maybe it’s not something that doesn’t look usable anymore but you can’t bring yourself to get rid of it.
At our wedding eleven years ago, we lined the sidewalk of our reception hall with lanterns hanging from shepherd’s hooks.
I have about four of these sitting in my garage right now.
It’s faded. There’s candle wax melted in the bottom of it. It doesn’t look so hot. But you all know about my love of spray paint.
I covered the glass with painter’s tape and got to work. I put two coats on my cute little lanterns.
I let them dry for about 24 hours. The finished project looks pretty great. Next week, I will show you how they turned out, and where I am using them.
We seem to always have a lot of cardboard around here. When our kids were younger we had diaper boxes. Now we have boxes from Amazon purchases and Christmas gifts. And with two daughters and a shoe fetish of my own, we have tons of shoe boxes. Whether it is a big box or a shoe box, there are so many creative and useful ways to reuse a shoebox.
1. Stylish storage container from a shoebox
From shoeBox to storage box
Take a shoebox and paint it or wrap it in pretty paper. Add a name plate and you have a cute and useful storage box. It’ll look great on your desk.
2. Diaper box closet storage bin
These cute bins are made from wrapping diaper boxes in fabric and decorating them with ribbon.
These super cute matching bins were made from diaper boxes, spray adhesive and fabric. They’re sturdy and roomy, and best of all, FREE! Don’t they look cute?
3. Make a hamper from a y’all box
This donation hamper was made from a tall skinny box…using the same fabric and ribbon as the diaper box bins
This one is just like the diaper box bins. With just fabric, spray adhesive, some ribbon to hide the seams and a cute label, you can have a cute new hamper. This is not for wet clothes, though. Only for dry items.
4. Cute notebooks or scrapbooks from cardboard
These are made from cardboard, card stock, pretty patterned paper and scrapbook binding posts.
I have made these many times to sell but also to give as gifts. Just take cardboard and cut it to your desired size. Use pretty patterned paper to cover it and spray adhesive to make it stick. Then, secure the paper to the cardboard. Create pages from card stock and a hole punch. Then, attach the cover and secure the binding posts through the covers and the pages. These make great journals, notebooks, photo albums or scrapbooks.
Raise your hand if you hate pulling weeds. I know I do! Save yourself some time by lining your flowerbed or raised bed with flattened cardboard. It’s biodegradable and it will not hurt your plants.
I hope you have enjoyed these ideas! What do you do with your cardboard?
The temperatures are still a little cool around here to start setting out spring flowers, but that doesn’t mean I haven’t started thinking about what I want to plant.
I’ve recently happened upon all sorts of neat ideas for turning things into unique planters. Recycling unwanted household items by filling them with beautiful flowers is a win-win situation, in my opinion.
Chair turned planter
My grandpa gave me this cute old chair. It had a metal slat seat in it. I took the seat out and popped a planter into it. Doesn’t it look cute with this fern in it?
I needed a spot to hang towels and robes in my children’s bathroom. I had a perfectly good blank wall, but I knew I wanted to do something prettier than just install hooks on the wall.
I already had some adorable shabby chic hooks from a recent Hobby Lobby sale.
And I found a piece of wood that was the perfect size for the space. It had a beautiful patina but my daughter requested I paint it.
I tried so hard to get her to change her mind but she just wouldn’t budge. I consulted my craft cabinet and found my green chalk paint.
Best. Stuff. Ever.
I then slathered my reclaimed wood plank with two coats of green chalk paint.
Until I ended up with this:
I then screwed my hooks into the now painted plank. I tried to space them equally.
I then attached wall hangers to the back of it and hung it on the wall.
And here it is, holding up those robes just like I wanted it to.
Does anyone else collect wayward, neglected mason jars? Does a box of mason jars on a store shelf speak to you like it’s begging you to buy it? Well, maybe that’s just me.
I’m kidding, of course. Sort of. I have a shelf full of empty mason jars in my pantry. They’re all different brands, sizes and shapes and I love them. I store things in them, give them away filled with goodies for gifts and make things with them. Recently, I combined some mason jars with another favorite of mine.
Chalk paint.
Chalk paint makes the letters and details on a mason jar pop. Chalk paint makes a mason jar more than just a mason jar. It makes it decorative and pretty. Chalk paint also makes you walk, talk and speak foreign languages. Actually I’m just kidding about that last part.
Just apply one layer of paint first. You won’t like it after the first coat dries, but just like a lot of projects, it does have an ugly phase. Give it 12 hours to dry and apply a second coat.
And then you can use your jars for whatever you’d like. We use them to store pencils, markers and crayons.
Or we sometimes use them to show off spring flowers.
Or just put them on your shelf and enjoy them.
The possibilities are pretty endless.
Have a great week! Join us Wednesday for a little room refresher, family style!
