OUR 'DECORATING ON A DIME' PROJECTS-when- THINKING OUTSIDE THE BOX

This is the first picture that I posted on RMS of one of our master bath projects. I saw these grilles at Michael's crafts, my husband framed them to fit the windows surrounding our garden tub, to make the shutters, they were well received on RMS. When we did our master bath makeover, the huge mirror above the vanity was replaced with what I'm showing here. We purchased two king size headboards at a furniture store garage sale for $75 each, the second one was a back up. The two end panels were removed and replaced with mirrors and my husband wired and attached the lights, which I found on the liquidation table at Lowe's.

The panels that were removed from the two ends of the above piece, were used to cover some of the vanity drawers, shown below, to tie the whole look together. The hardware was purchased on eBay. I'm not sure why the tile shows up so dark, it's very light, almost the color of the paint.

Our foyer bi-fold closet doors were replaced with this display piece. This was a china, top only costing $97, that was also purchased at one of the furniture yard sales. The doors on the bottom were made from the other headboard that we used in our master bath project.

Of all the pieces we re-purposed, this china hutch is my favorite. Remember, we are buying the tops only. First the mirror in the back was removed and replaced with paneling that was painted green to match other pieces in our kitchen. The hutch was then attached to our sofa table, that we didn't have room for in the living room and paneling added to the back of it to give it that complete look. The pieces were mounted on a base, that my husband made, to add some bulk to the bottom.

I just put our Christmas dishes in there for the holidays.

Also in our kitchen, when we did our makeover, two of the upper cabinets were removed and this library piece was painted and used in the space. The piece cost us $199, but well worth it for what it has added to our kitchen makeover.

The table was bought on a clearance sale at Ethan Allen many years ago, and the chairs and base were painted so that they would match. The chairs were ones we had from our old dining room set, we painted and re-covered the seats. We purchased it second hand from our landlady, who was moving and buying a larger set. I'm not sure how old they are.

Here is another one of those built-ins, that was once a linen closet with bi-fold doors. I have always pictured it re-placed with an armoire and my talented husband was able to do this two years ago. Here again it was only a top, but he was able to remove the sides of the piece and use them to create the lower doors. He then lined the closet with cedar paneling and added a few more shelves. This piece cost us more money, somewhere around $200.

This bench was made out of a twin size bed. The foot board was sawed in half, attached to the back and a seat was constructed. It was made for $7. The cushions were bought at Marshall's for $24.99 for the two pillows and the same for the larger cushion. Our granddaughters have put in their order for one too.

The hutch top, bought at the same furniture store, yard sale, and still waiting to be painted to match the bottom piece, was purchased for my doll collection. :) If you take a close look, the doors don't match up right. This will be fixed when it's painted. My husband needs help to carry it down to the garage, but another project always seems to get in the way.

This little table was made using a top that we found at one time, then we found the pedestal another time. The total cost was $25.

I wanted a place to house the tv in our guest bedroom and found this. It had doors that were in bad shape but the rest was perfect. The price was right, $149. and makes a wonderful addition to the room.

You may remember the coat hangers that I got on sale from Coldwater Creek, on line. The original pieces were $39 each but were later reduced to $15, so I bought them. The pegs were removed and then it was shaved a little to fit the windows.

The next pieces, a future project, are a pair of chairs, which will have to wait until next year to get done. They were given to me by a dear friend, but I never knew how I wanted to redo them. That was until 'Dear Artie' posted some pictures and gave me the idea of what to do. So I finally will have a before and after picture to show, only you'll have to wait for that project. ;)

I think you now have a good idea of what keeps this retired couple busy. First thing planned for after the holidays is replacing the wall to wall carpeting in the dining room with hardwood floors. We hope to replace most of the floors with hardwood in time.

I hope that this post will help some of 'your'........... THINKING OUTSIDE THE BOX. ;)