Freebie: Before and After

 Our neighborhood had a yard sale a few weekends ago.

  I had exactly $5 cash with me and I was not about to waste it.  My kind neighbor had a pile of "FREE" stuff lined up and I spotted this rolling cart and knew just knew it was perfect for the room I'm working on. 

She and her sister thought I was crazy when I asked how much she wanted for it.  "Just take it!" she said.  Things like that totally make my day.  I know I'm a wierdo.  Really, I do.  Even Steven - my fullest supporter of my makeovers - thought I was wasting my time by dragging this thing home.  

I endured the criticism.

 

 

By the time I peeled, scraped, Goo-Goned, cleaned, sanded and primed...I was really beginning to wonder if it was worth it.  My torn up hands told me no, but others' disbelief made me say yes. {Hmmm...as much as I HATE to admit it, I'm beginning to see where some of Shiloh's stubbornness comes from.}

 

 I used Hammered Bronze Spray Paint from Home Depot to finish it off...

 I filled the cart with Steven's art {and a little of mine from high school days}, paintbrushes, mailing supplies, photos, etc.

 

Emma Claire was enthralled with the art, especially when I told her it was all stuff Daddy and Mommy had created.  She appreciates design and anything artistic.  We are thinking art classes in the future?  How early do you all think is ok for classes like that?  

It was something I always wanted to do.

Total cost?  

About $9 for 2 cans of Hammered Bronze Spray Paint.

Who knew it had the potential to look like this???

Laundry Room Reveal

My challenge was to do this little room under $50.  

My "design dilemmas" were: 

1.} High traffic area

2.} Needed room for laundry baskets

3.} Needed organization 

4.} Needed some color

Here's the very real "before" shot...



And here's the "after"!!!







I recovered a pink polka dot bin and made it into that canvas one on the right.  It holds all our mismatched socks.  The scarf is covering an outlet. :-)  And the handmade linen bag is made out of old Banana Republic pants and is hiding my Shout stain remover that I use oh-so-often.

My solution to the hampers. Wal Mart finds...not my favorite, but they fixed our doors-bumping-into-hampers-issue!

Love these hooks I screwed in...they also came from wally world for under $4.

Laundry sign tutorial found here.

Some texture. :-)

I'm a wannabe-gardener so I wanted the laundry room to have a mud room feel with gardening supplies.  I could've bought some more rusticy ones I liked better, but I just pulled some stuff from the garage to save money.  There's all sorts of treasures lurking in your garage, so go root through!!! 

Antique finds from a yard sale for only a few dollars.

My detergent has found a home! I made those labels using chalkboard paint on card stock and then just roughed it up a little with some white chalk from Hobby Lobby.  Easy peasy!

Breakdown of costs:

Hardware = 6.78

Paint and Brushes = $11

Laundry Baskets = $11

Detergent Canister = $3.60

Antiques = $6

Total = $31.18!!!

I have lots of recipes back-logging in my post files so get ready to get your cooking and baking game on next week!

Does this photo get your mouth watering???

Laundry Detergent: Easy Tutorial

While I'm wrapping things up in the Laundry Room, I'm going to share my new favorite way to save money.  I really think you'll like it too.

 Homemade Laundry Detergent!

I've seen people talk about doing this, but I just assumed it was one extra hassle.  One extra hassle this mommy didn't have time to mess with.  It probably wouldn't make my clothes smell any cleaner than they were when they went in, it probably wouldn't really save me money...are you picking up that I'm a skeptic by now?  "Realist" is what I like to tell Steven. :-)

But the realist in me finally realized we were going through Gain Laundry Detergent like nobodies business around here.  Between me painting up a storm, the girls getting grass stains from playing outside, Keller being a natural born spitter, and all the other normal messes from a family of 5, we were going through loads of laundry like an Oklahoma fire takes over a dry field: rapid fire.

But this is so easy y'all and saves definite pennies - I'm hooked for good.

...................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

 ~ Laundry Detergent ~

You'll need:

:: 1 cup Borax - 

{found in the Detergent aisle of Wal Mart}

:: 1 cup Baking Soda

:: 1 bar of ivory soap - grated

Simply grate your bar of soap like you would a block of cheese...

Mix in your Borax...

Mix in your baking soda...

Mix it all together...

Store in an airtight container...

And you're done!

The directions I had from The Stirring Place said you only need 1 - 2 tablespoons of the detergent per load.  But I don't think they had any kind of idea who they were dealing with.  So, I like to put 3 tablespoons in my washer as the water is going in.  That way it'll dissolve and not get clumpy in my clothes.  Then, I put my messy clothes in.

P.S. I did double the recipe since we go through laundry so fast.

So far, it's working great for our family!

Tin Organizer Gets Restored

Next up in the laundry room, is my yard sale find that was in quite a state when I first found it...

{The one on the right.}

I saw true beauty underneath its' dirt, rust, and hard glue.  Besides, who can't always use another organizational piece for their home?

I sanded it down really really well...working on it little by little over the course of a few days.  My hands can only take so much and they're sore even now as I type. 

Once I got it all smooth and with parts of the metal peeking through.  I rubbed this stuff on edges, corners, and random areas of the piece...

The vaseline allows distressing later on to go much easier and quicker.

I then painted over the whole thing with a greenish teal paint leftover from the bathroom...

I let that first coat dry, and rubbed it down lightly with a cloth. The parts that had had the vaseline applied wore away and the metal peeked through.

Pretty cool huh?! And much better than wearing your hand out sanding vigorously.

Then painted over that with 2 coats of off-white paint.

When mostly dry, I sanded it down to distress it. 

I also chipped some paint off with my fingers - on the spots that had had the vaseline - to get even more metal peeking through.

It looked a little plain to me, so I wanted to get these metal label holders on it to dress it up a bit...

They were 50% off at Hobby Lobby and cost me $2.99 for 2 packs. 

I stole some school glue from the girls' art bin and glued them onto my freshly painted piece...

I glued a broken upholstery tack leftover from the headboard project on the top.

And then filled it up with pretty {to me} things... 
 

Ahhhh...fixing things back up is such a thrill to me. :)

Wood "LAUNDRY" Sign Project

I'm going to share a project with you today from my Laundry Room Redo in the making.

As you know, my challenge was to do this room for under $50.

After buying a gallon of paint, I went into our newly organized garage and rooted through all of Steven's "stuff" to see if I could find anything usable or inspiring. 

Boy did I ever!

I took lots of pictures of my process, thinking you might want to make one of these easy signs too.

~ Painted Wood "LAUNDRY" Sign ~

You'll need:

::Piece of wood - any size will do depending on how big you want your sign - mine was about 2.5 inches wide and 17 inches long.

::Paint {I used Black for my base and White Primer over that}

::Sandpaper or sanding block

::2 paint brushes - 1 small for painting the letters and one medium for painting your wood

::Paper or Cardstock to print on

Computer to print out your letters for stenciling

::Scissors {not pictured}

::Pencil

:Something heavy that you can bang up your piece of wood with - I used those red handled pliers

Take your piece of wood and give it a good sand with your sanding block.

Next, paint a coat of black paint on the wood and let dry.

Then, paint over with a coat of your white primer.

 

Take whatever heavy tool you've got on hand and bang your painted wood up pretty good.  I especially wore away all of the edges and used my pliers to even stip some big pieces off to give it a really weathered look.

 {Photo taken after sign complete.}

Paint another quick and light coat of the white primer over the top of your newly distressed wood.

Sand down the whole thing now - I wanted mine to allow the black paint and some wood to show through in spots.

Find a font you like and type up "LAUNDRY" {or whatever word you are using} on Word on your computer.  Decide how big you want them.  I needed my letters to be 2 inches tall to fit comfortably on my piece of wood, so we took a ruler and just measured the letters on the computer screen.  Print it out, cut out the letters individually and used them to trace onto your wood...

Fill in your traced letters, using a small paint brush, with black paint.  

This part is relaxing!  So put some music on and enjoy the moment. :-)

Once the letters dry, give it one final light sand and step back and admire your work!!!

If you're only wanting to prop your sign up somewhere on a shelf, dresser, etc.  no need to to anything more to it.  However, if you want to hang it on a wall, you can just nail it in for a more rustic look or you could do what we did.

Steven drilled 2 partial holes at an upward angle...

 ...so it could be hung on 2 nails...

 ...and voila'!!!

I love it! 

Let me know if you make one too!

:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::