I am into this really big kick of getting creative with things that I have and really trying to cut down on the amount of items that are new that I bring into the house. So when I saw a brand new, fully operational, never been opened paper shredder sitting in its box of a local thrift store for $15, I did my little happy dance. I have been procrastinating on buying a paper shredder forever, since the cheapest one I could find of suitable size was $40. Not too bad, but $40 can buy so much fun stuff, and paper shredders just aren’t that fun to buy. Or so I thought. Until I got my hands on one. Anyways, this grand little paper shredder didn’t make it too far into the house before we got her out of her box and tested her out. And there she stayed for a few weeks in her “test” spot.
Yup, in the kitchen, because that makes sense. (No it doesn’t!) I couldn’t even open that cabinet all the way. It made more sense for her, wait, let’s give her a name first: Shredalina. Ahh, better. It made more sense for Shredalina to move into the Mego Cave office area, which is still close enough to the mail drop spot (aka the kitchen counter) for prompt shredding time. But I didn’t want to go all willy nilly again and just throw her in there. I wanted to dress her up, which is especially important since all the shelving in there is open. Working on perhaps getting some more closed storage in there. But for now, everything that goes on a shelf needs to be pretty!
I was brainstorming some ideas with the hubs, talking about building boxes and the like, when he came up with the genius idea. He said, “Why don’t you just use the box it came in?” Umm, duhhh! I know it fits in there perfectly! And no, it’s not pretty yet, but I was talking about building a box and then painting it/stenciling it/papering it/etc. All these things can be done with cardboard! My goal was simple: to create a pretty outfit for Shredalina without spending a dime. Yup, using what I have folks!
So I gathered all my supplies, not really knowing what direction I was going to go in. I thought I would let the outfit come organically. My first step was to use a box cutter to get rid of the flaps. Shredalina’s head would be poking out of her outfit so it was easy to use at all times.
Then I covered the entire box with brown paper, just like I was wrapping a present. I did this because the box was pretty busy with lots of words, pictures, and colors, and I knew that most paper or fabric would be semi-sheer and the ugliness of the box would show through. The brown paper gave me a clean slate.
Then I got around to the fun part: trying to figure out how to make it pretty. I thought I could perhaps use the brown paper and then just tie some ribbons around it or make stripes with wrapping paper. But that wasn’t feeling too sophisticated for me. The paper I had on hand wasn’t a print I wanted to look at over and over again. So I moved on to fabric. I pulled out my scraps and my rolls and was pleasantly surprised when one scrap leftover from my mini-blinds Roman Shades fit the box perfectly, no cutting needed. Wahoo! Decision made.
Once again I wrapped the box like a present, using the fabric and fabric glue (instead of tape) to adhere to the paper. It worked like a charm! Oh look how pretty she is (and not naked in the kitchen now)!
I tried her a few spots in the Mego Cave. First she started in the front, and then I moved her onto one of the shelves. She fit perfectly; still functional yet tucked away. I love it!
I think cardboard boxes are my new go-to for projects now. They are free (when you scavenge for them), come in multiple sizes, and are easy to cover. This may be the beginning of many happy projects down the road. Although it makes me think about what would have happened if one of the little piggies had built a home made out of cardboard. The wolf probably could have huffed and puffed it down. I’ll try not to get too carried away so my home doesn’t become based on cardboard!
[…] all might remember that last week I had a fun time using what I had to make a shredder (Shredalina) dressed up and pretty. But I haven’t stopped there! Cardboard boxes have now opened up a whole new world for me! So […]ReplyCancel
Hi Bee! Thanks for stopping by! It sounds like it is time to stop giving your shredder a dirty look and dress her up! I actually love seeing mine out in the open with the pretty fabric on it now! ReplyCancel
One thing I love about our living room is how comfy, cozy it is and how it is open, yet still structured. Now, that I have buttered it up, I need to say one thing I don’t like about it. I don’t like that is hard to fit a lot of seating in there. Pre-Christmas tree (or PC, not to be confused with BC), this is what our living room was looking like.
It definitely has a nice flow, good conversation areas, and it is easy to watch TV from both the couch and the chair. It worked, except when over 4 people came over, although even four got a little cozy on the couch. Someone would usually grab the ottoman as a seat. It was something that bothered me a little, as I like people to be comfortable in our home.
Then came Christmas and with that a little living room reorganization to get the tree into the room. It resulted in a few things moving around, but most notably (for this post at least), the leather chair gave up its throne room for the tree and came over to make an “L” with the couch. For the many, many weeks that the Christmas tree was up in our house (too many to count, at least!), we just oohhhed and ahhhed over how much we liked the chair in that placement. I don’t know why it hit us this year more than others. This has always been the Christmas room setup. I guess it was just timing. Eric and I spent hours sitting in that room and reorganizing it in our minds, saying “What if we moved this there and that there?” throwing around all the possibilities we could think of.
So then came AC (After Christmas) when the tree was gone and there was a void of space. We decided to take that void and play out our “What Ifs…”. It began with carting the loveseat in from the Mego Cave. We used this as a place holder since it was the closest loveseat in the house. If it worked spatially, we would buy a new one for that space. I say this as a disclaimer, which you will see why when you see the pictures.
AH! It’s terrifying! Not only does that color/style not work in the space, we just didn’t like it there from the second we sat it down. It just didn’t work. It was too open to the door and a huge space hog. No. ‘Nough said.
Then we decided to move the chair back to its original wall and give the love seat a try where the chair used to be. We did this expecting to hate it immediately. And then it surprised us.
It’s not great, but it’s not as bad as we thought it would be. Actually better than the first option. But we still didn’t think it worked. It just cut off the living room too much. Too much furniture and too bulky. No again.
The next option was carting that loveseat back into the Mego Cave (scratch having a loveseat in the living room along with the couch) and it came time to play with chairs. We brought in a chair from the Mego Cave and moved the leather chair back to its original space (these were just place holders again).
We liked it okay, but it didn’t create the best usage zone for our living room. Now people in both of those chairs couldn’t comfortably watch TV, and well, it just didn’t work for us. We didn’t love it.
Next up (it just keeps going!) was to move the leather chair back to its “L” formation and try having two chairs over by the wall. Again, placeholders.
Not terrible if you imagine two tufted, comfy chairs over there. Probably matching to make it less crazy on the eye. With that option, we thought we were out of possibilities. None of them seemed right to us, so we decided not to force the issue and just go back to our normal set-up. And you know what happened after that? We hit upon the perfect set-up.
BAM! Not even a place holder! And this was all the hub’s idea. That’s my man! This is a chair that we bought from a friend in town for a deal, and it has been floating around our house. It has had its longest residence as my desk chair in the Mego Cave, but it’s actually too short for it. So when we brought it in here, with this set-up, we were thrilled. The colors match perfectly. The size it great. The layout is perfect! Wahoo! One more seating option in the living room. The only downside is that the chair is not the most comfortable in the world, so it may be changed out one day. For now, it is going to hang out by the wall, looking down right gorgeous in the room. Hooray! We used what we had and hit upon something that really worked for us. I see it as $500 back in our pocket now that we don’t have to buy a loveseat!
PS – These photos are all real life baby! With all the furniture moving around it definitely isn’t staged and just shows us living. Thanks for understanding and letting us live. Plus, with all those arrangements, and most of them looking ugly, there was no need to try to put a pillow on it to try and make it look better!
[…] in our house – we’ve always wanted to have more seating in there. You saw how we did some shuffling with the layout after Christmas last year and resulted in this layout. Here is what it was looking like after that […]ReplyCancel
Warning: This post is going to be different, perhaps even scary. If the slightest creak of your floors makes your eyes widen and your head snap around, you may be uncomfortable reading this. Because this post is all about…creaky floors. Yup, we are talking floors today. As I like to do around here is to show you the good, bad, and the ugly. The project is a mix of all of those. So let’s learn more about this creaky floor project, eh?
It all started when I was reading HGTV Magazine and a tip flew out of the pages and smacked me in the face. It said that if you sprinkled baby powder on the floors and then softly “beat” it into the cracks (all Michael Jackson style, son!), it would fill in and “lubricate the joints”. Man, you have never seen me run to the baby section of the store so quickly (since we don’t have a baby). I got a mini-baby powder bottle because, let’s face it, a little baby powder goes a long way. I was so excited to see this tip since we have two sections in our hallway that are very creaky. I always feel like I wake up the whole house when I get up before everyone else (everyone else meaning Eric and company when we have it). So an easy way to fix it just seemed too good to be true. And perhaps it was…(spoiler alert).
After I bought the baby powder, I had gathered a random piece of wood we had around the house and a towel to wrap around it so I didn’t damage the floors whilst pounding them. Then I liberally sprinkled the baby powder on the problem areas.
I rubbed the powder into the floor little bit, working it into some of the cracks.
Then came the fun part: beating the floor. Until my first pound enshrouded me in a baby powder shower of dust. Maybe I was a little too forceful. I then resulted to sharp but short pounds on the floor, working my way from one side of the area to the other.
This requires another warning: this project is messy! This stuff flies around everywhere! I saw baby powder residue for days afterward. Although it does force you to really get down on yours hands and knees and clean the floor.
So that was the process that I did for both sections of our hardwood floors that like to creak and moan. After I had poured, pounded, and cleaned up, I eagerly began to hop about on the floors, waiting to hear nothing. And what did I hear? Some creaks! Grrr… So I decided to repeat, except even more thoroughly. And the result then? Dampened squeaks.
What would I say as the final word and advice on this project? It’s messy, and not fool proof, but it did seem to help the floors. It did not completely cure the creaks on our two problem areas, but it did seem to dampen the creaks. When I really got down to it, I could tell where the boards were the creakiest and no amount of baby powder seemed to fix that. However, the smaller creaks did seem to go away with the baby powder remedy.
So this project wasn’t a total win and it wasn’t a total loss. It seemed to help some of the creaks, but not all of the creaks. Would I recommend it? Yes, to those little problem areas, but if your boards have really big creaks (perhaps because of warping like our seemed to have done a little bit) I don’t think any amount of baby powder will fix them. So there it is, my scary post of creaky floors and baby powder. Run for your lives!
When you moved into your first place, did you have the luck of having relatives around who were more than ready to give me their hand-me-downs to furnish your first place? Well, Eric and I sure did. When his parents moved to Florida (but they are back now!) they couldn’t fit everything in the van and Eric ended up with some pieces of furniture (this was pre-Megan time). Then, when I was graduating college, both of my parents split outta Lynchburg (thanks, love you too) and left behind some furniture as well. Now this is where I have to try to be tactful – which I’m not always good at. Here we go… As much as I love my family and how extremely helpful hand-me-downs are (whew! They save a lot of money), sometimes they just aren’t your taste. I am also very conscious about bringing only things that I absolutely love into the house when I spend my own money on them, going by that rule that everything should be beautiful and/or functional. As my taste has evolved sometimes the hand-me-downs haven’t evolve with me (and sometimes the things that I have bought haven’t evolved with me either). Sometimes I can do things like painting a bookcase another color…
…sometimes the furniture is just beautiful and you love it like this beautiful antique dresser…
…then sometimes you try to make things work and it just gets worse (#slipcoverfail).
Then there are other times the furniture is incredibly beautiful and way to nice to every think of painting, but it just isn’t your style. Case in point, this dining room set of furniture from Eric’s parents (once again, may I emphasize I love you both and you are the most generous people I know?!).
They are beautiful, quality pieces, but unfortunately, it is a little more ornate and formal for Eric and my living style. We use the table for eating once or twice a year and for piling up stuff and doing projects the rest of the year. However, it does fit the space perfectly, and we don’t want to sell it because well, it’s too nice and it’s from Eric’s parents. It just doesn’t seem right for us to do. So this is the one space in our house that I am trying to make it work in, instead of listening to the house and letting us tell us how to use the space (this would tell us, “Hey, I’m unused space here! You probably need to make this another living room space or a place for more pretty organization or a place for Eric’s car stuff!”). But sorry pretty furniture, we are ignoring your voice and instead trying to sculpt it into something else. Spoiler alert: It’s working. I am really starting to love this furniture!
My plan: paper and fabric. I couldn’t change anything structural or paint a surface on either of these pieces. They were too valuable. Instead, I thought I could get creative to make them look a little bit more like ”us” and fit into our comfy living style. Step one you saw in my five minute tablecloth post where I spruced up the table up in this super trendy chevron tablecloth. Although I did change it at Christmas with a white one that may come out and play later throughout the year.
Next up was to tackle the china cabinet. I. am. Not. A. China. Girl. If I don’t use the plates, they aren’t necessary to me. I don’t like to have things laying around that I don’t use frequently (except Christmas decorations, as well all know). We also don’t have big dinner parties; more like big cookouts where paper plates sometimes make an appearance (otherwise I keep it green – sorry Earth!). So there is no beautiful china that needs to be displayed in the Rapp household. So my formula for sprucing this up was to put up a background and to display items more in the avenue of bookcase styling: pretty and decorative things plus some books. Because those things make me happy and we have a plethora of around the house. This is where I started.
Step number one was to zero in on my backing. I decided to find a pretty wrapping paper. While at World Market I found the perfect paper that was actually a fabric/paper combo. I loved the color mix for the room (hello teal and gold with a surprise element of pink). It was actually a floral I liked (AH!), and I thought it had a slight modern Asian vibe, which is kind of cool since I actually have quite a bit of Asian decorative items in the room already.
To make sure that I didn’t hurt the china cabinet, I decided to cut foam board to the size of the back of the cabinet. This way I could just pop it in the back, all snug-like so it didn’t fall. This would also allow me to change the backing rather easily when I get tired of one pattern. Instead of having to remeasure and tape it up, all I have to do is fit it on the foam and call it a day. It definitely took some math skills and some trial and error to cut the foam board to shape, but it worked. It took four foam board pieces, two for the top and two for the bottom.
Now it was time to attach the paper. I found the easiest way was to wrap the foam board like a present. Although I did put some pieces of tape sporadically under the paper in the front as well, just for extra security and to avoid bubbling of the paper. But if you pull the paper taunt enough, you probably don’t even need that.
The hardest part was to put the two foam board pieces together, since I needed two rolls of paper for the top and two rolls for the bottom. What I did was leave one piece with some extra paper on the end where the two would meet and then tuck the other foam board into the paper lip. Yes, you can see a seam but at least there is no gap between the two foam board pieces. I tried to get the seam where the cabinet doors closed, so it was less visible.
Then it was time to stage it, by far my favorite part! I first gathered up all the items I thought would work in there. This included some décor and coffee table books, gold and brass items, and some other odds and ends. Then I just got to placing, putting some objects in and closing the door to see how they looked. It definitely took some playing, since objects looked very different once the doors were closed (too low, too high, too plain, etc.). I ended up using the books as elevators on the bottom, so you could see the decorative items. Although I had a brain flash as I was falling asleep last night: I should use magazines I want to keep but continuously pile up. I will probably want to use the books more frequently than older magazines, which would result in me having to move the items around. So that change may happen. Right now, I am digging the way some of my new Christmas present design books look in there.
Let’s dive in past the glass and its super-glare, to check out some of the items. First up, an antique gold-rimmed glass with a sparkly pine cone I made, a wooden bowl with a golden apple (it opens!), and some great books.
Now right here in the middle, are some sentimental items. Starting in the upper left is a thrift store brassy vase with some bedazzled flowers, a set of owl candlesticks that I bought 75% off at World Market when I got the paper, more décor books (of course), the unity sand that Eric and I poured as part of our wedding ceremony, and the spheres I showed you how to make earlier.
Now for the left side, some really fun items. On the top is a glittery gold candle and on the bottom, some great books and an adorable turtle that my friend Jen sent me as a thanks for getting her Young House Love book signed!
Here’s a cost breakdown of this super simple project:
Wrapping paper (4 rolls): $16
Foam boards (4): $4 (from the dollar store)
Tape: On hand
China Cabinet: A beautiful gift
Total: $20
Price savings to buying new furniture to completely change the space? Hundreds of dollars!
And the result? I absolutely loooove the look! It brings a more traditional piece some contemporary and modern flair, in a way that is uniquely us. I find that I love to stare at the items in the China cabinet quite frequently. I love looking at them and the pretty paper gives me little butterflies of happiness in my stomach. I think this project in conjunction with the modern tablecloth really modernize these two pieces and make them feel more included in the total vibe of our house. So before you go selling good, quality furniture, I encourage you to take a second look and try to figure out a way to make it feel more “you”! It all goes back to using what you have!
I LOVE the paper that you used in the china cabinet! We weren’t so lucky to have hand me downs since no family lived around us. I wish we would have though because instead I just wanted to buy everything brand new (and thought I needed all new things) which was such a waste of money!! Lesson learned!ReplyCancel
Thanks Crystal! Yes, it is pretty lucky when people will give you things they are done with…but don’t forget about Craigslist! That’s basically my favorite “store” to shop! Sometimes I feel like people are giving things away there (and sometimes they do!)!ReplyCancel
H. B.
Such a fun idea! And I’m impressed by how you creatively worked around wanting to keep the cabinet as-is without damaging it.
What would happen if you (non-irreversibly) took the doors off? Would the paper “pop” more / would it feel less china-cabinet-y? I’m sure IRL it’s easier to see and appreciate the objects through the doors, but through a lens it’s (as you pointed out) definitely preferable to not have the glass in the way.ReplyCancel
[…] so I had to make one. Thankfully my $1 foam board came to the rescue again (like it did for the china cabinet makeover). I just measured the inset on the back of the frame and cut it out of the foam board. I made sure […]ReplyCancel
[…] where I store items. The China closet is really the space of scrutiny this post. Remember when I spruced it up with some pretty paper in the back and nice […]ReplyCancel
Brilliant, what a wonderful way to customise furniture. It really does look fabulous. Having customised furniture really does give your home a beautifully personalised look.ReplyCancel
[…] them up as a child grew up into projects like this.] I had some extra paper scraps from the modernizing of the China cabinet. This just confirmed why I hold onto things, even scraps. I just wrapped them around the middle and […]ReplyCancel
[…] large furniture loving, this china cabinet spoke to me as well. As you know, I’ve struggled with my china cabinet in the past (although I have a fun idea to update it soon) so it still surprises me when I am drawn […]ReplyCancel
[…] us by our beautiful family. It’s the story of our china cabinet (see its history with us as I modernized it a little with the wrapping paper backed on foam boards and then organized the heck out of it). A china cabinet that isn’t something that I would have […]ReplyCancel
All I could think of when starting to write this post was a KT Tunstall song, so let’s hear it for a verse: “Her face is a map of the world, a map of the world. You can tell she’s a beautiful girl, she’s a beautiful girl.” Well, this post is about a map, but it is more like we can tell it’s a beautiful room, a beautiful room, because of the addition of the map. The other weekend I decided it was time to hit up a few antique/thrift stores in the area that I hadn’t been to in a while, since my favorite was closing. Well, I was pretty happy I opened up my mind and checked out a few new places. And, boy, did I find a steal for the wall in the dining room to the left of the window.
I just love when I know something is right. I was walking around the store, and I saw this huge, framed, gorgeous map hanging on the wall. It just drew me in from across the room. It’s like our eyes locked, and we came together. I thought I would just have to pet it with my eyes and move on, but I took one look at the price tag and …was thrilled! When does that ever happen? This wooden framed, gorgeous map was only $34…until I talked them down to $30. So I squeezed it in the Cube (yeah, it almost didn’t fit, that’s how big it is) and brought it to its new home. After pounding in quite a few nails to hold up this heavy map, I was swooning.
So there is my map of the world, all vintage – or un-vintage as it may be. Who knows how old it is. I do know that it has the Soviet Union on it instead of Russia, so it’s not the most recent map, which I like. Although it is recent enough for me to endlessly stare at as I dream of future adventures. This happens quite frequently. So next time you are looking for me, head for the map!
[…] my, you know I am a sucker for maps (as seen here with buying our huge map for a deal). I think this one is so cool because it is HUGE but also […]ReplyCancel
[…] artwork here on the blog, whether buying it or making it. Both have their place. Like when I bought this map for a steal, made this large scale fabric artwork, created art from magazines, got custom framing done, or did […]ReplyCancel
[…] all might remember that last week I had a fun time using what I had to make a shredder (Shredalina) dressed up and pretty. But I haven’t stopped there! Cardboard boxes have now opened up a whole new world for me! So […]
Great idea- I give mine a dirty look every time I see it in my office! stopping by from Thrifty Decor Chic linky party:)
Hi Bee! Thanks for stopping by! It sounds like it is time to stop giving your shredder a dirty look and dress her up! I actually love seeing mine out in the open with the pretty fabric on it now!
Came here from TDC. What a cool idea!
Thanks so much Tammie! Cardboard boxes offer so much potential!
[…] Shredalina […]