Article written by Kimba at A Soft Place To Land. She writes her creative frugal ideas and shares fabulous links, while she makes a soft place to land for her children.
Probably like most of you, our family is cutting way back these days. Sadly for me, the first part of the budget to get slashed is the decorating/TJMaxx/flea market/goodwill part. I suppose this makes sense since the kids need food and shoes more than new decorative mirrors and throw pillows.
So what's a compulsive decorator to do when the money gets tight? I'm fairly thrifty by nature (hence the money in the budget for goodwill and thrift shops) so I'm trying to look at these times a challenge.
I’d been on the hunt for artwork to fill a large open wall behind the sofa in my family room. I really wanted beautiful botanical prints like these from Ballard Designs. But at $400 for the set, it’s not happening. So I got creative…
(picture from www.ballarddesigns.com)
Free clip art, scrapbook paper and clearanced frames from my beloved Target and I have a set of beautiful botanical prints for less than $30. The best part is that I won’t feel remotely guilty when I change them out come summer.
For more details on this project click here.
How about something with a bit of color? I needed a little something for the freshly painted walls of my powder room.
Solution? Scrapbook paper! I’m not a scrapbooker, but I’ve amassed quite a collection of beautiful papers because they can be used for so many things.
In this case, empty frames I spray painted black and filled with pretty paper. Doesn't it pop against the new green walls?
To see the whole messy room transformation, click here.
- Do you create your own wall art? How?
- Do you have any other creative, yet money saving decorating ideas?
- Please share them! If you have a post about it, sent it to us and we'll link to it here!
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7 comments:
I love taking photographs and converting them to B/W. So I try to use my photos with simple frames bought at garage/estate sales to decorate around the house. It adds a personal touch too. Enlarging photos to poster size is not very expensive and if the photos are taken with a fairly good camera, the pictures won't look fuzzy. I also use art from calendars and frame those. Its good to intersperse these with some good artwork from up and coming artists...makes your home a little classier.
I'm all about black spray paint...does wonders for old, mismatched frames. I love to take pictures and find that by cropping and converting to b/w, I can make prints I'm proud to hang in my home.
visiting from your regular blog...
I am addicted to fabric scraps, framing them adds rich color and a beautiful piece of artwork. Filling in a large blank wall can be done by trimming out a large "window" adhering fabric inside the trim then arranging solid color plates or a flower arrangement over the fabric wall. Very inexpensive way to fill a large wall space with a huge "wow" factor!
~Misti
Great ideas, Kimba, a girl after my own heart! Did you know that if you just feed your kids twice a day instead of 3 times, you'll have more decorating money? LOL
I tried this,and it didn't go over too well, but's it's an idea.
we have a friend who is a much better photographer than i am! since he makes his prints available (printed through kodak), we bought a couple of those - it helps him make some money, and it helps us get some beautiful artwork of local spots on our walls!
i have to say i really like kimm's idea of feeding the kids 2x a day. ha! :)
What a great idea! I have loads of scrapbook paper, and a few walls that could use some dressing up...now I just need to find some frames...
Great ppost thanks
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