Organized Clutter

  Probably about fifteen years ago, (maybe more) I had homespun valances and curtains custom made for my den/guest room.  Red was my favorite color, and this red and gold homespun plaid was well suited for my primitive country decor.  (Now I have transitioned to a farmhouse decor style in this room.) The scalloped roller shades are even older.  I purchased them from the old JC Penney catalog.  I desperately wanted to update the window treatments in this room without spending a lot of money.

The last time I shared my foyer decor on my blog, it looked something like this.  (This has always been a difficult wall to photograph.) The shelf was repurposed from dresser mirror salvage  HERE.  The plaque on top of the wall display was also a piece of furniture salvage.  Both were painted with Annie Sloan Cream Chalk Paint.   My pew was painted in off white chalk paint. A couple of vintage flower pictures, a shutter, and family pictures rounded out my wall decor. See how this wall looks today in my new blog post below.

  This was the fireplace in my 1950's ranch style house until recently.  I haven't changed a lot about the fireplace since moving in back in 1990.  The mantel was already painted white by previous owners, and I painted the yellow brick surrounding the doors with white paint.   I have contemplated changing out the dated brass fireplace doors for a long time , but recently got a little more serious about it.  I looked online for black replacement fireplace doors.   The doors ran from about $265 to $400 at the big box stores .  I then watched several YouTube videos about painting the fireplace doors and settled on this cheaper route.

Way back in 2014, I found this old cabinet door frame and turned it into fun covered patio wall art. Recently, I gave the cabinet door a new look!  Read on below.

I found this burlap tote bag in the clearance section at Menards.   The 12" x 12" portable garden bag cost me $1.49.  It is coated on the inside for use with dirt and plants. But, that's not how I am going to use it!

Today, I am joining five other bloggers with fun Christmas project ideas to share, as well as a stencil giveaway!

Recently, I saw this brass item at the thrift shop for $8.  I'd never seen a brass shopping bag before. I once collected brass pieces, and displayed in my bay window.  I have long since disposed of all of them at garage sales.   I actually thought about painting this piece!

I found another round, wooden cheese box at a local antiques/consignment shop.  This one had been stenciled with green ivy vines. I paid $5.

 It wasn't a great day at the thrift shops yesterday. All I come home with was this cloth laundry bag.  It was priced at 99 cents, but the shop took another 20% off because it had a blue tag. It was in good shape.  Not stained.  I washed it, dried it and pressed it with the iron.

Early in December, I got the idea to make Christmas tree ornaments out of brown craft paper. I used a thin dowel painted black for the scroll ends, and used string to hang my ornaments.  All the details on this project are  HERE. Well the ornaments barely used up ANY of the brown kraft paper roll. I decided to make a larger brown paper stenciled sign.  My original plan was to cut the paper roll, core and all, in half with the chop saw.

After getting my Christmas decorations taken down, I decided to stencil a quick project with a couple Hudson Rustic Hand Towels that I purchased at Joann Fabrics at 50% on Black Friday.  The original price was $9.99 each.