Bedroom tour

As many of you know I live with my roommate and her daughter. When we first moved in in february she gave me to go ahead to decorate the whole place except for her bedroom and her daughters. Its been a long journey and I still have a long way to go. Throughout my posts I will take you along with me as i "complete" each room. (we all know a room is never really finished). Naturally when we first got here i started with my own bedroom because no one gets a good nights sleep with a bunch of chaos surrounding them. 

I never really know how I am going to layout and decorate a room... its usually a bunch of trial and error. And because of this I try to keep everything low cost. I do a lot of my decor shopping at home goods, tjmaxx, marshalls, and michaels. These places are good for picture frames, bedding, towels, and odds and ends at reasonable prices. Other times just like everyone else I find something on pinterest and want to make it so I throw in a little DIY!

This year I have been very lucky to have "found" all of my bedroom furniture... not my bed of course. Most people don't realize that they are throwing away these wonderful pieces of furniture. I am a sucker for antique dressers, they just don't make things like that anymore... so when I found 2 on the curb they had to come home.

Here I will take you on a tour of my "never finished" bedroom:

We will start with the before pictures:

And here are the Afters:

My bed is made up of 2 old closet doors (free) and sheer white curtains... the cost to make something so pretty and easy was about $10. You don't have to spend a lot of money to have something beautiful. This bedding is from Lauren Conrads line at Kohls.

 Here is the first dresser I found. The detail alone caught my eye. The wood was a little dry so I cleaned it up with some lemon oil. There is something I love about the wear and tear on this piece. I never aim for perfect. So this dresser stayed as is.

This desk/vanity is another find. It was in pieces when i found it and i put it back together and painted it. Its become one of my favorite finds. I added the before picture so you can see the difference.

 (before and after)

This little mug is a favorite. I pulled this out of the sand at Dead Horse Bay.

This is currently what my bedroom looks like... although I doubt that it is going to stay this way very long. I recently found a 1930s vanity that will need a place to go in my bedroom once I am finished restoring it. So swaping out furniture usually means rearranging the entire room. Stay tuned for an update!

Bathroom: Before & After

I know a room is never truly finished. This is our bathroom. the smallest room in the house... and there really isn't much too it. When we first moved in I needed to come up with some storage solutions since this is a house full of females. I was happy that I had such neutral colors to work with, it made decorating this space pretty easy. Below are the before pictures.

Here are the After photos. I added a cabinet above the toilet for some extra storage space. The Shower curtain is an oldie but goodie from bed bath and beyond a couple years ago. Just a little reminder that even in a rental you can still make it feel like a home!

Halloween paper plate crafts

One of my favorite things to use for any craft in my classroom are paper plates. You can make so many different things with them. The possibilities are endless! This week we have been doing Halloween crafts. So naturally I turned to my handy paper plates to help me along. We made a pumpkin, a black cat, a mummy and Frankenstein.

Frankenstein:

For this project I cut a little bit of the top of the paper plate off to make it straight on the top. I used construction paper and cut out his hair free hand. The children painted the plate and glued on the hair and the eyes.

Pumpkins:

For this project the children painted the plates and I stapled on the stems. I used green pipe cleaners to add "vines" to the stems. I love thinking of creative ways to display their projects so I used a picket fence that I made out of black construction paper to help display these adorable pumpkins.

Mummy:

For this project the children glued on white strips of paper and the eyes and mouth. Simple but cute! 

Black Cats:

For this project I cut the paper plates in a half moon shape. I used the left over pieces to make tails and stapled them on. I free handed the head for the cat. The children painted them black. Another really simple project to add some halloween spirit to the classroom.

What are some of your favorite Halloween crafts to do with your children??

coffee table makeover...

For the longest time I have been staring at my ugly cheap coffee table thinking what can I do to improve this before I throw it in the garbage. When we first moved in to this apartment we didn't have any living room furniture... so to save on money I ordered this matching set from walmart for under $150. Don't get me wrong... walmart does have some really good finds but I knew what I was getting when I purchased this particular set. That being said as time went by the top of the coffee table got scratched.

 

 About a week and a half ago me and my sister took apart some pallets. She had a shelf that she wanted to make using the pallet wood and I got an idea to give my coffee table a make over! I pre-drilled holes randomly in the pallet wood to make it easier to screw the wood to the table top. I went with screws because the table is made of press board and nails would have made it split.

 Next I sanded and I could not get the blue completely off of that one piece so as much as I wanted to leave it natural I had to stain it. I used a stain I had from a previous project. I used Minwax polyshades in American Chesnut Satin.

I quickly brushed on the stain and then wiped it off. I didn't want it too dark. I wanted to still see the grain in each piece.

I have to say for something that was just temporary and ready for the garbage I am beyond happy with the outcome. I was able to turn my old table in to something I love and I was able to hide the blue paint on the pallet with the stain and create a table that fits the decor of my home.

hi-lo typewriter table

Recently a friend of mine allowed me to do some picking through her shed. I found this cool Hi-Lo Typewriter table. 

It was a little rusty and needed a cleaning... so I rough sanded it and used lemon oil to bring it back to life! I knew when I saw it that it would make a really cute bar so that is exactly what I am using it for. I also added a rake head to to hang some glasses from.

I am in love with my "new" old bar! Im lucky to have friends that know I love a good find and a project! 

october classroom decor...

I know I have been M.I.A and haven't posted in a while... its been a long summer and a long first month back to reality!

I just changed my classroom decorations from apples to halloween!  For my door I skipped the standard pumpkins and went with something a little different. A trick or treat bag and candy!

I used a template of the trick or treat bag from one of my  books.I blew up just the trick or treat bag and traced it out on orange construction paper added the details with some markers and ribbon.

Next I had to choose what kind of candy I wanted to use to put the kids names on.... I went with lollipops.

I used thin wood sticks and taped them to the back of a construction paper lollipop cut out.

I love the final outcome. A few assorted pieces of candy and a festive border and a quick and easy and super cute door!!  This border is from creative teaching press... I love all of their stuff, they are my go to website for cute classroom decore!