cheap sentimental art

my parents are moving into an apartment as part of their relocation to tulsa, and so mom is taking some of her decor that she so nicely let me use for the past few years. so, to replace some wall hangings, i decided to create my own cheap-o art. i already had a few (5!) blank canvases lying around so i decided to craft something simple and sentimental. 

first i printed out numbers that meant something to jeremy and me. (our wedding was october 6th). 

i cut out the numbers and traced them onto the canvases using a ruler for centering--although i eyeballed them for horizontal center. 

then i painted them with some acylic paint i had on hand. i only keep primary colors + white and black to make my own colors. for this project i went with blue and black to go with my dark blue entryway wall. 

blank:

mom's box wreaths:

ta-da: 

i actually am really diggin' them. they mimic  the white in the beadboard & brighten up the wall.

carpet nix: part deux

we decided to keep going on out carpet elimination

 extravaganza and continued on into the office. 

the beautiful before. (don't let her fool you, there must be some camera trick happening in this picture--the carpet needed yanking out bad).

 a little elbow grease and a gallon of paint later: 

a beautiful, clean office floor. 

carpet nix

avert your eyes.

we still aren't sure why we didn't get rid of the carpet altogether when we moved in. we did get them cleaned which took stains like these out. but they reappeared. the carpet was almost black. i just kept the lights off in the hallway, and there isn't any natural light in there, so it wasn't noticeable. plus i put a runner over the carpet. sheesh. 

my parents were spending some time at our house, and one bored afternoon we decided to take on a project. the first thing out of my mouth was RIP OUT THE CARPET!!  i've been wanting to do it for a couple of years now, but never really knew what i'd do with it once it was torn out. enter: dad-with-truck. so we got on it. 

 imagine my surprise when we pulled up the carpet and found tile (continuous from the main living area) underneath!! it actually took us a minute to realize what we were looking at, and then my mom and i gasped. 

 i have never been so happy to see tile i thought i hated!

here's mom working on pulling up tacks. 

before & after

tile, glorious tile!

a finished console table

remember when i shared this ^ picture from instagram in this post about a future console table project that was in the works? well, 4 months later, the project is COMPLETE!

i stained the wood and my dad helped me build a very looong (111 inches, to be exact) behind-the-couch console table à la YHL.

i am obsessed, to say the least. let's end with an instagram picture, too:

 

taking off a sliding shower door

brace yourself. when young house love said it, i didn't think it was that bad. but when i took my master bathroom shower door off..whoa. 

every time we'd open the bathroom door, it would slam into the shower door, and standing in the shower felt a bit claustrophobic. i'd already tried to disguise the nasty thing with a shower curtain, remember? this time, i decided to take it a step further by removing the (glass?) doors by myself.  

 i took off the doors, removed four screws and some caulk with an exacto-knife and that was it...

WRONG!

.

.

.

.

gag! underneath the insert was this mess, & it took some major cleaning and scraping. it looked like a living creature. i'm glad i removed the doors because there was some definite mold growth goin' on under there. 

after = less cramped and less cheap looking

update: goodwill was happy to take the doors off my hands!

weird blank wall: entry/living room

so, after painting the living room (and weird slanted wall into the entryway) grey, i nixed a brown flour-de-lis in lieu hanging on the wall for something younger and more in-line with our new color scheme. 

i happened upon this blue city sketch at homegoods and snatched it up! 

before & after

   

using space in a small kitchen

i got this idea from another blogger, and put my own spin on it thanks to ikea's vurm wine rack. you don't really think of the sides of your cabinets as prime real estate for decorating. 

the blah befores:

and the va-va-voom afters:

it's just a nice funky touch that keeps the space feeling like us.