Adventures in Decorating

I recently moved into a ward that is full of fabulous decorators. I feel we LDS women with large families and small budgets are part of a new movement I call "Recession Chic." I have been inspired to hunt out the best possible deals and have been schooled by my friends and family at watching the local bargain hot spots.

I have been attempting to decorate Jennie's room for months, and not having much success. The fact that her room is full of white furniture and since I really did not want to paint (We are renters and our landlord is OK with painting, but I don't like investing time and money into something else's house) I had to make do.

She loves the whole Paris trend, and since it is a trend there is a lot of little odds and ends at places like Hobby Lobby and Ross. I decided on black and white with very few red accents.

I started by painting the dressers, one which was high quality and had been in my bedroom when I was Jennie's age, but had been unsuccessfully stripped and looked like it was covered in dried tree sap. The other I painted for Elli's nursery when she was a baby, and it was an ugly color of blue. I painted them both black with regular glossy latex paint and a paint brush.

My good friend Rachele Oram later informed me that the best way to paint furniture is to sand, prime and paint, using spray paint in a satin finish. She said that all spray paint is oil based, and therefore is more durable and has a better finish. I wish I could go back in time and paint those two pieces, yet again. They are the only Frankenstein pieces in my whole house... and I probably need to sand them to death and just start over. But they look alright from a distance.

Then my mom bought Jennie's bed spread for her birthday, and I finally had a place to start, an inspiration. I brought out all her white furniture, other than her headboard and footboard, and painted it all black, this time using Rachele's advice. They turned out much better, even over Ikea's part plastic, part organic finish.

That same morning I had been out with friends checking out local garage sales, and we stumbled into a boutique right in our neighborhood where I spotted a great idea for bow/flower storage. My friend Kris took a sneaky look at the back of it and it was just a small canvas, covered in batting and fabric, and covered in different colors of ribbons. All of it was just stapled on.

I had a 40% off coupon for Michaels, so I grabbed a $20 canvas, slightly larger than the inspiration piece, for just over $12 and then ran next door to Target and bought a $5 satin pillow case that was black with white polka dots. I probably could have done better than that at a fabric store since it wasn't more than a half yard, but I was short on time. Then I gathered all the ribbon I could find and began my project. I am not a crafty person, and this took me just over 15 minutes to complete. It looked great for her room and I love the way it turned out.

The room turned out great and Jennies loves it. I actually sat and drew it out on paper in 3D before I started and this really helped me move the project forward. I still need a large horizontal something for over the bed, and a few other things, but Jennie's room is almost finished!