Category Archives: DIY

Maria’s $100.00 Budget Nursery

Conceptualizing and planning a room before knowing the person who will occupy it is a difficult thing.

When it came to planning Maria’s nursery we did things we only hoped she would like and enjoy. Not that babies have much opinion about anything but we wanted her to have fun in her room until she was old enough to tell us exactly what she wants.

We waited to find out the sex of the baby before we decided on paint. We both quickly decided we liked purple and green. I originally thought her room would be a little more ‘mature’ as pictured in my moodboard from this post but the room ended up evolving in a much different direction. I think it started with these little guys: We found them at a local hardware store of all places. They were too cute, bright and quirky to pass up. I’m glad we got them, Maria loves staring at them while getting changed.

Since I was put off work early due to pregnancy induced carpal tunnel , money got a little tight when it came time to do Maria’s room. Creativity was a must. The only thing we spent money on was good-quality-sticky-baby-fingers-friendly-washable paint, curtains/blackout blind, supplies to make two $10.00 shelves to hold her vast collection of books as well as supplies to make her mobile above the rocking chair.

The crib was a very generous gift from her grandparents and the rocking chair is Mike’s grandmothers antique rocking chair. Since Maria is named after two of her great grandmothers, using her chair is extra special. The wooden legs of the chair on the hardwood was quite slippery so I stuck my green yoga mat underneath for anti-slip.

When looking online for mobiles I came across a cute one on pinterest from an etsy shop but decided, especially since funds were tight and I was off work looking for things to occupy my time,  I would have to try and re-create to the best of my ability. I ordered the paper lanterns off ebay for a total of about $10.00 with shipping, had the yarn at home and bought a cheap wooden dowel from our hardware store for less than $2.00. I think it turned out pretty good. Getting it to stabilize was a bit of pain, as it stands today it’s still not totally straight but it is usually moving around from the window breeze so no one other than me would really notice.  My favorite project of her room was my DIY wall flowers:

You can buy these for $20.00-$30.00 a package/24flowers but they’re all monotone colors. I wanted more than one color and wasn’t about to spend that kind of money. A quick google search lead me to Billie Monster and her DIY flower template. I knew I had found my solution.

I used thick, textured scrapbooking paper and a package of flat-head thumbtacks. I started by placing them with double sided tape until I found a position I liked, once I was satisfied, I glued them to the thumbtack and pushed into the wall.Other than the pain (for me at least with sore hands at the time) of cutting each flower they were totally worth it. I love them.Hubby helped make the shelves for her books as well as painting an old dresser we use as a change table. The dresser turned out especially well. We had the white paint and brushed nickel spray paint from past projects so it was totally affordable. She doesn’t spend a whole lot of time in her room yet since she’s still co-sleeping in our room but we hope she grows up to like the room much as Lily, who lives in this room now, she loves the window.

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Christmas Village

Ok, I know. I’m a bad blogger. I haven’t posted in, well, um, a *cough* month *cough*.  I have a good excuse, really! Which I will share with all of you a little later.

Mike and I have been super busy around the casa with a few projects, some that will have to wait until next year to finish (stupid winter). Some you will hear about soon!

Winter isn’t all that stupid I ‘spose. It does mean CHRISTMAS. My favorite time of the year. The crafts, the smells, the lights, the baking, the family, the tree, the music, everything!

I’ve never been one to decorate with any sort of color scheme. I totally appreciate those who do but I love collecting different decorations/ornaments and enjoy unpacking them every year. When hubby and I go on trips or vacations we buy one special ornament as a reminder of our memories and then reminisce when we decorate the tree each year. The same goes for our home decorations. I know where every snowman, santa and reindeer came from and each holds a special memory for Mike and I.

Growing up, my Grandmother had a beautiful, elaborate, Christmas village that my sister and I would admire for hours. I knew I would have one just like hers when I got a place of my own. Before getting our first place I started collecting little pieces for my village- trees, people, village ‘accessories’. I was a little sad to find out how much money it was going to cost me to collect my own village, we’re talking minimum $30.00/house.

So I decided to ‘make’ my own.

Years ago I found some cheap ceramic houses at walmart that I could paint myself. All it required was time, paint and a steady hand. Two years later I have my little village started.

It’s taken some time but I love my little hand painted village. My ‘residential area’, complete with St. Catherine street sign.

Kiddo’s need to go to school!

Santa hanging out feeding his reindeer…

And complete with a functioning mini train track!

I still have a few unpainted houses to finish which will complete my little collection that I hope to share with my family for a long time!

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Ceiling Fan Mini-Transformation

The title sort of says it all. We have an ugly ceiling fan that is now a little less ugly.

The fan in Hubby’s office wasn’t the yuckiest fan I’ve ever seen, but I still sort of hated it. I was stuck with it because I didn’t want to spend any molla on a new one just yet so I did my best to pretty it up with some good old fashion spray paint.

All of this happens while hubby goes out of town by the way, something about his tiny wife being on a ladders home alone scares him?

Here’s the before: I had already loosened the lampshades before I realized I hadn’t taken a before picture and also noted I probably should have taken it with the light off. At any rate you can see all the scratchy brassy-ness shining through, not really our style.

After I took the lampshades and light bulbs out, I detached the fan blades from their holder by unscrewing the three screws holding each blade in with this little device (and my fingers):Convenient little Phillips screwdriver, almost like it was invented for just this project.

Quite difficult to get a proper picture but you can see how the blade is in with the screws, unscrew the three screws from each blade and you’re ready to tape!

While I was taping the paper I caught myself reading the ceiling as I went. My favorite was a cartoon, it says ”Baby’s first tooth” and the baby has a Bluetooth headset in his ear. So true.

After I finished reading paper/taping I was ready to prime!I ended up doing two coats of primer before applying two coats of the RustOleum Satin Nickle spray paint {which I had left over from my doorknobs}.

Here’s the finished product, it’s still a ceiling fan but slightly less ugly ceilig fan.
Just for comparison:

I would like to change out the toggles but given I did this on a total whim I didn’t have time to plan for that. I also need to get rid of those old energy burning light bulbs!

Not bad for a 3hr total project!

Ps: Don’t forget to open all the windows and wear a mask if spray painting indoors!

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Cube Shelf Makeover

After completing the main bathroom renovation last week, like most women, I started squealing inside like kid on Christmas morning because I knew we had approached the decoration stage.

We don’t have a huge bathroom so I don’t want to busy the walls too much.

I had these cube shelves from our apartment that I thought could work, except the fact that they were red-ish. I decided to spray paint them. I’m no stranger to re-doing shelving units so I knew it could be done!

I decided to darken them and use Krylon’s glossy black paint. {I may have gotten a little excited and forgotten to prime first…they seem to be doing okay though}It was probably a combination of heavy wood stain on the original product and lack of primer, but even with sanding first these suckers used and entire can of paint!

Here they are in the bathroom:Still haven’t quite decided on items in/on shelves but for now it’s a little texture and eye candy for the room!

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Rust-Oleum Doorknobs

Given that Hubby and I had an extra day off this weekend, and had a beautiful sunny day, we capitalized and got loads of work done outside. Mike and my brother Andrew started our big under-deck storage area and it looks great so far. I’m super excited to see it all done and show you!

While the boys tackled the big project, Mike’s sister and I got to work puttering around a few smaller ones, like de-brassing these doorknobs:These are the knobs to the basement (interior) doors. All the upstairs knobs were totally replaced with pretty, fancy knobs before we moved in. Our intention was to replace the three doors downstairs with matching knobs. This dream came to a crashing halt when we priced them out to find they were $25.00 each! No way Jose were we spending $75.00+tax on doorknobs. Na-uh, not happening.

Welcome spray paint.

Source

I decided for the sake of $8.00 I would try a can of RustOleum’s Satin Nickle spray paint. I couldn’t possibly make them any worse so it was worth a shot.

After the super sister-in-law removed the doorknobs, I stuck them into a piece of styrofoam that would allow them to stand up, gaining better access to all angles while painting.

I also remembered to label which knobs came from what room in case they were finicky or something when replacing.

After a few coats we had this:Better right!?

I am super happy with how they’ve turned out.

Here they are, back in their rightful place, after drying outside for 6hrs:Not sure yet how they will hold up but for $8.00 I don’t have insane expectations.

One final before/after:I would defiantly recommend this product to anyone looking to do a little sprucing up. Super fast, easy and looks great!

One more tiny thing off my list!

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Electrical Panel Door

Maybe it was me having an ‘eye for detail’, but one of the first things I noticed about our basement when we first viewed the house was that the electrical panel door had to go. I unfortunately don’t have a picture of it before, but trust me when I say the particle board and bent/rusted piano hinge tacked to the wall was U-G-L-Y.

I probably wouldn’t have cared (as much) if the panel was in the back room but it’s right smack in the middle of the largest wall in our basement living area.

Mike and I knew what we wanted to do but just got around to it this past weekend.

While I was out getting a few supplies hubby rippled the old one off.

We sort of lucked in with this project because we already had the new panel door from some shelving that was falling apart in the laundry room {the old owners attempted shelving above the washer/dryer but had the whole pine frame up with nails. Pine is heavy folks. When the shelf door fell off it nearly took my head off. I wasn’t mad for long because I realized it would be used for this exact project}

We had the pine door but it was a little smaller than the hole in the wall so we bought some 1×4′s to make a frame.

Please note we used screws.

Also note we only needed to make straight cuts! Miter cuts still slightly intimidate me (…I don’t have a miter box *hint*hint*).

Once the frame was up we needed to fill holes, sand and prime/paint.Once the frame was primed and painted {the door was also primed and painted the wall color} we attached the door with new hinges (using screws. not nails people.) and added a new door handleMuch better. We need to get rid of that weirdly placed phone jack, we know.

Just to make sure….It opens! The hinges work! I mean, it’s not like we made the hinges or had doubt in the manufacturing, but it’s exciting to have a real, functioning door!

The Cost Breakdown:

-Pine Door- Free!
-3 total 1/4′s (x3 feet)=~$8.00
-2 hinges= $2.49
-1 handle=2.49
-prime/paint/screws/wood filler=had on hand, free.
Total: $13.00

Hubby helped a LOT during this project. Go team MacLean! He did all the cutting (even with the laser I don’t trust my straight lines using the jig saw yet) not to mention I’m a little too short to get all those screws in the frame and getting the door on was a two person job for sure. Thanks Babe.

Now onto bigger and better things…like framing and building under-deck storage area!

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DIY Coasters

I know there isn’t anything original about these coasters but I’ve wanted to make them for a while. I actually bought similar coasters off etsy years ago when hubby and I lived in our apartment and loved them so was sad when they broke. I also decided three years ago I would make my own, it wasn’t until I saw them again in Pinterest that I was reminded.

This weekend while hubby was away camping {and shooting Fireball Whiskey out of a water gun I’ve since discovered?…) my sister and I had the house to ourselves for a night of crafts!

First up, Modge Podge Coasters:

As suspected, they were super easy to make. The hardest part was choosing which paper to use.

My sister and I searched everywhere for the super cheap 4”x4” tiles (less than 0.20 cents each, usually found at HD) but everywhere was sold out (my guess is Pinterest is causing massive raids of supplies at home hardware/paint stores)…so we were forced to pay a whopping 0.32 cents/tile.

Lets break this cost down:

-4 tiles @ 0.32 cents= $1.28

-1 piece of scrapbooking paper $0.75

-Modge Podge: Owned (price varies depending on size of bottle $5.00-$20.00)

-Felt for back: also owned from previous projects…such as my beach rock doorstop!

I spent a total of $2.03, not too shabby!

I made a few other little crafts this past weekend too which I’ll share later!

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Our DIY Wedding Projects

This weekend marks our second wedding anniversary (a big congrats for me! I made it!…kidding babe).

Since we got married only a few months after I graduated, with my second degree and loads of debt, I was looking to save molla in every nook and cranny of our wedding so I thought I would share with all of you how I save a few bucks DIYing anything and everything!

1) Invitations. 

Although I probably shouldn’t have been, I was astonished at the cost of wedding invitations. For half decent ones we’re looking at minimum five bucks each. People were telling me if I wanted to ”DIY” my wedding invitations I should just buy the pre-made packs at Michaels and print them out. Even at $50.00/box it was out of my range and so my personal mission to DIY started!

I knew the basic colors I wanted and that I wanted a calla lily flower on it but that’s about it!

Here’s what I ended up making in Microsoft Word (these are old photos, sorry for the blurriness!) :

I had them printed at Staples on cardstock (save my ink and better printing quality) for about $20.00 total (110 made). I then recruited my best friends and sister/sister-in-law to tediously cut each one out and glue onto the lighter green scrapbooking cardstock (also measured and cut with straight blade) and tie then ribbon around.

Totals:

-Printing: $20.00

-Green Cardstock: $25.00

-Ribbon: $5.00

Total on Invites: $50.00

Total Saved: at least $450.00

2) Hair Accessories 

Again, I’m learning if the word ”wedding” is attached in any way, shape or form, it’s 10x more expensive.

I knew I wouldn’t be wearing my veil all night and knew I didn’t want real flowers because the projected heat and humidity would kill them in no time at all {FYI: Our wedding day was the hottest recorded day of the year. Yup, it was fun. I peed when I woke up that morning and didn’t pee again until 2am the next day. Sweat it all out. Sick}.

I searched everywhere for hair stuff and couldn’t find anything in my price range that I loved. So I made ‘em!

I bought a ‘bunch’ of white flowers from Michael’s floral section with the pearls in the middle already, carefully popped them off the stems and glue-gunned them to bobby pins. 

Total Cost:

-Floral Bunch from Michael’s: $5.00

-Bobby Pins: Free (already owned)

Total: $5.00

Total Saved: ?? Depends but I was looking around $50.00,so I saved ~$45.00

3) Wedding Favors/Candy Bar:

We used our candy bar as our wedding favor(s) by placing an organza bag at each place setting which I personalized by making tags (again in Microsoft Word) to tie onto the bag:

At the Candy Bar I also made this sign out of wooden letters, wood dowels, paint, a basket with floral foam and rocks at the bottom and fake grass to decorate:

Total Costs:

-100 Organza Bags ordered off Ebay: $20.00

-Tags: $5.00 for printing at Staples on cardstock

-Candy Bar Sign: $10.00 total, all supplies from Michael’s

-Candy for the Candy Bar: $40.00 (Bulk Barn)

Feeding Gummy Worms to drunk friends? Priceless.

Total for Favors: $75.00

Total Saved: minimum $125.00 (I couldn’t find any favors less than $2.00 each)

4) Programs/Menus

I managed to score 2 boxes of ready-to-print church programs for $20.00 (100 total programs)!

Again I had them tied with pink or orange ribbon.

I made the menus at home with our printer and glue:

We had a catered summer BBQ for the wedding, so yummy.

Total Costs:

-Ready to print Programs: $20.00

-Printing at home (Program and Menu): Free

Cardstock: ~$5.00

Total Spent: $25.00

Total Saved: ~$250.00

5) Seating Chart

I searched quite a few different places for seating charts but again couldn’t find anything I liked, in my price range. Here’s what I came up with:

I bought a foam board at Staples and printed the charts at home (used Word) gluing onto more green cardstock and using more ribbon to decorate. Even the photos are printed on paper.

Total Costs:

Foam Board: $6.00

Charts, printed at home: Free

Ribbon: $5.00

Cardstock: $4.00

Total: $15.00

Total Saved: $35-$285.00-HUGE price variance depending on what you’re looking for.

That’s how I saved hundreds, if not thousands of dollars on our wedding DIY-ing :)

Happy (early) Anniversary Babe! xo

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Excuse Me While I Make Art In The Bathroom.

OK, so I didn’t make the art in the bathroom (or at least I wouldn’t call it that), but it sure did require an awful lot of trips to the bathroom to get the required supplies.

The main ingredient in this recipe of art? Toilet paper rolls.

This post by Chris, over at Just a Girl, was my very first introduction to using such supplies as art. {I have since learned there are MIIILLLIOOONNNS of uses for toilet paper rolls like this and this and this and even this…}.

The day I saw Chris’ post I knew she had hit the nail on the head for me. It too was exactly what I wanted in our bedroom, and so I did what everyone else does when they love something.

Pin it.

The beautiful picture sat on my Pin Board for weeks, then months, while I collected enough rolls to make something of it. Then I just got lazy and didn’t do anything with my massive collection of toilet paper rolls. Sheer honesty right there folks.

Due to lack of proper ‘craft’ storage for my projects, I received many questions and comments about my growing pile. I didn’t even try to explain that I was making ‘art’, it was easier to say that I was ”recycling”, and that usually stopped the conversation.

Onto the reveal!

I spray painted the cut rolls using Krylon’s ”Bahama Sea”. These suckers loved the spray paint, I had to do three coats but the color stayed true and looks amazing. {Note, again, there is a Stitch on our bed. I love him}.

I’m pretty happy with how my cheapy ‘art’ turned out. Thanks to Chris for her inspiration!

Total Cost:

-Canvas: $6.00 (for both) @ Michael’s

-Krylon: $4.98 @ Canadian Tire

-Husband: Priceless. Thanks for helping me with my collection ;)

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Free Personalized Family Name Picture

I’m a big fan of personalized stuff. I think mostly because I love my married name and want it plastered all over my house.  I’ve been eyeballing the many personalized family name frames on Etsy and even considered buying one for our anniversary (examples here and here). I just couldn’t spend the money on something I knew I could try and attempt myself. I’m sorry I don’t remember where I originally came across the links for these letters and numbers  but it was EXACTLY what I needed to make this:

DIY Family Name Frame

In case you can’t read it clearly, it says: MacLean est. 2009. The hardest part was going though the thousands of letter and number options choosing the ones I liked best, once chosen, it was too easy to put together and free too (well other than used computer ink and a frame-which I had laying around).

I’ve been super busy (along with super painter my sister-in-law) painting our family room in the basement (the largest room in the house). We’re both sore and tired. Photos to come!


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