Decorating on a Dime Part 2

I didn't get as much done as I had hoped today. School went longer than expected. Some days we are done by 2pm and other days....well, let's just say we got our learning in for sure. :) I will post a few photos of what we did get done, with more to come later. Hope you enjoy.


This is my dresser. In it's past life it was stained a light brown and had a 1960's style shiny varnish on it. We sanded it down...not all the way down to the wood(there's just so much my poor arms can take), but enough to get the varnish off. After that we painted it with two coats of regular latex paint, after that dried we painted one coat of oil-based paint. I think if we had to do it again, we may have used a primer first and then just painted with the oil-based black. We are learning as we go. The art work is supper simple. Buy canvas(I got mine at Hobby Lobby when they were 50% off), then buy a stencil (Hobby Lobby $8) and twallah, you've got art. I rolled two canvas with white paint and two with black. Then after much trial and error we found that spray paint works best for the stencil.

This is Matt's dresser and we did the same thing to his as we did mine.

The mirror above Matt's dresser serves as wall art. I got it for $5 at Walmart(it's actually an over the door full length mirror). I used a wall rub on it to make it more interesting. The box on Matt's dresser is from Walmart as well. It serves as storage for all the strange things that come out of his pockets after work, but I'm not allowed to throw away. It's one of those male mysteries. :)

We put the tiles up on our headboard tonight. The 12X12 tiles we purchased at Menard's for around $6 a piece. We cut luon(sp? It's very thin wood) into squares slightly smaller than the tiles. We painted the front of the luon white and trimmed the sides in black. Once they were dry we used construction adhesive to glue the tiles onto the luon. We set heavy books on them to make sure the tiles and the luon became one. We let them set for a little over 24 hours to make sure they were dry(nobody wants a tile on their head in the middle of the night).

Then we measured on the headboard where we wanted the tiles and marked it with chalk. Now the tricky part comes. We spread construction adhesive pretty thick on the back of the luon/tiles and I held them to the wall while Matt double checked the tiles with the level.
Then Matt used pretty small nails(about 4 each tile) to hold the tiles up until the adhesive dries. The nails have to be pounded in only to the tile then a nail punch must be used to drive the nail all the way into the wall so that the glass tiles are not damaged. WARNING: The construction adhesive will most likely damage the dry wall when we take it down. Therefore, be prepared to do some mudding and sanding in the future if you plan to use this method

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If the headboard looks a little high that's because it is. Matt plans to build a base for the bed to sit on that will be 6" higher than the bed currently is. The higher frame will allow for storage under the bed. There is one last touch we plan to add to the headboard. I have a friend who is very handy with woodworking. She is making me two wood boxes that will hang between the tiles, a candle will be in each box...hard to explain, I'll post photos when they're done. Matt also plans to build side tables for the bed. Those photos are to come, but probably much later. :)

A friend bought me these curtains, but I'm pretty sure they are from Hobby Lobby and if you sign up for their newsletter, you'll get a 40% off coupon every other week, so you can get nice curtains inexpensively. The walls on either side of the window still need some attention, but I'm just not sure what to do on them yet. Do you have any ideas? I was thinking perhaps a few B/W photos of Matt and I, but not sure.

It's been fun trying to decorate economically and in a modern motif. While I love the room thus far, I think the room is on the verge of being a little masculine looking, but I've always felt a little sorry for men stuck in flowered bedrooms for 50 years, so I guess all is fair. :) Seriously, do you think if I add a flower arrangement or something, it might bring a bit of femininity to soften it a bit? Calla Lilies? I'm totally open to suggestions, so feel free to send them my way. I always love hearing from you.