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Bring Spring In! |
| Part 1 - Fresh, Frugal Ideas! |
| Here are some great ideas for bringing the freshness of spring into your home. Sponge paint your walls, or a key piece of
furniture. Blues, greens, pinks, and yellows in pastel shades refresh a room, and the softness of sponging gives an "impressionistic" appeal. Take
clippings from outdoor ivy, and root in water for FREE houseplants. Buy inexpensive shade annuals and pot them up for indoors - fuchsias, impatiens,
begonias, and primroses are wonderful for bringing in color, and deal well with the lower light indoors. Dress up candles as natural works of art
instead of putting them away for the warm months. Use a glue gun to attach organic materials such as dried twigs, flowers, cinnamon sticks, worn out
potpourri, pressed leaves, coffee beans use what you have! Or, tie on raffia or ribbon and group candles on a shelf, tabletop, or on a mirror. Paint
inexpensive houseplant pots to give your room designer touches. Sponge paint over clay pots, or use a stencil or simple pattern to give interest.
This technique can also be used on your outdoor pots. Hint: for a more elegant look, try using the new metallic craft paints over clay pots. Simply
sponging on some metallic paint (try combing them) can look extremely upscale. Got an old wooden stepladder? Use it as a great plant stand to bring
the green indoors. You can paint it or leave it rustic and weathered, depending on the style of your room. Full size wooden ladders can look great on
the patio. Add spring detail to your window treatments by using small grapevine wreaths as tiebacks or swag holders. You can add more interest by
gluing on a small bunch of dried flowers. This is a great way to reuse flowers from a damaged arrangement, or leftovers from another project. Buy
artificial plant vines at the craft store, and drape them over the tops of your window treatments, or wrap them around a floor lamp. Watch the craft
stores carefully, and you can usually catch them on sale for just a couple of bucks. Cover cardboard boxes with fresh floral fabric, and stack on a
table like hatboxes. If you utilize scraps from another project, you will have creative, decorative storage, virtually free! |
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| Part 2 - Bring Spring In! |
| Give your kitchen a garden window by installing cheap shelving across the inside frame. This can be nothing more than a small
wooden block nailed into the frame on each side, and a simple board resting on top of them. Fill this with plants and cuttings, and you will have big
impact. Bonus; the plants will thrive I the bright light, and moisture of the kitchen. Caution: Do not do this in a south facing window…the direct
sun is just too much for most houseplants. Paint small paper mache bird houses and hang them from your curtain rod, or the bottom of a shelf or
cabinet. I found them at my craft store for 50 cents, or you could easily make them from small cardboard containers and paper mache paste. Use those
beautiful pictures from your garden catalogs to frame into botanical prints, who will know! Use gold spray paint left over from the holidays to
transform small clay pots and saucers into coasters and silverware caddies. They stack well, too, and best of all, they're cheap! Make an herb
drying rack for your kitchen by nailing small wire brads into cheap lathing strip, or better yet, an aged piece of wood you might find, even
driftwood! You can make and hang just one, or several together to make a large wall arrangement. You can gather flowers, herbs, even grasses to dry
directly on the rack from your own yard. I recommend using a rubber band to secure them, as plant material shrinks when it dries. You can cover the
rubber band with ribbon or raffia if you wish. Save those clear bottles and fill with colored water for a bright accent in a window. Use your glue
gun to dress up the bottle caps with organic odds and ends beans, lentils, dried flowers, you get the idea. Never underestimate how much impact a
small container of fresh flowers can have in a room, even just a pretty cup full of roadside daisies! A couple of packets of seeds can keep a house
in cut bouquets all summer. Sunflower, cosmos, and zinnias are VERY easy to grow, and are great in arrangements. Replace heavy window treatments
with a simple drape of gauzy fabric. This type of material is very inexpensive at the fabric store, or keep your eye out for tablecloths that can be
pressed into service. (Watch those garage sales!) Need more ideas for warm weather windows? Simply hang cloth napkins or placemats over the rod.
Experiment with overlapping, laying them on the diagonal, or tying them with ribbon. Cherry valance that ties right in with your kitchen or dining
area! Make easy, virtually free ivy topiaries. Pot up your ivy cuttings (straight from the yard, or a neighbors) then form a wire coat hanger into
your desire shape. You may need pliers to help you with this. Insert the hooked end into the pot, and secure by pushing sticks, or bamboo skewers
into the soil on either side of the wire. Secure the wire to the skewers with twisty ties, then cut the skewers of level with the wire. Wrap the
ivy around the wire from the base upwards, and continue to tuck and wrap as it grows. Very soon the ivy will completely cover the wire, and you'll
never know it was a free coat hanger, instead of a 20 dollar topiary form! |
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| Kathleen Wilson is the owner/editor of The Budget Decorator, a free ezine dedicated to the "budget impaired' home decorator.
Please visit us at our website www.thebudgetdecorator.com for more free projects, and
information on The Budget Decorator Workshop. |
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