Mirror, Mirror

In our previous house we spent WAY too much money replacing those ugly builder grade mirrors in the bathrooms.  So with this new house I promised my husband I would find another way to "change" them.

This first bathroom was a no brainer.  I have had this mirror for over 10 years now.  Some years it hung around the house, and other times it sat in storage.  It was never my favorite, but I remember buying it because I got a smokin' deal on it at Kirtland's Home.  In this house the size was just right for this bathroom.  So we tore down the existing mirror, and hung this up in its place.

I'm sure you've all seen this mirror before......the one from Ikea....its super cheap and can also be bought as a frame.  Originally it was black, and its made of plastic!  Once again I got out my paintbrush and put a nice pineapple yellow color on it with a brown glaze. I hung this one in our little powder bathroom.  Doesn't get much cheaper than that!

The next two were a little more tricky....

The Master Bath

I knew I wanted this mirror to look like a nice wood frame, and I wanted it to be white.  I also wanted to give it the look of 3 mirrors, not just one.  I had seen tons of pics and ideas on pinterest, but I'm not one that really likes to follow tutorials.  If I see a picture of something, I can usually replicate it (but with my own additional twists).  So thats what I did.  I went to Home Depot, found some trim that I liked, some silicone adhesive, and went to work.

The first thing we did was remove those horrible plastic pieces attached to those screws.  We reinforced the mirror by adding more glue to the back of the mirror.

Then we got busy measuring and cutting. This part was super easy because we added the trim blocks to the corners so all of our cuts were straight cuts.  When that was all done, we started gluing using our silicone adhesive- Directly onto the mirror!

We let the glue set overnight before we did anything else to it.  The next step was the caulking.  We mainly did this on the joints where we put the block trim on top, so there weren't any rough edges.

Then PAINT!  I used our same "creamy white" in semi gloss that is on all the other trim in the house.  I didn't snap a pic of this part, but I just slopped the paint all over that mirror! And I mean everywhere! I used No tape!!!  Tape is useless! And when the paint was all dry, I took a razor blade and just scraped it off!

Wanna know how much this mirror cost me?!

$30 TOTAL

YAY! 

OK, last of all.....My boys bathroom:

 While I was browsing Home Depot one day (and yes, I do this often) I came across this little box that intrigued me.  "Tile Setting Mat".  I scanned the directions and thought maybe this would work for the boys' mirror.  It said it works on glass...thats a mirror, right?!  I threw it in my cart and headed over to the tile. 

To my amazement, I found these on Clearance for $2.59!! Seriously!!!  I couldn't believe it!! So I grabbed some of these:

And some of these (not quite as good a price, but decent)

I also picked up some of the little 2x2 square tiles that look like travertine.

The tile sheets come glued to a mesh backing, so I tore them all off individually. I wanted to place them as close as possible to each other on the mirror.

 This is what the Tile Setting Mat looks like.  They are long sheets that I cut to length.

 I started with the 2x2 square tiles and went around the mirror.  

Then I added the glass tiles on top of the others.  And can I just say....this "Tile Setting Mat" stuff is amazing!!! I couldn't believe how good it worked!!! It was so easy too.

So here's a (horrible) picture of how it turned out!

 I had quite a bit of my tiles leftover, and because I was so thrilled with how my little discovery worked, I decided to head back to our master bathroom and throw some up around our tub!

Here are the Before Pics:

And this is After:

Here's a close-up.  I put the tiles directly onto the existing white cultured marble.  I used no grout, however I did cauld around the top where they met the wall, and bottom where they hit the tub.

Together for both tile projects I spent around $100 total.  The glass tiles were a major money saver.  The travertine tiles cost about $9 per sheet.  The "Tile Setting Mat" was about $18 per box.  I only had to use 1 box to complete both projects.

And there's my mirrors! All taken care of! :)

I Hate Curtains!

There, I said it.  I just do.  I have no vision for them, and plus they are SO expensive!! When I look through pictures or browse JC Penny, I love them.  But when it comes to me trying to actually do them...I blank.   BUT... of all the things you can do to your home, its one of the best things you can do (according to me!)  They give your home character, give it that homey, cozy feel to it... more than anything else.  They make a room look complete and inviting.

Sigh!

So I've had to accept the fact that I need curtains, and I promised myself that in this new house I would do something.  I not only had to find some inspiration, I had to find a way to do it the thrifty way.
(Before I get into this, I just have to say that I am NOT a photographer, and I don't have a fancy camera, so my pics aren't the best. Sorry!)

Here's what I've done so far:

Family Room/Kitchen:

I found these panels on clearance at Target and fell in love with the color and pattern.  Our ceilings are super high and I knew they weren't long enough to hit the floor, but because our couch would hide that fact, I bought them!

Pretty easy, self explanatory, and turned out pretty cute.  I put them on a cheap bistro rod from  Walmart ($1.99 I believe)

Unfortunately, this pattern curtain only comes in a panel. I knew I couldn't use panels in the kitchen, but I wanted desperately to use the same pattern since it has that "great room" feel.   I gave it some thought and came up with this:

I simply took one panel, cut it lengthwise down the middle.   I folded in the rough edge and ironed it down.    Then I ironed pleats into it, and pinched them together with rod clips.  This valance is made up of both pieces of the panel.  The middle pleat attaches the two pieces together.  I loved how it turned out! And I didn't even have to use my sewing machine!

 I bought the rods at Big Lots for about $9 each, and the clips from Target (can't remember how much)

 My Mom loved them so much that we did the same thing in her kitchen.  Only this time we didn't use a panel.  She found this table runner at Target that matched her colors EXACTLY.  So we just ironed pleats into it, clipped it, and DONE!  Awesome!!!  Although I was a little jealous of hers because her table runner cost far less than my panel!

Playroom:

Ok I'm really sorry about these pics.  I had a hard time getting these!  Once again, I used rods from Big Lots.  For this room I knew I wanted plain, neutral colored curtains. and the saying goes to "shop at home first".  So I rifled through my fabric and couldn't find anything very neutral.  But I happened to find a white bedskirt stashed away in my craft closet.  I can't even remember buying it, or what I would ever use it for.  But it was the ReMake brand from Target.  So I just cut the "skirt" part off.  Then I took some burlap ribbon and sewed it to the FINISHED edge of the material.  With the ROUGH edge, I folded it over twice and to the length I wanted, and sewed it down to make the loop to insert the rod.  Thats it...Done!

Master Bedroom:

I really struggled with this window!  It is huge, and our ceilings are really tall so I couldn't find anything within my tight budget that was long enough.  So I finally just bought panels that I knew would be too short.  These came in a 2-pack from Walmart for $12, and I once again used the cheap bistro rods.  

I played around with them for awhile and came up with this.  All I did was tie burlap around the bottom part of the panel, then start pulling a little bit of the material up from the top to give it that bunchy look.  So SIMPLE! 

Ok thats all for now!  But I'm going to keep plugging away at them because although what I've done so far is plain and simple, it has already made such a difference to the look and feel of my home!