Saving Money but not Time

My good friend Jan emailed me a link to this blog a few weeks ago. Since then I have spent HOURS perusing the archives, drooling over what she has done to her home and just how she has done it! She's a real person--not Martha Stewart. She works on a budget, she has good ideas, and she can copy other people's good ideas with the best of them. I'm good at that--copying other people's ideas. So now I am copying her copying other people....it's weird, I know, but it works.

I've been going a little stir-crazy lately, having lived here so long. We did not anticipate living in this area as long as we have (3 1/2 years and counting) and frankly, moving is in my blood. I like moving. I like the new possibilities that come with every new duty station and every new house. I like rearranging what I already have into something new. And now that we're not moving this year I am really getting antsy!

Enter the thrifty decor chick, Sarah. I have been so motivated and inspired to freshen things up and makeover our old stuff into something new! It has not cost much money at all--but I will tell you it has cost time. My family has indulged me--cans of paint laying around, squares of sandpaper, piles of laundry building up in front of the washer. I've spent about a week and a half really working hard on redoing some things and I'm excited to share them with you!

We'll start with the oak coffee tables.
I bought them in Kentucky the year Nick was born--1994. The french country look was very nice then, but not so much anymore. We have updated our sofas and chairs but the tables just couldn't break out of the 90's. Here's a recent photo (with Joshua and an I Spy design he came up with):

But (and you should have clicked on that link above by now or you will not appreciate what I am talking about) Sarah has made such beautiful use of black paint in her house that I decided it was time to make the move.

Enter Behr's black suede paint and the first of MANY trips I would make to Home Depot.

Utilizing what has (until this week) been a pretty useless space in our sunroom, I got to work.

If you look around the site, you can find great advice on how to get a nice smooth finish. I copied her instructions to the letter. Same primer, same number of coats, same number of sandings in between. And they look GREAT.

The room looks newer, fresher. I am thrilled with how they turned out and it made me want to do more...(stay tuned)