Autumn is just around the corner and it’s time to start decorating! First up, Halloween! I absolutely love Halloween, but it’s not really my personal style to do a lot of gore or tons of orange and black in my home. One of the things I like to do with my Halloween decor is try to make it fit in with my home’s existing style. Here’s a really quick and easy way I updated a pre-lit, cheapy plastic pumpkin that I found for for $6. Isn’t he cute?
Spray paint. That’s all you need. I went with gold and white of course.
I painted the entire pumpkin with white satin paint (satin or gloss work best) and then sprayed the stem gold. I didn’t use tape or anything around the stem because I like the way the gold over-spray looks on the top of the pumpkin.
Cute, right?! I think I’m going to have to pick up a few more pumpkins and try different colors.
Anyway, easy peasy! Super cute and fits in perfectly with the rest of my decor.
I was shopping for lamps for my living room and couldn’t find anything in the right size or price. This was around the time I decided to get a new sofa and was on a serious budget to finish off the rest of the room. I desperately needed end tables and lamps to frame said sofa, and didn’t want to go broke over it, so I was determined to find something great for as little investment as possible. I shopped and shopped, until I stumbled into a random Ross and checked out their home decor section. Ross is pretty awesome for budget pieces and it’s a great place to find things to fix up or hack.
I found lamps. Well, the size and the $15 price tag were right, and I liked the artichoke shape, but the finish and the shade were a big NO for me. Easy fix though! I bought them, and then stopped at the hardware store for a couple of cans of gloss white spray paint. I also snagged new shades at Ross for $4.
Look at what a difference a little spray paint made. They’re so chic now. Totally Jonathan Adler or something, and they go with my living room PERFECTLY. I don’t think I could have found anything more perfect, especially for under $20 per lamp.
My #1 budget decorating tip is to take a look at what you do like and try to figure out how to change what you don’t like. It can be as easy as a can of spray paint.
I have this problem where I envision something that I want and either it doesn’t exist or the closest thing I can find costs, like, a million dollars and still isn’t exactly what I had my heart set on. I have another little problem where I see something generic in a store and immediately start planning how I could change it to fit my personal style and make it, well, less generic. This happens way more often than you’d think. I’m all “Blahblahblah we can paint it and then cut this off and then maybe screw these together…” My husband stares at me for awhile before voicing his concerns, which I usually just brush off, and reply with a casual “It’ll be fiiiiine.”
And that’s what happened this time. I wanted a cocktail ottoman to use as a table and footrest, in some great color, probably tufted, with a little gold to tie in with the rest of the room. Couldn’t find it. When I saw the surprisingly sturdy VITTSÖ nesting tables at IKEA I instantly knew how I was going to make it happen. I would just need to upholster…and paint…and drill a little. NO BIGGIE. No, seriously, it’s a lot easier than it sounds.
I’m saving the smaller one for later.
Finding the perfect fabric was actually the most annoying part. I went to 4 different fabric stores before I found the perfect green velvet at Deco Home for $80/yard. Totally worth it. It’s durable and lovely and perfect for a project like this. Exactly what I wanted.
ANYWAY, I’ll get down to it.
I put together the frame of the table and sprayed the entire thing with metallic gold spray paint. You can use whichever gold you like.
I sprayed all the hardware and those little glass cushion sticker things gold, too.
I picked up one yard of 2″ thick foam from the craft store and cut it to the size of the table. Using a sharp knife or blade makes it super simple. Just run the blade through a couple of times. You should maybe put cardboard or something down so you don’t slice up your floor.
The larger table in VITTSJÖ nesting tables set has a glass shelf on the top and a wood (MDF) shelf on the bottom, but since this is a hack, I switched them. Why? Because I needed to use the MDF for upholstering and tufting purposes. The glass shelf would be for holding books and cute decorative items while keeping a clean, floaty look.
After that I did some really annoying measuring and marked where I wanted my buttons to go. Ugh. Math is hard.
Then I used the multi-purpose drill bit on my Dremel to make the holes where I’d be pulling my tufting cord through.
I covered the foam and board in batting and my velvet. I pulled the fabric tight enough to round out all of the edges. The corners were tricky because of the metal nub where the top connects to the rest of the table. I just sliced the corner piece of fabric, pulled the fabric back around the piece of leg, and then stabled it securely into place. When I connected the pieces back together I just tucked any raw edges that were showing.
At this point you can leave it how it is or you can get fancy with tufting. I did a shallow tuft since this will be used as a table sometimes and I don’t want my serving trays to lay all wonky and wobbly on top. I also don’t want to be digging crumbs out of deep tufting craters after every shindig.
These regular button covers are fine but if you’re using a thick fabric you might need to put in a little extra effort.
Instead of securing the fabric with the back of the button like you normally would, you might need to sew the fabric closed on the back using a heavy duty thread. I use “outdoor coat” thread. It works perfectly.
Thread a large upholstery needle with the polyester cord.
Find your holes on the bottom side of the board and push your needle through as straight as possible. Pull one end of the cord through to the top.
Use the needle to go through the back of the button and pull the end of the cord through.
Then put the needle back through the hole to bring the cord end back through to the bottom side.
Pull the cord tight and secure with staples. Stapling in multiple directions makes sure it doesn’t slip over time.
We got these DALFRED bar stools from IKEA as sort of a temporary thing. At $40 a pop they were a pretty good option and close enough to what we were looking for at the time. Eventually I got bored with them and they didn’t go with the rest of our room. I didn’t feel like buying new ones though. I had Rust-Oleum gold spray paint left over from my dresser makeover so I whipped that out and decided to jazz them up a little.
Originally I just wanted to give a gold dipped look to the legs but ended up taking them apart to do the seat and inner ring. First, I taped off the amount I wanted to paint on the legs. I used a piece of plastic wrap to block the rest of the leg from getting overspray. You can use more tape if you want to be proper about it.
Quick Tips: 1) Spray in a well ventilated area. 2) If you get spray paint on your hands use veg oil then dish soap to get it off. 3) If you decide to paint your seat, and it’s going to get a lot of use, it’s probably a good idea to spray some sealer on it.
Anywayyyy this is how they turned out:
I did the hardware too. Ooo lala.
Before and after. It was really easy and took no time at all. The total project (for 2) runs under $100!
I’m so happy this is done! I bought this vintage French style dresser years ago but finally took the weekend to finish it.
I couldn’t figure out if I wanted to do something funky and colorful or restore it to it’s original look. I decided to keep it simple and go with high gloss white with gold fixtures. It seemed like the previous owner tried to repaint it and did a crap job. The paint was peeling and bubbly. Yuck. I had to strip the old paint before repainting it so I could get a fresh smooth finish. Here’s how I did it all. First, you’ll need a dresser of course. You can find inexpensive dressers at thrift stores or Craigslist. That’s where I found this one for $20. Next, you’ll need the necessary tools.
Since I needed to strip the piece, I decided to go with heat over chemicals. I love stripping (and not just the naked kind). These inexpensive heat guns make the paint bubble and peel so you can easily scrape it off. I prefer this because I hate having to deal with chemical stripping. It’s messy and takes too long. Plus it’s kind of rad to torch things. Anyway, for the paint I wanted a durable high-gloss finish, so I went with Glidden’s Trim & Door paint. It’s an oil based paint which is a pain to clean up and it stinks but sometimes it’s just necessary. This paint has an anti-drip gel texture that goes on and dries super smooth and glossy with one coat.
Heat stripping is serious business, guys. You have to be really careful because there are the obvious hazards of burns, injury, fire, and loss of possessions. It’s easy though! Just heat the old paint until it bubbles and peels. Do it in a ventilated area or keep your windows and doors open so your fire alarm doesn’t scream at you like mine did. Oops. Then scrape it off and use a medium grit sandpaper to get the left over charring off and smooth it all out.
I sanded it after this
After painting it with one coat and letting it dry over night I needed to address the hardware. I wanted to keep it original but cleaning and polishing with Brasso just wasn’t cutting it for me.
I took the easy route and used a light coat of Rust-Oleum metallic spray paint on them. I lightly sprayed them to keep some of the vintage flaws for a more original, aged look.
Spray paint. That’s all you need. I went with gold and white of course.
I painted the entire pumpkin with white satin paint (satin or gloss work best) and then sprayed the stem gold. I didn’t use tape or anything around the stem because I like the way the gold over-spray looks on the top of the pumpkin.
, a large 
, and some 
left over from my 
Melodrama 