Summer Home Tour 2018

Thanks for coming to tour my home with my Summer decorations

(finally) displayed. I've made and painted many of the items so I

will include highlighted text that takes you to the tutorials so you

can make similar items for your home if you would like.

We're friends so come on in the back entrance.

As you enter the carport area there is a baker's rack with

my blue bottle collection topped with shells.

Just a dot of hot glue holds the shell on the bottle's opening

then it is easy to pop off at the end of Summer. 

The back door area has more shells.

New galvanized olive buckets have been painted to look

old (tutorial here). I'm pretending that the buckets are holding

burlap bags full of shells from the ocean. 

In reality, most of the bucket is full of crumpled newspaper and

plastic bags. The burlap is hiding the stuffing so you can't see

it through the holes. Then only the very top layer is shells. 

The basket hanging on the back door has shells in it too.

To fool the eye, a piece of foam core was cut to fit the basket

then wrapped in burlap to hide it through the basket's weave.

Then shells were hot glued on to the top edge of the foam core.

If you would like to see more details on how these back entrance

shell decorating projects (and more from inside the house) were done, please click over to "Secrets of Decorating With Shells" post.

Come on in to the kitchen dining area.

I just love me some shells. Most of them have come from

the bags you can buy at the craft stores (and use a coupon to

get them for even less).

Now we will move from the kitchen dining area to the more 

formal dining area. If we had come in the house through the

front door, this room also acts like a foyer too.

(I moved one of the chairs so you could see the table better)

A large urn holds shells and has shells hot glued on it.

I got tired of all the dark wood furniture in this room and got

up enough nerve to paint this dresser/display piece with

two shades of chalk paint (for tutorial click here).

It is an older piece with wavy glass so I'm going to open the

doors so you can see part of my coral and sea fan collection better. 

(Excuse the mess in the bottom)

The wave coral reproduction came from Target. 

The faux corals were made from items in the floral section

of craft stores (coral tutorial here). The faux sea fans were

made from cedar clippings (sea fan tutorial here). 

Also in the dining room/foyer is a buffet.

For summer it has a shell motif also.

My "beach boy" stands on a skirted pedestal between the dining

room and the living room. I found this funky "ribbon" at 

Hobby Lobby. It reminded me of a fishing net.

The last room on the tour is the living room. 

The coffee table holds a bowl of pretty Summer items.

I like to change out these pillow coverings seasonally.

For Summer I fell in love with this octopus print fabric.

(turkish corner pillow tutorial here).

I also like to change out the picture over the mantel seasonally.

It is not expensive to have different artwork during the year

because I just get art prints and use a technique to make them

look similar to a painting (from print to painting tutorial here).

The wood pilings on the end of the mantel are actually pool

noodles wrapped in wood-look contact paper. A diluted coat of

paint gives them that whitewashed look.

(faux wood piling tutorial here)

Bookcases on either side of the mantel hold more Summer items.

The seahorse, faux turtle shell and octopus on this bookcase

were not colors that I liked. I painted them with a DIY chalk

paint. (small batch custom color chalk paint tutorial here)

(Sea fan tutorial here)  (Faux coral tutorial here)

I used the more colorful items in the double bookcase.

The buoys on the top shelf had a color change to make them

look older (tutorial here). I've tried several times to make glass

fishing floats. To me they never look as good as the ones you 

can purchase in stores but I use them anyway.

Buoys, mirror, shell vase all painted with DIY chalk paint.

This mirrored console holds our radio and CD player.

Over the console are two frames with chicken wire that

are easy to change seasonally. (framed chicken wire tutorial).

These are two Summer sayings that I like:

I tried to make these saying boards look similar to the pilings

on the mantel so I covered foam board with the wood-look

contact paper to write on. I might have used too much water to

dilute the paint (to give it a whitewashed look) but then I 

liked the way it beaded up on the contact paper so I left it. 

Thanks again for visiting!!!

Here's a good "pinnable" image if you want to come again.

5 Cheap Tricks For Seasonal Decorating

Do you like to decorate your home for different holidays

and seasons of the year? I know that I do but that can get

expensive accumulating items to use as decorations. 

Here are five tricks to help you save money and cut down

on storing space for so many seasons and holidays. 

1. Use things you already have 

There are things you already have in your home that

can be adapted for different seasons and holidays.

Just by adding a touch of the season/holiday to the 

item(s) make them seem like they are just for that holiday.

For example, here is a small collection of metal crowns that

I have bought over the years to put on the top of the armoire

in my bedroom. 

For this Valentine's Day I got them down and added  painted

foam hearts to them to carry out my "Queen of Hearts" 

bookcase and mantel theme.

Here are the inexpensive heart items I got from Dollar Tree

and on clearance from Michaels last year. 

By painting them the same color as the metal crowns they

would be attached to, it makes them seem like they were

make just for Valentine's Day. 

I have found that adding these light weight decor items to 

things I already have with just a dot of hot glue holds the

item but is easy to pull off when the holiday is over. 

Other shapes you can also use are shamrocks for St. Patrick's
 Day, bunnies or crosses for Easter, real shells for summer, 
cutout leaves for Fall, etc. If you want more detailed items
to glue/stick onto your things, you can look in the scrap-
book section of most crafts stores. 

2. Use Paper To Make Seasonal Decorations

Generally paper is cheap. Use scrapbook paper or old books

to make decorative items for your displays/vignettes.

The wreaths pictured above did take some time to make

but probably cost less than $5 a piece in materials.

Here is more information on the wreaths if you would

like to see how to make them...Vintage Valentine Mantel.

Also old books (which are basically bound pieces of 
paper and can be bought at thrift stores for $1 or less)
 are good "stands" sideways for your items or as
 "fillers" for bookcases. You can turn the books with 
the pages showing versus the usual spine showing to
add visual interest and a neutral color to the display. 

Paper banners are a fantastic and cheap way to decorate 
for seasons and holidays (and parties too). They can be
made large or small. Just choose paper to fit the occasion.
Here's how to make them if you have not done it before.

Paper pom poms can be made of colors to fit your 
decorations too. So fun and cheap...here's how.

3. Use Free Clip Art

Another good way to advance the theme you want for

your decorating is to Google "Free Clip Art For_______".

You fill in the blank for what season you want. I like to 

look at the "images" that come up in the search to 

quickly see what I like and don't like. 

Download the image to your computer and then print it
 out on decorative  paper to put in your seasonal display.

The above picture shows some of the cupids that I 
printed out on cardstock aged with coffee grounds.

If you have frames to put the printed out clip art in 
that is great. If not, here is a jimmy-rigged way I 
worked out to make them stand upright in your display. 


Put a rolled piece of tape on a straight-sided bottle or jar.
Push the printed-out clip art against the tape. 

For most images printed out 4x6 or 5x7 this keeps 
the image upright. For images printed out 8x10, you
need a taller straight-sided bottle or jar...

Another option is to tape a wooden skewer to the

inside or outside of a straight-sided glass and then

tape the clip art to the top of the skewer. 

4. Make Lollies/Paper Rosettes

Lollies or Paper Rosettes are items that give a big 

impact in your seasonal displays for very little money

or time. You make them fit your theme either with the

 paper you choose for the main part of the lollie or 
the center image that you choose to add to it.

If you use a non-seasonal paper for the larger part

of the lolly/paper rosette, you can change out the 

center image with the seasons. 

Here is how to make lollies/paper rosettes.

5. Use fake flowers and real greenery

The thing that usually "gives away" that artificial flowers

are not real is the greenery. Find the most real-looking

inexpensive flowers that you can. Cut off the greenery.

Put real greenery from your yard in the vase with

the fake flowers. Be sure to add water to keep the
 greenery fresh (for about a week). Replace greenery as
 needed. This can add color and life to your displays.

Here is how all of these cheap tricks came together for my

2017 "Queen of Hearts" mantel/book case display,

"You Hold The Key To My Heart" display and the cupid/

angel theme in the dining room...

"The Key To My Heart" Vignette is also in the 
living room but against a different wall. 

It utilizes framed chicken wire to hold more paper
hearts. 

Here is more information on how to make the paper
hearts in this display "The Key To My Heart".

The hearts on the scale are inexpensive cardboard ones
painted with DIY chalk paint. Want to see the recipe?
Click here. 

Dining Room angels and cherubs ready for Valentine's
Day. The angel on far left of picture went from gold
 to neutral color.  See how to change the color of 
accessories to fit in with your home in this blog post. 

The two other angels on the dining room table got foam hearts
painted to match their main color. The tall skinny angel did not
look right with a puffy heart. She got a "rosary" of book page 
hearts glued onto to piece of twine to "hold". 

This angel "as is" from a garage sale.

This metal angel from Hobby Lobby is very
versatile to hold different seasonal objects. 

Free clip art downloaded and printed on 
faux aged paper for glass cabinet display. 

A cherub that had its paint chipping off got a chalk
paint make over.

Also foam hearts were added to his "load" to make
him fit in with Valentine theme. The hearts could be
changed out with shamrocks, shells, Fall leaves, etc.
for different seasons or holidays. 

If you would like to save this post to Pinterest, this would be 

a good image to "pin"....

Thanks so much for visiting my blog! See more 
decorating ideas on the navigational bar under my header.