Penny Pincher Tip No.1 // Use What You Already Have
One of the things on my "If 2015 Was Perfect" list, was to carve out a reading nook. And since I don't have any perfect attic windows to transform, I decided to transform a corner of our guest room/ piano room/ TV room into a reading nook using things I already had around.
I had a couple half painted boards from my pop up shop last summer that were just sitting around. I decided to put those up on the wall as a simple shelf. I thought about stacking them but decided to go with one long shelf instead. I just mounted them on the wall with some simple white brackets.
Anthropologie had some huge paintings of trees in their Seattle store this winter, it was such a cool look. I decided to try a similar effect to help fill the white space above the shelf, albeit mine ended up quite a bit brighter because of the paint I had on hand, I used a combination of latex paint and acrylic paint (earmuffs real artists - I'm sure thats a no no). I pulled the craft paper off my craft paper pinboard and just painted directly on top of the poster board. Admittedly, I wouldn't go get poster board to paint on... but it did the trick and it was totally free.
And the giant dream catcher is one of my favorite spontanoeus crafts. Joe found that bike wheel on the side of the street and brought it home for me! I grabbed all my random bits of yarn and twine, tied pieces to different spokes and then wrapped it in a variety of ways.
So now with all the books on the shelf, plus a few pillows and a stack of blankets it's turning into a nice little reading nook. And bonus points for our snowboards fitting behind the couch perfectly. (Storage space is at a premium in small houses.)
What have you reused in creative ways to save a few bucks? I'm always love hearing new ideas!
