Easy 10-minute stamped wall art

I finished decorating our upstairs bathroom in July, but there was still one piece of artwork missing. After a few different ideas, some half executed, I decided to change direction again and go with something simple.

I had a pack of these felt coasters laying around. I picked them up because they were only a dollar and I knew eventually I could make something with them.

I turned one into a stamp by using a piece of packing tape to stick it to a scrap of cardboard. Going for the cheap/easy/quick trifecta here.

It certainly won't last forever, but it will last long enough for this project.

I trimmed off the excess cardboard around the felt, then drew an arrow on the back pointing up so all the images would be in the same orientation.

I found this piece of reclaimed wood in my stash. It was already painted red, and had a number of stains and varnish splatters on it.

Some might see this as a problem, but I see it as a layer of interest I didn't have to work for.

I used a foam brush to cover the face of the stamp with some black acrylic craft paint and stamped it on the wood.

I wasn't concerned with perfect impressions or that the images were lined up exactly.

This shape looks a lot prettier in black than it did in pink felt.

Seriously, I would be surprised if this took me ten minutes to do, supply gathering, cleanup and all. It was so easy, I'm thinking I might use this technique as a wall treatment in the near future.

$100 Bathroom Challenge: Done and under budget!

Our upstairs bathroom makeover is finally finished and came in under budget at $83.32! Let me take you on a tour.

I would like to thank paint for making this makeover possible. This bathroom's biggest problem was the blue on the walls and the vanity.

It wasn't pretty, it wasn't our style and it didn't coordinate with the floor. I could have done nothing but paint the vanity and walls and this bathroom would have looked a thousand times better.

This room needed a simple color correction, and I was happy to give it one.

The almond color on the walls helps bridge the gap between the chrome fixtures and the brass shower.

I challenged myself with an arbitrary budget of only $100, but it wasn't much of an issue since I kept all of the fixtures. I also added some items we already owned: the nightstand, the medicine cabinet, the tablecloth that I sewed into curtains.

I made or found all of the artwork and framed it inexpensively.

What's that black bat-shaped thing, you ask? It's a hinge from our old fence! The hardware was too pretty to throw away. I have a few more pieces that will probably surface in future projects.

After hanging the cabinet earlier this week, I realized I needed some sort of artwork in the space below it, but didn't have time to make anything. I found this piece of wood in the basement that fit the bill perfectly; it was already red! I have some vague ideas about what to do with it, but for right now, it's just a placeholder.

I'll have an addendum on that later, but for now I'm calling this room done! 

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How I spent my $100 budget

1 qt. Semi-gloss wall paint ... $11.42
Curtain rod ... $4.49
1 qt. Semi-gloss paint for vanity, mirror and nightstand ... $11.42
2 Frames ... $0.02 (yep, for real)
Mirror ... $26.91
Bathmat ... $7.47
Paper for top of nightstand ... $4.32
Knobs ... $3.22
Tissue box ... $14.05
-------------------
Total spent ... $83.32
Amount unspent ... $16.68
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The rest of the posts in this series:

1. Another bathroom update: Before
2. My color plan
3. Painting the walls
4. Curtains made from a tablecloth
5. Painting the vanity
6. No cost vintage boxer wall art
7. New mirror & bathmat
8. Hang a pretty book as artwork
9. Clock makeover with a Pottery Barn twin
10. Nightstand repurposed for storage
11. Silhouette artwork
12. Repainted medicine cabinet

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Linked to: Thrifty Decor Chick Before & After Party

$100 Bathroom Challenge: Repainted medicine cabinet

This medicine cabinet is a leftover from our old apartment. It was a necessity in a bathroom that had no other storage. I wasn't sure if we would ever use it again, but it was ours, so we brought it along when we moved two years ago.

Before

Coincidentally, it fit perfectly above the toilet in this bathroom, so I decided to use it. But it couldn't stay white. Too much white already. This isn't a true "before" photo. It used to have a tapered bottom with a dinky wooden towel bar, but my dad lopped it off for me, giving it a slightly more attractive profile.

After sanding and priming, I painted it the same Dark Granite as the vanity, mirror and storage nightstand. Can you believe I still have almost half a quart of this paint left after all that painting? I gave the wooden knobs a quick coat of white paint to refresh them and re-attached them once they were dry.

I was going to put some of the same paper I used for the nightstand in the insets of the doors, but it was looking a little too crafty, so I decided against it.

I know it looks like the cabinet is hung disproportionately high, but the sloping ceiling in this little nook is barely six feet high. It's an optical illusion. I do need to make/find/buy something to hang on the wall to bridge the gap between the toilet tank and the cabinet, though. It's bothering my eyes.

That shouldn't be a problem, though. I have about $30 left to spend and not a whole lot to spend it on!

Look for my $100 Bathroom Challenge wrap-up post on Friday!

.......................................................................
How I spent my $100 budget (so far)

1 qt. Semi-gloss wall paint ... $11.42
Curtain rod ... $4.49
1 qt. Semi-gloss paint for vanity, mirror and nightstand ... $11.42
2 Frames ... $0.02 (yep, for real)
Mirror ... $26.91
Bathmat ... $7.47
Paper for top of nightstand ... $4.32
Knobs ... $3.22
-------------------
Total spent ... $69.27
Amount left ... $30.73
.......................................................................

Follow along with me as I give our upstairs bathroom a face lift with a budget of only $100.

1. Another bathroom update: Before
2. My color plan
3. Painting the walls
4. Curtains made from a tablecloth
5. Painting the vanity
6. No cost vintage boxer wall art
7. New mirror & bathmat
8. Hang a pretty book as artwork
9. Clock makeover with a Pottery Barn twin
10. Nightstand repurposed for storage
11. Silhouette artwork

$100 Bathroom Challenge: Silhouette artwork

For this last piece of artwork, I wanted to make something bold and graphic to contrast with the other pieces. I also wanted it to be just a little bit modern to prevent it from drifting into a strictly cottage feel.

Silhouettes are super trendy right now, but I thought one would also fit in really nicely with the vintagey elements of the other artwork.

There are a lot of "cheater" methods for making a silhouette on the internet, but this is what I did.

First, I took a picture of Elise's silhouette. This should have been the easiest step, but Elise is 14 months old and non-compliant. This is not a great picture in itself, but her silhouette was pretty clear.

I opened the photo in Photoshop and traced and filled Elise's head in a new layer. I had to fake the back of her head because it wasn't in the photo. Hopefully it doesn't look that unnatural!

Then, I printed her silhouette out on a piece of polka-dot scrapbook paper I had on hand.

Oh, but before I printed, I labeled it with her name and age in a very small font size as not to detract from the silhouette itself.

I layered it on a piece of thick red wrapping paper and put it in another one-cent frame. I think it looks pretty good, especially because drawing the silhouette had been giving me fits.

This bathroom is taking longer than I expected, but isn't that always how it goes? I swear I'm getting close to wrapping it up!

.......................................................................
How I spent my $100 budget (so far)

1 qt. Semi-gloss wall paint ... $11.42
Curtain rod ... $4.49
1 qt. Semi-gloss paint for vanity, mirror and nightstand ... $11.42
2 Frames ... $0.02 (yep, for real)
Mirror ... $26.91
Bathmat ... $7.47
Paper for top of nightstand ... $4.32
Knobs ... $3.22
-------------------
Total spent ... $69.27
Amount left ... $30.73
.......................................................................

Follow along with me as I give our upstairs bathroom a face lift with a budget of only $100.

1. Another bathroom update: Before
2. My color plan
3. Painting the walls
4. Curtains made from a tablecloth
5. Painting the vanity
6. No cost vintage boxer wall art
7. New mirror & bathmat
8. Hang a pretty book as artwork
9. Clock makeover with a Pottery Barn twin
10. Nightstand repurposed for storage

$100 Bathroom Challenge: Nightstand repurposed for storage

With no closet, this bathroom needed storage for towels and other things. A store-bought shelving unit or storage tower was out of my budget, so I drafted an old unused nightstand for the job. I think this one might be the match to this dresser I painted for Elise's room, but it's missing the dentil moulding of the dresser, so I'm not positive.

I'm not going to show you a “before” photo, because this little nightstand was suffering from an embarrassing paint job applied during a “decorative” furniture painting phase. We'll just leave it at that.

My initial plan was just to paint the whole thing the same color as the vanity, but then I thought it might look a little dull. Scouting about, I found this beautiful designer wrapping paper. I love that it is an organic pattern, but isn't a floral. It's a great contrast to the geometric lines of the walls and floor.

I adhered the paper to the top of the nightstand with Mod Podge. This is the largest surface area I've ever Mod Podged with a single piece of paper (and will probably be the last). The paper was thin and prone to wrinkling and bubbling. Not fun! But I think I worked out the worst of it and got it to look mostly smooth. Next time I have a large surface to decoupage, I will use fabric instead of paper.

I replaced the knobs with these small round white ceramic ones from Hobby Lobby at 50 percent off. I liked the original knobs, but they were dark metal and wouldn't have shown up on the brown paint.

I'm sure the designer of this über eco-friendly paper (recycled, soy ink, etc.) didn't imagine it would one day be slathered in Mod Podge, but it's too pretty to be used as gift wrap and thrown away.

I still need to coat the top with some polyurethane, but free time has been in short supply around here lately!

.......................................................................
How I spent my $100 budget (so far)

1 qt. Semi-gloss wall paint ... $11.42
Curtain rod ... $4.49
1 qt. Semi-gloss paint for vanity, mirror and nightstand ... $11.42
Frame ... $0.01 (yep, for real)
Mirror ... $26.91
Bathmat ... $7.47
Paper for top of nightstand ... $4.32
Knobs ... $3.22
-------------------
Total spent ... $69.26
Amount left ... $30.74
.......................................................................

Follow along with me as I give our upstairs bathroom a face lift with a budget of only $100.

1. Another bathroom update: Before
2. My color plan
3. Painting the walls
4. Curtains made from a tablecloth
5. Painting the vanity
6. No cost vintage boxer wall art
7. New mirror & bathmat
8. Hang a pretty book as artwork
9. Clock makeover with a Pottery Barn twin

$100 Bathroom Challenge: Clock makeover with a Pottery Barn twin

I've had this clock for almost 10 years and was actually really sick of it. It reminded me of the giant pocketwatch the white rabbit has in Alice in Wonderland when he's running around screeching about being late. That annoyed me for some reason.

Before

The clock works fine, though, so my initial plan was to rip off the stopwatchy loop at the top. But the loop was stronger than I was, and so it stayed. My next thought was just to buck up and buy a different clock with the money left in my budget. I actually had my eye on something more modern at Crate & Barrel, but I felt wasteful replacing something that didn't need replacing.

(photo: Pottery Barn)

Then browsing around for nothing in particular, I saw these almost identical clocks on potterybarn.com. Sure, they might be a little more refined than mine. (They have a second hand.) But really, they are almost identical. Even the numbering and minute-tick design on the face is the same! Mine came with an easel stand, but I always preferred to use it as a wall clock. The largest one on Pottery Barn is the exact same size as my clock. Suddenly having a $59 doppleganger made my old clock seem a bit more attractive, so I decided to make it work.

But it did need painting. There was some rust starting, and it wasn't attractive rust. The brushed nickel finish didn't show up well against the white beadboard either. I masked off the face by slipping some paper between the frame and the glass. Then I spray painted the clock with some oil-rubbed bronze paint I bought for another project.

What's one more metal finish, when you've already got a party of metal finishes going on, right? The oil-rubbed bronze reads more as brown anyway. And it shows up better on the white beadboard than the brushed nickel did.

I did have a bit of a mishap with some overspray getting under the paper and sticking to the glass. I cleaned it up with some nail polish remover, and it came off almost too easily. The paint was dry to the touch, but it hadn't fully cured yet. I'm not sure if that made a difference.

I'm loving the contrast. I think it looks pretty great!

.......................................................................
How I spent my $100 budget (so far)

1 qt. Semi-gloss wall paint ... $11.42
Curtain rod ... $4.49
1 qt. Semi-gloss paint for vanity and mirror ... $11.42
Frame ... $0.01 (yep, for real)
Mirror ... $26.91
Bathmat ... $7.47
-------------------
Total spent ... $61.72
Amount left ... $38.28
.......................................................................

Follow along with me as I give our upstairs bathroom a face lift with a budget of only $100.

1. Another bathroom update: Before
2. My color plan
3. Painting the walls
4. Curtains made from a tablecloth
5. Painting the vanity
6. No cost vintage boxer wall art
7. New mirror & bathmat
8. Hang a pretty book as artwork

Curtain conundrum

Half down / half up

I made these curtains for our upstairs bathroom. My initial thought was to make them long enough to hang just below the top part of the window to simplify the lines of the window. But now I think they might be a bit too long. I know this is a personal preference, but I can't figure out what my preference is.

Which is better? Scroll down to vote!

(Excuse the rumpliness; I just folded them over the rod.)

My only hesitation in taking them up about six inches is how you can see the lower part of the upper half of the window with the locks and everything. Is that crazy?

Another alternative is to make them shorter, but then let the blinds show a little. Not crazy about the blinds in general, but I'm kind of sort of liking the layering. I might have to spring for some new matchstick blinds, if the price is right.

Vote below! The poll will be open until next Sunday.

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What length do you like for these curtains?