Lamp Transformation

I wanted nautical lamps. There was a specific lamp I liked, but I figured out quickly that it would be more complicated to accomplish than I had previously thought. In the interest of not ruining a lamp when I have a set of two identical lamps that I wanted to use for our nightstands, I went with a different approach. I decided I wanted to spray paint the lamps and add an anchor stencil to the body.

I got the lamps from Target for $9 each on clearance, and they came with a bonus CFL bulb. No lampshades, though, but I'm still looking for a set of those at a reasonable price. I actually fell in love with some from Target, but they were $20 each, and that's just ridiculous. I don't plan on spending more than $5 each on the lampshades. I saw a matching set at Goodwill for $3, but they weren't quite what I was looking for.

My husband helped with the anchor stencil because my hands aren't super steady due to some medication I take. I can accomplish most tasks with no problem, but detail work with a utility knife is more than I can do. We used paper plates because we had them, and we had no use for buying a package of card stock when we would likely never use it again.

I got the lamps ready with newspaper and painter's tape, and then I started with the bottom stripe, which I wanted to do in navy blue. We already had the can of spray paint from a previous project.

I had to move them into the house while they dried after the second coat because stupid bugs were landing on the spray painted part and ruining the paint job.

I let the paint job dry for 12 hours or so before I took off the tape and newspaper so I could see how it looked.

Wall Art Transformation

We found a piece of wall art we liked at a thrift store that would work for our master bedroom's nautical/beach theme. Original price $11.99, but it was 25% off, so even with tax, it was under $10. The tag on the back from the store said it was supposed to be $25.

We also picked up the terracotta warrior and obviously Asian inspired container for less than $5 together, to go with the book we picked up for $1 at the Houston Museum of Natural Science. We went to the exhibit while it was still there, came back a few months later after the exhibit ended, and then we found the exhibit book on clearance.

Even if we'd wanted to keep the frame gold, we still would have had to spray paint it because of the slight damage to the paint that you can see here. I prepared it with newspaper and painter's tape we had leftover from painting the master bedroom and office.

I was a bit nervous doing the spray paint by myself, since I'm inexperienced with it. It did drip a tiny bit, but a little sanding took care of that, and a second coat was all we needed afterward.

And here it is done! It looks so much different. I really like how it turned out. We'll just have to figure out where it's going to go exactly.

Rugs!

We found some affordable rugs for our living room sitting areas!

I've been intending to get rugs for months now, but we didn't really find anything that wasn't crazy expensive that we could agree on before now. (I still lament the lack of the themed rug that matched our poster, but my husband doesn't like themed rugs.)

Bookshelves

Our second bookshelf arrived, and my husband put it together in my absence. The toolbox is not staying there, obviously. We're still pretty sure we're going to put a console table there between the bookshelves.

We were going to build a second set of bookshelves like our ladder bookshelves, but after talking to my dad about it, he said the plywood we'd need for the shelves not to sag is about $80 a sheet because the cheaper plywood is low quality pine. Combined with needing a table saw, it was more cost effective to buy bookshelves. We chose this set.

We just need to find a stool for the little desk area.