Penniless Decorating

Well, OK, we are not quite to the point where we are penniless, but we are to the point in our budget where we cannot spend much money on decorating.  And that is all right since most of what we have is just fine or what we need to do can be done with very little expenditure.

Case in point:  this summer Rick and I bought some pottery items to match our palm tree theme for Gladys.  I already had a small pot that holds pens and a larger pot that holds kitchen utensils.  We added a palm tree mug for pens on my desk, a small spoon rest, and a chip and dip bowl.  The last item was a very small sconce for the wall.  I knew right where I wanted to hang it, but finding the right greens to put into it took a little longer than expected.

Finally, however, I found something that was the right shade and almost the right size.  I bought the leaves for less than $6.00 and used just a small portion of them for the sconce. Now the tiny wall between my kitchen and dining room has a little bit of decoration for visual interest.

A pretty little sconce adds something to view
on our tiny wall.

Yesterday Rick sat on one of our director's chairs that we brought from Wisconsin.  Those poor chairs are pretty beat up, but they are great for taking a break while we are doing something outside because we do not care if we are wearing dirty clothes when we sit in them.  One has paint on it and the other is pretty scuffed.  The blue chair has had a tear in the canvas seat for at least a year, and yesterday it totally gave out.  Rick almost ended up on the ground!

We went to Pier 1 Imports to get new canvas for the chair.  The salesman warned us that the design has changed slightly, so the new canvas might not fit.  In our old chairs, a small dowel is threaded into a slot to secure the seat.  With the new canvas, that dowel has been replaced with a flat, more broad piece of wood.

We brought the canvas home, took out the wooden parts, inserted the dowels in their places, and put the canvas into the slots.  The dowels worked fine, but the canvas seat was too long.

Not to worry.  I dug out my sewing machine, took a scissors to the generous canvas, sewed a new double seam, and slipped the dowel back in the new opening.  While I probably could have made the seat even tighter, for now it will work just fine.  If it stretches, I can always resew it.

The new canvas looks a lot better than the old frame!

A new chair would have cost us over $50.00.  The new canvas cost us $15.00.  For that price, I can make adjustments.

We won't be buying new art for our walls at the area art fairs this year, but with a little craftsmanship, we can add a bit of color and maintain what we already own.  Gladys has finally reached a point where the majority of the inside work is complete.  We have moved from renovations to maintenance.  Maybe that will even afford us some extra time this year on the beach!