Frugal Friday: A few finished projects and fun finds!

It’s Frugal Friday over at The Shabby Nest. I thought about just linking up this post, where I show all of my frugally acquired projects (still currently in their before state) so you all can give me your wonderful advice…(I’d still love it if you’d go there and leave your fabulous furniture makeover advice in the comments!)…but, believe it or not, I have since acquired a couple more big projects from Craigslist. So I thought I would give you a peak at those. And just so we can all feel better about the amount of work I (and my poor husband) have to do, I’ll show you a couple of small projects that are actually completed…mostly.

Anyone know what this is? Any guesses what it is going to be used for? I will tell you this much and see if anyone can figure it out: It is part of our first Craigslist purchase yesterday. We paid $30 for the whole thing, and when it is finished, it will live in one of the kids’ rooms. Take a guess! Come on, it will be fun!

You can see part of the second Craigslist purchase in the background there. This one is a little more obvious, so I will tell you that they are headboards. Actually, we bought two entire matching beds (with cute footboards you cannot see in the pic) for a total of $25. Now you can see that they are beautiful, or at least, they were…once. But these are definitely diamonds in the rough!

My husband is a bit nervous about them. One of the beds is pretty bad, it was left out in the elements for a while and has a little warping. Of course, he is a little sad that we are planning to paint them and cover up the beautiful Beryl (sp?) wood in the center of the boards, but realizes the paint will be much easier, than trying to restore these to their former glory. I have big plans for them in my daughters’ room.

And so I have now been officially banned from Craigslist, until we move a few of these projects through the queue. (Yes, I am kind of a Craigslist addict lately, and in honor of my addiction, will be adding the “hooked on” post to Hooked on Houses Friday party).

And here is proof that projects can be finished…mostly”:

I made this moss topiary pretty quickly and inexpensively. I had the topiary form (and have more I plan to use) left over from a different sister’s wedding, that I should blog about, so that was free. The pot had been given to me, and I bought the moss for cheap at Walmart. Interestingly, I have seen moss at Dollar Tree and have shied away from it because it looked very brown. The stuff at Walmart was kind of electric green, so I mixed it with some more muted Spanish moss I had on hand. I think it make the colors look a little more natural, but still colorful. I bent wire to form small U-shapes and used those to “pin” the moss into the Styrofoam. It’s a little wild and messy right now, but I think I like it that way. I may add a ribbon or do something with that wooden dowel. But I’m ok with it for now.

It currently lives on my mantle, next to my framed $3 wallpaper project that was in the bathroom for a little bit (and will probably travel around my house again). The H came from Kohl’s with a promotional coupon when they first opened in our area, so I think it was nearly free.

Remember my lamp dilemma? You overwhelmingly did not like the funky IKEA shade in that setting so I went to find something different. I ended up with this red shade from Ross for about $8. Of course the red shade didn’t look great against the red wallpaper so it has a new home here on the new MARKOR end table we just got from IKEA at 50% off!

In the spirit of full-disclosure, this simple, frugal, lamp project didn’t end up to be as easy or as cheap as I would have liked. When I bought the base at Goodwill they said I could bring it back if it didn’t work. But I didn’t get around to testing it for a long time and when it didn’t work, it was a bit late to take it back. I had to buy a shade, harp, socket, and finial (none of the metals match currently, but you can’t see that from here). It was still less expensive than most lamps you can buy, but not the killer deal I try to go for. Thank heavens for BSB (my husband) who was able to replace the socket. I would have been clueless!

So here is my mostly frugal lamp on the good deal end table, near the curtains my mom made frugally and the couch she recovered for me, very frugally!

How’s that for a frugal Friday? Time to get busy so I can get back to Craigslisting!

Update: Added this post to Southern Hospitality’s Thrifty Finds Party.