STACKING UP

It's no secret that I've been around the design block a few times and what I try to communicate here is that your home can be beautiful without spending an ugly amount to make it happen. Sometimes my light bulb moments take me to dark alleys in search of great deals. Target, Home Depot, Ikea...if you stop on my blog often, you know I'm in these stores more often than Paris Hilton is in jail, searching for cool things and hot deals. In depressed economic times, however, I try to re purpose pieces by taking them from drab to fab. Can't afford the stainless steel refrigerator you want just yet, then use the stainless appliance paint I found at a local hardware store. Don't want to replace your old floors until after tax time, then just paint them in the meantime! Last week I was rummaging through a clients basement looking for an extension cord and came across to great, old pieces of furniture. One was an old dresser, the other a kitchen cabinet piece. I had been searching for an armoire for the kitchen and couldn't find anything under $2,000 so I dragged these pieces up, painted them inside and out (the same color, in Martha Stewarts new paint at Home Depot in high gloss)stacked them ontop of each other and attached them with brackets in the back (so kiddos or others couldn't pull them down) and in a few short hours saved a lot of dough!
TIME TO COMPLETE TASK: two hours
COST: two gallons of Martha Stewart paint at the Home Depot: $36.00
STRESS LEVEL: coming up with cool ideas that stack up to those of hot designers: LOW